Tuesday 24 May: Head of Civil Service should quit over poor performance – not parties

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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578 thoughts on “Tuesday 24 May: Head of Civil Service should quit over poor performance – not parties”

    1. ‘Morning ogga! Were you waiting with your finger on the send button?

          1. 352790+ up ticks,
            SM,
            I had to give Oliver a shout , that is Oliver the blackbird who samples the bird seed dish before it reaches the bird table.
            He waits every morning for me to put down the seed dish for his private
            sitting.

          2. Wonderful! We have 3 pairs in the garden at the moment, with young ones! They wait for me and I call them….magic!

    9. Good morning and happy birthday NtN. Let the festivities begin…after breakfast.

      1. Morning Sue. Ok. I can almost track the remission of my Diabetes 2 by the day.

  4. ‘Morning All

    Nicked Comment

    “I sometimes wonder if I have grown too old for this world. My parents were
    kind enough to bring me into a country that was still half decent.
    People dressed in proper clothes. Men went to work and women cared for
    homes and children. Youngsters were taught life’s basics by people who
    were dedicated to the task of improving their minds. They limited
    themselves to teaching those things that were appropriate and in most
    cases children were thus equipped to venture onwards with knowledge as a
    bedrock and intelligence as a developing asset. Our wealth was not in
    things but in each other. Home was a happy place.

    I could cry for
    the kids of today. That country which should also have been theirs has
    been raped and pillaged by crude philosophies and alien creeds. The
    Guardians, our political leaders, have at best stood by shivering on the
    touchline and, at worst facilitated the despoliation.

    Here we are
    in a land where a man can marry a man and a woman can marry a woman.
    Babies are slaughtered in the womb on an industrial scale. Foreigners
    are deemed as worthy of protection and a share in our national wealth as
    those who created it through their hard work and skill. Uncouth comics
    are lauded as geniuses. Men dressed as parodies of women are raised up
    as role models. Misogynistic rappers ply their inane mumblings and
    receive mega-star status. Call a pouf a pouf, call a fatty a fatty, call
    a foreigner a foreigner or a woman a lady and beware; offence will be
    taken and a charge might well follow.

    This and so much more makes
    me wonder if I have lingered too long. I feel I am out of place, or
    rather, that my place has been usurped by the inhabitants of Bedlam and
    I, relatively sane, am now wearing the straitjacket.”
    Oof…………….

    1. It was Anthony Armstrong Jones who coined the expression “refugees from the past” to describe the old. That is where we are! That country that we loved and bore us; that our ancestors created and defended has been destroyed! All this, not by some Foreign Power, but by a gang of effete cowards who own allegiance to nothing but a half-witted doctrine that our fathers would have spat on!

      1. ‘Effete cowards’! Love it and it it sums up the cretinous people who appear to be everywhere!

      2. 352790 + up ticks,

        Morning AS,

        Could not have been achieved without the continuing support of lab/lib/con supporter / voters.

  8. Russia organising massacre in Donbas, says Zelensky. 24 May 2022.

    Volodymyr Zelensky has said that Russian troops are pushing through in Kharkiv and will not give up on the region, which could result in difficult weeks to come in the war.

    “The Russian occupiers are trying very hard to show that they allegedly will not give up the occupied areas of the Kharkiv region, the Kherson region, the occupied territory of the Zaporizhzhia region and Donbas,” Mr Zelensky said, adding that Russian fighters are going on the offensive in some areas.

    “Reserves are being accumulated in some areas. Somewhere they are trying to reinforce their positions,” he said.

    “The coming weeks of the war will be difficult. And we must be aware of that. Yet we have no alternative but to fight. Fight and win. Free our land and our people. Because the occupiers want to take away from us not just something, but everything we have. Including the right to life for Ukrainians,” Mr Zelensky said in a nightly address.

    This is a rather strange series of announcements from someone who is; according to the MSM, winning this war hands down!

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ukraine-russia-war-putin-zelensky-weapons-latest-b2085789.htmlb

    2. What the West’s propaganda hasn’t been telling you is that the Ukrainian army has been reduced from a mechanised force with roughly 2,000 armoured vehicles to one that consists almost entirely of light infantry formations. In essence they are now a guerrilla force albeit a very effective one.

      Russia has taken casualties as well and probably greater than those of Ukraine. Attacking forces often do. However they have twelve combined arms armies available and so far have only committed three to the fight.

      This is not a war that Ukraine can win or at least not without direct outside intervention. The statements that we are seeing now reflect that reality.

      To put this into context. Ukraine started this war with around 1,200 tanks. Britain, France and Germany can muster about 1,000 between them.

    3. Don’t worry your pretty little head about it. The BBC assures us that the Russians are being killed in their thousands daily and the valorous Ukrainian forces will soon sweep the remnants back to the hell-hole they came from. What would we do without the brilliant BBC and it’s long suffering, hard working, reporters and staff?

    1. Interesting. Alex Berenson theorises that this is the start of a campaign to wind down mRNA vaccines – which will mean the launch of new products, of course. Perhaps they have realised that they can’t hide the elephant of sickness, miscarriages, sudden deaths and cancer in the room for much longer.

    2. Meanwhile, our own health ‘leaders’ have announced the 4th jab will be offered to the over 65s in the autumn. Our oh-so-caring GPs will want to keep boosting their fees while the sun still shines. After all, why see patients face-to-face for a proper 5-10 minute consultation when they can see them face-to-face for a few seconds for £15 a jab.

      1. At Bangor races today the prizes were handed over by a woman who won some accolade by working through the pandemic to jab loads of people. Not worthy at all, in my view!

        1. I hope the winners were aware of how honoured they were to be handed prizes from such a distinguished non-entity person.

          1. I’m not sure if it was the same one, but some non-racing person awarded the Best Turned Out prize to the groom that turns out the best presented horse in the mares race and gave it to one who wasn’t plaited up and didn’t have quarter marks, while there was one that was plaited mane and tail (some only had plaited manes) and had a really gleaming coat with stunning quarter marks (patterns brushed in the coat on the rear flanks). I wonder if they explained the point of the BTO award or just said, “award it to the one you like best”. If I had been the groom of that horse, I think I would have felt more than miffed!

          3. No, she was European, may even have been – dare I whisper it? – English. There were very few of the protected species on show. Most were from local yards, employing local (i e hideously white) people.

    2. Pandemic prevention? Stop bringing criminal welfare migrants here! End child benefit, end housing benefit. Stop paying people to have children they cannot afford!

  11. 352790+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Tuesday 24 May: Head of Civil Service should quit over poor performance – not parties

    Very very few in their right devious minds within the CS / gov. would quit such lucrative employment, especially over the last three plus decades they have electoral majority backing.

    Starve them of support / votes is the only way to go.

    Really, who in their right minds would support party’s that are openly importing
    paedophiles, potential troops, various type villains, culture changing material on a daily bases ?

    2. Right, so when’s he going? As his performance has been utterly detrimental to this country in every way shape and form.

    2. Pah. Mozart was composing at the same age.
      Seriuosly…very impressive but I fear I foresee problems in later life for that boy.

  13. Good morning. Rain overnight. More follows.

    I greet you on this Empire Day.

      2. Good grief. My MOTHER was born in 1901…..

        You really are terribly young!

      3. Queen Victoria’s birthday – hence Empire Day.

        They used to play the National Anthem on my birthday, Sue.

        1. I’m standing up now! Just leaving to go to our best man’s funeral at Crathes/Banchory!

      4. Maternal grandfather b1900, d1982; grandmother b1901, d1978.
        I sometimes think about the things we take for granted today that they could never have dreamt of a relatively short time ago.

      1. There are lots of studies of a baby chimp preferring a mother who would hug it to one who could feed it.

        1. Orphaned chimps are given fluffy cushions to hug for security, then the teat is hidden in the fluff for them to feed.

    1. That woman is completely out of her depth as a country leader. Too stupid or wicked to see that her petty ideas have no place influencing the lives of millions.
      Thank you, feminism.

      1. If the pain is worth it, then she will go without salary and pension and have her properties seized to pay for it then? Thought not.. Useless public sector wonks just spend other people’s money with impunity, never aware of the cost of creating it.

        Such people exist in the state and cannot exist outside of it.

      2. This isn’t feminism, it’s just a stupid, spoiled brat looking for a job after office in a quango pontificating about green.

      3. What has feminism got to do with it, bb?
        Plenty of males make stupid comments – what movement would you call to blame for those?

        1. Feminism being the placement of incompetent women in jobs they are underqualified for – as a quota.

        2. Women are more likely to go along with fashionable ideas without questioning them. Men on average have higher IQs than women, so if you have 50/50 equality you will reduce average the IQ of politicians slightly. Feminism demands that the quota should be 50% without considering this.
          In any case, I’m in favour of clever women in politics, and I’m not in favour of electing stupid men either.

      4. What has feminism got to do with it, bb?
        Plenty of males make stupid comments – what movement would you call to blame for those?

  15. Good Moaning.
    I’ve started the morning with a larf.
    “At that point, Baroness Buscombe, who had listened to all of this with the expression of a woman being given complex directions in Swahili, asked: who is going to “interpret” what you’re saying to the general public?”

    Here is the whole DT article by Tim Stanley:

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/05/23/universality-sitcom-gone-wrong-bbc-chiefs-spew-words-leaving/

    “Sitcom gone wrong as BBC’s attempt at clarity leaves everyone confused

    Executive blather underlines rule that the more complicated the justification for spending people’s money sounds, the weaker the argument

    23 May 2022 • 8:41pm

    Fans of sitcom W1A, that witty satire of BBC jargon, will be delighted to know they’ve recorded a new episode, set in the Lords. I was lucky enough to be in the studio audience (surprisingly small) at which three execs played parodies of themselves: Director General Tim Davie, who thinks everything is super; chairman Richard Sharp, who is one more Jimmy Savile away from a heart attack; and director of policy Clare Sumner, who just talks gibberish.

    The first question from Baroness Stowell, chair of the communications and digital committee, was: “What is the future of the BBC?”.

    “This is, as you all well know, a centuries-old institution,” said Sharp, starting badly by confusing it with the monarchy, “that has potential for multigenerational value in the future, not just to this nation but to the world”. So why don’t the young watch it anymore? “The youth should be media promiscuous,” he replied, his mind maybe drifting to that horrific monkeypox outbreak that started in a sauna, but ultimately it’s about “how we influence the ecosystem”.

    Tim Davie agreed with Lord Lipsey that the BBC shouldn’t “lurch to the young … Universality … does not mean doing everything for everybody”. Rather the BBC needs to be a “public service that is purpose-led, with accessibility”.

    “Accessible rather than universal?” asked Baroness Stowell. Well, I prefer to think of it as “differentiation and focus”, explained Davie – and Sumner helpfully noted that universality has “three different prisms”.

    We need to look at “all the options … without preconception,” insisted Sharp. But it’s always important to strategise before tinkering with a beloved organisation (which, let’s not forget, pre-dates Magna Carta). “When you make a change … you have to be incredibly thoughtful to evaluate the … unintended consequences vs the intended consequences.”

    Warming to his theme, and likely encouraged by the pin-drop silence in the room, he said: “We should think of ourselves as a national mutual … The priorities of our values lead to what is distinctive in aggregate about the value proposition we represent to the nation and to the world.”

    At that point, Baroness Buscombe, who had listened to all of this with the expression of a woman being given complex directions in Swahili, asked: who is going to “interpret” what you’re saying to the general public?

    And I must admit, I was thinking much the same. Though the dialogue of this scene was very funny, surely even these characters could see the irony of using words like accessibility and universality in a way that makes them entirely inaccessible and peculiar? It’s a rule of thumb that the more complicated the justification for spending other people’s money sounds, the weaker the argument actually is.

    “In terms of debate,” concluded Sumner, “in terms of being really clear what we mean, as you say, kind of cut through, some of the clarity as it were, be clear”.

    Baroness Buscombe nodded politely. One hopes this episode is broadcast with subtitles.”

  16. Greetings one and all.

    Follow the Monkey…..

    Curious Coincidences: Monkeypox Edition

    1) November 2014: Bill Gates funds Chimerix’s antiviral brincidofovir. The drug is initially tested as a treatment for Ebola. (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-11-19/gates-to-fund-ebola-survivor-blood-chimerix-drug-trials)

    2) March 2021: A war game is conducted in which a terrorist group unleashes weaponized monkeypox at airports on May 15, 2022 (although it takes the world awhile to discover this origin). Vaccines prove ineffective against it. Over 18 months, 3 billion are infected and 270 million die (9% mortality, consistent with the deadlier version of monkeypox and about 200 times deadlier than COVID). (https://www.nti.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/NTI_Paper_BIO-TTX_Final.pdf)

    3) June 2021: Chimerix’s antiviral brincidofovir is approved by the FDA to treat the smallpox family of viruses under the brand name Tembexa. (https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2021/06/04/2242292/0/en/Chimerix-Receives-U-S-Food-and-Drug-Administration-Approval-for-TEMBEXA-brincidofovir-for-the-Treatment-of-Smallpox.html)

    4) September 2021: The US government begins stockpiling another smallpox family antiviral drug, TPOXX, produced by SIGA Technologies. (https://www.marketscreener.com/quote/stock/SIGA-TECHNOLOGIES-INC-10830/news/SIGA-Announces-BARDA-Exercise-of-Procurement-Option-Valued-at-112-5-Million-for-Oral-TPOXX-36410838/). Like COVID vaccines, TPOXX is gene-editing. (https://www.siga.com/wp-content/themes/sigahba/TPOXX-Fact-Sheet.pdf)

    5) November 2021: Bill Gates—who (along with Klaus Schwab’s World Economic Forum) was also involved in the Event 201 war games of October 2019 that played out exactly as COVID did—warns, ‘what if a bioterrorist brought smallpox to 10 airports?’. (https://news.yahoo.com/bill-gates-warns-smallpox-terror-000100099.html) Most people talking about a hypothetical would say “an airport” or “some airports” rather than a specific number of airports.

    6) May 16, 2022: Tiny research company Chimerix announces it sold the rights to its smallpox antiviral Tembexa to Emergent BioSolutions, a larger firm with more experience in drug mass production. The deal gives Chimerix the right to royalties between 15 and 20% of gross sales if Emergent BioSolutions is able to sell more than 1.7 million treatments. (https://ir.chimerix.com/news-releases/news-release-details/chimerix-announces-sale-tembexa-emergent-biosolutions-3375) The stock price is cut in half as soon as the markets open. Presumably, the market doesn’t believe that more than 1.7 million treatments can ever be sold for an eradicated illness.

    7) May 18, 2022: Various Boston local news outlets report the first case of monkeypox in the US in 2022. (https://www.abc6.com/massachusetts-man-first-confirmed-case-of-monkeypox-in-the-us-this-year/) Cases are also suspected in New York City. (https://nypost.com/2022/05/19/possible-case-of-monkeypox-investigated-in-nyc/ ) Simultaneous outbreaks occur in Canada, several European countries and Australia. (https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/monkeypox-outbreak-europe-largest-ever-region-cases-cross-100-2022-05-20/ ) It rapidly becomes the world’s largest monkeypox outbreak ever and the only one to spread over such a wide area with no direct link to African travel.

    8) May 19, 2022 7:30 AM New York time: SIGA announces the FDA approved an intravenous version of TPOXX for those in emergency care. (https://investor.siga.com/news-releases/news-release-details/siga-receives-approval-fda-intravenous-iv-formulation-tpoxxr)

    9) May 19, 2022 9:30 AM New York time: Markets open and shares of SIGA Technologies (SIGA), Emergent BioSolutions (EBS) and Chimerix (CMRX) explode higher.

    10) May 19, 2022 11:09 AM New York time: Before lunch, the fact checkers publish articles saying any suggestion Bill Gates might be involved in the monkeypox outbreak is a crazy conspiracy theory. (https://www.newsweek.com/fact-check-did-bill-gates-predict-monkeypox-outbreak-1708171)

    1. 11) May 24, 2022 9 am EST Worldwide shortage of fact checkers debunkers announced.

    2. I had to ask my brother-in-law to turn off the Today Programme on R4 yesterday.

      A report on a change of the law on “racism” in the police wanted to make illegal any presumptions that Indian women are condescending or that African-American women are aggressive.

      Has it occurred to our legislators that the characteristics we possess are based on how we are brought up, the cultural values they bring? It has nothing to do with race, but I think you find that many Indians of higher caste have a superiority complex, and many of American-African extract push aggressive and violent rap chanting to a goosestep beat as “music” and carry a highly developed sense of self-entitlement, where “dissing” is met with a stabbing.

        1. Let’s say it’s not even the of the beginning, but rather like looking up an uncharted mountain with just a teaspoon as a crampon and a phrase book to act as guide.

          The dentists themselves Magda and the specialist Joanna were very competent, and Pawel the guide very helpful. It is not an easy journey though being pushed to make decisions in a foreign language far away from the internet where I can look things up and check I am not being taken for a ride. I hate this feeling of vulnerability every time I have to rely on professionals. It’s cost me about £1200 so far in dental charges, plus about £400 in travel and accommodation. I was hoping the Elizabeth Line would be a cheaper and quicker option from Reading to Heathrow, but changing at Hayes & Harlington, a single ticket costs £40. That line was really only for Londoners to get from the West End to Canary Wharf in style, which is why Sadiq Khan is so enthusiastic about it. He likes rich people, because he’s New Labour.

          I need two more trips in September and October. My sister in London looked up the cost of doing a root canal privately in the UK, and said the very cheapest and shoddiest option in the UK is £900, unless I get it done on the NHS by a butcher who bought his diploma. Doing the lot will probably set me back £10,000 and that is without any implants. They reckoned confident that their superior root canal work (and Joanna got right to the tip of the root, whereas the dentist in 1988, in the days when the NHS actually fixed teeth, got only to about 1/8 inch from the end. I also got a glass fibre post, rather than a metal one. It has more give and eventually fuses to the bone of the tooth, and so is supposed to be a lot more sturdy.

          I only have one tooth that does not need attention. I had three extractions, one root canal, a crown removed and the tooth tidied up, another tooth also tidied up, both ready to receive crowns. One of the teeth being extracted fell to bits. It wasn’t her fault – a large part of that root had already broken off a month ago and there wasn’t enough left attached to the tooth. It will need to be surgically removed, but I doubt I could get this on the NHS without a 3-year waiting list simply to be admitted to Triage. Four months waiting for the Poles might be quicker.

          I need three more root canals, four bridges and the odd single crown making 17 units in all, six veneers on the worn-out bottom teeth, more restorations and fillings, and a great deal of pain. I hope it’s worth it. At least now I have a better temporary denture for my remaining missing front tooth, but I have no teeth left on one side, and just two pairs on the other side to chew with.

          I remember once you could get it free on the NHS!

      2. The muslim superiority complex is a very real thing – I have come across it often. I suspect it’s something that muslim women show mainly to non muslim women.

        1. But you wouldn’t know, as a thing, looking like a bin-bag/letter-box can hardly show superiority.

        2. That’s because the koran teaches them that non-muslims are lower than cattle.

    1. The premise is silly. Where did the money come from in the first place? Tax payers! Government has no money of it’s own. It all comes from us.

      Thus the government couldn’t pay our energy bills without taking £2500 off us in the first place – which, with 40% of the cost being tax it already does.

      1. But most of the money will be borrowed and be repaid by our great, great grandchildren.

    2. Leilani Dowding
      I’d hedge my bets that she’ll grow to very tall lady

  20. Another DT article: this time Michael Deacon.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/columnists/2022/05/24/bizarre-story-shows-wfh-mania-now-control/

    “This bizarre story shows that WFH mania is now out of control

    Now that even the police are allowed to it, who will be next to join the ‘working from home’ craze?

    24 May 2022 • 7:00am

    When shoplifters are caught stealing food, should the police arrest them – or have a heart, and let them go? Thanks to the cost-of-living crisis, this has become a major topic of discussion. In my view, however, the whole debate is irrelevant – for a very simple reason.

    Which is that, even if you think the shoplifters should be arrested, there’ll be no one around to do it. Because the police will all be working from home.

    That, at any rate, seems to be the way things are going. As we know from the Telegraph’s extraordinary story last week, several police forces now have official “hybrid working” policies, which allow officers to investigate crimes from the comfort of their own homes. Including, apparently, murder.

    Now, I’m not opposed to WFH per se. Certain jobs – such as, to pluck an example at random, the writing of whimsical newspaper columns – can easily be done at home, because they require no specialist equipment, teamwork or face-to-face contact with other people. In certain other jobs, however, leaving the house is an essential requirement. And the public might have assumed that policing was among them.

    It seems, however, that we were wrong, and a detective’s work can be done perfectly well from home after all. Soon, no doubt, television crime dramas will be updated to reflect this revolutionary development.

    “Quick, mon cher Hastings! Let us move! We have not one moment to lose!”

    “But Poirot, where are we going?”

    “To the drawing room! Pointless is about to start, and I never miss an episode!”

    I suppose the public will get used to it eventually. But I think it would be easier to accept the police working from home if only burglars and muggers did, too.

    Then again, this isn’t just about the police. Almost every profession is in the grip of the WFH craze, now that employees have seen how much money can be saved by forgoing the daily commute. Only yesterday, the former chief inspector of hospitals called for medical consultants to be allowed to work from home, too.

    We can only guess who will demand it next. Undertakers. Rugby players. Long-distance lorry drivers. And if you want to add an extension to your house, your builder will construct it in his own front garden, and then tell you to come and collect it.

    Still, there is at least one upside. Railway unions are threatening to stage the biggest train strike in modern history this summer. But since the entire country will be working from home by then, no one will notice.

    If you’ve got it, don’t flaunt it

    In February 2021 the UK chairman of KPMG caused controversy by dismissing unconscious bias training as “complete and utter c–p”. A mere 24 hours after his comments were reported in the media, he resigned. Now, just over a year later, all 15,300 members of KPMG’s UK staff are being made to undertake unconscious bias training – or face having their bonuses slashed.

    This of course comes as no surprise. In the corporate world, unconscious bias training has become desperately fashionable. By teaching employees how to avoid being racist, sexist or transphobic, even by accident, it enables multibillion-dollar global corporations to show the world how caring and progressive they are.

    In this particular case, though, there seems to be a curious twist. According to reports, KPMG staff won’t just be taught about the evils of prejudice in the workplace. To promote inclusivity, they’ll also be taught not to chat about their skiing holidays or their children’s private schools – because doing so can “isolate” those who are unable to afford such expensive luxuries.

    Perhaps it can. But surely not at KPMG itself. After all, KPMG is one of the world’s biggest accounting firms. It provides advice on wealth management to very rich people, and helps them with their taxes. So if you’re the sort of person who gets upset when confronted by evidence of other people’s superior wealth, you wouldn’t apply to work at KPMG in the first place. It would be like Morrissey applying to work at McDonald’s.

    Still, if some staff do get upset in this way, it isn’t just their colleagues who will have to refrain from flaunting their wealth. Their clients will, too. Perhaps, to avoid making their accountants feel isolated, the rich should pretend to earn far less money than they actually do. Film stars, for example, should pretend that their latest Hollywood blockbuster only paid them minimum wage, and Premier League footballers should pretend that Manchester City pay them in free HobNobs.

    That way, their accountants won’t feel upset, and the rich will get to pay less tax. Everyone wins.”

    1. This DT piece is just wrong-headed.
      ERPT (Emerrgency Response Patrol Team) and SNT (Safer Neighbourhoods Team) officers are not working from home. The only people permitted to do so are those on investigation or other duties with the home computer connection which would allow them to continue doing at home what they can do at the office. – and this is on a rota system whereby they must come in to work to deal with prisoners and on the understanding that all can be brought in to work without notice.
      Everyone is on a secure link to their supervisors, their workload and presence at their computer can be check at any time, etc.

      And being at the office is no guarantee of productivity anyway.
      But again – patrol teams are not at home.

    2. This DT piece is just wrong-headed.
      ERPT (Emerrgency Response Patrol Team) and SNT (Safer Neighbourhoods Team) officers are not working from home. The only people permitted to do so are those on investigation or other duties with the home computer connection which would allow them to continue doing at home what they can do at the office. – and this is on a rota system whereby they must come in to work to deal with prisoners and on the understanding that all can be brought in to work without notice.
      Everyone is on a secure link to their supervisors, their workload and presence at their computer can be check at any time, etc.

      And being at the office is no guarantee of productivity anyway.
      But again – patrol teams are not at home.

    3. “I think it would be easier to accept the police working from home if only burglars … did, too.“.
      They do. Just not their own.

    5. How did he get from shoplifting to WFH?

      In America land apparently shops are racist, so blacks steal whatever they want. There’s no incentive for them to earn more money and work for a living and be productive members of society.

      1. The supermarket delivery vans. The doors are left open when they trundle the baskets up to the house. An invitation to WFH shoplifters.

  21. On this day 24th May

    1844 Samuel Morse taps out “What hath God wrought” in the world’s first telegraph message

    1941 German battleship Bismarck sinks the British battle cruiser HMS Hood; 1,416 die, 3 survive.

    1. 352790+ up ticks,

      Morning TB.
      If at every voting opportunity
      going forward the electorate brought to mind what those lads died for surely that would be some sought of reward for their sacrifice.

      1. The blob are busy trampling on the memory and freedoms so hard earned by their sacrifices.

        The fascist Left never change.

          1. “Limp wristed, head-in-the-clouds, arty-farty poofters.”
            Sir Les Patterson P-A-T-T-E-R-S-O-N

          6. I’m a proudly effete coward. Escaped from rugby as soon as I was able, never got the hang of hitting the silly, hard and vicious little cricket ball with a bat not much wider than the ball and gardening to me is about growing flowering shrubs and plants and not bloody vegetables that you can get in supermarkets. Though I confess I used to grow tomatoes, strawberries and asparagus until a few years ago, but then, they’re effete vegetables and fruits.

    3. Morse actually tapped out: ·– ···· ·- – / ···· ·- – ···· / –· — -·· / ·– ·-· — ··- –· ···· –

    2. What was the first bit that you responded to? I don’t understand twitters daft threading approach.

  25. Putin’s attempt to encircle Ukrainian forces in Donbas hits ‘strong resistance’. 24 may 2022.

    Vladimir Putin’s attempt to encircle Ukrainian forces in an area of the Donbas has hit “strong resistance,” British defence chiefs said on Tuesday.

    They believe that Ukraine’s highly-trained Joint Force Operation still controls this swathe of the Luhansk province in eastern Ukraine with its soldiers “well dug-in” in defensive positions.

    But Russian onslaughts using heavy artillery bombardments had led to some “localised successes” for Mr Putin’s generals.

    The Russian encircling operation still has some 25km of ground to gain to be completed, according to the British military chiefs.

    Despite the headline; in fact because of it, we know that the fighting going on here is not going Ukraine’s way!

    https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/vladimir-putin-ukraine-russia-war-latest-news-donbas-ministry-defence-update-b1001930.html

    1. Old cynic that I am. Strong resistance = surrendering in droves. Good morning!

    2. Recent maps of the Russian troops shown on UK column news recently suggested it wouldn’t be too long before a substantial section of Ukrainian forces would be encircled and cut off. The msm must be running out of euphemisms for ‘surrender’.

    3. Because Africans regard Chimp and monkey meat as a delicacy ..

      Chimpanzee meat is being served as a delicacy at British weddings and sold as ‘bush meat’ on market stalls, it has emerged.

      The border force is under pressure to introduce DNA testing to identify the meat at customs and has said it would be investing in new technology to tackle the rising issue.

      Leading primate scientist Dr Ben Garrod has said he was told by customs officials just weeks ago that a ton of bush meat from West Africa had been confiscated on a flight bound for the US.

      He said it was routinely smuggled into Europe and the UK – which could cause the spread of serious disease as the meat is unsanitary and chimpanzees are very genetically similar to humans.

      The University of East Anglia professor has called for DNA testing to be used on meat imports which come into the UK, and for more resources to be put into research in order to stop this trade.

      “It’s rife. It’s there – it’s in all the major cities across Europe and the US. We have seen bush meat confiscated in the UK in check points at borders and in markets,” he told The Telegraph.

      Chimpanzee experts have urged the government to take action. Dr Jane Goodall PhD, who founded primate charity the Jane Goodall institute, said: “The smuggling of bush meat is a very alarming issue. As Ben Garrod says, there is danger of disease spreading from the bush meat to humans.”

      The conservationist has as been working with primates since the 1960s and was the first person to discover chimpanzees make and use tools.

      She added: “Much of the meat is from threatened or endangered species. Interpol is becoming increasingly involved in animal trafficking and could, perhaps, be persuaded to take a more active role in the bush meat smuggling.” She added that if DNA testing is too costly “perhaps dogs could be trained to detect bush meat.”

      In 2011, chimpanzee meat was understood to have been detected during a Trading Standards raid in the West Midlands.

      A year previously, the first research on the import of bush meat into Europe found more than 270 tonnes passing through the Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris alone.

      Dr Garrod says bush meat is still being sold at markets in many British cities, and is often eaten as a delicacy at weddings and christenings.

      The meat, he said, is a prize delicacy and sells for up to five times the price of prime cuts of beef or pork.

      He explained: “From what I know, I can’t imagine why people would want to eat chimpanzee, but most bush meat that comes to the UK is seen as a luxury food. It’s the equivalent of us wanting game. It’s often brought to the country for specific celebrations like a wedding or a christening. We aren’t targeting a cultural group but it is an illegal activity.”

      Smugglers currently, he said, find duping border security officers relatively easy because the meat is smoked and blackened, making it difficult to identify unless there is a little hand, clearly belonging to a primate, attached.

      He explained that more needs to be done, as eyesight alone is not sufficient: “With advances in DNA analysis and the price of them coming down it’s not unreasonable that we could be checking for these things.”

      The professor, who has worked with primates for decades with the Jane Goodall Institute, warned that because chimpanzees are so genetically similar to humans, the “next big pandemic” could be spread through their illegally smuggled meat.

      He described it as a “ticking time bomb”, adding: “In America, primate meat has been confiscated that was infected with diseases that can be spread to humans.

      “The biggest worry for health authorities at the moment is that a disease that can be passed between humans and animals will be the next big pandemic For example, HIV originally came from primates, we are so similar so the potential is there for various pathogens and viruses to be transmitted or mutate.”

      A vendor holds a monkeys head on display with other cuts of bush meat at a market in Mbandaka
      A vendor holds a monkeys head on display with other cuts of bush meat at a market in Mbandaka CREDIT: JUNIOR D. KANNAH/AFP/Getty Images
      There is more information on the primate meat trade and his work with chimpanzees in his new book, The Chimpanzee and Me, which is out next month.

      The Border Force said it was investing in new technology to help stop the trade in illegal meat. Bush meat is meat from mammals, amphibians, reptiles and birds from tropical areas.

      It is commonly eaten as a source of protein in remote areas but as a delicacy in cities around the world.

      Hunting it is seen by wildlife organisations as a threat to biodiversity as many of the animals killed are endangered. It also carries the risk of spreading diseases such as Ebola.

      The range of animals hunted for this meat is wide, from the cane rat in Africa to chimpanzees. Others include the giant African land snail, lemurs, other primates, tropical fish and snakes.

      A Government spokesperson said: “We take the smuggling of any contraband extremely seriously.

      “As well as working with enforcement and intelligence partners in the UK and internationally, Border Force continues to invest in training and equipment to ensure that we do all we can to intercept illegal foodstuffs and crack down on smugglers.”

      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/06/08/chimpanzee-meat-eaten-uk-border-force-urged-bring-dna-testing/

      1. The joys of ‘cultural’ enrichment. The more backward savages we allow in, the more these serious problems will arise. They present so many dangers.

      2. There were sniffer dogs working when we left Kenya – not sure if they were after drugs or bush meat. Our bags were not searched.

  28. Cargoes of Russia’s flagship crude oil at sea climb to record high. 24 may 2022.

    Some 62 million barrels of Russia’s flagship Urals crude oil, a record amount, are sitting in vessels at sea, data from energy analytics firm Vortexa showed, as traders struggled to find buyers for the crude.

    The United States and other countries have banned imports of Russian crude and oil products over its invasion of Ukraine, and others have avoided acquiring cargoes out of fear of future sanctions. The European Commission is considering an embargo of Russian oil.

    Well somebody’s lying!

    https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/cargoes-russias-flagship-crude-oil-sea-climb-record-high-2022-05-24/

  29. Likely famine in Africa

    Oxfam is one of the causes of the famine disaster.

    Historically, many remote places in Africa ‘overbred’, to compensate for the high child mortality rate.

    Along comes Charity, intoduces cures for the ‘Mortality’ and children many more survive

    There is then not enough arable land or water to maintain the increased population levels.

    Result famine.

    The sensible way is to reduce the high mortality rates and introduce sex education, contraception, help on land usage, water
    availability.

    It is just like the recent Middle Eastern ‘conflicts’ the West won, if thet is the right word the wars, but lost the Peace.

    1. There is no need for famine. It is being manipulated by TPTB. Global trade was lifting too many people out of poverty, which makes them uneasy. Russia is set for a record wheat harvest this year, available for sale to anyone who wants to buy. Remember this when meat gets scarce, and they tell us it’s because there’s no wheat or barley to feed the cattle.
      The stakes in Africa are higher, of course. It has been proven again and again that the strongest factor in controlling population to a sustainable level is educated women and giving them other options than having children. Of course, the strongest factor in getting your country invaded because leaders don’t give a XXXX about borders is women having political power.

    2. 1984 Ethiopian famine. Population of Ethiopia: 33,000,000.
      Cue Geldof and his idiotic band of “helpers” with “Band Aid” and “Live Aid”, both of which swelled the pockets of that country’s leaders.
      Today, post famine and “Aid”. Population of Ethiopia: 115,000,000 and rising rapidly.
      An insane population increase of 3·5x in just 38 years.

      2. When there’s only enough work for 33,000,000 the the excess bonk themselves silly to swell the population.

      3. The reason for the famine in Ethiopia was not for lack of food but war. It was unsafe to farm. When the fighting stopped the markets were full of 100’s of types of fruit and vegetables.

      4. Tedros, Director General of the World Health Organisation, apparently tried to solve the problem. That’s why he can’t go home to Ethiopia. He’s wanted on charges of attempted genocide.

    3. Perhaps we should give them nothing and let them resolve the corruption, fraud and theeft inherent in their own systems. Why are they incapable of laying water pipes themselves? Why must we do it? Because we *do* do it. Because why bother investing the money when you can just squeal and wait for rich whitey to rock up for you?

      2. You’d have to close down the charity industry. There would be bleats of protest from all the islingtonistas who run everything.

      3. As I have said many times
        The charities are the problem, not the solution.

      4. And when rich whitey was doing these things for them I seem to recall most of them told us to go away. Time to decolonise all charities working abroad, which should result in most closing down.

    1. Good morning True Belle.
      As we all know, BLM and similar hate-filled groups have had the opposite effect to their claimed aims, and damaged race relations.
      Britain has long been acknowledged as being one of the most tolerant countries.
      On a separate note, I noticed another post further down your link. One of the lesser side effects from the Convid jabs looks remarkably like monkeypox ….
      https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/health/1556576/covid-vaccine-booster-side-effects-bullous-pemphigoid-pfizer

    2. Racists. Another group of wasters who’ll soak up yet more money making themselves victims when they’re just irrelevant. .

    4. Now posted in the right place.
      Olusoga (MBE and sneer), Lammy, Vivien Hunt. A group of the UK’s most influential black leaders have launched the Black Equity Organisation (BEO)… If that’s the calibre of the leadership, we can expect a mansion of the size of the Black Looting Mob’s pad in California to appear in some salubrious corner that was, forever England.

      A (monkey) pox on all their houses.

    5. Now posted in the right place.
      Olusoga (MBE and sneer), Lammy, Vivien Hunt. A group of the UK’s most influential black leaders have launched the Black Equity Organisation (BEO)… If that’s the calibre of the leadership, we can expect a mansion of the size of the Black Looting Mob’s pad in California to appear in some salubrious corner that was, forever England.

      A (monkey) pox on all their houses.

    2. Looked at another article there about too many people have been offered the Spring booster.
      It appears there are 5 or 6 agencies investigating this. Too many quangos in existence. No wonder here aren’t enough doctors.

  33. And with my first hole-in-one (more on that anon) I now bid farewell to playing Wordle ever again.
    Wordle 339 1/6

    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    2. Wordle 339 4/6

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

      Assuming we’re doing the same puzzle, the answer is an odd word to start with, Grizz. Do you start with the same word each time?

      1. I’ve stopped doing it now, D-cup. I would vary my start words, usually employing one that had a good number of vowels in it.

      1. No. The truth is far more sinister and, to be frank, it has pissed me off.

        I wondered if anyone had made a list of Wordle results to date, so that I would not repeat one already used. To my horror, I was directed to a site where every Wordle result, past, present and future, going all the way to October 20, 2027 when “Wordle will end” (I kid you not), is clearly displayed in a long list.

        I knew the past few answers so, to test it out, I entered the next word on the list. The result is clear to see. What is the point of continuing to play when every answer, for the next half decade, is online?

        Forget it!

        3. Assuming the trend continues, I can see a bit of one upmanship coming when I post my immaculate solution.

          3. It’s quite put me off playing any longer, since I can’t “unsee” a lot of the future answers.

        5. No point playing if you already know the answer. Where do the others get their ‘Wordle of the day’ from?

      2. No. The truth is far more sinister and, to be frank, it has pissed me off.

        I wondered if anyone had made a list of Wordle results to date, so that I would not repeat one already used. To my horror, I was directed to a site where every Wordle result, past, present and future, going all the way to October 20, 2027 when “Wordle will end” (I kid you not), is clearly displayed in a long list.

        I knew the past few answers so, to test it out, I entered the next word on the list. The result is clear to see. What is the point of continuing to play when every answer, for the next half decade, is online?

        Forget it!

    1. Luke Pollard MP, stupid boy and typical MP, refusing to face facts but pursuing rainbows and unicorns.

    2. Mr Pollard, being kind would be encouraging them to get therapy to understand their need to escape from reality. You don’t give an alcoholic a drink, nor a drug addict smack. You help them to not need them.

      Indulging fantasy is damaging to the fantasist. It’s not nice. Sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind – such as expecting people to work for a living and to bring their children up properly. That’s kindness, not giving them money stolen from other people.

      1. Ah, that’s pretty much the reply I gave on Twatter before reading your post. It will be ignored at best but Twatter allowed me to say it anyway.

      2. Tw@ted:-https://twitter.com/BeardedBob7282/status/1529066770174287872

    3. He only claimed £230,343.09 in Parliamentary expenses last year. How is he and his husband expected to survive on that?

      1. How much? Good grief. How can that sum possibly be justified? Greedy bastard. (Apols for language).

    4. This appears to be in the wrong place. I’ve deleted the main passage and moved it to below the correct post

      1. OBE – Tom – even worse, considering his virulent attacks upon the very EMPIRE his medal clebrates.

          1. But – if the half-breed had really believed in what he spouts – he would have refused – very publicly.

      2. I don’t understand how non whites have gained such a strong foothold in the UK so quickly.

        Is that a sign of very severe times to come .. and the more educated we make them , the more ingratitude they show ?

        We hould go back in history to the so called BLACK leaders of many ruined African countries when they had their first foothold at Sandhurst or elsewhere .

        Enough said .

    5. “I wasn’t able to attend the debate...” I wonder why? Too busy filling in expenses claims perhaps??

    1. Matt is so clever – right on the mark.

      i.e., be careful what you wish for.

    1. They’re ‘working’ from home. Expect a response in a few years time.

  38. Email from Amazon:

    “Hello,
    Thank you for continuing to use one of our earliest Kindle E-readers. While you can continue reading on your E-reader, as of August 17, 2022, store functionality will no longer be available. This change only affects certain E-readers introduced 10+ years ago (listed below).
    As of the 17 August you will no longer be able to browse, buy or borrow
    books directly from these Kindle E-readers. As always, you’ll be able
    to browse, buy and borrow books on other supported devices or through amazon.co.uk/ebooks.
    ”
    I tried one of the replacement ‘touchscreen’ ones. An awful device, the cheap touch screen meant that it was too easy to mess up one’s place in the book. So I sent it back and reverted to my original with REAL keys… And of course LCD ones can’t be used properly out doors and have awful battery life compared to the E-ink ones.
    Since I never use the device to buy books, it won’t actually affect me.

    1. I have a touchscreen Kindle. It took a bit of getting used to but i found it to be good. Knowing where and what the controls are is important.

      1. I have just got one and yes, takes a bit of getting used to (is putting it mildly). My last one, which was one of the earliest models, well, 10 or 11 years old, has just given up the ghost. My new one has driven me me nearly to distraction but it is getting easier.

        1. I almost threw mine at the wall. I did do that with an Iphone. Didn’t buy another one. :@(

  39. Knock me down with a feather .

    30mts ago I hung a pile of washing on the line to dry, did some weeding , and pulled out some very fast growing sweer pea climbers that overtake and choke everything .

    The sky became very dark, oh dear . so closed some velux windows .. and can you believe a sleet shower.. stair rods , and Moh is playing golf .

    3. Sleet! But not surprised, when taking Poppie for her walk this morning the wind was really chilly and so cold on my face.

      1. The wind suddenly got up when I was walking Oscar, then the sky turned black (it must have been the devil on my back) and the heavens opened. Just when we were at the farthest point of our walk, too.

        1. We got back just in time before the heavens really opened, we were dashing back under the chestnut trees to keep us sheltered. I hope you didn’t get too wet and managed to find some shelter.

          1. I got soaked, despite wearing a jacket (just not a waterproof one!). I got changed when I got in and all was well. Oscar was like a drowned rat, but he did let me towel some (but far from all) water off him before he objected. It’s progress, Jim.

      1. “This is the fifteenth time I have been neglected and mistreated in maternity”, she added, “And I only came here twelve years ago”.

        1. Been well busy, propogating the species.

          How much NI have you paid in 12 years? I’m guessing £0.00

      1. No, no, my colleagues at work obsess over it and insist that all the data shows the opposite to be true. Yes, I know. I have to be grateful they haven’t screeched waycist at me just for questioning that view. Which I did to no avail.

  42. I have never bought a pair of Nike trainers/sneakers because i am not a fashion victim.

    It appears that the leather they use comes from Kangaroos. Hunters kill Kangaroos indiscriminately leaving 400,000 Joeys (baby kangaroos) to die.

    Bastards !

    1. Kangaroos never bother to register their marriages, so unfortunately their progeny tends to be born on the wrong side of the pouch..

    3. I bought a pair of their overpriced crap over 35 years ago and they were insanely uncomfortable. Since then I have bought the only make (invariably in black) that I can wear in comfort: Reebok.

        1. Very healthy. I know your eggs are cooked correctly but if i have them like that i regurgitate the crispy bits for the rest of the day.

          1. The crispy bits are the best bits, especially when fried in proper lard, like here.

          4. When i let my full head of hair (sniggers) grow out it’s curly at the back but wavy at the front. I could’ve been a Beegee !

    1. I’m not sure Poppiesmum. What do you think it is – that the monkey pox vaccine and covid are the same thing?

      One could say ‘both are infectious viruses to be treated the same way.

      The more paranoid would say they are a means of population control.

      1. I am thinking that one of the ingredients in the vaccine is the ‘monkey pox’ virus in order to control the coronavirus. Unsurprisingly some of the ingredients have not been revealed, despite Pfizer having to unwrap the data at the behest of the US SC. It is well known now that a gmo chimpanzee adenovirus was in the AZ.

        As both Gates and his father, and Johnson and his father are interested and concerned with eugenics, it is not too far a step to claim population control (although I am not doing so in this particular context). See Boris Johnson’s article in the DT Oct 2007, I think it is still on line and Stanley Johnson’s publications on Amazon on population control (and novel ‘The Marburg Virus’). Stanley Johnson and Gates’s father also worked together in the US in the 1980s at Planned Parenthood.

    1. A neat reply – “He flew to Davos in a private jet… but I guess if you own a private jet you are entitled to privacy and the surveillance society and social credit system will apply only to the plebs?”

    2. All it needs is some form of passport that logs your travels and purchases, they could probably do most of the data gathering through a credit card already.

      Not that a government would want to do this – apart from Trudeau who had his mob track our travels and liquor store visits (to help manage the pandemic!).

      2. The state wants desperately to put decryption in the online safety bill specifically to find out what you’re buy to determine if you’ve any spare money. That bill is demented.

    3. Will it apply to him as well? After all, he flies about the world. Most folk only fly once or twice a year.

    4. In replying to this turd, I said, “…and have you tracked the carbon foorprint of all those attending Davos in their 1500 private jets, the utilisation of a branch of the Kantonpolizei to monitor their safety. And that’s just for starters – the hypocrites.”

    5. Why is it not possible for someone — anyone who has control of nuclear weapons — to test one, right now, as an airburst at Davos?
      The only good member of the World Economic Forum, is a vaporised member of the World Economic Forum.

      3. As I understand it, aside from Schwab himself, none of the big guns who fund these crimes are there this time.

    2. The really sad thing is I fully expect not only for Gervais to be arrested, but also for some useless bunch of wasters soaking up tax payers money to make a big thing and try to destroy his career.

      2. Trans activists tried that with Dave Chappelle. Netflix stood by him and the activists went into a big girlie sulk.

    3. He’s speaking for a lot of people. The shame is that it even needs to be said at all. And while we tear ourselves apart over pronouns, the rest of the world looks on in disgust and buys gold.

    1. as you probably know:

      “The same virus that causes chickenpox also causes shingles. Although shingles and chickenpox are caused by the same virus, they are not the same illness. Chickenpox is usually a milder illness that affects children. Shingles results from a reactivation of the virus long after the chickenpox illness has disappeared.”

      1. Yes, I did know, I was referring to the re-branding of shingles to suit the agenda.

    2. While we are wondering about the origins, I note from the news that that fruitcake who is health minister in Germany has put a 21 day quarantine on anyone testing positive for monkeypox. The test is presumably the PCR scam again. How will they tell the difference from chicken pox?
      Hit’em early and hit’em hard. I wonder how many people will obediently go along with this.

    1. But we do get them. There is one stationed in the English Channel which drive boats round and round picking up human detritus and dumping it on British soil. The government says it is powerless to halt it as it is an EU driven political whirlwind.

    1. Incredible that it’s been floating around West Africa quietly for years before the media got hold of it, and suddenly it’s got more facets than the Koh-i-Noor.

    2. It wouldn’t be here if the border farce hadn’t deliberately brought it here on instruction from the scum trying to flood this country with illegal gimmigrants.

      It really is time the Home office and border farce were held up on charges of endangering public health.

      1. We don’t really know anything about whether it’s here or not. All we know is that there’s been a lot of hype.

    4. If they come for Dolly they better come armed.

      Of course we know who has a problem with dogs.

      I was walking Dolly when a black man and a five or six year old boy went passed me on the path and as they approached the little boy started screaming and pointing at Dolly. I could understand if she were a Pitbull but she is a little chihuahua.

      Why would a little black boy have such a fear of animals?

      1. Prolly because stray dogs can carry rabies in Nigeria (or wherever the parents are from), so they teach the children to be scared of dogs.
        Children can be afraid of all sorts of things though.
        I am still proud of my quick thinking when a little girl who was scared of insects got very frightened because a butterfly landed on her. “It thinks you’re a flower.” I said quickly. She paused her fear.

        1. Rabies is endemic in the US. All domestic pets must have a rabies shot and wear a tag to show this. A dog wandering around that isn’t wearing a tag can be shot by animal control or the police.

    2. Oh goodness, that would set my dad off singing, “What is the meaning of Empire Day? Why do the cannons roar?”, which he remembered fondly from his school days. He’d be 115 tomorrow if he were still with us.

    3. The Canadians will be celebrating the former, I assume (it used to be a public holiday, but under True dough, who knows?).

    1. Top picture’s tail makes it look like a raptor, George. I can’t really make out the wing-tips.

      1. I can see them clearly, Tom. It’s a singing (and displaying) Skylark Alauda arvensis.

  55. BBC News ticker goes rogue: Viewers are told that ‘Manchester United are rubbish’ and ‘weather rain everywhere’ before red-faced presenter apologises and blames it on a trainee. D Fail

    The BBC have expressed deep sorrow and remorse for allowing an item that actually told the truth. “It won’t happen again” said a senior executive, “heads will roll”

  56. The radio writer in this month’s “The Critic” is on about agreeable radio voices.

    For those of you who endure the gushing totties on Radio 3 – he refers to that egregious Elizabeth Alker as sounding: “…like an adolescent on work experience.”

    That gets my vote!

    1. There are women with good radio voices – screeching seems to be a prerequisite for being selected by the BBC.

      1. As an ex-lecturer, I’ve been told that I have a voice that is easily listened to. I wonder how I might cash in on this, any ideas, anyone?

        1. Voice-overs on the internet. My son has done a few for podcasts, games etc, but that was informally through people he has got to know on fora.
          Voice acting agency?

          2. Good luck! Let us know how you get on (and remember, when you are famous, we knew you first!).

          3. That would be exciting! Better tell them you’re twenty years younger than you are!

          1. They were tried years ago and found guilty Their sentence appears still to be suspended until Miss Nadine develops firm enough balls to confront the civil service and political parties.

          2. I only sing when drowned out by VERY LOUD MACHINERY! A tractor at full chat, for example, with hydraulic transmission wailing away too.

          3. It’s funny, I can sing perfectly in tune when no-one is listening but can’t hit a note when in company.

        5. Investigate Podcasts. If you have something to say which people find useful you might get paid for it.

          1. As an ex-drum Major, Mine had to be able to be heard over a pipe band. Though most command were made via the Mace.

    2. I’m afraid her diction is so bad that at normal listening volume I only hear about half of what she says. Consequently I just turn the radio off.

  57. Just starting to catch up – workmen, ceilings, aaaargh! and it’s your birthday, Tom!

    I hope you have a happy one, with many happy returns to come.

    xxx

      1. They are finishing part 1 today, as we have run out of money.

        Part 2 starts in about 6 weeks, when our little ISAs get the money we have saved (not much) to us (and the builders have come back from a 3 week holiday). That said, the main builder is a friend as is also very knowledgeable and thorough, so I know what he does will last. It makes me want to stay here, because not many people would be able to move into a house that has been so well repaired/maintained – and it won’t be reflected in the sale price.
        (Next door, who are nice people who bought from the horrible previous couple who did everything cosmetically, are finding all their chickens coming home to roost .)

        I would love to move counties, but the fear of having to patch up someone else’s short-cuts in whatever property we might end up in, is putting me off the idea. Some things can be patched up enough to fool most surveyors – for a while, at least.

        2. That was what I found when I moved into this house. Bodges everywhere. Some could be put right, but others couldn’t and I have to live with the consequences.

      1. Happy Birthday, Tom!
        Hope it’s better than you could wish for yourself! Many more, too… 😀

    1. Of course it doesn’t worry MPs – they presumably claim for fuel on expenses as well as pretty much everything else! What did I see earlier – over £200K in a year “expenses” for one lowlife MP?

    1. I remember being bounced around by a speaker bigger than me once.

      They seem a world away.

  60. Sensible quote from Denzil Washington (who generally takes no crap from interviewers):

    “If you don’t read the newspapers, you are uninformed. If you do read the newspapers, you are misinformed.”

    I can’t argue with that logic.

    1. I now just follow NOTTL plus five financial and current affairs accounts on Twit and Reddit, and occasionally dip into the Mail for entertainment. It’s laughable how little their content has to do with what’s actually happening.
      The finance guys pick up and pass on the important stuff.

    1. Now 16.2C, gusty wind and a clear blue sky, though over the estuary, Wales looks a bit cloudy.

      1. Ghastly American left wing politician. The sort who only thrives in the end days of lunacy.

        1. If only it were the ‘end days of lunacy’. I suspect we have many more years of this inane drivel to endure yet!

    2. To me AOC always meant Air Officer Commanding.

      …and he did mean inspections of the whole camp.

    3. Jack Sprat could eat no fat.

      His wife could eat no lean.

      And so between them both, you see

      They licked the platter clean.

  64. How the world’s first all-organic farming nation has led to hunger, riots and economic ruin in Sri Lanka… The consequences have been nothing short of catastrophic, writes TOM LEONARD The consequences have been nothing short of catastrophic. Going organic — the bold, modern vision of the UK’s green lobby — has triggered the devastation of Sri Lanka’s economy, plunging much of its 22 million-strong population into desperate straits.

    The chaos that has engulfed the country — including growing poverty, long queues for essentials, lethal street battles and attacks on the homes of government leaders — is a direct result of this one decision.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-10847487/How-worlds-organic-farm-nation-led-hunger-economic-ruin-writes-TOM-LEONARD.html

    Let’s hope this is a universal wake-up call to the Greeniac lobby.

    1. And a Birdie Three for me today!
      Wordle 339 3/6

      🟩⬜⬜⬜🟨
      🟩🟨⬜🟩⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

      1. Wordle 339 3/6

        Me too…

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

          1. I did it in one today. See earlier thread, and the reason why I’m not doing it any more.

    2. A faulty 5 for me.
      Wordle 339 5/6

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

  67. Signs along the main road: “Horse Trials”.

    Presumably any horses found guilty will be taken away in a Hack Maria.

    I’ll get me currycomb.

  70. Turned out a nice afternoon. Just checking the fruit trees – the fantastic pear, which was a mass of bloom a month ago and was well into fruit – has DIED. Just like that. Very sad. It produced the most luscious fruit. It was 45 years old…..but it just looked so good a couple of weeks back.

      1. I have no idea. Th MR – plantswoman extraordinare – has no idea either. Just one of those damned things, I suppose.

    3. Oh, man. That’s sad – poor tree. Did somebody poison it – although that takes forever to kill a tree, with it slowly wilting and looking sick.

    5. Happened to my Victoria plum. Baffled. And the police took little interest.

  72. ‘Night All

    I started with a nicked comment and I’ll finish with another…….

    “This century good people have been removed, and systematically prevented from
    reaching high office. Everyone senior in every organisation (private
    and public) is the equivalent of an inner party member, none of them
    represent, nor sympathise with us. Some may fully understand the
    arguments we are making, but that is because they don’t care that we
    know what they are up to.
    Just as the Rainbow NHS flags, turned into
    the blue and yellow of Ukraine, so they will turn into the extinction
    rebellion symbol, or the BLM flag, or the re-wilding banner, or the
    vegan standard, there will always be a crisis they can use to enrich
    themselves and impoverish us.
    We must remember that ‘they’ are not
    ‘us’ even if they wrap themselves in our national flag, and use rhetoric
    about heroes, and ideas we hold dear, these are just vehicles for them
    and the rest of the inner party/deep state, and they will drop our flag,
    ideas and heroes in a flash should they cease to be useful to them.

    They think we’re complete mugs and who can argue?”
    Oof ^^^This^^^

    1. Gosh – I could think of a lot of “recent arrivals” to whom such treatment would be worth a try.

        1. Surgery tomorrow and he can’t eat after midnight. Stuffing of face this evening.

          3. And you – it is much worse for the nearest and dearest….the MR will confirm that.

  75. That’s me for today. No rain forecast for several days. I’ll have to get the hose out and crank up the pump on the well.

    Have a jolly evening

    A demain.

  76. My peach tree flowered early on in February , far too early, it now has leaf curl , no set fruit and I thin it is dying .

    I also have a Ceanothus tree , about 15 feet high and roughly 15 yeats old .. ir blossomed last month , I couldn’t smell it’s gorgeous blue honey blossom scent because of my Covid after effects, no smell or taste… anway , looking at the leaves which are dropping , I fear it is dying .

    What shall I do.

    1. The weather was probably too dry for them – hardly any rain in April. Also we had some rather sharp frosts in March.

      1. We have had two or three ceanothus(es), the frost has always seen them off. We have given up. And late frosts used to finish off our victoria plum blossom for years, there was always a late frost, so no plums.

        1. The virginia creeper “Henriana” on our north-east facing wall was partially cught by the frosts as it had started to open the buds and quite a lot were caught in frost and the very cold winds. But after some weeks, it began to recover and put out more buds, which have now opened, and it is looking fine.

          The greengage tree had lots of blossom and so did the apple tree.

    2. MB has noticed that our peach tree gets leaf curl if it rains while the leaves are developing. Apparently it’s a virus that is activated by the rain.
      He found removing the affected leaves does help to stop the problem.

    3. In February our peach tree is trying to stay alive in the chilly winter temperatures.

      It bears fruit once every two or three years.

    1. Gus and Pickles teach a youngster how to kill a lamb.

      “Bite here, suck the blood, once drained the man with the tin opener will appear and feed us, in exchange for this strange woolly creature.”

  78. Totally off topic.

    I am trying to prove to my pension provider that I am alive.

    Their website doesn’t accept their own form!!!

    1. But you are quite young yet! They usually don’t do that until one is in one’s nineties. Or are they hoping that ‘something’ has seen you off?

      1. It appears roughly every five years.

        What really pisses me off is that a brand new UK passport isn’t acceptable; their own site wouldn’t upload their own form but would take a scan of the PP.

        I’ve spoken to them, I’ve sent forms, properly completed, and every time something isn’t quite right.

        The last call I had with them the woman said all was well and my information had been accepted.
        Then a few days later…. back to square one.
        Jeezus H Christos, who do they think they’re communicating with, my ghost??

        1. We used to have people come into the JobCentre for us to confirm they were still alive to receive their Swiss pensions.

    2. I have to do it every year. The best thing about Covid is that for the last 2 years they’ve accepted a photo of me holding a national newspaper with the date visible as if I was being held hostage. Normally I have to go to a notary public.

      3. Great, something to look forward to. I expect they will be including a euthanasia form and a polite invitation to FOAD soon. 🙁

    3. I have to do that for my UK pension. A quick trip to the bank, the manager signs it and then I am good for another two years of fixed pension.

      1. I don’t know why my provider is being so damned difficult.
        Being in France seems to cause additional problems.

  79. I really loved this DT letter.

    For the birds
    SIR – I have a problem that perhaps your readers could help with. Yesterday, I was privileged to watch two sparrows clinging to a rose in my garden; a parent was feeding one of its young with aphids on the flower.

    My dilemma now is whether to save my rose from aphid invasion or to leave the aphids for the birds to feed on.

    Ann Wright
    Cambridge

      1. I netted my cherry tree last year to stop the obese wood pigeons getting any fatter. They looked ridiculous hopping along because they couldn’t get into the air. I think i will leave the cherries for the birds this year.

  80. Evening, all. I got absolutely soaked this morning when I was walking Oscar. The moment I got to the farthest point and was about to turn for home, the heavens opened! Thank goodness I was wearing my dog-walking clothes and not my racing kit as I was off to Bangor later. I learned from my earlier experience and wore my long mac.

    1. If you’d stuck to the treadmill, you’d both have been indoors even though Oscar used to complain and wrote a long letter about it.

      1. Only one problem; I don’t have a treadmill 🙂 Oscar is not enamoured of going for walks (unlike my previous dog, who, even on his last day when he was seriously ill, still had to have a gentle stroll). The other day he dug his heels in and had to be cajoled into carrying on past the end of the drive. Once he got going, he was fine – or should I write, “resigned”? I don’t think he was used to regular walks before I got him, to be honest.

  81. From The Reclaim party & Lawrence Fox:
    God help us…

    Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and Bishop of London Sarah Mullally have both described the Church of England as ‘institutionally racist’. As a result, we are demanding that they and other senior white people resign and make way for BAME clergy people.
    As far back as 2020, Mr Welby has said that he was ‘ashamed of (the Church’s) history’, calling for ‘radical and decisive’ changes to be made in order to remedy past injustices. For Mr Welby, these include the improved representation of ethnic monitories in the Church.
    Sarah Mullally has likewise been full of penitence for what she sees as the Church’s ongoing sins, recently informing a black trainee vicar that ‘as a white woman I can tell you (the trainee) that the Church is institutionally racist’.
    While the black trainee disagreed, it is clear that both the Rt Hon Welby and Dame Mullally are having to live with unimaginable guilt.
    We therefore invite them to save their souls by resigning their posts in favour of BAME Anglicans. Welby and Mullally would be showing the ultimate form of moral leadership, giving up their own careers to resolve what they attest to be a grim historical injustice.
    This would certainly be more Christian than forcing white clergy people out of their own badly paid professions and onto the streets. Instead, we demand that the next Archbishop is democratically elected from a group of BAME candidates.
    Please sign this petition if you believe that the Church of England’s senior leadership needs to become more diverse, and/or that the senior leadership needs to be rescued from such an abhorrent institution (their own).
    Thank you.
    Laurence Fox

    1. Yes, I received that email, too. The last thing we need, in my opinion, is more BAMEs wherever they appear! If I venture out of my (relatively) white enclave in the Marches, I might as well be in Africa.

    2. As her Jubilee approaches, perhaps Brenda should – as Defender of the Faith – sack the egregious, loathsome and unchristian Justin Welby …

      Appointed by David Cameron (?) Welby appears to be dedicated to the demise of the Church of England.

      1. Of course he’s dedicated to the CofE’s demise – that’s why he was appointed!

    3. It’s taken the C of E this long to find black Christians who are as woke and fake as they are themselves. No real Christians need apply!

    4. You should have heard Welby during his trip to Canada so that he could apologize to the first nations mob. He droned on for hours about his badly the church had acted. Pity, all they want is more money, compensation drives the deprived cause.

      Well over a year and not a single possible grave has been exhumed to determine who / what was buried if anything. As for a post mortem to identify cause of death or identity, just forget it.

    5. I read this passage earlier today:

      “Those that seek political hegemony by deliberately fomenting racial and ethnic animosity are among the most despicable people on earth and are little different than the despots who rampaged through the Twentieth Century.”

      God and Jesus would agree.

      1. Oi. If it comes to that, Truly, thou are damned, like an ill-roasted egg, all on one side!

    2. No problem for me. I don’t include monkey’s brains (or any other part of their bodies) in my personal diet.

      1. It’s a general attack on meat, as well as the suggestion that most people nowadays don’t eat meat. I suppose they are hoping that some gullible idiots will be frightened into giving up meat.

    1. I suspect she’s closer to eighty than you are.
      Hell’s teeth, she’s closer to 80 than I am.

    2. On my link there is a picture with the caption “This girl came from two different species can you tell?”

      Err yes.
      Tower Hamlets and Kilburn…

    4. Apparently she is now Dame Twiggy and will appear with Dame Joan Collins, Dame Esther Rantzen and several others in a “Dames vehicle” in one of the Platinum Jubilee Decade by Decade processions next week.

  84. Another totally off topic.
    I’ve been rotavating the vegetable patch and sanding a large garden table with a heavy duty electric sander.
    Vibrations that would thrill Plum or Phizzee
    I now have pins and needles in my hands that would allow me to out play Keith Richards on guitar.

    1. What’re you using to protect the wood from the rain? I’m pasting Osmo 3300 on our doors. I don’t think it’s suitable for outside wood though.

      1. I’ve used various products over the years.

        Bondex seems to be particularly good. Covers well, and judging by how hard it is to remove ten or so years down the line I think it’s good.

  85. Seems airports are still a chaos in UK:
    https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-manchester-61564710
    They blame a shortage of staff, but what happened to all those laid iff during the pandemic? Did they all get better employment as stockbrokers? And, surely if one was even a third-rate manager, one would realise that people would want to travel again, and likely more initially, as a reaction to not being allowed to – at least, manning up to match the flights scheduled. Apparently it’s all too difficult, so the result is a cockup that would shame DR Congo.

  86. Breaking News – Dianne Abbott proposes a windfall tax to be levied on Isaac Newton

  87. Goodnight, all. I’m off to nurse my aching tooth and jaw; it started on Sunday, but when I went to try and get an appointment with the dentist, the first one is a month away! I’m going to get through a lot of ibuprofen and paracetamol, I think! I have two holidays booked before the appointment, so that’s going to put a dampener on festivities for sure.

    1. That sounds awful – is it really not possible to get an appointment any sooner?

      1. There was a time when I think dentists were obliged to treat you if you were in pain. Dental hospitals were available!

      2. I have put my name down for a cancellation if one becomes available. Knowing my luck, it will be for when I’m away 🙁

  93. Am off to sleep; early start tomorrow and, fingers crossed, all goes well.

  94. This Birthday Boy is off to bed, Goodnight, God bless and thank you all for your wishes.

    2. Good night, Tom. Glad you have received good wishes from large numbers of us.

  96. I wil post again, one of the truly accurate observations on the “pandemic scam”.

    “Those that seek political hegemony by deliberately fomenting racial and ethnic animosity are among the most despicable people on earth and are little different than the despots who rampaged through the Twentieth Century

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