Tuesday 26 April: A terrible suspicion that Britain could yet look the other way as Russia destroys Ukraine

Posted on by Geoff Graham

An unofficial place to discuss the Telegraph letters, established when the DT website turned off its comments 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.

602 thoughts on “Tuesday 26 April: A terrible suspicion that Britain could yet look the other way as Russia destroys Ukraine”

    1. I’m hoping so; bright, clear and a gentle off-shore breeze. Unfortunately, I let my buddie book the tee this week so we’re not out until noon. I prefer an early tee, it leaves the rest of the day from lunchtime on to relax.

  3. ‘Morning, Peeps.

    SIR – I am incensed by the appalling way Captain Rachel Webster is being treated by the latest Iraq inquiry, which threatened her with jail if she refuses to cooperate (report, April 23).

    Given how badly she was treated by the now defunct Iraq Historic Allegations Team, whoever sends out these summons must be entirely bereft of emotional intelligence.

    Captain Webster served this country with great distinction for 24 years in the Army, and has since raised tens of thousands of pounds for veterans’ charities. She deserves our gratitude, and should not be hounded as if she were a common criminal.

    Brigadier Robin Bacon (retd)
    Dartington, Devon

    Quite right, Brig. Bacon! Simple answer – if she is compelled to attend under threat of jail if she doesn’t then the phrase “I don’t remember” should suffice.

  4. SIR – If the Labour Party is unable to say what a woman is, how can it claim to know that an action is misogynistic (“PM tells Rayner ‘sexist’ claims were not his”, report, April 25)?

    Jane Moth
    Stone, Staffordshire

    Indeed…

      1. ‘Morning, Belle. One might say that Rayner ‘is not suitable for public office’!

          2. Now, now, behave children! Incidentally, I think you might have misspelt “public”. Easily done.

      3. I have tried various methods to draw off those pikkies for distribution, but with no luck.
        Any suggestions?

    2. Incidentally, Jane Moth has managed to get a second letter published in a week…is there something the Letters Editor would like to tell us?.

  5. SIR – At a time when many families are having to choose between heating and eating, I find programmes like MasterChef obscene (Letters, April 25).

    They take perfectly good food and primp it and prod it until it bears no resemblance to the fresh ingredients. Many are feeding a family of four on less than the cost of the ingredients for just one of these pretentious dishes.

    You don’t need to gild a lily. It is difficult to better chargrilled lamb cutlets with a piquant sauce, followed by an apple pie made with Bramleys and either Coxes or Braeburns.

    Delia Smith and Rick Stein are my heroes for not playing with their food.

    Lynette Johnson
    Udny, Aberdeenshire

    I agree, Ms Johnson, but no one forces you to watch this programme or any of the other many cooking programmes that infest some channels.

    1. But, but, but… Lynette has found programmes like MasterChef obscene, Hugh. It therefore follows that the programme makers must be racist Nazis and hounded to death. I wouldn’t be surprised if they are horribly White too. (Sarc.)

    2. chargrilled lamb cutlets with a piquant sauce,

      You baint be strapped for cash, gal, if yose can afford lamb cutlets, remembering of course thai if they are from NZ, they are Halal

    3. If you think that’s bad, Mongo’s food bill – just his – is £280 a month. Vets, vaccinations and insurance adds on another 510.

      He’s vastly more expensive than Junior!

      1. When i first decided to get a dog i didn’t want one that would eat more than i do. It’s why i chose Dolly the chihuahua.

        Whenever i do a meat dish she has some mixed in with her slimming biscuits. Her food bill is very small.

      3. What on earth do you feed him on? All mine have got complete working dog food (VAT free) and meat, plus bones from the butcher.

  6. SIR – I have little doubt that the Government will lose many local councils in the upcoming elections, but by not voting (Letters, April 24), people dissatisfied with the national Government may well end up with a council they don’t approve of either.

    A pretty pointless protest really.

    Archie Douglas
    Twickenham, Middlesex

    What is your suggestion for a clapped out, non-Conservative, ban-and-tax-everything government until May 2024, Mr Douglas??

    1. Hugh, this is serious reply to your reply to Archie Douglas (my previous post regarding your views on Lynette Johnson were sarcastic): Archie Douglas is voting in his Local Council elections not for the National (government) Elections. In my case, after a disastrous couple of decades of rule by a Labour-led rainbow coalition council, the Conservatives recently finally took control of the council. Since the only candidates on offer are the usual Lib/Lab/Con plus Green ones (neither Reform nor any other Independent candidates are standing) I have decided to hold my nose and vote Tory, mainly to keep a Labour coalition from returning. The local Conservatives are not brilliant, but at least they are better than the alternative and they have no power over fracking, HS2, on so on.

      1. My town has had a Conservative council for the last 40 years. We also have one of the lowest council tax rates in the country. The neighbouring town under Labour has one of the highest. Their Mayor when elected went on a pub crawl and ended up being banned from most of them.

        1. There’s an easy fix for that. Make all council tax rises subject to 2 things.

          1. An open referendum on accepting the increase
          2. A decrease in council management pay by five times the amount regardless.

          You would very swiftly find that those hikes were not necessary.

          1. I have just checked. My town has been Tory since it became a town ! We are happy with our council. Plus, Suella Braverman MP seems to be able to get things done locally. Her seat is safe.

          2. As I understand it, if the rise in council tax is over a certain percentage there should be a referendum to agree it. As a (parish) councillor, I always remind my fellows that a) we have no money of our own, only what the taxpayers contribute, so think carefully about the spending and b) household bills are going up all the time so if we get more in the precept through housebuilding, do we REALLY need to increase the council tax? Sometimes, as our bills are going up, too (particularly for electricity for street lighting) it’s essential to put up the rates to cover costs, but I always argue for the absolute minimum. Not all councillors are grasping so-and-sos 🙂

      2. ‘Morning Elsie. Around here the smug Tory jobsworths were deposed by an alliance of two independent groups. The result is that the solid-Tory East Sussex County Council seems to have pushed us to the back of the queue, particularly when it comes to road repairs. If I have my way they would be next!

      3. The trouble with Colchester is that it has annual local elections on a rolling basis. This means no-one makes any decisions that might – theoretically – upset any voters.
        Take out six weeks ‘purdah’ before May, throw in summer holidays and Christmas, this means that at most, 8 months is actually available for any action to be taken.
        Most districts and boroughs have a four yearly voting cycle with the county councils elections in-between.

    2. Given that who sits on the council is utterly irrelevant as they’re all time serving wasters looking for nothing but trough, hiring a bunch of cats would be the better option.

    3. What you really mean Mr Douglas is The London Borough of Twickenham…………. anywhere inside the M25 has now been nabbed by sadick Kahnt.

  7. Let Joy be unconfined! Over on the DT (via Pressreader.com) one Iain Dale is touting Jeremy Rhyming Slang at the goto chappie to replace Bojo. Talk about scraping the barrel….

    1. ‘Morning Stephen. Jeremy Rhyming Slang is the very last person on my (admittedly short) list of Johnson replacements. His tenure at the Department of Stealth and Total Obscurity (as it was then) tells us all we need to know…

      1. He’s obedient to the WEF, and that’s the main qualification as far as they’re concerned?

    2. Some time ago I would listen to Dale on LBC, along with Ferrari and ‘Tory Boy’ Pierce. Sadly, their attitude to people expressing a basic conservative tenet i.e. free choice, in this instance bodily autonomy and the now notorious “vaccine”, was beyond deplorable. No more: LBC became a station to avoid. Who cares what Dale thinks about who should be the successor to Johnson?

    3. I have just spent more time stopping the Telegraph’s obnoxious ad blocker and article loading preventer than is healthy.

      They do NOT control what I do with their content. They vomit 30 or 40 cookies on to our browsers to track everything we do. In return I’ll break their site.

  8. SIR – I grew up in a village at the foot of Kinder Scout. There has never been a “colour bar” (report, April 25), and any claim otherwise is an insult to the people who live there and care for the land. The hills are available to anyone, and the only request is to follow the country code by not leaving litter or causing harm to livestock.

    Jenny Unsworth
    Congleton, Cheshire

    Good letter. I could never understand why the Lake District National Park (others are available) felt it necessary to ‘encourage’ Bames to visit when there has never been any evidence in all my many years of visits (starting in 1971) that they are unwelcome. The answer is, of course, not to be left behind in the virtue-signalling stakes.

    1. Husband and I visited Cape Wrath ( Durness) we were with a group in a hotel probably 45 years ago . The locals were drinking heavily, and a chap started to expand his bagpipes… and played an absolute dirge .
      We protected our ears, the air was thick with cigarette and pipe music … and the smell of booze .. As we covered our ears the pipes stopped .. and a group of middle aged Scotsmen yelled at us … ” Sassenachs oot, get oot get oot”
      We abandoned the room asap… and genuinely felt fearful .. it was very tribal/clannish .
      Durness area was beautiful , but I don’t think the Scots from that area like the English .

      1. ‘Morning Belle. The Fishwife has done her best to perpetuate the loathing of the English, and with some success.

        Incidentally, Mrs HJ and I visited Cape Wrath in 2008 and found it a memorable experience. Fortunately the bombing range was closed at the time!

      2. Hmm. Sutherland suffered amongst the worst of the Clearances. Carpetbaggers, new landowners from the South, and the anglicised Aristos such as the Duchess of Sutherland cleared out people who had lived there for generations, since time immemorial, pushed them onto boats for the colonies and sold them into slavery. The people who were turned out froze to death, starved or grubbed a bare living on the shores. The landowners then raised sheep. That was a bare hundred years before your visit. Their relatives, evicted, murdered, burned alive, deported and sold. In their midst you clap your hands over your ears at their music! What would you expect? I can tell you of pubs in staid Edinburgh where your behaviour would have got you manhandled out the door or worse.
        As for bagpipes, here is a fine piper playing a lament – possibly you might call it a dirge.
        (Turn up at a street performance of Morris dancers and start booing and jeering – how will you be treated? )

        https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofScotland/The-Highland-Clearances/

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4i2brqPhAsQ

        1. Just add them to the list of countries who are demanding reparations from the English.

          1. If anything – in order to have independence, Scotland will have to pay back our (English) cost of buying them out in 1707 when, but for us, they would have gone bust over their Darien adventures.

            Oh, and there’ll be a huge wack of over 300 years’ interest.

          2. I’ve got a book somewhere about the Darien attempt, highly interesting I recall.

  10. SIR – I recently discovered a government department I had never heard of called the Office of the Public Guardian, which Jacob Rees-Mogg will hopefully be familiar with. This is where applications are made to set up a power of attorney.

    Having completed two documents (health and finance) and attached the appropriate cheques totalling £164, I posted them first class on February 25. Since then I’ve heard nothing and there is no sign on my bank statement of the cheques having been presented.

    A month ago I looked up the telephone number and stupidly thought I might manage to speak to a member of staff. Instead I listened to the recorded message, announcing that there would be a delay of 20 weeks from the receipt of documents.

    If I am no longer alive by July 15 and someone is going into the office, could they kindly return my cheques?

    Virginia Besly
    Melton, Suffolk

    Just one more non-functioning department to add to the scandalous state of the public ‘services’…

    Changing the subject a little, did anyone else watch the hour-long Panorama about the Post Office/Horizon accounting scandal yesterday evening? Having investigated claims involving employee fraud during my 42 years – known as fidelity guarantee claims in those days – I have taken a close interest in this case, hence the temporary lifting of my self-imposed ban on this programme. It is no exaggeration to say that this is by far the greatest miscarriage of justice in our legal history, and yet those who participated in a horrifying conspiracy and cover-up have yet to face the proper consequences of their actions. For me perhaps the most sickening moment (and there are plenty of those) was to see a clip of Paula Vennalls CBE, who was chief executive of the Post Office at the time, wearing her dog collar when she was an Anglican priest. Utterly gut-wrenching.

    1. Yo all
      To cut down the number of letters that refer to NGO(Nonfunctioning Government Organisations) in future will
      posters just write about those that have benn Ronseal (Done What It Says On The Can)

      Just think how much newsprint, paper, sub-editing etc will be saved

    2. Yo all
      To cut down the number of letters that refer to NGP(Nonfunctioning Government Organisations) in future will
      posters just write about those that have benn Ronseal (Done What It Says On The Can)

      Just think how much newsprint, paper, sub-editing etc will be saved

    3. Given the fawning and self flagellation by the state after the Windrush ‘scandal’, which was caused largely by individuals not looking after their immigration status, I continue to be shocked by this case of gross mis justice. Imprisonment, suicide and ruination of lives are just a few effects of this awful affair.

      1. And what is even worse is the fact that the many millions in compensation will come from the public purse! If only the Proceeds of Crime Act applied here we could seize the assets of all those who went along with tbis hideous conspiracy…

        1. I wonder too how many bonuses, golden handshakes, protected pensions, market-led megapayouts and honours have gone to those responsible, who ought to be in Broadmoor.

    4. We watched it. Decent people, trying to earn a living, being crushed. It would seem that the PO deliberately tried to hide any evidence that suggested there were problems.
      The dog collar wearing at some PO boondoggle was just sickening. Dickens would have made hay out of that incident.

    5. Why a delay of 20 weeks? That’s 5 months, practically 6 months. If these people were told that you won’t get paid until you do the work then I imagine the lead time would shorten dramatically.

  11. The relentless march of Europe’s zombie centrists. 26 April 2022.

    Boris is actually a centrist, though unlike the European variety far from an anodyne one. Unashamedly nationalist and pro-business, socially liberal and receptive to the active state, he is not afraid to say what he thinks.

    There is nothing wrong with your browser. Do not attempt to change it. We will control all that you read.. We can change it to vague rumour or utter bull. Sit quietly and we will tell you what to think. We repeat: There is nothing wrong with your browser. You are about to participate in a Great Adventure. You are about to experience the Awe and Bafflement that reaches from the Inner Mind to the Spectator Columns.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-relentless-march-of-europe-s-zombie-centrists

    1. Nationalist? Pro business? ‘Receptive to the active state’ (statist)… he’s not remotely pro business. If he were he’d be reducing corporation taxes, not hiking them. However, of course, Boris knows that customers pay all business taxes. It’s rather annoying that far too many people do not.

  12. 352193+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Tuesday 26 April: A terrible suspicion that Britain could yet look the other way as Russia destroys Ukraine

    The political crew we are suffering under at present seek “a nice little earner direction”
    regardless of fallout.

    The squabbles in parliament today are showing out as “when thieves fall out” those who win the keys to ten get the cream of the
    wonga deals ( scams).

    This treacherous team are professionals at
    looking the other way check out the JAY report rotherham,rochdale, etc,etc, while openly importing more potential paedophile operators via Dover

    1. It’s deliberate. A complete and intentional effort by the state machine to punish the nation for Brexit.

      1. 352193+ up ticks,

        Morning W,
        Said the same on hearing “we won the referendum now leave it to the tory’s”

        Then to confirm idiocy the electorate went right back to supporting the lab/lib/con mass uncontrolled immigration coalition.

        They the electorate majority were so thick when treacherous treasa introduced the nine month delay it just went over their heads.

  14. Good morning, all from Mr Not in Rome. sunny – north wind – I’ll have a bonfire and think of each forkful as a Dutch airport worker.

    1. In the attempt at ‘we are all Charlie’ I wonder which we are – Charlie Hebdo – now silenced by Muslim fanatics or, Muslims, the group responsible for the violence.

      It seems we’re completely schizophrenic.

    2. A woman priest holding up a placard saying “We are all Muslims”. Presumably she is a Christian. Is she not aware that Islam denies the divinity of Jesus Christ? She is either a Christian or a Muslim. She cannot be both.

      1. It’s amazing how few Anglican clergy (male or female) understand anything about islam, even those who have visited muslim countries.

    4. I would love to know who this idiot is. I would send her an email recounting things I saw whilst living in an Islamic country. She wouldn’t like the truth, these sort of people never do, they thrive on the ideology of ignorance.

        1. Nice sunny day here in South Hants.
          Lots of tweeting coming from the hawthorns.
          Birdies searching my garden for nest material.
          I have also decamped to the conservatory where i am standing guard over the baby birds.
          The damn magpies come in gangs and wear down the opposition and then steal the baby birds.

          I have my air pistol at the ready. I don’t aim it much. Just in their direction to scare them off.
          Last year the magpies were flying in from all points of the compass with a pause between each one landing in the bush. A sure way of wearing down the protectors.

  17. A couple of photos out of the bedroom window:-
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/33ff7453be26226bd1fae003cd7d18aa6583a6c4791aeeb65a2b811cd131459e.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fb5f02a5f492daaec7760e455c5f60570631a4989fe4bb923b0b96f57f754637.jpg

    Harlech Castle https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9df3e975fc4489d4425df4c5e6c6825b051b2a0b84fb8e362f2ce676f9cd85ec.jpg

    And a lovely little narrow gauge shunter that surely deserves better than being over painted, stuffed & mounted in Blaenau Ffestiniog town centre?
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/dab8ec93fc9c730e30e2b97ccb7e6a5aae66f058d3a19556d09bc3296df38172.jpg

        2. Made me laugh when I saw on litter bins, “bagiwch a biniwch” (bag it and bin it – it being dog poo, for failing to pick up which you are liable to a £1k fine).

  18. Closing down for now – Imminent INR blood-letting appointment – the surgery is 7 mles away.

  19. Good morning everyone

    We had a slight frost this morning .. spaniel paw prints patterned the lawn .

    Sky is blue .. the birds are busy feeding .. We had 2 minutes of rain last night .. a dampening ..what is that lovely word for damp soil and grass after rain?

    2. Petrichor

      The word petrichor is formed putting together two Greek words: petros, meaning stone, and ikhôr, referring to the fluid that flows in the veins of the gods in Greek mythology.

      The term was coined in the 1960s by two Australian geologists in the

      journal Nature, who described it as “the scent that derives from an oil

      exuded by certain plants during dry periods”. When in contact with rain,

      this substance becomes an aerosol in combination with geosmin. Thanks to an MIT study from 2015, there are detailed images that explain the process. https://smartwatermagazine.com/blogs/agueda-garcia-de-durango/what-smell-wet-earth-after-rain

  21. Last week Sir Richard Branson, along with other business leaders, called on all member countries of the International Energy Agency to reduce their reliance on Russian oil and gas by taking measures suggested by the IEA

    Tamara Pickett
    Virgin Group

    AKA Mandy Rice Davies

  23. A few years ago I remember Belgium existing without a government for quite some time, the country existing on the activities of its civil service. This country has not had a functioning government for quite some time, but the difference is it doesn’t have a functioning civil service either. The fact that life continues for most of us implies that we need neither a government nor most of the civil service.

  24. A few years ago I remember Belgium existing without a government for quite some time, the country existing on the activities of its civil service. This country has not had a functioning government for quite some time, but the difference is it doesn’t have a functioning civil service either. The fact that life continues for most of us implies that we need neither a government nor most of the civil service.

    1. Only in their defacing of it. There isn’t a single Thatcherite amongst the lot of them.

      1. I agree. And the term ‘Thatcherite’ is now often seen as synonymous (wrongly) with ‘far right’, more’s the pity. She was a political giant and easily overshadows the pitiful minnows in the cabinet we currently have to suffer.

  26. Elon Musk could have put that $44billion towards tackling world poverty, instead he’s used it to send millions of woke Liberal narcissists into a spiral of depression, and honestly I think it’s money well spent. (Andrew Lawrence on Twitter)

    1. He offered the World Food programme and challenged them to explain how 6bn would alleviate hunger around the world and they didn’t reply.

      The money is pointless. The problem is the people. We turn up, build water works and start vaccination programmes. This is nothing their own governments couldn’t do, they just choose not to. No matter what we plunge into those countries they will always need more because while our money provides for them their own governments can buy another fleet of Mercedes.

          1. Afternoon AtG,

            It’s an investment by spending the charitable donations of others.
            They have no defence.

      2. There are probably more starving people in Africa than in 1985. All the money has done has promoted population growth with a disproportionate growth in poverty.
        International charities are the problem and not the solution.

        1. They seem to be spectacularly inept at providing a viable fresh water system.
          60 years of ‘independence’ and things would appear to have gone backwards.
          Would it be rude of me to ask where all that money – both Foreign Aid and charitable donations – have gone?

        3. Ah,International charities,their activities always reminds me of a line from James Michener’s “Hawaii”
          “They came to do good and they did right well”
          How do you find the safest most luxurious hotel in any given third world pesthole??
          Check the car park,the one with the rows of brand new white emblazoned Toyota Super Land Cruisers is your huckleberry!!
          ‘Morning John

          5. Do a google on ‘merry minuet kingston trio’ and yes, you can get a result ‘1959’. It doesn’t mean that that video is from 1959. The song is, that’s all. Google isn’t that accurate.

            The Kingston Trio recorded the song in the 50s when they were young men in their 20s. Those men in that video are a bit older than that! And those are not 1950s haircuts and spectacles.

            EDIT:
            Here’s a video from 1981 with the same personnel. It might even be the same concert – see the chap at the back in the red shirt – if not, then the same tour.

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkwaRykth88

      3. Every so often a TV channel (Dave? Yesterday?) repeats a Chris Tarrant railway programme.
        In deepest Africa, he travels in decrepit trains on disintegrating rails that wicked whitey installed and maintained.
        Both stock and rail have been left to decay and may – or may not – turn up that day, let alone that hour.

        1. When I sailed around the Caribbean I went ashore and looked over the island we had visited before looking at our guide book which gave a synopsis of the place’s history.

          If everything was in working order the island was not independent or had only recently become independent; the more shambolic and broken everything was the longer it had been independent.

          At the time that Bob Geldof was organising famine relief the TV showed him standing on the quays of Port Sudan tearing his hair out because there were hundreds of crates of food which could not be moved and the crates which contained supplies that had not already rotted were being looted.

          “I cannot understand it,” said my mother, “when we left the Sudan the country had one of the best rail networks on the continent.”

          But of course that railway network had been destroyed by 40 years of neglect and lack of maintenance.

      4. Yesterday I watched an advert with a black girl on it and they were pleading for our money to save her sight. My first thought was, “what’s happened to all the dosh we poured in to Africa?” and the next, “they don’t want our whitey, colonialist help, so forget it!”.

    2. “What would you do about the starving children of Africa” was a question they used to ask prospective civil servants at interview before they changed the criteria from intellectual rigour to compliance with doctrine.

      I don’t think that spending £44 billion on tackling poverty would achieve any more than a few more billion mouths to feed. Already the average woman in Africa is breeding seven children, most of whom are now living to breeding age themselves. It is part of their culture and it will take a few generations before they learn to become geriatric like us.

      As for Elon Musk acquiring Twitter for his own ends, I welcome it. He is following in a long tradition of Americans who made their fortunes and want to redeem their lives by making something good of it, albeit on their terms.

      Musk has correctly identified the peril we are all in, as we blindly forego liberties that took centuries to fight for and establish. His answer is to create a haven for free-thinkers, who can express anything they feel minded to express, without fear from a knock on the door from the morality police. I applaud him.

      The risk is that Twitter would be over-run by trolls, as if they aren’t already. It is a leap of faith on Musk’s part that the spirit of Speakers’ Corner will not sink to a cesspit of insult and pottymouthing, but will rapidly evolve into the sort of intelligent and entertaining forum we enjoy right here among the nottlers. There is no heavy hand of moderation here, but an understanding of one another how to make best use of our time together and not waste time in pointless trolling.

      1. Sorry to say my pennyworth , but they are coming here to the UK and breeding heavily .. so nothing changes ..

        Our population will be 100 Million in a decade or so … Incomers are very fast breeders .

  28. The war in Ukraine is not a Western plot. Spiked 26 April 2022.

    If Ukraine wasn’t wearing a short skirt, this would never have happened… I acknowledge that Russia is unhappy at NATO’s expansion eastwards. In fact, my father used to be a junior minister in Boris Yeltsin’s government, in the 1990s. His job was to deal with the countries of the former Soviet Union. So I’m well aware of the way that Russians perceive this. And you’ve got to understand, in Russia, Western expansion isn’t perceived as a sort of minor inconvenience – the West is the enemy. And the ‘enemy’ was getting closer to our borders. That is a legitimate reason for Russia to be concerned.

    But I think some people, particularly John Mearsheimer and others, are pushing these narratives beyond where they can credibly go. For instance, one narrative is that Russia and Ukraine were living peacefully and happily together since the collapse of the Soviet Union. And then the evil American capitalist pig-dogs came along and caused a coup in 2014 in Ukraine, after which the country turned in a Westward direction, and this is what Russia has been concerned about. This is completely untrue.

    No it isn’t! The mechanics of the coup are now well understood. We even have pictures of John McCain and Victoria Nuland handing out cookies at the demonstrations and the latter on the telephone arranging for the future government of Ukraine. If the Ukrainian people were so set on joining the West why did they not simply wait three months and vote out President Yakunovich? The answer is of course that they couldn’t be sure that he wouldn’t win! The present situation does not tell us that the majority of Ukrainains are now happy, only that they have been drafted into the army to fight!

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/04/25/the-war-in-ukraine-is-not-a-western-plot/

    1. A good example of a big political lie relying on the fact that most people have short memories. I will remember the EU representatives in the Maidan agitating and giving false hope to the Ukrainians in the square. So we are to pretend that none of that, along with the American visits by politicians agitating for Ukraine and saying that they had Ukraine back, ever happened. All a figment of our imaginations was it?

    2. I think the situation in Ukraine long pre-dates bandwagon jumpers John McCain and Victoria Nuland.

      The truth, as Putin has grown up believing, is that Ukraine has not had, up until 24th Februrary 2022 a coherent union, borne of history, rather than artificially created by Bolsheviks. In fact the Kyivan Rus founded modern Russia, and many key figures in Russian history from Catherine the Great to master Soviet propagandist Andrei Zhdanov came from what is now modern Ukraine.

      Before that fateful date just over two months ago, Ukraine was a nation split in half between a former province of the Polish/Lithuanian Empire and Russia, with electoral loyalties similarly split. It was simple enough to identify those parts which wished to follow Poland and Lithuania into NATO and the EU, and those which wished to remain loyal to Mother Russia. As soon as the Warsaw Pact split from the USSR, conflict was inevitable in Ukraine.

      History is not something that always resides in text books though. History can also be written in real time, and nations similarly formed and established where they might not have previously existed. I have seen numerous new nations created in my lifetime, right up to South Sudan, and there is no reason why there should not be new nations created right now.

      What Putin did, when he invaded on 24th February 2022, probably without knowing the full consequence of what he was doing, was to unite Ukraine into a nation, with an anthem and a flag, that the world now recognises as readily as it does France. He made history, not least due to the dogged resistance and leadership of Volodomir Zelenskyy, who has made himself Father of the Nation. Putin himself made it easy for Zelenskyy to rally his nation through the extreme brutality of his invaders, where no attempt whatsoever was made to win hearts and minds, only dark threats of nuclear retaliation against those who feel that a wrong has been done.

      I think Putin has realised his miscalculaton, and is now on a damage limitation exercise. If the Russians hold Crimea and the Sea of Azov, then they haven’t done badly out ot it. However, the balance of the rest of Ukraine, now forged like steel in a forge, must now be firmly in favour of joining the Visegrad bloc of the EU and suing for the protection of NATO.

  29. Good morning to all. Another nice day in West Sussex.
    I thought I would post this first and be back later
    “…Musk’s purchase of Twitter the single biggest political development since Trumps election in 2016.”

    Tucker: You just became a little more powerful

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGlP9pSfmzM

  30. Britain backs Ukraine carrying out strikes in Russia, says minister. 26 April 2022.

    The UK backs Ukrainian troops carrying out strikes in Russian territory, the armed forces minister has said, calling it “not necessarily a problem” if Ukraine uses weapons donated by Britain.

    James Heappey said the UK believed it was “completely legitimate” for Ukraine to identify Russian targets in Russia in order to disrupt attacks on Ukraine.

    Of course the reverse of this is that it is perfectly legitimate for Russia to prevent UK arms shipments to Ukraine by attacking them here!

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/apr/26/britain-backs-ukraine-carrying-out-strikes-in-russia-says-minister

    2. Our warmongering government doing what they’re told from Davos and whatever lair they operate out of in the US again, I suppose.

    3. Actually, it always was legitimate for Russia to strike at suppliers of weapons to its enemy. That is what sank the Lusitania.

    1. Zuby is a breath of fresh air. If more black people were like Zuby there would be no racism!

      Incidentally he went to Oxford University where he was awarded a First Class degree in computer studies.

        1. That was a joke.

          Zuby is very fit physically and so he organised a television crew at a gym to film him doing some weight lifting.
          He was weighed and his own body weight was recorded. He then self-declared as a woman and proceeded to lift a weight that was several kilos heavier than the woman’s world record for a woman of his body weight Having got the Women’s world record he then declared himself to be a man again.

    2. I truss you’ll get over your hernia, Richard.

      Looks like you’ve bust a gut – again.

    3. Gawds alive. They do twist themselves in frantic knots.

      How does anyone feel about someone living in poverty? First, define poverty – homelessness, having nothing or having a home and welfare income? AS for black men with degrees – who cares. Why does it matter if they’re black? Why does it matter that Musk hasn’t a degree? Is he suggesting that only the intelligensia should have a say, because usually they’re the thickest of the lot.

    1. And now what ever has caused it, none of the previous experts seem to know, Hepatitis is now rife amongst the younger population.

      1. My niece, Harriet, was called Harry but also Bean by her mother when she was a baby. (Harry in the cot – harricot – bean)

        1. Have fun and I hope cake and ice cream are involved. Plus some celebratory beverages;-)

    2. Renault had one about 35 years ago our then neighbour was involved in the design and building/ manufacturing of it.
      He didn’t seem as confident about its success as the company seemed to be.
      But judging by the low standards of driving now on British roads it’s worth a try.

        1. I had a couple of operations for a broken back at RAF Hospital Wroughton. They under-dosed me in the first one then overdosed me in the second one. I got to meet God the second time (Near death experience). He offered me a place in heaven but I turned it down. He said there would be a place for me. I hadn’t the heart to tell him I was agnostic. How lucky am I?

          1. I was invalided out of the RAF at Wroughton by playing insane (not hard).

            The AVM psychiatrist finally commented, “You’re not mad, just brassed off with the RAF – isn’t that right?”

            “Yes, Sir.”

            “Well, I’m invaliding you out.”

            “Thank you, Sir.”

          3. The army was different. I was given two weeks sick leave to recover. I got to my unit and they cancelled it and sent me to Northern Germany for an important exercise (reconnaissance drones flight planning). I spent the nights sleeping on the ground in the middle of pine woods. I still have problems with my back to this day.

  38. The final insult.

    KLM have just e-mailed to say that the flight to Rome this morning is ON – just half an hour late

    So we can get on it….IF we were in Amsterdam….

    2. We are so sorry for you and Carolyn.

      We know the trouble caused by connecting flights. We were travelling from Dalaman and we were so held up at Istanbul that we missed our connecting flight to Stansted whence we were taking a flight to Dinard. We were re-routed via Paris and then had to cross Paris to get on a train to Dol-de-Bretagne.
      Of course the cost of our train fares and the flight to Dinard were never refunded.

    4. And no doubt, to add injury to insult, they won’t refund the cost of that flight.

    5. So sorry that you and your MR are having to suffer the broken world imposed on us by stupid politicians.
      Everything used to work OK but then, 2 years ago, the politicians decided they had to do something, where nothing would have been better, and have now ruined life as we knew it.
      Plague on all their houses.

    1. I read that with half an hour to go she was around half a million votes ahead…………..

      1. No one can possibly tell that, Eddy. The ballot is well run and open. There may be “predictions” as the day goes by – but NO ONE knows the actual figures until the ballot boxes are opened.

          1. Not like they do here – anyway, people lie! At a general election some years ago in Laure , 25% of the electorate voted National Front – but you could not find ANYONE would would admit to so doing…

          2. We were having drinkywinks with our neighbours last night they mainly live in Mid France and they said that everyone one they know voted for Le Pen

  41. Morning all.
    It’s been mentioned that out hard working dedicated GPs should have their hours cut meaning i suppose less tine for each NHS patient more time for private. Just as the NHS dentistry was deliberately and slowly destroyed. This as i have been speculating about for sometime will be the end of the the NHS. Give it another 5 years and only illegal migrant’s and benefits scroungers will be able to have free health care.

  42. No, it’s not Bradford. The two clues are ‘sleepy village’ and ‘Himalayan mountains’

    “In this sleepy village, nestled high in the Himalayan mountains, a baby’s first moments are dominated by the sound of drums. Anxious family members gather around, searching for any sign of a response to the beat – crying, perhaps, or a slight turn of their head.

    This unusual childbirth tradition is critical in Dhadkaie, otherwise known as the “silent village”, where it is not unusual to be born deaf, mute or even both.

    “If a baby cries loudly and doesn’t open eyes in the first two days, that means he or she is deaf,” says village chief Muhammad Haneef, who sports a long beard and a white turban over a traditional Kameez-shilwar.

    “To find whether the baby is dumb it takes almost six months,” Mr Haneef adds.

    Dhadkaie – an isolated village with stone-built houses scattered across the mountainside – is home to roughly 2,800 people. It is also thought to have the world’s highest prevalence of deaf-mutism that can’t be explained by a particular syndrome.

    Doctors instead believe the cases are caused by generations of inter-marriage in this small, predominantly Muslim community.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/climate-and-people/born-deaf-mute-kashmirs-silent-village-disease-has-bruised-every/

        1. The cost of intermarriage … and the strain on the NHS.

          Things like that were taboo in the year dot, except of course for the Royal Family.

        2. The figures sure are sobering. I wonder how they all manage back in Pakistan/Bangladesh. I suppose if there is not the medical support as we have here the children just die.

    2. There was a programme on not long ago about Bradford’s intermarrying of first cousins. The poor children were horribly deformed and had all sorts of problems.

      A small village I can understand, but Bradford?

          3. The last of the direct line of the Hapsburgs. Mentally defective and had to be fed slops.

        1. That’s Bradford-on-Avon in Wilts in Corsham.hire, Bill and others who are unsure.
          Know it well as I used to live just down the road. The building on the bridge is ye olde medieval one-man drunk tank.

  43. 352193+ up ticks,

    These types are very dangerous peoples, why does society keep them in positions of power.

    anthony charlie lynton set the ball rolling in the bent politico’s field of play wonder why he did NOT give his full name in the Bow street court ?

    The lab/lib/con mass uncontrolled immigration (onging) paedophile umbrella
    coalition still find majority support ( more of the same) via the polling booth at the same time as crying out for change.

    https://twitter.com/JamesMelville/status/1518478733958647808

    1. Is there not some 100% mortally effective vaccine that he can be jabbed with?

      1. 352193+ up ticks,

        Afternoon R,
        His political death along with his party
        hierarchy would satisfy me, me meaning johnson & co.

      1. I had to, bravely I might add, because it has probably taken years off my life, go and see photos of the creature in question. It appears to me that she is one of the sagging brigade for whom a bra is a weapon of patriarchal oppression. She has also lost weight, so it appears, because the photos tend to give the impression that she was, not to put to fine a point on it, fat.

          1. I once played Mr Bumble in a school production of Oliver.

            I had to sing to the headmaster’s secretary, who played Widow Corney, these words:

            “Since my lovey dovey’s chubby could she love a chubby hubby.”

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RqbsySkzbA

            I hope that I have always been rather less chubby than the chap playing Bumble in this clip and I certainly hope I have a better singing voice than he has.

    2. Well she probs wouldn’t fall flat on her face boyz but i spect yood be, be cyder.

  48. The Kinder Scout nonsense. Here are a couple of articles on the subject and another short video from Simon Webb.

    https://www.getreading.co.uk/news/reading-berkshire-news/mass-trespass-planned-west-berkshire-23769472
    https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2022/apr/24/kinder-scout-90-years-on-uks-national-parks-still-largely-white-and-middle-class

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mJnBxU8B30

    Nadia Shaikh & Co must have thought it a hoot to organise a march on the 90th anniversary of the Kinder Scout trespass and call it ‘Kinder in Colour’. What wit! As for the Guardian – in a game of cliché bingo this’ll be on everyone’s card: “The history of the countryside is rooted in colonialism, class and exclusion.”

    I am reminded of the edition of ‘Countryfile’ in which some black people were dragged around the dreary moors above Oldham on a bleak autumn day to show how beautiful the English countryside sometimes isn’t. And, as I’ve pointed out before, there are many urban whites who would feel just as lost in the wilds.

    Let’s hope they’re familiar with the cry of “STAMPEDE!”

    2. Given the rate at which the population is growing, in 50 years there won’t be any countryside for them to be ‘excluded’ from.

      2. Farmers are warning of a food shortage crisis – the war in Ukraine is being blamed. Nothing to do with building on productive farmland and having an unsustainably high population (which is constantly being added to), then?

    3. I live in the country; the last thing rural areas need is more townies (of whatever hue) coming and messing everything up – leaving gates open, letting dogs cause havoc, leaving litter, destroying wild plants, disturbing wildlife …

    1. Which is the more plausible conspiracy theory:

      a) There are dangerous side effects to the vaccines gene therapy;
      or
      b) The vaccines are virtually risk-free.

    2. Good morning Richard
      T’would be good if we could use the ambulances for ourselves and get the NHS to start saving the British, yes I mean the British, people.

      I wonder how many of those with AF have been quadruple jabbed and boosted up to their eyeballs.

      1. “T’would be good if we could use the ambulances for ourselves” … especially as we are apparently asking people to wait hours for an ambulance – but perhaps that’s because the stupid testing regime means there are no personnel to operate the ones we have?? It’s about time the fat oaf realised he’s being conned by Ukraine!

        1. He doesn’t have a brain cell to understand that. If he can think at all, very doubtful, he probably thinks his civil serpents tell him the truth.

        2. SWMBO still works in the NHS and will tell you first hand that the problem is not the lack of paramedics or vehicles but the appalling triaging system that insists the paramedics stay with the patient until seen by the hugely overworked and understaffed A&E depts, overworked it must be said for various reasons but hugely exacerbated by the lack of GPs to attend to the mundane but worrying ailments.

          1. That is not the case at my local Hospital in Portsmouth. They just drop them off.
            Not disputing what you say. Some Trusts must have differing procedures.

          2. Seems a bit of a lottery then, our experience is from the North Somerset Health area who recently decided to close the Weston-s-Mare A&E thus dumping the whole of South Gloucester, Bristol and North Somerset onto the Southmead A&E which is in the middle of a large not very salubrious or accessible area of Bristol, we are very fortunate to have a Cottage Hospital/MIU in our little town for the minor bits and pieces but depending on A&E loading you’re just as likely to have to go to Bridgwater A&E, madness

          3. When OH had his urinary retention crisis on 2nd January 21, I rang 111 and eventually got a call back from a Dr who said – get him to A&E asap! We arrived in a snowstorm, went straight in and he was seen and dealt with very quickly. We had no complaints about his treatment, then or subsequently. My only wish was that I had got him there sooner.

          4. It’s similar in my region; ambulances are queued up waiting to discharge their patients to A&E and so aren’t available to be sent to emergencies. It seems to be better in Cheshire – maybe it’s a different system.

  50. RESULT!!!! Had a call from the hospital at 9.20 and am booked in this Sunday at 12.30 to have the thing removed. The constant pain was an issue. They do have long waiting lists but in order to try and catch up they are doing weekend appointments.
    Am terrified but hugely relieved and it will be wonderful to have this thing gone.
    Thanks to you all for your support and generous offers of help.
    Now, if you hear screams on Sunday….

    1. Fingers crossed for you Ann but I’m sure you will come through with flying colours.

    3. Great news. No need to worry. They do lots of these. Local anaesthetic and you won’t feel a thing. Probably out the same day.

      1. She said the procedure only takes about half an hour, so yes, I will be home same day. MH is coming with me which is a relief.

    4. … Yes, I’ve had a divorce too.

      I’ll get my coat.

      I sincerely hope it goes well.

    5. Excellent news Lottie,I wonder as it’s the weekend is it NHS or private contractors working for the NHS that’s how my sister got her scans done

    7. That is a great result Ann. Will be thinking of you on Sunday and, obviously, wishing you well. Cutting the thing out my cause some pain but you know that as you heal that will go and you will be able to get back to normal again. I was going to encourage you to create a fuss but, fortunately, you wont have to.

      1. Thank you. I know it will hurt as it heals like the biopsy did but the main thing is that it will be gone. Anyway, there’s always Pinot to help deaden the pain ;-))

    8. Great news. I know two other people who’ve had benign cancerous tissue removed from the face and neck and both had good experiences and were very pleased with the result.

      2. Snap. When we saw our friend a couple of weeks back, until he pointed out where he’d had the treatment, you really wouldn’t know.

    11. Great news, Ann! Will be thinking of you and send all good wishes to you! Glad you don’t have to wait any longer!🍷🍷

    12. Good news , so pleased for you.
      Is it a large thing Lotl, and where is it exactly, neck face or where?

      What ever , you will be greatly relieved when you have your op .

      1. Right cheek just below lughole. Not enormous but about the size of a £ coin. I was pleased and surprised that the message got there and was responded to so quickly.
        Thanks Belle.

    16. Good to have the end in sight. I’ll continue to put in good words for you with ‘Im Upstairs.

  52. Angela Rayner wears trouser suit in TV appearance as she condemns ‘classism’ behind MP’s sexist slur
    The deputy Labour leader said the Mail on Sunday article left her ‘crestfallen’ but she has been heartened by the public response

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/04/26/angela-rayner-wears-trouser-suit-tv-appearance-condemns-classism/

    I couldn’t have put it better myself!

    BTL

    We have had inverted snobbery from the Labour Party for some time – we now have inverted sexism as well.

    While it is acceptable to criticise Boris Johnson for his appalling dress-sense and scruffy hair and say the he is ‘toff scum’ because he is a man and he went to Eton, it is not acceptable to say that the sort of clothes Angela Rayner wears are inappropriate and that she is a common, uneducated little slut because she is a woman!

      1. 352193 + up ticks,

        Afternoon N,
        accepting party policies on the strength of the party name when voting,then
        rhetorically fighting against the policies
        after the vote.

    2. Don’t like the look of that racist flag.

      Have reported hate crime to yer local plod….

      1. I couldn’t care less. Besides. That’s the neighbour. I still have the Swastika flag up. Showing my support for Ukraine.

    3. “If you like wisteria and sunshine….” If you haven’t read or seen The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim, you should. That’s the line in the advert that encourages Lotty and Rose to apply to rent the castle San Salvatore in Italy in April.
      Wonderful book and the movie is great and was on You Tube.

      1. Watched it lots. The metamorphosis of Dame Joan’s character was interesting. The change in the weather reminded me of the Durrels going to Corfu.
        Have you seen ‘My House in Umbria’.?

          3. Downton Abbey:The New Era is released in the States very soon. Or is available now. I fear though that this will be the Dowagers last appearance in that film.

          4. We went to see the Downton Abbey film in 2019 – it was probably the last time we went to the cinema.

          5. Did you enjoy it? I have conflicting information but i believe the new one Premiers in London now.

          7. I watched it at a friend’s house (on DVD). I thought it okay, but there were misleading bits in it (I’m just reading a biography of Princess Mary, Lady Lascelles, at the moment).

          1. It was I feared it would be
            I sat next to Phizzee at tea,
            His rumblings abdominal
            Were simply phenomenal,
            And everyone thought it was me!

          3. Funny you should mention that. I had the pleasure to host Hertslass and her husband and Ashesthandust in that garden room.

            I cheated and bought the sandwiches and cakes from Waitrose ! as we were all going out to dinner that night. As i walked Ashes back to her hotel the dear lady serenaded me with Opera. O Mio Babbino Caro. Sublime. I have some pics i can dig out if you like.

          4. Sounds like a great event! Hertslass and her husband are the only Nottlers I’ve met in person.

          7. It is actually a lunch at the Bel and Dragon at Kingsclere (Downton Abbey nearby) in June. Herts is going.

          11. I will. With their permission of course.
            I know how far spread out we are and can be difficult to manage.

    5. The downside of being in Canada, we have just reached the stage where the Forsythia is in bloom and a few daffodils are flashing their colours.

      Plenty of pollen for allergies though.

      1. My nostrils are full of vaseline to mitigate the worst of it. I have an air purifier in my bedroom so i can at least have one less thing keeping me awake.

    6. Very nice. I noticed today that my magnolia (Susan) is starting to flower and I have one clematis flower (Wada’s Primrose) open. As for my wisteria – it’s barely put out a leaf yet 🙁

  56. School leader retention rates in England declining, DfE data shows. 26 April 2022.

    The number of school leaders under the age of 50 who quit their jobs within five years of being appointed has gone up, according to as yet unpublished government data uncovered by a freedom of information (FoI) request.

    More than one in three secondary school leaders in England and one in four primary school leaders left at some point in the five years after their appointment in 2015, the official Department for Education (DfE) statistics showed.

    Close to half of middle leaders across both phases of education left within the same period, amid fears that the retention of the most senior staff in schools in England is in serious decline.

    Leaders? God give me strength. We are living in the Age of Idiocy!

    https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/apr/26/school-leader-retention-rates-in-england-declining-dfe-data-shows

      1. Afternoon Ndovu. I’m sure that there is some profound Woke reasoning behind it!

      2. Too authoritarian. You are expected to “enhance the learning experience” and “encourage the child’s personal development”. God forbid you should actually teach them anything.

    3. This is probably explained by a really good route – not spelt out or even mentioned – relating to early resignation which carries very good pension rewards.

  58. To tell you the truth , I feel as if I am really crumbling .

    Since we have had Covid , now over a month ago , Moh is leaping around like a gazelle rnning and plaing golf and I feel really feeble , terrible .

    No energy, aching and a fuzzy head … like a waterfall sound in my head … and earache in my right ear , pls a swollen gland in my throat , croaky voice and a chesty cough . My inner ear feels as if there is a fly buzzing around .

    No doctors appts , so I visited our little local chemist … and look what advice they gave me .

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e4ad2d17d58eb0fed3b21e23338f13ddba6c7888a77c7a939d69ef0e3ec3ca1c.jpg

    If I wanted to consult an on line doctor , £15 …

    I cannot enlarge this info … but … well what do you think?

    1. That sounds horrible, Belle. Are you sure you haven’t got any other contributing factors? I really hope you feel better very soon.

        1. That’s how I have felt since jab 2. Not ill as such but the spots and swollen lower leg. We refused the booster.
          Re Boots- can you go into a Boots and ask some questions? Also, some pharmacists are as knowledgeable as doctors.

          1. HI Lotl ,

            Boots gave me the card and told me to contact their on line doctor … costs £15 +

            The doctors are allowed to prescribe … Our NHS is such a shambles that we are now able to pay for a consultation with a doctor , if we can via BOOTS.

          3. You may find that your local pharmacist (not Boots!) may be able to prescribe for you. As Lacoste says pharmacists know a lot more about medication than a GP, and will probably spend more time with you!

          4. Having worked in the pharmaceutical industry, I would suggest hat most pharmacists are much more knowledgeable than GPs about medications, Lotty …

        2. Belle, go for the Boots doctor on the principle, nothing ventured, nothing gained. But I would make a suggestion that you write everything down that you want to ask so that nothing gets missed out. Make the most of your £15.00

    2. We do feel for you.

      All we can say is we are sympathise but our experience has been completely different. I am 75 and overweight; Caroline has just turned 60. We both got Covid in February (thank goodness because it has given us a few months’ window in which we can travel without having been gene therapied) I had one uncomfortable night and a temperature of 100 F which soon went back to my normal 97.8 and was a bit unsteady on my pins; I went to bed and slept throughout the day, slept again the following day and got up in the evening. Caroline just had a couple of early nights since when we have both been free of both Covid and long Covid.

      I am far from convinced that those who have been triple jabbed have had a better experience of Covid than we, the unjabbed, have had. Mark Steyn’s interpretation of the stats on GB News last week was interesting.

    4. Ear, nose and throat are all connected. It sounds like you have an ear infection. I would suggest a visit to the pharmacist. He/she can recommend something for you. Other than that try lucozade or berocca.

      1. Hi dear Phizzee.

        Did you see the photo of me holding the card the chemist gave to me re accessing a Boots doctor for a fee…

        I also think I have an ear infection .. It feels as if I have been swimming underwater … warbling sound/ waterfall.

        Sun is out here , lovely day, and the hose is connected … garden is so dry.

    6. What would a private consultation with your doctor cost? I bet that you could see someone quicker than just going through the nhs.

      1. GP’s pretend not to work privately. To see a Private Doctor is around £100 for a 20 minute consultation.

    7. Hi TB Do you have a minor injuries clinic attached to a hospital near by ?#
      When i had my eye infection early march i went our nearby QE2 at WGC and was home with the prescription inside of two hours. If id tried to get an appointment at the GP surgery i’d still be waiting, or dead.

    8. There are other online doctors if you know what you want – we get our malaria tablets that way.

    10. Get some Ivermectin from these people, Belle – it is now being used to treat the vaccine injured – https://www.reliablerxpharmacy.com/ivermectin-6mg-austro.html There is a chat line available so you could get details of dosage and for how long from them, and any other concern. It is banned in the UK….. the reason it is banned is because the ‘vaccine’ would never have got past the regulators for emergency purposes if there had been something else available. That in itself is shocking.

      There are now online protocols for post vaccine problems – the Zelenko protocol seems to be highly recommended. Also dandelion leaf tea is being used, with vit D3+K2 and vit C, Zinc and NAC (N-Acetyl Cysteine) is said to be excellent.
      https://blog.simplynutrients.com/the-definitive-guide-to-nac-n-acetyl-cysteine/
      Check that these are ok with any other medication you may be taking.

      I have read that it takes 15 months or so before one starts to feel better. It is terrible what these people have done to us.

  60. Community Moderation
    3:23 PM (3 minutes ago)
    to me, Moderation

    Dear Mrs

    Thank you for your response.

    We would like to confirm that the ban placed on your commenting account is permanent.

    Kind regards,

    The Community Moderation Team

    From the DT

    3. Good grief, Maggie. Have you been saying rude things about that A Allan chap who keeps on and on with his drivel?

        1. The Daily Fail and the Terriblegaff are as wet as the rest nowadays. Not a truthful, unwoke, patriotic paper to be had anywhere.

        2. Don’t let it get to you, Belle! It’s really not worth it! I’ll be cancelling this month as I’m fed up with the dreadful reporting and some of the trolls they allow to spout vile stuff.

          2. I really must not reply to that.
            I really must not reply to that.
            I really must not ……

          3. Fair game as far as i’m concerned. I believe in equality which means everyone gets what’s going. Tory Scum indeed.

          4. I meant to ask why you had a comment deleted yesterday? Who on earth did you offend??

          8. Figure it out yourself;-))
            Can you tell the relief I feel from the better news? Am quite light hearted.

    4. Blimey Belle! They really are pathetic! Cancel your sub right now and tell them exactly why! Bunch of losers, especially when you see some of the comments they keep on allowing!

    5. A badge of pride. Resubscribe under a different alias and let them have it with both barrels.

      About the only mainstream media that doesn’t overdo censorship is foxnews. Trouble is that there is no discussion, just abuse being hurled between left and right.

      I only managed temporary bans but that was in days gone by.

        1. Can’t have been me doing the banning, there are times that your jokes are the only thing keeping us sane.

          1. The boss banned me. I deserved it. Been a good boy since then. Especially after meeting a few Nottlers in person.
            Thanks for the compliment. I will share it with Rik. :@)

          3. No. I threatened him with woodworm. :@)

            I was BTL on the Guardian food columns for my sins. Got to share the room with JSP ! Stormy rescued me and said come back and apologise and all would be forgiven.

    6. Thinking censorship, is anyone else enjoying the heart-rending wailing about free speech being at risk because Musk has taken over Twitter?

      They really seem to miss the hypocrisy in their position.

      1. Prolly said we have enough wogs here already. Piss off stabby rapists ! Or alternatively she could have just pinched one of my jokes. :@(

          3. Shan’t. I have just potted on 120 seedlings – and am waiting for 6 pm, and the bar to open.

          4. I potted some herbs that Garlands sent and a Lampracapnos. I must be in a different time zone to you. Bottle already open !

    9. I have just had a reply about being banned back on 16 January
      The ban was lifted a c(Welsh) couple of days later
      Lawd knows what they expect me to do now

    10. Blimey! You could try another account…….or just cancel your subscription and leave them to it.

    12. Have they struck a special medal for you, Belle?
      You must have written something that really offended them. Was it the truth.

    13. Congratulations! Wear your ban with (anything but Pride)!

      Just remember the DT prides itself on being a Newspooper…..

  61. It’s a tough life in the army…

    Lieutenant-General Sir Adrian Paul Ghislain Carton de Wiart, VC, KBE, CB, CMG, DSO ( 5 May 1880 – 5 June 1963) was a British Army officer born of Belgian and Irish parents. He was awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest military decoration awarded for valour “in the face of the enemy” in various Commonwealth countries. He served in the Boer War, First World War, and Second World War. He was shot in the face, head, stomach, ankle, leg, hip, and ear; was blinded in his left eye; survived two plane crashes; tunnelled out of a prisoner-of-war camp; and tore off his own fingers when a doctor declined to amputate them. Describing his experiences in the First World War, he wrote, “Frankly I had enjoyed the war.”

    After returning home from service (including a period as a prisoner-of-war) in the Second World War, he was sent to China as Winston Churchill’s personal representative.

    In his memoirs, Carton de Wiart wrote, “Governments may think and say as they like, but force cannot be eliminated, and it is the only real and unanswerable power. We are told that the pen is mightier than the sword, but I know which of these weapons I would choose.”

    …and I thought I’d had it rough.

    https://d3ciasigl5on02.cloudfront.net/images/1200/13902.jpg

  62. It’s a tough life in the army…

    Lieutenant-General Sir Adrian Paul Ghislain Carton de Wiart, VC, KBE, CB, CMG, DSO ( 5 May 1880 – 5 June 1963) was a British Army officer born of Belgian and Irish parents. He was awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest military decoration awarded for valour “in the face of the enemy” in various Commonwealth countries. He served in the Boer War, First World War, and Second World War. He was shot in the face, head, stomach, ankle, leg, hip, and ear; was blinded in his left eye; survived two plane crashes; tunnelled out of a prisoner-of-war camp; and tore off his own fingers when a doctor declined to amputate them. Describing his experiences in the First World War, he wrote, “Frankly I had enjoyed the war.”

    After returning home from service (including a period as a prisoner-of-war) in the Second World War, he was sent to China as Winston Churchill’s personal representative.

    In his memoirs, Carton de Wiart wrote, “Governments may think and say as they like, but force cannot be eliminated, and it is the only real and unanswerable power. We are told that the pen is mightier than the sword, but I know which of these weapons I would choose.”

    …and I thought I’d had it rough.

    https://d3ciasigl5on02.cloudfront.net/images/1200/13902.jpg

  65. I was just wondering if Musk would buy up some of our institutions and sack all the woke people at the top.
    Church of England
    Our Universities
    The Conservatives, Labour and the Lib Dems.
    The Police.
    The NHS,
    The BBC.

    He could afford it.

    3. The simpler route would be to repeal a few pointless bits of legislation. Get them off statute and suddenly the equality and diversity wasters are redundant – literally.

    1. “The left are so upset at Twitter changing hands …”

      The left is so upset at Twitter changing hands, Ped.
      A common mistake: “Government are blah, blah ….”

      Collective nouns need the singular verb.

      There, there, Ped 🙂

    1. Four for me again; hardly ‘Impressive’ – but diamonds are a gurl’s best friend, eh sweetie? … x
      Wordle 311 4/6

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

      2. Same four (for a damned Yankee word!)
        Wordle 311 4/6

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

    4. A little birdie three for me.
      Wordle 311 3/6

      ⬜⬜⬜🟩🟨
      ⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  72. That’s me for this dismal day – bonfire. Should have been in Trastavere – and could have been if KLM hadn’t cocked up last night. Grrr.

    Have a smooth evening.

    A demain. I expect.

      1. I doubt it. The big debt is the €700 for the hotel. The MR is claiming on holiday insurance – but we all know what they are like

      1. I wish. The MR is in a very deep depression – especially having received the text this morning saying that “all was well – and have a nice flight”.

        2. Then you need to book up a nice Sunday lunch somewhere nice not too far away and draw a line under it. Then sue the Airline.

        3. Oh,poor thing.
          I do feel for her.
          Please give her a hug from me. Some flowers might be nice – stocks & pinks & tulips?

    1. The last time i was in the Lake District which was at least 15 years ago, i was on the ferry at Windermere to view the Steam Loco and three coaches arrived at the same time with the beshrouded.

      It is not our fault that they are afraid/uninformed. Quite clearly activists are trying to make themselves relevant to others who know no better.
      White privileged English get a worse time of it in Scotland and Wales FFS.

    4. Oh just bugger off. The bames congregate in cities because that’s what they like. I don’t want them littering and fouling in the countryside. If htey don’t want to go there, good.

  75. Two great ways to launder money at the national / $100s of billions scale.
    Way No1. Send in the IMF. The IMF is a private bank, based in New York, and by many people’s accounts a monetary offshoot & cuddlier version of the CIA. The IMF goes in first when the US decides that a foreign country which might be important to them is just not electing the right political leaders. The IMF ‘loans’ billions in exchange for well….. no-one really seems to know but there is an annual 300% interest rate as standard which pays the poor IMF owners & their political contacts. What we actually see in 100% of the occasions where the IMF has benevolently helped out these already poor nations, is the population of the country becoming catastrophically even poorer over the following decade and it’s elites becoming billionaires. How strange? The IMF first loaned a rather piffling $17Bn to Ukraine in 2014 and has generously provided significantly more assistance since. Is it now becoming apparent how a minor comedian became a billionaire in such a very short time.
    Way No2. Politicians directly send ‘Foreign Aid’ money (okay, we all know they don’t have any money and it’s really ‘our taxpayer’ money but we elected them right, so they’re doing it because we would want them to). The Ukraine is also one of the world centres for ‘Foreign Aid’ (what a coincidence) and even more so now due to the conflict. The Biden family connections to the Ukraine are well known and several of Biden’s cabinet have sons on Ukraine energy company boards. There’s a tremendous amount of hard evidence including thousands of letters, phone call tapes etc, linking Biden as the keystone of the US political cartel of the money laundering going through those energy companies and back out into various European & Caribbean banks before pitching up in various Delaware accounts. Delaware is the Switzerland of the onshore US states. This is verifiable as part of the Pandora Papers released last year. For those not familiar think WikiLeaks.

  76. I have a laptop charger courtesy of the computer shop in Porthmaddoc!
    Now have to download today’s photos ad do a bit of sorting out.

    1. Addict!
      When did you last have a digital detox, or closing the laptop and putting the phone down as we used to call it?

    1. That’s funny. They will attack him for using the word “genocide” – but somehow, the attacks seem to have lost a little bit of their power…

  78. My response to the DT Mods

    Dear Moderators

    I am 75 years old and have read the Telegraph for probably 65 years.

    I have also been a Conservative since my teens .

    I thought you were a Tory newspaper who patiently copes with an irate Tory readership ?

    During these very trying times when our members of Parliament should be held accountable for their actions , I regard your words to me as very hurtful and misguided , as would any one else who has been infuriated by political misbehaviour .

    In order for me to enjoy reading and commenting on news items , I would like the English side of your sense of fairplay to allow me to continue commenting on your many interesting articles .

    Thank you

    Kind regards

      1. Would you have written that , Bill.

        My letter sounds abit hammy, but I am trying to appeal to their better nature .. if the have one , not too sure where they are based these days.

        1. You have to be blick or LGBT+-+ to appeal to their better nature. So sorry to be brutal but you are not a minority. However, we will be soon…

          3. The face of a right wing nationalist! You should be on the Guardians least wanted list.

      2. Would you have written that , Bill.

        My letter sounds abit hammy, but I am trying to appeal to their better nature .. if the have one , not too sure where they are based these days.

  79. We appear to be living in interesting times….:

    “Update(1340ET): Following initial reports from Poland’s largest news portal Onet that Russian natural gas delivery to Poland had been suspended, Gazprom denied that it had at this point stopped flows. However, it quickly said that it will halt gas deliveries starting tomorrow. But at this point gas from Russia is not flowing via the Yamal pipeline, disrupting delivery to Germany…

    After the initial reports, which sent European gas princes exploding, Poland has confirmed that a suspension of gas is imminent if it doesn’t agree to pay in Rubles. Bloomberg is now reporting, “Poland’s main gas distributor PGNiG says it was informed by Gazprom that starting from Wednesday at CET0800 all deliveries of natural gas will be halted.”

    1. This is all so silly, Russia is letting them buy the roubles in euros. The EU countries can pay in euros, they just can’t crush the rouble down to nothing. It looks like spite on the part of the EU to me, because Russia pegged the rouble to gold.

  80. I take issue with today’s headline:

    A terrible suspicion that Britain could yet look the other way as Russia destroys Ukraine

    Perhaps ‘The West’s Proxy President Zelensky – fixed by NATO/EU/ Dame Ashton – financed by the Biden machine – and boastfully armed by Boris – could provoke the Bear.

    Should Zelensky direct UK weapons towards Russian soil, a retaliatory response upon the UK mainland may well be Putin’s response.

    As I live just six miles south of HMSB Fastlane and our Trident stockpile at Coulport, I feel that I’m an ‘interested party’ …

    1. I can really understand your anxiety Lacoste ..

      Last night , I dreamt that I was one of many in a dark tunnel . News items are really very frightening.

  81. Thank you for the Angie photos. I distributed them and have received multiple replies – all from the girlies – who are not impressed. I particularly enjoyed this one:

    “😂🤣 unfortunately we have a PM whose concentration could wander very easily which is clearly what the object is. If only Betty Boothroyd or someone of that ilk had authority to say ‘close your legs dear and cover up or you will catch a chill or something worse’ 🤣”

    I can just imagine the magisterial BB giving the tart a good verbal slap down.

      1. The DT is guilty of sexism. Those were photos of an attractive woman from a humble background showing that she could succeed against the odds in an establishment which for centuries has been a bastion of male privilege.
        Is the DT against women fulfilling their political potential?
        (Actually – that angle might work!)

  82. Evening all, now this is worth posting about,

    Left-wing celebrities shun Twitter after Elon Musk takeover
    By Helen Cahill 26 April 2022 • 12:40pm
    4-5 minutes

    Left-wing celebrities and activists have expressed their horror over Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter, claiming his commitment to free speech will trigger an outpouring of “bigotry and misogyny”.

    Charities and politicians used Twitter to criticise the Tesla billionaire’s $44bn (£35bn) acquisition of the social media network on Tuesday after he said he would support freedom of expression online through the deal.

    Mr Musk described free speech as the “bedrock” of democratic society in his statement announcing the deal.

    He said: “Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated.”

    But Amnesty International, which campaigns for the release of dissidents jailed for speaking out against human rights abuses, expressed its disapproval of Mr Musk’s takeover in a Tweet on Monday night. It said: “Two words: toxic Twitter.”

    Sadiq Khan, the Labour Mayor of London, also made pointed remarks in a post on Twitter saying: “Freedom of speech is vital, but free speech does not mean a free pass for hatred.

    “Online hate speech fans the flames of prejudice and leads to appalling and tragic real-world violence.

    “Social media companies must do more, not less, to protect their communities.”

    It came as rival social media networks reported a flurry of new registrations following Mr Musk’s announcement.

    Mastodon, a platform which positions itself as a rival to Twitter but currently has around 250,000 active users, tweeted that 41,287 users had joined its network after the takeover was confirmed. It was started in 2016 amid a rumoured bid for Twitter from American internet billionaire Marc Benioff.

    Mastodon tweeted: “Funnily enough, Mastodon was originally founded when there were talks that another controversial billionaire might buy Twitter, back in 2016.

    “We thought this kind of instant global communication was too important to be so vulnerable to the whims of a single corporate entity.”

    Jamila Jameel, an actress and television presenter, was one of the first media figures to voice her opposition to the deal claiming Mr Musk’s commitment to free speech would spark a deluge of “totally lawless hate, bigotry, and misogyny”.

    Ms Jameel vowed to exit the platform with a Twitter post accompanied by pictures of her holding her dog.

    Caroline Orr Bueno, a researcher at the University of Maryland, said she will remain on the platform, but suggested people would want to exit.

    She said: “For those who’ve asked: Yes, I’m staying on Twitter. There are still a lot of good people working at Twitter, and we have no idea what it will look like under Elon Musk’s ownership.

    “What we *do* know is that if all the decent people leave, it’ll get bad here a whole lot faster.”

    Greg Bensinger, an American journalist who sits on The New York Times’ editorial board, said Twitter’s employees were “aghast” at the notion of Mr Musk’s takeover. He said Twitter would become “much, much worse” under the billionaire’s leadership.

    Mr Bensinger said: “Loosening content moderation, as Mr Musk appears poised to do, won’t make Twitter a better place; that will make it far more toxic.

    “Under the notion that more speech is the best antidote to harmful speech, earnest users can probably expect to be shouted down even more frequently by trolls and bots.”

    Charles Blow, a columnist for The New York Times who is also a political commentator for Left-wing news outlet MSNBC, has not quit Twitter completely but has vowed to use the platform “only for promo”.

    He told his 643,000 followers that he would only use the website to advertise his columns, books and TV appearances.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/04/26/left-wing-celebrities-shun-twitter-following-musk-takeover/

    I predict this will be just like all those who promised to leave after Brexit but are still here.
    Can you imagine all these leftie luvvies being unable or unwilling to spread their wisdom to us plebs and to forego their platform to “enlighten” us in the error of our ways, I just can’t see it. Journalists, TV presenters and actors for example, they forget they are of no consequence to the real world, puffed up nobodies repeating made up words in a made up storyline.
    I may just rejoin twitter for the sport of it all.    .

    1. These people are unhinged.

      I would say something along the lines of “have they ever stopped and thought for a second about what they twit”, but the answer is clearly no, they haven’t.

    2. By ‘far away land’ did they mean Luton or Sheffield?

      I’m actually surprised. The ORT is so disgustingly PC it is unreadable. Heck, even the names of the kids are neutral. They’re boring, stodgy, tiresome books with almost no plot, no risks, no characters.

    3. “So inappropriate. People were brainwashed from a young age to stay away from Muslims [who were] labelled as scary people.”

      …and their point is…?

  84. Re the hepatitis outbreak with young children… I would dearly like to see a breakdown of statistics re age of children, ethnicity and whether they have been given the covid shot. Yes, lockdown prevented kids mixing and building up some natural immunity but it seems to me there is more to it than “just an outbreak “.
    Lies and more lies are all we get from the govt and the media.

    1. I was thinking exactly the same Lotl

      Ethnic children suffer hugely when they have sickle cell anaemia.. and other horrible inherited diseases.

      1. My son has a hereditary blood disorder called Spherocitosis. It is similar to sickle cell but as sickle cell mainly affects black people it’s not the same. My ex had it, two of his sisters and two of my son’s cousins. My ex was one of six kids and three of them had it; one cousin was one of three and the other one of two. My one and only son had it. Sods law.
        He was poorly as a child and had his spleen removed when he was 9, then his gall bladder when he was at college. He is now a fit and healthy chap of 41 (gawd) and doing well.
        PS- not sure if I have spelled the name of the illness right.

    2. Apparently they’re all under five so haven’t been jabbed. But there does seem to be more to it than that.

    3. There’s been quite a lot of commentary btl in Daily Sceptic about it and so far there appears to be no firm evidence for the cause. It would appear none of the children have been vaccinated. The numbers in the UK are particularly large (149, I think) compared to most other countries which tend to be single figures or in the teens.

  86. Evening, all. Why does the headline letter writer think Russia would destroy Ukraine? What’s in it for them? All they want is a neutral zone, not a wasteland. If anybody is going to destroy Ukraine it will be our useless lot of war-mongers escalating what is essentially a civil war into World War III.

    1. It seems that WW III is what they want- and the media almost seem to be wetting themselves at the thought of it. Now, of course, there is no more covid to try and scare people with….ain’t holding my breath.

        1. Most people would not but there is an element that seems to be salivating over the prospect. Maybe I have become too cynical.

          1. Well covid doesn’t sell papers any more.

            Perhaps St Greta should be sent to Moscow to lecture Putin about the carbon footprint of a war.

        2. Good way to ensure the Great Reset. They, of course, will have their bunkers to retire to.

        3. None of the public want it, Stormie, but the politicians do – they want regime change in Russia because Putin stands in the way of the WEF/NWO. Hence the venom. The thing is, it won’t be politicians who are doing the fighting. So it doesn’t matter to them.

          1. Members of the public are being brainwashed into wanting it, in my view. You can’t go anywhere without somebody mentioning the “poor people of the Ukraine” or suchlike; there are Ukrainian flags and fund-raisers for the country. Personally, it’s turned me into a cynical, hard-hearted bastard.

          2. I suspect the proceeds of the fund-raising are all going into Zelensky’s bank account.

          3. That’s why I won’t donate money – I did give some paracetamol when the church was collecting that and bandages, etc. I thought such useful items were less likely to be purloined.

        4. Surprisingly, there are plenty on the DT letters comments. If I dare suggest that a peaceful settlement should be sought, I am shot to pieces.

          1. Here is a recent comment. Its accepting of nuclear war, I despair….
            “Regarding Ukraine. NATO and it’s allies need to make up their minds. Shuffling around at the edge of the playground whilst bully boy Putin plays war games is not going to actually help in the long term. Ukraine will not win this battle unless NATO really gets involved with troops on the ground. Putin keeps waiving his nuclear stick and so far the west stands down. This is what a bully does. There comes a time when NATO has to stand up and be counted. A world with people prepared to slaughter and rape innocent people is not a place to live in. Time for NATO to put troops on the ground and air defence. NATO needs to tell Russia that if they do not withdraw entirely from Ukraine including the Crimea by the end of April then NATO will enter Ukraine and assist the Ukraine in achieving these goals. If it becomes nuclear , which I very much doubt, then so be it. Russia will simply obliterate itself and half the world in the process and I do not think that is going to happen”

          2. “A world with people prepared to slaughter and rape innocent people is not a place to live in.” Are they advocating nuking Rotherham, Bradford, Luton etc?

          3. That is the kind of commentary we see in Canada – time for NATO to stop dithering around and time to act.

            Easy for Canadian politicians to say, we have sod all in the way of armed forces so we would just be spectators.

          4. Boots on the ground don’t work as the Americans eventually found out. Military strategists are also now questioning if tanks entering cities are of any strategic value because of their tendency to spontaneously explode. Lets hope that the Russian military now realise that a navy is furthermore now of little use in mounting an invasion because of the tendency of dirty magazines to catch fire. 🤔

    2. Good evening, Conway. The headline writer is trying to drum up support for us to “go get ‘im, lads!” – for British boots on the ground in Ukraine. The West wants WWlll, there are dark secrets in Ukraine and they do not want them to be unearthed, to see the light of day, perish the very thought. They also want regime change in Russia, Putin supports Christianity and the family structure – he stands in the way of the plans of the NWO. Hence the venom towards him, remarkably similar to that which was hurled at Trump. For the same reason.

      1. I can’t disagree with your analysis. Shrewsbury’s idiot Polish MP (Kawczynski) is calling for UK planes to be sent to Poland. That’s what happens when you let foreigners into the House of Commons.

      2. Nail on head I think or very similar. There are two sides to every story. I do not trust the west to tell the truth nor Russia.

    3. Sending in the troops hasn’t really worked though has it? All of the rhetoric from a couple of months ago should have alerted the Russians to the fact that the NATO countries were salivating over the thought of dumping their old and surplus arms.

      1. This a unique opportunity for NATO countries to try out their latest weaponry using a proxy ex-Soviet country which is involved in special military peacekeeping operations in a designated ceasefire zone moderated by France and Germany.

    4. With Boris boasting about UK weapons and munitions for proxy Zelensky’s dodgy ‘Ukrainians’, he continues to provoke the Bear …

      Putin could well be tempted to respond with a nuclear attack on the British mainland …

      1. Dig out your old “Protect and Survive” booklet, lacoste! Have you still got an Anderson shelter?

      2. I cannot see Putin hitting the UK or the US because they could retaliate.

        Now Austria, Poland or Canada would test NATO and the all for one defense policy.

        2. He is not interested, and neither is it in his interests, to do so. He has a problem very similar to that of the United Kingdom in Northern Ireland over the last twenty to fifty years to sort out. We would have been pretty mad angry if Putin had waltzed in to assist the IRA against the British government (our armed forces) with arms, missiles and the rest.

      3. Boris is a fucking idiot. I find it difficult to believe that a British government is aiding and abetting an utterly corrupt, drug crazed ham actor, a globalist place man, is supplying arms, missiles, anti-tank apparatus, ambulances and fire engines to yet another vile regime.

        I am no apologist for Putin but given the persecution of Russian speaking areas of ‘Ukraine’ over several years, by Zelensky, often with murderous intent, I find it impossible to reconcile our government’s position and actions with the reality on the ground.

    1. It is interesting watching the UK from a Canadian perspective, actions in one country are frequently matched by the other.

  88. A question for the fellas:

    Why is it that when men reach a certain age, they develop a preponderance for stopping in the middle of the pavement?

    1. Oh god, MH does that especially when he’s in mid flood and wants to make his point. Drives me bonkers.

      1. Ah, that would be why I found MH in the baked bean aisle in Sainsbury’s when he was supposed to be looking for pajama trousers.

        1. I don’t lie to mention it, but maybe he was thinking of wearing beans as trousers… a strange kink, but each to their own.

          1. You know, Wibbs, men frequently joke about women re various things but men are just as bonkers. With my ex and current husband, I am/was always ready before he was/is. I was in the cab the other day and he was piffling about in the bathroom. I apologised to the cabbie and he said he knew, he’d picked us up before;-)
            Vive la difference, eh?

          2. Seriously Richard, comedy stand at the golf/ hurling clubs. Sit on a stool and you’ll look enormous;-)

    4. It only happens once to each and every man. It’s because after years to trying to work it out, it dawns on them that they will never ever understand women. The pause marks the relief that they can give up on the quest!

    5. It only happens once to each and every man. It’s because after years to trying to work it out, it dawns on them that they will never ever understand women. The pause marks the relief that they can give up on the quest!

    6. This is because all of a sudden we realise we’ve not locked the door.

      Or that no matter how much we try to think otherwise, our best days have been and gone, and we miss them.

    7. Brilliant, Stormy! I can’t count the number of times I’ve had to guide the old man out of the path of other people by gently taking his arm, or shouting at him! He’s worse than the children!

      1. My father used to do it. We’d be walking along, chatting and something across the road would catch his attention and he’d just stop abruptly and stare at whatever it was that had caught his eye.

    8. Men stop and think and plan what they are going to do. Women just rush round and what they call multi tasking, is in fact just a scattergun approach. Thats why most men are better managers.

      1. Got a good hiding place Johnny? I ran a large primary school library- I managed it extremely well, if I hadn’t done, I would have been fired.
        Indeed there are women who fit the description you gave but do not tar us all with the same brush.

      2. Stop and plan as much as you want, but why abruptly in a crowded flow of pedestrians? Why not pull over to the side, as it were?

    10. Probably the same reason why women, when they reach a certain age, stop abruptly in supermarkets with their trolleys and place them askew to prevent anyone else passing or gaining access to goods.

      Even worse when two such meet each other and form a complete barrier across the aisle with their trolleys as they chat inanely about nothing.

      1. You need to check the aisle before entering and assess the risk. Shopping efficiently has its own highway code, one few men seem to be able to get to grips with. I expect it’s so they can have an excuse to duck out of it.

        1. I have always been self-sufficient and have always shopped. How else do I locate the proper wholesome ingredients that are necessary for my delicious and nourishing recipes? There is no risk in a blocked aisle: I simply arbitrarily unblock it.Often I will wheel an unattended trolley to a location out of sight of the clown who abandoned it and blocked my way.

    1. I note that “Stealing users’ data” doesn’t appear anywhere on those fancy graphics.

  91. 80 years ago 417 citizens of Bath were killed by the Luftwaffe, over 1000 people were seriously injured.

      1. Yes. It is known as the Bath Blitz. A bomb destroyed an air raid shelter in Kingsmead Square killing all inside. Other bombs were aimed at fine historic buildings, destroying a city centre church, damaging the Assembly Rooms, several crescents (Somerset Place for example) and numerous other sites.

        A bomb landed in the very centre of The Circus. A tree was planted to mark the spot.

        Bristol was also attacked. The main shopping street was completely destroyed and never rebuilt. The Temple church site remains as does Temple Meads Station but the street leading to it destroyed.

        The damage caused to our historic cities was a truly callous act from which their historic fabric never recovered.

        1. I used to spend my childhood holidays with relations in Exeter; I well remember playing on bomb sites.

          3. Me too. We played on ‘The Brick Fields’ just off Coronation Avenue so called because brick industrial buildings littered the ground having been struck by bombs. The Chinese Laundry on the site was still going in my youth.

        2. Coincidentally I walked right round the circus yesterday and saw that tree, although I was unaware of its significance. Dinner in the nearby Circus Restaurant was excellent.

      2. Yes. It is known as the Bath Blitz. A bomb destroyed an air raid shelter in Kingsmead Square killing all inside. Other bombs were aimed at fine historic buildings, destroying a city centre church, damaging the Assembly Rooms, several crescents (Somerset Place for example) and numerous other sites.

        A bomb landed in the very centre of The Circus. A tree was planted to mark the spot.

        Bristol was also attacked. The main shopping street was completely destroyed and never rebuilt. The Temple church site remains as does Temple Meads Station but the street leading to it destroyed.

        The damage caused to our historic cities was a truly callous act from which their historic fabric never recovered.

    3. It is familiar, ogga1. Kenny Everett copied it from Old Mother Riley (Arthur Lucan).

  93. Wow! Just been on the DT! There are two articles by the ghastly ABC, both of which were posted at 9.00pm with comments open. At 9.50 both comments sections are closed! Some of the comments are a joy to read – have some of you been posting?

  95. Good night, everyone. And thanks once again to Lady of the Lake for recommending IRIS to me. I bought it a few days ago and watched it tonight. Very moving and a first class film.

Comments are closed.