Tuesday 21 September: Rejecting gas and nuclear energy leaves us sitting in the dark and cold

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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695 thoughts on “Tuesday 21 September: Rejecting gas and nuclear energy leaves us sitting in the dark and cold”

  3. Good morning all from an overcast but dry Derbyshire with a slightly less Autumnal 8°C in the yard.

    1. I’m prepared to believe that that twat could be convinced of the provision of long haul electric aircraft assisted by in-flight recharging: the charging points being suspended on sky hooks, of course.😎

  6. Food shortages ‘by end of week’ as CO2 crisis grows. 21 September 2021.

    The boss of Iceland said he expected supermarket shelves to begin to empty in the “coming days” as shortages of carbon dioxide, compounded by a lack of haulage drivers, hit the high street.

    Richard Walker said: “This is no longer about whether or not Christmas will be OK – it’s about keeping the wheels turning and the lights on so we can actually get to Christmas. This could become a problem over the coming days and weeks, so this is not an issue that’s months away.

    Carbon dioxide has a variety of critical uses in the food and drink industry, including putting fizz into beer, stunning and killing animals for meat, and in packaging to lengthen the shelf life of fresh foods.

    But the UK has been hit by a shortage as a consequence of the closure of two fertiliser plants, which manufactured the gas in vast quantities as a by-product. The plants, which made about 60 per cent of the UK’s carbon dioxide supply, ceased production after the spike in gas prices made them uneconomical to run.

    Morning everyone. The UK has no shortage of gas. Even if Putin were manipulating the supply (which he isn’t) it would not affect us because we don’t use Russian gas. That both those who do use it and those who don’t are suffering similarly shows that this crisis is artificially created. The Globalists showing their claws. The market is being manipulated so as to create an energy cartel and rip off the consumers long term. A part of the impoverishment and enslavement process. The government could start the two fertiliser plants this morning did they so wish!

    Price cap that protects consumers must go, energy companies tell Business Secretary, 21 september 2021

    The Business Secretary was on Monday night under growing pressure from energy companies to scrap the price cap as the UK wholesale price of natural gas soared to a record high.

    See!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/09/20/price-cap-protects-consumers-must-go-energy-companies-tell-business/

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/09/20/food-shortages-end-week-co2-crisis-grows/

    3. A small flock of birds with one stone.

      Meat, packaging, artificial fertilizer, energy consumption, transport to name a few

    4. Does it appear to anyone else that the fear campaign is continuing, just a slightly different emphasis- from fear of a virus to now fear of having no food or power?

      2. 339085+ up ticks,
        Morning N,
        If as much energy had been expended since
        the 24/6/2016 in doing right instead of doing orchestrated wrong we would have been country miles ahead as a nation, inclusive of the virus.

        The tory party would have ruled supreme.

    5. Any attempt to make this latest problem appear as coincidental with this disastrous government’s CV-19 actions is risible. Far from being coincidental, this move, along with the distinct possibility of power cuts this coming Winter, is complementary and being constructed to ramp up trepidation. Fear is the key and continuing threats to our way of life is the driving force behind the fear. This government is comprised of quite the most despicable people ever given authority via our votes.

      2. 339085+ up ticks,

        Morning KtK,

        The may, cameron & major took some beating but I do believe the fat turk has achieved it.

    6. There certainly will be shortages with the govt ramping up the fear factor. People will panic buy again.

    3. Since which vacuous utterance we should have learned that markets react and adapt; it is not for them to rule us.

      1. And when they try to manipulate them, it goes wrong. Political market machination always ends up trying to plug leak after leak after leak, almost comically until the dam collapses.

    4. Politicians haven’t learned this though, thus the price cap, forcing people to buy green energy when it’s the most expensive sort – it is the idiocy of the political mind that doesn’t understand basic economics – or worse, uses them for manipulative purposes.

      1. If the Government were really serious about a green agenda whilst not being held to ransom by third parties through the withdrawal of essential imports then they would stock up on electricity.

        1. Buy it by the used pork-barrel load and store it in the cellars of the Palace of Westminster. I have a relative called Guy Fowkes who’s volunteered to look after it until needed.

  8. 339085+ up ticks,
    Morning Each,
    I am certain there is something drastically, dangerously wrong with the majority of both Country’s electorates although 20 odd miles apart they are as one in political mindset.

    https://twitter.com/DavidPoulden/status/1440089529562529795

    Our domestic energy issues have been in evidence for decades handled
    ( or not) by the same parties / MPs in many cases & returned to power time & time again, the close shop lab/lib/con coalition.

    Tuesday 21 September: Rejecting gas and nuclear energy leaves us sitting in the dark and cold

  9. ‘Morning, Peeps.

    Splendid first letter in today’s batch, but it won’t make a scrap of difference to the eco-loons in government:

    SIR – The surge in energy prices (and the consequent crisis in the critical food supply chain) is a direct result of the Government buying wholesale into climate alarmism and then choosing an idiotic policy response to it.

    We had the choice, years ago, to expand nuclear power generation greatly and to become nearly self-sufficient in gas. But a combination of risk-aversion, pandering to nimbyism and succumbing to devastatingly effective lobbying led us to the current situation where we are dependent on unreliable renewables and capricious foreign powers to keep the lights on.

    We are engaged in a futile act of deliberate national self-harm. While the Government burnishes its credentials by committing to go further, faster, than anyone else to “net zero”, at gigantic real cost to consumers and businesses, China goes on building coal-fired power stations, adding a UK’s-worth of carbon dioxide emissions every year or so.

    The warm glow ministers may feel from showing “global leadership” on the climate issue will be no comfort to millions shivering in their homes this winter because they can’t afford to put the heating on.

    Austin Spreadbury
    Enfield, Middlesex

    1. So does this mean that Insulate Britain is a really a reflection on adhering to Extinction Rebellion policies?

    2. Good morning Hugh

      I believe the UK has indulged in a great deal of self harm . especially over the past 2 years .

      We have listened to the Woke brigade , BLM, Diversity Mob, Green nonsense and allowed the media to lower the standards of journalism .

      The self harm is very much in evidence when you hear the the clink and chink when the bin men empty the green boxes of their contents.. wine bottles , beer bottles and spirits .

      You know jolly well that Britain has an alcohol problem , followed by self abuse of bodies covered in tattoos, enhanced botoxed lips , and younger women and men who are not fit to be mothers and fathers .

      People will shiver , but their supermarket trollies will still be full of packs of booze and unsuitable fodder .

      Sorry to be so judgemental , but that is the way I see things now .

      Isn’t it a real worry knowing ALL MPs appear to be so out of touch with reality .

      What on earth and why has Boris cleared off to the USA?

      1. Well said, Belle. And why has Johnson pushed off to the US of A? Why, to get some relief from Mrs J’s eco-preaching of course!

      3. Especially with a very local problem regarding energy security.

        It is ironic that the green circus is coming here as well. However, it just reminds me that this isn’t an accident. It’s all planned. All by design. Huge increases in the price of energy lumped on the tax payer, all to meet a pointless invented target.

        These bastards need to be hanged for the damage they’ve done just so they can posture and swagger in their own hubris.

  10. Good morning all.

    Just put the green bin out for collection. It’s a little chilly outdoors.

          1. Is that because you write so many (unpublished) letters to the Daily Telegraph, Grizzly?

            :-))

    4. I once saw number plate BAR 570W for sale in the Saturday Telegraph Motoring Section. However, the ridiculous price they wanted for it put me off wanting a personalised plate.

      1. Morning, Grizz. Mrs D bought me a personalised plate for my fiftieth birthday. I have had it for 35 years and it is now worth quite a lot of money.

          1. Hello Grizz. I will hang on to it . As I am 14 years older than Mrs D it will probably be a nest egg for her.

  12. SIR – Gas shortage? Whatever happened to fracking?

    John Smallwood
    West Auckland, Co Durham

    It was ‘cancelled’ by a government of rabbits caught in the headlights by greenie mob rule, Mr Smallwood. Oh, silly me…of course (smacks forehead) …greenies don’t ‘do’ democracy do they? In the same way that our government doesn’t ‘do’ gonads, hence the mess we are in now.

      1. Exactly what i thought. If they really wanted us to believe it, the mask should have been on its snout.

  14. SIR – James Cleverly, a foreign office minister, was asked by Justin Webb on Today yesterday what happens when the wind doesn’t blow. He said: “We are massively investing in renewables.”

    A million windmills or three, when the wind doesn’t blow they generate nothing.

    Keith Field
    Potters Bar, Hertfordshire

    Yes, in a rare moment of madness I clicked on Toady to hear this part of the interview. My response is not to be repeated!

    1. Cleverly, not the name one would associate with a person who displays the level of intellectual rigour necessary to give the answer he did.

      1. Don’t listen to politicians Hugh. Find out what’s really happening. View Gridwatch.

        https://gridwatch.co.uk/

        At the moment 58% of the country’s electricity is being produced by gas, only 9% from those legions of expensive windmills.

        1. ‘Morning Janet. It has been bookmarked and visited frequently for longer than I can remember. A pity that Johnson and his idiotic missus have yet to find it or, if they have, to understand it!

    2. Yes, but you’re not investing, are you? That implies a return, whereas windmills don’t pay for themselves, we do. When they don’t work, you still make us pay. There is no investment, there is just expenditure.

      Of course, when the wind doesn’t blow we could have gas power stations, but you’ve got rid of them. That means what would be cheap electricity more expensive and thus the only remaining option is the even more expensive ‘green’ electricity. Government rations one supply to force the buying of another so the energy companies can provide fuel – who pays? The tax payer.

      This isn’t an accident, or a mistake, or Russia: this is our own government’s market rigging machination.

  15. India seizes $2.7bn of heroin from Afghanistan at port. 21 September 2021.

    Nearly three tonnes of heroin with a street value of $2.7bn (£2bn) from Afghanistan have been seized from a western Indian port in a major bust, officials said.

    Two Indians were arrested after the heroin, which was kept in two containers marked as carrying talc, was found by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) at Mundra Port in the western state of Gujarat, the government agency said.

    Since the defeat of the West, revenue from the Afghan poppy fields will fall into the hands of the Taliban Government so it is no longer a protected export. Production will probably shift back to Central and South America within a couple of years.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/sep/21/india-seizes-27bn-of-heroin-from-afghanistan-at-port

  16. You Bet

    A deaf mute walks into chemist to buy some condoms. He has difficulty communicating with the pharmacist and cannot see condoms on the shelf.

    Frustrated, he finally unzips his pants, places his dick on the counter and puts down a five pound note next to it.

    The pharmacist looks at it, smacks down another five pounds, unzips his pants, lays his penis across from the deaf mute’s member, then picks up both notes and stuffs them in his pocket.

    Exasperated, the deaf mute begins to curse the pharmacist wildly in sign language.

    “Look,” the pharmacist says, “if you can’t afford to lose, you shouldn’t bet.“

  17. SIR – I am sometimes accused of being selfish for my refusal to wear a mask in public (still a legal requirement in Wales). I find it deeply unpleasant to wear, and irritating on other people. I am, however, vaccinated.

    There is no compelling evidence that non-surgical masks provide more than a security blanket for a terrified population, but vaccines have clearly broken the link between infection and hospitalisation or death, with the unvaccinated now accounting for 75 per cent of Covid-related hospital admissions among the under-50s.

    Rising hospitalisations, which could force us back into restrictions and even lockdown, are caused by a minority of Britons “exercising their personal choice” not to have the jab. In the meantime I’m expected to wear a mask of dubious efficacy to keep anti-vaxxers safe and “protect the NHS”.

    Georgina Stanger
    Caerwent, Monmouthshire

    By a strange coincidence I was in Carmarthenshire last week. I saw some mask-wearing in public but it was only by a minority. A marked lack of enforcement notices, too. I also noticed that most shop and restaurant staff didn’t bother but their customers did. This seemed to be the reverse of the situation here at home, although masks here seem to be disappearing rapidly, thank goodness. The logic of the former experience completely escaped me.

    1. You are not forced to wear a mask. You choose to.

      And don’t. Someone not vaccinating makes that choice. You do remember that, don’t you? Choice?

    2. I, too, have noticed the decline in mask-wearing, but the decline seems to have stopped. I think that those still wearing masks will continue to do so indefinitely, even when this ‘pandemic’ is declared to be over (if it ever is).

  18. When people vote for leftie green politicians this is what happens. Vote reform at all times.We need a Trump type in power.

    1. 339085+ up ticks,
      Morning JN,
      Simplify the choice NO left / right politico’s / parties
      just right / wrong.

    2. JN, by the time the people get the chance to vote in a General Election – I’m being optimistic on that point – the damage these morons are doing now will be close to irreparable: the costs and timescales will see to that.

    3. Because they’re thick.

      That may sound cruel, but the number of people wilfully looking precisely the wrong way in this mess is staggering. They are told to blame the evil private companies yet have no understanding of the real situation. They don’t want to acknowledge that this entire situation was engineered by government. I don’t know why, but they seem to think government good, private enterprise bad. It’s the easy, lazy way.

      Laziness seems to dominate the mindset of the weak and foolish. They like the cheap route rather than the honest one. Increasingly I do not believe such people should be allowed to vote. We continually get appalling government playing the smoke and mirrors act and each time, weak stupid people happily look where the magician point.

  19. Vladimir Putin thanks Russian people for their ‘trust’ after landslide win in election marred by accusations of fraud. 21 September 2021.

    Vladimir Putin on Monday thanked the Russian people for their ‘trust’ after his party defied polls to win a landslide in an parliamentary election marred by allegations of rampant fraud.

    If only half as much angst had been raised on behalf of Trump and the US Presidential election.

    All these accusations are only to be expected of course. Russia and the Russian people shelter behind the perfect shield that Putin has created for them. Well-armed against military blackmail, economically secure, almost totally self-sufficient they need not fear the depredations of the Globalists and are thus inveterate enemies to the same. Their trust is not misplaced! Like the English during the Napoleonic wars they can look on, free from fear, as the world without is torn to pieces!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2021/09/20/wide-spread-reports-fraud-mars-russias-parliamentary-elections/

  20. SIR – It is striking that Jimmy Greaves, the highest goal scorer in the history of English top-flight football, died without the nation having honoured him.

    In contrast to the current fashion of honouring sportspeople at the beginning or middle of their careers, perhaps the right time to consider their achievements is on retirement.

    I hope the honours committee will consider other retired sportspeople, so the greats are appropriately honoured.

    Sarah Chhetri
    Abingdon, Oxfordshire

    No way, Sarah Chhetri…when the media is clamouring for Damehoods to be awarded when someone or other is pedalling round a track or trying to hit a ball over a net, you just know instinctively that the entire ‘honours’ system has been so used and abused that it has been devalued to zero.

    1. I am of the opinion that the honours system should recognise people who have served others, not themselves or their own career.

  21. 339085+ up ticks,
    Yet another teat in construct, to be added to the Countries udder I would wager that nobody has given any thought to those “guest’s” arriving at DOVER what sort of impression do they get of these Isles.

    May one ask could CO2 be manufactured from treacherous bullsh!te if so
    a major pipeline should be under construction from the Hoc to a tank farm of ometors.

    Price cap that protects consumers must go, energy companies tell Business Secretary
    Suppliers insist restriction has to be abolished as gas price soars to record high, but Kwasi Kwarteng holds firm.

    There is something in a name.

  22. Douglas Murray
    Farewell to Cambridge’s disastrous Vice-Chancellor
    20 September 2021, 7:30pm

    So farewell then, Stephen Toope. The undistinguished Canadian lawyer who has spent recent years trying to run Cambridge University into the ground has just sent an announcement to all faculty, alumni and students. In it he informs them that he has decided to step down from his position as Vice-Chancellor at the end of this academic year. The reason he gives is that he has decided to spend more time with his family.

    You do not have to read between the lines to realise that Toope is leaving because his brief tenure at Cambridge has been an unmitigated disaster, a fact that has become increasingly clear. Among the highlights of his career at Cambridge have been:

    Overseeing the trashing of academic freedom. During Toope’s tenure a mob of ill-informed students succeeded in getting a junior research fellow, Noah Carl, pushed out of his position because of an uninformed campaign claiming his research was ‘racist’. Later Toope defended the humiliating treatment of Prof. Jordan Peterson, who had a non-paying fellowship withdrawn based on an equally ill-informed campaign against him.

    Next the university put forward a new set of standards to be imposed on all academics and students at the university. This included the demand that all students and staff should ‘respect’ the opinions of others. A group of sharp-eyed academics noted where this would lead and ran a campaign to change the wording to an expectation that people should ‘tolerate’ other people’s opinions. When this went to a vote last December the university voted overwhelmingly, and humiliatingly, against the proposal.
    Yet Cambridge then introduced a new initiative that would encourage students and faculty to anonymously inform on each other if they felt that they had suffered a ‘micro-aggression’. The advice published online noted that an example of a micro-aggression would be any member of the university raising an eyebrow while any member of a minority was speaking. After I and others brought some negative publicity to this, Toope claimed that the advice had not been read to him before going out, that it had gone out early or that the dog had eaten it.

    A small number of academics (namely Profs John Dennis, Tim Harper, Patrick Maxwell, Nigel Peake, Anna Philpott and Chris Young) tried to rally to Toope’s defence, arguing that these attacks on free speech were no such thing. As I wrote here in The Spectator at the time, they got nearly all of their facts wrong in the process of defending someone who had got his own idea of academic freedom wrong.

    All the while there was not a woke cause that Toope did not try to import from his native Canada. For instance, in 2019 it was announced that Toope had appointed a committee to examine the university’s historical links to the slave trade. During the height of this ahistorical pandering exercise a bell was removed from one of Cambridge’s colleges because it was suspected of having possibly once been on a plantation.

    Strangely, as The Spectator also revealed in a recent cover piece, while all this was going on Toope led Cambridge deeper and deeper into a highly compromising relationship with the authorities in China. As Ian Williams wrote in July, one of Toope’s first trips on being appointed Vice-Chancellor in 2017 was to the Chinese Embassy in London, where he posed for photographs with the Ambassador. In the months and years since then, Toope worked on deepening the university’s relations with the authoritarian Communist regime, gaining funding from them and allowing this funding to influence the direction of research at the university. Williams concluded that the relationship was at best dictated not just by greed but by naivety. It is a generous interpretation. For a Vice-Chancellor to try to crack down on academic freedom at Cambridge while sucking up to one of the most authoritarian regimes on earth is more than naïve – it is sinister.

    There are many other things that could be said of Toope. But there will be time enough for that. In the meantime perhaps I could mention why this matters.

    I have occasionally been asked, over the last few years, why I have written about Toope so many times, both here and at the Telegraph. The reason is not just because Toope was clearly so magnificently ill-suited to the job he has now left early. Nor was it simply that I believe he is such a prime example of one of those undistinguished functionaries who falls ever-upwards by parroting and then pushing the latest on-brand dictates of the era. The reason is that – to steal a quote from Evelyn Waugh – watching Stephen Toope in charge of Cambridge University was like watching a Sèvres vase being balanced in the hands of a chimpanzee. He seemed to show no care as he teetered and careered around with it. He seemed, as he particularly showed in his ignominious last year, to have no care of whether or not he dropped and smashed the whole damn thing.

    And this is why Toope – and his fall from grace – matter. His rise seemed to demonstrate that there is only a benefit to be gained from trying to get ahead of the new authoritarianism. His fall demonstrates that there can be a cost to it as well.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/farewell-to-cambridge-s-disastrous-vice-chancellor

      1. That’s the second trouble making Canadian who couldn’t make it in their own country that we’ve got rid of.

        Good !!

  24. Morning all, had a bit of an energy crisis at VVOF Towers this morning. I lacked the energy to drag myself out of my pit to face the contrived crisis brought about to keep the plebs under control.

  25. Peter Poland, naval officer devoted to life at sea who as a 19-year-old midshipman made a unique record of the sinking of Bismarck – obituary

    Failing eyesight ended his naval career, but heaven for Peter Poland was aboard his beloved yacht Matchless with a beer and a cheese sarnie

    By
    Telegraph Obituaries
    20 September 2021 • 4:51pm

    Lieutenant-Commander Peter Poland, who has died aged 98, hunted battleships, as well as being an insurance broker and an international yachtsman.

    In May 1941, 19-year-old Midshipman Poland was navigator’s tanky (assistant) to Commander Frank Lloyd, Master of the Fleet, in the Home Fleet flagship, the battleship King George V. Intelligence was received from the naval attaché in Stockholm that the German battleship Bismarck had been sighted off the coast of Sweden.

    Lloyd instructed Poland: “Well, Mid, it looks as if we’ve got the bastard. Don’t forget to get everything down in my notebook. I would rather have too much than too little. Write down your own observations as well. Make sure that you’ve got a good supply of pencils.”

    Gifted with extraordinary powers of observation and memory – aided by his letters home to his mother, his midshipman’s journal, and the navigational notebook which he kept during the action – Poland left a unique memoir of the hunt for and sinking of Bismarck.

    He was on the bridge at dawn on May 24 and saw the Yeoman of Signals hand a signal to the captain. He observed the look on his captain’s face as he told his admiral that the battlecruiser Hood had blown up and sunk, and recalled that “it seemed impossible – how could Hood, pride of the Royal Navy, possibly have gone so quickly?”

    He recorded, too, the anxiety when Bismarck vanished into the mists of the Atlantic; there was relief when she began to send a long radio signal, which gave away her position, turning to surprise when Lloyd’s plotting her showing her to be to the north-east, and the fleet turned north to intercept.

    By 16.00 that evening, however, it was clear that something was wrong. The enemy should have been sighted. Two hours later, Poland was in the chart-house preparing for evening star sights when Lloyd strode in and ordered: “Get out the Admiralty list of radio signals and the signal giving the direction-bearings, Mid.”

    After a few minutes’ work, Lloyd suddenly shot bolt upright. “Christ, no!” he exclaimed. “They’ve forgotten half convergency.” Poland knew that there were two forms of chart in use, gnomonic, which takes account of the Earth’s curvature, and Mercator’s projection, which assumes the earth to be flat. The line between two points on the latter chart is known as a rhumb line, and the arithmetical correction known as half convergence, which when applied by Lloyd showed Bismarck to be south-east, as the uncorrected bearings had shown.

    Poland was present when this was explained to the commander-in-chief, who immediately ordered King George V to turn southwards.

    All night, Poland stayed with Lloyd, listening when the C-in-C discussed tactics for the battle which was now inevitable. He was on the bridge at dawn on May 27, when “we all sighted Bismarck at the same time. The long, low silhouette of an enormous battleship emerged through the haze about 10 miles distant. Even at that distance her beauty was evident … It seemed a great pity that we were destined to destroy a ship of such beauty, but from then on the battle became a blur of noise and explosions.

    “The sound of battle was now a continuous cacophony, the sea around the enemy almost a continual curtain of spray. We closed until the range was down to about two thousand yards and guns were firing over open sights, at fixed range; the shells travelling into the enemy, and I could see the damage we were inflicting.

    “Her enormous guns were bent double as if they were paper-clips. Her upperworks were a jumble of torn steel. I could see jagged holes in her side through which the orange glow of fires was evident. In her wake trailed a heavy haze of smoke.”

    Running low on fuel, the C-in-C ordered his battleships to break off the engagement, and left his cruisers to finish off Bismarck with torpedoes.

    Poland sailing with his eldest daughter Jill: after a short-lived foray into insurance, his life revolved around sailing.

    Trevor Peter Gordon Poland was born on July 24 1923 at Grayswood, Surrey, the scion of a family of insurance brokers; his mother’s father was Sir Trevor Chichele-Plowden, one-time Resident of Hyderabad.

    Young Peter spent his childhood at Downlands, the family’s country estate in east Hampshire, where he was inspired by reading Arthur Ransome and Percy F Westerman to go to sea. He learnt to sail at Itchenor, was educated at Avisford prep school in Sussex and entered Dartmouth in January 1937; his first ship in September 1940 was the battleship Nelson.

    In early 1941, Poland took part in the pursuit of the German battlecruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau in the Atlantic, finally driving them into Brest, and when Russia was invaded Nelson covered Arctic convoys and took part in the pursuit of the newest German battleship, Tirpitz.

    In 1942 he took command of a flotilla of landing craft for the Allied landings in North Africa, including the assault on Bougie, heavily opposed by the Luftwaffe; an anti-aircraft cruiser and four out of six landing ships were sunk.

    He returned to the Arctic in the destroyer Matchless, on convoy escort duties as well as taking part in the pursuit and sinking of Scharnhorst on Boxing Day 1943, before becoming first lieutenant of, first, the destroyer Scimitar, and then Haydon, fighting in both the Channel and the North Sea.

    Postwar, Poland remained at sea, with occasional breaks for leave and courses, until 1956, but he was bitterly disappointed when failing eyesight ended his career. His brief entry into the family insurance business was not a success, though he claimed to have made a profit out of motor insurance, and after a family disagreement he was made redundant in 1968.

    His life now revolved around sailing – in the Mediterranean, the South Atlantic, and the Caribbean, including three races from Cape Town to Rio. He had been a member of RORC, the Royal Ocean Racing Club, since his first Fastnet race in 1939, and although he was highly competitive, it was important for him to sail with those whose company he enjoyed ashore as well as afloat.

    While living in Chelsea, he made the Princess of Wales pub in Dovehouse street a venue for international yachtsman, but heaven for him was aboard his beloved yacht Matchless with a beer and a cheese sarnie, and he always slept on board.

    Some of Poland’s sailing experiences were incorporated into three novels, and in 2013 he published an autobiography, Hands to Action Stations – Memoirs of a Very Young Naval Officer.

    He remained his own man, unconstrained by social convention, and loved the simple life – so long as it revolved around sailing. Although seemingly vague, he was a keen observer of character, with a big heart and a generous and loyal nature.

    He married, in 1944, June Bowlby, and after her death in 1969 he married a South African, Lorette Durr, who predeceased him in 2014. He is survived by a son and a daughter from his first marriage, and a daughter of the second marriage.

    Lieutenant-Commander Peter Poland, born July 24 1923, died August 30 2021

    * * *

    Very many years ago now I read The Sinking of the Bismark by Ludovic Kennedy, a book I found truly fascinating and which whetted my appetite for similar wartime histories. Peter Poland was right in the middle of it and must have had an almost unique involvement. What a career in the RN!

    1. Here’s to the hundreds of thousands of soldiers, sailors and airmen who risked their lives for their families and fellow countrymen, as well as freedom.

  26. Boris Johnson: I’d rather wait for a ‘great’ UK-US free trade deal. 21 September 2021.

    Boris Johnson appears to have given up hope of securing a UK-US free trade deal any time soon, saying that Joe Biden, the US president, has other “fish to fry”.

    In comments underscoring how many steps remain until a final agreement is struck, Mr Johnson said he would rather wait for a “great” deal than hurry talks.

    In other words Biden has said; “Thanks for sucking up to us over the AUKUS deal. Drop dead!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/09/20/boris-johnson-rather-wait-great-uk-us-free-trade-deal/

        1. When I shopped in Sainsbury’s the other day ( Weymouth) They were selling Christmas puds and pies etc, but I was surprised to see an American selection of food , labels I am unfamiliar with , Hershey bars and some very strange cakes , sweets , popcorn, savoury titbits .. but all made in America .

          I hope and pray their chicken isn’t American , I didn’t stop to examine the chickens to see if they were chlorinated .

          2. Good morning dear Phizzee

            Just looking at the ingredients on a packet of anything is a turn off .. Chemicals even in a bottle of orange squash are mind boggling .

            No wonder modern children are being born with so many horrible afflictions .

          3. We don’t buy anything with palm oil, so the entirety of the biscuits and cakes aisles in supermarkets are simply ignored. We spent many hours poring over ingredient lists, then gave up in despair as it was pointless. Palm oil is very cheap, if you disregard the damage being done to ancient forests. I do pine for cream crackers/water biscuits. I’d try making them but have not found a recipe.

          10. Yes, It’s Xmas. We were out in the car couple of days ago and coming back through the nearby very small town there were Xmas tree lights on a tree in one garden.

    2. As always, the sticking point with any trade deal with the US is that any disputes are settled by American corporate lawyers in American courts briefed to “put America first”.

  27. SIR – In West Africa in the 1970s, we invited American friends, soon to be posted to Hawaii, and others for a farewell dinner party (Letters, September 18).

    I got home having fallen and lost two front teeth, speaking in a painfully mushy way. My wife, once a casualty nurse, was hardly comforting, telling me that the chickens for dinner had been eaten by the Alsatian we were looking after. Unworried by my accident, she urged me to dash out and buy more. Still bleeding, my presence at the shop caused some excitement.

    Not amused were our friends, whose posting had been cancelled. A German couple arrived hardly speaking after a row. A French lady was heavily pregnant, and her husband’s painful tropical infection caused him to sit on the edge of his chair.

    I greeted them gummily, apologised for the chicken incident and lateness of dinner, and said the traditionalWawa (West Africa wins again).

    The wine flowed, and later we went to an African nightclub. It might have been a disaster, but a military coup was said to be imminent and somehow we all enjoyed ourselves – even me, who the next day faced a hefty dentist’s bill.

    Leslie Thorogood
    Maidenhead, Berkshire

    That is a very funny story, Leslie, and would be well received as an after-dinner speech. It would have been more interesting, however, if you had told us exactly in what part (even which country) of the massive sub-continent you refer to as “West Africa” you were situated.

    If I told a tale about a personal incident when I lived in “Europe”, I would have my guests wondering where the hell in the continent of Europe I was referring to.

  28. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/17a41fb36fc7d1646c8d57557eccd29c9d0191a97eed12396ca60981567857de.png OK, enough’s enough; time to put all this this weekend/next weekend nonsense to bed once and for all.

    The weekend at the end of this week (the name is a clue, weekend = “end of the week”) is this weekend. It cannot be anything else. Next weekend refers to the one that comes next, (i.e. in the future): the one after this weekend. [The weekend past is invariably last weekend]. How difficult can that be?

    In the case of Jean Lewis’s train; the train was actually present, there and then, directly in front of the passengers! For the railway staff to refer to it as the “next train” clearly shows, in my view, that they need to be sent for immediate remedial training. Idiots!

    1. It’s only ‘this weekend’ once you get to Wednesday……..until then it’s ‘next weekend’. Then when Monday comes round again, the following weekend is ‘next weekend’ – how difficult can that be??

          1. Any day of the week that you are currently in is, by definition, this week. The end of this week is the weekend, i.e. this weekend.

            The one following that comes next. That one is next weekend. I can’t put it any simpler. Where is the sense and logic of using Wednesday as a cut-off point, mid this week?

          4. I think, George, that Jules means you will get no further response, as she’s gone to talk to the hedgehogs since she’s feeling a bit prickly herself.

    2. It’s only ‘this weekend’ when it’s Saturday or Sunday, otherwise it’s ‘next weekend’ or ‘this coming weekend’. As for the letter, the announcer should have said: “The train now standing at platform X…” as they usually do.

    3. Very few announcements are made by station staff; most are pre-recorded and their playing programmed or done manually from a remote location. The train might have been a minute or so early or the message played late or repeated as the train arrived, hence the confusion.

  29. I see that Insulate Britain has blocked the M25 again this morning. If the police can’t deal with this then perhaps we should employ a few beefy boys to do it on their behalf.

      1. I know, Minty, that’s why I think someone will take matters into their own hands very soon. Maybe that’s what IB want, who knows.

        1. They are aiming for civil unrest. All part of the govt plan. It will be persuaded and manipulated into other areas. The NWO will step in when we have had enough to sort it out on condition that we hand over to them all our assets. Because only then will we be happy.

          The police are the culpable ones in all of this as they supposedly work for the public, but Blair changed all that. And government is trampling over all our laws.

    2. This is an offence under the Highways Act 1980.

      If the Police aren’t willing to enforce this law, what other laws are they unwilling to enforce?

      …just asking for a friend.

      1. Burglary; rape; theft; illegal arrivals ……

        Just for a start.

        But say a hurty word – and they are there with armed backup.

  30. I despair that so many peope are calling for energy to be nationalised when the fault is clearly and obviously a state engineered mess in the first place.

    Why do people not see this?

    1. 339085+ up ticks,
      Morning W,
      Much like “leave it to the tories” when seeing the referendum result, same peoples.

    2. I can’t work out if the BBC is laughing at this lad or is genuinely so completely out of touch that it doesn’t realise how abusive this is.

        1. I worry about an organisation that doesn’t see what this is – yes, it’s a great opportunity for the lad, but he should be treated as an adult, respected, valued and treated with dignity.

          This reminds me very much of the old circus freakshows.

    3. I am gobsmacked! The presentational and intellectual level of BBC presenters has been greatly enhanced. I never thought to see such advancement in my lifetime. Keep up the good work – another thousand steps like this and you will be on a level with the Daily Mail at least.

  34. That congenital bloody idiot, the Duke of York, is going to ensure that he is slapped with punitive damages US style. It will serve him right.

    1. They’re certainly making an issue of it. The girl was clearly working as a prostitute and she looks willing enough in the photo.

      1. Or as they said of those poor 12-year old girls in Rotherham: “It was their lifestyle choice”.

          2. I think you are right but the age of consent is 16 here. Porkie could have asked her age, but probably didn’t bother.

          6. So you don’t think she had a choice not to become a prostitute? Clearly she’s had second thoughts in later years, but she had free will at 17. We all make mistakes as teenagers but we don’t all blame other people.

  35. “Britain is open for business”, was the Tory mantra. So football clubs were bought by Russian gangsters, the 6N was bought by Singapore investors, clothing factories were bought by Indians and the machinery moved to India, Businesses in every field of endeavour were taken over by foreigners; cars, beer, food. Sit back and enjoy a cuppa and dunk a biscuit (German tea and Turkish digestive).
    Foreign businesses can come and go as they please, and do as they like when they are here. No food in the supermarkets because an American company has realised their operation has become unprofitable overnight, so overnight they close it down. If this happened in South America we’d be talking about “banana republics”.
    I have not even mentioned the level of probity of our politicians.

    1. We’re buying elsewhere though.

      The fundamental problem is the sheer cost of doing business in the UK.

      We’re short of energy. Our infrastructure is overloaded, our costs prohibitive. Our taxes are punitive. Beyond the expense, we’re hideously inefficient.

      All a result of big government.

  36. Once more unto the breach!

    What has happened to our pugnacity? Have they been dosing our water supplies with sedatives?

    Mankind is no different from any other species of the animal kingdom; we are intrinsically pugnacious and territorial. Throughout history we have fought off usurpers in order to defend our territory; mounted attacks on other territories to claim empires; and have used our innate aggression to do both.

    Suddenly we have become tame, spineless, wimpish nonentities and meekly permit a mass invasion of our territory without raising a whimper, never mind a sword. When are we going to regain our backbone, our bellicosity and our inborn desire to defend our territory?

          2. But sharpen the edge with the good old carborundam and you’re all set to take the legs out from under the Stasi

          3. I’ve got such a sharpening stone, but only a sickle, not a scythe. Still, I can do much damage with that.

          5. Sickle: short handle (as on the old USSR flag).
            Scythe: long handle (the big sweeping ones used to reap corn).

          21. There are plenty of pictures and descriptions on the site. Start at the home page. You may need to repeat your “captcha” to get full access.

          1. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5b9ee8ceba01940c3084ce848b31d1f015d6bcf93e7e1e356d40275ea4dcd300.jpg Well, shiver me timbers, Ped. I have that exact item (I keep it handy should things go tits up!). I bought it 30 years ago from an army surplus and gun-shop in Worksop and I used it, mainly, to hack down a big stand of rosebay willow-herb (that vile fluffy stuff) at Theddlethorpe dunes in Lincs, so that we could erect mist-nets to catch migrant birds [I was a licensed BTO bird ringer].

            I keep it well-honed.

    2. 33 9085+ up ticks,
      G,
      The lab/lib/con supporter / voter coalition don’t do backbones, 48% made that plain some time back,
      treachery is much more their forte.

      1. At that Conference in Cornwall Boris spoke about finding his ‘feminine side’ and his most recent wife smiled approvingly. This uxoriousness of Boris’s is very ungentlemanly: it is not polite it is weak and should not be respected – it should be held in contempt.

    4. Come along now Grizz; pugnacity and bellicosity are so last century…we are now fully in the wilting flower age and it’s going to get worse until the population has had enough and rises up. A good start would be some organised vigilante-ism to greet the next M25 invasion…

        1. As I’ve said earlier, Mum, a good wheeze (literally) would be for the front row to turn around, back up as close as possible and rev the engines to choke them with exhaust fumes – there’s pollution for you, suck it up.

      3. “A pallid and thin young man,

        A haggard and lank young man,

        A greenery-yallery, Grosvenor Gallery,

        Foot-in-the-grave young man!”

    5. Did they put something in the water supply? There are naturally dominant and submissive types and as a people the British are now more submissive than they used to be.

          1. 339085+ up ticks,
            G,
            I personally select a twitter comment put cursor & click on comment then proceed to the address bar above, place cursor on the highlighted URL then hit ctrl plus c with typing finger.

          3. A story from the Falklands, Grizz.
            The Bootnecks were calling the locals Bennys, after the Crossroads character who wore the same, well, benny knitted hat, and got a roasting for being disrespectful. So, they called them “Stills” – as in “Still Bennies”.

      3. Morning! Click on the tweet to open it in Twitter and then copy the file address. May be wrong but I don’t think you need a Twitter account to do that.

        1. Morning, Sue. I’m probably being a bit thick here. I’ve opened it in my Twitter account, but where do I find the file address there?

    2. Campbell Skene
      @campbellskene

      It may be, but it doesn’t excuse the behaviour. They’re angry and frustrated but there is a better outlet for it.

      I hope it’s doesn’t more pressure on our wonderful health care workers in terms of injuries from the day and beyond with COVID.

      77 Brigade Down Under!

      1. They have tried the better outlets already. And the police have upped the ante by bringing in the rubber bullets. It is a short step to the protestors bringing in weapons.

        1. It is the correct response. There is a point where diplomacy is displaced by war, similarly, protest will be replaced by revolution.
          In a democracy the use of force and outright deadly violence against the populace is almost never morally right.

    3. And here is the Australian police pepper spraying an old lady they have thrown to the ground.
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8QFmiioSQw&list=TLPQMTkwOTIwMjFnrmxngU07nQ&index=5

      And here they are arresting journalists.
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0_quF1kyAA&list=TLPQMTkwOTIwMjF67J6WdHbdhA&index=4

      And then there’s the Unions
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fu2ZSMgWstk

      They also sexually assaulted a student nurse but I can’t find the video for that, sorry. Australia seems to have gone to a full dictatorship.

      2. 339085+ up ticks,
        Afternoon JR,
        For the life of me I cannot see the average Aussie wearing that for to long.

          1. 339085+ up ticks,
            JR,
            I would say “organised” as the real UKIP was becoming under the Gerard Batten leadership that was the main reason that triggered the party nec / nige treachery action.

    4. If Police mobs attack outnumbered peaceful protesters as they have done there and here, it’s hardly surprising that people are angry and give them a taste of their own medicine.

  38. Oxbridge students to be exempt from free speech laws
    Oxford and Cambridge student groups will not face legal action for no-platforming under an exemption

    Oxbridge student groups will be exempt from legal action for no-platforming speakers under the Government’s new freedom of speech laws.
    (No comments allowed – you are not allowed a critical opinion!)
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/09/20/oxbridge-students-exempt-free-speech-laws/

    It’s been crumbling for some time but is this the final death knell of Oxbridge as a world-renowned centre of academic excellence and rational thought?

      1. A former student of ours who is about to start her final year at Oxford studying French and Italian has spent the last year in Italy. She is worried about having got a bit behind with her French so she is having two online French sessions a week with Caroline to get back ‘up to speed’. As she came on three courses with us as a schoolgirl Caroline refuses to charge her for these sessions which she says are after ‘sales service.’

        She is a sweet and attractive girl but she had no knowledge of the fact that Oxbridge has gone so woke and that people with the wrong points of view are being ‘cancelled’. The truth of the matter is the vast majority of students have very little interest in politics or politicians.

        1. Caroline’s mother said that young people should only be interested in politics when they find they have to pay income tax.

        1. The first picture reminds me of the Thomas The Tank Engine book about Henry, the green engine, who is walled up in a tunnel for petulant behaviour when he complains about a few drops of rain falling on his smart paintwork.

        1. You jest. I have found myself automatically doing that when I squeeze the Noddy car through a tight gap.
          It’s as daft as painting faster when you’re getting to the bottom of the tin in the hope that the paint won’t run out before you finish the job.

    3. You should see the one people are trying to restore next to my parents near Derby. It’s effectively been filled in along most of its length. It was last navigated 75 years ago and it will take longer than that to restore at current progress.

        1. The Chesterfield canal group have been painstakingly restoring James Brindley’s Chesterfield canal for over 40 years.

  40. I thought by now everyone would be celebrating the re-election of the Canadian Prime Minister….

    1. If that is really the case, then it is indeed a sad day for all Canadians. Whatever possessed them?

    1. Have irons or materials changed since I joined up all those years ago? Although boards were supplied, there were too few to go around and most of us ironed perfectly well without one. During training, most of us slept on the floor or took the sheets off our beds overnight so we didn’t crease or dirty them and saved precious sleeping time wasted in ironing them.

  42. https://twitter.com/GBNEWS/status/1440065169803993091

    Here is a clip of a rapper called Zuby. He is one of the most articulate, intelligent and sensible people I have seen on GB News recently and I recommend all Nottlers to try and find the whole of his interview with Dan Wootton.

    Zuby is a keen advocate of free speech and is very dismissive of BLM which he says has made race relations no better – indeed he suspects that BLM’s intention is to make them worse.

    To prove how absurd it is for men who ‘trans’ into women to compete in women’s porting events Zuby picked up a weight bar weighing more than the female world record and smashed the record.

    (As well as being a rapper between 2004 and 2007, Zuby studied at St Edmund Hall, Oxford, and graduated with a first-class honours degree in computer science.)

  43. Hallo to all, lovely day in West Sussex. I see that the evil Co2 is in short supply and could lead to disaster. A shortage of Pork, Chicken, lamb, Turkey, Fruit & Vegetables, Chilled food, Crumpets, Fizzy drinks, beer and cheese. Meanwhile disaster on the gas front, we may be sitting on freezing houses this winter. Isn’t it great as we frolic toward net zero of all these evil sources of energy? We obviously need more windmills and more solar panels.

    Bring back coal and in the long term nuclear energy and fracking and while we are at it, remove a government more interested in virtue signalling and harming the people it’s supposed to represent by its insane policies based on a pseudo science of global warming.

    1. The test for a sustainable UK with net zero is when we can fully charge an electric vehicle at home on a still night solely from the solar panels on the roof.

    2. When the EU fails then the reason is that there is not enough EU so more EU is needed.

      So it is clear that if there is not enough wind to give power to windmills we need more windmills and if there is not enough sun to give power to solar panels we need more solar panels.

      And we have now moved onto Covid Vaccines – if one dose of vaccine is not enough you must have two. And when two doses are not enough you need a booster and when this doesn’t work you need a booster booster and so ad infinitum.

  44. THIRD Russian spy is wanted over Salisbury poisoning. 21 September 2021.

    Denis Sergeev, who used the alias Sergey Fedotov while in the UK, faces a string of charges including trying to assassinate former Russian spy Sergei Skripal, his daughter Yulia and police officer Nick Bailey.

    Sergeev is accused of seven charges, including three of attempted murder as well as conspiracy to murder Sergei Skripal, causing grievous bodily harm with intent to Yulia and Mr Bailey, and possession and use of a chemical weapon.

    Sergeev entered the UK at 11am on March 2 2018, flying from Moscow to Heathrow and arriving about four hours before Petrov and Boshirov landed at Gatwick.

    Unlike the other two, no traces of the nerve agent were found at his hotel and he did not travel to Salisbury, leading to speculation that he could have been the unit’s commander.

    He returned to Moscow on a flight from Heathrow on Sunday March 4 at 1.45pm. Petrov and Boshirov flew back from the same airport at 10.30pm that night.

    Of course it’s just a coincidence that this has come out the day after the Russian Election for the Duma!

    As always it’s the details that are the problem. If Sergeev didn’t go to Salibury how can he be responsible for anything that happened there? But most tellingly of all when he departed for Moscow at 1:45 pm the Skripal’s had not yet been affected by their supposed poisoning and would not be for another two and a half hours! One notes his resemblance to Sergey Skripal. Was his empty seat intended for the former spy in his escape from the UK?

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10012043/THIRD-Russian-spy-wanted-Salisbury-poisoning.html

    1. One theory which i tend towards is that dear old Sergy got himself involved in moving “nasty stuff” from Porton Down to Kiev from where it was taken to Syria .
      Is he dead or alive?…no idea but once his usefulness ended ,he’s probably “gone”

      1. Afternoon Harry. Mi6 Have almost certainly killed both Skripals post Salisbury, if only to lock Johnson and May into covering up in perpetuity since they would be seen as accomplices to murder if it came out!

        1. I remember Johnson’s interview on Austrian TV where he stated that scientists at Porton Down had told him they had definitely identified the Novichok.In the next segment on Sky News the scientists said they didn’t even have a sample!
          He was in it up to his neck.

          1. I think both May and Johnson were stampeded into the Novichok story but subsequently realised it was horse manure, by that time they were too deep in to withdraw!

          2. Nope..don’t buy that.The whole episode was planned well in advance.
            Look how all the other Governments acted as one within hours of the story breaking.

      2. I think Sergy got too clever and managed to thoroughly pee off both sides.
        Wasn’t his daughter married to/stepping out with the son of a Kremlin bigwig?

  45. Imagine if climate change actually results in much colder, stiller, cloudier winter conditions for the UK, such that windmills and solar panels become almost useless. How will our government permit us to heat and light our homes or charge our electric cars?
    I suspect that there is no plan B.

    1. There is – all available resources go to make the elite comfortable. The rest of us can B*gger off.

      Edit – and pay for the comfort of the elite, natch.

  46. Good Moa heck, Afternoon.
    I’m in an excellent mood: the sun’s out and the local shop had both almond croissants and jam sugar.
    After my cuppa, I’ll nip up to the attic and see if the moths have avoided my crocheted poncho and cheesecloth shirts.
    Then I’ll creak around to a quick burst of Dancing Queen.
    Or should I check how many candles and working torches we have in stock?
    Decisions, decisions ……

    1. I wonder if the ecoloons have factored in the carbon emissions from millions of candles, oil lamps, calor gas heaters, camping gas stoves etc when they achieve their aim of putting the lights out this winter.

        1. Just imagine; we can have parties lit by candles in chianti bottles but without the dreaded Party Sevens to give us bloat and hangovers.

          1. Throw a dinner party – Prawn Cocktail, Steak and Chips and Black Forest Gateau, all washed down with a nice bottle of Blue Nun.

          7. Nah! I was on pints of Exhibition at that time! Dad used to give us 4 cans of McEwans export as a treat, when we went out! In fact, it was a universal panacea! Boyfriend dumped you? Failed your exam? Came 2nd in the swimming? Have a can of export!

        1. I’ve got a full oil tank and 10 years stock of coal and wood, plus a 6 year supply of Calor gas for the hob.

          1. Bottled gas is running out in Southern England.

            No knew 25kg bottles available. Only refills. None of the smaller camping type bottles to be had.

  47. Good Moa heck, Afternoon.
    I’m in an excellent mood: the sun’s out and the local shop had both almond croissants and jam sugar.
    After my cuppa, I’ll nip up to the attic and see if the moths have avoided my crocheted poncho and cheesecloth shirts.
    Then I’ll creak around to a quick burst of Dancing Queen.
    Or should I check how many candles and working torches we have in stock?
    Decisions, decisions ……

  48. I pondered for some time a considered response to Mr Colling’s letter but could only come up with “Half-wit”.

    SIR – Simon Heffer tells us that “relying on a tyranny for our power supplies is madness and must stop”.

    How right he is. We must build the Severn barrage. The enormous volume of energy that the Moon gives us by sending millions of tons of water up and down the Severn estuary twice a day could provide us with over 7 per cent of the electricity we will need to meet future fossil-free energy needs.

    When there is spare capacity, the turbines of the barrage could produce hydrogen to power transport.

    Roger Colling
    Presteigne, Radnorshire

        1. The river Servern is a marvel of nature and a great place for wildfowl. The Bore is a unique feature of this river. Any tidal barrage here would cause enormous environmental damage.

          1. A barrage would be too devastating for wildlife, but a north and south lagoon would work nicely with minimal ecological impact.

  49. Boris defends America’s decision to leave Afghanistan ahead of his first White House meeting with Joe Biden TODAY – but admits chaotic pullout could ‘maybe’ have been handled better

    DM Story

    What a craven, soggy piece of excrement our prime minister has turned out to be!

    1. I feel a bit smug from the fact that I’ve never trusted him and did not vote for him or his party in 2019 (or 2015 come to that).

  50. Godd afternoon, dear Nottlers.

    Some questions as to why the world is where it is, on TCW – and a good analysis of how, why and what we can do. The first part – click through the link to an excellent article.

    The master plan behind the Covid crisis

    When one looks at what’s happened in the last year and a half, these words are especially alarming.

    Can it really be the case that everything we’ve experienced was planned? I’ll say one thing right away: I can’t produce any evidence for such a plan in the form of verified documents, but after studying this topic in detail for 18 months, I must say that there is an impressive number of signs and indications pointing in exactly this direction.

    It’s this and the consequences thereof that I want to talk about today.

    The current situation we find ourselves in is unique in the history of mankind. Never before has the whole world been thrown under the rule of this type of coercive regime as now in our time. And never have so many measures been taken which at first glance appear to be unintelligible, partly so nonsensical, and in many cases so contradictory.

    Officially, this is about the most serious health crisis in living memory, but the measures being used against this have not improved the situation but continuously made things worse.

    Every doctor today can confirm that the health condition of people, the majority of people, is worse than before the crisis, and even from the point of view of those who ordered the measures, we are faced with a shambles.

    The allegedly threatening fourth wave, and the announcement of the need for third, fourth and fifth vaccinations show that the purpose of the measures up to now, namely preventing the illness, has failed completely.

    But that is not all by far. As a consequence of the lockdowns up to now we have a severe global economic crisis to manage. Worldwide production hangs in complete disarray. Global logistics is on the floor, supply chains are broken, harvests are being lost, there are food supply bottlenecks, and on top of this a scarcity for a large part of the economy of essential semi-conductors.

    But also we are seeing the problems are not being addressed and solved, but multiplied and magnified via the application of further measures and the constant threat of new restrictions.

    The most recent example: in China a port freight terminal, the third largest in the world, has been closed down due to a single positive test from a worker there. Or take New Zealand, where in all seriousness during the last week, five million people were put in lockdown for three days because a single 58-year-old had a positive test.

    A further crisis is affecting the small/medium businesses sector, which by a long way provides the most jobs worldwide, and additionally supplies the largest share of tax revenues. The Mittelstand [small-medium industry sector] is being driven from week to week further to the wall through the incessant uncertainty and new regulations, and has never before been stuck in such a deep crisis as today.

    But that is not all. We are experiencing at present a brutally increasing worldwide inflation, especially for raw materials, with producer prices and with food products.

    But also here, nothing is being done to alleviate the situation, but rather the opposite. The flood of money printing continues and will even be further increased. Countries and central banks have, since the start of the crisis, thrown in almost $20trillion into the worldwide monetary system, without any end in sight! And the International Monetary Fund, as the most powerful financial organisation in the world, will give out next Monday with $650billion, the largest amount ever of its own currency, under special withdrawing rights.

    And the situation in society is no better. Just one example: in the USA, the strongest economy in the world, almost four million people are threatened with eviction because they cannot pay their rent or cannot cover their mortgage costs. And more than ten times as many in the USA – note in the richest country of the world – are not in a position to feed themselves from their own income. And that, which the intentional destruction of the economy and the rising inflation have not managed to accomplish, politicians have managed to do. A country-wide fracture of the population as we have never witnessed before.

    And now on top of this come vicious measures as the crowning of the whole thing, the premeditated change of power in Afghanistan managed by the USA. There, the Taliban have been deliberately handed military materials to the value of $20billion – a complete air force, with eleven airfield support bases available for use which with absolute certainty will cause the next enormous flood wave of refugees.

    Why this, one asks oneself? Why were worldwide measures taken which have caused one disaster after another, and pushed the majority of humanity deeper towards the abyss, instead of lifting them out of their misery?

    https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/the-master-plan-behind-the-covid-crisis/

          1. Stop referring to her frontal underwear support in public, Grizzly. That is no way for a gentleman to talk

          6. When Marmalade recorded a cover version of the Beatles hit, they changed BRA to O-OH. I’m told by a mutual friend that it’s South Efrican for BBQ.

            :-))

          7. Marmalade’s management didn’t understand the meaning of the word ‘bra’ and didn’t want to be banned from the BBC. Illogical and ridiculous but true.

    3. I think they have been waiting for an event like covid to swing into action. There is far too much co-ordination to be anything different.They want to run everything by the state and remove private business apart from the global companies.

    4. Modern first world society has progressed with such alarming rapidity that the golden egg of a rapid and low cost transport and communications infrastructure has been shattered by the removal of the ability to harvest the means of survival with the Just In Time philosophy.

      This means that advanced societies are literally living by the minute – hence the need to stockpile everything just as our ancestors did in times of war.

      The interdependecy of modern manufacturing and delivery processes has indeed produced an imminent catastrophic outlook on the maintainance of our quality of life just like the time when Churchill had to plead with Roosevelt at the start of WWII:

      Churchill pleaded “Give us the tools and we’ll finish the job.”

      https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/fdr-churchill

    5. 339085+ up ticks,
      Afternoon HL,
      Many of us witnessed what was happening long before
      it was openly triggered 18 + months ago, but were roundly rhetorically abused and put down as fruitcakes etc,etc.

      UKIP under the Gerard Batten leadership was so credible it could never be allowed to continue hence the party nec ( nine bob notes) / nige input sealed the fate of the genuine UKIP party.

      Many lab/lib/con hard core member / voters saw the UKIP potential and were in agreement nobody but nobody wanted the good ship lab/lib/con coalition well established set up unsettled, at ANY COST.

      Peoples are now seeking the genuine UKIPs recipe as more of the truth is being revealed.

  51. Very satisfactory morning. Picked 3 more lb of raspberries (yawn). Then scrubbed the porch floor (pamments) for the first time in 20 years. Seems to be quite a different colour than it was! And lunch in the garden.

    Lecture on Caravaggio at 2pm – then an OUTING to a nursery to see ideas for the last part of the garden that needs a revamp.

    This excitement may prove to be too much!

    1. I’ve been pottering amongst the pots. Tipping a wheelbarrow of used compost elsewhere…….. once I’d worked out how to get it down the steps without tipping it all on the gravel drive. Could have done with help – but he was up the ladder putting up yet another swift box.

  52. Had a call from the Haematology Department and the news is good.

    My target levels for my Polycythaemia have been reached and i do not require another venousection (Blood letting) this year.

    Had another call from the Haematology Department and the news is bad.

    My target levels for Potassium are still low and they want me at A & E to put me on a drip.

    I have visited this Department many times. The calls came from the same desk where two people sit next to each other.

    I’m not going. I have bought myself Sando-K which is what they put in the drip anyway.

    Time for Gin.

      1. 23rd Grizz. I’m going to add Marsala and Madeira to mine. Possibly some Brandy too.

        I know those three work with chicken livers so I’ll try them in the stock.

  53. Insulate Britain activists dragged off the motorway by police after running into traffic. 21 September. 2021.

    https://youtu.be/lm5HiEW5jxo

    The campaigning group confirmed they led the demonstration, adding that new people have joined their campaign to improve home insulation in addition to the others who have been involved in similar demonstrations in Hertfordshire, Kent, Essex and Surrey over the past week.

    Climate Change for the mentally retarded! If we lagged every pipe in the UK it would not offset the effect of one New Chinese Coal fired Power Station!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/09/21/m25-protest-insulate-britain-activists-dragged-motorway-police/

      1. LOL! Or, better still, an injection of something deadly. (Oops, who’s that pounding on my front door?)

    1. I heard the lady died. I hope her family sue them for millions or at least hire a hitman.

      Watching what they did to her was completely unacceptable and i’m sure against their own procedures.

      Afternoon, Rik.

      1. There were police along later who assisted her. I’ve not seen any reference in Oz press to her having died.
        The policeman in question is under investigation.
        Views in Oz are surprising mixed and polarised, from police brutality chase him down and prosecute him through to silly woman deserved all she got for being there.

        https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10007879/Six-police-officers-stopped-help-elderly-woman-pepper-sprayed-rogue-cop-protests.html

      1. Peter Bonetti was crap. He lost us the World Cup in 1970.

        OK, England would have probably lost in the final to Brazil, but they would have reached that final if it hadn’t been for ‘The Clown” Bonetti.

          1. I know. It just gave me an opportunity to say what I’ve always felt about the goalkeeper. A door opening, as it were.

          2. My Dad had the same opinion of Bob Wilson! He called him ‘fairy’ Wilson and when he let a goal in or fell over, Dad would shout “Look! There he goes! Tripping over his wand again!”

          3. Robert Primrose Wilson is an Old Cestrefeldian (i.e. he attended Chesterfield Grammar School). I am old and also a Cestrefeldian but I didn’t go to the school that gives that title to its former pupils. Like me, Bob was born in Chesterfield but he was never on the books of the local club. He qualified to play for Scotland through his ancestry.

    3. My dog breeder person reminded me today that dogs see a flying ball in slow motion, as their brains are specifically designed to hunt, and catch fast moving prey.

      I asked her then if Mongo also had a brain in slow motion, as he didn’t bother catching the ball when I throw it.

      Ah, she said. Do you then go and get it for him?

      And then the penny dropped. My dog has trained me.

      1. Oscar had fun this afternoon; he has inherited Charlie’s ball which allows food to be put inside and when the ball is rolled, the food comes out. I filled it up and gave it to Oscar to play with. He chased it round and round, spun it, picked it up and shook it. Then he went round picking up all the treats that had fallen out 🙂

    1. I often think the word responsible is misused. For example those terrorists who explode bombs amongst civilians are reported as: “Claiming responsibility” whereas in reality they have acted effing irresponsibly! So where there is a failure of strategic policy shouldn’t we blame those who have been irresponsible?

      1. Well, the action is irresponsible, but the intent was deliberate, therefore they are responsible for the deliberate act of blowing up the bomb. They *wanted* to do it.

        It’s effects are destructive, harmful and the cause of deaths, but the bombers don’t care about that. That’s what they wanted.

        It is interesting – I do wonder what the deaths from cold will be this winter. I also bet there won’t be a flicker of interest about that compared to the lies over covid.

      2. Everyone needs to understand that if you are ‘responsible’ for something then you are also ‘ACCOUNTABLE’.

    2. Look at it like this…you buy ,let’s say,50 gallons of beer per year from the local brewery.
      The pub down the street is buying 4000 gallons per year.
      If push comes to shove who gets served first?.
      Russia have huge long-term contracts for oil and gas with China which dwarf contracts with Europe.
      When production schedules get tight,who gets served first?

    3. It makes their lives a lot easier. The actual analysis of the problem, and solutions are obvious, but they – for some unknown reason – keep to the party line.

      2. The state has always been there above the parent. That’s how they are able to remove children from bad parents. It’s not a power they like to use often, but it’s there.
        If the state defines a bad parent as a parent that won’t vaccinate their child against covid then they can if they wish overrule the parents.

    2. Let me get this correct (I was going to say ‘straight) a child can choose to be any sex that they want, without Parental consent
      but the State will not heed the vews of the parents when it comes to vaxxing ( with 2 ‘xx’s so as not to confuse the kids with Vacuuming their room)

  63. Listen up and listen well.

    Any NoTTLer seriously interested in living longer and reducing the chance of catching any of those nasty diseases that will kill you earlier than you want, I urge you to watch, and listen carefully, to these two videos.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQmqVVmMB3k
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kGnfXXIKZM

    When you’ve watched them, go to your pantry, larder, or kitchen cupboards and chuck ALL your ‘vegetable’ oils on the compost heap. And I mean ALL of them.

    1. The best bit was that because we’re not allowed to use a certain pesticide, a lot of our oil seed rape crops have failed due to flea beetle.

      Lithuania, that does use these pesticides has had a successful harvest, so we’re importing their oil seed rape to here.

      Someone tell me the logic?

          5. We are utterly wasting our time on this topic, Ogga. It is very clear that no one is interested in improving their health or longevity. They would probably prefer to add themselves to the ill-health statistics than eschew eating shit.

          6. I am interested. And it is interesting how we have been persuaded to eat foods that are actually bad for us, purported to be for our health; they have been promoted, along with the advice of keeping out of the sun because that will cause skin cancer… for the last 30 or 40 years we have heard nothing else. Wrap up against the sun.

            It is interesting that during this so-called ‘pandemic’ that there has been absolutely no information whatsoever at all about how to do the best for oneself in terms of nutrition and exercise. Nothing at all. Indeed in the US they are making NAC (N-Acetyl Cysteine) unavailable OTC and on prescription only. It is useful in ridding the body of the toxins from The Jab. Along with others, Flush Niacin, for example. NAC has been available as a food supplement for decades.

          7. 339085+ up ticks,
            G,
            Big business only need a few lobbyist in parliament singing the benefits of consuming lbs of sugar for instance and many of the herd follow, addicted.

            The years of rationing saw a healthier Nation

            The herd is riddled with addiction the lab/lib/con politico’s depend on it.

      2. Me too. Olive oil is generally safe. Peanut oil in moderation. I’ll post the gist of the videos below along with my new diet.

        1. I am now completely fasting on more than one day a week. Last Thursday and yesterday, I had nothing to eat at all. I just drank water throughout the day with just one cup of coffee (milk, no sugar) and one mug of Bovril in the afternoon. And do you know what?

          I didn’t feel hungry at all and I slept for nine hours solid after that. I wasn’t even hungry the following mornings. On Friday I had a little bit of pork with some salad and a handful of raspberries. Today I fried some cabbage with onion and garlic and some crispy bacon bits, followed by another handful of raspberries.

          It was light and delicious. I shan’t eat another solid meal until Thursday.

          The other day I watched another very interesting and utterly excellent video on good food versus bad given by a very listenable American doctor. I’d recommend anyone to watch it, dieting or not, for a rethink of lifestyle. Here it is:

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kGnfXXIKZM ‘Diseases of Civilisation: Are Seed Oil Excesses the Unifying Mechanism?’, Dr Chris Knobbe. There are a good number of videos on the internet giving the same message.

          I’ve produced a few extracts from the good doctor’s presentation for my own use, mainly as an aide memoire.

          The Four Poisons (all of which contribute to the ever-increasing incidence of chronic disease) are:

          Refined Sugar.
          Refined Wheat.
          Processed Foods.
          Vegetable Oils, inc:

          Soybean oil
          Corn Oil
          Canola/Rapeseed Oil
          Cottonseed Oil
          Grapeseed Oil
          Sunflower-seed Oil
          Safflower-seed Oil
          Rice Bran Oil
          Flaxseed (Linseed) Oil
          Peanut Oil

          Vegetable Oils are poly-unsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) and are over-rich in (particularly) Omega-6 fatty acids, the eating of which causes:

          Metabolical Derangement, which manifests itself thus:

          Mitochondrial Dysfunction (energy dysregulation and failure), which directly leads to:

          Heart Disease.
          Atherosclerosis (fatty deposits in artery walls).
          Hypertension (high blood pressure)
          Strokes.
          Cancers.
          Type 2 Diabetes.
          Insulin Resistance.
          Obesity.
          Metabolic Syndrome.
          Alzheimer’s Disease.
          Parkinson’s Disease.
          Macular-degeneration.

          On the other hand:

          Animal fats, including:

          Butter
          Pork Lard
          Beef Tallow
          Suet

          These have been proven (for millennia) to promote good health and physical wellbeing, and are tasty and highly nutritious.

          Dr Knobbe points out that it is the modern diet, which has accelerated since the agricultural revolution, that is the prime cause of all modern diseases.

          His video, and a good number of other similar ones on the same topic, all by scientists and doctors, have given me a radical rethink on my consumption habits.

          Here is another worth watching: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_QdNX9etCg

          At the age of 70 I am not looking to be deteriorating in health prior to my death; au contraire, I am looking forward to improving my health and wellbeing in order to live as long as possible whilst continuing to enjoy good health.

          Life is not a dress-rehearsal: we only have one stab at it. From now on, for me, all the following foods are history:

          All alcoholic drinks (yup, I’m now a teetotaller),
          Flours,
          Sugars,
          Processed foods,
          Ice-cream,
          Sweet desserts,
          Breakfast cereals,
          Bread,
          Cake,
          Pies,
          Pastry,
          Pasta,
          Rice,
          Noodles,
          Biscuits,
          and ALL vegetable oils.

          Radical, I know, but I want to live long and healthily and I shall still enjoy the foods I love, which are:

          Meat,
          Fish,
          Cheese,
          Eggs,
          Stocks and home-made soups,
          Stews,
          Most vegetables,
          Nuts,
          Berries,
          Most fruit,
          Tea,
          Coffee,
          Milk,
          Cream
          …and lots of water.

          I expect very few would ever become as radical as this, but I am more than willing to give it a go. If I lapse then I shall tell you all first, but I don’t expect to.

          Happy days.

          1. You are a complete nutter, Grizz. Your list:

            All alcoholic drinks (yup, I’m now a teetotaller),
            Flours,
            Sugars,
            Processed foods,
            Ice-cream,
            Sweet desserts,
            Breakfast cereals,
            Bread,
            Cake,
            Pies,
            Pastry,
            Pasta,
            Rice,
            Noodles,
            Biscuits,
            and ALL vegetable oils.

            I agree with you – except line one! and the last line.
            I never buy or eat the rubbish in between 🙂

            I enjoy wine and use olive oil; I leave fasting to the Monks …

    3. 339085+ up ticks,
      G,
      My lady has been in my ear on a daily cycle for years
      also sausage rolls, pasties,wheat products, etc,etc.

      For cooking olive oil, butter,sugar nooooooooo.

      1. Butter suffered a massive propaganda campaign about it being bad for you. The opposite is true. ‘They’ wanted to sell more of their over refined products and kill off the dairy industry.

        Eggs and milk were attacked in the same way and now we are seeing meat attacked.

        1. 339085+ up ticks, P,
          P,
          We have known this for years as with sugar an out & out killer.

          I do put them on par with current lab/lib/con coalition supporter voters.

          I do try to stick to a strict quantity diet, no more that a
          rear leg of horse for lunch.

      1. Good at lower temperature but then at higher temps it can get nasty and become as bad as the other oils.

        For a higher temp like for a stir fry then groundnut/peanut oil is better.

        For chips and roasties use lard or dripping.

        This post will cost you £50 if you don’t upvote it !

        Ooh i sound like the government .

        1. I hardly ever do chips except french fries occasionally in the oven.

          For roasties I use dripping – lamb or duck or goose fat.

      2. I would assume that vegetable oils doesn’t include olives, they are a fruit. It’s the only oil I use too plus real butter, if that counts as an oil?

    6. Apart from olive, I use avocado oil together with butter (to stop the butter burning). I guess as avocado is also a fruit, it is treated the same as olive oil?

  64. WATCH: BORIS CONFIRMS CHILDREN COUNT

    https://youtu.be/QplvT0cEc5A

    Well done to NBC for getting out of Boris what no British interviewer’s been able to: confirming he has six kids. Back in the 2019 election Nick Ferrari pushed the PM on the question, only to get confirmation that he loves his children very much, however they weren’t up for election. Chapeau…

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

    I bet he’s lying….

    1. And how many abortions?

      Does Johnson have children with or by his paramours, mistresses, wives and scrubbers?

  65. This morning I posted a clip of Zuby’s interview on GB News with Dan Wootton last night.

    Here is the whole interview and it is very well worth listening to as Zuby is incredibly lucid and intelligent on the subject of trans-sexual athletes, freedom of speech, Covid tyranny, and Black Lives Matter. I do advise my friends to listen to this – it is very well worth the time.

    https://theglobalherald.com/news/zuby-says-theres-been-a-war-on-reality-and-explains-why-he-chose-to-self-identify-as-a-woman/

      2. This site, is used predominantly by more senior members of the population, who may be forgetful, Mr Grizzle

      3. This site, is used predominantly by more senior members of the population, who may be forgetful, Mr Grizzle.

          2. I suppose if I lived in Finland, they wouldn’t get any from me, either. Unfortunately, as it is, I just received a tax demand this morning; following MOH’s death, I owe HMRC money for unpaid tax (married person’s allowance no longer applicable) so my tax code is considerably lower. Given that I now have to live on one pension and I’m about £400 down every month on my personal income, having to pay more tax is an insult.

          4. It did put a bit of a damper on the day to get all that in the post (plus the council tax, but that actually hasn’t gone up much, just a few pence).

          6. They need me to pay for the gimmegrants. I was discussing this with the old chum in the garden this afternoon. We concluded that we were the only people paying tax; those on benefits didn’t pay and the elites didn’t pay because they employed accountants to minimise their bill, so it was up to us in the middle to shoulder the burden.

        2. It is not a charity. The employer is Unitemps. Unitemps is a trading name of Warwick University Enterprises Limited, a University of Warwick company. Registered in England and Wales. Registration no. 3777797. A company registration. Warwick University is a charity registered with the Charities commission.
          As far I can make out “Unitemps” is an overall banner used by all University employment agencies. The advert, see link below, states,”You will be working for a charity, who conduct work on behalf of The NHS and Government.” It looks very much as if that statement is a lie. You will be working for a business owned by Warwick University, one that makes about £1m ya year.

          https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/03777797/filing-history
          https://www.unitemps.com/branches/university-of-warwick/
          https://warwick.ac.uk/giving/contact/status/
          https://uk.indeed.com/jobs?q=covid%20vaccination%20engagement%20assistants&l&vjk=1ecf561a7154b011

  68. Insulate Britain is asking for the Government to provide insulation for all homes.
    A cheaper option would be for them to ask the Government to buy everyone a jumper, or haven’t they thought of putting on an extra layer?

    1. How much CO2 will be produced insulating homes?
      Will it make houses unhealthy, damp and create cause mould?

      1. I’ve got solid walls – no cavity. I couldn’t even put tacky fake stone on the outside to insulate it; I live in a conservation area.

        1. As do we – in a listed cottage. The modern extension which was built only a couple of years before we bought the house is built of breeze block with stone cladding – we always suspected there was no cavity or insulation as our bedroom and the room downstairs are so cold – this was confirmed when OH took one of the stones out to put in a swift nest chamber – the walls are solid.

  70. Good talk about Caravaggio. Excellent trip to nursery – bought four new and interesting plants to put in the area to be sorted out in the back end.

    Even more excitement. Overnight trip to Glos to see elder son fixed up AND three nights in Lunnon at end of November. The shock is almost enough to make me pour a glass now rather than wait 24 minutes.

    And on that note, I’ll leave you.

    A demain

    1. Wasn’t Caravaggio a drunk and sometime murderer? I quite liked seeing his daubings though.

      Three nights in London ! Son paying?

      1. (a) Yes
        (b) Of course not – a different trip. One trip to see son in Glos; the other to go to Lunnon. Do TRY to keep up…

        1. Oh, i see. Well if you are going panhandling the best places are the Underground stations and the Theatres. Take the kitties…people always put money in the hat for pussies.

          1. Them cats are going to a seven-star cat hotel. They’ll be much better accommodated (and fed) than we will be..{:¬))

          2. As it should be…

            I have seen not one but two Caravaggio close up. I liked the head chopped off one more than the other one.

        1. I know how you feel.
          No point writing to MPs they are as impotent as we are. The government is run by faux scientists and large corporations. We are but pawns that are dusted off and brought out every 5 years but nothing changes.
          The corruption runs deep and dirty.

          2. Life’s been too easy and the public, us excluded, have taken their eye off the ball.
            No longer any personal responsibility, if any thing goes wrong the stock reply is ‘What’s the government going to do about’. It’s a lot easier than using those docile brain cells.
            Unfortunately the delusional public ‘trust the government’ they can’t be bothered to question. They will fairly freely admit that government cannot run business but are happy to do what they’re Tod.
            The most dreadful phrase to have taken traction this past 18 months is “It is what it is” and it makes me cringe.
            Edited

          4. Life’s been too easy and the public, us excluded, have taken their eye off the ball.
            No longer any personal responsibility, if any thing goes wrong the stock reply is ‘What’s the government going to do about’. It’s a lot easier than using those docile brain cells.
            Unfortunately the delusional public ‘trust the government’ they can’t be bothered to question. They will fairly freely admit that government cannot run business but are happy to do what they’re Tod.
            The most dreadful phrase to have taken traction this past 18 months is “It is what it is” and it makes me cringe.
            Edited

          6. 339085+ up ticks,
            Evening Atg,
            But why does a majority of the electorate encourage them via the polling booth ?
            this has been building for years.

    2. Gawd ……I hate those videos that scream and shout and won’t turn off – I had to shut the page down to shut them up.

    6. Well, I’ve checked our bottled gas supplies for heat, light and cooking. Not great. I’ll keep an eye on things over the next couple of weeks before deciding whether to splash out or not.

        1. Language! I moved here almost a year ago. The previous tenant died last Spring. EDF were notified. By the time my tenancy began, there was a mountain of letters from EDF and their in house debt collectors, demanding money for energy which had never been used, based on estimates.

          I wouldn’t p1ss on EDF if they were on fire…

        2. So did I. When I moved to Seale, 16 years ago, the frequency of power cuts was frankly unbelievable. It got me out of several holes, but the network was improved, and it went on eBay.

          In these days of LED lighting, I don’t need much capacity*, but enough to keep the gas boiler running, the router, laptop and a few lights. Oh – and three ‘Alexa’ devices…

          *I could come unstuck with printing for the Parish. I have a full-size commercial colour laser photocopier/printer in my larder. These are cheap as chips on eBay…

    9. Yes. As I mentioned yesterday, I have lots of candles, wind-up torches, a wind-up lantern, oil lamps and battery-operated as well as ordinary tea lights. Plus I have lighters and matches.

    10. Read that as “canapes”… (pronounced “Kan yearps” according to the Hairy Bikers…)

  76. “Oxygen … oxygen … I need oxygen ….”
    I’ve actually been agreeing with Laura K as she shredded Johnson over the current shambles.
    BJ really does not like being challenged; he tried brush off LK with a joke about both of them being in a skyscraper in New York, and blibbled on about grand plans for the green agenda and/or climate change whenever asked about how people were supposed to cope in the short term with food shortages and rising fuel costs.
    Johnson really does not like being questioned.

      1. Ever so slightly. I was embarrassed and angry in equal measure.
        I couldn’t believe I was rooting for Team Kuenssberg.

    2. Being questioned rigorously is difficult at the best of times but when you do not have answers that make sense then you are lost. Falling back on jokes and obfuscation is the political charlatan’s typical modus operandi. This government is replete with charlatans and liars and Johnson is primus inter pares in this regard. A truly awful person.

      1. If you can’t take questioning, maybe you should either not be doing that, or be better prepared to justify yourself thoroughly.
        If you aren’t prepared or capable, then maybe this isn’t the right thing to do.

  79. When the work from home brigade suddenly find there’s no internet, heating is expensive and their power supplies have been cut they will be queuing up to return to their office.

    “Sorry Tarquin and Beatrice, your jobs have been reevaluated and you are too expensive. Your P45 is in the post and the statutory minimum redundancy cheque will follow.

    Jane and John worked here throughout the pandemic and accomplished far more than you ever did. Good bye and good luck. A word to the wise, don’t ask us for a reference”

    1. “I’m afraid you can’t come back to the office as there’s no desk for you. In fact, there’s no office, as we have sold the building. Oh, and we have outsourced your job to India, ‘cos they’re cheaper”.

    2. I’m delighted to be back in the office. The social bit, being the main thing. And getting out of the house, and despite paying £12 a day just to commute. It’s much better than home, although the odd day at home is OK.

  80. As sports betting becomes increasingly popular and mainstream across the US (thanks to a shift in state laws that has made the practice legal in a growing number of states), DraftKings, the US fantasy sports/sports gambling company, has made a roughly £16.6 billion ($22.7 billion) offer for the UK-based gambling platform Entain..

    Bit of a gamble?

    1. They are buying expertise, the UK gambling industry knows how to pluck the punters.

      Fools and money, soon parted?

      My hope is that the USA will produce some huge class action lawsuits and kill this parasitic cause of much heartache for too many families.

      1. Norway has just decided to block internet access to these sites – they are illegal in Norway, and there’s a lot of cross-border action.

  81. On a lighter note than the papers are currently peddling… I wentbto London on Sunday to see ‘Anything Goes’ at the Barbican. It was marvellous. I highly recommend anyone to snap up one of the remaining tickets.

        1. It’s OK, you can pump your gun, just don’t expect Nottlers to watch.
          Apart from the usual suspects.

          You know who you are girls

  82. How to make friends and silence a myth..

    “The senior commander of the Chechen military police, Numakhadjiev Ruslan Mukhashevich, notably stated when interviewed that a predominantly Muslim battalion had likely been chosen because they were ‘closer in faith and traditions’ to the local population. He highlighted that the Syrian population’s impression of Chechens had been extremely negative before the deployment due to the conduct of Chechen jihadists who fought among the insurgents. ‘To them a Chechen is a barbarian, a thief, a bandit. They speak very badly about the Chechens whom they saw before us,’ he stated, highlighting that good conduct towards locals by Chechen police officers was ‘a chance to rectify this error.’ ‘They are coming to greet us, hug us… they wouldn’t know there are different Chechens if not for us,’ he concluded. Again, winning over the public appeared to be a priority.
    By the summer of 2017 four Russian military police battalions like the one in Aleppo had been stationed to monitor de-escalation zones across Syria in the wake of major advances by the SAA. Military policemen interviewed consistently appeared touched by the appreciation of the local population, with one stating: ‘The most memorable moment happened when we were handing out humanitarian aid. We could see it in their eyes, the people were very grateful, very happy. Some of them even learned a few words in Russian. And when the crowds were shouting, for real, ‘love Russia, love Russi, thank you Russia.’ That was really gratifying and something that every one of us will remember it for a long time.’ Russian personnel deployed to Syria had many Arabic speakers among them and were under orders to connect with the population at cultural, linguistic and social levels and behave non-threateningly. They were seen attending music concerts, living in Syrian army camps and shopping in local bazaars, as part of an effective ‘soft offensive’ which was key to winning public opinion. The fact that all personnel deployed were professional contract soldiers, rather than reluctant conscripts, made this considerably easier.”

    An extract from a new book..”World War in Syria: Global Conflict on Middle Eastern Battlefields by A B Abrams

  83. Latest Breaking News – Following the revelations that Russia is no longer allowed to use radioactive polonium-210 to neutralise their enemies, Putin has put in a bid for 10 million doses of AZ’s latest booster jab.

  84. Evening, all. More work in the garden as it was fine and dry – and the sun even came out at times. In fact, this morning, it was warmer out (19 degrees C) than it was in (18 degrees C). I took my morning coffee outside to enjoy the late summer sunshine before autumn gets going.

    1. Nice!
      Autumn in full swing here, some lovely colours in the trees, definitely my favourite time of the year – all soft, and damp. Makes me want to look for a pile of dry leaves to sleep the winter through under…

        1. If I still had my radio equipment (it went the way of the generator – see earlier), I could work aurora. It’s quite an interesting experience.

          2. Could be worse – let’s hope it’s not as bad a Michael Fish event!

            The CME’s 12-hour travel time would allow little margin for preparation. The CME would hit Earth’s magnetosphere at 45 times the local speed of sound, and the resulting geomagnetic storm could be as much as twice as strong as the Carrington Event. Power grids, GPS, and other services could experience significant outages.

            http://www.arrl.org/news/a-perfect-coronal-mass-ejection-could-be-a-nightmare

          3. ‘Welling’s team found that geomagnetic disturbances in response to a perfect CME could be 10 times stronger than Tsurutani and Lakhina had calculated, especially at latitudes above 45 to 50 °. ‘
            Whoops.

        3. Interesting, we saw a sundog (a single one to the right of the setting sun) while fishing this evening at Whitsand Bay.

      1. Usted tambien. to call me ‘Sie’ & not ‘Du’ is the equivalent of my calling you ‘Usted’ & not ‘tu’, Elsie.

          2. Put them back in their box, Peter. If you don’t and then walk around your house barefooted, you will regret it.

            :-))

          2. Cocaine is derived from the leaves of the coca plant that is native to South America. Hence the involvement of Colombians.Morphine and heroin are derived from a poppy.

          7. No, as Korky pointed out, it comes from coca leaves. In the back of my mind I did know that, but it receded from view when I posted 🙂

    2. “Previous studies have shown that rats trained to self-administer heroin and cocaine exhibit opposite preferences, as a function of setting, when tested in a choice paradigm. Rats tested at home prefer heroin to cocaine, whereas rats tested outside the home prefer cocaine to heroin”….
      PS Morphine is legal for medical purposes…

      1. Thanks Kingy. I read that three times and all i could hear was the rats dancing through the maze having more fun than me. :@(

      1. Har har… Cabinet ministers get it free in their goody bags.

        You think that’s dandruff on their shoulders?

  91. Emmanuel Macron may offer up UN seat in push for EU army
    France’s position on Security Council could be put at the disposal of Brussels if it backs his military plan

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2021/09/21/emmanuel-macron-may-offer-un-seat-push-eu-army/

    Now I bet this comes as a big surprise to Mr Clegg who said that it was a complete fiction that the EU wanted its own army.

    And I wonder if the idea of Macron giving up France’s UN seat would win him many votes in France?

  93. Too much CO2 – planet faces extinction
    COVID-19 – people on planet face extinction
    Taliban takeover – some people face an earlier extinction
    Energy shortage – people face death from hypothermia
    Fertiliser production stops – people face crop starvation
    Not enough CO2 – people face meat starvation

    Thank goodness there’s always a current news event to keep the MSM taking our mind of the previous potential disaster.

    Luckily we can use the internet to generate predictive models to work out the consequences of mankind’s management of the planet and scare the population with a whole range of doomsday scenarios:

    Until of course there’s an event that wipes out the internet:

    Until 1859, solar astronomy was extremely simple: scientists studied the light from the Sun, the sunspots that occasionally dotted the Sun’s surface, and viewed the corona during solar eclipses. But in 1859, solar astronomer Richard Carrington happened to be looking at the Sun, tracking a large, irregular sunspot, when something unprecedented occurred: a “white light flare” was observed, intensely bright and moving across the spot itself for around 5 minutes before disappearing entirely.

    This turned out to be the first-ever observation of what we now call a solar flare. Some 18 hours later (about three to four times the speed of most solar flares), the largest geomagnetic storm in recorded history occurred on Earth. Aurorae were observed around the world: miners awoke in the Rockies; newspapers could be read by the aurora’s light; the bright green curtain appeared in Cuba, Hawaii, Mexico and Colombia. Telegraph systems, even when disconnected, experienced their own induced currents, causing shocks and even starting fires.

    If such an event were to occur today, the infrastructure we have for electricity and electronics would experience devastating effects that could easily cause trilions of dollars in damage. The problem is that geomagnetic storms, formed when certain space weather events penetrate our magnetosphere and interact with the atmosphere, can cause massive currents to flow even in electronic circuits that are completely disconnected.

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2020/01/31/this-multi-trillion-dollar-disaster-is-coming-and-solar-astronomy-is-our-prime-defense/

    I’ll get me sliderule.

    1. No enough CO2:- Plants struggle to grow and there is massed starvation.

      I wonder how far we are from that today?

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