Tuesday 27 September: The role of the Bank of England in the plummeting value of the pound

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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635 thoughts on “Tuesday 27 September: The role of the Bank of England in the plummeting value of the pound”

  5. Good morning all.
    Several NOTTLers have decided not to have further covid jabs after getting side effects. According to this Israeli journalist, research from that country has shown that people who get side effects from one jab are likely to see the side effects recur after subsequent jabs.
    So your gut feeling was correct, it seems.
    https://twitter.com/efenigson/status/1573776850458918912

    Anecdotal: my daughter’s teacher who was taken to hospital after the jab, got side effects from the first jab but pressed on anyway with the second, which landed her in hospital.

    2. 200 Doctors in the UK have called on the government to stop child jabs so a full investigation can take place. The truth is coming out.

      2. 365616 + up votes.

        JN,

        But will it,in time go in, the Old Bailey that is, and seek long term incarceration for a guilty verdict.

        Regarding feet & ground a Tommy Robinson law must be introduced with great urgency.

  6. Giorgia Meloni: heiress to Italy’s fascists to become the country’s first female leader. 27 September 2022.

    Giorgia Meloni turned the Brothers of Italy, the heir to the Italian fascist movement, into the country’s most popular party.

    Ms. Meloni is not the “Heiress” to Mussolini’s fascists. She was born in 1977 long after the demise of Il Duce and only founded the Brothers of Italy in 2012. There is no possible link between them!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/06/19/giorgia-meloni-far-right-fatty-could-become-italys-first-female/

    1. They’ve dug out a video clip of her aged about 16 praising Mussolini. The media campaign is reminiscent of the way they threw everything at Trump. You’d think people would be beginning to wake up now.

    2. Far Right means you shower, work, know the words to the national anthem,
      have a family, voted Brexit, eat meat, and prefer single sex loos. Have
      I missed anything?

      2. Oh, yes, you’ve missed a lot. It also means you are self-sufficient, are innovative, enterprising, work hard, prefer low taxation and small government, prefer a free-market economy, are individual and don’t go in for mob-handedness. Your self-esteem, your family, your locality, your race, your species, and your country come first, and you are prepared to kill (and die) to defend them.

        In a nutshell, you are NORMAL.

      3. Oh, yes, you’ve missed a lot. It also means you are self-sufficient, are innovative, enterprising, work hard, prefer low taxation and small government, prefer a free-market economy, are individual and don’t go in for mob-handedness. Your self-esteem, your family, your locality, your race, your species, and your country come first, and you are prepared to kill (and die) to defend them.

        In a nutshell, you are NORMAL.

  7. So the £ finished the day UP on the Dollar and Euro – which f**king planet are the Media living on?

  9. ‘Morning All

    Censorship you say……….

    While referring to a global censorship coalition as a “light-touch approach to disinformation,”

    Ardern revealed how sweeping such a system would likely be. She defended the

    need for such global censorship on having to combat those who question

    climate change and the need to stop “hateful and dangerous rhetoric and

    ideology.”

    “After all, how do you successfully end a

    war if people are led to believe the reason for its existence is not

    only legal but noble? How do you tackle climate change if people do not

    believe it exists? How do you ensure the human rights of others are

    upheld, when they are subjected to hateful and dangerous rhetoric and

    ideology?”

    That is the same rationale used by

    authoritarian countries like China, Iran, and Russia to censor

    dissidents, minority groups, and political rivals. What is “hateful”

    and “dangerous” is a fluid concept that government have historically

    used to silence critics or dissenters.

    https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/new-zealand-prime-minister-calls-global-censorship-system
    Hmm,the bastards already have total control of the MSM see the Al-Beeb over Convid and “The Science is Settled” Greeniac bollux no alternative views allowed
    See you in the gulag comrades

    1. 365616+ up ticks,

      Morning Rik,
      The opportunity is there to by-pass the gulag.
      It was / is mass misguided people power continuing to be used that got us eyebrow deep in shite via continuing to support the toxic trio, the coalition of crap, party before Country, a nation destroying policy.

      Needed,
      A mass membership drive
      ( people power) regarding a fringe party, my choice would be Lawrence Fox and the Reclaim party.

    3. In the window of one of the High St shops in my local town there is a book entitled something like “It’s up to you to save the planet – 500 things you can do”. The intro above the title states “the planet is in danger” – no explanation as to why. This, I should add, is a shop that sells bespoke clothes line props at £45 a bit of wood!

  11. 365616+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Tuesday 27 September: The role of the Bank of England in the plummeting value of the
    pound,

    I would imagine the same as all the
    current governing / power bodies, one of
    manipulation via lies & deceit.

    It is being proved daily that backed by enough lies & deceit you really can play any manipulative role you wish.

    Prime example being the current governing politicians…….

  12. SIR – Labour currently opposes some Conservative tax cuts, even though recently its policy was to oppose Conservative tax increases.

    The public won’t be fooled by the intellectual vacuum on the Opposition front benches.

    David Miller
    Chigwell, Essex

    Quite right, Mr Miller. And by far the largest vacuum on the front bench is to be found between the ears of Rachel Reeves!

    https://order-order.com/2022/09/26/rachel-reeves-breaks-fully-funded-pledge-within-minutes/

    1. …largest vacuum on the front bench is to be found between the ears of Rachel Reeves!

      Avoid. Get it?

  14. King Charles unveils new personal royal cypher to adorn postboxes and passports. 27 September 2022.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/438942ed7ae2feafb5af2c6c310a21c2ac276f6588b2ffa029ca0ecb8fb0b5d5.jpg

    The King has chosen a royal cypher featuring the Tudor Crown in an apparent nod to the reign of his grandfather, George VI.

    Is it me? The CR looks like an animated character from a cartoon that is about to run off!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2022/09/26/king-charles-unveils-new-personal-royal-cypher-adorn-postboxes/

    3. Just thinking out loud here bearing in mind the all faiths statement of years ago: the ‘C’ resembles the crescent moon from the symbol of of you know what…

  15. SIR – The Left wing of the Labour Party is calling for more nationalisation. What that really means is more unionisation. It wants to go back to the past, and give more power to the union bosses, not the people.

    John Armstrong
    Peacehaven, East Sussex

    Yes, Labour has always lived in the past and dreams of further glory days of widespread strikes, beer and sandwiches in No10 and huge union membership with which to wield their unaccountable power. Thankfully union membership has declined, and the overpaid bosses now find that rabble-rousing isn’t what it was.

    1. Labour always ruin the country. It’s all they ever do. They’re a useless, miserable organisation.

      1. I know your smell choker is responsible, but ‘a ninch’ sounds just right for a small measurement.

  17. SIR – Is Archie Douglas (Letters, September 26) being serious when he suggests that the two-week wait for a GP appointment should be a “target” that the Health Secretary can reduce each time it is reached? When has any target set by the NHS ever been met?

    John Newbury
    Warminster, Wiltshire

    A waiting list of 6.5m says hardly ever!

    1. Was talking to our Swiss chums about Junior’s eye appointment in that it’s sometime next year. They were shocked as they considered a 2 week wait unacceptable and *took their business elsewhere*, to a different clinic.

      Imagine if the NHS were only paid after it did the work? It’d either collapse under inertia or become a model of operation.

  18. SIR – Regarding NHS management (Letters, September 26), of course there must be expertise in procurement, HR, IT and so on. But I would argue that diversity consultants who insist that midwives call mothers “birthing parents”, and breastfeeding “chestfeeding”, do not have a place.

    R G Hopgood
    Kirby-le-Soken, Essex

    Quite right, we are with you all the way R G Hopggod. Unfortunately the government may not be if their lukewarm announcements on this subject are any guide. Besides, I think they will say that they are a bit busy at the mo…and cleansing the public services in general, and the No Hope Service in particular, of all their wokery is going to take a lot longer than the next election.

    1. I think rather than mid wives wishing to, rather they are being forced to by orthodoxy. It is the poisoning root that needs to die.

  19. Putin grants Russian citizenship to US whistleblower Edward Snowden. 27 September 2022.

    Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Monday granting Russian citizenship to the US whistleblower Edward Snowden.

    Snowden, 39, a former US intelligence contractor, has been living in Russia since 2013 to escape prosecution in the US after leaking secret files, published by the Guardian, that revealed vast domestic and international surveillance operations carried out by the US National Security Agency.

    One of the most interesting aspects of this article is what is not in it. There is no mention whatsoever of Wikileaks or Julian Assange; an essential for a broader view one would have thought. This is not unusual in itself as he is very rarely referred to in the UK MSM. This is probably in accord with political requirements. The part the UK Government has played in his treatment would shame any democratic state and when he’s finally handed over to the United States the Government will want the least fuss possible.

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/sep/26/putin-grants-russian-citizenship-to-us-whistleblower-edward-snowden

    1. Memes were all over the internet yesterday saying “you get Russian citizenship just in time to be conscripted and go and die in Ukraine”
      (hope it won’t come to that.)

  20. SIR – Last week the Chancellor confirmed a price cap on energy bills for households on existing tariffs.

    Shell Energy has just advised me that my tariff is being changed to an “Energy Price Guarantee” tariff, which is 40 per cent more expensive than my current Flexible 7 tariff.

    I have not agreed to change my tariff – it has been imposed on me by Shell and will cost me about £1,500 more a year.

    How can the Government claim to have capped energy prices when Shell resorts to dirty tricks to work around the price cap by transferring customers on to a newly invented tariff? Is anybody in the Government monitoring or watching?

    M Newman
    Coventry, Warwickshire

    Well it certainly ain’t OFGEM, M Newman – they went AWOL long ago. Like every one else you are on your own when it comes to the likes of energy suppliers.

  21. SIR – There is nothing Luddite – as Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Business Secretary, put it (Comment, September 23) – about objecting to fracking in old coal mining areas with fractured seams underneath.

    The inevitable leaking of highly toxic waste fluids, which poison local water supplies with benzene, xylene and methanol derivatives, is a major hazard, as is methane exudation, which is more toxic to the climate than the gas which comes from coal extraction.

    We grow over 70,000 Christmas trees, maintain a site of special scientific interest – an ancient meadow – for Natural England and are major beekeepers and honey producers. We do all this within a couple of miles of a proposed fracking site.

    Lee Rowley MP achieved a victory at the 2017 general election on an anti-fracking ticket, after Natascha Engel, the former Labour MP for North East Derbyshire, seemed to have no interest in worried locals living less than a mile from this site.

    Liz Truss should rethink her policy on fracking. The northern Red Wall seats could change her electoral fortunes at a stroke.

    Gloria Havenhand
    Troway, Derbyshire

    I just knew that this silly letter would fire up a certain BTLer and, sure enough, here he is:

    Edwin Pugh2 HRS AGO

    Two items in today’s paper fill me with dread for the future.

    The first is to be found in the letter by Gloria Havenhand. If the general public’s knowledge about fracking is on a par with hers then tapping into our reserves isn’t going to happen unless the government revokes its proviso that it can only take place where the community agrees. For Ms. Haverhand’s benefit, there are no toxic chemicals involved in fracking as the use of them is banned in this country by law.

    THe second is an article tucked away in the small print of the paper. It details the appointment of Chris Skidmore as the PMs special advisor on net zero. The qualifications for Skidmore’s ability to do this job are a degree in history. Perhaps this is why he is warning the PM that fracking is a non-starter. To quote – “I mean, wind is now nine times cheaper than gas; there’s a massive opportunity to expand. And politics is about priorities. And fracking, as has just been published a couple of days ago, can only provide 5pc of the UK gas supply in five years. So I see it as a non-starter.” Worrying is the fact that he repeats the myth that wind is nine times cheaper than gas and the fact that he is an ardent greenie in favour of net zero.

    * * *

    Well said, and saved me the trouble!

      1. Yes, try asking Mr Google about ‘Gloria Havenhand of Troway’ and see how many returns you get…she is certainly into self-promotion, and not without some controversy!

          1. At one stage of my career, Troway was on my beat. It is not far from J36 of the M1 and a handy little service road from near to Troway allowed me a short cut onto the M1.

            The village had a pub that was forever knowns as The Blackamoor’s Head (replete with a grinning face of such a chappie on the pub’s sign). Unfortunately, wokeness arrived early in the village and the now-closed pub was ‘forced’ to change its name.

      2. Yes, try asking Mr Google about ‘Gloria Havenhand of Troway’ and see how many returns you get…she is certainly into self-promotion, and not without some controversy!

      3. There is an enormous amount of misinformation about the cost of electricity. Naive goons quote the subsidised selling price, not the cost. While the price of solar panels has dropped significantly, the cost of electricity production has not changed significantly. Hardly anyone takes into account the overall lifetime cost of production, nor the costs of the (as yet unavailable) large capacity storage for wind and solar.

        As far as I have been able to find, without any subsidy, costs of production per KWh are

        Coal, over a 40 year lifespan, around 5p
        Natural Gas, over a 40 year lifespan, around 7.5p
        Nuclear, over a 40 year lifespan, around for 7 to 10p
        Solar, over a 15 year lifespan, around 15 to 25p.
        Offshore wind, around 20 to 30p ( based on a 35% load efficiency)
        Onshore Wind, around 35p ( based on 20% efficiency)

        The difficulty comes with the way in which subsidies are allocated which distorts the market. I developed these figures for a pressure group when objecting to a planning application for a local wind farm a few years ago, when the planning application had significantly incorrect figures in its planning case.

        The business case for wind and solar, and indeed nearly all “renewables” does not work without subsidy.

    2. I’m all for fracking. It’s a necessary and important step toward our energy security. However, having binned the hateful windmills we can’t then ignore potential concerns. If these gasses are significant and are toxic then we should create methods to mitigate that – charcoal repositories or somesuch. We should not stop, but consideration should be given to do whatever we can.

      Certainly the Left wing green lobby can’t be permitted to refuse progress.

    3. I think Gloria Havenhand is suggesting that these substances will be released from old mine workings by fracking rather than that they are used in the process.

      She’s still wrong to object, of course.

          2. Morning Sue – it’s blowing a hooley up here and f-ffffreezing with it. Lighting the woodburner is imminent

          3. Morning Spikey! We light ours most days in an effort to dry the new plaster on the chimney breast and ceiling! It’s been a month and the left hand side and the ceiling are still a bit damp! So the house still resembles a battleground and we only have half the curtains up! It’s a bit like living in a student flat! We’ve got the paint!

  23. Good Moaning.
    Life’s a learning process.
    We are FreeCycling stuff that is useful but not worth yer actual money.
    I put a small cupboard on the site – complete with photo.
    Ten days later, no interest.
    I revamped the advert, and this time I showed the cupboard with the door ajar; it was gone within twelve hours.

        1. 🙂
          The lass who collected it was refurnishing her house after a ‘relationship’ collapse that had left her boracic. She was also grateful for a surplus coffee table.
          Win, win.

          2. Still got a couple Richard – I also have my old slide rule which I used when sitting my HNC
            PS isn’t a logarithm the rate at which you go for a crapulent visit

          3. Still got a couple Richard – I also have my old slide rule which I used when sitting my HNC
            PS isn’t a logarithm the rate at which you go for a crapulent visit

      2. I bought myself a new slumberdown quilt from Amazon £22 with free delivery. It’s like a giant meringue. Slept like a log.

    2. Morning NTN, I too was slow getting out of bed. Sitting through the 3 hours of morning meetings is not something one leaps to do.

    1. No doubt the EU will set about making Italy borrow more, or hiking interest rates. That organisation is spiteful and vicious.

    2. “national interest” are words of blasphemy. They will do a Trump on her; she’ll be lucky to last until Christmas. Why are people so pathetically easy to manipulate?

      1. They’re not, but the Left wing state is desperate to destroy everything good and right in the world. Why, I don’t know. perhaps Lefties like the idea of slaughtering millions?

        1. Following in Uncle Jo’s footsteps. Or those of Mao, Hilter, Pol Pot; plenty of homicidal lunatics to choose from.
          All, of course, in pursuit of a perfect existence for mankind.

      1. It is something special about Italian that no matter what they’re saying, they sound like auctioneers.

        It is an astonishing country. Incredibly beautiful but populated by – from British eyes – hysterical loonies. Never have I seen so much hand waving just to discuss wine. As for their traffic laws – they appear to be entirely optional.

    4. She is expanding upon the maxim St Matthew expressed [VI xxiv]:

      You cannot serve both God and Mammon.

      1. For those with a chip on their shoulders a good batter is needed for cod pieces and cricket boxes!

      1. Yep, if you watch the men they drag their bat behind the crease until the bowler has let the ball go.

        1. Of course he would.

          There was slower moving water upstream. It would be the effort of moments to walk 20 feet into slower water.

  29. Gosh, am I alone in already strongly missing warm, sunny, weather and relaxing outdoors with congenial reading material?

    2. Around here the only one bemoaning the weather is her Majesty, she of the frigid room.

      The complaints I’ve had that it is now ‘too cold’ when she had the air conditioning at 20’c when it was 38.9 outside was bonkers.

  30. Far too many people in this country need a slap.

    If it’s not greniacs whinging about fracking with their ignorance of supply and demand, their communist idiocy, their demented desperation to blanket the country in windmills and solar panels (solar being a good idea, but on domestic properties) it’s their stupid hypocrisy over reliable fuels.

    Then there’s the other bunch of idiots whinging about the tax changes, as if the ‘good and right thing’ for for other people to pay for every penny of their lives, because ‘that’s fair’. Why are the markets panicking so much? They’re not, not really. Currencies are plummeting around the world.

    Of course, we shouldn’t be borrowing to fund spending reductions. Those should have come from cutting state spending but the BBC is already running a 24 hour assault vehicle on private wealth, common sense and rational economics. It really is relentless. A continual onslaught of Hard Left, socialist policy – which has never, will never, and can never work.

      1. It’s a shame the bbc can’t actually be aware of, or register the amount of people who now turn them off.
        The bbc still live in cloud cuckoo land.

      2. Sadly it has has too broad a reach. Too many people believe it, fervently because of it’s historical roots of impartiality (if it ever was).

        Nowadays it may as well just be an EU promotion programme, a big state, command economy mouthpiece. Never once is it mentioned that, actually, people are responsible for their own lives and that if they want something, they should pay for it. The hilarious uproar over people with three children all angry that ‘da wich’ are receiving child care vouchers when ‘they can pay for them’ was just insulting.

        They’re you’re flipping kids. Why should you get something paid for by someone else? As for whinging that they should pay for it – so should you! If you can’t afford you children, you shouldn’t have had them!

        1. If you believe that intelligence is in any way passed on then you must conclude that the state is deliberately encouraging the country to have a diminished level of general intelligence.

          If responsible, well-educated, economically independent people with comfortable living standards decide that they cannot afford to have more than one – or at most two – children without lowering their standard of living then they will not breed. However people who do not work and receive government handouts have nothing to lose – their handouts will only rise the more children they have so they will be happier to have large families and unemployed immigrant people are no different in this respect.

          More stupid people. More ‘diversity’. What’s not to like?

        2. I don’t watch a great deal and I’m quite selective. I don’t like being patronised or lectured by climate alarmist and the covid theatre was abysmal.

    2. Solar panels imported from China.
      I’m thinking of an on line marketing outlet. Base ball Bats delivered to your door. The way these inane idiots are stuffing everything up. I can see a growing need for personal protection.

    3. Solar – as a back-up on industrial buildings – is a good idea.
      I was discussing this with Sonny Boy; for freezing their products, maximum power was required on hot sunny days. Now that is good use of ‘free’ energy.

  31. Far too many people in this country need a slap.

    If it’s not greniacs whinging about fracking with their ignorance of supply and demand, their communist idiocy, their demented desperation to blanket the country in windmills and solar panels (solar being a good idea, but on domestic properties) it’s their stupid hypocrisy over reliable fuels.

    Then there’s the other bunch of idiots whinging about the tax changes, as if the ‘good and right thing’ for for other people to pay for every penny of their lives, because ‘that’s fair’. Why are the markets panicking so much? They’re not, not really. Currencies are plummeting around the world.

    Of course, we shouldn’t be borrowing to fund spending reductions. Those should have come from cutting state spending but the BBC is already running a 24 hour assault vehicle on private wealth, common sense and rational economics. It really is relentless. A continual onslaught of Hard Left, socialist policy – which has never, will never, and can never work.

  32. Morning all 😉
    It seems along with our tiresome inaine politicians now the BoE is sharing the rapid demise of our currency. Devaluation as its commonly known as. Who the hell do these people think they are? Wrecking our investments and in many cases the lives and livelihoods of millions of working taxpayers.
    Perhaps the idiots in charge are reducing the prospects and wealth of the general public in order to make all the illegal invasionists more comfortable and feel more at home here. 🤔

    1. The only way that people could afford to buy houses was if mortgage rates were kept artificially low.

      Property prices are going to crash if interest rates rise to protect the pound. So what will the government do – let the pound collapse or let hordes default on their mortgages because they can no long afford to pay the interest?

      What’s not to like – paying more in interest than you can afford to pay for a property worth far less than the amount you have had to borrow to buy it?

      The average house price apparently is now £286,397. The average salary is about £31,000. So the cost of the average home is over 9 times the income of the average earner and 4½ times the salary of someone earning twice the average income.

      When I was the age my sons are now, mortgage interest was between 6% and 8%. A mortgage of £250,000 at 8% would cost £20,000 in interest pa and mortgage interest tax relief was abolished decades ago.

    2. Destroying the currency is de rigeur at their level. The hatred they have of the worker keeping their own money, and have that money accumulate in value as private wealth is staggering.

  33. Morning, all! Not around much at the moment as I am on a lightning trip to old stamping grounds and having such a good time meeting friends that I hardly have space to breathe, never mind look at a silly phone.

    Thought you might be amused that onr of my social calls today will be on Godfrey Bloom. I’m looking forward to it! 🙂

    3. ‘Nigel Farage, the UKIP party leader, has been cited by Channel 4 News to say that “the trouble with Godfrey is that, he is not a racist, he’s not an extremist or any of those things and he’s not even anti-women, but he has a sort-of-rather old-fashioned territorial army sense of humour which does not translate very well in modern Britain”.’
      He sounds like fun.
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godfrey_Bloom

  34. The EU is paying the price for subverting Italy’s democracy
    Giorgia Meloni’s victory in Italy’s general election marks the popular rejection of those leaders favoured by the Brussels establishment.
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/09/26/eu-paying-price-subverting-italys-democracy/

    I believe it was Engels, Marx’s collaborator, who said: “The family is the enemy of the state and the state will not gain control completely until the family has been destroyed completely.”

    This is why Giorgia Meloni, is so loathed and feared by the likes of Ursula Fonda Lyin’ and Klaus Schwab.

    1. It’s been crystal clear to me that the state declared war on the family from Blair onwards. So many people have been hoodwinked and manipulated into supporting these attacks, because it makes life “fairer” for some tiny minority while destroying the fundamental building block of society.

    2. Italy realised long ago how the Brussels mafia wrecked Greece.
      Germans don’t put their towels on sunbeds in the Greek Islands any more.

    3. The family needs nothing from the state machine. It is self governing and independent. It produces generations that equally need nothing form the state. The children of the nuclear family are better educated, commit fewer crimes and are more stable. Of course the Left want to destroy it!

  35. Read this and weep (or gnash your teeth):

    The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has admitted that “some mistakes were made” in the Royal Air Force, after reports of a recruitment drive which appeared to favour women and ethnic minority candidates.

    The RAF’s head of recruitment resigned last month after she reportedly refused an order to hire more diverse candidates because she believed it was “unlawful”.

    The group captain told her boss she was not willing to allocate slots on training courses based purely on a specific gender or ethnicity, according to a leaked message seen by Sky News at the time.

    Asked about the allegations, Air Chief Marshal Mike Wigston, the head of the RAF, told the broadcaster earlier this month: “There was absolutely no drop in operational standards, no drop in any standards.

    “There was no discrimination against any group, no standards were dropped, there was no discrimination against any group.”

    ‘Some mistakes were made’
    Now, an MoD spokesperson has acknowledged that “despite the best of intentions, some mistakes were made” in its approach.

    In a statement on Monday, they said: “The RAF is constantly reviewing its recruiting practices, including the introduction earlier this year of a new recruiting IT system, to improve the diversity of its workforce.

    “While overall standards did not drop, in hindsight we accept that despite the best of intentions, some mistakes were made.

    “The RAF is now confident that our approach is correct, however we are investigating some processes and decisions taken in the past, so it would be inappropriate to comment further while this is ongoing.”

    The MoD has said recruitment generally is always a top priority for the RAF, not just female or minority ethnic recruitment, and insisted it remains determined to recruit in fair and non-discriminatory ways, while maintaining high standards.

    The service has also been under scrutiny after allegations made against the Red Arrows.

    The Times reported in August that members of the Red Arrows were being investigated over allegations of misogyny, bullying and sexual harassment.

    The newspaper later reported that the aerobatic display team received “unacceptable behaviours and active bystander training” after more than 40 personnel, including young female recruits, gave evidence against the team to an inquiry.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/09/27/mod-admits-mistakes-made-raf-diversity-recruitment-drive/

    2. Call me old-fashioned (and many do) but I do not care for the Head of the RAF being called “Mike”…..

    3. Chief of Air Staff, Marshall of the Royal Air force is the head of the RAF not an Air Chief Marshall AFAIK

    4. They’ve renamed the junior ranks as well. AC = Air Recruit, LAC = Air Specialist (Class 2), SAC = AS1. “Mike” said, “the language we use matters”. They are moving from trades to professions. Hmm. What’s wrong with having a skilled trade?

  37. An interesting analysis of the violence in Leicester, the whole is worth a look

    However, to those paying attention, there’s no real shock here. Ethnic groups that migrate to the U.K. don’t magically change ethnicity. They don’t declare their ethnic baggage at Heathrow Airport. Their deep-rooted ethnic tensions that date back hundreds of years are brought with them to Belgrave, Tower Hamlets, Croydon, Bradford, and Rotherham.

    The footage displays hordes of young men, who are all behind a cause they believe is right. They aren’t first- or second-generation immigrants, either—they are very clearly of multigenerational descent, and yet they have no problem destroying English streets where presumably their families have lived for a few decades now.

    This demonstrates one of the biggest lies of multiculturalism: that immigrants become more integrated the longer they live in the West. They’ll play FIFA and watch Gogglebox and drink tea rather than cite the most radical parts of their holy books or join militias. We can see that, in Leicester, this clearly isn’t the case.

    https://www.takimag.com/article/the-teacup-is-empty-ethnic-conflict-in-leicester/

    1. Unfortunately it’s the same old story in the UK. The heirerarchic obstinate, with the age old we always know best streak has ruined so many ordinary people’s lives in the UK. The open door policymakers have never taken on board, or have considered the ongoing processes they have set in motion.
      And as we now see, its too late and the ‘know all’s’ behind it are never directly effected by their mindless actions.
      The best example of this huge and growing mistake is the animal kingdom.
      It’s why monkeys live in trees even when the local pride of lions are replete having just been feeding on gazelles.

        1. I don’t see (any) lions………….

          I heard about a man being arrested because he kept mountain goats.

          1. Wasn’t he arrested in Basildon, though? And he kept the goats for ritiual sacrifice rather than food production.

            Knowing our useless state they probably went for a weird milk related issue rather than the obvious ‘religious nutter’.

      2. Oh but they are affected by their actions. They swan off to 7 figure salaries at quangos to trough off the tax payer.

        Unless they push these daft policies on the public they lose those non-jobs.

        1. I’ve never thought of it from that aspect before. I know massive corporate bungs have been taken, it’s pretty obvious on their salaries even the massive 200 grand expenses claim, they wouldn’t be able to afford the homes they all live in

    2. My personal experience is that Indian Hindus, Sikhs and Christians do integrate over the generations. They still retain a core “Indianness” but they are definitely foreigners in India. They do not have a text taught to them at their mothers’ knee that tells them not to befriend the English.

      1. I tend to agree, as always there is one group missing; (actually now two, as the warring imports grow and gangs form)

      2. Next weekend we’re visiting family – J’s nephew married a Sikh girl and they have two lovely boys. Her parents were chucked out from Uganda by Idi Amin, and she was born here. She’s thoroughly integrated, although she runs an Indian dance company. Their wedding was a joyous occasion, with several of the English ladies wearing borrowed saris.

      3. We are very friendly with a Sikh family. I have no problems with them whatsoever they are lovely people. In fact one of the nicest friendliest people, I have ever met was an Indian Guy.
        It’s all the other people who don’t fit in, in Europe. They always want everything their own way. And I don’t think they will be inclined to stop until they have their own way.

        1. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of Sikhs’ being in conflict with any other group. They are the real RoP.

          2. We lived in a heavily Sikh area at one time, and some of them are very unpleasant. But overall, they’re just like any other group of people, some are nice, others aren’t. There’s no ideology.

    3. Trouble is, they don’t see themselves as “English” hence the lack of difficulty in destroying what’s English.

  38. Home Office U-turn over deportation of Albanian asylum seekers. 26 September 2022.

    The Home Office has conceded that it does not have the right to fast-track the deportation of Albanian asylum seekers after their arrival in the UK, in an abrupt policy U-turn.

    Priti Patel, the former home secretary, signed a deal with the Albanian government in August to return those who arrive illegally. She claimed it meant the UK could quickly return asylum seekers who arrived in the UK and made “spurious” claims.

    But the government’s legal department has confirmed that the scheme will not apply to Albanians who apply for asylum in the UK.

    This whole thing, like the Rwanda debacle, was probably dreamed up between Patel and her opposite number in Albania just to take the political pressure off! The rate of lying and deception from Government is now pretty staggering. Almost nothing can be taken at face value! You believe what they tell you at your peril!

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/sep/26/home-office-u-turn-over-deportation-of-albanian-asylum-seekers

  39. Another interesting takimag article.
    a few snippets:

    Just in time for the heat of the election season, a federal agency called the Commodity Futures Trading Commission has announced it will no longer allow betting on political and election outcomes.

    Betting markets can also inform policymakers on the wisdom of new laws and regulations. Congress just “invested” $300 billion of taxpayer money in climate change legislation, which supporters say will lower global temperatures. Will it? A betting market on what the global temperature will be in, say, 10 years, might be far more informative than garbage-in, garbage-out computer models. If there is truly a “scientific consensus,” then all the money would flow to one side of the market. We suspect betting markets would reveal that the “consensus” isn’t so reliable. Experts are often wrong.

    The CFTC apparently believes political betting markets are some kind of threat to democracy. But this kind of betting has long been allowed in Europe. The only impact of shutting down PredictIt and others here is to move the betting action overseas or underground — with less oversight and regulation. This will likely shrink the volume of betting, which only makes these markets less efficient — to everyone’s detriment.

    Federal regulators should let people wager on politics and instead concentrate on rooting out real investor fraud.

  40. The MR is unwell – with what, I do not know. So I’ll be in and out. I am hopeless at looking after others…. Fortunately, Nurse Gus is on the case – keeping her company..

      2. Due to my recent runny nose, intense sneezing, coughing and sore throat my curiosity had the better of me. I did a covid test this morning.
        A Negative result.

          1. Caught on a guided tour at Henry Moore’s cottage in Perry Green Herts.
            I’ve not been anywhere else where I’ve been close to others. It was a bit cramped in some of the tiny rooms.

          2. I think I picked up my sore throat last month from a very hot and stuffy public meeting we went to on a hot afternoon, to find out about a development that will be very near here.

        2. I very often have a runny nose and have done for years – it’s sensitive to dust and changes in weather, etc. Last month’s sore throat was painful but didn’t come to anything more than that. I gave away my box of test kits last Christmas to my next door neighbour and I’m certainly not going to buy any.

          2. Sure – but so many people are still obsessed with covid and as far as I’m concerned I had it it in January 2020 and if the sore throat was Omicron then I’ve had that as well. Some people get quite poorly with it, but it shouldn’t be life-threatening to anyone in good health, even the over 70s.

    6. So’s Caroline. She is a difficult patient because she usually scorns my advice. Perhaps she is wise to do so but it is still difficult.

    1. If a firearm was used then there was likely reason. Frankly, the whole situation stinks. Why was he pulled over? Why were two police cars involved? Why was th weapon drawn in the first place?

      The press all ignores these ‘up to the event’ issues. Frankly, he was likely a thug who deserved it.

      1. I thought I’d read that the car was stopped as it had a ‘marker’ against it and the occupant might be armed. The police said they saw a gun drawn and taking aim and fired.
        All this is supposition and is being investigated. I would think it unlikely any real statement will be made until the investigation is complete and rightly so.
        The press will always go off down the wrong route and must know details are not going to be released yet.

      2. I read that after al their shouting, finger pointing and threats. The family and friends have been shown the body cam footage and have shut up now.

  43. Pound sterling gathering pace in London trading on the foreign exchange market this morning. Up +1.18% against the US dollar to above $1.08 and up +0.92% versus the euro to €1.12.

      1. And there might very well also be an element of loss taking, as short positions are closed out (£ sank to $1.03 at depth/height of yesterday morning’s frenzy).

  44. Just come back from the vets – Lily had a bit of diarrhoea this morning, with blood in her urine. Very quiet in there and we had an appointment at half an hour’s notice. Naomi the vet is very nice and gentle, gave Lily an anti-inflammatory and an antibiotic and we were home again within an hour. We don’t know how old Lily is – at least 15, maybe more……. she had the same trouble a few months ago, but she seemed perky and lively this morning.

      1. She seems fine – very alert and lively. But you can’t ignore those things so hopefully they will clear up as they did before wih the medication she’s had.

          1. No – I think it’s very reasonable. Lily’s an old girl and we can’t afford to ignore things like this – It’s no more than a few weeks’ food.

          2. We had to put down our pet animals when I was a school boy as there was no way my parents could afford vets bills. How things have changed. I think animals have quicker and better medical service than people. But then its all private and insurance and not government run.

          3. We had a dog and a cat when I was a child – my mother was a widow who earned a pittance but we managed. The dog was a great character – gun-shy although he was part setter and part black lab. The cat was a good mouser but refused to catch any indoors – Mum shut them both in the kitchen one time and after a lot of banging and crashing, all went quiet – the dog had caught the mouse and the cat was eating it.

            If either of them needed the vet they got the treatment they needed.

          4. Mongo’s insurance premium renewal was 4 figures. I asked the vet if we could pay a fixed amount a month and went with their scheme. It’s more, but it’s easier over time.

          5. We’ve never had pet insurance – you have to start it when they’re young and healthy and they certainly wouldn’t insure an old cat like Lily. I think you end up paying a lot more that way.

          7. Oscar’s insurance (I carried it on for the first year because he came with insurance) was £700. This year it was over £800. As everything last year was just under the excess (and this year’s excess was higher) I decided to put the premium away and pay for any treatment he needs out of that. It isn’t as though I’m going to put him through costly operations at his age.

          8. None of our cats were insured. They all lived healthily to good ages. A few injuries when they were younger were the most of it. And of course, the premiums go up as they get older, and are more likely to have problems. Fortunately, none of them have needed costly surgery.

  45. 365616+ up ticks,

    Deserted by Voters for Surging Right-Wing Meloni, Populist Italian Salvini Faces Leadership Challenge
    Could so easily have happened here in the United Kingdom, making us leaders of the breakout to freedom brigade.
    But the party that designed & triggered the referendum had its run of success curtailed via treachery again putting party before Country.

  46. https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/c89af9840b34178698d8fc0f28664e20a7dfca4a/0_0_4928_3280/master/4928.jpg?width=720&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=33ecbed632f201f3389ac525e1e750a7

    The Museo Civico Archeologico di Bologna presents The Painters of Pompeii, an exhibition of over 100 rare frescoes, with almost half having never left Naples since they were excavated in the 18th century.

    The Painters of Pompeii is at Museo Civico Archeologico, Bologna, Italy until March 2023

          2. Not my wife. I have never referred to vw as the wife but I know many men do refer to their wife like that.

            Edit – made it clearer I hope.

          6. I call the Warqueen either by her name or, if we’re meeting people for the first time, my ‘first wife’. It draws a groan now, and confusion in most.

  49. This is a good 15 minutes watch. A speech, not her victory speech, from the new leader of Italy followed by analysis from a USA journalist -listen to his opinion of the EU – and lastly by Harnwell, Bannon and Tyrmand.

    War Room on Italian Election

  51. Ah well, if there’s a wrong choice…
    Wordle 465 5/6

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    1. A wilderness Bogey!

      Wordle 465 5/6
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    3. Wordle 465 4/6

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    1. The only way they would dare say that is via a cartoon. It’s true of course – all three are Davos men.

  54. Strewth! I’m knackered!
    Caught up with readjusting the kerbstones up the steps and am now continuing resetting the ones still in their original places, shifting two just now. Three to go, then I’m setting the spare stones I have waiting.

    I’ve been having a pleasant conversation on Tw@ter with a disabled young lady in Ireland who’s crossed swords with a pro-Trans Green Party councillor who blocked her after she asked if, as a disabled woman, she had the right to specify what sex her carers should be.
    Bear in mind that this does include intimate care which, apparently, the Green person thinks is perfectly ok to be carried out by cocks in frocks!
    Looking at the Green Party page of the councillor, she looks as if she should still be in 6th form!

    https://www.greenparty.ie/sites/default/files/styles/full_width/public/2022-01/Karen%20Power%20%282%29.png

    https://www.greenparty.ie/people/karen-power

    3. Surely if she is replying from a company account or, having suffered no discrimination or abuse the councillor simply cannot block a citizen. ‘I don’t like you’ doesn’t apply with public servants.

      And yes, you must be able to discriminate on the basis of real gender, not mental illness.

      1. And yes, you must be able to discriminate on the basis of real gender SEX, not mental illness.

  55. God Starmer’s a kn*b. He’s just announced 7,000 more med school places and 10,000 more nursing appointments.
    How will that help? There are already so many vacant INHS posts these will just increase that number.

    1. He’s banging on now about how hard work will always be rewarded. Not arguing with that, but he needs to state his position on those who don’t work at all.

      1. Yet it is his government who sought to hike income, ni, council, fuel, inheritance, insurance, energy, road taxes. Who kept the tax allowances stagnant for nearly 12 years, drawing more and more people into paying ever more tax while rewarding the shirkers and punishing workers. It was his government that removed local tax offices, that sends new companies a tax bill – regardless of what you’ve made – in their first year.

        labour are not the party of workers and earners. They’re the party of welfare, waste and nutters.

      2. Hard work will always be rewarded? The harder you work, the more you earn, the more Labour will tax you because they think you are “rich”!

    2. But has he announced the intention to fund all those med school students – preferably from the U.K.? Why don’t we fund enough of our own people, HMG seems perfectly happy to fund gimmegrunts.

    1. The police will not be able to recruit much longer if this continues.

      I suggest those with flags draped around their shoulders might be happier living in those flags’ counties.

    2. The police will not be able to recruit much longer if this continues.

      I suggest those with flags draped around their shoulders might be happier living in those flags’ counties.

    5. What on earth possessed the stupid bastard, who was getting beaten up, to then go back for more, having been extracted by the police?

    6. They keep helping by gathering together in one place. Look, it’s not difficult. Solve the bloomin’ problem!

    7. Terrible monologue! The voice over artist just produces the same phrase over and over again.

      Import the Third World Get the Third World.

  57. Steerpike
    Labour’s assisted suicide pitch
    26 September 2022, 3:49pm

    It’s day two of Labour conference and there’s no end of attractions for bleary eyed delegates. Rachel Reeves, Ed Miliband, David Lammy: all the party’s intellectual heavyweights are up before the faithful. But away from all the centrist paeans and ritual Tory bashing, Mr S couldn’t help but observe the roaring popularity of one of the fringe stalls in the conference hall. ‘My Death, My Decision’ are campaigning to legalise assisted suicide in the UK, urging delegates to pressure MPs to change the law on euthanasia.

    A novel approach to win the grey vote? Intrigued – and all too aware of the obvious puns – Mr S sidled up to hear the elevator pitch. In the interests of fairness it seems, assisted suicide ought to be legalised as currently only the rich can afford to fly to Switzerland to access euthanasia. To this end, attendees were presented with Swiss chocolates and mock airplane tickets to highlight the disparity. One sign cheerily asks members ‘A good death is…’ followed by their own suggestions.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d4ac6514b5b09a4fd6f389a218dfa95c059f5d7417d4af7af12b1a652b7fa4f4.jpg

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

    BTL:

    CKB • 18 hours ago
    Death is just a social construction invented by the white patriarchy to oppress trans women of colour.

    I’m not bowing to their so-called ‘biology’ when the day of my ‘death arrives’

    I’m going to dismantle their mortis-normative hegemony by identifying as living for many centuries to come.

    My tense shall be present not past and if you mis-tense me by referring to me as ‘the late CKB’ you are literally a naži.

  58. Bogey 5 Damn those double letters

    Wordle 465 5/6

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  59. Foreign students are bringing relatives in record numbers
    Home Secretary Suella Braverman looking at trend as part of immigration review

    By
    Charles Hymas,
    HOME AFFAIRS EDITOR and
    Ben Butcher
    26 September 2022 • 9:00pm

    Record numbers of foreign students are bringing relatives into the UK, as ministers consider how to bring down overall immigration.

    An analysis of Home Office data shows the numbers of dependants of foreign students granted visas has increased five-fold in just three years, from 13,664 in 2019 to 81,089 in the year ending June 2022.

    It comes as universities have moved to shore up their income by boosting the numbers of foreign students, who now are increasingly bringing in relatives as well. Whereas the ratio of dependants to students granted visas was 26 to one in 2019, it was five to one in the year to June.

    It is understood that Suella Braverman, the Home Secretary, is studying the data as part of her review of immigration which will aim to bring down the headline figure while also ensuring it boosts growth.

    Those with low skills could fall foul of moves to ensure that migrants seeking visas demonstrate they would have a meaningful impact on economic growth by increasing GDP per capita.

    Nigerians and Indians bringing most dependants
    Net migration is running at 230,000 people a year and last month Home Office figures revealed that the number of visas for foreign nationals to live, study and work in the UK had exceeded a million for the first time.

    Students account for a large proportion of overall immigration, with numbers up by 60 per cent in a year, from 256,000 to nearly 411,000 in the year to June 2022. The number of dependants increased by 170 per cent from 29,700 to 81,100.

    Nigeria and India were the countries with the highest number of students bringing dependants. The 34,000 Nigerian students accounted for 31,898 dependants while the 93,100 Indian students accounted for 24,916.

    Libya had 455 dependants and 272 main applicants, meaning there were more dependants than students.

    ‘An area in desperate need of tightening’
    Alp Mehmet, chairman of Migration Watch UK, said: “It has been clear for years that a significant number of those coming to study and their dependants use it as a route into work and settlement.

    “It is yet another mode of uncontrolled and uncapped migration, often, feeding the demand for low-skilled and low-paid workers. The number of student dependants has spiralled to over 80,000 in one year. It is an area in desperate need of tightening.”

    The immigration review is to consider overhauling the visa system to address labour shortages, attract talent and improve economic growth.

    It could see changes to the shortage occupations list to allow some key sectors to recruit more overseas staff and a loosening of the requirement to speak English in some areas to enable more foreign workers into the country. The current 30-40,000 cap on seasonal workers is likely be lifted in the “short term.”

    Downing Street says the Government is not advocating an increase in immigration but changes to the mix. “That will involve increasing numbers in some areas and decreasing in others. As the Prime Minister has made clear, we also want to see people who are economically inactive get back into work,” they said.

    Across work visas, the number and ratio of dependants has also increased, nearly doubling in a year from 55,747 to 109,649. The ratio for the 221,584 visas granted for skilled workers in relation to dependants was 2.5. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/09/26/foreign-students-bringing-relatives-record-numbers/

    The comments are worth a read .

    1. “feeding the demand for low-skilled and low-paid workers.”
      Helping to prevent the UK’s workshy from being forced into employment…

  62. A rant from another Rick

    The weasels who are now trying to dodge any backlash from having pushed or

    shilled for the clot-shots and who loudly vilified anybody who refused

    to get it had access to the same facts and information that WE did.

    Their whining excuses seem to boil down to,

    “The scientific advice we got from people whose research grants were paid by

    the companies selling the stuff told us that the ‘vaccines’ were safe

    and effective.”

    “We were afraid and we thought that the ‘vaccinations’ would save us because the government TOLD us they would.”

    Cobblers.

    What they DID know because they could see it for themselves was that

    COVID-19 was never a terrible nightmare pandemic that was killing

    millions of people.

    It started as the usual ‘bit of a nasty bug

    going around’. But it got a huge advertising budget and corporate

    sponsorship. Just like a crappy 80’s boy band if it wasn’t for the hype

    nobody would have heard of it.

    It then became a franchise and the

    brand label was slapped on every sniffle that popped up backed by a

    bogus testing regime guaranteed to return huge ‘case’ numbers out of

    nothing.

    Old people were expelled from hospitals to care homes

    which were waiting with barrels of midazolam to murder them and create a

    spike in death numbers. By order of Matt Hancock who put on the most

    excruciatingly fake display of tears ever seen on video.

    The media in the form of Piers Morgan et al spat hate and venom at the uninjected. Andrew Neil called for us to be punished.

    And the medical profession were forced to keep quiet about the actual

    consequences of the injections while GP surgeries pulled in the victims

    at nearly £15 a shot. My local practice is still advertising the

    mass-murder for profit scheme.

    There was never any NEED for a ‘vaccine’. It was all marketing.

    Now they’re all apparently innocent victims of person or persons unknown.

    “I vote for a bloodbath.”

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/127883f85e0274796c28f7566e45569f16602d565a3e404e3f737c01166dc549.jpg
    Edit
    before I get castigated for using weasel as a perjorative it weren’t me!!

    1. Yet people *did* have a choice. They were allowed to say no. Millions didn’t. Blindly obeying government dictat.

    1. Same here a while ago in N Essex. Tied in the second row of raspberries and came in for lunch and to warm up a bit then prepared to go out and cut the ‘meadow’ that is doing its best to resurrect itself, and down came the rain. Doing some baking; sandwich rolls and fruit scones and cleaning during the dough proving time, instead.
      Have to go, dough ready for forming followed by second proving.

      1. I’m just waiting for my dough to rise and knock it back we have some of the family for dinner later. I’m making Focaccia to go with the basil pesto Trofie.

          5. Sounds like Marie Rose sauce for prawns. Add lemon juice.
            Also, the ketchup must be flavouring the mayo !
            oops. Tha’s what you said.

          8. Sriracha is great for adding more heat for a guest who is a chilli heat fiend without ruining it for everyone else.

          14. Pepper, no salt. In a fit of culinary magic, I even buttered the bread.

            Compared to you folks I am a clumsy oaf in the kitchen. My best hope is to pour vegetables into a slow cooker, dry fry some chicken and onion and forget about it.

            Although… I am making dumplings.

          19. Pepper, no salt. In a fit of culinary magic, I even buttered the bread.

            Compared to you folks I am a clumsy oaf in the kitchen. My best hope is to pour vegetables into a slow cooker, dry fry some chicken and onion and forget about it.

            Although… I am making dumplings.

        2. I really like both focaccia and basil pesto. My basil in the garden and greenhouse – I use it in the latter to deter aphids, especially white-fly – has finished but I did make plenty of basil and tomato soup and a tomato sauce for my casseroles. I froze two lots in my ice-cube maker for use later.
          Scones, 10 ordinary size and one large one from the scraps, are cooked and on a wire rack. Rolls to go in shortly. I’m thinking, burger buns, salad and home made thick cut chips made from my home grown potatoes, for tomorrow’s lunch.

          1. Our basil is mostly finished – but, two weeks ago, I set some more – and it has germinated. I am keeping my fingers crossed that the seedlings will develop.

          2. Recently I have taken to buying a ‘supermarket’ pot of basil and transplanting the already germinated plants.

          8. Thanks, even though it makes me rather glum.
            We must have it everywhere.
            Perhaps a couple of years sans basil may be in order?

          9. If you haven’t seen it, purple basil grows like a weed, it flowers profusely and attracts all sorts of pleasant to watch insects.
            You can pick leaves throughout the season and it’s got a stronger flavour than the green too. Ours went into the pots in May and is still growing strongly.

          10. A few years ago a friend gave me some purple basil but I haven’t seen it since. One year I had some Italian basil seed and that was the most pungent I can remember. My favourite summer herb.

      1. It has been rainy on and off, chilly, dull and blustery in south Devon todaŷ. As it was yesterday. Holidays, pah!

        1. It absolutely hissed down here when I was walking the dogs. Fortunately, we were all swathed in waterproofs.

  64. Better today after double fails yesterday and the day before.
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    ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ 🟩⬜⬜⬜⬜
    ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
    ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜ 🟩⬜🟩🟩🟩
    ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
    ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛

    1. Qourdle

      Daily Quordle 246
      5️⃣6️⃣
      8️⃣4️⃣
      quordle.com

      And wordle

      Wordle 465 4/6

      B4ane hurts, time for my nap.

  66. Bogey 5 today

    Wordle 465 5/6

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

  67. From an article about a new Famous Five musical…

    Enid Blyton […]prose writer, even in the 1950s. Still, her unpalatable out-of-date attitudes towards class, race and gender – her main protagonists are white and live in houses with cooks and nannies; the villains are usually either working class or foreign; the female characters (with the heroic exception of tomboy George) are products of their time – have made her a favourite target for the more foamy-mouthed participators in today’s culture wars.

    Out of date attitudes?
    EB didn’t have an ‘attitude’. She just described how things were in the 50s

    1. “how things were in the 50s” and the stories children wanted to read. Even my grandchildren enjoyed them!

    3. I honestly believe that these days the modern Left would side with Hitler. They share more in common with his deranged policies than with rational thought.

        1. I always tell our students that the name of Bertrand du Guesclin’s horse is Trigger. Sadly none of them have heard of Roy Rodgers or Ernie the Milkman so they look mystified when I point at the statue in Dinan’s main square and say “Le Cheval s’appelle Trigger” They suspect I am being flippant but they can’t be sure.

          Anyway here are Bertie and Trigs.

          https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f43521f285b66c39b102dcf75bd1696bb85c6d1e1b0968d2507a09a88aee7fbe.jpg

        2. I always tell our students that the name of Bertrand du Guesclin’s horse is Trigger. Sadly none of them have heard of Roy Rodgers or Ernie the Milkman so they look mystified when I point at the statue in Dinan’s main square and say “Le Cheval s’appelle Trigger” They suspect I am being flippant but they can’t be sure.

          Anyway here are Bertie and Trigs.

          https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f43521f285b66c39b102dcf75bd1696bb85c6d1e1b0968d2507a09a88aee7fbe.jpg

  68. OT – the MR has got out of bed – still pale.

    We were due to go out this evening – I am pleased to say that she is firmly against doing so. I had wondered…(male NoTTLers – you know what wives can be like…)

    2. Caroline is still in bed; she wants to sleep and so she has put off her music theory class in Dinan this evening. I have just taken her a cup of tea.

        1. A cold and a headache.

          Henry and his girlfriend, Jezebel, have just been for a long weekend and Caroline has excelled herself in the kitchen and now needs to take it easy; a cold and a headache were as good a reason as any for taking to her bed after having started the day playing the organ at a funeral service.

          3. She’s actually called Jessica – but I call her Jezebel because she is about to be awarded her doctorate in Epidemiology at Lancaster University and is a statistician. In fact she is a lovely girl and she has Henry’s parents’ approval!

            (They met each other on their first day at UEA when Henry was 17 and she was 18 and have now been together for nearly 9 years)

          5. All epidemiologists are statisticians of course. They deal in mathematical analysis of medical data not medical science as such but they were elevated to demigod status in the covid hierarchy.

    3. Caroline is still in bed; she wants to sleep and so she has put off her music theory class in Dinan this evening. I have just taken her a cup of tea.

  70. Popping back in

    Ukraine has accused Russia of causing leaks in two major gas pipelines to Europe in what it described as a “terrorist attack”.

    Ukrainian
    presidential adviser Mykhaylo Podolyak said the damage to Nord Stream 1
    and 2 was “an act of aggression” towards the EU.

    He added that Russia wanted to cause pre-winter panic and urged the EU to increase military support for Ukraine.

    There you are . A totally truthful and objective explanation. And on the BBC so doubly so .
    What a farce,just as believable as the Russians shelling a nuke plant they are occupying
    these people thing we are idjits,Or did the russkis just lose the off switch??

    2. Zelensky needs to be taken out. He is a tyrant. If the Russians are so handy with novichok why haven’t they? Because it is all lies.

      1. How can you possibly say thaT?

        Zelensky is the greatest living hero. He works day and night for what he knows to be right – or far-right – or extremely far right.
        That is a true fact. The science is certain. No argument. And we know that is true because the world’s press repeat it endlessly.

        Now put up your blue and yellow flag and pipe down.

        1. He’s been awarded the world’s most significant medal for bravery, the CV, it will open doors to well paid sinecures all over the world and will mean he is even saluted by despots and tyrants.

    3. Silly buggers the Ukraines, We all now know that the sabotage was a US attack on the pipeline as has been reported by Sweden.

    4. No, it do not think it was the Russians. More likely someone who wanted to stop Germany from backsliding by stopping them from buying Russian gas again.
      Now, who might want to do that?

      1. The man is a bumbling fool and will bring retribution onto the non-thinking proletariat t of the in the rest of the USA

        1. In Swedish/Danish waters, affecting Germany the most.
          Great plan.
          The MSM say it is the Russians wot did it, but why would they blow it up when they could just STOP POKING GAS IN AT THEIR END?
          And resume operations when they felt like it.

        2. In Swedish/Danish waters, affecting Germany the most.
          Great plan.
          The MSM say it is the Russians wot did it, but why would they blow it up when they could just STOP POKING GAS IN AT THEIR END?
          And resume operations when they felt like it.

  71. That’s me for this slightly troubling day. The sun did come out eventually and warmed the house. The MR is a little brighter – I have given her a glass of beetroot juice.

    Sardines on toast for supper. Have a jolly evening.

    A demain.

  73. The four parts of the Donbass will shortly be rejoinng Russia – the vote is certainly going that way and is being momitored by BRICS countries at Russian request,
    When that happens the Donbass will ,when the Russian Duma has voted for it, become part of Mother Russia once more. The screeching nonsense churned out by our dismal media means that the true implications of what will then happen are lost on those who have been swallowing the narrative. The eastern part of UkraIine will then bear the brunt of an abandonment of Russian restraint thus far. The restraint has not been believed so what is about to happen will be a massive shock to people in the West.

    Now is a good time for us to say a little prayer for those in Ukraine who have been so cruelly used, and indeed for us all. The lies are about to crash and burn.

    1. I may be missing something here.

      Why would the Russians become more violent in the east?

      More violent towards incursions from the west of Ukraine I could understand, but why harm those who have remained where they are, counter-productive I should have thought.

      1. I think that everybody is talking about the eastern part of Ukraine. Neither the far east nor even eastern Russia.

  74. Man shot and killed his friend when he accidentally opened fire with a submachine gun as they prepared to go on a ‘ride-out’ to attack rivals, court hears
    Mohamed Muhyidin was found in a ditch near Heathrow with a gunshot wound
    The 28-year-old was allegedly killed by his friend, Chiragh Amir Chiragh, 39     D Fail

    Oh dear, how sad. Killed his mate before they could murder someone else. What a bummer!
    https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2022/09/27/17/62851785-11255357-Mohamed_Muhyidin_28_was_found_in_a_ditch_near_Heathrow_Airport_w-m-2_1664296995321.jpg Bye bye,Mo Mo.

      1. His gran will be in bits (if she hasn’t already accidentally been blown up manufacturing suicide vests).

    2. Does that mean the man just dumped his friend in a ditch?
      Silly question, he’s a Muslim terrorist.

  75. Man shot and killed his friend when he accidentally opened fire with a submachine gun as they prepared to go on a ‘ride-out’ to attack rivals, court hears
    Mohamed Muhyidin was found in a ditch near Heathrow with a gunshot wound
    The 28-year-old was allegedly killed by his friend, Chiragh Amir Chiragh, 39     D Fail

    Oh dear, how sad. Killed his mate before they could murder someone else. What a bummer!
    https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2022/09/27/17/62851785-11255357-Mohamed_Muhyidin_28_was_found_in_a_ditch_near_Heathrow_Airport_w-m-2_1664296995321.jpg Bye bye,Mo Mo.

  77. That’s me for tonight, chest pains are forcing me to bed with a stiff whisky to fend of, what I hope is just angina.

    Goodnight and God bless, GentleNoTTLers.

        1. Now you’re talking!
          No whiskey or whisky, but ginger vodka is the only spirit in the house.

  78. Toby Young
    PayPal has restored my accounts
    27 September 2022, 6:09pm

    At 5.30 p.m. this evening, PayPal notified me that it has restored all three of the accounts it cancelled a couple of weeks ago – the accounts for the Daily Sceptic, the Free Speech Union and my personal account. In all three cases, the email read as follows:

    “We have continued to review the information provided in connection with your account and we take seriously the input from our customers and stakeholders. Based on these ongoing reviews, we have made the decision to reinstate your account. You should now be able to use your account in the normal way. We sincerely appreciate your business and offer our apologies for any inconvenience this disruption in service may have caused.”

    Forgive me if I don’t jump for joy. Since PayPal dropped the bombshell on 15 September, I’ve been desperately trying to save the Daily Sceptic and the Free Speech Union from going under – ‘inconvenience’ doesn’t begin to describe what I’ve been through. About a quarter of the regular donations people were making to the Daily Sceptic were being made via PayPal and about a third of the Free Speech Union’s members were paying their recurring membership dues using PayPal. We’ve had to write to all those people affected and plead with them to use a different payment processor, as well as redraw our annual budgets in anticipation of the revenue loss. So, telling me now that it was all a terrible mistake is too little, too late.

    And it clearly wasn’t a mistake. PayPal told me it had permanently closed all three accounts and appeals in all three cases had been unsuccessful. It couldn’t quite decide why it had closed the accounts – it alternated between telling me I’d breached its policy about not promoting ‘hate, violence or racial intolerance’ and telling newspapers my accounts had been closed because I was spreading ‘Covid-19 misinformation’ – but it had definitely decided to close them. Now, apparently, I’m not guilty of any of these sins and my accounts were just under ‘review’. After ‘input’ from its ‘customers and stakeholders’ it has decided I’m kosher after all.

    So what’s happened? I’ve received thousands of emails and messages from people telling me they’ve closed their PayPal accounts in solidarity, so that may be the ‘input’ the company is referring to. Another reason may be because the company’s efforts to cancel me have been universally condemned across the British media. Last week, Danny Kruger MP asked a question about it in parliament and on Sunday a letter was sent to Jacob Rees-Mogg by 42 peers and MPs urging the Business Secretary to hold PayPal to account. It now looks as though a Bill currently going through parliament will be amended to make it illegal for financial services to engage in this kind of political censorship in future.

    It goes without saying that I won’t be using PayPal’s services again. I made the mistake of trusting PayPal when I set up the Free Speech Union and the Daily Sceptic, embedding its software into our payment processing systems. Given what I know now – that it can demonetise you on a whim, seemingly without any proper justification – I’m not going to make that mistake twice. I will still be devoting all my energies to lobbying the government to pass a law reining in companies like PayPal so other people with non-woke political views don’t have to endure what I’ve been put through.

    2. Well said,Toby, I shall not be using my PayPall account again, though I cannot close it, as they, mistakenly, think I’m still in Australia.

    3. If i were you, Toby, I would be drinking Prosecco cocktails to celebrate a victory over a Big, Bad Banker!!!

  79. I do not find this cartoon the least amusing but more of a sad piece of satire. There remain many people who believe that taking multiple jabs is literally the road to saving their lives from an extinct virus that had a very low death rate. I personally am acquainted with an otherwise bright person who has recently accepted his 5th jab. Five jabs in less than two years and no questioning of why that level of jabbing is required.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/49d67a2b2caf745465115859afed23d89e6bb4b7de216c65e484969a4ed299a4.png

  80. Evening, all. Am not in the best of moods. I had yet another young man turn up, uninvited and unannounced, to ask me if my motorhome was for sale. I’m afraid I gave him short shrift; before he could get beyond mentioning the camper, I told him it wasn’t for sale and turned to go back in. He persisted, so I told him I was fed up with unsolicited offers and he then said, “so it’s definitely not for sale!” I nearly said that if it were for sale, it would have an effing notice on it to that effect, along with a price and NO OFFERS, but I doubt the sort of person who importunes householders to sell their property on the doorstep would be likely to read such a missive. I did consider sleeping in it tonight in case an attempt should be made to nick it, but it’s cold and damp and so uninviting until it’s necessary when I go away.

    1. How annoying.
      There used to be a house near us that had a huge sign in the window saying “this house is not for sale”

      1. That was my thought, but I can’t see it from the house and I don’t want to have to keep going out to check on it in the rain and the dark. Still less do I want to have to sleep in it tonight when it’s so cold.

      1. Dunno. He was clean and polite (and apologetic for disturbing me). Maybe I’m getting a reputation for crabbiness where the motorhome’s possible sale is concerned.

    5. This is strange. There have been a lot of reports of that happening here on the NE coast. Described by the owners as exactly the same as your experience. There have also been several motorhomes stolen, although not reported to have been those where the owners have had men knocking on their doors asking if they were selling. In any case, motorhome owners here are taking every precaution that they can.

  81. Laurence Fox going for it on GBbNews just now, standing in for Nigel, calling out Rupa Huq’s disgusting racism. Good Job, Lozza!

      1. I sent this today to one of his PA’s:

        to Kirsten

        Hi Kirsten,

        I’m replying to say how disappointed I am that you, your party and others, cannot seem to see that separately you are, each and every one, just another vote-splitting party, that will give sustenance to the current lib/lab/con coalition without an alternative vote.

        Amalgamate, bury your differences and, at least, produce a joint manifesto that will appeal to the electorate and prevent a lot of NOTA ballots being spoiled, each of which could have been a vote for the amalgamated party. Please, urge your leader and the other parties to sit down together, discuss and find a way to unite under a joint banner.

        Please, at least acknowledge that I have the best interests of my country, in my 78 year old heart.

        2. Spot on, Tom.
          Problem is, these wee parties are adjungts to the leader’s ego, not a serious attempt to change the politics of the UK, and perhaps save the place.
          A few years ago, I was a bit involved with UKIP, but dropped out when I saw the chaos and arse-kissing that went on. No wonder it gets nowhere.

      3. Laurence Fox has been no platformed as an actor for his sensible views. He started Reclaim (I think it was – these new groups all seem to be alike).

    2. King Keir’s notion of a ‘Nationalised Green Energy Corporation’ is way beyond the dreams of socialist insanity …

      1. I think the implication is that Charles and the throne and Starmer as PM would give us a second Blair reign.
        I think Charles desperately wanted to be King when Blair was PM in the nineties, because they were both working for the same agenda, looking back.

    1. Ah but Mussolini was then – this is now and fascismo, the policy of the woke left, is OK anywhere but in the the Western world and certainly not in today’s Italy that needs to be an obediant EU servant.

      American hypocrites, through and through.

    1. Is that supposed to be ironic? Absolutely NO THANKS to the USA. This will cause worse energy shortage in Europe, and maybe provoke more military action.
      In this case, FUCK OFF USA!

      1. Biden more or less said that they did it? If they used explosives then there will be residue. If that can be found it may be possible to identify the source. While all explosives do a similar job, the precise chemical compounds may differ sufficiently to provide a clue to the manufacturer.

      2. If it was the US, then it’s as good as a declaration of war against Germany. I wonder how Scholz will react.

        1. Why would it be the Russians, as the MSM believe? All they need to do is stop poking gas in at their end – and when the dust has settled, they can start quickly. This will screw over Europe, Germany and NOT russia this winter – Russia will be nice & warm, ‘cos after all, they have an unexpected windfall of gas…

    2. There is certainly stark contrast between the lovely homes shown as backgrounds to adverts, and the houses people actually live in.

      1. I am ashamed of our house. It never gets any love. All the time I have, I spend on the garden.
        I was forty before I was able to make small and large decisions about my surroundings (previously surrounded by control freaks) and my ability to do so seems to be still paralysed.

  89. I don’t half miss Plum! She had/has a sense of humour. I can’t be arsed to comment these days because it’s all so political., racist or I don’t care anymore.

        1. Sorry about that, Ann. Don’t think I can help, and it seems to be that time of the year, when shit happens.
          But – Nottl is a good place to unload, if that’s what you need.

      2. I miss Plum, too. Peddy not so much after the way he verbally abused me for no reason at a time when I was struggling to cope with MOH.

        1. Honestly Conners, I don’t know but when he wrote that to you, he was rather unwell. I have not heard from him since.

          1. I wasn’t in the best of health, either. I was struggling not to shut the doors in the garage and leave the engine running at the time. I didn’t need any extra unpleasantness.

          2. He came back some months after that as Peter, because Geoff banned the Peddy account.

            He was here until just before Christmas and then went silent again. He doesn’t respond to emails.

        1. Plum’s daughter (and partner) were there to see her home from hospital many weeks ago – but had to depart for partner’s hernia operation in Bristol the following day.

          She’s alone, no dog, not very fit, no tennis, doesn’t use “hates computers”, doesn’t respond to telephone calls …

          Very sad.

          Correction: Plum never calls me.

          3. That’s a shame, and it could be a channel of communication. I don’t know if Hertslass can contact her. Plum sounds very depressed.

    3. More humour definitely needed.
      I still haanker back to the days of tartan bogpaper and discussions of marmalade.
      Sigh…

      1. I thought it was the other way round.
        Now where is Gavin to discuss the breeding and training of haggis?

  90. That’s me. Bed calls. Haven’t changed the shower tap, although everything prepared, as too tired. Will try again 2morro.

  91. Having a few probs with this site. It keeps closing down its so annoying. I might as well hop it, good night.

  94. I, too, must away again, very cold here in the borders, so I’m heading for, hopefully, a warm bed.

      1. I think the main worry about the next pandemic is how WHO and the Government will use it to push the Globalist Agenda.

    2. If these experimental injections were safe why did Pfizer want the test results to be locked away for 70 years?

    1. We’re ok thanks – rug, warm laptop on my knees and a warm cat on OH’s knees.

      We haven’t put the heating on yet.

      1. Moh had his covid jab at lunchtime .. he is wrapped up now , fleece jacket, cords etc he is asleep on the sofa , he has been shivery and cold , lots of hot drinks, tea and more tea .

        I didn’t have the jab, doctors advice , but I don’t feel too cold .. no heating , will try to tough it out for a few days .

        Dogs are curled up , Pip on a chair , and Jack asleep on his large pillow next to my chair .

        I must say that I do miss the purr of a cat, they are very comforting creatures.

        1. Lily still had the squits this evening but otherwise seems ok. She loves cuddles. We watched a programme we’d meant to watch at the weekend – classic cellists.

          It sounds as though Your OH has had a reaction to the jab. He can’t say he wasn’t warned. We’re not having any more of them.

          The only jab my OH is having is the antigen one – rebooked for Thursday now, as the useless Lloyds pharmacy didn’t have it ready for Monday morning.

    2. We are on holiday, s.Devon, self-catering. All paid for, so we have the heating on…. it’s very cosy. The bed is the most comfortable ever, it’s like a nest. Poppie took a flying leap at it this morning, it was like having a dog dropping on me from the heavens.

    3. Enjoying a glass of vin rouge with some Camembert brought back from Brionne, Normandy, in front of a nice log fire in the woodburner. Ollie, our Jack Russell is stretched out in front of it, gently toasting himself. Was in Brionne for the weekend, twinned with Shaftesbury, on a twinning visit. I sing in a local choir (https://www.palidachoir.com/home ) which joined the exchange group, we sang a concert with the Brionne orchestra at the Chateau de Beaunensil in the day ( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C3%A2teau_de_Beaumesnil ) at the Festival of the 1001 vegetables (http://www.1001legumes.com/ ) and later at the Church in Brionne. A most enjoyable time despite pouring rain on the Saturday.

  97. My 77 year old sister is in a care home. She had a appointment to assess her cataracts. She posted the following on the family Whatsapp:

    “It never rains but it pours.
    My appointment was 2.00. Ready for ambulance at 12.00 as instructed. Still waiting at 2.40. Senior carer who was to accompany me on phone to ambulance, eventually got through, hospital cancelled ambulance yesterday and cataract dept are not answering phone. I AM NOT VERY HAPPY. 🤬🤬🤬”

    rNHS…

    1. Oh dear……… it’s not easy getting old, is it? They could at least have let her or the carers know about the cancellation.

        1. Well canada has selectively copied the nhs except no opt out by doctors so no private care. If you need knee surgery , you wait for several years just like everyone else.

          If you believe that Trudeau and friends wait there turn, you are probably a socialist who voted for him.

          1. That’s even worse – three years ago OH was able to get his shoulder tendon repaired by a surgeon at a private hospital, via NHS referral through the GP.

      2. My thoughts exactly, Elsie but I resisted the temptation to post such a comment on the Whatapp. It would only compound our collective anger.

    4. Something I posted a while ago which I thought worth keeping:-

      That the NHS needs to be reformed is undeniable.
      However, whilst what that reform should look like should be a matter of intense debate, but that is a debate VERY noticeable by it’s absence.
      So why isn’t that debate happening?

      For years it has been noticeable how ANY reform of “Our” NHS is immediately greeted by the same hysteric knee-jerk reaction and demented screams of “SAVE OUR NHS” and “THEY WANT TO PRIVATISE OUR NHS” and always from the same vested interests of the Unions & bureaucratic REMFs.

      And note that when they scream “Our NHS” they mean exactly that, THEIR NHS, not ours.
      We, the poor bloody taxpayer, are just an inconvenience who are expected to stump up ever increasing sums of money to pay for the burgeoning number of non-jobs they keep recruiting for.

  101. It is six months, to the day, since our Izzy left us and today would have been his 74th birthday. Thinking of you, old friend.

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