Tuesday 25 February: A wise move to help ensure that more cancers are detected early

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.

820 thoughts on “Tuesday 25 February: A wise move to help ensure that more cancers are detected early”

    1. Geoff!! Good morning. 🙂

      (Very early even on your time, no?)

      Quick question, along with heartfelt thanks for keeping this fabulous madhouse going: did you get my recent email?

      K x x

    1. The National Neighbourhood Watch Alert system has a lose engine.
      This is a novel concept where if you don't specify what you want to be alerted about you can't become a member.

      Once you become a member, you can use the lose engine to specify in an entry window the things that you don't want to see e.g. 'nightmares'
      .
      Becoming a member is simple – just tick wake me up in the alert box.

      https://www.ourwatch.org.uk/

      1. The nightmare is a recurring one. I am lost in an unfamiliar city. Each direction i choose eventually ends in a dead end. I see people but normally just as they are turning a corner. It's also getting dark.

        Still….at least it gets me out and about. :@(

    1. Starmerist Show Trials to keep the populace cowering in terror at the power of his police state. Calling it '2 Tier' is being far too polite. The 'Opposition' are a bunch of milksops who are letting him get away with it.

      1. 402155+ up ticks,

        Morning C1,

        The "opposition" ?
        The only opposition currently are the peoples, the politico's are a coalition.

    2. I simply do not understand why the woman did not appeal against the disproportionate sentence.

  11. Good morning, chums. Wow, Geoff, you certainly opened today's new NoTTLe page bright and early, didn't you!

    Wordle 1,346 5/6

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

  14. Government Spaffs £403 Million on Translation Services Over 5 Years

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

    philip
    11h
    I can only assume that most of these services are used by English people trying to understand what their foreign doctors and nurses are saying.

    2. Citroen, I have found this image all over the Internet.

      I WANT one! Where can I buy one?

      Or is it just a wizard piece of image editing?

    3. Citroen, I have found this image all over the Internet.

      I WANT one! Where can I buy one?

      Or is it just a wizard piece of image editing?

    1. I wonder if Starmer will scream and cry and have a massive hissy fit like Zelensky did when Trump's minion told him how things were going to be wether he liked it or not.

  22. John Tuckett has looked out of his window across the lake and into the deep forest of pines.. and can confirm.. "Let me make this clear, there is no Islamic problem, there isn't an invasion problem, the border seems pretty secure."

    The Government’s top candidate to become Britain’s new borders watchdog, who lives in Finland, “meets the criteria” for the job but should..

  23. British businessman missing in Kenya found dead. 25 February 2025.

    A British businessman who went missing in Kenya more than a week ago has been found dead.

    Campbell Scott, 58, was last seen attending a conference at the JW Marriot Hotel in Nairobi on Feb 16, according to reports.

    He was a senior director at credit scoring firm Fico. His employer said police had identified a body and were investigating.

    I have no information to the contrary but of course experience says that there is probably more to it. Is the Telegraph censoring this report? Who knows? That is the nature of Police States. They create those very doubts that they seek to suppress.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/02/24/british-businessman-missing-in-kenya-found-dead/

      1. Morning OLT One suspects that the Kenyan Government are rather envious of the UK’s version.

      2. Lovely warm- yes, really! – sunny day here. Taught my dressage lesson without an overcoat. I may have cast a clout too early but the opportunity was too good to miss.

  26. Good morning all.
    A lovely clear sky which is forecast to cloud over in a couple of hours. Another mild start, but a bit cooler with low of 2.8°C on the thermometer, but with a surprising maximum of 20.6°C for yesterday. Presumably, the sun is now getting round the corner of the house and shining directly on the thermometer.

    1. Before I retired for the first time I worked for Shell.
      We have decades of FREE, secure gas under our feet in UK and the tiny 'bumps' from fracking were at about the same acoustic level as a passing lorry, but have been built into the legislation that prohibits UK fracking.
      By the way, fracking has been going on for years when it is used when drilling under the sea.
      I have visited California many times, and when there's a little "natural" 'bump' (i.e. a small earthquake) everyone just carries on regardless.
      There was one when I visited in January 1982 and the rollerblading Californians didn't even notice, much less take cover.

  29. I made some disobliging remarks about water privatisation a week or so ago. I'd now like to hear a justification for gas and electricity privatisation.

    1. Really?

      When the state forced the climate change act on us, bills soared. They continue to soar as the market is broken by forcing unreliable, inefficient, hideously expensive subsidy dependent unreliables on us.

      Prior to that energy had a fixed cost that barely changed because the market provided energy. We were not facing blackouts, brown outs, the hoax of cliamte change wasn't slapped on our bills.

      Energy was vastly cheaper, we had a functioning steel industry, industrialists were not leaving the country en masse to cheaper climes.

      Market do not need justifying: statism does.

      1. I have changed my energy supplier five times in the past thirty tears. But the electicity comes through the same wires from the same power stations, the gas comes through the same pipes from the same terminals. Meanwhile, national energy policy is dictated by the state, as it always has been (for better or for worse). Where is the much vaunted hidden hand?

    2. Really?

      When the state forced the climate change act on us, bills soared. They continue to soar as the market is broken by forcing unreliable, inefficient, hideously expensive subsidy dependent unreliables on us.

      Prior to that energy had a fixed cost that barely changed because the market provided energy. We were not facing blackouts, brown outs, the hoax of cliamte change wasn't slapped on our bills.

      Energy was vastly cheaper, we had a functioning steel industry, industrialists were not leaving the country en masse to cheaper climes.

      Market do not need justifying: statism does.

  31. Transgender police officers to be allowed to strip-search women

    POLICE have revived plans to allow transgender officers to strip search women. Proposed guidance for the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), the representative body for senior police officers, states male staff identifying as female should be able to intimately search women, as long as they have a gender recognition certificate. The NPCC withdrew similar guidance last year after the previous government raised concerns about women’s safety, and said it was launching a “thorough” review of the rules. It would bring the NPCC into line with British Transport Police, which announced a similar policy in November. Women’s rights organisations said the guidance represented a “serious breach of the fundamental rights of female detainees”.

    It has been revealed the council’s diversity, equality and inclusion co-ordination committee has agreed transgender males with a certificate should be able to search female detainees. Documents seen by The Telegraph state: “The recommendation from the NPCC lead for LGBTQ+ is that a trans officer searches a person consistent with the officer’s sex as established by a gender recognition certificate [GRC].”
    These proposals will be considered next month by the full NPCC before becoming official policy. Applying for a GRC costs £5, and an applicant needs to have a signed statement from a doctor that they have gender dysphoria, meaning they feel they are born in the wrong body.
    Last year, 68,874 strip searches were conducted in police stations and 5,098 in other locations.

    The proposed guidance states: “It is important that employers treat people in accordance with their lived gender identity, whether or not they have a gender recognition certificate.” It suggests that a trans officer without a GRC could be exempt from searching. The policy states if a detainee objects to being searched by a trans officer they may be substituted with a different officer. But it adds: “Consideration should also be given to the manner in which the detainee objects to the search and any prejudicial language should be dealt with positively.” Last night, the NPCC was unable to say what “dealt with positively” meant.

    But the previous, withdrawn, guidance stated: “If the refusal is based on discriminatory views, consideration should be given for the incident to be recorded as a non-crime hate incident unless the circumstances amount to a recordable crime.” While the guidance considers at length the welfare of trans detainees and officers, it does not specifically consider the impact on female detainees of being searched by a biologically male officer.

    Maya Forstater, the chief executive of the women’s rights group Sex Matters, said: “We regard this guidance as a serious breach of the fundamental rights of female detainees.” A NPCC spokesman said: “Chief constables will be reviewing and discussing the proposed changes in the next few weeks.”

    Time to reopen Bedlam. Lunatic asylums are the only treatment for such mentally deranged imbeciles. And I would also lock up those dangerous idiots who are making these crass decisions in there too.

    1. The government claims to have put an end to this. They say they have banned puberty blockers.
      They haven’t.
      Here are three reasons why this so-called "ban" is nothing more than a PR stunt—and why we’re supporting legal action to protect children:
      1. This is not a ban–it’s a reroute
      The government hasn’t banned puberty blockers. They’ve repackaged them and rerouted them through clinical trials.
      Any number of children can still be given harmful drugs, so long as they enrol on the planned clinical trial.
      Once the trials are underway, activists and lobbyists could pressure the government into declaring that puberty blockers have been “studied” and use that as a pretext to restore them to the NHS—this time with the full endorsement of the state.
      2. This is not a ban—it’s a ‘pause’ until 2027
      The government hasn’t banned puberty blockers. They’ve put them on hold.
      The restriction is indefinite, not permanent, and set for review in 2027. That means these harmful drugs could be fully reintroduced into the NHS at the stroke of a pen in just three years.
      And the planned clinical trials are the perfect tool to make that happen.
      If the trials are rigged to downplay risks and exaggerate benefits, puberty blockers will be back—this time with a government seal of approval.
      3. This is not a ban—it’s an expansion
      The government hasn’t banned puberty blockers. It’s laying the groundwork for their return.
      New “gender clinics” have already opened, with more planned in the coming years. This isn’t a rollback of harmful gender ideology—it’s an expansion of the very system that funnels children onto a medical pathway of irreversible harm.
      If the government were serious about protecting children, why is it embedding gender ideology deeper into the NHS and keeping the door open to lifelong harm?
      Keira Bell and James Esses aren’t falling for this deception—and neither are we. That’s why we’re backing them as they take legal action to shut down these clinical trials before they begin.
      This case could be the turning point in the fight against the medicalisation of children. A victory would send a clear message: no more loopholes, no more rebranding, no more backdoor routes—puberty blockers must be banned for good.

      1. Hey, Dean. Help me round up the wacko Lefty 'establishment', Dude. We'll corral them in a caboose-or-forty and we'll roll them over a cliff, Bro'. Time the shuntin' yard was cleaned up a lot, Man.

        1. Hey, Beatnik, that ol' Grand Canyon ain't deep enough to dump all those bloodsuckers that live off taxpayers' hard-earned wonga, Dude. It's just a matter of time, now- still early days before the full horror is revealed, Hombre but those mills are grindin' away, Bro.

    4. My daughter has just retired from the police after 30years service. Never seen her so happy

        1. She was BTP inspector mostly in Camden. It was not the force she joined. She passsed out at Ashford marching to The Band of Parachute Regiment.

    5. Fair play to them..
      They pledged their allegiance to Labour Islami Alliance, and now they demand their rewards.
      No U-Turn for Starmer on this one.. these autogynephiles demand arousal now.. when do they want it? Now.

        1. Yo mr Grizz,

          I did not mean the “Job” Truncheon, but the the personal one that will vary in size, dependent on what is happening

    9. I have just received my latest copy of British Horse. One of the articles was about how menopause affects women. I’m amazed they didn’t call it peoplepause because at the end the final paragraph read “while this article may use women to talk about people who may experience these hormonal changes it can impact trans or non-binary riders who do not identify as a woman in the same manner “. What a load of bolero!

    1. The various governments concerned made a great deal of money out of North Sea gas, which, of course, they spent wisely. (Give a drunkard a hundred pounds, and the only question is, which wall?)

      1. And covering the £2.9 bn of unpaid bills by increasing the standing charges (some have gone down next quarter but much higher than before).

    3. Ofcom says that the price cap is going up because the wholesale price of energy has increased. I always thought that wind and solar was free after you put in the collection devices…and what of red Ed's £300 reduction in bills. It just goes to show how broken our energy market is.

  33. Great Mark Steyn article on the German election. This is how it kicks off:

    Here is an all too typical Euro-headline:

    'Tens of thousands demonstrate against AfD after stabbings in Solingen'

    Gotta love the commitment of the diversity lemmings. Even as they're on the ground punctured by multiple stab wounds, they'll be fretting that the amount of their blood all over the sidewalk risks provoking even more 'Islamophobia' from the 'far right'.

    The whole article: https://www.steynonline.com/15065/the-berlin-firewall

  34. 402155+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Tuesday 25 February: A wise move to help ensure that more cancers are detected early

    Wise moves to benefit the indigenous peoples shown by these current political overseers are in extremely short supply, in point of fact, NON existent.
    They are, at the moment engaged in a conversion campaign via the NWO / WEF / RESET agenda as in packing foreign trenches with live British troops to be converted into…….

    We are paying out to the arms dealers for the thin veneer of protecting the realm from external foreign
    war type problems, at the same time as paying for the
    foreign enemy types internally on R/R in 5* hotels.

    An ultra wise move to benefit ALL within these isles would be to divert ALL defense funding to cancer research funding.

    There just ain't no sound quite like hearing that bell ring and the following applause.

  35. G'day all,

    A nice morning at Fiscal's End, wind in the West, a tad cooler at 6℃ to 9℃ today.

    At least there is one ex-Prime Minister of the UK who understands what the problems facing us are, where the threat to our lives, livelihoods, culture and nation come from. She’s on a journey, she’s not completely there yet but I think she is now begining to understand that the UK government is waging a war on the British people and it is a war which was conceived by Marxists in supra-national organisations such as the UN, WEF and BiS.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hA17ma1SyZ0&t=3s

      1. Will she join Reform ?
        Or does she already know that reform is just another pie in the sky outfit.

  36. Good morning, all. Surprise, surprise overcast yet again. Well, well, the sunny interval(s) is/are arriving.

    Andrew Gold, Heretics podcast, is interviewing Liz Truss. I've watched 20 minutes and Truss is throwing out so much information that I'm finding it difficult to assimilate much of it.

    A couple of points I can recall, she was in favour of fracking and cheap energy to get the economy going and she admits that a completely new set of brave MPs is required to reverse much of the last 40 – 50 years' legislation.

    If half of what she's revealing is true then it's little wonder that 'they' got shot of her in short order. What to believe?

    Cue Reform? If Reform is to function as a new broom in the political sphere then it must not absorb too many re-treads from other parties: that way disaster looms.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hA17ma1SyZ0

    3. Yes who really is bringing our country to its knees literally. We know who at least one of them is.

  37. Indeed. UKIP only welcomed renegade MPs if they were prepared to resign and stand in a by-election. There is such a thing as "entryism", and the forces of darkness know all about it.

    1. Carswell and Reckless both stood in by elections before becoming UKIP MPS.

      Many MPs have crossed the floor without seeking re-election in a by election but have any other MPs recently stood down and run in a by election?

  38. Sorry about that. I checked back on yesterday's posts to see whether this had been picked up. What I didn't do was refresh today's column before posting.

  39. Do you know, i have so many podcasts it’s a full-time job keeping up with them and so i decided not to bother listening to this one. Perhaps i should reconsider

  40. Morning all 🙂😊
    Double figure temps, but still grey and had been raining again.
    Not sure about the headline, it's almost impossible to get an appointment with a doctor. They seem to be too busy doing other things. What exactly ? I can't quite understand, but hey ho. Same old story, what can we do ?
    And six years on I'm still waiting for my knee operation.

  42. Morning:
    Wordle 1,347 4/6
    ⬜🟩⬜⬜🟨
    ⬜🟩⬜🟨🟨
    🟩🟩🟨⬜⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  44. Just been out to empty the ash from the stove. Relatively mild. No breeze at all. The snowdrops look gorgeous. And the Thomasiana crocuses.

    Makes one almost glad to be alive…

  48. Good morning all,

    Looks as if we have all had a rough sleep during the night ..

    Anyway, the rain has cleared , blueish sky appearing , 6c, but my goodness, the water meadows all the way from here to Wareham are full of water .
    Our garden is soggy, and where I walk Pip spaniel is soggy and so is the golf course where Moh plays his game.

    The club had just drained the sand bunkers, and guess what , they are full again . Hey ho.🙄

      1. That's certainly reflected in the AfD voting pattern. It's almost as if they remember the hardships of life under communist rule via Moscow, and don't want to return to such horrors under Brussels/Strasbourg.

  50. I think the good people of UK need to wise up on how £s are created.. and why it's so easy for Lefties & the unscrupulous to spaff billions on anything & everything.. like a kid in a sweet shop.. like a Leftie with other people's money.

    All UK funds are raised via 'issuance' because all money is debt. That's why it says "I promise to pay the bearer" on every £20 note.

    The simple act of spending causes 'borrowing' to happen as a function of the way the accounting works.

    The Ways and Means Accounts are the default mechanism for funding but for the government's direction to the DMO (UK Debt Management Office) to intervene. The DMO explains it in the Review every year

    The DMA [Debt Management Account] is used to manage the Exchequer’s net cash position. Balances in central government accounts contained within the Exchequer pyramid are swept on a daily basis into the NLF [National Loans Fund] and the DMA is required to offset the resultant NLF balance through its borrowing and lending in the money markets. The DMA is held at the Bank of England and a positive end-of-day balance must be maintained at all times; it cannot be overdrawn. Automatic transfers from the government Ways and Means (II) account at the Bank of England would offset any negative end-of-day balances, though it is an objective to minimise such transfers.

    Summary:
    Lefties have realised The Treasury is not like your bank account at home. Your current account at home runs dry and you can only spend what's there.. your Treasury doesn't, it's a triple gold plated platinium creditcard. There is no £20 billion black hole. That's just a politicised spin.
    And since Lefties have no shame.. they will continue spaff money like no tomorrow.

  52. This is why the Activists at the Foreign Office asked the Mauritius govt to fill-in on the blank cheque whatever they pleased.

  53. A recent study has found women who carry a little extra weight live longer than men who mention it:
    https://scontent-cdg4-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/472506098_10162924321524954_2380878907078509204_n.jpg?stp=dst-jpg_s720x720_tt6&_nc_cat=105&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=127cfc&_nc_ohc=GWtTOvoWMM0Q7kNvgHGnyRo&_nc_oc=AdhVFI_WV7dKJF49XxF2l0L-6X82kJfPGZwjLA-hAttt6STALU74ci5-EfITYZo8vdLFsNhS2R_KevNUP3knsd2Y&_nc_zt=23&_nc_ht=scontent-cdg4-1.xx&_nc_gid=AWveaCWRzjMq4mYKrifZr5m&oh=00_AYDf55dZ61qpnu2hwfEry5lsg1sYa9xamtqUck6aAgUktA&oe=67C35E36

  54. Good Morning!

    FSB asks today how all this happened, how did we end up with rule by malicious, malevolent left wing human rights lawyers, who seem to get very fat off the back off the largesse the taxpayer is forced to give to illegal immigrants and the booming human rights industry. What is set out set out in The Curse of Lefty Human Rights Lawyers ought to be too preposterous to put in print, but every word is the truth – and funded by you and me.

    Yesterday we asked you to help Nanumaga with his book, Life in the Bunker , a funny Dad’s Army-like satire on the Establishment’s shenanigans to scupper the Brexit vote. Please read and give him your advice if you have any. It’s a good, short read.

    Energy watch 09.00: Demand: 40.29 GW. Total UK Production: 35.2 GW from: Hydrocarbons 36.1%; Wind 24.4%; Imports 13.1%; Biomass 6.4 and Nuclear 11.8. Solar: 5%

    We are importing 5.4 GW, including 4.GW from France. They do this because they class French electricity as low carbon, Other imports, from places like Norway, are classed as ‘other’, so we import expensively so Mad Miliband can boast that he’s reduced our carbon footprint.

    freespeechbacklash.com

  57. Fond of fixed exchange rates? Don't trust the government near a printing press? Join the euro!

    Seriously, though. Bretton Woods died long before 1971, it just didn't realise it.

    2. To be fair it gave the world an unprecedented spurt of a half a century of growth & prosperity.
      It's just vulnerable to legalised corruption of the extreme..

  58. Well now , how about this , I wonder how many other songs have been brought into line by the Woke brigade?

    DTletters.

    Woke song edits
    SIR – Geoff Riley (Letters, February 21) notes that a recent performance by Paul Simon of his 1960s song Homeward Bound was spoilt by the replacement of the word “cigarettes” with “airport lounges”.

    The latter are fortunately not part of everyday life, nor are they easy to “buy a pack of”, or to find in a raincoat (as in another of Simon’s songs, America).

    It’s not the wokeness of the rewrite that irritates, but the random choice of words with no consideration for the rest of the artist’s work and lyrics. They may as well have used “sausage roll”.

    Jenny Boddington
    Reading, Berkshire

    SIR – One verse of Cole Porter’s song I Get a Kick Out of You originally went:
    Some get a kick from cocaine.
    I’m sure that if
    I took even one sniff
    That would bore me terrifically, too
    Yet, I get a kick out of you.

    In the 1936 film, Anything Goes, to comply with a Hollywood code, the first line was changed to: “Some like the perfume in Spain”.

    Frank Sinatra has sung both versions.

    Tony Manning
    Barton on Sea, Hampshire

  59. I was searching for Woke altered songs , and found this ..

    Song: Brown Sugar by the Rolling Stones, 1971

    Choice lyric: “Gold coast slave ship bound for cotton fields / Sold in the market down in New Orleans / Scarred old slaver knows he's doing alright / Hear him whip the women just around midnight.”

    Why it wouldn't fly today: Even Mick Jagger knows these lyrics aged incredibly poorly; in recent years, he’s changed the words when he performs the song live. Beyond the song’s opening stanzas, the racism, misogyny and outright references to raping slaves make this a low point in the Stones’ discography.

    Song: Walk on the Wild Side by Lou Reed, 1972

    Choice lyric: "Holly came from Miami, F-L-A / Hitchhiked her way across the USA / Plucked her eyebrows on the way / Shaved her legs and then he was a she"

    Why it wouldn't fly today: In a song filled with racy anecdotes, this reference to Holly Woodlawn, a transgender actress who was bullied as a teenager and ran away from home, is alarmingly tone-deaf.

    Song: Kissin' Cousins by Elvis Presley, 1964

    Choice lyric: "Well I've got a gal, she's as cute as she can be / She's a distant cousin but she's not too distant with me"

    Why it wouldn't fly today: Nothing like a little casual incest to get the crowd up and dancing. This seemingly innocent but actually creepy doo-wop tune is taken from the King's 1964 movie musical, in which he plays an Air Force pilot whose two beautiful cousins compete for his affections. Different times?

    1. Elvis Costello/ Oliver's Army.

      McManus altered his original lyrics and grovelled in apology to protect his lucrative career as if before one of Stalin's show trials.

  60. Has anyone else experienced the NHS Hub ?
    My good lady has just tried to get an appointment at the local gp practice and was met with total indifference the woeman who answered, she was rude didn't ask her name and suggested that she see her pharmacist because she has had an obvious upper respiratory infection for around two weeks.
    Previously the way procedures were carried out you saw doctor first who gave a diagnosis then a prescription that you took or they sent to the pharmacy.
    How has this happened ?

    2. I was able to make an appointment for OH the other week without too much hassle. The receptionist just asked all the questions you have to wade through with their online triage system.
      I haven't tried making an appointment for myself since 2019 when I had shingles.

    3. Sorry to read this, Eddy…your good lady not alone. Many if not all GPs are now a private practice (mine has now made the practice a limited company, with Directors, the Head GP now the MD – he has an electric jaguar which he charges at the surgery (a beautiful stone built Victorian mansion, now also owned by the practice/company). You may get a better service if you dial 999. Good luck.

      1. Sorted now thank goodness.

        She was called back and there is an appointment made for this afternoon at minor injuries, local hospital. But obviously no bloody local gp available.
        And I've just seen one of the problems. Dr 'daily' waving his arm's around on the bbc, nearly every day.

        1. Eddy – I never watch or listen to ANY television or radio news, politics or current affairs.

          Makes for a much happier life.

          1. Bill – just to amplify your post. In my case:

            I never watch or listen to ANY television or radio news, politics or current affairs.

            I occasionally turn on Radio 4 at 07:56 to compare their Weather forecast with the pictures on the much more accurate and informative (German-based) WeatherRadar app on my phone. Sometimes I leave the radio on while eating my toast and so that I can have a good shout at Nick Robinson et al – for the breathing exercise, you understand..

        2. Good to read, Eddy, big relief for both of you, hope Mrs Eddy makes a full and solid recovery. Think it was Gordon Brown negotiated the current GP deal, GPs have quietly pushed it further, lockdown helped with that. Brown was also the politician sold UK gold stocks at a low price. Blair currently promoting himself and his policies via his Institute. Remember Dr David Kelly, no journalist seems to want to go there.

          1. It beats me why anyone would want to be a doctor these days. Once, they had a vocation and devoted themselves to their patients. Not now.

          2. Indeed they did, Bill. The first NHS GP we had in our small village post WW2 brought me into the world, held a surgery every evening in his home. Raised funds to build and furnish local cottage hospital. Everyone thought he walked on water, a great man. Looking at 70 years plus ago, now a different world, different country – they did things differently there.

          3. I can echo that – 1944 Dr Vosper operated on me twice; made home visits, and night calls; was always available.

            Autre temps etc

          4. If I had a time machine, Bill…think I’d go back to the 1950s. Perhaps its something all oldies think – the earlier years were better. I couldn’t give a rat’s behind about myself, but I worry like heck for my family.

          5. I agree. Admitted the standard rate of income tax was 8/6d…ad we suffered from British Railways.

            Apart from that, we had armed forces that were competent and reliable. One could buy a house for under £1,000 and get a mortgage at 3½% equal to 3 years income.

            And the sun always shone!!

          6. Not too sure about the sun, Bill…😄…but I remember cold winters (ice on inside of windows), hot and sunny summers, only a cold water tap, a gas tap, no bathroom and WC end of street in a row with others’…playing outside until all hours, parents not agonising over every detail of their offsprings’ lives. In my mind’s eye, I see it still, in full colour.

          7. 1947 – aged 6 – Mother kept me in bed in the January. Deep snow; frozen pipes. No coal….

          8. Two years before I was born, Bill…but I remember people talking about it. I’ve been following RfKJr recently, for his stance on vaccines (had a reaction to Covid ones). I think he’s right about vaccines and living conditions – up to the age of I think 5 when we moved to a council house, I had everything going – measles, mumps, chicken pox…and so did every other neighbourhood child, similar living conditions. I’ve been asked I think ten times now by GP surgery to go for combined covid/flu vaccine, no thanks.

          9. No coal because the miners stuck two fingers up at Manny Shinwell, Minister of Fuel and Power in the Attlee ministry. Fine thanks for the Minister who'd given them the Nationalised Coal Industry!

          11. The doctor who came out and treated me when I first moved here was of that ilk. His father had endowed the cottage hospital.

    4. RE, sorry to hear this sad tale. The NHS appears to be hit-and-miss even in the same location.

      A friend of mine found a lump in her left breast around the middle of December last. She rang her GP's surgery for an appointment, the upshot was that her GP rang back and told my friend to be at the surgery that afternoon. After examination he set in motion further examinations at the hospital. Within days my friend had the option of 23rd or 30th of December to see the specialist. Chose the latter. Nearly 3 hours of consultation, scans, mammogram and biopsy. 3rd of January appointment and Stage 2 cancer diagnosed, two more scans organised over the next week to check for any spread. Scan results were favourable and an operation performed 5th February. A day surgery event i.e. arrive at hospital 08:45 for pre-op radioactive injection due at 09:15; operation at 15:00 and I picked her up and took her home at 20:15.

      Now, as for one of my brothers-in-law at the same hospital recently… sorry tale of waiting >24 hours for a bed.

  61. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer's meeting with US President Donald Trump on Thursday..

    Go on Sir Keir, don't hold back. Lecture him on;
    Free Speech..
    International Law..
    Chagos Islands..
    Islamophobia..
    Two Tier policing & law..
    Trans rights..
    The faaaar right..
    Cancelled elections..
    Open borders..
    [that's enough for now..]

    1. I suspect that the Don is not going to be on receive mode and there will be a good deal of grovelling from 2TK.

    2. He should take a cue from Macron, put his hand on Donald's knee and say:

      "There, there there Donald, don't worry about. your money problems – just make yourself comfortable and I'll make you a cup of tea"

  62. NHS England boss Amanda Pritchard quits in shock move.

    Walk away without penalties for doing a crap job. The amount of people who have died on her watch she should be in prison.

      1. Not yet. I'm sure she will walk straight into another well paid sinecure where she isn't expected to do anything. This country stinks.

      1. Eddy, on January 18th South East Water contractors were digging up my Water Meter to replace it. I started to take photos with my phone and was met with "Don't do that, mate, we're not wearing Hard Hats". I rest my case.

    2. That beats the old joke:

      A large hole appeared in the road and three men from the council are looking in to it.

  65. Apparently she had a tough time in the house of commons questions recently they gave her a good hiding.

      2. I believe she was fired by Streeting

        Wiki:
        The Labour Government elected in 2024 declared it had "full confidence" in Pritchard as head of the NHS.[22] She has spoken about the need to address the NHS's 'productivity challenges' and emergency winter pressures.[23]

        On 25 February 2025 Pritchard announced her resignation from her post following meetings with Wes Streeting and criticism from several committees of the House of Commons.[24][25][26]

      1. Spot on.

        You realise, of course, that your comment will result in a hate crime being reported and 2 years inside.

    2. Speechie therapisty told him to;
      lean forward..
      purse lips..
      nod head as if to head butt..
      put hands in chopping board mode..
      on key words..

      refuse
      tackle
      havoc
      safe

      1. Oh and maintain at all times irritating nasal whine..
        the people adore it.. remember the will of the people is behind you..

    1. Was trialled at local J&I, cold toast scattered, orange juice half left, boxes of cereal opened and left. Soon stopped.

    2. Why aren’t the parents providing breakfast? It isn’t as if we don’t hand out enough in benefits.

    3. Feedback from various grandchildren and schoolchildren hereabouts (Wales): School "dinners" are now awful – inadequate and rubbish – since they became "free" school meals. They weren't great before but they have reduced hugely in both quantity and quality. The children come away hungry. A metaphor for the entire education system here.

      1. Feedback from the previous head of a local primary was that, despite her being uber lefty, she felt dread when Khan introduced free lunch for all primary school kids in London. The reason was that the school was already making a loss on free school meals for poor kids because the money the school got paid could not cover the costs.Once, everybody was entitled it would only get worse.

  68. Sir Jimmy Savile OBE
    45m
    DOGE revealed yesterday that USAID was giving George Soros' foundations hundreds of millions of dollars that was then spent on helping elect Democrats. The big NGO's have been laundering taxpayers' money so the US government can donate it to left wing political parties and causes they couldn't give it to officially. I'm willing to bet our government is involved in this too.

    1. Yep. It stinks. Wouldn't be so bad if they were patriotic & pro-West. But they are not. They were lidderally getting you to pay for agents & players to hate you on a daily basis.

    2. I'm willing to bet our government is involved in this too.

      Absolutely, it is their only reason to exist.

      2. Well. I do hope those are voluntary individual donations and not involuntary expropriations from taxpayer funds.

    4. Join you on your bet, Citroen1. Remember the days when everyone laughed at PrettyPolly…not laughing now..

      1. I'm still laughing at her. Knew about Soros from his time in The City at Singer & Friedlander long before he showed up in NYC at Arnold & Bleichroeder. Henry Arnold's son used to work for me before going to work for Soros. Hair raising tales that Polly knew nothing about.

        1. Oh my…was never sure if she was a he…do you have a blog, if you don’t…think about starting one?! 🤔☺️…just think of all the tip-offs you’d get…

        2. Wouldn't put anything past him.
          Polly thinks that Soros is the big boss behind the banking elite instead of just a Gates-level errand boy. She blocked me after I pointed out that there are far older names behind him.

    5. Here it is achieved via policy eg tax credits that subsidise corporate employers of large number of low waged staff and green energy subsidy. Various supermarkets and Mr Vince come to mind but there will also be many fat-cats who have done well out of mass immigration driving down wages.

    3. I do wonder how that compares to the normal spend for the Foreign office?
      someone's having a jolly old knees-up at our expense, that's for sure.

    4. Maybe his truly uncanny resemblance to another lover of status and magnificence does not end with the physical

      https://www.google.com/imgres?q=idi%20amin&imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fgumlet.assettype.com%2Fdowntoearth%252F2024-11-02%252Fqnuws3pn%252FIdiAminDada.jpg%3Fformat%3Dauto&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.downtoearth.org.in%2Ffood%2Fbook-excerpt-was-idi-amin-dada-really-a-cannibal-as-rumoured&docid=D7mYKg-sHreHiM&tbnid=DI0ArFAsTu4T4M&vet=12ahUKEwjw4-XOtt-LAxWYWUEAHdhCFCMQM3oECFMQAA..i&w=895&h=535&hcb=2&ved=2ahUKEwjw4-XOtt-LAxWYWUEAHdhCFCMQM3oECFMQAA

      1. 492155+ up ticks,

        Evening OP,
        I did mention a long time ago I was made a field officer in the Uganda parachute regiment
        based at Jinja barracks,free to travel within the Torro district, boss BIG DADA.

        Reality,
        As an industrial construction tramp working on a cement plant contract.

  71. 402155+ up ticks,

    To leave today would stop the life thieves from being given permission to stay, many after carrying out serious criminal actions resulting in deportation being
    a likely option, with permission to stay we have them repeat the criminal
    offences that should have seen the back of them initially.

    11:27AM
    Badenoch: UK will probably have to leave ECHR if it blocks us
    Kemi Badenoch suggested the UK would have to leave the European Convention on Human Rights if it prevents the country from doing “what is right”.

    “When it comes to the ECHR, I have always been very clear that the ECHR should not stop us from doing what is right for the people of this country and what is right in our national interest,” she said.

    “And if it continues to do so, at some point we will probably have to leave. What I have not agreed with is deciding that we should leave without having a plan for what that looks like and how to do so in a way that makes sense.

    1. Since it is not obligatory to follow what the ECHR tells us to do we should either:

      i) Do what other countries do and ignore rulings we disagree with, or
      ii) Leave the ECHR and forget the EU altogether.

      Lord Hermer has stated unequivocally that the UK will comply with all the ECHR's rulings regardless of whether or not they serve British interests.

    2. Ah, the Cons have a new string to yank on now that voters have seen through "We'll stop the boats" and "We'll reduce IHT"

    3. She needs to pull her finger out toot sweet and start leading an active and effective opposition. That is her job. She is heading for being as utterly disappointing and treacherous as Boris.

  74. The Left are hypocrites on diversity – and here’s how to prove it
    If you ever hear someone demand quotas for ‘underrepresented groups’, just do the following

    25 February 2025 7:00am GMT
    Michael Deacon

    A report says that Britain’s “institutionally racist, misogynistic and homophobic” fire service must recruit more people from underrepresented groups, in order to ensure that its workforce reflects the diversity of the population as a whole. Personally, though, I’m struggling to see why. When being carried to safety from a burning building, no one ever shouts, “Put me down, you white heteronormative brute! I demand to be saved by a neurodiverse non-binary pansexual Muslim fireperson instead!”

    None the less, the authors of this report – which was commissioned by the National Fire Chiefs Council – seem to find it concerning that only 9.3 per cent of firefighters are female, and that only 5.4 per cent come from an ethnic minority. Such figures contrast sharply with those for the general population (51 per cent female, and 18.3 per cent ethnic minority). “The diversity of the service,” the authors sternly conclude, “needs to be much more reflective of the communities it serves.”

    Do they really believe this, though? Whenever I hear anyone calling for diversity quotas, I wish they would invite me round to their house. This is not because I yearn to enjoy the company of these sanctimonious fatheads. It’s because I want to inspect their bookshelves.

    This is so I can confirm that the authors to be found on those shelves properly reflect the full diversity of the population as a whole. I want to check that, in line with figures from the Office for National Statistics, precisely 51 per cent of the authors are female, four per cent are black, 3.3 per cent are gay, and 17.8 per cent have some kind of disability. On top of that, I wish to ascertain that 2.7 per cent of the authors are Pakistani, 1.3 per cent are Polish, 0.8 per cent are Romanian, and 0.3 per cent are Somali.

    But that’s not all. According to the National Literacy Trust, 16 per cent of UK adults are functionally illiterate. So I’ll be checking that 16 per cent of authors on the shelves are functionally illiterate, too. I expect to see a representative proportion of novels that are wildly misspelt, or whose pages are entirely blank. After all, the illiterate have just as much right to representation as anyone else does.

    And if, while I’m compiling my report, my hosts say, “But this isn’t a fair analogy”, I’ll reply: “Why not? Your shelves plainly show that you spend more money on some communities’ books than on others. As a result of this blatant discrimination, authors from underrepresented groups are losing out financially.”

    And if my hosts say, “But these are just the authors I happen to like”, I’ll reply: “Oh, so you do believe in selection on merit. You do believe in picking the best person for the job, instead of scrupulously reflecting the glorious diversity of 21st-century Britain. Or at least, you believe in it when it comes to spending your own money, rather than the taxpayer’s.”

    Jane Fonda’s defence of ‘woke’ shows Hollywood elites still don’t get it
    I don’t know whether any of my readers happen to be personal friends with the Hollywood actress Jane Fonda. But if so, could they please urge her to take out a subscription to the Telegraph. Because, were she a regular reader of this column, she would never have embarrassed herself as she did on Sunday night.

    Having won a lifetime achievement award from the Screen Actors Guild, Ms Fonda launched into a toe-curling speech in defence of “being woke”. There was nothing remotely wrong with it, she fumed – because “woke just means you give a damn about other people”.

    I for one find it remarkable that, in 2025, there is anyone left on Earth still parroting this delusional rubbish. But as Ms Fonda appears to have missed my previous guidance on the subject, I fear I’m going to have to explain it again. No, being woke does not simply mean “you give a damn about other people”. Far from it. In reality, it’s a licence to bully other people, under the cunning guise of “giving a damn”.

    To give a topical example: being woke enables you to bully women who object to men using their changing rooms. As well as enjoying the thrill of calling these women transphobic old bigots, you may be able to get them disciplined at work, or even sacked.

    Surely Ms Fonda didn’t have that type of nastiness in mind. In fact, she can’t have. Because, elsewhere in her speech, she recalled that she made her first film “in 1958. It was at the tail end of McCarthyism, when so many careers were destroyed.”

    Imagine that. Losing your job, just because the establishment of the day deemed your opinions unacceptable. What a chilling thought.

    But hang on. Doesn’t it remind Ms Fonda of something?

    In case she, or any other Hollywood progressives, still need it spelt out: wokeness is the McCarthyism of the 21st century. But because it’s Left-wing rather than Right-wing, Hollywood progressives think it’s absolutely fine.

    1. Recently it has been noticeable that 'unrepresented groups in the diversity quotas' have been seen taking part in the local rubbish collection process. An independent contractor carries this out for the local councils. It is also noticeable that after the collections there have been quite a few spills of rubbish especially paper and some of the bins have not been emptied completely.
      However the newly employed people of the 'unrepresented diversity groups' do not seem to last longer than two weeks. A couple of years ago two large wheelies bins were discovered in the local woods, as the person who was supposed to be collecting kitchen waste, dumped the bins and suddenly disappeared.

    1. 402155+ up ticks,

      Afternoon TB,

      The political S(TOOL) maybe believes
      his own actions as in, he has surrounded a great multitude of the worlds evildoers using our borders, we the indigenous he sees as collateral damage.

      WEF / NWO / RESET Mindset.

    2. 402155+ up ticks,

      Afternoon TB,

      The political S(TOOL) maybe believes
      his own actions as in, he has surrounded a great multitude of the worlds evildoers using our borders, we the indigenous he sees as collateral damage.

      WEF / NWO / RESET Mindset.

    3. What they don't mention is that TTK and Rachel will have destroyed our GDP by April 2027 to such an extent that 2.5% of it will be eff all!

    1. Wonderful, thanks Angie. AbFab was too. Poor Kenny (remember Cupid?), he was one of the first AIDS victims, I think?

  77. I see that Trump is winning again,
    He has dragged this Labour government kicking and screaming to commit towards spending 2.50% of GDP on our defense while taking it out of the foreign aid budget.
    His Maganifidefense has done it again.

  78. Jonathan Miller
    Donald Trump humiliated Emmanuel Macron
    25 February 2025, 6:56am

    The orca killer whale is known for playing with its prey before killing it, always with a smile. An image that came to mind on Monday when French President Emmanuel Macron arrived at the White House to plead the cause of Ukraine to a grinning President Donald Trump.

    The French media is dutifully repeating the Elysée line that Macron had rekindled a bromance with the American president, but this is disconnected from reality. Macron returns to Paris today with, as far as I can tell, nothing but platitudes.

    This was nothing like Macron’s visits to Washington during the Biden administration, when the French president used to deal with Biden’s sympathetic secretary of state Antony Blinken and flirt with Karine Jean-Pierre, Biden’s francophone press secretary.

    The optics were calculated to put Macron in his place. Trump snubbed Macron when he failed to greet him on his arrival, snubbed him again by seating him uncomfortably in the Oval Office during a video-conference of G7 leaders and snubbed him again, off camera this time, when he ordered his United Nations ambassador to vote against a resolution, backed by Macron, demanding Russian withdrawal from Ukraine.

    Trump did all this with a smile, leaving Macron nonplussed. It was theatre but the images underlined the growing crisis in the Nato alliance as Trump tilts towards Moscow and demands that Europe pay for its own security.

    The tone was set when Macron arrived at the North Portico of the White House where he was welcomed by White House Chief of Protocol Monica Crowley, not by the president himself. Even Biden used to totter out when Macron rocked up. There were numerous and much anticipated vice-like handshakes, the first outside the Oval Office, which Macron endured with a rictus grin, a second inside when Trump appeared to be arm wrestling his French homologue.

    There were pleasantries. Trump talked of France as America’s oldest ally and congratulated Macron for the quality of the restoration of Notre Dame cathedral. Macron recalled how the countries had fought shoulder together in two world wars.

    But there’s no doubting who was the alpha male. The vote at the General Assembly, on the third anniversary of the start of Russia’s invasion, an undisguised repudiation of everything that Europe has been demanding, was a vivid reminder that there’s a new sheriff in town.

    Macron’s efforts to push back didn’t impress Trump. ‘Europe is loaning the money to Ukraine,’ Trump said when the two men talked. ‘They [the Europeans] get their money back.’

    Macron interrupted, putting his hand on Trump’s arm and saying in English, ‘No, in fact, to be frank, we paid. We provided real money, to be clear,’ he said. Trump, smiling, made a sceptical face and waved his hand dismissively.

    It was diplomacy live and direct. Macron is an actor but Trump took centre stage and had the best lines. He warned of the risk of nuclear war if the Ukraine conflict wasn’t settled. Macron promised to supply troops to assure any settlement in Ukraine, but exposed European weakness when pleaded for American security guarantees to cement any peace deal.

    A proposal Trump abruptly dismissed. ‘Europe must take that central role and assure the long term security of Ukraine’” he said. That means European troops on the ground as an ‘assurance’, but the credibility of such a force is surely doubtful since at the moment only France, Britain and Sweden have signalled readiness to participate.

    Macron has been a diminished figure for months after his ill-judged decision to call National Assembly elections that left him without a parliamentary majority. He had to be kept well away from his angry farmers when he opened the annual agriculture show in Paris, can only do walkabouts with pre-screened crowds and has been humiliated by Algeria, which is refusing to accept its citizens under deportation orders. Relations with Algeria are so poor they equate to a cold war. Macron used to go to Washington with the expectation that his opinions would be heeded. On Monday he was reduced to being supporting actor in Trump’s all-day photo opportunity.

    On Thursday, it will be Keir Starmer’s turn, and it’s impossible to imagine his effort to ‘recalibrate’ Trump’s policy on Ukraine is any more likely to succeed. Starmer has demanded toughened sanctions on Russia; Trump is hoping to do colossal trade deals with it.

    Trump is unlikely to be any more impressed by Starmer’s pleading on tariffs. And the PM could well be put on the defensive following J. D. Vance’s speech at the Munich Security Conference warning free speech is in retreat in Britain.

    Doubtless much perfume has been readied by Downing Street to positively spin this meeting but it’s going to be Trump not Starmer who sets the tone.

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

    A Turnip
    6 hours ago
    Trump will enjoy making a similar show of Starmer.
    Payback time for all of Labour's slurs and personal insults.
    Revenge is after all a dish best served cold.

    Fanny Craddock A Turnip
    6 hours ago
    I am sure Mr Farage will have briefed the President on how hated and despised Free Gear Kier is by the UK population who are not civil servants, unionists and academics. He won’t have forgotten the totally unnecessary Chagos disaster.

    1. "the totally unnecessary and extremely expensive for UK taxpayers Chagos disaster". It seems, according to some reports, that Mauritius [advised by a chum of the "great leader"] now want the US base on Diego Garcia closed??

  79. Oleksiy Kosach
    Trump – not Zelensky – is Ukraine’s only hope
    25 February 2025, 11:34am

    Ihave known Volodymyr Zelensky very well for years. As a senior official personally appointed by Zelensky, I spoke to him many times a day and observed him closely both in public and privately. We parted on good terms and without rancour. I have no personal axe to grind. But today I cannot remain silent about how Zelensky is weakening Ukraine under the guise of war. As a result of this new climate of fear I must write these words under the veil of anonymity – a necessary precaution against retaliation from the very regime I once served.

    It pains me to admit that at least some of what Donald Trump has said about Zelensky is true. While western politicians have rushed to condemn Trump and his vice president’s remarks, a quiet ripple of approval ran through large parts of Ukrainian society.

    Donald Trump is utterly wrong about Ukraine’s leadership, says Daria Kaleniuk
    Ukraine has become a paradox: a nation fighting for its sovereignty while dismantling its own democratic foundations. For years, the West has indulged in the illusion of Zelensky as the ‘face of democracy’. In reality, he has undermined our democracy, institutions and economy, making Ukraine much weaker in the face of an existential threat – and in the process destroying our nation’s motivation to fight the Russian aggressor.

    His first presidential term ended in May 2024, but with the war ongoing, no elections were held. Zelensky, who prolongs martial law every three months and has never thought about easing it, as European politicians are suggesting, claims that ‘the people don’t want elections’. The recent Ukrainian survey confirms this, with 65 per cent of Ukrainians not wanting to have elections throughout the war. But over half of Ukrainians wanted to see the end of the conflict as soon as possible, according to Gallup polling last year. That percentage might be higher now. Moreover, I often doubt we can trust current polls from Ukraine. Today, fear rules over a country where elections are indefinitely postponed, human rights are systematically eroded, and fear dictates daily life.

    Zelensky’s authoritarian instincts were already becoming clear even before Putin’s invasion. As early as 2019, I listened as he demanded propaganda from his subordinates to flood the media with praise when his policies failed. Today, he has achieved that: a vast army of voices branding him the face of democracy and the very embodiment of Ukraine itself.

    Ukraine, exhausted of every resource, cannot withstand a prolonged war of attrition. Thousands of Ukrainian men have paid bribes – tens of thousands of dollars – to flee the only European country with sealed borders for men of conscription age. Those who remain live in fear, wary of stepping outside lest they be seized off the streets, in cafés, or in shops – dragged into vans and sent to the front lines. Some of the latest draftees are disabled or chronically ill. Many receive little or no training before deployment. Increasingly, their fates are sealed in recruitment offices as officers wait to be bribed. Wives, girlfriends, daughters, and mothers now take on traditionally male jobs, scraping together whatever earnings they can to bribe officials, desperate to secure exemptions for their loved ones and for young men before they reach conscription age. Yet those with the right government connections are free from conscription and enjoy unrestricted freedom of movement.

    War has provided Zelensky with unchecked power, enabling his security forces to act with impunity. In at least eight frontline regions, martial law has given rise to police and military excesses. Under the pretext of hunting down collaborators, state forces raid homes, search phones and laptops, and detain civilians arbitrarily. In such areas, people will never reveal their true thoughts to a journalist or a pollster. They will parrot the state’s approved rhetoric – Zelensky as a hero, Ukraine as unbreakable. And then, in private, they will say what they really think: that they want him gone.

    On a more senior level, accusations of alleged Russian ties are routinely used to expropriate businesses. Scandals involving inflated reconstruction costs and bribes for travel permits are rampant, reflecting a broader erosion of trust in the government. Polls reveal a growing disenchantment among Ukrainians, with over 70 per cent now believing that the government is exploiting the war for personal gain. In some regions suffering relentless bombardment some quietly admit they would rather live under Russian rule. This is not treason; it is a consequence of Zelensky’s destruction of democracy. With no clear purpose left in the fight, many now seek an alternative – a pro-Russian candidate willing to strike a deal with Vladimir Putin, or even the grim resignation that life under a Russian flag might be preferable to endless war. The shallow patriotism that Zelensky promotes is crumbling. Exhaustion has set in. The question is no longer whether Ukraine can win, but whether it can even survive under his rule.

    The war has given Zelensky everything he ever wanted: absolute power, control over billions in foreign aid, and standing ovations from the world. From his very first day in office – which I witnessed first-hand – he was fixated on securing a second term. Publicly, he dismissed any talk of re-election, insisting it was too early. Privately, he never stopped preparing. Zelensky is obsessed with his approval ratings. Even now, he is laying the groundwork for his campaign. Since September 2024, his administration has been funneling extra payments to those who promote his image online – flooding social media with thousands of carefully curated videos showcasing him as the charming actor-turned-wartime leader, clad in his signature khaki T-shirt. But his more decisive strategy has been the systematic elimination of political opponents.

    Former Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Valerii Zaluzhnyi – the most formidable potential challenger – was abruptly dismissed last year and reassigned to a diplomatic post. Insiders report that criminal cases have already been prepared against Zaluzhnyi, should he dare to enter politics.

    Meanwhile, former President Petro Poroshenko has just been hit with sanctions – his bank accounts frozen, his assets seized, to the point that he reportedly couldn’t even pay for coffee at a gas station. For years, he has dreamed of reclaiming power, moving from Ukraine’s fifth president to its seventh, and he still commands a loyal electorate. Yuriy Boyko, leader of the party branded as pro-Russian was summoned by the Security Service of Ukraine for interrogation over a TikTok video calling for an end to the war. Zelensky is really preparing for elections, but he wants to make sure there is no level playing field so that he can certainly win them.

    Today, Zelensky and his circle have consolidated nearly total control over the state. They can manipulate elections, suppress dissent, and imprison whomever they choose. Independent media are officially banned from television and radio airwaves, while opposition and anticorruption activists active online have been threatened with arrest. One man who had exposed corruption involving Presidential chief of staff Andriy Yermak’s brother was sent straight to the frontlines, deployed to the most dangerous combat zones, where he died. Another prominent editor whose revelations brought down former Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov for corruption was saved from jail only by the urgent personal intervention of the US Ambassador. Another editor of an independent media outlet that irritates Zelensky was held by conscription officers for 24 hours incommunicado until he ‘found an understanding’ with them and went to the front. A parliamentarian who wrote that Zelensky must recognise he is losing and end the war was arrested for treason within three days and is now in jail, following a ruling from the district court of Kyiv.

    Before the war, Zelensky’s approval rating hovered at 23 per cent. When in the wake of Putin’s invasion the phrase ‘I need ammunition, not a ride’ – words spoken not by Zelensky but by an anonymous American diplomat – was widely circulated in the media, transforming him into a global icon. His approval ratings soared past 90 per cent. But over time, they began to erode. Private polling, which I have seen, now puts his support below 10 per cent. Public polls, aligned with the President’s Office, claim it remains at 63 per cent.

    Ukrainians are not cowards. But they do not want to die for Zelensky’s government, drowning in corruption scandals, day after day. Only ending the war and restoring democracy and the economy can preserve Ukraine. Continued war will lead not to victory but to the collapse of our nation. Power must change hands. And if Donald Trump does not make that happen, then Ukraine has no hope.

    Written by
    Oleksiy Kosach is a pseudonym for a former senior official in Volodymyr Zelensky’s government

  81. A very agreeable hour and a quarter in the garden. Swept up a barrow load of trimming blown off three birch trees. Then collected another of kindling for t'stove. Helped by Gus. Pickles shoved off.

    We have had a plague of moles. I have been setting five traps in different places for a month. Yesterday, I re-positioned them and – lo and behold – two ex-moles today. Reet chuffed.

      1. G & P started off catching one or two a week. I fear that they became bored and show no interest these days.

          1. You are right about the taste. But that didn’t stop G & P catching them for a good year or . And, this arvo, I showed Gus one of the latest ones, and he wanted to take it. So I told him to catch his own!!

    1. Most "disinformation" comes from unelected, undemocratic people like you – Frau Fonda Lyin!

    2. I do wish these powerful politicians could steer clear of the black, white, red logos with the diagonal lines. It does so distract from the content of what they are saying…

      1. My thoughts exactly. It is quite extraordinary how that ghastly mindset has survived and, yet again, taken charge.

        1. What i find laughable horrifying is the actual Nazis are calling AFD far right. AFD are centre right conservatives.

    1. I don't know if this being put out by lots of players, but I think I may know the original author.

        1. A relative of an in-law.
          We saw it a while ago and it seems to have been added to, from their original.

  85. More than 50 people have died in north western Congo from an unknown illness which has been killing victims within 48 hours.

    The World Health Organization (WHO) has dispatched a team of experts to the area to take samples and try to determine the cause.

    The WHO’s Africa office said the first cases in the town of Boloko began after three children ate a bat and quickly died following haemorrhagic fever symptoms, Associated Press reported.

    There have been 419 cases and 53 deaths since the outbreak began on Jan 21.

    Serge Ngalebato, medical director of Bikoro Hospital, a regional monitoring centre said the interval between the onset of symptoms and death had been 48 hours in the majority of cases, and “that’s what’s really worrying”.

    The outbreak also flared in the town of Bomate from Feb 9, and samples from 13 cases have been sent to the National Institute for Biomedical Research in Congo’s capital, Kinshasa, for testing.

  86. Does anyone have the link to the Video which I think was posted on here in which an American (whose name I've forgotten) demolishes Piers Morgan with reference to America's involvement in destabilising Ukraine!?

      1. Ah, Piers Moron – we haven't forgotten the lies about British troops, nor your views on those who refused the ConVid vaccine!!

        1. I know I only reposted it today because 3 women I was talking to thought Mr Putin was totally evil and they hadn't a clue how the conflict started – when I next meet them I intend to enlighten them by playing an extract from Prof Sachs analysis!

          1. I believe the problem stems from only watching BBC or Sky news with nothing to balance their left wing bias.

  87. Nelson makes way for Yvette Cooper portrait in Parliament’s diversity drive. 25 February 2025.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/dbdb04f9c2477d0cdd5099276ab0c62cc447128549c65ac2bb314c790f0b1afa.jpg
    While images of national heroes have been removed, portraits of Labour grandees including Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, have been installed as part of ongoing efforts to boost gender and ethnic diversity.

    I don’t think that even the USSR’s Politburo went for self-promotion, almost deification. It shows you something of these people mind set. There’s no arguing with this. It’s beyond reason.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/02/25/lord-nelson-replaced-yvette-cooper-portrait-parliament/

    4. That's breathtaking in its arrogance. Utter Balls. One can imagine the lot of 'em lined up atop Lenin's tomb in Red Trafalgar Square.

    8. Good. I don't like the idea of portraits of our greats adorning the walls of this traitorous government. I expect Nelson would agree.

  88. Nelson makes way for Yvette Cooper portrait in Parliament’s diversity drive. 25 February 2025.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/dbdb04f9c2477d0cdd5099276ab0c62cc447128549c65ac2bb314c790f0b1afa.jpg
    While images of national heroes have been removed, portraits of Labour grandees including Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, have been installed as part of ongoing efforts to boost gender and ethnic diversity.

    I don’t think that even the USSR’s Politburo went for self-promotion, almost deification. It shows you something of these people mind set. There’s no arguing with this. It’s beyond reason.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/02/25/lord-nelson-replaced-yvette-cooper-portrait-parliament/

  89. Why the Foreign Office shouldn’t save Brits abroad
    James Snell24 February 2025, 4:31pm
    One of the perils of working in or even travelling to the Middle East and Central Asia is that there is a high risk of being taken hostage by autocratic states or terrorist groups. Peter Reynolds, 79, and Barbie, his 75-year-old wife, are the latest Brits to find this out the hard way. The couple, who have been running projects in Afghanistan for 18 years, were detained by the Taliban in Afghanistan on 1 February. Their children have heard nothing from them for a fortnight.

    The grim reality is that they might be left languishing as hostages for some time. A former colleague of mine at the New Lines Institute, Elizabeth Tsurkov, has been a hostage of either the Iranian regime or a proxy force of that regime for over 700 days. Elizabeth is a tremendous professional and one of the world’s great scholars. It is an outrage that the Iranian regime kidnapped her and continues to hold her hostage. Stories like Elizabeth’s, and the Reynolds’, are depressingly common.

    The British state ought to let it be widely known that this practice will now end

    The Reynolds, who have lived in Afghanistan for some time, are not holidaymakers. And it seems clear that they have done some good for the country’s people. My heart bleeds for them. It really does. But the British government should spend not a single pound, not a single official’s time, on rescuing Brits like this abroad. Those who elected to stay on after the fall of the legitimate, internationally-recognised Afghan government, despite knowing that the two powers left in the country were the Taliban and Isis, surely knew the risks of staying put. It’s not the state’s job to save ​them from the clutches of the Taliban.

    Most popular
    Jonathan Miller
    Donald Trump humiliated Emmanuel Macron

    I’m an analyst of some fairly dangerous countries, mostly in the Middle East. When friends of mine announce their intention to travel for fun to hostage-taking counties, or places where there is a lot of kidnapping for ransom (North Korea, Russia, China, Iran, Iraq, Libya and so on), they sometimes ask me for my thoughts: I tell them not to go. And I say also that if they are taken hostage while out there – something that is not unlikely – I will personally go on TV or radio, speaking as a friend of theirs, and tell the public that the government should not help them.

    I will say, if called upon, that they knew what they were doing and went in defiance of good and sensible advice. These people tend to go anyway, however. They don’t ask for advice so much as glory in their bad choices. They do this because they are deluded about the risks (the world is filled with Westerners who truly believe the world is their playground and that everyone will be glad to see them wherever they go and that ‘nothing like that could ever happen to me’). They go also because they believe deep down that the British state will bail them out – to the tune of hundreds of millions if necessary – if they are taken hostage.

    Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was held by Iran quite explicitly because it demanded hundreds of millions of dollars from the British state. This was an overdue refund on some tanks ordered by the Shah before 1979, Iran said. Iran is so lawless and corrupt that it believes this is how you do business. Britain is so spineless that its leaders keep proving this to be true – and eventually, although the state officially denies this, it paid out.

    This practice of hostage taking in exchange for money is evil and pernicious. But the problem with the British state paying up is that, as those who coughed up the Danegeld found out, it doesn’t make the problem go away: it means that they keep coming back for more. It incentivises hostage-taking and guarantees that more people will be kidnapped.

    The British state ought to let it be widely known that this practice will now end. That it will leave people in those places if they defy Foreign Office advice and risk their safety in such an obvious way.

    Terrorist groups like the Islamic State and the Taliban routinely take hostages. Armed groups that are not technically international terrorists do it, too. To put yourself in a position to be taken hostage by these people is to fund their war efforts, to hand them chips in the poker game of power.

    It’s an open secret that Isis was funded significantly in its early days by taking hostages. Hostage-taking was a common tactic in the Syrian civil war. European governments actively rewarded and justified the practice by paying out enormous sums of money. The Iranian state secures sanctions relief and pallets of cash because it takes hostages as often as it does. This is what the Taliban now likely wants to do at the expense of Peter and Barbie Reynolds. Britain must make it known that it will no longer be extorted in this way.

    from Coffee House the Spectator

    1. Those two are 79 and 75 years old, time for the DNR signs to be placed in the cell at the foot of their cots. Do Not Repatriate.

  90. Wordle No. 1,347 3/6

    ⬜🟩⬜⬜🟨
    ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    Wordle 25 Feb 2025

    Dehydration for Birdie Three?

    1. Well done, par today here.

      Wordle 1,347 4/6

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

    2. Well done. Par for me.

      Wordle 1,347 4/6

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

    3. Once I got the key letter in starter word 3 there was only one option (Thank God, after the last few days!) Hard fought Par…

      Wordle 1,347 4/6

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

    4. Very well done. Par here. Should have gone through the D’s in the Dictionary.

      Wordle 1,347 4/6

      ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
      ⬜🟩⬜🟩⬜
      ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. I wonder how many people these days understand physog? It's a word my mother taught me, along with expressions like gannin yam.

  92. The way we were, Conway :-)….just watching/listening to Starmer, sounds a bit alarming…be interested in your thoughts…

      1. Very similar here. The bit I heard almost sounded as though Russia poised to invade the UK. Foreign Aid cobbed to make way for Defense.

        1. To be honest, if the current Russian regime were to take over we’d be better managed! Starmer and his lot are more like the Brezhnev era.

  93. Good lord!

    I was just chatting to a young supermarket cashier, and when he gathered that I was English but lived here, he nodded sagely. "Like the Soviet Union now, isn't it?"

    1. A lot of young people are nowhere near as brainwashed as the 'B'BC like to think they are.

      1. I was heartened when my dressage pupil spoke out against woke. All the people in her office feel the same.

    2. Though Malta is in the EU they don't have it as bad as we do. I have been putting out feelers and researching. We will see what happens in the near future. If we get Shariah recognised officially i will seriously consider leaving for good.

      You can use me as a free holiday destination but you will have to sing for your supper. Wine included. :@)

      2. You know I’m more than happy to sing for you even without bribery and corruption.

        Wine does help, though. 😉

      1. Hello Conway. Would you consider expanding on this for an article or two over at Free Speech Backlash? I for one would love to hear about your experience in a little more detail if you were game.

    4. Everyone, it seems, but our government (and its useful idiots) knows the level of danger now here, ashes. I wish I could transplant (along with animals, children, grandchildren et al) to your chosen neck of the woods. It is an unmitigated joy to hear of your freedom and fun :-)))))

    5. Husband has visited Russia a few times, on business. He'd move there in a heartbeat. Clean streets, law n' order, good shops etc etc…(didn't see/hear anyone singing tho! x

        1. Thank you, Paul. He enjoyed this very much, and so did I. He sends his best regards to you, Kate x

          1. That Basso Profundo, standing on the right-hand side of the screen, is a huge bloke. The others, standing on a step higher than him, still come up to his shoulder.
            Love the voice!

          3. I have a lot of respect for them. Those I have met and worked with have been top people.

  95. T hat's me for this very agreeable day. Lots of sunshine. Fairly mild – though a chilly breeze did get up mid-afternoon. Lovely to do some useful work and not feel shrimmed with cold. And to watch G & P tearing round the garden like kittens.

    From now on, it will be progressively colder again – (Grrr) – though some sun is supposed to be about occasionally.

    Have a spiffing evening. I wonder where they'll put the mosque in Ambridge…

    A demain.

  96. I'm starting to wonder now if the Conservative Party has played a bit of a blinder in handing the election to Labour and Starmer. Suppose that they realised Trump would easily win the USA election.
    Suppose they realised that everything that the Conservatives and Labour, not forgetting the LibDems, have been signed up to was about to be found out as a complete scam, when Trump took power.
    All the ideology and the agendas that they meekly followed along with the rest of the West, net zero, forever war with Russia, climate change, open borders, the pandemic fiasco, wokery, DEI, all the giving money away in foreign aid to dictators, BLM, the fake Brexit, two tier justice, defunding the police etc,
    All about to be exposed as deliberate nation state self harming and merely just power grabs for the supranationals and billionaire plutocrats to reset the planet.
    Leaving Starmer and Labour holding the fort, trying to defend it all. Well that would be an explanation for the Conservative passing the baton.
    Assuming that they weren't just completely hopeless, that is.

    1. I fear the Conservative Party was not (and hasn't been for years) as clever and clear-sighted as that.

        1. That too. Even when they were (ie even when they had a conservative leader) they were so wet you could shoot snipe off them.

          1. I haven't seen a snipe since 1985; nor a woodcock since 1990. They used to be common hereabouts.

          3. Think I saw a snipe recently, they move so fast it is usually just a glance. There are some boggy woods not far away where woodcock were common many years ago. Never understood why some people enjoy shooting at such marvellous birds.

          4. Completely agree. No shooting last few years, hope that continues. A few escape, soon seen off by Mr Fox.

          5. Completely agree. No shooting last few years, hope that continues. A few escape, soon seen off by Mr Fox.

          10. Have seen a couple snipe recently, first for many years. Similar mole hills in garden, and different breeds of garden birds on feeder. Climate in reverse, interdecadal pacific oscillation – apparently.

          11. It's your age…
            Although I hadn't realised it had been quite so long

            Long is that the right word here?

          14. Plenty of common snipe (and jack snipe in winter) up at Cley-Next-The-Sea.

            I had a woodcock fly over my house last year.

          15. Well they are here – and I never see them! That is (what I said above) pinched from my hero PG Wodehouse, btw :-)))

          2. And towards the end known by her 'colleagues' as 'Daggers' (Dagenham being two stops on from Barking!)

      2. But they have all known what was coming and gone along with the agenda (in exchange for loadsa dosh). Weak, weak, weak. Absolute venal cowards and traitors. In my opinion.

        1. The few that did try to make a difference found obstacles placed in their way by their own party.

          1. Just watched the L Truss interview with whats'isface. You can see why they couldn't get rid or her quick enough. Big shame she didn't have the superhuman "Trump Gene" that would have enabled her to tell them to F the F Right Off.

          2. Wouldn’t it be lovely if President Trump made Truss his new ambassador…perhaps someone should tweet Elon.

          3. Just watched the L Truss interview with whats'isface. You can see why they couldn't get rid or her quick enough. Big shame she didn't have the superhuman "Trump Gene" that would have enabled her to tell them to F the F Right Off.

  100. Well. according to that nice and philanthropic Mr Gates, they are to be our future sustenance.

    1. My eyes do look like strawberries at the moment. I used Otex instead of Optrex without realising.

  103. 'Night All
    This never ceases to be relevant.

    “The most terrifying force of death, comes from the hands of men who wanted to be left alone. They try, so very hard, to mind their own business and provide for themselves and those they love. They resist every impulse to fight back, knowing the forced and permanent change of life that will come from it. They know, that the moment they fight back, their lives as they have lived them, are over.

    The moment the men who wanted to be left alone are forced to fight back, it is a form of suicide. They are literally killing off who they used to be. Which is why, when forced to take up violence, these men who wanted to be left alone, fight with unholy vengeance against those who murdered their former lives. They fight with raw hate, and a drive that cannot be fathomed by those who are merely play-acting at politics and terror. TRUE TERROR will arrive at these people’s door, and they will cry, scream and beg for mercy… but it will fall upon the deaf ears of the men who just wanted to be left alone.”
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b39f3931575215cae1e53eb3c533d7d7f1f062e6a0f74ec2226864cba7f8c2bd.jpg

  105. Left and Right mean nothing to me now, Phizz. It is Globalist/authoritarian v real people, in my view.

          5. I'm testing a piece of advice given on here a month or two back suggesting that it may help reduce the need for a nocturnal pee. I'll let you know if it works in due course…

          6. I follow the Didier Raoult protocol he is the most eminent virologist in Europe(look him up)
            1A Zinc Ionophore (Ivermectin,HCQ,Quercetin)
            2 Zinc
            3 VitD
            Killed Convid stone dead so he was vilified
            Zinc is the antiviral the Ionophore gets it into the cells
            This alongside a broad spectrum antibiotic to deal with bacterial chest infections was the kit used in India

    2. My M-i-L, who is 99 this year, takes no daily medication.

      She also eats a diet that would give Grizzly conniption fits.

      1. Everyone has different life experiences and metabolisms. If the M-i-L had worked in the mills she would be dead.

        1. Too true, she lived/lives well.

          But my grandmother lived and ate similarly and survived into her 90's having worked as a skivvy and supported a disabled husband.

          I am very suspicious of all claims as to what might or might not be the ideal diet.

          1. We just don't really know. Paid nutritionists/scientists for industry have muddied the waters.

            The advice i would give is if it works for you it works for you.

            We are seeing a huge increase in cancers and heart conditions. They never mention the elephant in the room but it could also be down to successive generations being more reliant on UHP foods including mass produced bread via the Chorley Wood method.

            Your grandmother and mother in law would not have been subjected to pesticides and fast foods. Which is where i believe the problem lies.

          7. Rightly so, sos. Genes count, my dad and his fam all lived into their 90s, my mum and hers into their 60s…hoping I take after dad's…when I look in the mirror now I see my dad's mum, so hope for me (I hope)…

          8. No exhaust fumes, either, sos. Or the amount of traffic generally. One of my uncles bought my nana a twin tub in the hope she'd stop using her boiler. Never used it – she put a doily on the top, and a vase of plastic flowers (to show how 'modern' she was, also like to have a 'blue rinse' in her hair. He also tried to persuade her to move into a flat, her response 'I'm not going there, it's full of old people'….aged about 80 at the time. I like to think I take after her 🙂

          12. Thank you, Phiz, she very much was. She had nine grandchildren, I was the only one to visit/get along with her. Quite scary, but I would stand my ground, in the most polite way I could. I once reckoned she'd had several miscarriages, along with the six live births (of which five boys, one my dad, and the sole girl who died of meningitis aged around seven). A hard life. She would have made little of Women's Lib.

          13. The ideal diet is the most enjoyable one!

            No pleasure foregone is worth an extra 5 years in a Nursing Home in Weston-super-Mare….

          14. My dad admitted to one, staff told me average stay (until death) around 2.5 to 3 years, and so it was. But he had dementia. One visit, amazed to see him dancing quick step with staff. I guess you never really know anyone, least of all family….

          15. The ideal diet is the most enjoyable one!

            No pleasure foregone is worth an extra 5 years in a Nursing Home in Weston-super-Mare….

          16. The ideal diet is the most enjoyable one!

            No pleasure foregone is worth an extra 5 years in a Nursing Home in Weston-super-Mare….

    3. Up until last October I took no medication at all. Now I have 8 pills a day. I’ve had no jabs and I’m a carnivore but heart disease runs in the family and so do conditions related to anxiety.

      1. Is this following your hospital stay, Sue…so sorry to read it, hope you're as well as you can be. Husband is a carnivore, he says it takes a little while to really feel the benefit, hope you feel it soon x perhaps try yoga or similar for anxiety – my daughter suffered from that, she learnt a tapping technique? not fully sure what that entails, might like to research it? good luck and love x

  108. Agreed.
    I'm of the view that I enjoy what I eat and drink and will continue accordingly.
    What's the point of being miserable over your food and drink just to live a few more years?

    1. I do agree but then………………Grizz does enjoy his meat.

      I'm happy to eat eggs, fish, meat and chicken but i do need a contrast with it. I had home made provencal chicken today. It needed a green salad to balance the saute potatoes. And the wine of course.

      1. I love my meat, fish, eggs and cheese. If muppets and halfwits want to keep eating fruit, vegetation, cereals, sugar-laden crap and ultra-processed junk masquerading as 'food' don't let me stop them; after all it's their health and wellbeing they are playing Russian roulette with.

        Stupidity has inherited the earth. Thankfully they are all disappearing up their own massive arseholes.

        Hej då!

        1. I eat very little in the way of processed foods. Might have a slice of wholemeal toast to go with the chicken liver pate (home made !).

          2. Unofficial Nottler party in July.

            It’s unofficial because the officials don’t organise one.

            Soo… South Hampshire UK. Date to be arranged. Wheelchair access right up until you reach the seesaw… Then boing !

          4. Good morning to you Grizz x…yes I just received it but the timing is from 40 minutes previous. Very gloomy here weatherwise, but I don’t mind that – everything else A-OK and hope the same with you 🙂

        3. I'm a big fruit fan, particularly apples and bananas, I tend to eat one of each every day (I wont bore with the list of benefits) – but it's just part of my balanced (ho ho ho) diet.
          It's not doing me any harm but I have grown another asshole… (is this correct? Ed.)

      2. Phizz – you are a Thinifer (Felifer), hence can eat as you please. Others here are Fattipuffs (Pattapouffes) and are constrained accordingly.

    1. When the ice cream van came round in the Summer i would run to my mum and ask for money. She didn't have any. A carrot was the substitute. I still like them. And i am not a dessert person.

      Here endeth the lesson.

      1. One of the funniest things I ever heard was the parents telling their children that the ice cream van only played its tunes when it had run out of ice cream! (awesome….)

  110. Feet run in my family, as do noses… I'm on 5 prescribed pills and 1 voluntary (Vit D3 – stops colds). Untl relatively recently, used to be none.

  111. I'll join your club if I may.

    I get hay fever so take antihistamines.

    Until my heart attack, I took nothing, apart from anti-h's, now on 7 tablets a day, but down from 10.

    I had the jabs; in France if one was travelling back to the UK it was impossible not to, and I strongly suspect the coronary was down to them.

    I still think I'm reasonably fit, I can walk miles and swim miles in a week.

    1. I take them too, when pollen count high. Various websites for info of count in your area. Started doing this after sitting near open window, with left side of body facing outward – result, swollen lopsided face and arm, covered in a rash…tree pollen can be pretty nasty…

  113. Imagine if you looked in the mirror and saw me.
    You'd die of shock.
    If you saw Phizzee, you'd die of shock but painfully.

    1. I would if I saw anyone else but me. My other grandfather, a few hours before he died, was shaving and swore he saw no-one in the mirror let alone himself. Possibly the stroke he died of shortly after. Phizzee..?.Aw I don’t believe you, sos……😂

        1. I think it came from Terry Pratchett where Nanny Ogg could stuff quite a lot into her elasticated bloomers. Including the odd bottles of the fizzy stuff.

        1. You racist !!!
          Haven’t you heard about how DEI is so successful that Elon Musk is going to fire BooBoo?

  117. I worked at Sweetheart Plastics for a while when i was in the wrong place. Money was bloody good. Noisy though. 2pm to 10pm shift. You had to be quick at knock off otherwise you would get trampled by the stampede to the Pub.

    1. We started early, 6 am, finished noon…they were all old guys, I was spoiled rotten. Anyone got fresh with me, they soon learned not to.

    1. C on a bike, rather not sos, thanks:-DD…my grandfather was always quite cold with me, I suspect largely because I was my father's child (he hated him, taken his daughter away). Famblies eh…..speaking of Blair have you seen the website of his Institute, he's seeking his legacy, in it for the long haul….

      1. I got on well with my grandfathers, one taught me to play chess, he was extremely good at it, he regularly played on level terms with CHOD Alexander of Enigma fame; the disabled one taught me to play cribbage.

        I loved them both tremendously and both of them were always happy to play their games with their grandson.

        1. Never met my Father's parents, they died before I was born, as did my maternal grandmother.

          1. That's sad.
            In my view, in an ideal world, one should get to know ones immediate ancestors and most importantly parents should not outlive their children.

          2. My mother, in her later years, did a lot of research into family tree, was quite interesting. Plus it kept her mind busy post retirement, she died in her mid 60s, aneurysm, second one – a heavy smoker.

          5. Sorry to read Paul, I guess what you never had it's difficult to miss. I know people who regard friends as family much more than their own relatives. You turned out well, whoever raised you x

          8. That's very kind of you, KJ. (Looks down and shuffles feet).
            I was a pain in the arse, always into things and being trouble as a small boy. Always being at boarding school / university etc, never really got to know my parents, sadly. Father has been gone since 1997, and Mother now has dementia, so it's a bit late. To prevent the same with my two lads, we try to get together frequently.

          9. Small boys are meant to be such pains, Paul (see ‘Malcolm in the Middle’), otherwise they grow up without fire in their bellies. It is a shame you didn’t know your parents, although again – some knew theirs too well. I remember you said earlier about Mother, dementia is such a hard slog – the person seems outwardly the same, but it’s just a physical presence, they are actually gone (would that be our soul?), my dad didn’t know me, eventually I stopped visiting, realising I’d done all I could to settle him. Good to read you get together with your lads, hope you have a great time – my lot visit weekly, I love the noise (and them).

          10. Us, we tend to go on holiday together, Second Son & I take a pub visit usually every week (as he lives fairly close) and we visit Firstbon every fortnight or so to help out on his smallholding (good exercise) and take him to dinner at the local cafe (French chef, superb food!).
            It seems to work.

          11. We do very similarly, with one daughter and family. Other one, not so much, has distanced herself without explanation – hurtful at the time, but OK with it now. Gardening always a good idea, smallholding even better…and local caff a winner!

          13. Sad to read, opo…I have offspring who act similarly, no rift, just can't be arsed, have tried several times with them.

        2. Sounds very much like my life with my own grandchildren, sos. I'm very fortunate they find time to visit because they want to – everyone's life is so busy these days, between work and raising family. Much more difficult than when I did it.

  120. Dreadful thought for the day:

    Trump has stated that he has instructed the US armed forces to obliterate Iran if they assassinate him.

    On balance, do you think it would be good for world peace if they did?

          3. Far as I can gather, opopanax (and that's not too far, as I don't exist there), the mullah days seem to be numbered. A lot of social unrest, becoming more difficult to manage, largely connected to economy rather than politics. They're causing mayhem with Hamas/Gaza, for now Israel treading cautiously but that may not last. Egypt and Jordan been asked to take some population, refusing for now. I think Trump will let BN deal with it as he wishes.

          1. No, I meant that if the Islamists lost their finances.

            What happens later is a different issue.

          3. Rubbish, the CIA's fingers are certainly dirty, but if you believe they are behind most of the world's terrorist outrages you're deluded.

    2. About the worst thing that could happen. MiriAF thinks there might be a fake assissination of Trump (like the fake assassination attempts) when they want to launch an attack on Iran.
      Just been listening to Naomi Wolf and Catherine Austin Fitts discussing the current dismantling of the civil service by DOGE – they think the goal of it is to establish a digital id-based system (all the data's being sucked up by private enterprises).

      When they built up (deliberately) that huge personality cult around Trump, it was obvious that something really bad was being planned.

          2. A repeat of 9/11 (terror incident on US soil, war launched ) would be one of the worst things that could happen imo, because of general evil, loss of life, theft and proof millions of people will believe any “terror incident” that’s reported on the TV. Before you say that Iran’s funding terrorism…they would say that, wouldn’t they.

          3. First points agreed.
            Last point:
            Are you seriously contending that Iran isn’t funding terrorism?

          4. I think most if not all of the terror events in the west are not what we’re led to believe they are. Probably funding stuff in teh middle east, but there hasn’t been peace there since the year dot, so it’ll need a higher threshold to convince that Iran uniquely deserves to be attacked.

          5. I don't think Iran uniquely deserves to be attacked, far from it.

            But I do believe that Iran is one of the epicentres perpetuating Islamic terrorism

    3. Well, if the Iranians assassinate Trump, he won't be around to give the order to obliterate Iran.

          2. It would be Vance’s decision as Vice-President. He may be of the same mind as Trump, but he still would not be legally bound to carry out Trump’s orders after the President’s death.

          3. Probably true, but I don't know what the US constitution says about such orders, hopefully it would go to the supreme court before they acted.

        2. The likelihood of any Trump assassination is almost nil (bar random nutjobs), now we have Vance and a huge procession of very sound people in the new government of the USA. Hell, we have Tulsi Gabbard way down the pecking order but glowing nevertheless.

          6. Possibly.

            I just like to get people to debate and look at all sides to the argument.
            By doing so I’ve found that my own entrenched opinions might be wrong.
            Never be afraid of standing up and questioning.

          7. Agree. Have found myself in trouble because of it (lines/detention at school), standing up to my father but aware he might take it out on my mother. Not as bad tho when I started work, would often be welcomed there. I like to think I don't have entrenched opinions, whilst being aware I actually do. Open mind a wonderful thing, if it's not taken too far….

      2. Surely they won't. Why would they? The US security services might fake an assassination, with an Iranian passport found near the scene.

      1. sos, you are giving the impression that you are very physically repulsive indeed. i find it hard to believe. Can you provide proof?

        1. Let’s put it this way:
          It took several photographs before my passport picture was accepted.

          On the other hand, I have the physique of Adonis.
          But only at the end of the swimming season, 200+ kilometres in.

  122. Evan Davies on PM:
    "…it's turned out to be one of the most significant days of Keir Starmer's premiership…a decision on defence spending…in the short term financed with a cut to overseas aid, the kind of choice that one imagines, if made by a right-wing goverment, would have been slaughtered by a Labour opposition."

    His journo guests weren't impressed: "Starmer's buying favour in Washington…it's a trivial increase really…Labour members I've spoken to are livid."

        1. I think very little impresses him….family, a few individuals like Vance (I like him, too). Possibly the ones who like Trump are similar to him. World of difference between Trump and Starmer characters, be interesting to see how they get on together.

      3. No he won’t! Would anyone with half a brain be impressed with a so-called leader who absolutely hates his country and it’s people?

      1. I had just turned on the radio to hear the headlines. Nevertheless, it’s worth listening to the Beeb outlook to know what we’re up against because it is, unfortunately, still very influential. However, one of the guests was very critical of the defence budget increase, pointing out that Reeves has tied herself up with her ‘ficscal rules’ and that there really won’t be much of an increase at all.

  125. It's been a Busy day today.
    Still can't get an honest straightforward reply from NHS regarding my long overdue operation. I'm very tired so taking the easy way out up the wooden hill.
    Goodnight all.

        1. Just say you fainted, bumped your head…(been there done that). Managed to faint in the kitchen several years ago early one morning (I suspect low bp), on a corner of the worktop, and banged my head on both front and back, husband found me on floor. Had two lovely black eyes for a month. Wouldn’t go to hospital, I don’t like medics. Good luck, Eddy – don’t let them tell you ‘no’ if you need them to say ‘yes’.

          1. I have often thought of falling down the last few stairs.
            But i know in ‘an emergency’ they wouldn’t take me to the required hospital.

          2. Perhaps admissions are different now, mine was several years ago, diagnosis ‘syncope’ or some such. When you say required hospital, do you mean your local/nearest one or a specialist one?

    1. I think she passed some time ago, G4…I think she had no relatives, can only hope well cared for at the end. I reckon she's out there, somewhere, putting things to right…indomitable spirit. I asked my friends at the local French convent to pray for her soul, which they were happy to do. I think of her daily. Thanks for thinking of her x

      1. Whenever I come on these sites I always think of her, KJ, I miss her dreadfully, she was such a good friend….. I adored her.

        1. Sorry, GGGG, exactly who is/was KJ? At some point (I can no longer find the post), GGGG said that KL was KJ100 who passed some time ago, and yet KJ100 has actually posted to GGGG about an hour ago: "I think she passed some time ago, G4……… Thanks for thinking of her x" No wonder some know me as "Confused of Colchester".

          2. It goes back a number of years, Elsie, on the Spectator BTL community.

            KJ is a current commentator on here, the Spectator, and on Tom Armstrong’s ‘Free Speech Backlash’ – she has a couple of other manifestations, like KJ100, and she is very much alive!

            The person we refer to was known as PetaJ – from the Spectator and for a short while on here – she was a fantastic poster and somebody who I regarded as a dear friend.

            A number of months ago she posted that she had been diagnosed with a particularly aggressive form of cancer and had a very limited life expectancy.

            Since then I have heard nothing from her and can only assume the worst. As I said, I miss her dreadfully…..

      2. She last posted here in September. I didn't know her for long but she kindly shared a photo I should have taken myself in Peru. Such a lovely person.

        1. Yes, similar on Spectator. She was indeed, online buddy to many, as I discovered after her passing. Always something interesting to say, very proud she’d had a letter published in the Telegraph. Cat used to sit on her knee whilst she was typing, when she stood up it was with the cat clinging to her skirt. Last post I as

        2. She was, always lively and something to say. I hope her passing was peaceful, would have liked to be there to support her, not sure what support she had, her husband and partner both having pre deceased her. She told Tom to pass the message on, when she realised how upset I was she contacted me to comfort me – so typical of her. My husband came in to find me crying uncontrollably, bit silly really but she was a good friend to me and many others, as I found out after her passing. I still have her last message. I asked my friends at her local convent to pray for her soul, which they gladly did. Last message was the two of us agreeing that we will indeed meet again, and I hold to that. I think I recall the Peru photo, she’d travelled quite widely:-)

  128. Islamic groups. Or do you believe that those comic book villains organise their own stuff?
    I think they wanted a war on terror, so they created the enemy first.

    1. Do you believe that none of the terrorist attacks around the world but were the CIA rather than Muslim Islamacists.

      You can believe that, I don’t.

      1. What you are not taking into account, is the bitterest pill of all which is that at the top, they all work together.

          1. No. Politicians just do what they’re told. But was it planned in order to launch the war on terror? Probably, given the number of ridiculous contradictions, coincidences and holes in the official version of the story.

          2. There are times when I think you’ve been infected with conspiracyitis.

            The war on terror almost certainly attacked the wrong people, but I very, very, much doubt that it was planned so a war could be initiated.

  130. Far as I'm aware, sos…quite a bit of social unrest in Iran, have you heard/read anything along those lines?

  131. I was heading for the extended tummy but didn’t want to have to ditch my Armani suits. So i stopped eating every day.

    A bit like Grizz.

    Though i still look good he looks like a local yokel.

  135. It is quite incredible what has happened to Iran since they got rid of the Shah. Also the role of France in the installation of the Ayatollah Khomeini (he is still revered in parts of France where he was harboured as a wonderful, idyllic government in waiting). I remember it well, as many others here probably do – but this has been airbrushed from history, as has so much else.

    1. I know a number of Iranians who left, their views regarding the current regime are not printable.

      1. Me too, sos. And what is very interesting to me is that they are all civilised non-islamists, even if they are nominally Muslim'

        1. The interesting fact there, from my viewpoint, is how they still adhere to Islam, however nominally.
          Islam trumps all, very worrying as far as I'm concerned

  136. I never thought DOGE would affect me personally but my wife just asked me to email her, by midnight, 5 things I did around the house last week…

      1. Is that what you do all week? How very sad.

        I batch cooked.
        Began prep on master sauces.
        Dismembered and froze little chickens.
        Blanched and froze vegetables.
        Got the cleaner to clean up the mess.
        Looked at garden.

          5. Mine still squirts, yours merely makes strange noises, you may think that's singing, but ashesthandust would refuse to reprise the sounds.

            Unless she sang whilst gargling…

        2. I know you're the Xanthan gum of thickeners, but I was referring to King Stephen's day not mine.
          No wonder Dolly and Harry regard you as saucy.

          1. Six will impress Elon. Nought for nought. I would guess out of the 5 million fed employees including their military at least 1 million don't exist.

          3. Please don't think so. Sos and I have been bantering this rubbish for years.
            I also have his adress…Evil face.

    2. Finished off that bottle of Amaretto di Saronno – ugh!
      Posted a photograph of my piles on Twatter.
      Re-arranged the furniture twice (so she'd never know…)
      Bought extra quantities of Coco Pops – you can never have enough
      Checked my Life Insurance……

      1. Your post just sent me into a coughing fit ! I hope you're proud !!!

        second edit.. lucky my name isn't Karen

        1. Apologies, mon brave.

          Given due consideration, however, you do suit the name Karen…..(who doesnt ?)

      2. Was it in David Niven's 'The Moon's a Balloon' that he tells the story of an acquaintance who as a stoker in the Merchant navy during the war who had been forced to wear a cork life jacket for the duration, so that when the end of the war was declared he threw the bastard thing overboard only to watch it sink beneath the waves….

    2. Sos and Bill Thomas go way back so i am prepared to make exceptions for people born in Tudor times.

  138. Pass.
    There is as scene in "Master and Commander" when the failed midshipman uses a cannonball to assist his suicide.

    1. I remember that scene. What he needed at that time was a line manager who understood that all white people are racist and deserve to die. He should have been supplied with two cannon balls.

      Are you aware of what the ship was transporting as cargo?

  140. I would like to visit but you do keep putting me off. Besides that i think your decor a bit too Habitat/Laura Ashley for my taste.

  141. Hullo good people! Interesting day. The Kid who has been staying with us for a few days, left around 6am this morning to head back down south to North Bay – ended up hitting a deer on the backroads. Called me and explained she was fine, but shaken. The truck in front of her hit the deer, the deer went over the roof of the truck and landed on her bonnet and through the windshield into the front seats crushing the roof and whatever they call the metal around the windscreen. I got there before the police and the tow-truck, and after making sure none of the blood was hers, brought her back here to warm up.

    I added it to the list of 5 things I did today.

      1. Hey, G. It was a hell of a mess. She was born and bred up here same as the wife (she’s my step-kid). One of her first comments was she was glad the deer died instantly because she’d have hated to have to watch it suffer. As we drove back up here, she also said “we should so have asked that cop if we could carve off the haunches to bring home.”

          4. Hey Bill. Yeah, she's in her later 20's and doing well. Against my better judgement, but with my full support – she's gone into the same business that I was in. Although, I was (mostly) out of it before I met her – so at least she can't blame me later for influencing her!

          5. Hey Bill. Yeah, she's in her later 20's and doing well. Against my better judgement, but with my full support – she's gone into the same business that I was in. Although, I was (mostly) out of it before I met her – so at least she can't blame me later for influencing her!

          1. Hey, A.

            I am, very much so. Although really her formative years were all down to Mrs. DC bringing her up on her own after she lost her first husband. I guess I’m proud to say we work well as a team.

    5. And the really frustrating thing is that the deer was probably too badly mangled to be usable as venison!
      Though you probably have enough of that as it is!

      Glad she's ok though.

  142. Evening, all. Just back from a meeting – yet another one! – where the secretary (and a lot of members) sent apologies for various reasons. I ended up having to take the minutes, write them up and distribute them. I've also had to start the election process for May council elections. Nomination papers have to be signed and handed in BY HAND by 4pm on 2nd April. I have to get them first.

        2. Conners is a man, hence when he chairs a meeting, he is the Chairman. Such as Anne Allan would be a Chairwoman. I myself am usually known as the Charlady (the one who brings round the tea and biscuits, and also mops the floors.) Lol.

          1. Dont get me wrong, Elsie, I think it's all a nonsense – however in your role as 'the Charlady' you add more value than the rest of them combined!!

    1. I prepared and taught a dressage lesson (is that one or two?).
      I did the shopping.
      I walked the dogs and trained the new one (does that count as one or two?).
      I chaired a meeting.
      I took the minutes.
      I wrote up the minutes.
      I distributed them to the members by email.

      That is surely seven (and possibly nine).

      1. Oh and I forgot, I emailed elections to order a nomination pack for the May elections (plus I read all the emails our parish clerk sent me).

          2. I’ve never heard that line before – and I love it!

            I’m the opposite. I’m a ‘measure a million times before you cut’ person. Thankfully, wife is the opposite

  145. That is the biggest load of bollocks I've ever heard from any politician – and a good many have talked a load of bollocks!

    1. I really do like Joni, she always makes me feel emotional, like a big fat stupid git…. but it's not her fault…

  148. All of your "banter" back and forth with Sosraboc confuses the hell out of me, chums. What are you both on about?

  150. Good evening all.
    Having moved yesterday we are finally back on line after a visit by Open Reach to set up broadband.
    Two long and exhausting days but fortunately our daughter and eldest granddaughter came this morning a cleared and put away so many boxes of ‘stuff’ that it was like a whirlwind. Would have taken us 3 or 4 times as long. Gd had to leave after 2 hours as meeting up with boy friend a his parents as they’re off to Oz tomorrow with a 1 year visitor work permit.
    Both absolutely k nacked so off to bed now.

    1. Hahaha! It's Kadi (who looks adorable) and Winston (love the name) isnt it? Give 'em a hug from me!

  153. Well, chums, it's another early night for me. I wish you all a Good Night, sleep well and I hope to see you all tomorrow morning.

    1. When we want to do it with our money: "Sorry – It's discretionary spending. It's not essential. Here, have a Scotch Egg and a pack of Quavers."

      When they want to do it with our money: "It's not spending, it's an essential and necessary investment. Here, you can lick the plate."

Comments are closed.