Tuesday 24 September: Reeves should be honest about who will foot the bill for her ‘tough decisions’

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

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

794 thoughts on “Tuesday 24 September: Reeves should be honest about who will foot the bill for her ‘tough decisions’”

  3. Good morning, chums, and Geoff (The Boss).

    Wordle 1,193 5/6

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

    1. Where's 617 Squadron and their bouncy thingy when you need them?

      All now gone and all infinitely better men than this lot.

    2. Ukraine cannot win. They can escalate the war, but if we keep forcing Russia's hand eventually Putin will do the unthinkable – because we will leave him with no other choice.

      Healey is a fool. His entire department is stupid but tehn.. the Ministry of Defence isn't interested in defence. It wants war.

    2. Now imagine if we had referism, recall and direct democracy. Her son would be sacked, Starmer removed, Raynor removed, Reeves wouldn't be able to pass any budget, no massive cash bungs for windmills.

      The entire clown show of Left wingery would stop.

  11. 393402+ up ticks,

    Foregoing to mention that the said tunnel was on the HS2 abomination.

    Dt,
    There is light at the end of this tunnel, Starmer tells Britain

  13. There's lots more to come out about Waheed Alli and his 'associates'. Their control goes back to the Blair days. 2Tier plus his pals appear to have been have been bought and sold several times over. Some DT BTL comments
    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/94b7c05a510b425b5420fddc2f55343c3ce7c06b/2101_787_2239_1344/master/2239.jpg?width=620&dpr=2&s=none
    Bean Counter
    15 min ago
    I wonder if there is any connection between Sue Gray's son being selected as a Labour MP, and Sue Gray giving Lord Alli a No 10 pass?

    Ian Perry
    7 min ago
    Reply to Bean Counter
    I do wonder – particularly when the Noble Lord apparently helped fund the campaign of the son of the said Ms Gray…

    Chesney Tee
    53 min ago
    Latest sentencing news- young girl gets 20 months for jumping on a car in the riots.
    Toerags get asked to please come down by Police when jumping all over a war memorial.

    Rosie Lee
    10 hrs ago
    So we have Lord tin pan Allie and his rent boy running the country do we?

    Pat Newman
    10 hrs ago
    When is our unelected, de facto Prime Minister, Lord Alli, going to explain himself to the media?

    dean grover
    11 hrs ago
    It's becoming clearer and clearer every day ….this is corrupt … he has bought and paid for at least 8 members of the cabinet … reeves lied …. office costs are not clothes rayner lied … a 5 night stay in a 3 mill apartment overlooking the Hudson with a partner is not 1300 quid ' he has bought and paid for our prime minister and his wife
    He sits in on policy meetings .. he has pass for downing street ….he is now selecting candidates by proxy …..and still they don't distance themselves from him ….. and why is that …. its because he knows where the bodies are buried….. its corruption to the core ' I have to give it to ali ' it's a classic operation he has compromised all of them …. he must be amazed at how thick they are … he did not do any of this for nothing

    David Lynn
    12 hrs ago
    Reply to David Smith – view message
    Never fear the BBC will uncover the truth in double quick time!!

    David James
    2 hrs ago
    Reply to Sara Flower – view message
    Muslims get soft UK police and legal system. Rape gangs not prosecuted. Marches for Hamas Terror group, chants of Genocide to Israel, attacks on police, blocking arms to Israel, imams in prison vow to ‘exterminate Christianity’,
    But Christians and anyone carrying a Union Jack arrested then given the overnight interrogation plus the long costly legal process.
    What did Alli bung Blair to be made a Lord?

    David James
    12 hrs ago
    Rotten to the core. Labour leaders are just very thick. They have minimal education, and hardly any experience of the private sector, that is the real world. In personal terms they have negligible common sense and reverse empathy.
    Labour are basically dishonest. The example is Sue Gray, a brazen liar. She faked being neutral to get the job of deciding if Civil Servants drinks at work should get Boris fired!
    Labour are worse than expected. Not much was expected. This is far far worse.
    Gifts of glasses and clothes from a Muslim lobbyist. So Muslims get easy treatment by police and justice system for extreme violence even against police, marches for a Terror group with chants of genocide, attacking police, grooming and rape gangs.
    While be a white Christian, carry a Union flag, be a Christian at Speakers Corner gets rough police treatment and being dragged through the legal system!
    The police and legal system is now unfair inequitable and damaging the U.K.

    Here WeGo
    11 hrs ago
    Reply to David James
    What has happened to the guys who attacked police at Manchester airport ?

    1. The BBC one is especially poignant. Of course they won't do anything. In fact, expect the Left wing press to promote many many stories about how the Tories did things and how virtuous this bunch fo crooks are.

  15. There is light at the end of this tunnel, Starmer tells Britain. 24 September 2024.

    Sir Keir Starmer will insist on Tuesday that there is “light at the end of this tunnel” in an attempt to convince the country and his party to put up with “short-term” financial pain.

    In his first speech to the Labour conference since becoming Prime Minister, Sir Keir will warn he cannot lower taxes until he fills the spending “black hole” left by the Conservatives.

    Striking a more positive note, he will look beyond a tough Budget next month and argue that Labour can bring back “joy” in people’s lives over the next five years.

    Yes. It’s an oncoming train loaded with half-baked economic theories and socialist cant.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/09/23/light-at-end-of-this-tunnel-starmer-tells-britain/

    1. Yes. It’s an oncoming train loaded with half-baked economic theories and socialist cant and millions of freeloading migrants.

  17. Good morning all.
    Not raining but still very damp and a dull grey overcast with a cool 8°C.

  18. Hospitals in Multicultural London Pushing Non-English Speaker Patients to Front of Line: Report

    Hospitals in London are prioritising patients who don’t speak English for care while sending native or fluent speakers to the back of the queue, a report has found.

    According to the Mail on Sunday, the Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, which has five hospitals in north-west London under its remit, has begun to push patients who require a language translator to the front of the line.

    The policy is supposedly intended to cut costs for interpreters by reducing the number of hours worked. However, this results in English speakers being deliberately passed over.

    The policy even reportedly applies in clinics that have a ticketing system for determining the order of patients seen.

    One patient told the MoS: “It’s a clinic, so you go in expecting to wait a while, but when someone behind me in the queue was let into see the doctor before me I asked the receptionist why and was told that the people with interpreters are prioritised because they can’t wait for more than an hour.”

    London, which has become a minority English city, has the largest proportion of migrants of any region of the UK, with more than 40 per cent of its residents being foreigners.

    https://twitter.com/BreitbartLondon/status/1514302404673429504?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1514302404673429504%7Ctwgr%5Ee1bdce5d0795494ca04682a72b280e5571f4e8bf%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.breitbart.com%2Ft%2Fassets%2Fhtml%2Ftweet-4.html1514302404673429504

    It is currently unclear if the policy of the Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust is being adopted by hospitals in other areas of the country.

    However, the decision to prioritise non-English speakers by a branch of the state-run healthcare system was criticised by former immigration minister and Tory leadership candidate Robert Jenrick.

    “Brits are already waiting too long for treatment. The last thing they should be subjected to is the indignity of being pushed to the back of the queue,” Jenrick said.

    “This is yet more evidence of the pressure mass migration places on our public services and the difficulties integrating such unprecedented numbers… Non-English speakers shouldn’t be given a queue pass.”

    Responding to the report, a spokesman for the Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust said: “We are committed to responding to the specific needs raised by any of our patients – and every patient has the right to a professional interpreter.”

    2. I remember a Lithuanian woman taking her friend in to hospital as I was also in A&E. She couldn't speak a word of English.

      I rather thought… go home. If you can't speak the language, you can't do anything. You can't contribute. Why do we suffer such characters? Why do we bother with them?

      1. To be fair the English abroad are very bad at speaking foreign languages. Several long-term Bristish residents in Brittany, where we live, still can hardly speak French at all.

        I am not a linguist but I speak French (but with a very strong accent) because we live in France. I retain some of my schoolboy Latin which I studied up to "O" level and this helps me get the gist of some Mediterranean languages.

        Caroline is a brilliant linguist who spent several years at university studying languages. She is able to speak English, French Spanish and Dutch completely fluently without a trace of a foreign accent. Indeed many of our friends in England are not aware that she is not English just as many of our friends in France think she is French. As we sailed around the Med she soon acquired a useable amount of German, Italian and Portuguese and even Turkish but she had difficulty with Greek.

        1. "To be fair the English abroad are very bad at speaking foreign languages. Several long-term Bristish residents in Brittany, where we live, still can hardly speak French at all."

          There aren't five million of them in France.

    3. Why should people who can't speak English be entitled to an interpreter at the taxpayers' expense? Surely they should provide their own interpreter and pay for him or her themselves?

      I do not expect my doctor in France to speak to me in English and, to be frank, although my French is not bad I prefer to take Caroline with me on important medical appointments where absolute clarity might be vital.

      We have an old Irish friend of 89 who is losing his mind along with his ability to communicate in French. Caroline always accompanies him not only to the doctor but also to tax offices, social services and other places where communication is conducted in French.

      But in multi-tiered Britain those who can speak English are put at the back of the queue.

    4. "and every patient has the right to a professional interpreter.”

      In which case every English speaking patient should demand one. The doctor is probably a foreigner anyway.

    5. I hate this business of interpreters paid for by the taxpayer. Interpreters and translators don't come cheap. If the patients don't speak English, they should pay for their own. It isn't as though English isn't a world language.

    1. Rain'll do that. I'd quite like to kill the weeds in my front stony bit. They've been laid over a thin sheet of tarp rather than dug down a good foot. I don't know what the best approach is – keep killing the weeds or dig up a foot of soil across the entire 6m x 4m thing, put wire mesh in to stabilise it and then put stone down.

      Being honest, I am leaning toward killing the weeds as we're not going to be here that long.

  20. Today's Tales
    In their daily English class, the teacher asked her young pupils for an example of the word ‘contagious’. Little Adrian’s hand shot up to respond.
    “Last weekend, a big truck full of pumpkins nearly ran my Dad’s car off the road. When it went round the next bend, all the pumpkins fell off, and Dad said it’d take that contagious to pick them all up again.”

    What’s the difference between a University and a Technical College?
    At University they teach you to wash your hands thoroughly after going to the toilet. At Technical College they teach you not to piss on your fingers.

      1. Funny, there were two up-votes just now. Now there is only one. What happened?
        At present I am just testing the water. My Rude and Politically Incorrect Jokes book has 276 pages, with jokes and stories arranged under 150 categories. Many are quite cerebral (I did appear on BBC Brain of Britain in 2000).
        I will be testing the water to see how low I can stoop before I must stop. Please use downvotes to indicate disapproval.

        1. I don't believe in down votes. Far better to engage with the audience and discuss differences.

          If folk click an up vote twice it'll remove their original.

          1. Thanks Wibbles. Didn't know that.
            There are hundreds of clean but still funny jokes in the book. Probably better stick with those.

          2. From Coffee House, the Spectator

            The quest for diversity could finish off University Challenge
            Patrick West24 September 2024, 5:00am
            Universities today are well-known as places where progressive, hyper-liberal politics predominate. It’s only logical, therefore, that the cry for equality and diversity should now extend to the television programme University Challenge.

            Despite the current series witnessing the second-largest proportion of female competitors in the programme’s history – with 34 female contestants representing a 31 per cent of its total – and the gradual disappearance of all-male teams, this is not sufficient progress for some campaigners.

            But what if television, or the make-up of the workplace, actually does reflect nature, not nurture?
            Liz Tucker, former chair of Women in Film and Television, said a 31 per cent representation was still not good enough, bearing in mind that almost 57 per cent of undergraduate students are women. ‘I’ve watched episodes in recent years when there have been no women,’ she told the Times. ‘You wouldn’t expect to see such a discrepancy in other environments, so what does it say? It suggests that women are less able.’

            On the contrary, we fully expect to see discrepancies between the sexes in many arenas everyday life. No one is taken aback by the over-representation of women as teachers in primary schools, as midwives, therapists or librarians. Men and women tend to have different interests and gravitate towards different lines of work. We see this in gestation in universities themselves, especially the sciences, with women more likely to opt for biology and men for physics.

            Progressives will always retort that such a state of affairs reflects nurture and societal bias, rather than inherent difference between the sexes. That’s why they place such importance on TV shows in ‘challenging stereotypes’, in being agents of change. As Tucker adds: ‘We know that television is very important in presenting role models.’

            But what if television, or the make-up of the workplace, actually does reflect nature, not nurture? Some feminists, once so vociferous in their belief that women are ‘created not born’, now agree with conservatives that biology is important and determines one’s place in society. And even left-liberals, with their morbid obsession with ‘toxic masculinity’, tacitly concede that men are fundamentally different from women, that men are more prone to aggression, nastiness and unstable extremes.

            It’s this very innate male character that surely lies behind the discrepancy evident on University Challenge, among quizzers and indeed many entertainment shows left to their own devices. Quizzes appeal to the male psyche, to the nerdy desire to collect information (men are more prone to autism and given to trainspotting), and to deploy it in a competitive environment. While women seek consensus, men desire competition – and to outwit the next man.

            To say that men and women are different is not to assert a universal iron rule. It’s only a rule of thumb, like saying ‘men are taller than women’. There will always been combative, geeky female brainboxes who will triumph on TV game shows. But let nature take its course. To tinker with University Challenge for social ends would be to compromise it.

            Indeed, the drive for diversity played a significant role in the downfall of Mock The Week (hastened, it must be admitted, by its tedious fixation with Brexit). The format of that show was even more suited to the man mindset. Not only was it based on humour and mickey-taking, and thus implicitly on one-up-manship and cruelty, but on a form of ruthless humour steeped in banter, put-downs and comebacks: stand-up comedy.

            That’s what made it such a success in its early days, epitomised by the outrageously offensive Frankie Boyle, not a comedian back then ever to seek bland consensus. But since the BBC banned all-male panels on shows in 2014, and as the woke revolution began to take hold in the years that ensued, Mock The Week became consumed by identity politics The hyper-tokenism we see most conspicuously in the theatre and on television adverts today became the norm, as white males began to disappear in favour of guests more amenable to the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion imperative.

            This DEI mandate lives on most conspicuously today with every episode of Richard Osman’s House of Games, which, as a rule, will have of its four guests two men, two woman and one ethnic minority. University Challenge itself has followed a trend witnessed elsewhere on the BBC, in Question Time and Mastermind, of replacing a white, male presenter with someone who is not.

            The BBC once boasted that it was there to inform, educate and entertain. It has been a long lament that it has failed to do the first two, at the expense of the third. But now it’s foundering on all fronts. Its entertainment shows today seem more preoccupied with fulfilling a social duty than wanting to entertain.

          4. University Challenge has outlived its era.
            I love quizzes and I used to watch every episode (except for about 10 years when I didn’t have a TV). For the past few years I’ve lost almost all interest in UC. This is mainly because too many of the questions no longer seem to be ‘general knowledge’. Lots of them are very specialist and only answerable by people who are doing a degree in that subject. Meanwhile many of the contestants seem unable to apply some quite basic lateral thinking when working out whether their answer to a real general knowledge question is plausible.

        2. Better that any disapproval be stated and why.
          One man's humour is often another man's offence, people should explain what is wrong.

          Go for it!

        3. I only used one downvote since joining NoTTL. I'll find some other way of letting you know, Brian.

          1. Herr Oberst, anybody can contribute if they find something funny (to them). Unlike New Zealand (where according to horse-face, only the Govt holds and can distribute the truth), Geoff Graham and the mods are either very forgiving or like slightly off-colour jokes.

  21. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/09/22/john-major-is-right-farage-and-reform-betrayed-brexit/

    I don't remember Reform really existing in 2016. I remember Farage being part of the campaign, but I also know – from Tim Shipman's books – that he was sidelined by Cummings.

    I do remember a group of squabbling, spoled, arrogant MPs who fought, bickered and argued to overturn it. Who tried, vehemently to demand a second vote. Who used the courts to promote those who wanted to overturn it.

    I remember a bunch of vermin who created their own party – without electoral consent – and visited Brussels to brief against the government. I remember MPs forbidding a no deal withdrawal.

    I remember the Lords fighting to stay in as many of them got kick backs and back handers.

    I remember the civil service refusing to give serving ministers information from the EU to hamstring them.

    I remember a petty, pathetic, anti democratic bunch of utter effluent doing everything they could to overturn the biggest democratic vote going.

    Most of all I remember holding them all in abject contempt, of being utterly disgusted at their antics, viciousness, arrogance and desperation.

    Most of all I remember mourning democracy. I remember thinking that this, the mother of parliament's was nothing but an anti democratic, desperate, authoritarian snake pit of wasters. It gave free rein to the hard Left, endorsed the whinging remoaners – still bleating now, despite effectively winning, the country hasn't made a thing from Brexit because of political and administrative malice.

    I hate them all. The whole lot should be put in front of a firing squad as a reminder of who their master is.

  22. Ribeiro-Addy: Labour Frontbench Is ‘Interested’ in Tight Press Regulation to ‘Make Starmer’s Job Easier’

    Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy is spending her Conference putting together a manifesto for censorial press regulation to help the Labour Party. The longtime socialist MP made clear at a panel this afternoon that press control would help Keir now that he’s enjoying a touch of press scrutiny:

    “It’s in the Labour Party’s interest and in the Labour movement’s long-term interest to regulate the media properly instead of making short-term pacts and truces, and if it’s done right media reform could actually make Keir Starmer’s job a lot easier, and effective media reforms would make effective government much easier.“

    Ribeiro-Addy says the crucial “soft-signal” of top-level interest in press regulation was the Labour frontbench’s support for the so-far unenforced Section 40 of the Crime and Courts Act 2013. That provision, known as the “press killer,” would force publishers to pay legal costs in defamation and privacy cases for both sides. The Tories killed it before leaving government this year – speculation abounds that it could return in some form under supportive Labour…

    The MP’s other bright panel proposals include:

    Imposing state regulation on newspapers to ensure they aren’t “marking their own homework.“
    “Safeguard the independence of the BBC by removing the threat of charter renewal.” So the state broadcaster avoids any and all unaccountability on a permanent basis…
    Impose Leveson 2. With measures that go even further than Section 40…
    Subsidise “independent journalism” with a tax on “evil tech giants.“
    Another tax on “the wealthy owners of these companies so they can’t throw their weight around and torpedo effective progressive policy measures.“
    Bell stops short of suggesting the foundation of a state-run newspaper. Doubtless her proposals’ happy destruction of the free press would necessitate one…

    1. Of course it is. If you can control what people can say, do and think then you can do whatever you like.

      Starmer's job should NOT be easy. He should have to defend his insanity every single day. Fact is, it IS indefensible. That's why he wants to silence people.

    4. But I suspect that a very significant percentage of Labour MPs are totalitarian Left wing communists at heart who despise free speech and criticism of socialism.

      1. By mindset the Left are fanatic despots. It's why they're Lefties. So convinced are they of their own righteousness that the end always justifies the means.

      2. I would delete the last two words – what Starmer and Reeves actually implied was that CHANGE Uk despises free speech and will not tolerate any criticism.

        That fellow bundled out of the hall by two heavies was objecting to us selling arms to an extreme right wing regime in order to harry civilians in neighbouring states. There was nothing socialist about what he was objecting to.

      3. They want to do to the whole country what was done to the heckler at the Party Conference yesterday – silence them.

  23. What Zelensky really wants from his ‘plan for victory. 24 September 2024.

    Volodymyr Zelensky has reached a fork in the road.

    With Ukraine slowly losing territory and the support of its allies, does its president continue on the same path and hope things turn around?

    Or does he try to corral Western backers into signing up to a scheme that could end the war?

    Mr Zelensky has chosen the latter, opting to head to the US with what he has described as a “victory plan”.

    It’s not really a “Victory Plan” in fact there is nothing new in it. Ukraine and Zelensky have reached the end of the road and this is a last desperate effort to prevent going over the cliff.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/09/23/what-zelensky-really-wants-from-his-plan-for-victory/#comment

    1. The great hope is Trump gets elected and Zelensky finds his money and arms running out and peace sued for by Trump, with US military might behind him.

      That'd scupper the EU, who want to bring the thoroughly corrupt Ukraine into the EU fold. That would give the EU power to force it's military ambitions – for defence only, of course.

    2. The war should never have started in the first place. I blame the senility and stupidity of Biden, the bombastic hubris of Johnson and the megalomaniac avarice of Zelensky.

      Too many UK politicians and DT journalists and the rest of the MSM are happy to imply that those British people who do not support Zelensky are being unpatriotic. Nothing could be further from the truth.

    3. Sooner they move to jaw-jaw from war-war, then everybody can stop and get a sense of perspective.
      Spoke to crazed teacher friend last week, she (being of a leftie construction) believes that if Russia is not defeated, Putin's men won't stop until they are sunbathing on the Atlantic coast – and that will be about 24 hours from now. The reality, that Russia can barely hold it's own, doesn't penetrate the fearmongering BBC, so she's terrified.
      At least, they might stop the endless flow of wogs crossing the channel in blow-up boats.

    4. He has to choose whether to retire to one of the mansions he has embezzled from his people and where the CIA will arrange his death or go to Russia where he'll rot in prison.
      Fork in the road?
      How about fork in the dead end.
      Soon to be a very dead end.

  24. What Zelensky really wants from his ‘plan for victory. 24 September 2024.

    Volodymyr Zelensky has reached a fork in the road.

    With Ukraine slowly losing territory and the support of its allies, does its president continue on the same path and hope things turn around?

    Or does he try to corral Western backers into signing up to a scheme that could end the war?

    Mr Zelensky has chosen the latter, opting to head to the US with what he has described as a “victory plan”.

    It’s not really a “Victory Plan” in fact there is nothing new in it. Ukraine and Zelensky have reached the end of the road and this is a last desperate effort to prevent going over the cliff.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/09/23/what-zelensky-really-wants-from-his-plan-for-victory/#comment

  25. Another terrible stabbing. A young 15 year old lad. What interested me though was the repeated use of the word “Christian” when we have it bashed into is that people have “given” names (so we don’t offend the diversity). So i am wondering what the subliminal (or not-so-subliminal) messaging is.

    “A TEENAGER who was stabbed to death in London said “I’m 15, don’t let me die” as he lay bleeding on the street, a witness has revealed.
    Scotland Yard has launched a murder investigation after the boy – whose Christian name was given as Daejaun – was found with a stab injury in Woolwich on Sunday evening.
    He died shortly after officers arrived at the scene, the Metropolitan Police said.
    A family member gave the victim’s Christian name as Daejaun.…”

      1. It really upsets me. My own lad isn’t much older, really. It keeps happening and yet it’s people jumping in cars who are in prison.

        Having said that – the article in today’s Terriblegraph on the state of prison is incredible. What will the “rioters” make of it? I do hope when they get out they tell their stories so we can all judge this terrible government in the run-up to the next election

    2. Zombie knife attack on innocent polite boy, 6pm Sunday..
      sounds to me like a nearby Post Code gang welcoming a new member with the obligatory "ritual of initiation" of stabbing a random stranger.

      Who cares? Not the Progressives, for sure. Sadsack Khan.. nah. It's just part of the black Jamaican tradition.

  26. New on Free Speech is a very good article by Xandra H, a psychiatrist, on the problems of raising children today, many of which are the result of State interference. We also have a humorous outburst of grumpiness from the Grumpy Old Man himself, Graham Bedford. Please visit, read and comment.

    freespeechbacklash.com

  27. Morning, all Y'all.
    Biblically torrential rain this morning. With low cloud (so low, it's beating on the windows…) and a burning desire to go back to bed.

      2. Indeed. It is rather wetter than it used to be, though. The long, dry summers we used to get are notable by their absence this last few years.

          1. Google force a 'climate change is caused by fossil fuels' banner on every discussion about it. I complained and said 'actually no, scientists understand that it is caused by the Sun.'

            They're lying to suit their own agenda as well.

  28. Good Moaning if you are depressed duck.
    The Labour Party conference has now past being funny. Well done, the 20% of electoral numpties.
    And a kick in the shins to the CINOs who brought us to this sorry pass.

    1. Shins, knee caps and goolies. Sad truth is, the Tories would be doing the exact same things. They had a chance to unravel all the mess. To look at the country completely differently, to scale back the state. Instead, the ploughed on with the same failed Left wing idiocy.

      1. John McDonnell is a genuine socialist who would have been a much better Chancellor: if we are to have socialism, then at least we'd get some benefit from it, rather than handing it over to corrupt grifters in the corporate sector, mostly career women, purveyors of SUVs, bonus executives, property developers and HS2. McDonnell would have kept the public libraries open and the dinghy criminals out. So they threw him out of the party for opposing the means-testing of pensioners' heating allowance.

        He said this morning that there was no difference whatsoever between the speech made yesterday by Rachel Reeves, and that made by George Osborne in 2010. And they are supposed to be in opposite parties?

        1. McDonnell is a vicious, nasty, loud-mouthed thug. No good would ever have come from him holding a Cabinet position.

          2. You do Tebbit a disservice but perhaps you see him as portrayed by Spitting Image (that programme was satire, by the way).

            McDonnell is not a cartoon character. He really is a thug.

          4. I actually think both are, and that England, if it is to be a free democracy, must be able to accommodate two men whose views are quite distinct and different.

        2. Therer is no benefit to socialism. None whatsoever.

          There's nothing wrong with an SUV. It's a response to market demand. Executives earn those bonuses through either success or shareholder permission. HS2 is a state failure, as all failures are.

          McDonnell would have done nothing of any use. As you say, he is a socialist. His default would have been massive state waste, debt and high taxes. This is, bluntly, wrong. Taxes should be radically cut, waste reduced, state spending put through a blender and I'd suggest halved.

          1. SUVs are bloated wasteful road hogs, and their primary purpose is to gloat. Not an attractive virtue. For as long as SUVs dominate the car market, I take Starmer’s sham socialism for what it is – precisely the same offering as that coming from George Osborne and his Bullingdon Tories.

            “Shareholder permission” is a sham and you know it. Directors get away with huge payouts because share options are part of the package whereby they know they can always outvote the independents. Furthermore, these practices spill out into the public sector until they are all at it, and nothing can get done for a decent price. As for success – bankrupting a small business when it is vulnerable, and then stripping the assets is not the sort of “success” I have any respect for, and certainly should not be encouraged by Government in order to spin the figures conveniently.

            HS2 was the result of corruption, an unhealthy relationship between corporate lobbyists and their beneficiaries in Government and our national institutions. Rotten to the core, and unlike you I do not believe for one moment that corruption is limited to socialists.

            I agree with you entirely about reducing waste, but then so would true uncorrupted socialists, who believe that there are better ways to spend money. Debt is the logical consequence of dropping taxes whilst maintaining aspiration among the lobbying classes. Now, either we lower our demands on the state , raise taxes or pile it onto the credit card. In fourteen years of Conservative rule, nine of which without Lib Dem interference, I did not see much lowering of demand on the state. If the Tories couldn’t do it, how could anyone else?

            So we come to taxes, and I ask which taxes. Here is where I condemn the Labour election campaign, and indeed every successful election campaign since 1992. The heavy lifting must be done by Income Tax. It is transparent, simple to administer through PAYE, makes everyone a contributor but is also progressive. Most of all, it is honest and does not then pile the burden of revenue on stealth taxation, so beloved by the likes of Gordon Brown and George Osborne. I loathe the over-reliance on these, since they hit you without knowing why life has become so much harder. They spin well, but they are grossly deceitful.

    2. Dull and overcast here, but it's NOT raining!
      So will be off to play with my chainsaw in a little while.

    4. Jesus wept. I cannot recall a more boring speech just a string of platitudes coupled with banalities and no substance whatever.

      The front bench “women” are particularly expensively dressed this year. They all appear to have professional hairstyling too. All that is now needed are voice coaches for elocution to remove the common slapper component.

  29. With this boiler tax what folk forget is, like all taxes, Miliband will keep hiking it. It won't just be a one off increase. He will keep forcing it up every single year until it's thousands. Then, when you're paying the same for a new boiler as compared to a heat pump – regardless of the efficacy – you're stuffed.

    Can they heat a house? Yes, probably. Are they efficient? No, because they don't suit how people want to live. The efficiency angle is pushed because they're expensive to run. That's why they push the efficiency lark, all the cops and scops and what not. It is intended to disguise the running cost.

    1. An electric fan heater aimed at the toes while watching TV is rated at 800W and keeps a pensioner warm, whereas a highly efficient heat pump warms the whole house a few degrees, the pensioner shivers, and is rated at 2kW.

      1. We were in that situation last year. We lived in practically one room, under blankets. Heck, the Warqueen moved out.

        We have it set – by the engineer – to 19'c for about 8 hours of the day. I don't know if that'll be sufficient but I would rather heat the whole house than only the one room as it's a house – it's supposed to be lived in, not just limited to one room.

        However, the fundamental problem remains: running cost. Heating is like eating – you should be able to do it when you want to, not when the state permits.

        1. Maybe the whole eating problem could be solved by a smartfeed – an intravenous drip governed online through a smart link providing all the nutrients you need in a controlled environment and AI algorithms, which can assess your needs far more accurately than you ever could.

          Anyone failing to upgrade will be jeopardising their security, and outdated food will become unavailable as soon as it is sunsetted.

          1. It is Wendolene. She is the owner of Preston the cyber dog who bears an uncanny resemblance to John Prescott.

          2. Wow. It is quite incredible how our politicians resemble cartoon characters especially the current Labour front bench.

            One obvious likeness is Yvette Cooper Balls who matches the combative Chucky to a tee. So angry all the time and with a head about to explode at any minute.

            I will post an image if I can find a suitable one.

  30. OT – a few weeks ago, there was, on BBC4 TV, an evening devoted to the career of Patricia Routledge. They showed a couple of "Talking Heads", an episode from the consistently unfunny Mrs Bucket thingy, an instalment of a detective series in which Miss Routledge played a very improbable, er, detective in her 60s…and an interview with the lady herself.

    Now I know she is a national treasure and all that, but when all this stuff was projected in one evening, it made me aware that she simply plays the same character – dumpy, oddly clothed, "crafted hairdo" and a northern accent – who is exactly the same as the lady herself in her interview…!

    I'll go and have a lie down.

  31. I remember thinking that Mrs Bucket could very easily have been my own mother, and her long suffering husband Jerry my Dad. It was the same dichtomy – a spoiled, indulged, incredibly middle class woman desperately putting others beneath her.

    The line: 'I've the only fully tiled library in Surbiton' springs to mind except my mother hated books and refused to let my Dad have any of his out.

  32. Good morning all,

    Dull but dry at McPhee Towers, wind North-West, 12℃ rising to 15℃ later.

    Well, I'm glad he did it so I don't have to. Just the practical downside to EVs, never mind the environmental lies, battery explosions and dangerous battery failures. I wonder what would have happened if he hadn't found a charge point when his battery dropped to 5%?

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0948c7b8f6680f28a10e2eeb2488bec6fb35ede683f5ef5bc078d6dcdc5e2a49.png
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cars/hybrid-electric-cars/electric-car-mileage-challenge/

    And still the moronic politicians insist on an ICE car ban. This will crumble.

    1. Yet there is never any price paid by those forcing this idiot policy, is there?

      Harry Metcalfe, of Harry's garage summed it up well (as have others). If you've a driveway to charge one at home, don't go very far – to the shops and back – they're great. If you don't, they're a problem, with range, drain, depreciation and so on.

      Personally I'm not against an electric car. The idea of no gears, of that lazy driving style all appeals. But working it out – getting a id3, the one I liked and putting the usual coterie of the morning in it of three dogs, 3 humans would give us a paltry range and there's no charging at the office and, sometimes I'm out as soon as I get in to go on site. We've a petrol C60 for all of us and a little fiesta – which just about accommodates the three dogs (and if you ever see three Newfounds hanging out of car windows in Hampshire… it's me) but they add nigh 200kg to the weight.

    2. On my recent visit to the UK I hired an automatic, medium-sized, petrol car from Avis. When I picked it up I discovered it was a 'Hybrid' version. Driving it wasn't a problem since I only filled it up with petrol and the electric part was charged as I drove it. It wasn't much different from driving a purely petrol-engined car.

      I would have refused, though, if they had offered me an EV.

      1. I can understand the logic behind hybrid cars.
        Souped up alternators in town, normal cars on long journeys.

        1. It was rather weird driving slowly. When I arrived at one of my friends’ homes she was in the garden and my appearance startled her. She didn’t hear the car approaching.

      2. Might be of interest, but when you reach the age of 75 it is difficult to hire a van, at least within the UK.

  33. Good morning all,

    Dull but dry at McPhee Towers, wind North-West, 12℃ rising to 15℃ later.

    Well, I'm glad he did it so I don't have to. Just the practical downside to EVs, never mind the environmental lies, battery explosions and dangerous battery failures. I wonder what would have happened if he hadn't found a charge point when his battery dropped to 5%?

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0948c7b8f6680f28a10e2eeb2488bec6fb35ede683f5ef5bc078d6dcdc5e2a49.png
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cars/hybrid-electric-cars/electric-car-mileage-challenge/

    And still the moronic politicians insist on an ICE car ban. This will crumble.

  34. Good morning all ..

    What goes around comes around .

    Taj Mahal is crumbling due to anti-Muslim neglect, say critics
    Cracked marble and a leaking dome prompt fears that the regional leader of the northern Indian state, a Hindu nationalist, is deliberately letting the Mughal monument rot!

    Cracks in the white marble façade of the Taj Mahal have prompted claims that a key ally of India’s Hindu nationalist prime minister is allowing the jewel of Muslim art to fall into disrepair.

    Built in the 17th century under the instruction of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his favourite wife, Mumtaz, there has been a decades-long battle to preserve the white façade of the monument, which has long been a source of political point-scoring.

    Now, however, a series of photos highlighted on social media have fuelled concerns that the Taj Mahal, which is visited by about eight million people a year, is crumbling. These include a leaking dome, cracks in the walls and a tree sprouting from a pillar.

    Recent torrential rains in Agra resulted in the dome leaking, with the water reaching the lower chamber, which houses the tombs of Jahan and his wife, according to a local tourist guide.

    A visitor noticed leaves of a peepul tree, a variety of fig considered sacred by Hindus, emerging from a pillar, sharing photos on social media. Visitors also posted photos showing cracks in the marble, clearly visible and in different places on the walls and floor, along with a broken lattice screen.

    Although responsibility for the monument lies with the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), a national body, some local residents believe that Adityanath is indifferent to its decline because it is a Muslim monument. “You think he can’t tell the Archaeological Survey of India to go slow?” a Muslim resident, who did not wish to be identified, said. “To take its time and let the damage get worse and worse? That’s what we are seeing here.”

    Altaf Hyder Razvi, a Muslim politician in Hyderabad, called the scale of neglect “something new”. He said: “What’s going on has to be investigated independently. Although Adityanath has no direct role in maintaining it, he is well known for being hostile to Mughal monuments and Mughal heritage.”

    Adityanath has renamed railway stations that had Muslim names and named a museum in Agra dedicated to the history and culture of the Mughals, which is being built, after a Hindu warrior, saying: “How can our heroes be Mughals?”

    Rajkumar Patel, the Agra ASI official, said he was was aware of the issues and the necessary repairs would be carried out.

    Conservators have been struggling for decades to preserve the monument’s pristine whiteness. Leading these efforts is the Supreme Court of India, which has periodically ordered action against the pollution from nearby factories that was yellowing the stone.

    S Patel
    9 hours ago

    As an educated individual, try and base your comment on facts –

    PM Modi is the Prime Minister of India and not the President! So much for your knowledge of a country you are attempting to give advice to.

    You will discover, on basic research, that this monument was built by HNDU CRAFTS MEN whose hands were cut off on completion of the building to prevent them from rebuilding hundreds Hindu temples

    that were destroyed by these Mogul monsters.

    Let's get a balance of opinion here.

    JT Cole
    16 hours ago

    Islam is the second greatest religion in the world (after Christianity). India should be proud of its extraordinary heritage of which the Taj is the single most sublime example.

    Reply

    Recommend (15)

    Share
    Graeme Harrison
    13 hours ago

    Why should India be proud of the legacy of Muslims who invaded their country, persecuted Hindus, destroyed temples, and martyred several Sikh gurus?

    Reply

    Recommend (36)

    Share

    2 replies
    D Brittain
    12 hours ago

    'Greatest' in what way?? It is a religion, nothing more, nothing less, who's followers just believe in a different myth than other people of other faiths.

    https://www.thetimes.com/world/asia/article/taj-mahal-is-crumbling-due-to-anti-muslim-neglect-say-critics-lgp3lld5l

    2. Pretty building but the Mohammedans were guilty of mass slaughter in India. And “his favourite wife”? How many did he have?

    3. And suprising after it took more than 300 years to rid Spain off the same problem it still goes on today. All over Europe. And it's happening in the States and Canada. Wakey Wakey !

    4. YT blogger bald and bankrupt uploaded his India trip so.. you don't have to endure the trouble.. and then caused an upset.
      https://www.hindustantimes.com/trending/i-visited-india-so-you-dont-have-to-uk-man-records-dirty-roads-visits-roadside-fortune-teller-101726740845006.html

      Anyhow, in it he noted the decrepit crumbling state of the wonderful Brit colonial municipal buildings.
      Uproar followed.. including jeers of "harping on about the glory of the Empire."

      Summary: All of India is a sh""hole.

  35. Sue Gray's rookie MP son Liam Conlon was handed £10,000 to boost his election campaign by millionaire Labour party donor who was given Downing Street security pass
    By Martin Beckford Policy Editor

    Published: 23:00, 25 August 2024 | Updated: 09:57, 26 August 2024

    The son of Sir Keir Starmer's closest aide got a £10,000 boost to his election campaign from Lord Alli.

    Liam Conlon, whose mother is the PM's Chief of Staff Sue Gray, is one of six Labour MPs to have declared recent donations totalling £1.3million from the well-connected peer.

    He was selected to stand in Beckenham and Penge late last year and in January his constituency party received £10,000 from Lord Alli, records from the Electoral Commission watchdog show.

    Mr Conlon, who won the seat in July and has already been appointed a Parliamentary Private Secretary, declared the donation as 'support linked to an MP but received by a local party organisation' in transparency returns published last month.

    It was the biggest amount he declared from an individual, ahead of donations of £4,000 and £2,000 from two other Labour supporters.

    3. Charles Dickens invented Mr Bung The Beadle in one of his election stories in his book Sketches by Boz.
      It's been well practiced ever since.

  36. 393402+ up ticks,

    A classic case of the thieving political carpetbaggers incarcerating the angry innocents whilst the corpses of 15 plus year olds litter the fields of shite within England.

    Surely if you had 650 rotten teeth you would activate an extraction campaine.

    SO tell me, WHY do we give consent to our living standards being lowered & demolished year on year ?
    Dt
    Man jailed for banging on hotel doors during protest
    Cameron Bowling sentenced to two years for shouting abuse at guests in Hampshire

  37. A recall petition is the process by which an MP can lose their seat in the House of Commons.

    Voters in the relevant constituency will have six weeks to sign the petition. By signing a recall petition, voters are saying they want their MP to lose their seat. Only those who want to see the MP removed need to sign the petition.

    If at least 10% of voters in the constituency sign the petition, the MP will lose their seat and it will trigger a by-election. The recalled MP can stand as a candidate at the by-election.

    If less than 10% of voters in the constituency sign the petition, the MP remains in post.

    https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/voting-and-elections/how-elections-work/types-elections/recall-petitions


    How a recall petition is triggered
    A recall petition will take place if an MP is:

    convicted of an offence in the UK and receives a custodial sentence (including a suspended sentence) or is ordered to be detained, other than solely under mental health legislation
    suspended from the House of Commons for 10 sitting days or 14 calendar days
    convicted of providing false or misleading information for allowance claims under the Parliamentary Standards Act 2009.
    In the case of a conviction, the recall petition will only be opened if the conviction, sentence or order has not been overturned during the appeal period and when any appeals have been heard and dismissed.

    A recall petition will not be opened, if:

    the last possible date for a UK Parliamentary general election is within the next 6 months
    a recall petition is already underway in respect of the MP
    the MP’s seat has already been vacated

      2. That means that they get an opportunity to wriggle out of it.
        A well and widely practiced stunt.

    3. Jess Phillips scraped by in Yardley against muslim who supports Hamas. She will be a prime target for recall.
      No muslim candidate will be subjected to the same treatment.

  38. A recall petition is the process by which an MP can lose their seat in the House of Commons.

    Voters in the relevant constituency will have six weeks to sign the petition. By signing a recall petition, voters are saying they want their MP to lose their seat. Only those who want to see the MP removed need to sign the petition.

    If at least 10% of voters in the constituency sign the petition, the MP will lose their seat and it will trigger a by-election. The recalled MP can stand as a candidate at the by-election.

    If less than 10% of voters in the constituency sign the petition, the MP remains in post.

    https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/voting-and-elections/how-elections-work/types-elections/recall-petitions


    How a recall petition is triggered
    A recall petition will take place if an MP is:

    convicted of an offence in the UK and receives a custodial sentence (including a suspended sentence) or is ordered to be detained, other than solely under mental health legislation
    suspended from the House of Commons for 10 sitting days or 14 calendar days
    convicted of providing false or misleading information for allowance claims under the Parliamentary Standards Act 2009.
    In the case of a conviction, the recall petition will only be opened if the conviction, sentence or order has not been overturned during the appeal period and when any appeals have been heard and dismissed.

    A recall petition will not be opened, if:

    the last possible date for a UK Parliamentary general election is within the next 6 months
    a recall petition is already underway in respect of the MP
    the MP’s seat has already been vacated

  39. Morning all 🙂😊
    Same old outside. I don't quite understand where all this rain comes from. But I expect our cleaver one step ahead government will be making sure that all the excess is being stored for future use. As our climate heats up and the population explodes……
    RR was put very firmly on the spot in a recent TV interview and talked over the questions totally. Who do they think they are kidding, Mr starmer ? If they think old England's done ?

        1. We had quite a lot of torrential rain last week so we’re feeling lucky with this week of sunshine.

    2. An undersea volcano erupted not long ago and forced huge amounts of water into the atmosphere. A lot of it is still up there. They ignore natural events like that though as it doesn't fit in with their fake modeling.

      1. I don't remember the volcano incident being reported Phizz.
        It's probably interfered with the nwo who etc adgendas.
        I didn't want to say anything, but i thought it was something to with cloud seeding as is what happened in Dubai a few months ago.

        1. It was; but not as extensively as it should have been. It’s Hunga Tonga, if you want to do some searching.

        2. It was; but not as extensively as it should have been. It’s Hunga Tonga, if you want to do some searching.

      1. From Coffee House, the Spectator

        Labour must do more to end violence against women
        Raquel Rosario Sánchez24 September 2024, 10:39am
        How serious is the Labour party about tackling male violence against women and girls? In June, while campaigning for the general election, then shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper pledged the matter would be treated as a ‘national emergency‘. Last week, the Home Office finally announced the development of a national initiative to use data-driven tools and algorithms that analyse police data to identify and pursue perpetrators of abuse such as domestic abuse, sexual assault and stalking.

        Most abusers never face accountability
        This would be a positive step, particularly the proposal of using technology to build risk profiles for victims and perpetrators overseen by authorities to enhance victim safety. But it would be helpful to see the actual policy once it is published rather than an announcement that it will be created. The government announcement states: ‘These tools, used alongside police officers’ expert judgment, will help law enforcement prioritise and pursue the most dangerous offenders, enabling a more effective allocation of police resources.’

        Would this initiative address the perpetrators within the Police forces? A report from the Centre for Women’s Justice, also published last week, notes that there is a systemic problem of male violence within the ranks, with some officers accused of rape and domestic abuse promoted into positions tasked with tackling these crimes: ‘There is still ample evidence to show that there are still far too many police officers escaping sanction, despite multiple allegations of abuse, with some rising through the ranks and even promoted to roles with responsibility for policing rape and domestic abuse,’ the report concludes.

        If the Labour party is so alarmed by male violence, why didn’t they kick off their government with an overhaul of the policies and practices that have been failing women? Instead, they did the exact opposite. Bizarrely, Labour decided to prioritise an Early Release Scheme for prisoners that served only 40 per cent of their sentence with 5,500 scheduled for released between September and October. A deeply unpopular measure meant to reduce overcrowding put victims at a foreseeable disadvantage, with some women not being informed that their perpetrators would be released earlier than expected.

        The Victim’s Commissioner for England and Wales argued that those women would not have the opportunity ‘to put protective measures in place’. Despite reassurances from the Prime Minister that ‘high-risk prisoners’ would not be released, the scheme put back on the street men who have broken women’s jaws and slashed women’s bodies while boasting about hoping to make her children orphans. What is Keir Starmer’s definition of high-risk?

        The problem runs far deeper. Most abusers never face accountability: 67,928 rapes were recorded by police between April 2023 and March 2024. By the end of March 2024, charges had been brought in just 2.6 per cent of cases. When abusers do receive a sentence, the scales of justice tend to tip against women. Last week, seven bereaved family members of murdered women gathered in Parliament Square to request an urgent review of the sentencing guidelines for men who kill their current or former partners at home. As part of a campaign by the women’s rights organisation Killed Women, they held black and blue plaques reading: ‘The same murder outside the home would get a decade more. Murder is murder. Change the law.’

        Murders that take place outside of the home typically carry harsher sentence than those committed inside. This poses a problem for women who, contrary to the stereotype of ‘stranger danger’, are more likely to face violence and murder from someone they know behind closed doors.

        In their 2024 election manifesto, the Conservative government promised to change the law to bring tougher sentencing guidelines. Labour’s manifesto offered something similar: ‘Even when criminals are found guilty, the sentences they receive often do not make sense either to victims or the wider public. Labour will carry out a review of sentencing to ensure it is brought up to date.’

        After 14 years of Conservative rule, it would have been far more sensible for Labour to start their government prioritising an overhaul of these unfair guidelines and rooting out the culture of impunity that has enabled abusers to thrive within police forces. The Labour party advertises that ‘our mission is to halve violence against women.’ Even if this was a policy aim, it is a grossly insensitive way to speak about male violence. Women do not need an end to portions and percentages of abuse; we need an end to violence full stop. If Labour wants to be taken seriously, the time for stronger leadership on tackling male violence is now.

    1. I am not steady enough on my pins to use a chainsaw so I saw my wood by hand using a bow saw.

      My brother-in-law brings a chain saw with him when he comes to stay for the New Year and this gets me on top of the backlog (Pardon the pun!).

      2. Mr T, Have you ever considered trying an electric chainsaw in conjunction with a bench fitted with a clamp? Makita, Stihl, Dewalt, Husqvarna all have a range of battery saws; 220v mains saws are more affordable but weigh nearly 5kg.
        For firewood, (not necessarily tree felling) electric saws are clean, simple and easy to start.
        A good quality saw horse used at the correct height would save your back, and electric chainsaws usually have chain brakes that reduce the risk of nasty accidents.
        IMHO best to pay extra for a reputable brand. https://www.howetools.co.uk/makita-uc3541a2-240v-chainsaw?utm_source=google_shopping&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwxsm3BhDrARIsAMtVz6MtAYTNV49VTxlTWuWjfBeKKxjpWGqt5iEYRFMc1Se9dPS1nhuk4ukaAuh7EALw_wcB
        If chainsaws are too fearsome, you could try a reciprocating saw, (scie sabre) always with the correct type of blade for rough wood:
        https://www.screwfix.com/p/erbauer-ers1100-1100w-electric-reciprocating-saw-220-240v/405FX?tc=CA7&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwxsm3BhDrARIsAMtVz6Msydg6iLgW-kiBxuZFcOr5jRivU22pq59z8MrEITPzOLNrAblfggoaAkA4EALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds
        As ever, protective clothing is essential!
        PS bow saws are the best value for money, obviously.

  41. Morning all, just skipped through the headlines of the online newspapers rags, depressing isn't it.
    To reclaim my cheerful disposition, 'I'm just going outside to my greenhouse, and I may be some time. (with apologies to Capt Oates)

      1. Shane
        Wow! fond memories of the hero Shane, played in 1953 by handsome Alan Ladd (1913-1964). It was alleged that he had to stand on a small box for film-shooting when he was next to a woman or a much taller man. For 'Boy on a Dolphin' (1957) trenches were dug for Sophia Loren (5 ft 8.5 inches, 172cm) to stand in.
        His height is variously reported as 5 ft 6 inches (165cm), though his 1940 draft registration says 5 ft 9.5 inches (177cm). We shall probably never know.

    2. VOF
      I remember my old grandfather use to sit in his large green house and let his thoughts flow. I'm now probably older than he was at that time. But don't smoke a smelly old pipe.
      Well understood what you are doing.
      Take care.

      1. Nothing beats an hour or so working the soil. Never smoked a pipe and the fags went a long time ago but still like a pint or so.

    1. Humans are, indeed, grossly overpopulating the only planet known to support life. However, it will not be a perennial problem because humans are — by a country league — the most stupid organism to have ever evolved and their ultimate demise will be self-inflicted.

      Nature will deal with the problem.

      1. A recent Triggernometry episode was with Sir Niall Ferguson the historian, who started off discussing quite sensibly the Tucker Carlson/Daryl Cooper interview (where Cooper denounced Churchill as being the baddie on WW2). So far so sensible. But then Ferguson went off on some weird Woke rant about how great “brown” people are and how we have population collapse so all us hWite bigots over here and in America need to get used to having children whose skin colour is darker than ours. It was totally extraordinary.

        https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/triggernometry/id1375568988?i=1000669967255

        1. If you deify any group you are a nutcase – and very probably can switch very quickly to hating that chosen group too. Human beings cannot be deified. Only racists do it. Seems like Ferguson is a closet racist and doesn't even realise it.

          1. It's wrong to deify any entity bar the Deity Himself but I'm sooooo over the whole Frankfurt School invented racism fallacy. Race differences are real. That's just how it is and there isn't any point in denial. The origin of the quote is disputed but it's true that you can choose to ignore objective reality but you can't escape the consequences.

          2. Racism is just cautionism. Until you get to know strangers and see that they are not harmful, or that they are not after something from you, it is right to be cautious. That survivalist sentiment is now called racism. And the harmful effects of our authorities ditching sensible caution is now very apparent and has set us on the road to harm and ruin. We have become too complacent with our political system and allowed nutters to take over who have warped ideologies. We really need to encourage young, fit and proper people to take dislodge the nutters.

        2. Well – just google (+ image) his missus – Ayaan Hirsi Ali – and you'll see where the "darker skin colour" trope comes from….

        1. I have viewed a few of Rosling's videos, Roughcommon, and he is an entertaining Mad Professor. However, the maxim of: "There are lies, there are damn lies, and there are statistics" is very well illustrated in his ramblings here.

          It is very easy to drive a tank through his suppositions — from eight years ago — since many of them have already been discredited by reality. His assertion that Europe will remain sparsely populated is now risible in view of the accelerating (he hates the word "exponential") invasion of the continent by masses of people from Africa and the Middle East.

          He also conjectures that the population of Asia is not rising and will soon fall. Evidently he didn't live long enough to either, "enjoy another 15 years of presenting statistics", or notice how the population of India has now surged higher than the population of China and is seemingly unstoppable.

          Presentations of statistics on how things will be in the future are all so very entrertaining, but very few match the reality of that future. No one, in the 1970s, forecast that everyone would be walking around with a small device that connects them instantly with the world (mobile phones) by the late 20th/early 21st century. What they did forecast, however, was that we would all be jetting around in flying cars; and that the polar regions would be denuded of ice and half the world would be underwater.

          All very entertaining stuff, but that is all it is.

    2. The anti-life people should lead by example. It should be noted too that the powerful people who encourage them are not anti-life. They're just anti anything that doesn't serve their personal interests.

      1. Their silly arguments are redundant anyway. We are in serious decline as a species. The entire Western world including Japan is failing to even replace its population. India is following and so is China. In fact the situation is so dire in China they are now urging people to have 3 children per couple but people are ignoring that plea. By 2100 it's predicted that there will be 6 billion less of us.

        1. "By 2100 it's predicted that there will be 6 billion less of us."

          If not six billion fewer. I would love to know who is making these predictions, what their rationale is and where their data comes from. This presumes that the extra six billion people who have emerged during my own life time will — whoosh! — disappear again, as Tommy Cooper would say, "Just like that!"

          1951: 2,500,000,000 humans. 2024: 8,200,000,000 humans (and still rapidly rising).

          https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/

          2. Indeed, but it is all supposition. Both articles commence with the word 'could'. No one has a crystal ball to predict the future.

            I am acutely aware of (and guarded against) all 'studies'. Each day in the DT there is a 'new study' which reveals that eating this and that (usually vegetation) will make you healthier and live longer. Each one of such studies is palpable and — eminently disprovable — utter nonsense.

          3. Well it is pretty simple because no developed country is replacing itself through births and the same phenomena is taking place even in what we think of as underdeveloped countries. That is demonstrable, no large families anymore unless you are Elon Musk and can afford it. so, if replacement is not occurring then logically the worlds population will shrink. The only reason that phenomenon is not taking place in Sub Saharan Africa, is because it is now the least developed part of the world and is still driven to have children for the security and well being of the family.

          7. The 2nd article leads with;

            "World's population could plummet to 6 billion by the end of the century, study suggests."

            That's a to not by. It's also just a computer model. In my opinion that would be a good start, we do need a smaller world population.

          1. Only when I emerge from under my bridge, L L L L Lola.

            Do you, ♬”… walk like a woman but talk like a man?”♬🤣

    3. The Big Dark Sky by Dean Koontz is about forces which seek to destroy humanity for reasons of insane warped ecoism.

      1. The Left have made it clear that they see the only rational future being the massive depopulation of humankind.

        I see it in the advancement of technology and science to expand outward. The problem is not population, it is education. We inn the west reached an equilibrium where technology and poplationwere balancing. The Left then forced millions of savages on us and made us give the 'developing' world our technology to continue their own unsustainable procreation.

        Everywhere big government fails us. The wrong people are having too many children.

        1. I have a dream [©Dr Martin Luther King Jr] that one day, every little Lefty, pinko, socialist and communist will disappear from the universe … forever!

        2. As a part of this discussion; Sonny Boy and I have today delivered two bicycles to Re-Cycle, a charity that repairs and sends bikes to Africa to give youngsters and women greater mobility.
          It's a small step, and one that can be misused, but it does help women and girls in particular to travel to work and school.
          The best contraceptive is an educated woman whose raison d'etre is not judged by her fertility.

      1. From Coffee House, the Spectator

        Hello, waiter? Yes, I’d like to complain
        A brief survey of the worst restaurant offences
        24 September 2024, 5:00am
        From Spectator Life

        detail of a painting by Francisco de Zurbaran, 1630 (Bridgeman Images)

        Text settings
        Comments
        Share

        As I leant over to speak to one of my dining companions in a busy restaurant, I felt something shuffle on my knee. I briefly wondered if it was a rat. But it was just a busybody waiter, who had taken my napkin from the table and folded it upon my lap. It was a bit strange that he did so without asking – but then, this same waiter had, when taking our order, crouched down (so that he was sitting on a chair) and asked, ‘Are you guys ready to order, and do you want me to explain the concept?’ So much to dislike.
        My most serious complaint is reserved for restaurants that are incapable of serving up everyone’s food at the same time
        My biggest gripe used to be waiters who poured your wine too frequently, and too full, in their mission to total the bottle so that you order another. A few years ago, I was in a very high-end restaurant for a celebratory meal to mark a special occasion, and had ordered some rather expensive wine. The waiters wanted to turn the table – even though this was not official practice at this particular venue. And because we were just a bunch of women, with no men involved to add an air of authority, they kept refilling my glass even though I had barely had a sip. When I told them to please stop, I heard one waiter whisper to the other, ‘Don’t give any to the cunt in the middle.’ I complained so hard that I ended up with a sizeable chunk taken off the bill.
        Another thing that drives me mad is being told that the kitchen will send out whichever dish it fancies whenever it happens to be ready, so you might end up with the dessert coming first and the olives last. Then there are the tapas places where the tables are about 10 cm square and the numerous plates are in constant danger of toppling onto the floor.
        Being asked repeatedly if everything is OK and whether we are enjoying our food is also a major irritant. Although to do so once is polite, I always think that if there was anything wrong, you might be expected to mention it to the waiter – despite being British.
        What else? How about those chefs who think themselves celebrities, with their tour of the tables at the end of service – so that just as you’re about to take a mouthful of dessert, you find yourself having to make polite conversation with someone you would really much rather just stayed in the kitchen.
        Or waiters that don’t bother to write the order down, and then get something wrong – or have to come back twice to check. Big ego thing. Some places insist that all of the food is perfectly seasoned and therefore don’t put salt and pepper on the table, then look at you as if you’re some kind of jumped-up pervert when you ask for it.
        But my most serious complaint is reserved for restaurants that are incapable of serving up everyone’s food at the same time. What do you do? Force yourself to start eating (and therefore not enjoying it at all) as you look over your shoulder for where the rest of the food is? And waiters who start clearing the table before everyone has finished eating come a close second.
        Of course, it’s a two-way street: let’s not forget the hell that some diners put restaurant workers through. I’m thinking of diners who continue chatting to each other, oblivious to the presence of the poor waiters standing by the table, balancing heavy armloads of dishes. And then the blank stares when half of them have forgotten what they ordered, while the server desperately tries to stop the plate from sliding onto the floor. If it were me, it would go straight into the diner’s lap.
        I have eaten out with people who never even deign to look at the person serving them, just carrying on with the conversation as the food and drink magically appears before them. I would ban phones in restaurants. Not only because of how rude it looks to other diners when people act as though they are eating in their own home, barking into the phone and ignoring both the food and their dining companions – but also to stop them from taking photographs of every bloody course they are served.
        Other crimes I would like to see punished include using fingers to scoop out ice when there is a perfectly good pair of tongs on the table, eating from a knife, and going outside for a smoke between courses. There is no room for complaints about the food or the service if diners behave like Neanderthals themselves.

          1. We probably eat out at least once a month. I haven’t eaten out in the UK for some years as we don’t live there but when visiting I’ve noticed that the food has really improved and portions are quite large now.
            Pub food roast beef and Yorkshire pudding and fish and chips we always enjoy.
            Not really that surprised the waiter spoke disparagingly about Julie Bindell.

        1. I recognise the facadery in the background, Sir Hugh Casson’s weak attempt at fitting in with Bath scale. By the way the buildings he replaced were beautiful.

          My Art Master Peter Coard made drawings of the buildings on the eve of their demolition. The drawings are in a collection in the Countess of Huntingdon’s Chapel in the Paragon. They were published as Vanishing Bath in the sixties and reprinted in the seventies. I have several copies.

          1. Huge amount of redevelopment these days along the Lower Bristol Road. Generally speaking the town centre is thriving (aided and abetted with anti-terrorist road barriers at all the entrances to the centre)…

  45. Eventually:
    Wordle 1,193 5/6

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

  46. Creepy Cars
    For over 20 years I have been a keen stone carver. I recently re-started this hobby after my wife's long illness ended, allowing me to go out for extended periods. I now attend on Monday evenings from 6PM till 9PM at a local Technical College, where that time period is the quickest 3 hours in the week.

    Yesterday afternoon I got in the car at 5:40PM to drive to the College. As I connected my iPhone to the built-in charger, its display pinged and told me that there was an alternative route to the College avoiding the rush-hour traffic. It suddenly struck me: how the heck did the iPhone and car (a 2023 Audi) between them know where I was heading? Creepy!

    2. If the heuristics are left enabled it will learn your patterns and eventually present alternate routes and routines to 'help' you. It is a bit shifty in that this is enabled by default rather than enabled, but hey.

      1. Too much Automation
        The first thing many Audi drivers turn off after starting the car is the Automatic Lane-keeping, which prevents the driver from crossing the white line into the next lane without signalling first (in case the driver is dozing I suppose). Great idea in theory, but if you suddenly want to avoid something in the road it can be a pain. I switch it off.

      1. Firstborn drives a VW Pickup, with the Audi V5 turbodiesel engine. Leather interior. Quiet, fast, economical. Wonderful machine! The best of both manufacturers.

      2. A petrol and manual Q3 (not so many are made, they're nearly all automatics). I chose it after my 82nd birthday to be my "forever car". No pure EVs for me. To see why, just read the Telegraph article "I drove an electric car over 3,000 miles in three months. It tested my sanity" mentioned further down in today's NTTL.
        I wonder how many MPs drive pure EVs?

          1. And now good afternoon, Grizz…your message so good I received it twice :-)) perhaps something amiss with VPN after all…

    5. What a great hobby! I was fascinated by the work of the stonemasons in St Mary's Church in Beverley a few years ago.

      Do you have any photos of your carvings?

    6. No one is watching. All that is happening is that AI has figured out a pattern of your behaviour. Start worrying when it guides you to a derelict farm with the bones of a dead cow prominently displayed near the gate creaking on its rusty hinges in the rapidly fading light.

  47. "The mortgage on Sir Keir Starmer’s £2 million townhouse has been paid off, official documents show.

    Sir Keir and Lady Starmer have achieved what many homeowners can only dream of – putting them in the top one-third of English homeowners in not having to make mortgage or rent payments.

    The four-bedroom property, in north London’s trendy Kentish Town, officially became mortgage-free on Monday last week.

    There was previously a loan from Barclays Bank noted on the Land Registry title deed, a public document. But on September 16, it was updated to show the loan has been ‘discharged’, meaning the high-street bank no longer retains any rights over the four-storey terraced house."

    Gosh – I wonder where the money came from? Ponders. Nope – no idea…….{:¬))

    1. Wonder how that happened? Shurely not somebody paying him off / buying influence? Say it isn't so!

    4. Perhaps he’s saved up all the money he might otherwise have needed to spend on football tickets and clothes so that he can redeem the mortgage.
      But it’s not actually amazing that somebody who is about 60 and who is in a dual income family has paid off their mortgage. I don’t know how long they’ve lived there but the ‘£2 million’ price tags is only relevant to the size of the mortgage if the purchase was recent.

    1. If any of those things happened I would complain every time . I remember I complained to the owner and he handed a chit in his own hand giving us a free meal for two. I handed it back and said no point I will never come back here again.

    1. Nope. Though I'm a techie I don't keep an electronic Calendar. Perhaps the Car does by watching my movements and learning the regular ones. Heuristics again.

    1. Life is just like a box of choclits: you never know what you're gonna git!

      Unless, you thick moron, you look first at the handy little card in the box!

  52. Rather off-topic, but… A local guy arranged to propose to his girl at a local football match – in front of a crowd of estimated sixteen thousand!
    Talk about putting pressure on the lass – can she say "no" in such a crowd? Who would be he most humiliated?
    I proposed to SWMBO (she was, even then) backstage in a theatre in the East end of London (Mile End) after a show. We were crew, I was the lighting technician, she makeup.
    That was a very long time ago now. Prehistory, even.

        2. I did. And I corrected it before I replied to you.
          The word ‘edited’ after my name gives an excellent clue that I did so!

  54. Hi – a general question – suddenly I can no longer get in here if I'm running a VPN – is anyone else experiencing this problem?

          1. I switched to Holland and it seems to be ok now. I won’t use a UK address because that knocks Pirate Bay out of the park.

          2. Today I'm in Australia, yesterday I was in Scotland. But I like hanging out in odd places like Azerbaijan.

    2. Funny thing is that I sussed out the deplorable NatWest bank as being a coterie of idiots, 42 years ago, when I wrote to them, admonishing them for misspelling the surname on a bank card (it wasn't my bank, never has been, it was my wife-of-the-time who had an account there).

      I've had a couple of dealings with them in the meantime and and both occasions they reinforced my firm belief that it is a wank bank run by twats.

        1. I can’t remember much of the content of the letter that I sent, bollocking them, but I can remember the last paragraph: “You will now expend great energy in ensuring that you send back to us, by return of post, a card with the correct surname embossed upon it, and that surname shall end in a ‘W‘, not an ‘N‘. Got that? A ‘W‘ as in Willy, Wonka and Westminster.”

      2. Grizz, that reminds me:
        Why do the Irish call their basic currency the Punt? Because it rhymes with Bank Manager.

    4. I'd like to know how the bans knows what customers are buying. I assume the supermarkets pass the info on. This must be a breach of data protection.

  56. The mortgage on Sir Keir Starmer’s £2 million townhouse has been paid off, official documents show.

    Sir Keir and Lady Starmer have achieved what many homeowners can only dream of – putting them in the top one-third of English homeowners in not having to make mortgage or rent payments.

    The four-bedroom property, in north London’s trendy Kentish Town, officially became mortgage-free on Monday last week.

    There was previously a loan from Barclays Bank noted on the Land Registry title deed, a public document. But on September 16, it was updated to show the loan has been ‘discharged’, meaning the high-street bank no longer retains any rights over the four-storey terraced house.

    Previously the Labour leader has politically ‘weaponised’ his mortgage to attack the Conservatives. While in opposition, he condemned then-PM Rishi Sunak for failing to understand the anguish caused by rising mortgage rates.

    Sir Keir has long been at pains to play down his privilege and talk about his working-class roots.

    However, during his 20 years as a top-flight lawyer, before moving into politics, his earnings have placed him comfortably in the country’s top 1 per cent of earners.

    The Starmers bought their home in 2004 for £650,000. Since then they have carried out renovations, including a loft conversion involving the installation of two rooflights and a dormer window.

    The property, which is in a sought-after area, is now estimated to be worth £2 million. Added to his £1 million gold-plated pension pot, the Prime Minister is believed to be worth around £3 million

    During the 2020 Labour leadership contest, Sir Keir – who was paid up to £400 an hour during his two decades as a senior lawyer – played down his wealth, saying at one point ‘I’m not a millionaire’.

    The 62-year-old is entitled to two annual salaries – one as a constituency MP and one as PM – totalling £166,786.

    His wife, 50, works in the NHS in occupational health, having previously been a solicitor.

    According to The Sunday Times, her salary is believed to be up to £50,000 pro rata.

    In recent days, Sir Keir has been embroiled in criticism for taking more than £100,000 worth of gifts and hospitality during the past five years.

    They include suits and spectacles worth £18,000 from Labour donor Lord Waheed Alli – who was yesterday seen in Liverpool clutching his own pair of specs and sporting a dark suit and white trainers.

    The PM has also accepted a luxury box at Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13883347/Sir-Keir-Starmers-pays-mortgage-2million-London-townhouse.html

    I was brought up believing that talking about money was crass.
    Money – along with politics and sex – was taboo, especially at Royal Naval dinner parties ..

    What did people talk about.. Well , sailing their yachts, their previous postings , to shore bases or overseas , and where they had served , their children's boarding schools , social connections , and many other things .

    Politics and money were regarded as vulgar topics of conversation .

    Labour party MP's are so vulgar , well so are all politicians now , they have no grandeur.

    1. My dad never told us what he earned. We didn't talk about money at all. My mother would spend it with abandon.

      That left us lot both profligate and afraid of enjoy what we buy. I make do and mend my clothes until they're almost rags but then buy myself and Junior toys galore.

      It's important to talk about money so everyone know where they stand. The Warqueen didn't lord over me her salary, it simply was. We factored the under the 40% threshold into our income and ignored the rest.

      Starmer wants to pretend he 'understands' lower earners but he really doesn't. He's never been poor. Never had to say 'we can't turn the heating on'. Nor have any of his friends or even social circle. Nor have any MP, I'd imagine. They're hypocrites.

      Remember the bit in Die Hard, when Alan Rickman's safety harness had been cut? That look of terror as he realised he was going to die? That's what MPs should go through – not be allowed out of their cushy two houses and stuffed into a moldy council flat, thinking after 2 weeks they'll get out then being told 'no, your home has been sold, the money given to charity. This is your life now.'

      1. My father always recited these lines from William Cowper's comic poem: John Gilpin.

        John Gilpin kissed his loving wife;
        O’erjoyed was he to find,
        That though on pleasure she was bent,
        She had a frugal mind.

        And my mother was always determined to get a good deal.

        I remember with acute embarrassment when, aged 15, I needed a grey worsted suit for school. My mother took me into Montague Burton's in Bournemouth, found a suit that fitted me, paid for it and off we went.

        On our way back to the car we passed John Collier's tailoring shop so my mother dragged me in and made me try on another suit. She decided this was better value so we bought it and then went back to Burton's to return the suit we had bought 40 minutes ago and reclaim our money.

        We then trekked back towards John Collier's to collect the suit but on the way there my mother thought we ought to try Austin Reed. To her delight they were having a sale so we went in, tried on yet another suit which my mother bought and then went back to John Collier's to say we didn't want their suit after all and we wanted our money back.

        I decided that frugality comes at too high a price!

          1. She was certainly a 'character' who was very much loved and respected but she was not an easy woman! She had the most amazing amount of energy and loved sailing, riding horses and gardening. She was the ideal governor's wife in the Sudan and was loved and feared by the natives in equal measure.

            She was not remotely academic and only went to school for one term and then decided to go back to her governess but she was no fool.

      2. The thing is , when Moh was in the RN, we all knew about salaries , because everyone was certain that when they were promoted the salary would adjust , sometimes one waited several years , as it was a slow progression through the ranks .

        He was alright , Lt Cdr in his early thirties ..

        Here is the real story , the armed services were paid poorly , very poorly , all ranks .. Many pilots took advantage of the growth of the oil industry off shore .. they worked hard to obtain their Commercial licences .. The Civilian Aviation Authority .. and many pilots fell by the wayside, and quite a few succeeded .. Abandoning the Navy , and many left the RAF and Army Air Corp.. so the oil industry needed their pilot , and Moh said that he and others used to do 40 take offs and landings in a shift !

        That's all for now folks .

        1. I am sure I must have mentioned my friend Lt Mike Sharp who was in the fleet air arm. He is my age – 78.

          When he came out of the RN he went and flew for the Shah of Oman for a couple of years in order to make enough money to buy the King's Arms pub in Crewkerne. I haven't seen him since we left Allhallows – I wonder how and where he is now.

      3. Do you remember a programme where politicians lived in a flat on an ordinary workers pay? Can't remember the name of it but one was caught with his wife sneaking out to eat in restaurants. Non of them could live without adding their own money and, I think, non of them went the distance.

        1. Patrick Christys of GB News spoke to an Old Age Pensioner who said she had to feed herself on £15 a week.

          Patrick has undertaken to live for a week spending no more that £15 on food. I wish him well.

          Apparently he was once a practising alcoholic who suddenly became aware of the fact that he was killing himself. He hasn't had a drink since this realisation came to him but he knows he is still an alcoholic.

          I am addicted to cigarettes – I am not addicted to pipe tobacco and I smoke just one tin of tobacco a year given to me by my sister-in-law at Christmas and when the tin is empty I have no withdrawal symptoms.

          I haven't had a cigarette since midnight on December 31st 1987 but I know I am still addicted so I shall never have another cigarette again.

          (I wonder if I found myself in front of a firing squad whether or not I would then enjoy the final cigarette as Iwas being shot to pieces)

    3. I like the word 'grandeur'

      It reminds me of Gerard Manley Hopkins's poem God's Grandeur and his use of sprung rhythm:

      The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
      It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
      It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
      Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
      Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
      And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
      And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell: the soil
      Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

      And for all this, nature is never spent;
      There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
      And though the last lights off the black West went
      Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs —
      Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
      World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

    4. Absolute crooks all of them.
      The whole system needs to be changed and the whole of the content of Westminster needs flushing out and replacing.

  57. "Sir Keir will say in his speech: “The politics of national renewal are collective. They involve a shared struggle. A project that says, to everyone, this will be tough in the short term, but in the long term – it’s the right thing to do for our country. And we all benefit from that.”

    Sounds nice, but that's tosh.

    Some people don't struggle. They're given huge freebies for holding the public – not their employer – hostage. The welfare classes also don't struggle. They, again, are given monies. Many, like my brother, need the assisted living allowances but there are others scamming tens of thousands each out of the public through sheer greed and relied on incompetence of the state.

    Starmer also forgets that actual growth, the creation of real jobs comes from the market. He seems to think he can legislate this through authoritarian abuse. Communist China didn't grow. Soviet Russia didn't grow. east Germany didn't get any better. Argentina is only recovering thanks to abandoning socialist central planning.

    Starmer is an imbecile obsessed with his own navel. A hypocritical, arrogant, fundamentally stupid man.

      2. "Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham has yet again refused to rule out a run for Labour leader as Sir Keir Starmer’s popularity plummets to levels lower than Rishi Sunak and Nigel Farage.

        Burnham, 54, was swamped by adoring supporters after holding a fringe event at the Museum of Liverpool to discuss devolution and his plans for his third term in Manchester.

        Following the event, the King of the North spoke to GB News about his plans for his third term and swerved questions about when he could head back to Westminster.

        Burnham, who served as Health Secretary and ran for the Labour leadership before returning to Manchester, confirmed he will serve out his full term until the next election in 2028".

          1. And Cooper. She has been keeping quiet over the WFA debacle. I can't stand any of the trio. I can feel my blood pressure rising just thinking of them and the ugliness of their souls.

          2. So quiet I haven’t heard her. I understand a good number of CSs are still WFH. My guess would be there are too many of them – same for politicians.

          3. Bubble, Bubble, Toil and Trouble ….

            Actually, add Phillipson; an equally ugly soul.
            Hecate appears in the full version of MacBeth.

          5. Mrs Balls – Mrs Joicey – and Mrs Anybody's

            The Infernal Coven of secret, black and midnight hags.

    2. Talk about having a choice of which type of shit to eat.

      Burnham is the third most popular Labour politician, YouGov’s tier list has revealed.
      The Greater Manchester Mayor has a 60 per cent fame rating, with a popularity score of 26 per cent.
      Burnham’s score puts him level in terms of popularity with ex-Prime Minister Gordon Brown and one-point behind London Mayor Sadiq Khan.

      One wonders about the intelligence of people who vote thus.

      1. It’s all very frightening how so many AHs end up in prominent positions.
        Mind you the same goes for all political parties.

      2. Oh well, let’s hope it happens he’ll probably dump all the vindictive nasties and might even listen to public opinion for a change.

          4. I was assuming he was acknowledging it with the reference to Duncan being to the King whose murder starts Macbeth on his downward spiral.
            I hadn’t noticed that the author was also a Duncan.

      2. And then it's all passed on like a virus. That is why bad attitudes in institutions are nigh-on-impossible to change without clearing the lot out and starting again.

    1. I joined Reform Party today, they're the only party (as far as I know) promoting leaving the ECHR (legal immigrants approx 90% of total), and also promising to do 'something' about stopping the boats – stop paying benefits would be a good start imo. Cost is £25 annual, I thought it worth a punt.

        1. What are the Swedes doing?
          Surely our Labour government would like to follow the socialist nirvana's practices.

  62. Just remember folk, the content after a ? in a url is mostly a tracking cookie. You can delete it without affecting the content link.

    2. Thanks, I had one recently on FSB, wouldn't let me delete it. I think Tom's son sorted it, it stopped anyway.

      1. You can delete it if you're copying it to paste elsewhere. If you delete it 'in browser' the site will just regenerate it – this is perfectly normal.

        Amazon is the worst for this sort of cookie:

        https://www.amazon.co.uk/echo-show-5-3rd-gen/dp/B09B2R18PG/ref=p13n_ds_dds_model_1p_dp_desktop_d_sccl_1_3/262-1732455-0852757?pd_rd_w=Q8ggC&content-id=amzn1.sym.7f3848ed-e528-4c5b-a55a-1f9850f18997&pf_rd_p=7f3848ed-e528-4c5b-a55a-1f9850f18997&pf_rd_r=4BM06TM0MP3DEBFZAFDS&pd_rd_wg=sMEk8&pd_rd_r=58b67331-8c0d-4c82-8b5d-e5b7bdae4445&pd_rd_i=B09B2R18PG&psc=1

        Can become:

        https://www.amazon.co.uk/echo-show-5-3rd-gen/dp/B09B2R18PG/

        Amazon just want to know everything about what else you buy.

          1. Some years ago, I had to return a defective printer to Amazon.
            A few days later – while I was dealing with the delivery man who was dropping off the Christmas turkey and was writhing around with a bad back – I had a phone call purportedly from Amazon concerning the returned article and reimbursement.
            Distracted by the drama on the doorstep, with MB demanding I sort it out, I became entwined in an web of transferred calls. I smelt a rat, broke off the conversations and immediately contacted my bank who were very good and understanding. Phew!
            But I do suspect Amazon have some dodgy employees playing both sides.

          2. I have had calls about my “Amazon account” too. I don’t have one and never have. It seems they are a focus for scammers so best avoid if you can.

          3. I've been searching for garden stuff; I didn't click on any of the Amazon links the search returned.

        2. Thanks..couldn’t tell you the number of times we’ll be talking about something, possibly a purchase…go to Amazon to look at spec, but items come up before even typing anything in search box. We’ve both noticed it, are we being listened to…seems so….

          1. Do you have a digital assistant such as Alexa in the house, or Siri (on a smartphone)? They listen to everything you say and pass the info on to advertisers, which might be why you see adverts for what you've just been talking about. There's a good reason why people who lived under the former East German regime would never have a digital all-hearing spy – sorry, assistant – in their homes.

      1. It's not a demand that folk do – disqus forces it's own re-writing of URLs – just might make posting them easier.

    6. I learnt while back that nothing after the ? is needed to pass on a link.
      I didn't know why, I just prefer things to be neater.

  63. And that's 3 hours done and now sat with a mug of tea!
    Weather's turned out finer than I expected, but has just got a bit dark so I think I'll be putting the chainsaw away as I need a quick run into Matlock.

    1. Pubs are places where people get together to have a grumble. Especially to grumble about the government. Ah! Now it all becomes clear.

      1. That's why they didn't want us socialising during convid? Get behind your sofa and focus on Big Brother. Big Brother told me that the hospitals were overflowing, with ambulances queueing around the block. So I walked down the road and took a look at a major London teaching hospital, Charing Cross. It was deserted.

          1. GP surgeries like Vets have been bought out by American corporations. To make a profit they have to reduce the cost of the widget. You are the widget.

      1. It's also about stopping people sharing their non-woke opinions, Pip. Subversive, you see. Wrong think is to be discouraged.

    3. Drinking at home is the greater threat to health. Off-sales are undertaxed and have been for too long. It's one of the reasons why so many pubs are failing.

    4. Wasn't this tried in Sturgeon's Scotland? Business went to supermarkets, home drinking increased exponentially.

    5. 'Improve Health' !!!

      The very worst sort of tyranny. It's for your own good. And therefore 'they' take the moral highground.

    6. How will changing the the hours of pubs being open affect the behaviour of people who's culture bans the drinking of alcohol?

      1. Having spent some time in Turkey I have seen many of the people who are Muslims who are very happy to drink beer, whisky or raki.

        And far from wearing black tents and masks many Turkish women wear elegant clothes and when they go out on boats sunbathe in bikinis and even topless.

        It strikes me that Muslim women in Britain are the most oppressed anywhere. In Iran the woman are fighting to get rid of the burka – in England they embrace it and submit.

        1. A friend is married to a highly educated and westernised Turk. They say that Turkish public opinion used to be very hostile to anybody wearing Islamic dress but that, since Erdogan came to power, they see more and more hijabs. They and their friends are not happy about it.

  66. Rachel Reeves ‘demands’ pictures of men removed from Downing Street state room
    First female Chancellor determined to fill space with artwork ‘of a woman or by a woman’
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/09/20/rachel-reeves-demands-male-pictures-removed-downing-street/

    This repulsive woman is surely too petty, vindictive and nasty to be in the government!

    BTL comment removed the moment I posted it!

    But, according to Reeves, if a man says he is a woman then he is a woman so would his/her/its portrait still be hung in No 11?

    ( If so you might say that she was a rather well hung woman!)

    1. Suppose you were a real conservative PM (big C and small c). Would you remove pictures of Heath, Major, Cameron et al?

      I bloody would!

      2. You could always stick PostIt notes on the frames with "Pillock" "Traitor" etc written on them. Hours of harmless fun.

      1. Well no. The human gut is about 35 feet and we have simple single chamber stomachs. Sheep have 85 feet and four chamber stomachs. It's true that elephants eat grass and have a simple digestive tract as well but they've evolved to digest the grass very slowly. We haven't. Giant pandas also favour an unsuitable diet. And are in danger of extinction.

        It's fashionable to romanticise the American injuns as living in tune with nature but the reality is they lived in filthy abject poverty and when the food supply didn't meet demand, they kept the population down by the simple expedient of killing people.

        1. They also ate them. Afact not publicised that much, not politically correct. Doesn't fit with the romanticism of the lost Eden trampled on by the white man.

    2. What Dale Vince was quick to realise is that there is an abundance of wind farm subsidies and tax breaks to harvest.

    3. As a painter he needs his meat to function on a daily basis.
      Should have gone for the traditional whites, would then have somewhere to store his burger on the QT…..

  68. Message for Tom (AKA Sir Jasper)
    Tom,
    Somehow I just KNEW that we had other things than Joke Books and RAF Halton in common.

    I have just started your second book: Passing three score years and Ten and arrived at page 10 with a picture of your dark chocolate cat, originally called Bonnie. From 1981 to 2000 my late wife and I had a chocolate Burmese whose pedigree name was Bonnefoi Topaz – of course we called her ‘Bonnie’ for all her almost 19 years of life.

    After much clamouring from his daughters for a pet, my younger son recently bought a pair of Burmese kittens – siblings – as he had such happy memories of Bonnie. And the Burmese breed hold all sorts of records: longest lifespans, least allergenic to asthmatic folk, etc..

    In July I happily house-sat and kitten-sat for 10 days while son and wife were away in France on holiday with the girls. They are playful, noisy and great company. So are the kittens. Here they are on watch.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/192c7fe08e6e4b6a08cbe6ab987d7f7e52408e445e4ed01dc31d7cec9e1f0161.jpg

    1. I find it interesting that the source of much of this sleaze is of Islamic heritage.
      Another example of "Import the 3rd World and become the 3rd World" perhaps?

    2. Backsheesh/backshish:

      in parts of Asia and North Africa) a small sum of money given as a tip, bribe, or charitable donation.

      I don't think that inflation has been taken into account.

    3. Did she mention the 'cocks-in-frocks' infestation of ladies/girls private/once secure spaces?

      Say one thing and then by an attempt at sleight of hand and weasel words do another. You really can't make this stuff up. So many politicians really are the most vile people. Why is that?

  72. Messaging app Telegram to hand user data to the authorities. 24 Sepptember 2024.

    Telegram will hand users’ internet IP addresses and phone numbers to authorities with “valid legal requests” such as search warrants.

    The change to the messaging app’s terms of service and privacy policy “should discourage criminals”, Pavel Durov, Telegram’s embattled founder and chief executive, said, weeks after his arrest in France on charges of failing to act against criminals using his app.

    “While 99.999 per cent of Telegram users have nothing to do with crime, the 0.001 per cent involved in illicit activities create a bad image for the entire platform, putting the interests of our almost billion users at risk,” he added.

    “We won’t let bad actors jeopardise the integrity of our platform for almost a billion users,” Mr Durov said.

    Well they broke this guy. Another nail in the coffin of Free Speech. Elon next I guess.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/09/24/messaging-app-telegram-to-hand-user-data-to-the-authorities/#comment

    1. Elon will prove a tougher nut to crack methinks, as he's from the land of the free and not encumbered with the European slammer mindset.
      No extradition helps….

  73. Just watching Starmer's speech to the assembly of sycophants in Liverpool. I’ve never heard so much vacuous flannel. It’s almost comical.

  76. An excellent gallery of bird photographs here https://www.theguardian.com/environment/gallery/2024/sep/24/bird-photographer-of-the-year-2024-winners-in-pictures

    Bird photographer of the year 2024 winners – in pictures
    The winning images in this year’s Bird Photographer of the Year competition have been selected from 23,000 entries from around the world. The overall winner Patricia Homonylo’s image showed birds killed by colliding with windows
     https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/e105ec273c5848c5f92268f1d0abae2403530042/0_0_4365_2911/master/4365.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=ef6d9497ff7ac2a868a925704561cd1d Playful fledgling, Jack Zhi, United States – Category: Bird Behaviour – Silver award winner.
    This Peregrine Falcon fledgling had been flying for over a week and his skills had improved by the day. While he still took food from parents, he had started to practise his hunting skills. He was not good enough to catch live birds in the air yet, so he took baby steps by chasing a fluttering butterfly. He was certainly much faster than the butterfly and also nimble enough to keep up with it. Look at the concentration! He was successful on occasion, caught the butterfly, played with it for a second, then released it. I have been photographing peregrines for years, and this was the first time I have seen fledglings play with butterflies. Location: Southern California, United States.

    1. Great photos. For a while, I had a few (smaller) birds crash into window, bought a couple of black stickers of bird of prey outline, did the trick. Apparently birds see the outline of the sky/clouds reflected in the glass, why they fly on. I've seen sparrow hawks catch bats as they come out of roost, very skilfully, but not moths or butterflies.

  77. Thousands flee Lebanon after devastating Israeli airstrikes kill 492 – but so far UK holds off from ordering evacuation of citizens.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13883471/flee-lebanon-airstrikes-children-beirut-israel.html

    Firing Iranian made missiles into your neighbour's territory was always going to get this response.

    When The Donald was President he had sanctions against Iran. When Biden came in he lifted those sanctions and gave Iran millions of dollars.

    A question. Why are so many Lebanese living in Lebannon but also have British citizenship?

        1. I think I read along the lines post WW1 – history quite a weak point with me tho’ so that’s likely not accurate. Others will be able to say, Conway 🙂

    3. Those that don't have British citizenship would appear to have Canadian passports of convenience.

      Despite weeks of appealing to these Canadians to leave, they eschewed the available cheap flights out and are now appealing for the government to rescue them and fly them to Canada. Maybe a few have valid connections to Canada but the majority would appear to have never been here.

      1. They get their eggs deposited everywhere don't they? Send off a few family members to every country that will take them. Establish a bridgehead. Get some benefits and accommodation paid for courtesy of the locals. Expand bridgehead. Create communities. Take over.

  78. Good God, I bloody ache!
    Had a run into Matlock and suddenly realised how knackered I feel!
    Not surprising, after that small hours mug of tea and then doing 3h up the hill with the chainsaw!
    However, dinner is on.
    Water buffalo burgers ( https://www.oakleysfarm.co.uk/buffalo_meat/ ) Salt & vinegar oven chips and salad.
    Though, no doubt, Graduate son will do himself some baked beans!

  79. Robbing b*stards at OVO – in a month I used £11.84 of electricity and the standing charge was £18.04 – how on earth is this justified?

  84. I've just had some deeply sad news, from my old friend and sometime very formidable adversary, PetaJ. She wrote:

    "The truth is that I have cancer – aggressive and terminal and I am now very weak and fragile. I would have loved to have been an active member of both communities but sadly, short of a miracle, not to be. Perhaps you could put something on both sites to let people know, especially friends like KJ."

    The two communities she referred to are FSB and NTTL.

    Please join me in saying a prayer for her, for she fought the good fight, and kept the faith.

    (Also posted on FSB).

      1. Thank you, sos..generally.higher doses of morphine, pain-free and peaceful, from experiences with family and other friends. She has a good doctor, I think.

    5. Devastated to hear this, I was very fond of her – she was a charming and erudite poster with whom I nearly always agreed! She was a big Rugby fan (I think her two husbands/partners were Rugby players) and we had great fun comparing notes during the recent World Cup. I'll miss her a lot.

    10. Thank you for telling us Tom.
      Peta was a regular and valuable BTL commenter on the Speccie site in happier times and she welcomed me when I turned up here. She was harried very unpleasantly by the certifiable Elinor Dashwood who conceived some bizarre antipathy to her.
      I had wondered where she was and am very sad to hear that she is so ill. Please send her my very best wishes.

  85. Thank you so much, Tom. Heartbroken to read her news. I had suspected something was wrong, normally we would communicate every day. We come from very different walks of life but a great deal in common – can't recall a time we didn't agree. If you message her please give her all my love, say I've been thinking of her, missing her, every day…and most of all I'm certain we'll meet again. Can't say more now, too upset, sorry.

    1. Many of us knew she was unwell, but it still came as a shock. I'm hoping that she will be well enough to read these two sites.

      We mostly agreed, but when we didn't she always gave at least as good as she got, but always politely.

      I will contact her later and pass on your regards. If you want to say more directly, please email me at freespeechbacklash@gmail.com and I will pass it on.

      1. God bless you Peta and thank you for all the interesting posts down the years at the Spectator.

    1. Sad indeed. In what I regard as the Spectator's commenting heyday, she was one of the best and most intelligent posters.

          3. Thought so! Hertslass has asked me to forward the following message from JD:

            From: Jonathan
            Sent: 25 September 2024 06:07
            To: “Hertslass”
            Subject: RE: Peta J

            Thank you for letting me know. That is indeed terrible news.

            Sadly since an update by Disqus a few months ago I can no longer post comments on it.

            Please pass on my best wishes to Geoff, and my heartfelt prayers to Peta. The world seems bereft of joy and hope just now.

            Kind regards,

            Jonathan

            Hertslass has been acting as a go-between for private messages between Nottlers for some years, thus keeping email addresses out of public view. She doesn’t have everyone’s address, but those who have indicated a willingness to be contacted. Her email shown above is a new one, created specifically for the purpose. So, for example, if you wished to reply to JD, you could forward it to Hertslist@gmail.com.

            Meanwhile, please know that lots of us have you in our thoughts and prayers.

            Geoff x

          7. I realise you’re probably not where you were, just to let you know I’m thinking of you every day, remembering the good times we had online. Not sure this will even reach you, Disqus playing up (‘nowt fresh theer’ as dad would say). Lots of love, Sisters (of the Poor – remember them, I still support them) have been praying for you xxx

  88. Victoria Starmer borrows a new £1,105 dress for the Labour Party Conference

    British designer Edeline Lee gets Lady Starmer’s vote again

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/politics/2024/09/24/TELEMMGLPICT000395315569_17271845241110_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqqVzuuqpFlyLIwiB6NTmJwfSVWeZ_vEN7c6bHu2jJnT8.jpeg?imwidth=680
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/09/24/lady-starmer-dresses-down-clothing-row/

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

    Grant Close
    3 hrs ago
    Starmer's free suits are from Mosque Bros

    Lady Victoria Marcos has been to Oxfam again

          5. My mam had a saying that would probably apply to Chav Central. "Like a bag of shite tied in the middle"!

          2. No knickers. When I was a child I went to see a pantomime and Goody Two Shoes had red shoes. I wondered then what they said about red shoes. It was only later I found out 🙂

          4. My wife’s nana whose house in Brunswick Walk looked over Midsummer Common would exclaim “Red hat no knickers” every time some girl or lady wearing one walked across Butt’s Green.

          5. If you click your heels you can get back home to Kansas.
            Either that or you end up married to Ludovic Kennedy.

        1. Who cares about her looks? She is Jewish (apparently ) and supports her muslim loving spouse who bends his knee to criminals , and supported the magic grandpa who is in thrall to Hamas and any other terrorist organisation.

  89. Greetings all from Brazil! We're arrived at out first stop – a little Fazenda in the Mato Grosso. Recovering from the journey. The time here is 11.25 am.

      1. John's not here – he doesn't fly any more. His last trip was in 2020 – and I had a job to get him to go then.
        My travelling companion here is Nick (female) with whom I used to work.
        Haven't taken any pics yet.

      1. Not sure as we left on UK time and arrived on Brazil time which is four hours earlier. Then we had a connecting flight to Cuiaba and the hassle of collecting our bags and checking in again even though we’d checked right through online at home. I was too tired to work it out. We’ve had a relaxing day here anyway. Nice gardens with a pool, and a buffet lunch.

      1. Express leading the way with sausage puns:

        'Labour advisors will now be fearing the wurst that their election wiener will continue to be grilled about whether his administration really has the ability to turn Britain around and make the right calls.'

        Daily Mirror thought it a wonderful speech, with no 'banger' references.

      2. Express leading the way with sausage puns:

        'Labour advisors will now be fearing the wurst that their election wiener will continue to be grilled about whether his administration really has the ability to turn Britain around and make the right calls.'

        Daily Mirror thought it a wonderful speech, with no 'banger' references.

      1. Same old, same old, boring claptrap we have heard from a dozen or more lying politicians. Oh, and did you know his daddy was a tool maker.

        1. I've just seen the link below. Return of the sausages!

          Just imagine, you sell your soul and graft for years and years to be Prime Minister…then at your first triumphant party conference speech you call for the return of the sausages!

          Is he good at anything apart from accepting presents?

          1. I bought 2 kg of Cumberland Saus Hostages on my last trip to Carlisle. Now you mention it, I think I'll defrost a couple of links for breakfasr…,

            Yum..,.

  91. https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/why-are-labour-such-a-bunch-of-puritans/

    "Why is Labour so puritanical?

    24 September 2024, 2:48pm

    Can you be a progressive without being po-faced? I wonder sometimes, especially when I read that public health minister Andrew Gwynne is considering ‘tightening up the hours of operation’ for pubs. The Telegraph reports that Gwynne told Labour conference that changes had to be contemplated because of ‘concerns that people are drinking too much’. After 12 weeks of this government too much is nowhere near enough. It follows the suggestion earlier this month that ministers could ban smoking in beer gardens and other areas outside pubs. Not only would either of these measures send hundreds more licensed establishments to the wall, they give an early indication of the kind of bossy, finger-wagging, goody-two-shoesism we can expect from this government. It’s like waking up to find out Lisa Simpson got in with a landslide majority.

    You drink too much. Stop smoking. That’s high in calories.
    We are currently going through another bout of discourse on the nature and existence of a national identity. My own definition of Englishness is this: a fierce and instinctual hostility towards the sort of people who would interfere with the drinking of a pint of beer. Yet that is what Labour seems determined to offer: five years of nagging and tutting. You drink too much. Stop smoking. That’s high in calories. You can’t say that anymore. You’ve used the wrong pronoun. If you want a vision of the future, imagine a dreary barrister and a sensible bob reporting you to HR – forever.

    Progressive priggishness is nothing new. Reflecting on her time in the Reagan White House, Peggy Noonan mused at how Hollywood portrayals of Democrats (hip, young, blue-collar radicals) and Republicans (middle-aged preppies in pinstripes) had failed to keep up with the political and cultural changes of the 1980s. She observed: ‘Up on the Hill or at the White House the young rough-looking guy from a state school is probably either a Republican or a conservative, and the snooty sniffy guy with a Thank You For Not Smoking sign on his tidy little desk is a Democrat.‘

    In British politics, it probably goes back further than that. There has always been a preacher’s zeal to Labour. As a historical analysis, Morgan Phillips’s assertion that the party ‘owes more to Methodism than to Marxism’ is debatable, but as a description of what we might call the Labour tone it is more than apt. That tone is serious, certain, impatient, improving, and more than a little judgmental. It is the earnest hectoring of the young idealist, the scolding admonition of the schoolmarm, the icy disdain of the educated. Labour knows best, it’s for your own good, and you’re holding back the whole class, not just yourself.

    Add to this the professionalisation of the party and its fixation, acquired in the wake of Michael Foot’s leadership, with image management. Patricia Hewitt once described Neil Kinnock as ‘very witty, very funny, very exuberant, bubbling over and very spontaneous’, and while that might sound unremarkable from his former press secretary, she meant it as a criticism. Kinnock’s singing, dancing and beer-supping were viewed with horror by his proto New-Labour advisors, who deemed such behaviour ‘un-primeministerial’. His successors have, with the exception of Tony Blair, been a dour, self-serious, personality-free bunch. It’s no coincidence that Kinnock is the most recent Labour leader you could imagine telling or laughing at a risqué joke, skulling a beer, or popping out of view for a fly smoke. Labour has become the teacher’s pet of political parties.

    But deeper down the well of Labour’s puritanism lies an explanation the party would rather not confront: class. The professional party – the MPs, bag carriers and policy wonks – is a largely middle class enterprise and like many such outfits there is a profound suspicion of the masses. Most join Labour brimming with social democratic good intentions, eager to correct injustices and redistribute resources and opportunities from the privileged to those who are less so. These are noble sentiments, which is to say I largely agree with them, but there is a dark underbelly to them. Labour is more than a smidgen sceptical of the working classes. It doesn’t trust them, doesn’t trust their judgement, assumes they’ll make bad choices unaware of the risks.

    Remember that quotation that got Jeremy Corbyn into grief a few years back? ‘Only Labour can be trusted to unlock the talent of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic people.’ Labour believes that about the working classes too, and while the logic that social problems require social remedies is sound enough, there is still a sinister ring of ‘you’d be nothing without me’. A Labour party could very well draw out the potential of the working classes but this Labour party seems to think it put the potential there in the first place. It is this proprietorial attitude that leads Labour to believe it must save the masses not only from the market but from themselves.

    You don’t have to be po-faced to be progressive. In ‘The Soul of Man Under Socialism’, Wilde lists among the boons of a socialist society ‘an individualism expressing itself through joy’ and tells his fellow radicals: ‘One should sympathise with the entirety of life, not with life’s sores and maladies merely, but with life’s joy and beauty and energy and health and freedom.’ This is a far broader view of the mode and purpose of progressive politics than Labour would be prepared to entertain. Joy. It is hard to think of a word less suited to the reign of Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves, those walking mirth sponges, with their fusspot paternalism and lanyard-knows-best petty despotism. Social democrats can redistribute wealth without confiscating pleasure, improving lives without micromanaging them. Labour should remember it believes in roses as well as bread."

    2. As I have always maintained, socialists have no understanding of humour. What they can't understand they fear and feel the need to ban it. The "working class", self employed tradespeople, those that work with their hands and are mainly self sufficient, enjoy their lives , taking the mick and having a laugh so the starmers of this world shudder. Kinnock would have been a disaster, and I for one would never have had a pint with him, even given the chance. No time for any of them, left, right or centre, all a bunch of egotistical tossers.

    3. It's all about control, ultimately. They want to control every aspect of the lives of "the lower orders" (those who aren't the chosen ones of the socialist/Marxist faith, that is). They would have been right at home in the Commonwealth – no racing, no dancing, no Christmas etc.

  92. Lord Mandelson Skips Starmer’s Speech

    A familiar face was spotted on the train from Liverpool today. A co-conspirator snapped Labour’s very own Lord Mandelson, comfortably perched in a first-class seat, rolling into Euston at 1 p.m. He clearly wasn’t interested in sticking around for Starmer’s 2 p.m. speech with the rest of the party faithful…

    https://i0.wp.com/order-order.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/IMG_2836-scaled.jpeg?resize=1536%2C2048&ssl=1

    The co-conspirator shared another rather amusing tale from a taxi driver who picked up other conference attendees last night:

    “I had four of them and it was an eight pound fare. They asked for a a receipt for £2 each so they could claim it on expenses. I wrote out one receipt, tore it into four pieces and gave them one each.”

    Who can blame the dark lord for shooting off early…

      1. Very psychic.
        I started at the top and made a reply "coitus interruptus" and then came (ho ho) to your comment.
        Weird.

    4. I know small amounts build up over time but that is just petty. It does expose their personality and mindset though. Also if it was only an £8 fare why didn't they walk?

        1. Also unseemly. Rushing to the trough like that rather than saying ‘on no please…after you’ or ‘allow me’.

          Hope there is one in Rules. Might fall on their table. It’s my leg don’t you know !

    1. Par four for me.

      Wordle 1,193 4/6

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

    3. I should have got it by a process of elimination but messed up.

      Wordle 1,193 5/6

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

  97. Am I right that you are in yer France?

    Anyway – KBO – and DO share stuff here, if you feel like it. NoTTLers are very good at listening. I know from my own experience.

    1. Yes, I am in France. I know nottlers are good at listening but it is a question of finding the energy :((

      3. Heyup Lass.
        It's a bitter pill you're having to chew.
        I pray you have the strength and support to cope.

  98. I am so very sorry to here about Peta J, I don't know her that well but she is a very intelligent and kind lady who has many online friends, I'm crying as i write this – sorry.
    I must ask one of you to pass on a message to Hertslass, could she possible pass on a message to JD about Peta J ( she has his email ) JD and Peta were good very online friends, he'd be mortified to know she's so unwell and will probably want a private word with her via Tom's site http://Freespeechbacklash.com so could you ask Hertslass to pass that onto JD too. If you see Peta, send her love and hugs from Kitty and tell her she's in my thoughts and prayers. Thank you.

          1. Thank you again for doing that, I also see a post to Peta via Geoff via you from JD the other day. I also see Geoff mention to Peta about you keeping lists of Nottl emails to keep in touch – he mentioned Hertslists @ … mail . I will send you mine via this address in a few days, I’d feel happy if my Gmail was also on the list for contact purposes as I’m not online much . I hope all is well with you and yours . All the best . K .

          2. Just one thing to make clear – the list is only there so that an individual can ask if another NoTTLer would be happy to correspond privately, and both parties have to agree before anyone is put in touch with anyone else. The names of people who are on the list is not available, as there are some people who didn’t want it to be known, just the ability to ask and for someone to be able to ask for them specifically, if the occasion arose.

          3. Thank you I fully understand and am pleased to hear that, I myself will use my Gmail of which I use for disqus and a few other things of which doesn't use my name.
            Im away atm in Somerset but will make contact when home. Thank you.

          4. We were thinking of going to Somerset early next week but I have been unwell and D has now got it so we may well not go :o( We are looking to move to Somerset, when we sell this place.

          5. Hello, I’m sorry this reply is a few weeks late, we’ve been in Somerset I’ve had issues with this Samsung . I’m sorry you’ve both been unwell, hope all is okay now. I’m so pleased you have decided upon Somerset it’s the most wonderful and unspoilt of counties ( we shall be returning there hopefully or Norfolk at some point soon . it’s why we were there. ) Wells is the smallest city In the country, it has a cathedral, galleries, shops and concerts- a waitrose too – lovely villiages nearby . Wincanton ( Dorset border ) is another ancient town, full of antique ships and old buildings and villiages nearby , places like Taunton are very busy and modern, Yeovil maybe a little basic and slightly run down. R’s late parents lived in Priddy in the Mendips near Cheddar and then when lived near Cheddar and then when older nearer Wells . If its okay I will be sending you a gmail ( to the nottlers list gmail above of yours that you kindly provide – can you put me on the contacts list in case there are disqus issues at some point with the way politics is going . I’ll also ask whether you can send an gmail off to JD – with my gmail address retracted or via yourself- I hope he can help someone in need but I need to keep my privacy . Thank you.

          6. Hello, sorry for the long time replying. Thank you, I do need to keep my privacy and don’t want my gmail address to be sent, hopefully you can retract the address or kindly send it via yourself. I wish to get an Gmail to JD regards to someone in need ( on this thread of which Geoff has kindly left open . I would like it sent using my anonymous name and I don’t want to share my gmail address with JD , just the words kindly via yourself or the address retracted .

            Would you also kindly place my Gmail on the Nottler list of contacts so I can be contacted if anything changes with this site / disqus – I’m not around online very often and with the way this country is going a combination of Starmer and Harris might cause issues with disqus and the such .

          7. That’s fine – write to me at Hertslist@gmail.com – but please let me know that you have written, just say on NoTTL “I’ve written” or something like that. I don’t log into that account unless a NoTTLer wants to connect. I will then answer you from another account.

          8. I’ve send you a gmail at the address mentioned. Sorry if it’s a bit long, I am very grateful for your help and sorry that I’m not contactable for weeks on end . Hopefully that’ll change soon .

          9. I did write you an email to hertslists@gmail.com it was long I sent it but it didn't go through correctly. Im sorry, thank you. Youve been kind and im hardly ever around online when in Somerset . I could try and get my spare email going but its not gmail. I just wanted JD to know I don't think Peta J has much more time left and that I thought a few words from someone with his faith might bring comfort but I'm not even sure whether Tom Armstrong has emailed Peta to give her the Nottlers contact list you kindly keep. Anyway thank you .

          11. It came back saying unable to send, thank you anyway.
            I’ll have a look on some non disqus sites, I’m sure JD would want to speak to Peta J . The problem is only Tom Armstrong has her email and I’m not sure he mentioned the Nottl list gmail to Peta or that there might be those there who’d want to speak with her, assuming it’s okay with her .
            Thank you for checking the Gmail, I’ll look at mine later to see if there is an issue my end .

          12. I sent you another email – mine is Hertslist (capital H no s at the end)@gmail.com – that might have been the difficulty

          13. Perhaps write to Tom at his freespeechbacklash forum (if you do, please do without giving my email – he can always contact me as Hertslass as I have participated in a small way on his forum sometimes – I am so stuck for time!)

          14. I found Tom on his site ( not today’s page an older one ) I explained that Geoff has posted that you are the go between for Nottlers who need a private chat. I said I understood he had Peta J ‘s email . That if it was okay could you please get in touch with Hertslass on today’s Nottl page ( I’ve seen you’ve posted today and maybe you can exchange information at some point . I am totally sure that JD would want to speak with Peta J and tell her she’s in his prayers. I hope Tom Armstrong gets in touch with you soon, Peta hasn’t posted with disqus since placing a post lower down on this a month ago – saying she was overwhelmed by the kindness and very weak.
            PS – I appear to have an issue with my own Gmail, it’s not working properly as I found out earlier today, I’ve asked husband to take a look at it .

          15. He wrote a response to me on NoTTL (I think – anyway I got in in my inbox). I have written back to him giving the list address. He does say that he doesn’t have Peta’s email, though.

      1. I forgot to post I was going out side in the sunshine to chop and juice a tub of apples. Another gallon of apple juice staring fermentation. Three more to do.

  100. Forgot to mention earlier, when I came in from Matlock I was greeted by a BAT flying round the kitchen!!
    Probably one of the loft pipistrelles getting lost!

    1. My God – you'll have to be careful – or batlovers will demand you leave the house so as not to disturb it….

      1. I landed on some things behind the sink I was able to pick without it flying off until I got it outside.
        It'll be looking for a winter roost now.

        2. Main thing is not to let them bite you, Bob 🙂 It's not dangerous at all with pipistrelles, but if you go to hospital to have it dressed – you'll have a song and dance too, including a jab in your bum….

    2. I have a good number here, Bob…occasionally they roost elsewhere, but always return. I was outdoors one evening, watching them stream out – a sparrowhawk flew in at great speed and caught one, quite a sight to see 🙂

    3. I've just responded to a great shriek from the kitchen…

      I've caught a tiny rodent, it had managed to squeeze through a gap and was covered in cobwebs.
      I took it outside, cleaned off the cobwebs and released it.
      It just stood and shook, almost paralysed with fear I suspect. Eventually it ran off.

  101. That's me gone. It didn't rain – much. Stayed indoors – as it was very chilly, despite watery sunshine.

    How appropriate that we are having hostages for supper this evening…{:¬))

    Must go and get glasses ready for when the MR finishes her long day at work.

    A demain.

    2. Sir Korv Starmer will next turn his attention to the fishing industry. His indoctrination by the Common Porpoise cartel sounds quite fishy.

  104. And another thing. The wretched east Anglia news is devoting half its local news slot to the liebour party conference. For gods sake, it’s already all over the national news so why do we have to put up with it in the local?
    Especially when they didn’t do the same for any other party
    The local news seems to consist of football, anyone hoping to be a pop star and a feel good story in a seaside resort, interspersed with how many people have knifed or shot each other in Essex.
    Waste of time!

    1. The only BBC I watch these days is the local weather slot on the early evening program. Even then I try to have it on just at the right time so my exposure is minimal.

  105. Off to the Wigmore this evening to hear Angela Hewitt play Bach and to Bristol first thing tomorrow. In a foul mood. Just paid the service charge on my flat and it was approx £1600 more than last Sept as it includes a £1200 deficit on the 23/24 period. So I’ll be warm this winter but at a price. Fine as long as I keep working.

    3. Double doh, Sue 🙁 course you could be creative and rent out your floor to a gimmegrant? (sorry, sick joke…)

  107. Evening, all. Drizzly again today, but I did at least manage to get the two nets of mixed narcissi and the remains of a net (1.5kg of bulbs per net) of yellow daffs planted, along with 16 tulips, 25 crocus and 25 chionodoxa. I emptied out a broken pot and replanted those bulbs (mainly crocus and snowdrops) as well. I've also had to replant the strange pagoda like flowered bulbs whose name I can never remember as they were in the pot as well. I have also had to order a new octagonal garden table as the old one finally fell to pieces today.

    Reeves and honesty in the same sentence?

    1. Alexander Mercouris on The Duran has described Zelensky’s Victory Plan, presently being addressed to Biden Inc. as more correctly his Survival Plan viz. Zelensky’s survival.

      The war is lost and Zelensky is desperate to join NATO and take down the western nations supporting him too. Should TTK give away the equivalent of the Winter Fuel Payments to the vile and corrupt monsters in Ukraine that will spell the end of any dwindling support.

      I doubt that following the abysmal spectacle of that overdosed Labour Partly Conference the git will survive more than a couple of months at best.

  109. My local rag has an article about the banning of these weirdly shaped knives and speculating whether it will reduce knife crime. The cynic in me thought, 'not unless you address who is actually committing the crimes' – but then, they are in demographic denial.

  110. If the Germans can see it, why can't we?

    Ostermann said that for too long, Germany had acted as 'the moral fortress of Europe,' letting in people with little scrutiny and paying a heavy price.

    'So far, Germany has almost blindly let in and taken in every person and acted as the moral fortress of Europe. With fatal consequences for our country.'

    'It has long been statistically substantiated and more and more people in Germany are experiencing it every day: the migration crisis is increasingly becoming a crime crisis and is leading parts of our infrastructure close to collapse.'

    He said the migration crisis had now grown into a crime crisis, putting major strains on the country's infrastructure and leading to widespread public safety concerns.

    And he slammed Schengen, the EU's open-border scheme, arguing it had failed miserably.

    'Hundreds of thousands of migrants travel across the European Union via safe third countries to apply for asylum at a German internal border. These facts are impressive proof of the failure of Schengen for the time being.'

    'It is therefore essential that we implement national measures to relieve the pressure on Germany.'

    The solution, according to Ostermann, is for Germany to now turn back to national law to enforce stronger border controls for Germany.

    'The border control that obviously did not take place at the EU's external border is now being carried out. Article 16a of the German Basic Law and the Asylum Act are now decisive and define the measures at the borders.'

    'The federal government must now use the broad majority in parliament to set the course for crisis resistance' he said.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13886649/Whod-thought-German-police-say-tighter-border-controls-HUGE-impact-migration-crime-crisis.html

    1. As I recall it was Angela Merkel who said "Come one, come all", then demanded of the EU that "each member should take its fair share".

    3. Blogger Eugyppius is good on German issues, especially rise of AfD. Not sure where I read it, but apparently Germany is urging migrants (all young, fit and male) to carry on to UK because 'benefits are better and easily obtainable.'

  111. I seem to get the impression that in the much expanded area of London, people will soon be taxed for having tree's in their gardens.

  114. Jew haters haven't gone away – they just don't speak the quiet part out loud any more

    Roald Dahl’s anti-Semitic book review caused a furore in 1983. But similar sentiments pass unremarked today

    Dominic Green • 24 September 2024 • 6:57pm

    Israel is indiscriminately attacked across its border with Lebanon. Rocket barrages drive thousands of Israelis from their homes. A terrorist militia larger than most armies subverts Lebanon's sovereignty and targets Israeli officials for assassination. The international community fails to implement binding UN Security Council resolutions, but seeks to bind Israel in demands of "restraint" and "avoiding escalation". When Israel is forced to secure its borders and expel the terrorists, Western opinion is outraged.

    Today's news is old news. The reaction to Israel's confrontation with Hezbollah revives a script from 1982's Lebanon war. Back then, it was the PLO firing Soviet-made rockets from southern Lebanon, and Shlomo Argov, Israel's ambassador to London, who was shot on the doorsteps of the Dorchester. This time, it's Hezbollah firing Iranian-made rockets and, Israel's security service says, an Iranian plot to assassinate Benjamin Netanyahu or a senior Israeli minister.

    Once more, a horde of independent minds unanimously denounce Israel for defending its internationally recognised borders against genocidal murderers. But these days they usually manage not to say the quiet part out loud – and they almost always get away with it.

    In 1983, Roald Dahl reviewed a book about the Lebanon war for the Literary Review. Dahl compared Israel and the Jews to the Nazis: "Never before in the history of man has a race of people switched so rapidly from victims to barbarous murderers." The United States, he added, was "utterly dominated by the great Jewish financial institutions".

    In a follow-up rant to the New Statesman, Dahl claimed that an eternal "trait in the Jewish character… provokes animosity" across time and space: "Even a stinker like Hitler didn't pick on them for no reason."

    The outcry that followed is the subject of Giant, a play opening this week at London's Royal Court Theatre – exhuming Dahl's resentments and the promotional difficulties they caused for his new novel, The Witches. What surprises today is that there was an outcry at all.

    In 1983, many of Dahl's peers in the writing game condemned him. Now, the chorus is with him. In the age of "microaggressions" and speech codes, it's open season on the Jews.

    Dahl was an old-school racist and snob. Today's Jew haters don't admit to hating the "Jewish race". They have learnt to talk in euphemisms about "settler colonialism" and "ending Zionism". They call themselves humanitarians.

    Dahl had the courage of his convictions, crackpot as they were. Today's crop are devious and passive-aggressive, passively embracing Islamists at home and Hamas and Hezbollah abroad, aggressively seeking to stifle Israel in the grip of a speciously politicised international law.

    Dahl was fluent in the nastier side of human nature. Our humanitarians know as little of themselves as they do of Middle East history. They are as sure of their virtue as any inquisitor. They not only feel justified in singling out Jews and Israel for contempt, they feel virtuous.

    St Augustine advised that Jews be kept in a state of humiliation, the better to demonstrate their error in rejecting Jesus. From Kant to Corbyn, the apostles of European universalism have continued this tradition. Israel must never be allowed to be normal. The Jews must not be allowed to defend themselves. Dahl had the honesty to admit his irrationality and sadism. The ignorance of our humanitarians is part of their intellectual cowardice. Their cant of human rights masks a strange and sinister bloodlust.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/09/24/jew-haters-havent-gone-just-dont-speak-quiet-part-out-loud

  115. "They haven't gone away, you know…"

    Unions should have 'completely universal' influence over economy, says Mick Lynch

    RMT leader praises Labour ministers and called for union influence in every workplace

    Genevieve Holl-Allen, Political Reporter • 24 September 2024 • 9:24am

    Trade unions should have a "completely universal" influence over the UK economy, the boss of one of the country's largest has said.

    Mick Lynch, the general secretary of the RMT, called for a return to levels of union power in the economy not seen since the 1970s. At an event on the fringes of the Labour Party conference, Mr Lynch said: "The problem at the moment is that the unions are not in every sector, effectively.

    "We're not in every workplace. We're not able to influence non-union recognised workplaces, whereas up to the 1970s and 80s we were. So if you went on a job as a construction worker that wasn't organised, you tended to get the union agreement anyway because it was enforceable by those workers."

    In remarks reported by the Daily Mail, he said: "That's the prize we've got to keep our eyes on – that union influence is universal across the UK, completely universal. The complete organisation of the UK economy by trade unions – that's our aim."

    It comes after Labour struck several pay deals with different unions to put an end to strikes within weeks of entering government. Last week, train drivers voted to accept a deal offered by Louise Haigh, the Transport Secretary, which the ASLEF union said was worth 15 per cent over three years.

    Last month, Mr Lynch told The Times that his union expected a "parallel, synchronised offer" to that awarded to ASLEF. He praised Ms Haigh, along with Angela Rayner, the Deputy Prime Minister, as "leading individuals" who must be "supported by the movement" to deliver on their workers' rights plans.

    The RMT boss made his remarks on the same day that Rachel Reeves told the Labour conference: "I am proud to stand here as the first Chancellor in 14 years to have delivered a meaningful, real pay rise to millions of public sector workers. We made that choice not just because public sector workers needed that pay rise, but because it was the right choice for parents, patients and for the British public."

    But nurses voted to reject the Government's 5.5 per cent pay unlift just as the Chancellor was delivering her speech.

    Sir Iain Duncan Smith, a former Conservative leader, accused Labour of being "prisoners to the unions". Responding to Mr Lynch's comments, he told the Mail: "At the end of the day, the unions are Labour's paymasters. "[Labour] will end up capitulating again and again as they always have done. What we now know is that Keir Starmer's Government is going to look a lot more like Harold Wilson's than Tony Blair's. Wilson was a prisoner to the unions."

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/09/24/we-want-to-control-uk-economy-says-union-boss-mick-lynch

    1. Very polite of you, sos – I'd be tempted to use a different description. Germans have had enough of her.

      2. No, Sue Mac, that's Mel Blanc providing the voice for Sylvester the Cat in Sylvester and Tweetie Pie in Warner Brothers cartoons. Or was it Daffy Duck?

  121. Been coughing for 8 days now. Sleep elusive. Been taking strepsils and throat sprays plus some linctus. It's been bloody miserable. Bruising has appeared all over my chest as the coughs were so severe.

    I started making dots with a black marker pen to track the expansion. I look like a Jackson Pollack.

    Had a special delivery arrive of a Benylin expectorant.

    Seems Benylin and whisky shots work a treat.

          3. Besides the pain and discomfort the worst thing is i haven't been able to sleep for more than a few minutes until another hackfest.

            I have been waking up and looking at the clock and almost crying.

            Hopefully with my new regime of shots lined up the infection will find an easier victim.

          5. Welcome to the club. I've been awake since 3am with a cold in da dose…..Currently trying to alleviate symptoms with a shot of 12yo Old Pultney Speyside Whisky…

          6. Set glass by skirting board. Do a handstand against the wall. Grab glass and gulp. Gargle.

            Don't know if it would work or not but it's something i would pay to watch. :@)

            There, if anything, is proof i am getting better !

          8. Chicken soup and bone broth and sleep whenever you can, even if it's only during the day. Lots of good books. Get well soon!

        2. I had a cough in Jan 23 that went on for about three weeks. Coughing me guts up and laryngitis with it – but it did stop in it’s own good time. It was a wet cough, as they say. Plenty of phlegm. I don’t medicate these days. Spoke to a doctor who told me honestly that it won’t stop a cough anyway. Just rest, warmth, food etc to get well.

      1. I couldn't stomach alcohol all week. I would normally gargle half a cap if i felt something coming on but with the traveling i missed that part of my routine.

    5. Stop playing dot to dot and call a doctor. A cough for 8 days is an infection. Your body needs help sorting it.

          1. I already know it is a bad cold or flu possibly a covid variant. I have been down that route with Doctors and A&E often enough over the last few years to know i am better off at home.

    6. Shots sound good. Sore throat – try gargling with salt water….or if brave diluted TCP(no swallowing!)…cracks it every time….

      1. Had a shocking sore throat about 40 years ago. The present wife suggested gargling with TCP. Didn't know it should be diluted. I didn't/couldn't speak to her for a week!

        1. Oh dear, mola…sorry to say I laughed as I read your post. I’m certain she was sorry for you, and took good care of you (especially if she was a new wife too 🙂

    4. And to paraphrase Messrs Sellar and Yeatman
      Royalists = wrong but romantic
      Roundheads = right but repulsive
      Starmerites = wrong but repulsive

    5. "Every time the British get close to solving the Irish Question the Irish change the question."

      And on the test paper:

      Name of Mother …………………. (If nun say none)

  127. Curiouser and curiouser…

    "Federal prosecutors state that Routh "stalked" the area for a few weeks prior to his shooting attempt, but this does not explain how he was able to approach the club grounds with a rifle at the exact moment Donald Trump was within shooting range.

    "The arrest of Routh's son on child porn charges may simply be coincidental. The political left is, after all, the degenerate gift that keeps on giving. But the arrest could also represent something else entirely.

    If one assumes (according to the evidence from the last two shooting attempts) that insider participation in the assassination is a reality, then it's fair to ask if Ryan Routh was blackmailed into the murder by someone who had knowledge of his son's activities. Was he trying to prevent his son's arrest?

    Or, could the CP charges against his son be a way to keep Ryan Routh quiet about who might have helped him with Trump's location that day? In other words "Look what we can do to your family if you say anything…"

    Was Routh supposed to escape that day? His recent internet history indicated he was planning a route from Palm Beach to Mexico. He was only caught because a bystander took a photo of his vehicle and license plate as he sped away. Perhaps his arrest has thrown a monkey wrench into the plans of other interested parties?

    One would expect him to run into a Jack Ruby situation before very long, but in the meantime his son is now a factor in this strange equation. "

    1. Who knows what it all means? All I can say with certainty is that the Democrats fear that Donald Trump may just beat Kamala Harris in November's elections.

      1. They are trying to gauge whether or not the time is right to be even more blatant or to try something different

  130. Well, chums, 10 minutes to my bedtime. So I wish you (just a little early) a Good Night, a refreshing night's sleep with dreams of sausages (Lol), and I hope to see you all tomorrow bright and early.

  132. The most pressing question is to what sort of sausages was Starmer referring – beef sausages, pork sausages or veggie sausages?

    He will certainly risk becoming a hostage to fortune if he does not give us clarity on this matter.

  135. 393402+ up ticks,

    They have been doing so, on a daily basis for years, and we have been buying them

    Dt,

    France to expel illegal immigrants who have ‘broken in’ to country

  136. Perhaps he had on his mind such sausages as are used in turd-in-the-hole; a phrase which could usefully describe both him and his colleagues.

  138. The fun police are back, and they're ready to make our lives even more joyless

    Starmer's battle against pubs has now broadened into an all-out war against happiness

    Nigel Farage • 24 September 2024 • 5:16pm

    Speaking at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool, Andrew Gwynne, a public health minister, has revealed that the government is considering "tightening up the hours of operation" of pubs – i.e. forcing them to close early. Gwynne claimed this would improve people's health and tackle anti-social behaviour.

    What nonsense. Even if this policy was genuinely concerned with improving public health, it would fail dismally. People being cleared out of pubs and bars at the new closing time of, let's say, 10pm would simply find somewhere else to drink, potentially ushering in a new era of the speakeasy. At the same time, the Treasury would notice a fall in revenue until, finally, scores more pubs went out of business. This in itself would have various knock-on effects, creating wider unemployment.

    Whether or not Gwynne's economically illiterate plan comes to pass, though, it's his mindset that is so revealing. It is the mindset of control.

    This is the Labour mindset – steeped in the idea that Big Government knows best. It is completely detached from reality and it despises the notions of freedom and choice.

    People like Gwynne object to the idea that someone might want to sit in a pub late at night having a drink and a chat with their family or friends. They want to remove that simple pleasure and they would use questionable health grounds to do it. We've already heard about Labour's plans to ban smoking from outside areas like pub gardens. Now alcohol is in their sights.

    In a way, this doesn't surprise me. For an idea of how much Britain could change unless this socialist government is voted out at the earliest opportunity, look no further than Wales and London. Labour has been in power in both of these devolved areas for several years. They can be seen as the prototypes of life in future.

    Those pernicious three prongs of equality, diversity and inclusion have taken root, elbowing the interests of those who do not obsess about identity politics out of the way.

    Open war has been declared on motorists, who are penalised for driving their cars at over 20mph or – in London – within a "Ulez" zone. CCTV cameras are everywhere, spying on citizens and fining them via a system which is nothing more than legitimised theft.

    All this has created a culture of fear among law-abiding people. The sense of liberty that we used to take for granted is slipping away, no doubt hastened by the ghastly lockdown culture that Labour embraced so vigorously.

    Isn't it revealing that Gwynne and his friends have nothing to say about the steep rise in those committing illegal activities such as taking Class A drugs or carrying knives? Instead, they only seem interested in chipping away at social habits that have been legal for centuries.

    I would politely suggest that Gwynne, 50, has a limited experience of life outside the confines of the political establishment where he has worked since the turn of the century.

    His outlook is that of the boring middle manager who doesn't drink in pubs anyway. To him and his Labour colleagues I say: good luck.

    Voters who live in Red Wall seats – indeed, most voters everywhere – detest being told what to do. They would never stand for pubs closing early. They will rebel.

    Those of them who bothered to vote Labour in July will desert the party at the next election. It should not escape their attention that the Reform Party isn't interested in banning things. I believe that life is for living and enjoying when time allows – and that pubs can keep whatever reasonable hours they wish.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/09/24/the-fun-police-are-back-and-they-make-our-lives-joyless

    A lot of people won't make the next election. They'll have died of hypothermia, boredom, misery.

    Always supposing there is another election, of course…

    1. Since those criminals fired a missile into Russia from Latvia, it seems they are hellbent on a war with Russia. If Russia retaliates, the US and Britain will of course cry that "Russia started it."
      Putin's remarkable self-control is probably only because they are waiting for the west to implode under the weight of its own debt. Russia and China could probably both go onto a gold standard overnight.

Comments are closed.