Tuesday 26 September: The HS2 farce highlights Britain’s inability to deliver major projects

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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429 thoughts on “Tuesday 26 September: The HS2 farce highlights Britain’s inability to deliver major projects”

  1. Good morrow, Gentlefolk, today’s story

    Waste Not, Want Not
    Three guys go into a bar: a guy from Dallas, a guy from San Francisco, and a guy from Boulder. They drank and got a little rowdy. Suddenly, completely without warning, the Texan grabbed a bottle of tequila, unscrewed the top, took a good swig, and threw the bottle into the air. He then jerked a Colt .45 pistol out of his pocket and shot the bottle, spraying tequila all over everything and everybody. The patrons at the bar shouted, “Hey, bud, why’d you waste that tequila?”

    The Texan said, “Heck, it’s just tequila. Us Texans go across the border all the time and get all the tequila we want.”

    Not to be outdone, the Californian whipped out a corkscrew and uncorked a bottle of wine. He poured some into a glass, swirled it, sniffed, commented on the tart insolence of its bouquet, sipped, tossed the bottle in the air, nicked it with a round from a silly little chrome-plated pistol, and showered a couple of patrons at the bar with wine. The patrons, upset by the casual waste and general lack of concern for their safety, expressed their displeasure and astonishment, to which the Californian replied, “Well, I’m from Napa Valley, and we have more than enough wine where I come from.”

    The Boulderite, a quiet observer up to this point, touched the crystal hanging from his neck, adjusted his Birkenstocks, flipped back his ponytail, put down his guitar, and borrowed a bottle opener from the bartender. He popped the top off a bottle of Fat Tire beer, hammered it back, threw the empty bottle into the air, pulled a 9mm Beretta, took careful aim, shot both the Californian and the Texan, and caught the falling bottle. The patrons screamed in utter disbelief, “Why’d you do that?”

    The Boulderite replied, . “I’m from Colorado. We’ve already got too many Texans and way too many Californians, but glass bottles, now those can be recycled!” .

  3. 377139+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Would be no surprise to me is he dropped HS2 appeasing his disillusioned followers and went into overdrive with RESET.

    Letters:

    The HS2 farce highlights Britain’s inability to deliver major projects

    1. In 1851, the UK population was 18 million.
      It is now at least 68 million. That’s an awful lot of homes, businesses and infrastructure to take into account when planning a big project.
      There is simply not the room for all these people and their needs.

      1. 377139+up ticks,

        Morning Anne,

        I believe that the majority voter has it in mind that replacement is a grand idea check out the “Gabby Cabby” one comment says that a council secure tenancy could very well become a temporary tenancy.

        A proven fact is that the majority voter
        has a great liking for hair shirts and self inflicted damage so will find favour with BIGGER viaducts for indigenous dwellers.

  6. Morning all.
    A dry but dull and overcast start this morning with 8½°C outside.
    I’ve a run to Derby in the van this morning to pick up Step-son’s medications and hence to Stoke to deliver them.

  7. 366139+up tick,

    Suella Braverman warns 780MILLION people are eligible …

    Daily Mail
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk › news › article-12559701
    9 hours ago — Suella Braverman will today warn that 780 million people are eligible to claim asylum in the UK under ‘absurd’ rules – as she makes her bid ..

    “As she makes her bid” for foreign construction workers with
    vertical sleeping pod building experience

    1. Which proves that all of our political idiots and Whitehall are breaking the treason act. Unless Blair and his old flat mate changed that.

  9. Just read on the Mail’s page that David McCallum has died aged 90.
    Another link with my youth gone.

      1. Sapphire & Steel, Joanna Lumley being Sapphire. They showed a clip earlier. It seemed rather wooden and stagebound by modern standards.

  10. Morning all 🙂😊
    Not sure if the sun has risen not sigh of it so far.
    Decided not to go to Tintagel yesterday, too many steps I wouldn’t have been able to manage.
    Watergate Bay instead, no nixsons about.
    But the surf was absolutely pounding I’d estimate 2-3 metres high.
    And of course as the headline suggests politicians fail in their abilities to deliver.
    It’s well known they are only all in it for what they can get out of it. And with their attention distracted by their own gain, they eff up on everything they come into contact with.
    Just look at the current mess they are making of the illegal invasion. These people are criminals, crooks. I’ll leave you to decide on that one.

  11. 377139+ up ticks,

    Ogga1,

    Once you accept the fact that the voting majority will NOT acknowledge the truth you realise pretty quickly how we have obtained our current odious state as a nation.

    Laurence Fox
    @LozzaFox
    Once you accept the fact that the House of Commons is predominantly a place where crooks gather to do backhanders with each other, you realise pretty quickly where the 40 billion track and trace app cash vanished to, why HS2 is an unmitigated disaster, what net zero is all about and why there is a war in Ukraine.

    1. Nearly 700 of them at it. Free meals and subsides refreshments. Claim what they like as expenses.
      After they removed now Dame Elizabeth Filkin.
      Free transport, free health care, free dentistry, none contributary fat pensions.
      Bungs not included.
      It seems to me that our parliament is a den of iniquity.

      1. When one of them (Andrew Bridgen) breaks away and starts telling the truth, they treat him like a leper. Says it all!

  12. Holidaying with my folks on the Dorset/Devon border. Heading over to Cornwall today so my dad can see our boat before she comes out of the water for the winter. My mum is not overly keen on a boat trip!

    1. More info…..The sea off the north coast was extremely rough yesterday. It seems a bit calmer today.

  13. ‘Morning, Peeps.

    Item in the DT today:

    Live: Net zero will cost £3.7trn a year, warns IEA

    Sunak ‘unconservative’ for watering down net zero rules, says Lord Deben

    * * *

    Lords Deben and Barwell caught hiding their involvement in companies with interests in renewables

    DAVID TURVER
    14 FEB 2023

    Lords Deben and Barwell have been caught not properly declaring their interests. By pure coincidence, some of these interests are in companies providing services to the renewable energy/sustainability sector.
    In summary, Lord Deben, chair of the Climate Change Committee, seems to be benefitting from undeclared interests in a company involved in clean energy. Lord Barwell accused others of being paid to spread disinformation about Net Zero when he had undeclared interests in companies benefiting from Net Zero policies.

    * * *
    Streeting is also said to be in receipt of £80,000 p.a. from the same con-artists for being a ‘consultant’ for a company to do with renewables.

    David Turver and Private Eye are rarely wrong these days. Deben, Barwell and Streeting have all been bought.

    Oink oink!

  14. Morning, all!

    I stumbled across this (Dominic Cummings proposing a new politixal party) on Substack in the early hours, and thought there were some fascinating insights into rhe mindset and mechanisms of government. (I also admit to a wicked impulse to let a cat loose among the pigeons 😈).

    Note that I do NOT agree with all hisbideas, nor do I have any idea whether he is going ahead with this.

    https://open.substack.com/pub/dominiccummings/p/4-the-startup-party-time-to-build?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=adgbw

    1. Very interesting.
      “How does he spend his time? A few officials who work with him give almost the same line:

      He’d make a great PS [private secretary] or DG [director general], every meeting with him improves some second-order thing a bit, but he isn’t doing the PM’s job, I don’t think he realises this and I don’t think his spads tell him.

      He spends his time wading through endless detail and spreadsheets on fifth order matters because it’s psychologically easier than doing the PM’s actual job which he doesn’t know how to do nor wants to do. Officials obviously prefer him to Boris or Truss. He reads the papers diligently and is neither a crook nor a cretin. But the old hands know it’s roughly the Brown failure mode: a workaholic, the PM’s office a massive bottleneck and can’t sustain focus when the news shifts, the smartest MP but can’t build a team or lead etc etc. ”

      I think we can all see this.
      Not sure that yet another new political party is the answer though!

    1. Grizzly, you are really Peddy the Viking, but very funny at that. Incidentally, why is the second photo taken from behind the building – could it be that the front view was not really as badly damaged as the reporter claims?

  16. Good morning, chums. Another busy day for me today – at the cinema. At 11 am I shall be watching the Max Ophuls classic 1950 film LA RONDE, then lunch in town the city, before returning at 3 pm to watch this year’s film noir/thriller THE LESSON with Richard E Grant who, when some years back he made a film with the Spice Girls, they called him by his initials, i.e. Reg. But first, a quick read of Sir Jasper’s morning joke and then off to the Post Office to buy some stamps before the 15% price rise at the end of the month. Have fun, and play nicely whilst I am away.

      1. Had Harris not turned out to be so utterly useless, I am convinced she would have been President by now.

        1. I agree. Can you imagine it though!

          It is really sad to see what a laughing stock these criminals have made of the USA – and it started years ago when organised crime, big business and Jekyll Islanders got their claws into it.

        1. It’s only internet gossip, but anything is possible with that clown parade in the White House. What a mercy we don’t have a senile old fool and a cackling flunkey in charge of our country, eh….

  18. Morning, all. Had an excellent dinner at Beck Hall on Sunday night. Yesterday, after a walk we went to Settle for provisions and medicine. Booth’s Supermarket has won the award for best supermarket and it shows. Medicine is a bit expensive, though. Now off for a long walk with the Springer. She loves it; great walks and rivers to swim in.

  20. GB News owner in talks with US billionaire over bid for Telegraph

    THE American billionaire Ken Griffin is in talks to help fund a transatlantic takeover bid for The Telegraph led by his fellow hedge fund manager Sir Paul Marshall.

    Sir Paul, co-founder of the hedge fund Marshall Wace and a joint-owner of GB News, has lined up financial firepower from Mr Griffin ahead of an auction expected to begin within weeks.

    The discussions are said not to have been finalised and may not lead to a partnership, however.

    A spokesman for Sir Paul, who is working with the investment bank Moelis on his planned bid, declined to comment.

    Mr Griffin is the founder of Citadel LLC, a hedge fund with more than $62bn (£51bn) under management, and of Citadel Securities, which last year reported a turnover of $7.5bn from providing trading services. According to Forbes magazine he is the world’s richest hedge fund manager with a personal fortune of $35bn.

    He is by far the wealthiest individual so far linked with a bid for The Telegraph, which is being put up for sale by Lloyds Banking Group. The lender took control in June by winning court approval to appoint receivers. The unprecedented action followed a lengthy dispute over loans of more than £1bn secured against the company by its previous owners, the Barclay family.

    The Barclays have since made offers to buy back The Telegraph and The Spectator magazine, which was also seized by Lloyds, with the help of investment from the Gulf. Their latest approach, which has been rejected, valued the businesses at £725m. The media analysts Enders have valued The Telegraph at between £480m and £600m. Goldman Sachs is preparing to run the auction on behalf of the receivers.

    Lloyds is seeking a swift and smooth sale to a new owner. It hopes to avoid any perception of potential conflicts of interest were it to remain the owner of The Telegraph going into next year’s General Election.

    Enders yesterday warned that a bid from a rival publisher which triggered a full competition investigation could take more than a year to navigate.

    Public interest considerations such as risks to free expression and accuracy in news could also trigger reviews.

    It is understood that the receivers may impose a limit on the proportion of money coming from potentially controversial investors, such as those linked to Middle Eastern states, to avoid such a risk to a prompt sale. As a novice investor in news publishing from a closely allied nation, Mr Griffin would cause no such concerns.

    He has a long history of activity on the centre-right of politics. His philanthropic foundation has made championing free speech one of its top priorities, particularly on university campuses.

    Last week he was among wealthy Americans to meet Volodymyr Zelensky in Washington to discuss potential donations to help rebuild Ukraine.

    The Harvard graduate is also a longstanding Republican donor, and in the run up to last year’s mid-term elections provided more than $100m to candidates across the United States. He did not donate to the 2016 Trump campaign, however, and has been sharply critical of the former Apprentice host, calling on him to stand aside in the current presidential battle to allow new leadership to come through.

    He has so far declined to back any of the potential Republican presidential nominees for 2024.

    Mr Griffin said last week: “I care deeply about individual rights and freedom, economic policies that encourage prosperity and upward mobility, all children having access to a high-quality education, ensuring our communities are safe, and a strong national defence.” His rising wealth and profile have brought Mr Griffin into conflict with parts of the media, including the makers of the new cinema release Dumb Money, a comedy-drama about the Gamestop “meme stocks” saga.

    The 2021 investing craze pitted small investors on Reddit against hedge funds, with Citadel Securities profiting as a market go-between. Mr Griffin is portrayed in the film and his lawyer wrote to the studio behind it demanding script changes. The film makers have denied that any edits were made.

    Mr Griffin has also sued the Inland Revenue Service and the US Treasury over the “unlawful disclosure” of his tax information in stories by an investigative journalism organisation.

    It reported he had an average annual income of almost $1.7bn between 2013 and 2018 and paid an average federal tax rate of 29.2pc. Citadel did not respond to a request for comment.

    Let’s hope that whoever buys the DT (and ST) quickly reverts it to, once again, being the flagship broadsheet of the Right. They may then sack all the pathetic Lefties who have commandeered its reporting and editing, thus converting it into a pathetic tabloid-style rag.

    1. Does the young blood exist who could breathe life back into the Telegraph? Not in the mainstream media, that’s for sure. They’d need to go looking into blogger world and independents like James Delingpole, Carl Benjamin, Kathy Gyngell and Laura Perrins.
      They won’t do it, and if they did, most independents probably wouldn’t trust them.
      I pay subs to several independent content producers, who are far more interesting than the Telegraph as it currently stands.

    2. The Tellygraff was at its best when Conrad Black owned it.
      Let’s hope the new owners restore it to its role as a patriotic conservative broadsheet, not a DM wannabe.

      1. Ah! Good old Conrad, and his delicious self-assured wife, Barbara (‘Let them eat dry crusts’) Amiel.

  21. Hallo all! Please excuse me if I reply to all of you in one post rather than individually but I do not have the steam to reply to each post. But thank you all for your good wishes and very helpful advice, it’s a nice boost and gives me a lift that I really appreciate.

    Meanwhile two things that I’m sure you are all aware of but thought I would post these two videos anyway. They dovetail together for obvious reasons. That is we now have a government that is increasingly overt in controlling us, the people, and which is quite happy to violate our constitutional rights.
    Katie Hopkins and Russel Brand.

    Katie Hopkins on the ‘Online Safety Bill”…. the policing your speech inside your home.

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

    Contempt Of Court For TALKING About Russell Brand?! WTF! BREAKING NEWS

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zawx40wbJ3k

    1. “Whatever the government calls something, it’s usually a misnomer…the Online Safety Bill is ultimately for the policing of speech…”

      We’ve been here before with the Blair government. It passed the Freedom of Information Act and the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, both of which did the opposite of what their titles appeared to suggest

      The naming of the RoIPA was a typical piece of Blairite spin. Far from simply regulating powers, it added many more and widened their scope so that, for instance, council officers, on suspicion of parents committing the dreadful crime of sending their children to a school a few yards outside their state-defined catchment area [Nottlers might remember the case of the family in Poole], could persuade themselves that it was legitimate to assemble a team of investigators to stalk a young mother for several weeks instead of simply making an appointment with the head of the school and sending one person to ask a question or two. And you thought the Act was passed to prevent those nasty secret police spying on you!

      The same could be said of the Freedom of Information Act, which didn’t really make information any more freely available than before but merely defined the unnecessarily bureaucratic ways in which the state’s agents might frustrate all but the most intrepid and persistent enquirer. They don’t really want you to know what they get up to, such as using the RoIPA to find out why you are asking all those suspicious questions.

        1. We could add the Equality Act to the list in that it attempts to make equal that which is not and cannot ever be.

    2. “Whatever the government calls something, it’s usually a misnomer…the Online Safety Bill is ultimately for the policing of speech…”

      We’ve been here before with the Blair government. It passed the Freedom of Information Act and the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, both of which did the opposite of what their titles appeared to suggest

      The naming of the RoIPA was a typical piece of Blairite spin. Far from simply regulating powers, it added many more and widened their scope so that, for instance, council officers, on suspicion of parents committing the dreadful crime of sending their children to a school a few yards outside their state-defined catchment area [Nottlers might remember the case of the family in Poole], could persuade themselves that it was legitimate to assemble a team of investigators to stalk a young mother for several weeks instead of simply making an appointment with the head of the school and sending one person to ask a question or two. And you thought the Act was passed to prevent those nasty secret police spying on you!

      The same could be said of the Freedom of Information Act, which didn’t really make information any more freely available than before but merely defined the unnecessarily bureaucratic ways in which the state’s agents might frustrate all but the most intrepid and persistent enquirer. They don’t really want you to know what they get up to, such as using the RoIPA to find out why you are asking all those suspicious questions.

    3. Katie H was booked to do a speaking engagement locally here but was cancelled…….. then a pub landlord offered her a space, which she accepted. Now there’s a campaign to shut the pub down…….

        1. I don’t know who they are but there was a letter in the local rag – made a change from arguing about “The Light” which most of the letter writers think should either not be allowed here or put straight in the bin.

          1. They follow people like Katie on social media then try to get them banned from appearing. Same with Rowling.

  22. Good Moaning.
    Tasting notes:
    Our Sunday guests brought a pack of Celebrations. Last night, MB and I tried a couple.
    “Claggy” and “bland” were the two words that sprang to mind.
    Mars Wrigley have gone down the Mondelez route.

    1. I used to be partial to Black Magic chocolates. A friend of ours gave us a box last Christmas and the chocolates now seem to be smaller, sweeter and not nearly as good as I remembered them to be.

        1. This is why…

          Sugar,
          cocoa mass, glucose syrup, modified milk ingredients, palm, palm kernel
          and vegetable oils, cocoa butter, almonds, hazelnuts, glycerol, cocoa,
          sunflower lecithin, invertase, citric acid, salt, polyglycerol
          polyricinoleate, dried egg white, natural flavours, colour.

  24. ‘Morning All

    John Locke on the right to revolution :

    “Whenever the

    Legislators endeavor to take away, and destroy the Property of the

    People, or to reduce them to Slavery under Arbitrary Power, they put

    themselves into a state of War with the People, who are thereupon

    absolved from any farther Obedience, and are left to the common Refuge,

    which God hath provided for all Men, against Force and Violence.

    Whensoever therefore the Legislative shall transgress this fundamental

    Rule of Society; and either by Ambition, Fear, Folly or Corruption,

    endeavor to grasp themselves, or put into the hands of any other an

    Absolute Power over the Lives, Liberties, and Estates of the People; By

    this breach of Trust they forfeit the Power, the People had put into

    their hands, for quite contrary ends, and it devolves to the People, who

    have a Right to resume their original Liberty.”

    Meanwhile the Medley

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fa2bb26c9f871024aa5166b5127937372f1d082268059d7f2a51959d0637e350.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e81e201bf1f0f1b13e758410f6272f8df9daea110172960b00f7a78aef10bd39.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9367b45c839804528054cb2e4b8a61afef5f39c0f5a9455aa6344586d9efbbb7.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fbf465ef5c63d7ace55bf45c48c35e6458765c4fc939c93e3a94aa07ed791c5b.jpg

    https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F23e46aef-cb5b-4fd0-8f59-63919234aa2c_570x400.png?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d3e26dc781e9d792c9c56889a1a0b89de53742bde4d7698a470536fe04186fcb.jpg

    1. These mammals seem to be surviving in the heat…Among
      the mammal species still found in the Sahara are the gerbil, jerboa,
      Cape hare, and desert hedgehog; Barbary sheep and scimitar-horned oryx;
      dorcas gazelle, dama deer, and Nubian wild ass; anubis baboon; spotted
      hyena, common jackal, and sand fox; and Libyan striped weasel and
      slender mongoose.

  26. Disqus has suddenly started notifying me about new posts, after several months of having to click F5 to refresh. I use the Brave browser – has anyone else noticed the same this morning?

  27. SIR – I am glad that our Victorian forefathers were made of sterner
    stuff and forged ahead with the many utilities we have today.

    Had they been like our current crop of spreadsheet naysayers, we would
    still be riding around in horse-drawn carts, with our homes lit by
    candles.

    Kidsgrove, Staffordshire

    The utilities are collapsing giving us rivers of excrement. The Grid is in danger of collapse. All because of population overgrowth.
    The only people riding horses will be the rich. The poor will be eating the candles in darkness.

  30. Do We Laugh Or Cry: episode 473.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-deep-absurdity-of-hs2-diversitys-agenda/#comments-container

    “The deep absurdity of HS2 diversity’s agenda

    26 September 2023, 8:15am

    When it comes to British railway history, I can say, without exaggeration, that few places are more iconically located than my own home. This is because I live exactly where Camden Town meets Primrose Hill – and where Britain’s first intercity railway tore through inner London (around 1837), surging out of London’s first mainline station: Euston.

    Indeed, my own house is visible in one of the famous 1838 John Cooke Bourne lithographs of this transport revolution: Building Retaining Wall near Park Street. The prosaic title deliberately spars with the poetic grandeur of Bourne’s cityscape, as the Camden Cutting slices grimly through the housing.

    I’ve had a splendid view, therefore, of the latest phase of British railway: HS2. And for the last five years or more I have observed, from my desk, as the momentum of this vast project has grown. At first I watched with misgivings (I felt the idea was misconceived; I feared the pollution and disruption). Then I watched with growing fascination as the workers toiled all day and night – sometimes under dazzling, stark, Carravagian floodlights – prepping the Victorian line for 21st century rail, and repeating the John Cooke Bourne moment in the very same spot where intercity railways were born.

    And now, of course, I am staring at all this with a whole new mood, one of horrified bemusement, as this shuddering juggernaut comes grinding to a halt. The rumours are that the Euston section of HS2 might be totally abandoned, leaving behind ‘houses knocked down; streets broken through and stopped; deep pits and trenches dug in the ground; enormous heaps of earth and clay thrown up’ (that’s Dickens, describing the Euston railworks, in Dombey and Son) – yet with no actual railway to show for it.

    How has it come to this? How have we, potentially, as a nation, made such an expensive, monumental mess? For a partial answer, I just have to drop my gaze from my windows, and look at my laptop, and open one of the most baroque documents I have ever encountered: the 52-page epic that is HS2’s latest annual Equality, Diversity and Inclusion statement (by contrast, HS2 produced, at the same time, a mere 12-page document dedicated to ‘tunnelling costs’).

    This remarkable work begins with an earnest prologue from one ‘Dame Judith Hackett, DBE, FREng, FIChemE, FCGI, Non-Executive Director and Board Champion for Equality Diversity and Inclusion’, who practically manages to cover two pages with just her name and title.

    With that out of the way, the documents dives deep. Very deep. Much of it is dedicated to eagerly telling us exactly how many white men they have excluded – sorry, how many more women and ethnically, sexually and religiously diverse people they have employed, promoted, or used as suppliers.

    Ms Hackett herself tells us that ‘this year we have seen ever greater workforce diversity in the Tier 1 supply chain’. On page 3, the statement lets us know that ’40 per cent of the HS2 Ltd Executive Leadership Team’ is female. On page 12 it says ‘we have set a challenging corporate target of 23 per cent for ethnic diversity’, on page 15 we learn that HS2 people say ‘Ramadan Mubarak’, and a few pages later it goes into such depth we are told that 0.5 per cent of HS2 workers are Buddhist.

    And so it continues. Page 5 reassures us that there is ‘an EDI goal in all staff annual objectives, with a bespoke library of goals for our ELT and our SLT focused on championing inclusivity and challenging bias’. On page 6 we are educated that ‘each year HS2 runs a structured reverse mentoring programme where we pair all our SLT members with a reverse mentor’. Yes, who needs an actual train when you’ve got a reverse mentor?

    On page 7, Emma Head informs us that ‘we delivered an inclusive leadership workshop for our top sixty technical leaders’. By page 12 we likewise discover that HS2 has been ‘delivering training sessions on conscious inclusion and understanding bullying and harassment to help facilitate internal conversation and greater understanding of unconscious bias’, which sounds like it takes up an awful lot of time which might be better spent, I dunno, building railways?

    There is plenty more. Page 23 assures us that HS2’s award winning Race Ethnicity and Cultural Heritage Network has continued to ‘grow its membership at pace’ by ensuring awareness, right along the HS2 route, of Race Equality Week, South Asian Heritage Month, National Inclusion Week, Black History Month, National Day of Staff Networks, and Stephen Lawrence Day.

    A few lines later we are told that the Onboard Network has sent mail-outs, created information sheets and organised events so as to enable all HS2 workers to celebrate important dates like: International Non-Binary People’s Day, Bi-Visibility Week, International Drag Day, Trans Awareness Week, International Day against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia, and the International Transgender Day of Visibility.

    Nor have they forgotten HS2 railway workers who are so exhausted by all this they have gone off having sex – or building railways. The Onboard Network also creates info sheets and offers events surrounding International Asexuality Day.

    Within this sea of inanity, one set of stats is particularly enticing, and deserves focus. On page 18 the HS2 document assesses, in morbid detail, the sexual orientation of its workers. For instance, while we learn that only 4 per cent of HS2 workers are lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans or questioning. It is also good to know that at least 8 per cent of ‘phase 2 HS2 directors’ are on the LGBTQ+ rainbow.

    Of course, it’s all absurd. But does any of this bizarre, sometimes-well-meaning nonsense really matter? As I look up from my laptop, and gaze out at the vista that is Euston, where the busy and innocent workers in their hi-vizjackets are once more ascending the lofty cranes, I rather think it does.

    Alongside the various sections devoted to Nimbyism, corruption, political incompetence, and national intention tremor, when they come to do the analysis of where HS2 went wrong (and in China they already use Britain as a teachable moment of how not to do infrastructure), there must be at least one chapter on how Isambard Kingdom Brunel somehow managed to build the Great Western Railway without knowing whether his navvies were bi-curious Sikh furries, yet we are apparently incapable of the same. Because we have created vast, crazy, self-enhancing and Kafka-esque bureaucracies dedicated to ensuring that the ridiculous bureaucrats get paid – long before anything gets built.”

    1. How have we, potentially, as a nation, made such an expensive, monumental mess?

      Morning Anne. There is no we. It is not us! It is the rubbish in Westminster!

    2. Comments available to Nottlers:
      https://disqus.com/home/discussion/www-spectator-co-uk/the_deep_absurdity_of_hs2_diversitys_agenda/

      Birdy
      Once again the Left confounded me. I used to believe that once all the graduates from former Polys coming out with ‘degrees’ in Gender Transition Studies or whatever, tried to enter the job market they’d have some sense knocked into them by economic reality.

      I underestimated them. They’ve managed to create an entire parallel economy, such that it’s far better and more lucrative to have a 2:2 in Black Studies from a former Poly than a First in Engineering from a Russell Group University.

    5. Perhaps if, instead of making sure the enterprise was “diverse”, they had concentrated on ensuring it was well-managed and staffed with competent people it might have been built on time and on budget by now.

  31. How war in Ukraine sank Europe’s net zero plans. 26 September 2023.

    Rishi Sunak is not the only European leader watering down his net zero ambitions in the face of a cost of living crisis caused by the war in Ukraine.

    Putin’s illegal invasion sharply reduced economic growth and “considerably” pushed up inflation across the Continent, the Swiss National Bank said on Friday before warning worse was to come.

    Well it is an ill wind that blows no one any good. Personally I would like to see Vlad achieve an overwhelming victory. Not because I have anything against the Ukrainians but because it would put a check on this totalitarian tyranny that has overtaken Europe. The sad reality of it is that Russia is now more free and democratic than ourselves! Vlad is everything that we should expect in our own leaders! Instead we have senile perverts and liars!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/09/26/european-union-members-net-zero-climate-change-war-ukraine/

    1. Funny, and there was me thinking it was NS2 being blown up that had destroyed the European economy…

  32. GB News owner in talks with US billionaire over Telegraph bid
    Sir Paul Marshall is lining up funding from Ken Griffin ahead of an auction
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/09/25/telegraph-sale-gb-news-owner-talks-ken-griffin/

    GB News at its best is very good – at its worst it is deplorable and banal.

    I find it hard to accept some of their asinine panellists such as Benjamin Butterworth and Amy Nickel and the way the channel caved in and sacked Mark Steyn was shameful.

    1. He wasn’t sacked, but it might be construed as constructive dismissal in that new terms and conditions were imposed which he was unwilling to accept.

      As for GB News, I rarely watch it. Then again, I rarely watch any of the others.

        1. Bear in mind that Ofcom has the power to revoke broadcasting licences. It has found GB News guilty on 3 occasions – 2 involving Steyn – of breaching its rules and is currently investigating 6 more cases. i dont know how many breaches Ofcom will allow before exercising its powers.

          https://www.ofcom.org.uk/news-centre/2023/ofcom-finds-gb-news-in-breach-of-due-impartiality-rules
          https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/news/gb-news-ofcom-report-broadcasting-licence-348250/

          1. Which is of course precisely why twerps such as Benjamin Butterworth and Amy Nickel are regularly featured. They provide balance and keep Ofcom at bay. On a superficial level they’re probably perfectly pleasant and all get along fine in the Green Room. The bickering is for the cameras.

  33. Back (geddit?) from osteopath. He did some manipulation. I will go one more time and then decide whether it is worth the money.

    Slight easing noticed. Not the instant cure I had hoped for (not really!!)

        1. It’s just stretching exercises that strengthen the muscles supporting your bones. You can even do it in a chair you lazy bugger.

          3. That is the most feeble excuse I have ever heard in my life!
            You must have a mat! What do your cats sit on?

          6. I have discovered that muscles don’t like being stretched as I’ve got older. They object. Strongly.

  34. The new showering
    SIR –
    I must admit to being puzzled as to why cans of men’s aerosol deodorant
    emphasise long-lasting 48-hour – or indeed 72-hour – protection.

    Are many men now using a quick squirt instead of washing or showering for up to three days?

    Chris Mitchell
    Leicester
    Ask the French. They have been doing that for years.

    4. Me too on my jaunt around Devon/Dorset and Cornwall. Not a bath in sight, and I don’t shower.

  35. 37713 up ticks,

    In the case of the speaker and the multitude of crappy happy clappers only two questions should be asked as dawn approaches, do they smoke and will they require a blindfold.

    Speaker Pleads Ignorance After Leading Zelensky and Trudeau in Tribute to Nazi SS Soldier

    In fact the same applies to the United Kingdom HOC / HOL
    currently ,without ANY INPUT from any ex nazi.

  36. The creeping criminalisation of everyday life. Spiked. 26 September 2023.

    The ASBO appears restrained compared to what has come since. Ever since the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014, people who used to get ASBOs now generally get a Community Protection Notice (CPN), which comes with almost no procedural safeguards. Whereas the ASBO had to be obtained from a court – and the defendant had a right to legal aid – the CPN can be issued on the spot by police officers and a range of local-authority officers, including county-park guardians, street-scene officers, community-wellbeing service officers and neighbourhood-pride managers. People have received CPNs ordering them to close their front doors more quietly, not to wear a bikini in their front garden or not to look at their neighbours.

    Useful information for Nottlers!

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/09/26/the-creeping-criminalisation-of-everyday-life/

    1. In a sane world, public money would not be squandered on funding non-jobs with titles such as “county-park guardians, street-scene officers, community-wellbeing service officers and neighbourhood-pride managers”.

  37. MPs who believe women can have a penis will be named and shamed ahead of general election

    A new website will allow voters to instantly find out whether their MP thinks women must be born female

    By Ewan Somerville • 23 September 2023 • 8:45pm

    MPs who believe women can have a penis will be named and shamed ahead of the general election, The Telegraph can reveal.

    An “army” of volunteers in an apolitical new grassroots campaign is gearing up to meet all MPs and parliamentary candidates at hustings events and on their doorsteps to ask each one the question: “What is a woman?”

    Their answers will be video recorded and uploaded individually to a website which is being launched in the coming months. It will allow voters to find out instantly whether their next MP thinks women must be born female and that binary biological sex cannot be changed, or whether they believe that male-born transgender women are women too.

    Sharron Davies MBE, the former Olympic swimmer and feminist campaigner who has been appointed as the campaign’s first ambassador, said it would let voters “know if their MP will stand up for women”.

    The trans debate is likely to be one of the fiercest battlegrounds of the 2024 general election, with many MPs especially on the Left in a muddle over the definition of a woman. The Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has said “99.9 per cent of women… haven’t got a penis”, while the Lib Dem leader Ed Davey said a woman can “quite clearly” have a penis. Meanwhile, Sadiq Khan, Labour Mayor of London, has said: “A woman, when it comes to biology and sex, is an adult girl… trans women can also be women as well.”

    But the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has attempted to draw a clear dividing line between the Tories and opposition parties by insisting “a woman is an adult human female”, though some liberal-leaning MPs on his own benches still disagree with that.

    A source close to the new campaign said: “Through an army of grassroots volunteers, the campaign will ask every single Parliamentary candidate, of all parties, that simple question: What is a Woman? We will record their responses (or prevarications) and upload the footage to a dedicated website accessible for all. This is not about lecturing or trolling MPs – far from it. We are apolitical. This is about transparency and honesty.”

    The source said the volunteers “will be trained on how to approach MPs respectfully and courteously” and will “calmly give MPs the chance to clarify their position” while at hustings and on the streets.

    Ms Davies said: “This is a David vs Goliath battle but we are winning. Having battled all my life for fairness in sport where women are disadvantaged, I am delighted to back this campaign. The sex and gender debate is fundamentally about a conflict of rights between men who identify as women and those of women and girls. If your MP or candidate – our future lawmakers – do not know what a woman is, how can they fight for us, our rights, our safety, and our hard fought for equalities & opportunities. “This campaign will bring honesty to politics and to the debate, so every voter in the country knows if their MP will stand up for women.”

    The campaign is being managed by the free speech firm Riverside Advisory, who were not available for comment.

    Trans debates have become far more mainstream since the 2019 election, fuelled by high-profile clashes such as attempts to cancel JK Rowling and the feminist philosophy professor Kathleen Stock. The row over trans prisoner Adam Graham, who changed his name to Isla Bryson, being housed in a female prison in Scotland also contributed to the downfall of First Minister Nicola Sturgeon amid public outrage.

    The trans issue also featured prominently in the Tory leadership contest last year, with Penny Mordaunt forced to publicly explain why she was not “woke” on the issue.

    Last week, a new survey from the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) – which has been collecting social attitudes data since 1983 – found that people describing themselves as “a little prejudiced” against trans people has doubled in three years, rising from 14 per cent in 2019 to 27 per cent last year.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/09/23/mps-believe-women-penis-named-trans-election-sharron-davies

      1. Who is going to check that out? When I see a person, I see a man or woman, but I don’t have the facility to do a test.

      2. You fail the new religious test for acceptability. Off to the gender retraining camp with you.

        Maybe phizzee can organize another Notl lunch because we will all be there .

    2. From my own observations, genuine transexuals don’t make a huge song and dance about it, they just try to live their lives as their new selves.
      Opportunistic trannies, mostly males, are merely bullies, trying to gain an advantage where if they stayed in their original sex they would never get the prizes and positions they can with their new personas.

      1. Their demanding unrestricted access to changing rooms where young girls and women are is because they are not transexuals but paedophiles in womens clothing.

        1. Any male insisting on that “right” should immediately have their penis, testicles and prostate removed.

  39. Bulgarian nationals appear in court accused of spying for Russia. 26 September 2023.

    Kathryn Selby, for the prosecution said: “All five defendants have been charged with one offence of conspiracy to conduct espionage contrary to section 1 of the Criminal law act 1977.

    “This is an indictable only offence therefore it has to be sent to the Crown court.

    “Given this has a national security backdrop it should be dealt in accordance with the terrorism protocol.

    “People are aware that three of the defendants have already been jointly charged with an offence under the identity cards act.

    Oh dear. This is looking more and more like a put up job!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/09/26/bulgarian-nationals-appear-court-accused-spying-russia/

    1. Kathryn Ann Selby casually refers to the Identity Cards Act 2006. This was repealed in 2010 and the Identity Documents Act 2010 was swiftly enacted, which covers similar offences concerning false ID. Serious question: when they are convicted (by a jury stuffed with nodders) will they be entitled to serve their sentences in Bulgaria which is a member of the European Union?

  40. Civil servant revolt at ‘woke takeover of Whitehall’

    Letter to Cabinet Secretary warns government policy risks being improperly influenced by imposition of gender ideology

    By Steven Edginton and Gordon Rayner, ASSOCIATE EDITOR • 22 September 2023 • 9:00pm

    The Cabinet Secretary has been warned by senior civil servants of a “woke takeover of Whitehall” that risks “improperly” influencing Government policy.

    Simon Case was told in a letter signed by 42 staff from 16 departments that ideology on gender promoted by trans activists has become embedded in the Civil Service in a “significant breach of impartiality”.

    It says the concept that “everyone has a gender identity which is more important than their sex” is “treated as undisputed fact”.

    Staff who dare to air gender-critical views – meaning they believe there are two biological sexes that cannot be changed – suffer “serious harassment” at work and live with a “pervasive fear” they will be victimised, the letter adds.

    The letter states: “Many of us have experienced some form of professional disadvantage because we do not believe that the concept of gender identity is meaningful, or that it is more important than sex. Several of us have been through stressful and intrusive employment disputes.” “Some of us have suffered serious harassment in the workplace; others go to work with a pervasive fear that we will be victimised for what we believe.”

    Eight of the 42 signatories are anonymous as they regard it as “too dangerous” to their careers to reveal their identities. They say that the Civil Service is being “reordered” around an “ideologically motivated” belief system, that single-sex facilities are opened up to anyone on the basis of self-declared gender, and that many civil servants “have experienced some form of professional disadvantage” for suggesting that biological sex is more important than gender identity.
    …

    Cabinet ministers have long been concerned about bias in the Civil Service when it comes to gender politics. In 2021, the then equalities minister Liz Truss ordered Whitehall departments to withdraw from a controversial “diversity champions” scheme run by the charity Stonewall following accusations that it was promoting extreme ideologies.

    In turn, the Civil Service has set a goal of becoming the most inclusive employer in the UK, in order to “attract, develop and retain the most diverse talent”.

    It is highly unusual for civil servants to write directly to the Cabinet Secretary with their concerns, and even more unusual for such letters to become public knowledge.
    …

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/09/22/woke-takeover-whitehall-risks-government-policy-simon-case

      1. Indeed. Somehow we’re all supposed to believe, as we were with Saville, that those who surround these monsters are entirely innocent.

      2. Would that be the Attenborough who steadfastly reads the same BBC script as Packham and Monty Don, ad nauseam?

    2. Far too quick for that piece of excrement. A bit of reciprocal torture wouldn’t come amiss. What a revolting little b*stard.

  42. They tried to close off that embarrassment over Parliament cheering that SS relic last night.

    There was a motion to the house to remove all reference to the incident from 5he official record – written and video recordings to be edited. Only the conservatives voted against the motion

    2. It was the top story on the Russia Today news bulletin at 10 pm last night. Historical background, the works!

    3. Do these people seriously not understand how the Internet works? They can alter the official record and censor videos as much as they like…it will still be out there.

    2. I see Meloni is referred to several times as “the right wing Meloni” – no bias there then!

        1. What is the internet connectivity supposed to offer that’s not available in standalone toasters? My first impression is one of superfluous cleverness and complexity designed to woo those impressed by technology. I’m thinking of washing machines with, perhaps, dozens of setting combinations when most households make do with 5 or fewer.

          1. More stuff to go wrong.
            Plus, never forget the casino in the US whose computer network was hacked via their smart fish tank, and customer details stolen…

          3. Too clever by half!
            And with washing machines and tumble driers, I probably use 3 – at the most 4 – programmes.

        2. I don’t want a ‘smart’ anything other than the computer. I don’t want appliances managing my life or my usage.

        3. My toasting forks are Georgian. I don’t think the computer had been envisaged when they were made 🙂

  50. Afternoon all,

    Been having trouble getting BT’s Fibre To The Cabinet FTTC) uprade to Fibre To The Home (FTTH) internet connection working properly mainly arising from three different organisations involved in arranging the changeover.

    Since BT’s responsibility for a telephone/internet connections terminated at what is called the Network Termination (NT) point on a wall in your home the internal telephone and internet wiring within the home has become a home owner’s issue.

    Fortunately the new Smart Hub 2 is fitted with multiple WiFi aerials to send wireless signals in all directions and it also has a green socket that will enable old copper wired telephone handsets to work as an interface to the FTTH optic cable enabling them to now work as a VoIP phone.

    As a test of connectivity here’s an image of my ECG recorder with chest leads and its computer connection for ECG waveform interpretation:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3ded1c74c561c5c5e7bcefd9d1a38419796b2681584c11c5e0bb37c3b88fe324.jpg

    1. Here’s a five minute ECG recording I took with the recorder this afternoon showing leads I, II and III:

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/63779d910fc337096ce5a0efad5a2981f42728610fee538b91478aa497b00248.jpg

      and here is an interpretation of the ECG recording over the five minute period:

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/57f440ea7486879dc8023ba825bee8c56f27c71eb45b39d7d4b45a567a1d8a6a.jpg

      I’ve done this today so that I see if there any changes to my ECG following two jabs I’ve been lined up for this afternoon.

      1. Not sure what the connection is between BT fibre and ECG but very interesting. I had one of the portable things earlier in the year but didn’t see the results myself, only the consultant afterwards…
        My BT full fibre 100 (which is what they call it these days) seems to be working fine along with my phone. Fingers crossed.

        1. The connection between BT and ECGs is relevant in the sense that in order to create the comment I needed to make information transfers between a variety of data terminals enploying both BT’s Smart Hub 2 WiFi and its Ethernet Cat6/Cat5e/250v mains links and was a test to confirm that the upgrade implementation from FTTC to FTTH fit for purpose.

  52. I gave a blood test sample yesterday afternoon and, upon removing the dressing an hour or so later, marvelled at the blemish-free area of arm where the sample was taken. There’s always been a bruise on previous occasions. I woke up today to see a bruise where there was none yesterday. Does anybody here know how delayed bruising works?

    1. When blood is being taken – don’t let a doctor near you.
      Nurses or phlebotomists are fine.
      Doctors not so much; they don’t get the practice.
      Are you on any blood thinning medication?

    2. It varies a lot, some nurses seem to go out of their way to bruise you…
      Earlier this month she was so quick that she couldn’t even be bothered to tape the dressing on properly, when I got home five minutes later it had already fallen off and I had a bloodied shirt. You could still see the bruise several days later.
      Last week at the Dunedin hospital in Reading I had a cannula fitted for the contrast die. Afterwards she fixed the dressing properly, and knowing I was on blood thinners told me to press until it clotted and checked before I left. Hardly a mark to be seen when I took the dressing off, she certainly knew her stuff.

    4. I thought that was normal. Bruises never show straight away. When I had a steroid injection for an inflamed tendon, the bruise appeared three or four days later and lasted about a week. There wasn’t any doubt about the cause. There wasn’t any trauma to the site after the injection.

  53. EU warns Elon Musk after Twitter found to have highest rate of disinformation. 26 September 2023.

    The EU has issued a warning to Elon Musk to comply with sweeping new laws on fake news and Russian propaganda, after X – formerly known as Twitter – was found to have the highest ratio of disinformation posts of all large social media platforms.

    The report analysed the ratio of disinformation for a new report laying bare for the first time the scale of fake news on social media across the EU, with millions of fake accounts removed by TikTok and LinkedIn.

    Who decides what is disinformation? The people who told us that the Covid Vaccines were safe? The ones who told us that Saddam had weapons of Mass Destruction? It is pretty obvious that what we have is the suppression of one view of the world by another. The ones doing the suppressing here; the EU, are a byword for dishonesty and deception. The actual reasons for this law; like the UK’s Online Harms Bill, is to try and prevent the erosion of their narrative which is suffering increasing disbelief.

    https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/sep/26/eu-warns-elon-musk-that-twitter-x-must-comply-with-fake-news-laws

    1. What the heck does the EU know about truth?
      The whole house of cards is built on ‘disinformation’.
      “A posh way of saying ‘lies’, M’Lud.”

  54. Afternoon all – had lunch with an old friend today at our regular cafe – the last time we will be served by our lovely cafe owner as she has sold up and the new owners have taken charge this week – she has ensured a seamless handover but the menus are different – the Italians have taken over (they have a restaurant in the local small town) but we will probably still go there.

      1. We both had a salad with smoked salmon and it was very good. My friend had a flapjack with her coffee and it was as good as always.

  55. Just received this email………it looks as though someone in government has a sense of humour!

    Dear friends,

    This is so alarming you have to know about it and so should everyone else in the UK.

    Right
    now, 6 brave kids are suing 32 European countries for not acting to
    prevent climate change, including the UK. It’s crazy brave!

    So what is the government doing? The UK claims the devastating impacts of climate change the kids are experiencing are not severe enough!! Check out what UK government lawyers just said and then please share this with everyone you know:

    “The
    statements also refer to hot weather “draining energy” or preventing
    the applicants from playing or exercising outside or making it difficult
    to sleep (…) But there is no documentary evidence of these
    alleged impacts (…) let alone any evidence that they have been caused by
    climate change, as opposed to the normal effects of living in Southern
    Europe.”
    — UK government’s observations before the European Court of Human Rights in the Duarte Agostinho case.

    WHAT!!!

    The government goes on…

    “The
    Applicants are not victims of a violation of Article 8 because the
    matters which they allege (…) have not attained the necessary “level of
    severity”.”

    What the government is saying is that when these
    young people experience asthma worsened by pollution and heat,
    heightened and debilitating anxiety, an inability to go to school or
    play outside because it’s too hot and the air is choked with fire – that
    is just the normal effect of living in parts of Europe and not severe
    enough to be a violation of their human rights!!!

    If the government won’t protect these kids suing for their rights, they won’t protect any of us from climate change.

    We need to make sure everyone in the UK knows about this.

    Please help let everyone know about the UK’s refusal to protect kids from climate change.

    RETWEET NOW

    The more of us share this quote, the more we can push the government to respond and even change its position.

    Our
    children should not have to sue their governments in order to ensure
    they have a livable planet. But if these kids win, countries will
    finally have to act — the way they should have already — to cut
    greenhouse gas emissions and take the climate crisis seriously enough to
    save lives.

    We cannot be with these kids in court, but we can make sure the British government knows we are watching and that their treatment of these kids will come at a political cost.

    With hope and determination,

    Pascal, Nell, Ruth, Nick, Muriel, Emilie, Daniel, and the whole Avaaz team

    1. Meanwhile, Helios and Selene think this is the best wheeze they’ve heard in centuries. Helios ain’t budging though. He’ll do what he’ll do and tough titty. Gaia can do one.

  56. Just had a bit of a brainwave, I might write to Susan Hall.
    She should bring in ULSZ to London – Ultra Low Stabby Zones.

    We could convert the Ulez cameras to detect metal objects and fit facial recognition.

    We could charge 12.50 per day for your average knife and £ 25 per day for Machetes and £ 50 per day for zombie knives.

    I think it will bring in more money than Ulez in some parts of London.

  57. Phew! Just back from visiting Stepson on Stoke.
    To put it bluntly, mentally he’s in absolute shite-state. His stammer makes his speech incomprehensible and he is in a state of near physical collapse.
    However, his new flat is lovely and I hope he settles in.

    1. Is he getting any help with his mental health? Nice to have a new flat but it sounds as though he needs extra help.

      1. Nope!
        Derby Mental Health and Social Services washed their hands of him months ago. It remains to be seen how their Stoke compatriots perform.

          1. No, that was done by SAHA. I’ve been trying to distance myself from his care etc as it was affecting me rather severely.

    2. Perhaps he is dislocated, and disorientated by his new flat and new location. All his points of reference will have gone. Poor chap.

      1. Just had a phone call from him and his medications had finally kicked in so he was much more coherent.
        Quite a relief.

        1. This must be so difficult for you, Bob, it must be always there in the background of your mind. So pleased his meds are working for him.

  59. Bogey today

    Wordle 829 5/6

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

    1. Me too. Mind, I made a couple of stoopid mistakes.

      Wordle 829 5/6

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

    3. Same here,
      Wordle 829 5/6

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

    4. Not good here either

      Wordle 829 5/6

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

    5. Wordle 829 4/6

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

      First wordle for months for me.

        1. Don’t put all the blame on him, the greater blame lies with those who accept his findings and make national decisions based on them.

    2. Twenty times more fatal than Covid 19? Well for most of us that’s twenty times zero equals zero. The Gates Foundation publish records of the recipients of their largesse and I saw entries on their website for donations of three and four million pounds at a time to “Neil Ferguson and Imperial College”. That might go some way to explaining why this charlatan exercises undue influence?

      1. Tut, tut, Our Susan. You are surely not suggesting that ANY of that largesse goes into his private bank account?

  63. That’s me gone for today. Back much the same. Apart from a useful hour hour this morning, there was no rain.

    The only downer was an e-mail to the MR from her French bank (with which she has had an account for nearly 40 years) telling her that she will have to close it because she does not live in France, does not have an EU member state passport (or carte de sejour) and has no French income tax number.

    Funny old world. I opened a French back account as an overseas customer while living in London in 1980. They were delighted to have it. I closed it when we left in 2020.

    No more, apparently. I wonder how all the French illegal migrants manage…

    Have a spiffing evening.

    A demain.

    2. Similar situation with Spain; they are obliged to match account holders to tax numbers either at home or abroad. Banks earn a lot from card fees and commissions, but nothing from cash transactions; the harder it is for individuals to use physical currency, the more they can skim.

    3. Similar situation with Spain; they are obliged to match account holders to tax numbers either at home or abroad. Banks earn a lot from card fees and commissions, but nothing from cash transactions; the harder it is for individuals to use physical currency, the more they can skim.

  66. No wonder I worship the ground SWMBO walks upon. How’s this for thought process?
    The Met officer who shot that bastard in the face through the car windscreen (you try it, not at all easy) is charged with murder.
    A muder charge implies or required premeditation, and how would he do that?
    So, charges dismissed. And, AFAIK, English law would not allow for a lesser charge (manslaughter, parking on a double yellow line) to be raised ion it’s place.
    So, he gets off, and the blecks can be asured that the state prosecuted as far as the law allows.
    Cool, or what? Foxy lady, SWMBO. Glad she’s on my side ( now)

    1. Even though someone is tried for murder, I believe the jury can return a verdict of not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter.

    2. One even remotely racist tweet on social media would be brought into evidence as allowing pre-meditation.

    3. … “ and the blecks can be asured that the state prosecuted as far as the law allows.” I wouldn’t bet on it!

    5. They are showing re-runs of Rumpole of the Bailey on Talking Pictures ( Freesat ch 306).

      Horace Rumpole gave his wife, Hilda, the sobriquet of She Who Must Be Obeyed borrowing from Rider Haggard’s tyrannical and terrifying heroine, She.

      [Nothing to do with Charles Aznavour]

      Here’s a picture of Hilda and Horace Rumpole.

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/aeb638a23ceb5d3d5fb5940e6d3847b0d7c9d4ca5e60e9368ca4769e007a5678.png

      and let’s have Charles’s singing too!

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajjdY070VU4

    6. Um, I did post a couple of lines about that possibility earlier, though your much-better half would have expressed her thoughts more fluently. But I wonder if the shooter wrote or said something and was ratted on, or eavesdropped.

  68. Thought for the day:

    If one of Tony Blair’s armed protection officers accidentally shot him and he died would the officer be prosecuted or knighted?

  69. Buona sera amici. Off to a meeting, shortly (makes a change from hosting it like last time), so it will be a case of ave atque vale, but I hope to be back later.

    We used to be able to deliver big projects, but since the State has taken everything over it, unsurprisingly, fails. Mainly because it’s “run” by people who’ve never had a proper job and can’t even run a bath.

  70. On the subject of shooting people – if they are doing something so awful that they need shot, then if they die, that’s unfortunate, but hey…
    https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-63290028
    A former soldier accused of killing a Londonderry teenager more than 50 years ago has died, BBC News NI understands. Relatives of 15-year-old Daniel Hegarty were informed of the death of the veteran, known as Soldier B, on Friday by the Public Prosecution Service (PPS).
    It is understood he died on Thursday.
    Soldier B was facing the prospect of being prosecuted for shooting the teenager in the Creggan area of Derry.The schoolboy was shot on 31 July 1972 during Operation Motorman, the name given to a military operation by the Army to reclaim “no-go areas” set up by republican paramilitaries in towns and cities across Northern Ireland. His cousin Christopher Hegarty, who was 16, was wounded in the same incident. Daniel’s sister Margaret Brady told BBC News NI the family pray God forgives the former soldier. She said she was “in total shock” when the PPS notified her of the soldier’s death on Friday.

    1. Soldier B was probably in his late 70s or over 80. It was cruel to be prosecuting an old man after more than 50 years when he was just doing what he’d been trained to do.

      1. And, not forgetting, instructed to do.
        Never work for the gummint. They won’t hesitate to shit on you when it’s convenient.

  71. David McCallum, the British actor who became a star by playing a secret agent in 1960s spy drama The Man from U.N.C.L.E., has died at the age of 90.

    More recently, the Scottish-born actor was known for his long-running role as a medical examiner on hit TV show NCIS. “We will miss his warmth and endearing sense of humor that lit up any room or soundstage he stepped onto,” the NCIS account said on social media.

    The actor also starred in Colditz, The Invisible Man and Sapphire & Steel. “David was a gifted actor and author, and beloved by many around the world,” the NCIS tribute said.

    “He led an incredible life, and his legacy will forever live on through his family and the countless hours on film and television that will never go away.” His role as mysterious Soviet agent Illya Kuryakin in The Man from U.N.C.L.E. won him many fans and made him one of the decade’s biggest TV stars. The series ended in 1968, but not before he received several Emmy and Golden Globe nominations.

    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-66919863

    That’s sad. I enjoyed his performances. I guess Ilya Kuriyakin wouldn’t be so acceptable these days.
    He used a P.38 handgun, so a Good Man. I have one, from 1941. Excellent firearm, father of the modern lot with double action, and more.

    1. I always wondered why they spelled it Illya. In Russian, it’s Ilya. I never knew he was a classically trained musician, nor that he wrote a thriller. Will keep an eye open for Once A Crooked Man.

  72. Another thought for the day:
    Only black police officers should be armed.

    That would stop lots of accusations of racism when those most likely to be shot, get shot.

      2. You mean, they don’t?
        Wow!
        Suddenly, Sweden has noticed that the gimmegrants they allowed to flood into the country are not peacable, but gang terrorists as they were in the shitholes they came from.
        Over 240 shootings this year.

  73. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-66919859
    People should have a firearms licence for each weapon they own, a councillor has argued, after a report showing owners with multiple weapons. A meeting of the North Wales Police and Crime Panel heard the area had 37,684 firearms and shotguns linked to just 12,354 licences.

    It means one person could have “a small arsenal” warned Flintshire councillor Chris Bithell. The police and crime commissioner said he may lobby for tougher restrictions. Andy Dunbobbin added police were currently bound by the law, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS). Gun owners mu t reapply for their licence every five years the panel meeting at Bodlondeb, Conwy, was also told on Tuesday.
    “A certificate can cover one weapon. [But] there’s no maximum or minimum,” said Mr Bithell, who is Flintshire’s cabinet member for public health.
    “I think that should cause some alarm,” he said, “because although the owners of these guns… may well be bona fide people, farmers and so on, who use them very legitimately.

    My input: When I last held a firearms certificate in the UK, it was one certificate, but each weapon needed identified separately, and listed so, and applied for individually, too.
    As there seems to be no wave of shootings in North Wales, why the fuss over folk having more than one weapon listed on a piece of wavy-blue paper?

    1. I expect it’s a way of raising money – except there would need to be more officials to cope with an increase in licences.

    2. My elder son (in the Sealed Knot) has a licence for his musket. He was never registered with a GP until three years ago, when they suddenly demanded a medical certificate to prove he was a suitable person to hold a licence.

    3. My elder son (in the Sealed Knot) has a licence for his musket. He was never registered with a GP until three years ago, when they suddenly demanded a medical certificate to prove he was a suitable person to hold a licence.

  74. 377139+ up ticks,

    Some elderly foreign chap on 5 o’clock channel four taking the side of poofs coming from timbucbloodytoo escaping from persecution, via a harrowing channel crossing after “escaping” a second time from a FREE nation, france.

    There was a mass exodus of blackbirds from the garden due to the obscenities coming from the garage.

  76. Intra-family marriage responsible for 10pc diabetes cases in South Asians
    ‘Consanguinity’ linked to 12 diseases in families of Pakistan and Bangladeshi descent
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/09/26/consanguinity-diabetes-type-2-asthma-south-asia-brits/

    Marrying blood relatives is responsible for up to 10 per cent of Type 2 diabetes cases in British Asian communities, a new study suggests.

    Experts have long known that south Asian communities are more at greater risk of developing diabetes, accounting for eight per cent of all diagnosed cases, despite making up just four per cent of the population.

    But it was unclear whether the genetics or lifestyle factors were driving the increased prevalence.

    Many south Asian communities marry within their families, often to second cousins or closer, a practice known as consanguinity, which can leave children at risk of genetic problems.

    And still they keep immigrating.

    2. The children are born disabled and mentally handicapped. Its an awful practice of what is simply inbreeding.

      That is, of course, their choice. However they NHS is then forced to pay for them. That’s the real problem.

      1. Just read down the comments. I was wondering where you had got to. You might have seen that I took to the high seas in the 2nd week of Sept.

        1. But when might you be back in Wales? Would be good to meet for a drink or few around 22 October.

          1. I was only away a week! Im not planning any foreign expeditions until December, I have a few days in Marrakesh, if the hotel has not fallen down…

    6. I was at nearby St Athan in ’71, trade training in the RAF. A callow youth who drank lager I’m afraid, but I might have had one there.

  78. Braverman’s speech has upset the right sort of people at the UN and the BBC. Good. Radio 4’s 6pm news gave us a clever little homily, couching its criticism but making its message clear enough. It certainly wasn’t impartial. The sharp intake of breath was caused by the claim that ‘Western civilisation faces an existential crisis’. Who could object to that? ‘Liberals’ with their heads stuck up their fundaments, undoubtedly.

    1. I recall being challenged in France by a wet Lib, butting into a private conversation, who called me a Nazi when I stated that there had to be a limit at a time when the illegal crossings were in the thousands rather than the tens of thousands.
      When I asked him how many he would accept, 50,000, 500,000, 5 million, 50 million and then told him there were 5 billion in the world who would happily swap places with him, he got very angry.

      I left before it became violent. Not for my sake, but his.

    2. Immigrants who wish to thrive in adoptive countries will first learn the native language and work hard to improve their lot in life.

      Immigrants who refuse to learn the native language, do not work but resort to thieving, violence both among themselves and the native population and the formation of ghettos with no go areas should be rounded up and deported. These ingrates are an existential threat as observed by Suella Braverman.

    3. Nowhere do I see the question asked as to why they are all leaving their countries.
      That’s what needs to change.

        2. The Nunc Dimitus is a very rare piece of modern liturgical music actually worth listening to.

          1. Luciano is alive and well and working in my local Aldi store. I asked him once if he was the son of the great Luciano but he just laughed at my joke!

    2. One of the very best recordings of the complete works is sung by the USSR ministry of culture chamber choir and is available on YouTube. I have it on CD from Czechoslovakia!

  84. Sorry to break the mood.

    Poland are apparently looking at the possibility of having that SS relic Yaroslav Hunka extradited for war crimes.

    Do you think that they could take Trudeau as wll?

    2. I understand the wish for justice but what will it solve? He’ll be tried and jailed. If he has any sense of conscience he is already serving a life sentence.

  85. Interesting thing – the Tories apparently are asking for ideas as clearly the Treasury wants someone to blame. The Warqueen sent them her tax idea. Basic income tax of 21% – not banded greedily, A tax on land use. Minor sin taxes such as on cigarettes. No other taxes. None. Many government services are altered such as healthcare to insurance model – the one I’ve suggested – but nothing else.

    Her projections – and these are right – would have the economy in surplus – assuming government waste continued to increase even with current debt and deficit – by 2032. If state waste were cut by even 10% we’d overtake Luxembourg.

    However, what do we really reckon we’ll get? Tax, waste, debt.

    1. What does a “tax on land use” involve – taxing farmers for producing food isn’t a good idea (but slapping a tax on land wasted on solar arrays and windmills wouldn’t come amiss)?

    1. Sorry to hear that, Alec. I know that you really adored Barbara, so my thoughts are with you.

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