Tuesday 26 July: The next prime minister must ban Chinese infiltration of universities

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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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.

616 thoughts on “Tuesday 26 July: The next prime minister must ban Chinese infiltration of universities”

  3. ‘Morning, Peeps. A pleasant 15°C at 06:10 on this part of yer sarf coast, with the slim chance of some rain from noon onwards…bring it on!

    This isn’t the leading letter but perhaps it should be:

    SIR – Instead of raising taxes, how about cutting expenditure?

    Graham Francis
    Fetcham, Surrey

    1. Morning, Hugh J and all.

      Succinct and to the point. How does Graham Francis expect our verbose ‘leaders’ to understand such brevity?

    2. Morning, Hugh, and all Nottlers! Already had a bit of rain here (near Hastings). More forecast. Hoping it will manage to get it out of its system so there is sun tomorrow; there’s a nice-looking beach nearby . . .

  4. SIR – Chris Hodson’s suggestion that 5,200 patients fail to attend their appointments at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham each week (Letters, July 25) may not be entirely accurate.

    My husband received a letter telling him he had cancelled an appointment – but this appointment had never been arranged. The same thing has happened to other people I know.

    It appears that hospital administrators are failing to make appointments, then placing the blame on patients by saying that they have cancelled. If patients are recorded as having “cancelled” on more than two occasions, they have to start the referral process again.

    Hospital administration has not been fit for purpose for decades. It is time for a wholesale reorganisation.

    Christine Morris
    Peterborough

    I wouldn’t put it past them, Ms Morris. In the past I have had instances of no appointment letters, a single letter with the wrong date, two or more letters for different dates…bearing in mind the vast army of NHS administrators this aspect of their activity is a shambles. Or, as suggested, is this more than mere incompetence??

    1. Or, as suggested, is this more than mere incompetence??

      Morning Hugh. Without direct access to the NHS one cannot be sure but its activities suggest wholesale malpractice by its staff. This particular example would be a good way of closing down for the day and having a holiday. I suspect, though obviously cannot prove, that the entire organistion is just a facade for various forms of personal idleness and self indulgence.

      1. I think that an an individual level it’s more likely to be failing to understand how rubbish the computerised system is, feeling overworked (note: not being so), and feeling so pressured to meet arbitrary targets that little things like ensuring decent patient service go by the wayside.

        1. The problem with the ‘computerised’ system is, as I understand it, it is not linked at all, many computers are based on Windows XP and, when I go to Scotland, I’m bringing my own medical history with me, as I can guarantee that it won’t be available online to my next GP.

          When I was an IT Consultant, I encouraged bosses to learn how to use ‘Office’ sack their secretaries and become independant of the accountancts, work things out for themselves and learn to be ‘in charge’.

          1. Yep. And the people working with the systems have absolutely no idea. My brother has first-hand experience of the NHS It tendering process (unworkable), and when my father was appointed medical director of a trust, he had to ask me to come and help him work out how to use his computer. (It didn’t help that when, in preparation, I asked what software they were using, and his reply was “I don’t think I have any of that” 🤣.)

    2. People employed in NHS administration probably would not be able to get a job in private industry.

  5. “Sir – – The French go-slow at Dover (Letters, July 25) has prompted several commentators on the Left to trot out the usual fallacies about how Brexit has deprived us of the unalloyed advantage of free movement.

    Free movement was never about going through passport control more quickly, or having fun gap years in Bologna. It was always about keeping wages low for blue-collar workers by providing a limitless supply of cheap labour to Britain, France and Germany from poorer EU countries.

    The Labour Party understood this before it lost its soul to Islington and Richmond upon Thames.”

    How very dare you! We in the sunny uplands of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames have sold our souls to the Non-Lib Non-Dems/watermelon Greens because we are so very, very caring and smug (not me, obvs – formally an evil Tory, now politically homeless). And, to show our caring we are, we let a horse represent us in Parliament and very ineffective this horse is too.

  6. https://www.tiktok.com/@dark_truths_official/video/7114429557611990277?_t=8UHGV50yUkf&_r=1
    Please do share this video with anyone you know who’s got a vote in the Tory leadership election. It’s describing the CBDC plan for Britain, and it includes a few seconds of Rishi Sunak talking about this sinister system, which has already been developed and is looking for an opportunity to launch, once everyone’s miserable enough about inflation and gas bills. Nobody should be under the impression that Sunak is anything but an authoritarian who will be the puppet leader who installs a social credit system.
    I certainly don’t think Truss or Johnson are any better, in fact Johnson probably only wants out now because he doesn’t want to go down in history as the hated Prime Minister who delivered the final push of the population into slavery.

    1. My opinion, for what it’s worth, is that Johnson (I’m no apologist for that awful person, by the way) was dragging his feet a bit for the reason, and others, that you put forward. The campaign against him was orchestrated to get someone in place who will move forward more quickly to meet the newly agreed UN/WEF now pre-2030 deadline. Further, Mordaunt was set up to fail as the very obvious WEF candidate, she couldn’t deny her connections with that vile organisation, and to make the public believe that they had dodged a bullet with her failure. All the while…
      Tin foil hat securely in place.😎

      1. Q: What’s the difference between conspiracy theory and reality?
        A: A few months.

      2. I read this morning that Ireland has joined Canada and the Netherlands in beginning to “phase out” farming. When are the masses going to wake up? When their supermarket shelves are empty, it’ll be too late, because the government will launch the CBDCs to make food rationing easier, and all the little sheep will obediently flock to the free money.

        I was in France at the weekend, one supermarket had a whole aisle just empty and cordoned off. We were trying to figure out whether it was maintenance or lack of goods, but there were no visible signs of the former, plus there was another small empty section elsewhere in the supermarket, which would tend to argue lack of goods.

        1. There are no major problems around us,
          Yet,

          There is some evidence of shortage of things like whole grain mustard but nothing significant.

          yer Frogs do have a tendency to rearrange the aisles periodically to confuse the patrons like me, who shop on autopilot knowing where things usually are.

    2. Happy Birthday , Delboy! Hope it’s a good one and the Mrs Db is much better! 🎂🍾

      1. She has been put on steroids. I am well as I take a dollop of Vit D every day.

        2. Good morning, and may you have a splendid day.
          A couple of sixes and a two and you’re there, keep on batting.

  8. SIR – If the powers that be want householders to use less energy, they should change the building regulations to ensure that all new houses come with a cleat, to which a washing line can be attached, along with a post.

    Presently, builders assume that we all use tumble dryers.

    Sue Doughty
    Reading, Berkshire

    Using a tumble dryer at present electricity costs – and never mind the increases to come – is surely the road to penury and ruin!

  9. Justin Trudeau and the dangers of eco-posturing. Spiked 26 July 2022.

    The Western elites’ war on modern farming is a menace to humankind.

    In the Netherlands, the government is planning to slash use of nitrogen compounds by 50 per cent by 2030. This would mean farmers having to use less fertiliser and having to get rid of vast numbers of their livestock. No wonder a mass uprising of farmers and other workers has rocked that nation in recent weeks. In Ireland the government says emissions caused by farming will need to be cut by between 22 and 30 per cent if Ireland is to ‘achieve [its] climate goals’. Irish farmers predict this would cost the farming industry 4 billion euros and lead to 58,000 job losses a year. Who’ll make the food then? Most disastrously there’s the case of Sri Lanka, where the government’s harebrained embrace of organic farming, and its restriction on the importing of fertiliser, led to an extraordinary downturn in crop cultivation. The people of Sri Lanka rose up decisively against these deranged and destructive eco-policies.

    Under the guise of Net Zero targeting we are seeing that old Marxist trope, the Collectivisation of Agriculture. A policy that wherever it has been implemented has led to disaster and the deaths of millions of Human Beings!

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/07/26/justin-trudeau-and-the-dangers-of-eco-posturing/

    2. I’m with the Sri Lankans on this. Burn the politicians houses, preferably with them indoors.

      1. The danger with that is that the WEF next appointee can then order a crackdown on the protests.

    3. Making farm land redundant will force the price of that land through the floor and the ‘elites’ will be able to pay next to nothing for it. It’s primarily a land grab exercise with starving the World’s population as the secondary outcome, or maybe the reasoning is the other way round. No matter, the outcome will be the same: a starving population and the ‘elite gangsters’ owning everything their black hearts desire.

      1. The eugenist Bill Gates is well on his way to becoming, if not already, the largest landowner in the USA.

  10. SIR – The French go-slow at Dover (Letters, July 25) has prompted several commentators on the Left to trot out the usual fallacies about how Brexit has deprived us of the unalloyed advantage of free movement.

    Free movement was never about going through passport control more quickly, or having fun gap years in Bologna. It was always about keeping wages low for blue-collar workers by providing a limitless supply of cheap labour to Britain, France and Germany from poorer EU countries.

    The Labour Party understood this before it lost its soul to Islington and Richmond upon Thames.

    Alison Levinson
    Hastings, East Sussex

    So that’s why the Home Office has failed to stop the arrival of boat people!

    1. Trouble is, it has changed the demographic for incomers from a white, European, Christian culture to that of an alien African/Asian, Muslim, freeloading one which is incompatible with Western civilisation.

  12. SIR – Jack Rear’s journey to John O’Groats by electric vehicle didn’t persuade me to buy one.

    I live in Dorset. If I fill my diesel Volkswagen Golf with fuel (costing approximately £110 from empty) it will take me and three passengers to Edinburgh without having to stop 45 minutes here or an hour and a half there in order to fill up. Nor will I have to worry about my fuel consumption if I need to use the wipers, headlights or air con. If I did stop for fuel, I wouldn’t have to worry about whether the nozzle would fit the filler pipe.

    Mr Rear appears to be a fit younger person. How would a woman with a couple of children in the car manage? I wouldn’t like to think of my wife hanging about in some miserable store car park for hours, trapped while the wretched car slowly charges up.

    I’ll run our reliable fossil-fuelled car for as long as I can. Maybe I’ll consider a self-charging hybrid, but not an EV.

    John Neimer
    Stoborough, Dorset

    SIR – Jack Rear says that “the stress of electric cars has mostly evaporated”. Really?

    His long-distance drive sounds hellish to me, with constantly worry about finding a charging point that works. Most of us don’t have the hours it takes to seek one, let alone use it.

    Electric vehicles are being forced upon us, at huge cost, without consultation. They are simply not green. Instead of displaying “emissions free” badges they should say “emissions elsewhere”.

    Mark Osland

    I am very firmly with Messrs Osland and Neimar…oh yes, and I can’t afford these expensive and overly complicated means of personal transport either.

    1. They don’t care, because it was never in the plan for us to have cars anyway. The goal was always to ban us from private car ownership.

    2. Hybrids are a terrible solution. You carry heavy batteries around, charge them using the gasoline engine (how is that helping?), or the batteries lug a heavy gasoline engine around. The CO2 emissions are poor (if you worry about those) as is the fuel consumption, when compared with a modern clean-burning diesel Passat station waggon.

    1. How long must masks and social distancing go on for in a pandemic?

      “I think forever, to some extent,” Michie responded before laughing.

      🤔

  14. Good morning all! A dull and damp start to the morning with very light drizzle and 9½°C in the yard.

  15. East Sussex Coast.

    15.8°C (60.4°F), Apparent temp 15.8°C, Apparent temp solar 15.8°C

    1. Apparent temperature is the
      temperature equivalent perceived by humans, caused by the combined
      effects of air temperature, relative humidity and wind speed. The measure is most commonly applied to the perceived outdoor temperature.

  16. A truly remarkable soldier:

    Academy Sergeant-Major Raymond Huggins, warrant officer who oversaw the progress of thousands of cadets through Sandhurst – obituary

    He served in Palestine, Germany and Africa before asking to be posted to the Royal Military College

    ByTelegraph Obituaries 24 July 2022

    Academy Sergeant-Major Raymond Huggins, who has died aged 94, was one of the most outstanding warrant officers of his generation in the British Army.

    The only son of a publican, Raymond Pearse Huggins was born in Stockport, Cheshire, on March 22 1928. His father had served in the First World War and was called up for the Second. He was in the Royal Army Service Corps and worked on Pluto, the oil pipeline under the English Channel, for the Normandy campaign.

    Huggins was only nine when an aunt took him to see a Guardsman on sentry duty outside St. James’s Palace. “That did it for me,” he said afterwards. He left school at 14 and, aged 17, he enlisted in the Grenadier Guards and did his basic training at Fox Lines, near the Guards Depot, Caterham, Surrey.

    The war in Europe was over but training had altered very little and he remembered a drill sergeant rapping on the tin hats of recruits with a poker to simulate the blast from grenades.

    In 1946 he joined the 4th Battalion Grenadier Guards in Hamburg. Much of the city had been destroyed by heavy bombing. One of his tasks was to guard the SS camp staff of the former concentration camp at Neuengamme.

    After the battalion was disbanded, Huggins was posted to the King’s Company of the 1st Battalion. He represented his regiment at rugby, fencing, swimming and water polo and, in 1950, he was the regimental light-heavyweight boxing champion.

    He saw active service in Palestine on internal security duties and, among other postings, he served in Libya, Berlin and the Cameroons. In 1966, on being promoted to Warrant Officer Class 1, he was appointed regimental sergeant major (RSM) of Old College, Sandhurst.

    He subsequently served as RSM of the 2nd Battalion at Wuppertal and Münster, western Germany. He then turned down the offer of a commission; it was so unusual that the regimental lieutenant-colonel asked to see him alone and pressed him to reconsider.

    Huggins, however, held his ground. “Well, tell me what you do want to do!” exclaimed the exasperated CO. Huggins asked to be posted back to Sandhurst as the academy sergeant major, and during the following 10 years, nearly 5,500 cadets passed through Sandhurst.

    A towering presence during drill, with a hawk-like eye that missed nothing and a voice that carried to the furthest corner of the parade ground, he had considerable charisma. He also had a lively sense of humour, and while insisting on the very highest standards, he always maintained that soldiering should be enjoyable. When asked to sum up his Army career, he replied, “90 per cent fun and 10 per cent character-building.”

    He retired from the Army in 1980 and moved to an apartment at Blenheim Palace, where he became deputy administrator and, subsequently, a most impressive toastmaster. His wife Sheila served as Blenheim Gardens secretary until they both retired in 1993 and moved to a cottage on the estate. After his wife died, he became an in-pensioner at the Royal Hospital, Chelsea.

    In 1973 he was appointed MBE (Military) and the following year he received the Meritorious Service Medal.

    Raymond Huggins married, in 1952, Sheila Vaughan, a civil servant and a former Wren. She predeceased him and he is survived by their son and three daughters.

    Raymond Huggins, born March 22 1928, died May 13 2022 https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/82a8322c4c86965eb7a39d3348e5843329f2e892cb794ac055f8f1fdc53ebd08.jpg

    1. * * *

      Instead of just the usual handful of BTL comments, this obituary has attracted around 80 so far, and here are some of them:

      Nicholas Rynn22 HRS AGO

      As one of Mr Huggins 5,500 “gentlemen” as he would refer to us, I can safely say he was one of the most influential men in my life. Extraordinary leader, teacher and an example to all. Rest in peace Sir; it is people like you that mould and make the Army that defends our country.

      Mr Iain R Scott Shore 1 DAY AGO

      God Bless him. He was a real man. As Academy Sergeant Major, he was the kingpin of the whole operation, yet always remained approachable. As very young Officer Cadets, we were all in awe of him; yet his humanity and humour was never absent. We would all be convulsed with laughter at some of his utterances, always deliberate, and intended to lighten the mood. Even those on the receiving end knew they had merited it! He was an inspiration. Rest in Peace, Mr Huggins.

      Kevin Scrivener1 DAY AGO

      I had the privilege of meeting Mr. Huggins whilst he was at Sandhurst; at the time I was a very young (and nervous) Drum Major in the brass band of the Army Apprentice College, Arborfield and we had been delegated to play at a passing out parade at the Academy. We had been made aware of his fearsome reputation as a stickler for detail, it was a blisteringly hot day and I don’t think there was a bandsman there who wasn’t dreading the ignominy of fainting on parade.

      We need not have worried. He was an absolute gent, put us at ease. treated us as adults and gave us valuable advice on how to handle the conditions; then took the trouble to come over and thank us after the parade.

      Respect Sir. I am proud to have been on your parade square.

      James Wyburd 1 DAY AGO

      Huggins was RSM at Old College when I was at Dettingen Company. He really did order a cadet on parade to march to the Queen Victoria Statue, and to salute and apologise for a drill misdemeanour, only for the cadet to march away claiming subsequently that she had forgiven him. Thanks to Huggins’ wonderful sense of humour, he got away with it.

      Mr Iain R Scott Shore1 DAY AGO

      God Bless him. He was a real man. As Academy Sergeant Major, he was the kingpin of the whole operation, yet always remained approachable. As very young Officer Cadets, we were all in awe of him; yet his humanity and humour was never absent. We would all be convulsed with laughter at some of his utterances, always deliberate, and intended to lighten the mood. Even those on the receiving end knew they had merited it! He was an inspiration. Rest in Peace, Mr Huggins.

      Hamish Fulton1 DAY AGO

      I shall, we shall, remember him always. ASM Huggins, Mr Higgins, we Cadets respected and admired you. Rest on a peaceful parade ground dear Sir.

    2. There was a similarly impressive obit in The Grimes some weeks ago, which I copied and pasted here..

      1. Thank goodness for that. I thought that I was suffering from deja vu all over again.

  19. Modern Life…..

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7ab623060082baf5e12b58ce217d07b61de526d0a5d8cfcaad9b09cd6d354d8e.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b2746fe817961b28537529cbfcd92038253559ee4919ccc3c104ab4b1a5d9bfd.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/003f73f028d5f4a6ca5dbefc1f9b9195a98c3a35c6ad99cabb7d04bb6b4f8da8.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/33c67035ca04dfaf64d0482b01cab9b327c91dafc3f3e67ac1d4d4e71af6f4d9.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2cc16e6b9e8b2a0c0e23ede3bd2941bcde8c282e856b14005d50703b929996b3.jpg

    1. The problem Austria may now have is the precedent set might result in many men transitioning to women to get their pensions early

  21. Correction. Having been outside to open greenhouse – I found raindrops on the garden furniture and two damp cats. So it must have rained a bit. Better than nothing.

  22. 354610+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Tuesday 26 July: The next prime minister must ban Chinese infiltration of universities

    Tuesday 26 July: The next prime minister must ban illegal infiltration of
    the British Isles inclusive of the Chinese

    I am seriously afraid that the brown envelopes have been delivered long ago and their contents are being honoured in a dishonourable manner.

    You judge, you vote, consequences of that vote could be you suffer as has happened in a repetitious manner these past near four decades.

    .

    2. ‘Morning, Rik. Yes, he was positively fizzing yesterday evening. I’m sure the PTB would like nothing more than to get him off the air.

    5. (See my post above about the report thst has been sneaked out by the government and conveniently buried in the scramble for the next PMship). The government stinks.

    3. Ah, they’re foreign! That’s why they noticed. As no Brit would give a fig that they were wearing the same clothes as their chum.

  25. Morning all,

    Politics has become so juvenile , a pick and mix of opinions and decisions , led by the media .

    Our constituency MPs stay silent and hidden . It is as if national policy has nothing to do with us , we have no say in anything , no one listens anyway .

    1. Hearing Sunak with a straight face saying ‘If the Conservatives are not about sound money, what are we for?” did it for me.

      Increasing spending, increasing waste, giving money away without any controls, eat out to help out and hiking taxes. If he thinks that’s sound money, he’s Gordon Brown.

      1. Morning Wibbling

        Except we have no gold reserves to sell either .

        Sunak squandered money like there was no tomorrow.. and of course that expensively clad twerp has no idea of the value of anything .

        He will behave like a Rajah or a Grand Sultan , just you wait and see.

        Boris’s wallpaper will be stripped bare and goodness knows how Taj Mahal no 10 will be decorated.

  26. 354610+ + up ticks,

    How true,
    Post
    Gerard Batten
    @gjb2021
    ·
    9h
    Thanks to David for sending this & reminding us that the cross-Channel travel chaos goes back long before Brexit.

    Never trust the lying scum MSM Globalist propaganda machine.
    Translate post

    https://gettr.com/post/p1jps90dd6b

  27. Well here we are , the harvest progresses.

    Lots of sounds are missing .. We have not seen swallows or housemartins wheeling and chattering , we haven’t seen any moths flying around security lights .. we have seen no bats , and where are the butterflies and bees .. especially the bees on our heather covered heathland ..

    We have seen however crowds of single dark men , huddled together on the seafront , we have also seen more gowned garbed women with pushchairs and small dark children in tow , and a few different foreign faces in the village .

    And very shortly we will be viewing an Indian man in charge of our country.. yes an Indian Hindu man .. Our Caste system , not class system will now have ticked all the bleeding Woke boxes ..

    Gawd help us all.

    1. Good morning Trubie, and everyone.
      That´s a bit gloomy. Much as I mistrust his politics, Mr Sunak is not responsible for his parentage or skin tone or ‘caste’. On the other hand, he is a Wykehamist.

      As for swallows and housemartins, they are not nesting here but yesterday evening at least a dozen were wheeling and soaring over the nearby pond, hopefully dealing with thousands of bloodthirsty mossies.

      Edit: doesn’t mean to say that I am a doe eyed romantic about other nationalities, ethnicities and cultures, but levels of melanin and physical appearance are skin deep, so I try hard to look beyond that.

      1. They are nesting here – three pairs of swifts this year- two chicks fledged last week, one about to go and two more chicks hatched last week. They are finding enough food.

          1. The biggest threat to swifts is renovation of old buildings depriving them of their nest sites. They go back to the same hole each year. Until it’s blocked off.

      2. So do I ,

        BUT, one big but .. Britain is woke and tick boxing .. so I have everyright to question motives and efficiency and of course status grab.

        He stabbed Boris in the back, gave him the elbow ..

        I don’t like that .

      3. Fishi was planing a coup months ago – hence the sordid video and campaign slogan invented LAST YEAR…..

        Shyster.

      4. Melanin and physical appearance may be skin deep, but the societies and mores of the people concerned go far deeper. Centuries of corruption as a way of life is hard to shake off.

    2. And on green belt surrounding the St Albans area plans have submitted for huge housing developments. More wildlife habitat to be destroyed. Rises in carbon emissions. More lies from our politicians and councils more bungs into the right hands from the developers. For sake of nothing but sanity, It has to be stopped. I think we have all had enough.

      1. We have all had more than enough, and have had for decades. Our whole sytem is just riddled with corruption.

        1. After then housing minister Schapps had moved on, coincidently the amount of building went through the roof (scuz the pun) around Hatfield and St Albans.

          2. There’s a piece of land that has been the subject for debate for a few years. It is said to be owned by the Cecil Family who own Hatfield house i doubt if they ever paid anything for it or have a bill of sale.
            https://www.bing.com/ck/a?!&&p=7bb83a064dbe9bfdJmltdHM9MTY1ODg0ODM3OCZpZ3VpZD1hZTUxYTJkYy1mNjUzLTQ5MTUtODNlZi1mOTcxNjNlODY4OTYmaW5zaWQ9NTI2MQ&ptn=3&hsh=3&fclid=6e834e1e-0cf5-11ed-9741-737346835475&u=a1aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuaGVydHNhZC5jby51ay9uZXdzL3NhdmUtc3ltb25kc2h5ZGUtY2FtcGFpZ24tZ2F0aGVycy1zdXBwb3J0LWF0LW1lZXRpbmctaW4td2hlYXRoYW1wc3RlYWQtNTA5ODA5Mg&ntb=1

    3. I have everything that you have reported as “missing wildlife” plus lots and lots more besides. Since I moved here in 2013, I have recorded no fewer than 82 species of bird that I have observed in, from, and flying over my garden. Bats, bees, butterflies and moths abound.

        1. Not a single one in my large village. There are a few in our nearby town, Tomelilla, but none are causing any problems … yet!

  29. Drought ahead?

    Building ONE HOUSE

    A lot of water is added during construction, particularly by
    activities like concreting, laying screed floors, bricklaying,
    plastering and painting. Up to 8000 litres of water (about 800
    full buckets) may be included in mixtures and materials as
    construction proceeds, though this varies depending on the
    design of the home.

    How many new houses constructed this year?

    2. It’s a sobering thought that the Earth contains about the same amount of water as it did when it was created,

    3. Morning T-B The Saudis are planning a 75 mile long continuous multi storied city. Perhaps we could send our rejected illegal immigrants to this planned monstrosity.

      1. 354610+ up ticks,

        Morning CS,

        Where would we find these rejected illegal immigrants ?

      2. Having a single area where all illegal immigrants are put isn’t a bad idea. It could be isolated, cut off from the rest of society and self sufficient. A community unto itself.

        It could have crops, machine shops, an internal water supply everything. They could have to grow their own food and recycle their own water and make their own materials through their own efforts. Of course, they wouldn’t and they’d starve but hey ho.

  30. 354610+ up ticks,

    Saturday night & Sunday morning,

    London seems to have upped the ante according to the Evening Standard
    regarding the knife & gun fraternity.

    May one ask via an ALL party campaign could a festival of premeture death be organised on a yearly basis ?

    ALL knives, machete, guns on show as status symbols, some firing into the air allowed.

      1. 354610+ up ticks,

        Morning W,
        The lab/lib/con coalition voting pattern many years ago dictated it would become a third world lookalike.

        Also continuing work in progress via the polling booth assured us, over these last four decades it would, there was no falsehoods there, true to their word, it has.

        1. The thing is, it needn’t have been. If we’d insisted on integration and the erasure of the incoming customs and imposed a work ethic not only would we get the better immigrant but the more socialised and less crime prone.

          They’d want to be British in every respect and, being independent and working wouldn’t commit crime or be welfare dependent (the two being sadly linked).

          1. It was Tony Blair who was caught on camera proclaiming “We GLORY in multiculturalism”. No we bl**dy don’t. And we never did.

          3. He could do with a good dose of industial strength drain cleaner – but proably wouldn’t affect him in the least.

          4. Hey, BoB, ‘N’ is miles away from ‘D’ on my keyboard, so that’s no accidental typo, is it?

          5. 354610+up ticks,
            Morning W,

            A high degree of nose rubbing in shite was introduced by the willie pogga PM
            anthony charlie lynton ( lab) initially then taken up by the tory (ino) party
            vying for mass party numbers, criminality does not count.

            Since that day forth illegal immigration are seen by the coalition leaders as party booster,s also found agreeable to the majority voter.
            Only one party called for controlled immigration, real UKIP.

            Odious consequences are of little or NO importance, party before Country
            ALL the way down the pan.

    2. Even though they seem to keep much of it within one section of society, instead of decreasing in number, that section keeps on increasing.

    3. Even though they seem to keep much of it within one section of society, instead of decreasing in number, that section keeps on increasing.

  31. Good morrow, Delboy, have yourself a Happy, happy Birthday and here’s wishes for the remaing 364 happy unbirthdays.

    1. Keep slogging on Delboy. I’m not far behind you. Enjoy the day and many happy returns.

      1. I posted birthday greetings below but it seems to have gone.
        Have a very happy birthday and celebrate in style.

          1. Very many happy returns – have a great day. It is nice (for once) to think of myself as young!!

  33. Happy Birthday, Delboy! “Never grow up, never surrender!”*

    *Galaxy Quest.

    3. That’s a great film, but i’d watch Alan Rickman reading out his shopping list quite honestly.

  34. Last night on BBC news they had a whole section on drought in Somalia.
    People sitting around looking forlorn, for the camera, many women surrounded by babies and young children. Perhaps they have put far too much faith in their religious instructions. Get off their knees, stop sitting around between childbirth and do something constructive.
    I know it’s not the best method but desalination would be helpful. You might think their brotherhood would chip in and help, instead of making pleese towards western society. Who instead of sitting around looking desperate, have always worked hard and found solutions to problems.

    1. Odd that the Israeli’s, having arrived in a place with little water, set about building some of the most efficient desalination plants going.

      Africa just seems to wait for whitey to fix everything.

      1. Their god will sort it for them, inshallah. Probably get stupid Westerners to send food.

        1. Are you suggesting that there are insufficient appropriately educated Africans in Africa to be able to do anything for themselves?

          3. One of their great skills is requisitioning “aid” – especially vital food, donated by muggins in the West – and selling it. To their own starving people or any other buyer who turns up.

          4. Time for another “Live Aid” then.
            That will allow far more to be born, and after all, one can never get sufficient starving Africans.

          5. Probably more starving Africans now than in 1985 when St Bob came down from heaven.
            Charities are the problem Not the solution.

          6. Probably???
            Definitely,
            Hundreds of millions more.

            There was a regular poster on Nottle, The Central Scrutineer, if I remember correctly. He was a knowledgeable man and it’s a great pity he no longer posts here.

            He used to argue that aid was a good thing, I used to (and still do) argue that aid is the worst thing that the West gives to Africa because it allows uncontrolled breeding.

          7. We are on the same wavelength as you on aid. We never contribute to any international charity only local ones.

          8. Sort of like Ukraine allegedly selling off some of the arms they have been given?

          11. I would think in quite a few places there’s a lack of decently educated engineers and suchlike yes especially when compared to a country like Israel. They do have a wealth of resources though so they should be able to easily afford western expertise to build anything they need if they can’t do it themselves.

          12. Given how we are constantly being informed about how wonderful Africans are, and how much they contribute, that really does surprise me.

          13. They used to say of the Nigerians: Give us the job, and we will finish the tools!

          14. We seem to have pumped £billions into Africa since we gave them their independence and seem to regress every year apart from the breeding.
            We were so racist that we implemented sound administration, law and order and provided education for their children. It would appear that all this has disappeared but Mercedes, BMW and the Swiss Banks seem to be doing very nicely from their new wealth provided by your and my taxes as well as many international charities.
            There are many of their ilk who live in Western countries who want ‘reparations’ whatever that means, I would quite happily provide them with one way tickets back to their countries of origin so that they might help their ‘brothers and sisters’ to build the society they desire from the wealth they have built up from the racists in the west.
            Edit – Added way to make one way ticket

          15. Amazing that for around 30 thousand years the aboriginal people of Australia managed survive droughts and feed themselves. It’s less about education but more about survival and willingness to put the effort in and work at it.

          16. I don’t think the Aboriginal peoples bred like European introduced small mammals.

        2. The level of entitlement amongst the populations of the two places is certainly very different. Perhaps the Africans’ notion of a God who helps those who help themselves,means to help themselves to Western money/work/whatever.

      3. You might think that the brothers of islam would be more then interested in helping them to fix things as desalination is extremely important in many parts of the middle east for survival. But arabs are too busy funding the building of mosques in the west, just to try and stir up more trouble and religious indifferences.

        1. Water will soon become the new oil – and wars are already being fought over it.

          1. I could never understand why we didn’t build new reservoirs. Which was obvious we would need. And ignored the orders of Brussels mafia who banned this sensible project.
            How can a now grossly over populated small group of islands like ours be expected to have sufficient supplies of water for amount of people residing here and now with this pre-planned invasion still happening.
            Same old story, politicians eff up everything they come into contact with.

      4. But hates whitey for having done that, years ago. Now all they can do is destroy it, a la Zimbabwe.

      1. And during the pirate attacks and shipping raids so many of them were funded by the robbery takings to sail to places far away like Australia.
        After refueling and taking on provisions in Indonesia another muslim country.
        My old mate Bruce told me Saturday that a bunch of them raided a grocery shop on Phillip Island recently and walked out then drove off with their takings.

      2. Oh I don’t know – severing a few ties snipping for some of the males might not go amiss. Especially for those that simply want to run here rather than deal with their own countries.

        2. Total castration for all Arab males over 14 – let ’em have 4 years of w*nking so that they know what they’re missing.

          The world needs millions-more idealogical eunuchs.

      3. Oh I don’t know – severing a few ties snipping for some of the males might not go amiss. Especially for those that simply want to run here rather than deal with their own countries.

    1. This nonsense is only still happening because it’s being pushed by the media and the race-baiting industry as something serious.

      1. Yes. The company that carried out the “independent investigation” , Plan4Sport is in the racism business. It sells training and consultancy. If there were no “racism” there would be no Plan4Sport. I am sure that they could find racism in a Trappist monastery, especially as the monastic orders are unlikely to have covered all the bases which have been defined by Plan4Sport as the investigator. (So not just judge and jury, but also making the laws.).
        Oh yes, and this one man operation that hires temps to do the work can then carry out all the training and procedural set-ups to cure the problems that they have invented and then discovered. It’s looking more like fraud to me.

        The company, which seems like a one -woman band, has twice been at risk of Compulsory Strike-out.
        https://www.plan4sport.co.uk
        https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/05039734/filing-history?page=1

          1. I am guessing that the Board of Cricket Scotland resigned en masse not because they are “guilty” but because they desired to avoid the hassle and say, “Up Yours!”

  36. Good morning NoTTLers and a very happy birthday to Del Boy. I hope the day finds you well and in celebratory mood.

  37. Off for both a dressing change and an INR. God knows where and when the next will be.

    1. Ah, now confirmed as 15:20 on Friday with extra dessings thrown in for my impending emigration.

  38. A belated good morning to everyone. Off now for a chat with Korky the Kat.

  44. Russia says it wants to end Ukraine’s ‘unacceptable regime’

    The remark from Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov comes amid Ukraine’s efforts to resume grain exports from its Black Sea ports – something that would help ease global food shortages – under a new deal tested by a Russian strike on Odesa over the weekend.

    “We are determined to help the people of eastern Ukraine to liberate themselves from the burden of this absolutely unacceptable regime,” Lavrov said at an Arab League summit in Cairo late Sunday, referring to Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskyy’s government.

    Apparently suggesting that Moscow’s war aims extend beyond Ukraine’s industrial Donbas region in the east, Lavrov said: “We will certainly help the Ukrainian people to get rid of the regime, which is absolutely anti-people and anti-historical.”

    https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-zelenskyy-kyiv-black-sea-arab-league-b5c583e8d057897cfdef6b407e113339

    I don’t think I’ve heard this on the BBC…

          1. Can’t just yet – am overseeing the second set of landscapers, the first chap and his mate went AWOl 2 months ago leaving some tools and a cement mixer behind (and the job only 60% complete). New landscapers have a contingent of four Polish blokes who graft until 5:00pm each day….

      2. Since it was announced that the Ukraine was selling gifted munitions on to third parties a lot of people have lost interest.

        Interesting that the photo by Polish Customs of a Ukraine politician’s wife with $40million in cash in many suitcases has

        had so little publicity in this country.

      3. There are, but folk are getting bored. The press are bored too. Long wars are boring, especially when the press can’t promote one side as the heroic strugglers against a tyrannical regime.

        The busy troubled minds with foreign quarrels also wore off when the state got what it wanted – the removal of their enemy in Boris Johnson.

      4. Still one flying from our CofE village church along with the Union Flag.. They’ve obviously given up on England.

  45. Pure Evil

    Good morning, all
    The UK Government has quietly published a shocking report that has conveniently been swept under the carpet by the resignation of Boris Johnson as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and the resulting leadership contest between backstabbing ex-chancellor Rishi Sunak, and current Foreign Secretary Liz Truss.

    That report shows that since at least April 2022, in terms of deaths per 100,000, the fully vaccinated population in England have been more likely to die of Covid-19 than the unvaccinated population; meaning the Covid-19 injections now have negative effectiveness against death.

    This, in turn, suggests the fully vaccinated are now suffering Vaccine-Associated Enhanced Disease and Antibody-Dependent Enhancement.

    https://expose-news.com/2022/07/26/ukgov-confirms-vaccinated-have-highest-covid-death-rate/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

    1. This report on its own can be explained away by saying that the least healthy people are most likely to be vaccinated and also most likely to succumb to covid, but what can’t be explained away is the finding that there is a correlation between more highly boosted countries and more covid deaths during June-July 2022.
      I think I got this link from NOTTL yesterday
      https://igorchudov.substack.com/p/boosters-now-promote-covid-deaths?utm_medium=email&%3Butm_campaign=cta&%3Baction=share&utm_source=substack

      2. Yes, agreed. I hadn’t seen the igor report. The troule with so many reports is that they can be explained away (albeit sometimes with rather poor attempts as explanation).

        1. The two reports do back each other up! And I’m seeing more and more people in real life with recurring illnesses or repeated covid infections, but still the penny doesn’t drop.

    1. What are the NSPCC* going to do about it?

      *National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Crickets

      1. Something a bit off, I expect. But they’ll get over it.

        I’ll get me bat….

    1. I’m sure it’s a very good morning for a Birthday! any special plans for today? Other than having a very happy birthday?

      1. Nursing Mrs D who has tested positive for Covid. Doing all the dog walking. There shall be wine later.

          1. The GP has given her an oxygen monitor and prescribed steroids and some other drug.

    2. Good morning – just – and a very happy birthday! Hope all is well and you have a good day!

  48. Early Wordle for me.
    Wordle 402 5/6

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

    1. Wordle 402 4/6

      ⬛⬛⬛🟩⬛
      ⬛⬛⬛🟩⬛
      ⬛⬛🟨🟩🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
      Morning all.

    2. #MeToo Bogey Five

      Wordle 402 5/6
      ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
      ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
      ⬜🟩⬜⬜⬜
      🟩🟩⬜⬜🟨
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    3. Got luck today.
      Wordle 402 3/6

      ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
      🟩⬜🟨🟨⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  49. I have just had a look at the road. Weird. There are PUDDLES.

    Am most concerned that the Wet Office and Transport Ministry have not been inundating (geddit?) us with warnings about the “dangers” of encountering puddles when driving.

  50. I found these comments on – of all things, a BBC forum: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-62291652

    longjohnsilver
    I’m single, I work full time and bring home £1600 after deductions. Mortgage a house and receive £0 in benefits.

    My friend works 17.999 hours a week, claims benefits, lives in the same house for £150 less a month (housing association) and brings home £1750 yet she gets £650 as one of the “lowest income households” and I get nothing.

    Something doesn’t add up here…
    Reply
    79 (up) 13 (down) votes

    Reply posted by CaveMan, today at 10:34
    to longjohnsilver

    ”
    I’m single, I work full time and bring home £1600 after deductions. Mortgage a house and receive £0 in benefits. My friend works 17.999 hours a week, claims benefits, lives in the same house for £150 less a month (housing association) and brings home £1750 yet she gets £650 as one of the “lowest income households” and I get nothing. Something doesn’t add up here…
    ”
    CaveMan replied:
    Backwards system….Get more for doing less….

    The only reason unemployment figures are so low is the government has changed the benchmarks.

    Once you get through the usual tirade of whining Lefties and their idiotic demands that energy be renationalised, no one seems to flag that the fundamental problem is the Left wing green agenda. The EU forbade the building of sufficient energy capacity and to suit the climate change tyrants no new energy production sources have been built – windmills do not count, at any level.

    It’s basic stuff: if you reduce supply, with a fixed demand, the price rises. Government has more than increased demand through massive uncontrolled immigration, compounding the problem. That the intent of government to meet the green nonsense has always been to make energy unaffordable and enforce behavioural change seems lost on people. This isn’t an accident, it’s planned and deliberate. The state doesn’t care about your needs or wants. It is solely focussed on ideology over necessity. After all, they won’t be affected.

  52. Putin’s propaganda machine hammers EU while Brussels sleeps. 26 July 2022.

    The latest lopsided showdown between Lavrov and Borrell for the hearts and minds of people across Africa highlights what many within EU political circles have known for years, but few are willing to acknowledge publicly.

    In the fast-evolving disinformation battle between Russia and the 27-country bloc, Europe remains outmatched, outgunned and under-resourced to combat the Kremlin’s sophisticated playbook, which has combined the country’s state-backed media, scores of diplomats spread around the world and, on occasion, covert tools to peddle mistruths and outright lies to promote Moscow’s political ambitions to the four corners of the globe.

    Sophisticated Playbook my foot! The only outlet Russia has is RT and that’s banned in most of Europe including the UK. In comparison to this the EU can rely on the unanimous support of the entire MSM. If the EU is indeed losing the information war it is because it has generally come to be accepted that they are liars and disinformation spreaders. The mistrust of all the West’s information media and its Political Elites seems to have finally reached a level at which anything they say will be treated with derision and disbelief!

    https://www.politico.eu/article/russia-disinformation-africa-europe-sergey-lavrov/

    2. The EU is degenerate and ideologically driven. The Global South just needs to eat and maintain basic amenities. Russia has gas and food to offer. What’s not to like?

  53. Train chaos , my sister from SA, who is on holiday in the Uk has been / is staying with relatives in N Yorks .. Was meant to be catching an early train from Northallerton to KingsX then on to Waterloo to see us here in Dorset … huge delays and line stoppages .. seems unlikely that we will see her today now …

    What a way to run a country ..

    1. Is it too late to suggest a slow train to York, where there is more choice of trains to Kings X, including faster ones from Edinburgh that are first stop York?

      1. Back home with family in village near Northallerton .. She was dropped off to catch her train .. waited forever with other bods who had meetings to get to etc .. then had to phone family to say she was still waiting ..

        1. Well – that’s better than being stuck on the train somewhere. I hope she’ll be able to get to you tomorrow.

          2. Oh, a ‘fault’ How convenient that it shuts down every train. Who’dathunkit!

    3. There’s a proper full blown strike planned tomorrow. It really is tiresome now. Give the drivers what they want, then gradually automate the network and sack them.

  54. Strap bloody back. This is sick.

    L.A. PEDIATRICIAN SAYS IT’S NO BIG DEAL TO CUT OFF THE BREASTS OF TEENAGED GIRLS: ‘YOU CAN GO AND GET THEM’ LATER
    ‘If you want breasts at a later point in your life, you can go and get them’

    https://news.grabien.com/story-l-pediatrician-says-its-no-big-deal-cut-breasts-teenaged-gir

    CALIF. GENDER SPECIALIST ADMITS THEY HAVE CUT OFF THE BREASTS OF A 12-YEAR-OLD GIRL FOR GENDER PURPOSES
    ‘In terms of masculinizing top surgery, I think 12 is the youngest who’s had surgery through our program’

    https://news.grabien.com/story-calif-gender-specialist-admits-they-have-cut-breasts-12-year

    1. Does this lunatic understand the difference between breasts and silicone? Clearly not.
      Encouraged and enabled by lefties everywhere.

      1. From the days of the paedophile information exchange to stonewall the Left have always sought to destroy childhood and normalise child abuse.

    2. Tried to comment on this a few minutes ago but Disqus first put my reply in the wrong place, then wouldn’t let me post it again in the right place! Mutiliationg children on the whim of adults is just pure evil. Fake breats won’t suckle children but then once removed, the womb can’t be replaced either. These little girls are being spayed.

      1. But, says the Lefty – it’s what we want. It allows us to feel better about ourselves, they argue. It validates our attitudes.

        Stuff the child. It’s all about them. Which is pretty much Lefty dogma: there’s no interest in the group they’re supposedly championing – it’s just their own ego.

    3. Really sickening! whatever do they think they are doing? Children go through phases of thinking they’d rather be the opposite sex but it’s a normal part of development.

      This mutilation is disgusting and should never be done.

      2. I did a 3 month sub in Kindergarten in CT. One little guy always put on the feather boa that was in the dressing up centre. At recess, he played rough. swung upside down from the monkey bars and ran around sounding like an Apache warrior.
        I think he just liked the feel of the feathers! There was no way I would have thought that he was wanting to become a girl!

        2. I do remember putting my feet into my mother’s high-heels but they were so disgusting to me that it lasted maybe 5 seconds.

  56. The rise and fall of Jacinda Ardern

    At first this young PM became the darling of the progressive world, but the carefully constructed façade is wearing thin

    MATTHEW LESH

    Jacinda Ardern oozes self-satisfaction, whether swanning about at Davos or lecturing the world on climate change and the importance of “wellbeing”. At first this young PM became the darling of the progressive world – many admired the feminist credentials, sensitive handling of the Christchurch mosque attack and zero-Covid strategy.

    But the carefully constructed façade is wearing thin. No amount of positive global press coverage can disguise the lacklustre economic situation in New Zealand, the growing list of broken promises and mounting unpopularity at home. Ardern is on track to lose the next election, with the latest opinion polls indicating a 10 percentage point drop over the last six months. The centre-right National Party, reinvigorated under Christopher Luxon, and the libertarian ACT Party, are both wooing voters.

    This has been a dramatic fall from grace. Ardern’s Covid strategy was widely celebrated. Taking advantage of the island nation’s isolation, she introduced short lockdowns and border closures, and managed, at least initially, to eliminate the virus. In October 2020, she won a historic majority in the general election. But things began turning sour within months. The failure to vaccinate left the country isolated for much longer than elsewhere. By mid-2021, as the rest of the world was reopening, New Zealand embraced harsh lockdowns yet again.

    The borders will not fully reopen until the end of this month. Until recently, even many citizens were not allowed back into the country, a policy which tore families apart and left Kiwis destitute overseas. In one shocking case, a New Zealand journalist was forced to turn to the Taliban for sanctuary to deliver her baby after struggling to get home. For all that pain, the Covid reckoning has now arrived. An upsurge in cases has led to one of the highest daily death rates in the world and the reintroduction of restrictions, including a mask mandate and isolation requirements. It’s a gloomy turn of events for a country that is still unprepared to live with the virus.

    The broader consequences of a nation closing itself off for such an extended period should not be brushed aside. Draconian pandemic policies turned the country inward and fearful of outsiders, scaring away immigrants and damaging trade relations. This is an about-turn for a country that achieved immense economic prosperity by being open to the world in recent decades.

    Before the pandemic, New Zealand was attracting a positive net migration of around 50,000 per year. Yet in the year to March 2022, migration turned negative, with 7,300 more people leaving the country than entering. This was driven by young professionals and graduates heading overseas to escape challenging economic times and broaden their horizons.

    The loss of people has contributed to an acute skills shortage, with the health system struggling to handle the influx of Covid cases and other ailments. School children are frequently being sent home due to a lack of teachers. Inflation has reached 7.3 per cent, a 32-year high, driven by rising food, fuel and rent prices that make life more difficult.

    Meanwhile, a surge in violent crime in hollowed-out cities, including gang activities, shootings and “ram-raids,” in which thieves drive cars into shop fronts to steal merchandise, have made the public fearful. This has, at least in part, been driven by troubled children and teenagers, who fell off the radar when Covid-19 shut schools and haven’t been seen in class for two years.

    The broader economic situation has combined with a sense that Ardern has over-promised and under-delivered. In 2017, Ardern’s flagship promise was to build 100,000 affordable homes within ten years – just 1,366 have been built. The same week that Ardern was featured on the front cover of British Vogue, in the edition guest edited by Meghan Markle, her government abandoned the housebuilding commitment. Since then, the government has spent over NZ$1 billion on emergency housing grants, including buying up motel rooms.

    Ardern also promised to build a light rail in Auckland. The project has not even started. She committed to lift 100,000 children out of poverty. Child poverty has increased. There was also a promise to urgently address climate change. Emissions have increased by over 2 per cent since 2018.

    Ardern has also taken a soft approach to the central geostrategic and ideological challenges of our time, the aggressiveness of Russia and the rise of China. She has rejected the idea that the war in Ukraine is “democracy vs autocracy” [well, she’s got at least one thing right] and even refused to join a military alliance to take on China, adopting a significantly softer stance and rhetoric than Western allies. New Zealand has been labelled the “lazy eye” in the Five Eyes intelligence sharing alliance. It hardly feels like the sort of global leadership that Ardern promised.

    The New Zealand imagined by the international press is about as fictional as Middle Earth. The country is struggling. Lacking the capacity to address the numerous challenges facing her nation, the Ardern gloss has faded. In the end, standing ovations at international conferences will not make up for a loss of confidence at home.

    Matthew Lesh is the Head of Public Policy at the Institute of Economic Affairs

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/07/25/rise-fall-jacinda-ardern/

      1. So not Métro, Boulot, Dodo then? 🙂 I saw one advert where they were advertising they would be “climate neutral” by 2030. WTF? That’s totally meaningless.

    1. The safest country I have visited or lived in was Oman.
      I felt quite safe going out in Muscat their capital city, even at night with a rather expensive camera.
      Not all Islamic countries are living in the past, but the law is still a large deterrent when it comes to crime, especially against women and children.
      They have capital punishment but very unusual for it to be applied.
      We should reintroduce it here in UK for crimes that there is no doubt the perpetrator committed that which accused of.

    1. Thanks Belle! Nightmares tonight now; was either those things or chalk. I am good now though….

      2. We had one master who was an absolute whizz with the chalk ends. He caught an ear lobe every time he fired off a missile.

        1. We had a teacher who was once so frustrated he grabbed and threw a hand full of bits from the class room nature table. Conkers and acorns flew everywhere.

  60. The things we learn , and the things we can’t imagine happening .

    My SA sister was taken to Hartlepool to show her an example of “Levelling up “.. just an out to one of the main places on the East coast she hasn’t visited !

    Look at this .. https://www.thisishartlepool.co.uk/history. She was very impressed and delighted with her experience . She loves history as much as I do , and I have to say when I accessed the link , so was I .

    I feel so furious with all politicians for ruining proud strong Durham communities , and the dumping of blinking migrants of a different nationality and religion on what were once good hearted hard working towns and villages .

    1. The fishermen apparently questioned the monkey and held a beach-based trial. Unfamiliar with what a Frenchman looked like they came to the conclusion that this monkey was a French spy and should be sentenced to death. The unfortunate creature was to die by hanging, with the mast of a fishing boat (a coble) providing a convenient gallows.
      Probably another reason why thousands of British holiday makers have been held up at ‘Dover’ Customs.

  62. This may brighten your day a bit. Had an email from dear friend in GA, USA. She had been to the dentist for a cleaning and the hygienist had been watching a lot of Brit movies and was rattling off cute British phrases to my friend. When she got to “wanker”, my friend suggested that maybe she should check out its meaning before using it too much. The hygienist had no idea….
    I mentioned a short while ago that my friend’s husband had moved offices and a lot of stuff/junk had been left behind, including a tattered Georgia State flag. Nobody wanted it so my friend respectfully folded it, put it in a box for the bin. On the box she wrote in black marker, “God Save the Queen.”
    Told she will end up in Fort Leavenworth if she carries on like this;-))
    I miss her so much!
    Sod it- the one time I try to be polite and y’all take the piss. Harrumph. Going to sit outside now.

    3. I hope she doesn’t get it mixed up with Willy Wonka and the chocolate factory. It Could lead to some major confusion.

      1. Used not to do it on my old laptop with an old version of Firefox, but this one , with a current Firefox keeps adding a discus url on to the front of links. So they don’t work!
        “https://disq.us/url?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpetition.parliament.uk%2Fpetitions%2F620251%3AQioNQu5BkOETj3QjewWqwavTX70&cuid=5852343”

        1. Sounds like Firefox has been got at. Change to Google Chrome – mine gives me what I ask for.

          1. While an Alphabet shareholder, I prefer to let others use their products!
            Edit : just installed Opera and the link URLs are OK.

      2. The petitions were put there to give ‘the little people’ the pretence that the state gave a stuff about their wishes. In reality, they ignore them habitually.

        1. It is completely pointless having anything to do with the “petitions”. No one in Whitehall/Westmonster takes the slightest notice. Even if you got ten million signatures – sod all would happen.

          Sorry to be (as usual) a wet blanket…

  64. With some of our on-going health issues- originally MH was told he had to go to the GP for a blood test, which he did. Last time he was asked to go for one, he called the GP and was told they don’t do it anymore, he had to go to the hospital- which he did.
    He has to go for another blood test soon and booked one at the hospital, then decided to call the GP’s surgery and ask if they would do it.
    We can only do one if you have a form from the hospital was the response. What?
    We are being played for fools!
    The residents of Lake Lodge will be making their own choices and refusing to be bullied, pushed into anything or intimidated.
    The government, the NHS, the police & etc can all go and chase themselves up a greasy rope.
    No more.
    Oh and re the debates for potential leader of the stupid party- didn’t watch, won’t watch and won’t vote. Won’t make any difference.
    (I am standing as the “Won’t” candidate.)

    1. My Doctor told me to go for a blood test at the hospital. The walk in clinic no longer accepts walk ins. I asked them if they had told GP’s. They said no. Nothing to do with us. I said there is only one person in the waiting room. With very bad grace they did the blood test. It is very difficult when faced with such intransigence not to be rude.

      In due course the haematologist called and told me i was low on Potassium, Thiamin and Folic acid. (of all things !)
      He told me to add it to my meds on Patient Access.

      They phoned me a week later and said they couldn’t do it without a letter from the hospital.

      They are doing this on purpose.

      1. I don’t cope well with rudeness as the bat from hell found out a few weeks ago. There is no need for it, especially when you are dealing with people who are at the hospital because they have health issues.
        I didn’t put up with rudeness from kids and I am certainly not putting up with it from adults who behave like kids.

        1. I find for the most part the Doctors, nurses and medics at my hospital are fine.

          I was on a locked ward. Waiting to be admitted when a nurse asked the receptionist if a wife could visit her husband. It was the acute ward so his condition was probably serious. The receptionist said no. Cow.

          6. Blimey, did they not realise how resourceful you are?
            Hell’s teeth you might have escaped!
            }:-O

          7. It was an unpowered wheelchair. I had to call for emergency help from neighbours which had nothing to do with the NHS. I couldn’t even manage to get the proscribed drugs.

    2. Ah bless her. She doesn’t realise that the more she enforces that only she tells the truth the less people will listen to and believe her.

    3. The more you say, “It’s the truth.” the less we believe you. Even beLIEve has a lie in it.

      2. They are losing it. Enough info is getting out and they are panicking. Expect more lockdowns in NZ soon to stop people from meeting. I expect there also to be a problem with phones and wifi.

  66. The bloody Warqueen has just whacked me one. All I said was I’d like to wake up to Sally Nugent.

          8. I think of him every time I walk down the Royal Mile! As you say, a nasty man!

          15. I think you might have misinterpreted her reply.

            She wasn’t offering you “head”

          4. An example of a psychotic freak. Ugly both as a man and a woman too, which probably explains a lot.

          6. Unlike politicians i know what a woman is. It is a gross insult to any real woman who isn’t a Left Wing Retard.

      2. She rather ignores Mongo, but has become used to him. During the Winter she uses him as a giant hot water bottle. I knew she’d accepted Wiggy when I found him sat on his hind legs holding a book up that was spilling off the table. He sat there until she went to bed , patient as anything. I found her talking to him, going over theories and ideas out loud and he’d just look at her adoringly.

        I think she knows full well how much I think of her.

    1. Translation: WEF thinks Boris could push unpopular authoritarian stuff through more convincingly than Truss or Sunak. Need a little charm with your helping of fascism, sir?

    2. On one condition. He has a tamper proof wired explosive device strapped to his chest and its programed to explode if it detects one single lie.

    5. Too late kid. You had an 80 seat majority to push through an agenda of real change and improvement. You deliberately blew it.

      [expletive] off, you utter charlatan.

      1. Doubt it. I expect lots of people in the U.K will be without those services soon.

      1. “the cubbyhole for the stopcock was home to a snake and a salamander.”

        really?

      3. Without in any way wishing to disparage the chaps (remember Uncle Bill’s dictum that NOTHING you see on telly is true) – all NoTTLers living in yer France will shudder at the amount of administrative buggerment buying lots of houses would have involved. To say nothing of the cost…

        1. True

          And the bigger problem for them now is that everything they do from now on requires reams and reams of paperwork plus costs.

          Their only hope is that the members of the various committees are equally “proud” and they will all bend over to ass-ist each other.

          Apologies for the Americanism.

      4. Heh – I am going to see a couple of friends in Winchelsea soon. When they got their first place there, I asked if they were the only gays in the village, they laughed and said they’d actually not met very many straight couples yet 🤣

  69. 354610+ up ticks

    Government advisor
    In 2009, Michie became a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) and convened its subgroup, the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Behaviour group.[15] In 2020, she became a participant in the COVID-19 SAGE’s Scientific Pandemic Insights group on Behaviour (SPI-B).[16] She also sits on the Independent SAGE committee, chaired by Sir David King.

    Michie frequently contributes to national news media during the COVID-19 pandemic as an expert in behaviour change,[17][18][19][20] notably in May 2020 when a government advisor left the city and thus broke the government’s COVID-19 rules.[21

    Personal life
    Michie was married from 1981 to 1997 to the trade union official Andrew Murray and has three children.[22] She married psychologist Robert West,[23] Emeritus Professor at University College London,[24] in 2009.

    Michie is a member of the Communist Party of Britain[25][23] and was also member of its predecessor the Communist Party of Great Britain.[26] In March 2018, she spoke at a public meeting saying that communists should be “working full tilt” for the election of Jeremy Corbyn as prime minister.[27][28] She made a £14,000 donation to Labour under Corbyn’s leadership.[29][30]

    1. 354610 + up ticls,

      O2O,
      Could one of the tory (ino) party member / voters tell me
      why they are harboring this type creature

      Enough to make decent people see red.

      2. Yes. She’s been appointed chair of the WHO technical advisory group for Behavioural Insights and Science for Health.

          1. That’s the one. She’s had the training now she’ll be able to pull it all together and really get going.

          2. Clearly the WHO think they haven’t brainwashed enough people yet – I wonder what they have planned next. Monkey pox didn’t go too well.

    3. When she began giving news interviews to express her own opinion on the handling of the disease, she should have been sacked from SAGE.

    4. For a Communist, she appears to be remarkably (a) well off and (b) conventional (married twice).

    5. Th bit that got me was ‘communists’ and ‘working’. Communism doesn’t work. Never has, never will. Yet rather than leave for a communist country, they’re always happy in rich capitalist ones and trying to make them change.

      They’re just moronic hypocrites who, in a rational world would have no income.

      1. 354610 + Up ticks,

        Evening W,
        Is advising the government, I take it the party members know.

      2. There are precisely zero communist countries. Remember what the difference between socialism and communism actually is. A communist country has no money, no currency, it doesn’t need it, everything is provided for free according to need. Communism is a utopian ideal that’ll never happen as the only possible way it could even happen is under a one world government.

        1. Which is precisely what those who think they know better are working towards.

          2. Roast pork tomorrow. With savoy. Hopefully is doesn’t give me uncontrolled shits like my Meds.

          3. I made a lovely salad tonight- mixed leaves, some cuke, not for me, sliced little toms, hardboiled chopped eggs and crispy bacon. Some leftover tuna and corn salad- yummy. Perfect when you want something light and healthy. Maybe back to steak and burgers tomorrow.

          4. I’m avoiding anything crunchy at the moment, although I’ve got all the salad ingredients in the fridge. Roll on getting back to normal.

          5. May I join you – I’m suffering from painful constipation?

            The straining bars are going through hell.

      1. No, this is the offspring of a mate’s tiny moggy. Big Cat (also Firstborn’s) lives with us, TCWNN will live at the farm. Big hates to be separated from Little Cat, so Firstborn was easily tempted to get a second puss.

        1. Hope they all get on. When Thompson’s twin Bob died in 2005, Thompson (and Bob = ginger) (aged 11) was in a terrible state, So we got from a pal a female ginger kitten – Mousie. For a day, Tumpie was furious – the second day we found them in the same basket, T with his arms round Mousie… Gave him a new lease of life – he lived another four years…

          1. The Cat With No Name.
            Passed on Sue’s suggestion… (Anonymouse), to guffaws.

    4. Altogether now……………………!!!

      G & P send greetings – and offer to bash him up…!!

    6. I know I can pass for an old softie (briefly) but there IS something just marvelously heart-warming about tiny kittens…..

      From time to time, I look at the snaps and films of G & P when they were six-eight weeks old…

  71. Right – that’s me for today. Useful garden work. Wasp man returned because his zap last week on one of the wasp nests didn’t work. He never charges for a re-visit.

    Chilly day – but, apart from overnight, no rain. Looking forward to watching the last instalment of Neighbours – wondering just HOW you end a soap…

    Will join you tomorrow – should I be spared. Delboy’s great age and outstanding good health is a great encouragement.

    A demain.

        1. Though you were low in my estimation you are now in the sub basement….

          Just joking. I liked it because there was so much sunshine.

    2. ‘wondering just
      you end a soap…’

      Just replace them with no good nigs. Or a shower scene.

    3. My BiL turned 86 recently I sat with him for an hour chatting today over coffee.
      I’ve known him for nearly 60 yars it’s the first time I can remember him agreeing with me on politics and current affairs.
      Maybe that’s as long as it takes to get yer adversaries on the same side. But I fear it’s a tad too late.
      He was quite a big stick in marine insurance. But I think I can take off my life jacket now.

  73. As we come towards the end of the evening I would like to apologise to Delboy36 for spelling his moniker incorrectly.

    I wanted to correct my error but because it became a featured comment I could not edit it!

    I hope you had a really good day.

  74. Off to watch the Wendy’s play willyball.

    They are much more entertaining than the Willies playing wendyball!

    1. Watching the National anthems, I’m surprised by how many of the women have receding hairlines.
      Is there something we should be told?

      1. Oh, FFS they have a rainbow car to deliver the ball and they are bending the knee.

        1. We refuse to watch any soccer. Waste of time and we don’t do political posturing.

      3. Do they have a bulge in their shorts?
        I mean at front Sos they’re not that nervous. 👱‍♀️👊

    2. Poppiesdad would agree. We both find the female commentators exceedingly irritating, though.

  75. ‘Night All

    Flicked on the wimmens football just in time to see them “take the knee” OFF

    Meanwhile…..

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0c1abd47c42f9824ef71d008750c8f9c99dafc6e170b1c5aeddd290c70762432.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6994e00501c07a7bb9d4a30ceff1cbc593cd8dcee82976e7c80afc27b8127e99.gif

    https://twitter.com/mischiefanimals/status/1550962545447636992

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cf9f2038464f4fd2c893a3e042a96a63abe0e367e0e6b718842bb522dad0c55c.jpg

  76. The number count for comments is, obviously, not working.
    Only 75 but it’s obvious there are hundreds.

        3. …and mine says 81 but it takes several pages to get back to the early morning originals.

          Let’s just hope the Mods and/or Geoff can put a fire-cracker up disqus’ ar5e.

      2. So does mine, but then again it’s never been capable of going past I.

  77. I’m off to bed.
    Goodnight all.

    BTW, 36y since the DT & self tied the knot. How the hell have we put up with each other??

  79. Well done England ladies. Positive forward straight forward play. Better to watch than back passing diving feigning injury fouling anx rolling about mens football.

    1. The back healed goal was marvellous. Great game shame about the commentary from excitable screechy women with their incessant talking. They don’t even pause for breath.

  81. Evening, all. Been a nice, dry day here so I cracked on with the tidying up I needed to do in the garden. For one thing, it kept my mind off the pain in my jaw (which is nothing like as bad as it was before I had the extraction).

      1. Thanks, Tom. I’m usually late arriving, but today I spent so much time in the garden, then catching up on watching the racing I’ve nearly missed everyone.

  82. As usual, I’ve had to refresh because so many comments from earlier have just disappeared. Woosh!

  86. Good night, everyone. Have just posted “Good morning, everyone” on tomorrow’s page, so it’s off to bed for me now after a much more relaxing day – thanks Korky.

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