Tuesday 29 August: The senseless Ulez expansion risks turning London into a ghost town

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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458 thoughts on “Tuesday 29 August: The senseless Ulez expansion risks turning London into a ghost town”

  2. Good morrow, Gentlefolks, today’s little list

    Tourist Info’
    Here are some of the classic questions that were asked of the 2000 Sydney Olympic Committee via their Web site, and answers supplied where appropriate.

     I hear that all Australian women are beautiful. Is that true and if so, can you send me pictures of the available ones? (Italy)
     I want to go swimming at Bondi Beach on October 20th. Will I turn blue? (Germany)
    (More likely brown, considering the effluent…)
     Does it ever get windy in Australia? I have never seen it rain on TV, so how do the plants grow? (UK) .(Upwards, out of the ground, like the person who asked this question, who themselves will need watering if their IQ drops any lower…)
     Will I be able to see kangaroos in the street? (USA)
    (Depends on how much beer you’ve consumed…)
     Which direction should I drive – Perth to Darwin or Darwin to Perth – to avoid driving with the sun in my eyes? (Germany)
    (Excellent question, considering that the Olympics are being held in Sydney.)
     I want to walk from Perth to Sydney – can I follow the railroad tracks? (Sweden)
    (Sure, it’s only seven thousand miles, so you’ll need to have started about a year and a half ago to get there in time for this October…)
     Is it safe to run around in the bushes in Australia? (Sweden)
    (And accomplish what?)
     It is imperative that I find the names and addresses of places to contact for a stuffed porpoise. (Italy)
    (I’m not touching this one…)
     My client wants to take a steel pooper-scooper into Australia. Will you let her in? (South Africa)
    (Why? We do have toilet paper here…)
     Are there any ATMs in Australia? Can you send me a list of them in Brisbane, Cairns, Townsville and Hervey Bay? (UK)
     Where can I learn underwater welding in Australia? (Portugal)
     Do the camels in Australia have one hump or two? (UK)
     Can I bring cutlery into Australia? (UK)
    Why bother? Use your fingers like the rest of us…)
     Do you have perfume in Australia? (France)
    No. Everybody stinks.)
     Do tents exist in Australia? (Germany)
    (Yes, but only in sporting supply stores, peoples’ garages, and most national parks…)
     Can I wear high heels in Australia? (UK)
    (This HAS to have been asked by a blonde…)
     Can you tell me the regions in Tasmania where the female population is smaller than the male population? (Italy)
    (Yes. Gay nightclubs.)
     Do you celebrate Christmas in Australia? (France)
    (Yes. At Christmas.)
     Can I drive to the Great Barrier Reef? (Germany)
    (Sure, if your vehicle is amphibious.)
     Are there killer bees in Australia? (Germany)
    (Not yet, but we’ll see what we can do when you get here.)
     Can you give me some information about hippo racing in Australia? (USA)
    (What’s this guy smoking, and where do I get some?)
     Will I be able to speak English most places I go? (USA)
     I have a question about a famous animal in Australia, but I forget its name. It’s a kind of bear and lives in trees. (USA)
     Are there supermarkets in Sydney and is milk available all year round? (Germany)
    (Another blonde?)
     Please send a list of all doctors in Australia who can dispense rattlesnake serum. (USA)
    (I love this one…there are no rattlesnakes in Australia)
     Which direction is North in Australia? (USA)
    (Face North and you should be about right)
     Can you send me the Vienna Boys’ Choir schedule? (USA)
    (Americans have long had considerable trouble distinguishing between Austria and Australia.)
     I have developed a new product that is the fountain of youth. Can you tell me where I can sell it in Australia? (USA)
    (From Liz Taylor, perhaps?)
     Are there places in Australia where you can make love outdoors? (Italy)
    (Yes. Outdoors.)
    I was in Australia in 1969 on R+R, and I want to contact the girl I dated while I was staying in Kings Cross. Can you help? (USA)

  4. The senseless Ulez expansion risks turning London into a ghost town

    That is the plan behind the15 minute neighbourhoods, isn’t it?

      1. 375782+ up Ticks,

        Morning JN

        Small correction JN if I may be so bold, if what you say was the case it would be forgivable, very more apt
        a description would be imho very
        dangerous despots.

  5. Civilisation or barbarism: that is the choice facing all great powers now. 28 August 2023.

    The world is heading for the mother of all showdowns between the forces of freedom and autocratic might. Hard as it is to digest, the looming confrontation will make the Cold War look like a warm-up act. This time what is at stake is not simply whether capitalism or socialism is a superior model for civilisation-building.

    Rather the question is whether humanity can ascend to the next phase of civilisation at all. Instead it may be doomed to languish in a new dark age of militarism and technological stagnation. The outcome hinges on a stupendous yet pragmatic question: will the great powers opt for greater freedom or greater autocracy to protect and enhance their great power status at this perilous juncture?

    The UK has chosen barbarism. Freedom and Democracy have already been erased.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/08/28/civilisation-or-barbarism-choice-facing-all-great-powers/

    1. Barbarism served up with a large helping of moral degeneracy if the swill we’re being fed from the trans/paedophile cabal along with what passed for ‘enjoyment/celebration’ in London over the weekend is anything to go by.

      1. I was in a small town recently, where a music festival was taking place nearby. They had loads of building site fencing up around properties, there were giant traffic jams and the noise every night was loud enough to disturb us two miles away. The town was full of strangely dressed young white people with tattoos.
        TPTB love these music festivals, but they are just a menace frankly. There was clearly extra trade at the supermarkets, not sure it benefited anyone else.

    2. The BTL comments are worth a read. More and more are awake now. Here’s one:

      Nanu Nanu Trans-species 13 MIN AGO

      The one remaining hope for the West is the US 2nd Amendment, in that there is perhaps just enough power in hands hands of free people to fight off the oppressors.

      When it comes to the crunch moment it will be a tough call to see where each part of their military and State run National Guard come down, fighting against their own people or joining them to fight the oppressors. There is already an innate division between the coastal elites and real America. There is some small hope that real Americans could still win and preserve freedom.

      In the UK we have already lost – the last hope was Breixt, where we tried to break free. Those of the “just leave me alone to get on and live my life as I see fit and I’ll leave you to yours” have been squarely beaten by the “we know best and we are better than nature and thus any possible God” brigade, and now there is nothing left to fight with.

      State surveliance, national CCTV coverage, facial recogniton and the use of digital monitoring to impose thought control leave no room for any real resistance in the UK.

      The EU has perhaps some hope in that the God delusionists have maybe taken on more than they can handle in their rapid expansion East. The threat not so much being from Russia’s attempts to fight back, but from the internal conflicts they have created by trying to crash such divergent cultures together so rapidly. It is still possible for more nations to fight back for their own freedoms, but for how much longer is hard to tell as they look to centralise control of all the militaries and disarm any potential resistance.

      In the UK, dawning realisation that popular anger is surging to dangerous levels has lead to moves such as ending sport shooting. We will see many more moves to shut us all down and assert control.

      There are many more in a similar vein.

      1. That commenter pretty much understands what’s going on!

        Yesterday I was chatting to a cashier, and she was saying she is building up a tinned food stock for the winter. I said, yes, they seem to be inflicting another round of covid on us. She said “who’s ‘they’?”
        I replied, People who are making a lot of money out of it. – which seemed like the most beginner-friendly reply!

  6. Civilisation or barbarism: that is the choice facing all great powers now. 28 August 2023.

    The world is heading for the mother of all showdowns between the forces of freedom and autocratic might. Hard as it is to digest, the looming confrontation will make the Cold War look like a warm-up act. This time what is at stake is not simply whether capitalism or socialism is a superior model for civilisation-building.

    Rather the question is whether humanity can ascend to the next phase of civilisation at all. Instead it may be doomed to languish in a new dark age of militarism and technological stagnation. The outcome hinges on a stupendous yet pragmatic question: will the great powers opt for greater freedom or greater autocracy to protect and enhance their great power status at this perilous juncture?

    The UK has chosen barbarism. Freedom and Democracy have already been erased.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/08/28/civilisation-or-barbarism-choice-facing-all-great-powers/

  7. Morning, all Y’all.
    Cloudy, damp, no rain yet.
    “Upgraded” pc to Win 11 yesterday, free from Microsoft as the win 10 wouldn’t stay connected to t’web.
    Pain in the arse. Pretty well all settings and passwords need reset, and the layouts are different for the sake of it. Grr! Otherwise, reliable internet connection seems to be restored.

    1. One of the main reasons, Paul, why I’ve stuck with WIN 7 Professional, Have the disk and key.

      1. Windows Classic Shell and Open Shell
        Like Tom (AKA sirjasper) I have stuck with Windows 7, which (like Windows XP) has always been rock solid. When I retired in 1999 I did many years of PC support and still have a laptop running Windows 3.1 as well as other laptops running Windows XP, Windows 7 and Linux (another Operating System) as well as an Apple MacBook laptop. Nowadays Windows 7 has long since ceased been supported by Microsoft and even Google doesn’t like it and won’t provide updates.

        When friends bought PCs with the dreadful ‘new look’ Windows 8.0 and 8.1, I installed a free program called Windows Classic Shell, written by a Russian working in America. It is accepted that Russian programmers have always been very good because they mostly had to work with much older computers with much less memory and computing power, so their program code was tightly written.

        Anyway, I have installed Windows Classic Shell for friends on a number of PCs. You can choose which Windows version appears on your screen, e.g. if you loved the look of Windows XP or Win 7, you can have your new Windows 10 computer looking and feeling just like old times. For more information, look here: http://www.classicshell.net/.

        The original developer of Classic Shell ceased updating it in 2017, but program development has been taken over by a team at GitHub and it is now called Open Shell. See here: https://github.com/Open-Shell/Open-Shell-Menu

        Open Shell now works on Windows 11 as well (if, like me, you don’t like the appearance or way of working of either Windows 10 or 11).

        The Technical Bits for Computer Geeks
        My own ‘workhorse’ is a Windows 7 Desktop PC that was built for me over 10 years ago by a firm in the Midlands. It has a 1 Terabyte SSD (Solid State Disk) as its Program disk and a pair of traditional 1 Terabyte Hard Disk drives for Data Storage in what’s called RAID1 configuration. They exactly mirror one another all the time, so you always have two copies, so if one hard disk drive fails, the other still has a full set of your data that you can recover.

        My Windows 7 workhorse is now over 10 years old and one of its RAID1 hard disk drives is showing signs of failing, so I have ordered a new Desktop PC to be built for me and I know it will arrive with Windows 11 Professional installed as the Operating System. If (as I expect, since I have set up a number of Windows 8 and 10 computers for friends over the years) I don’t like the look and feel of Windows 11 I shall just install Open Shell and continue to live in Windows 7 land.

        1. RC, I wonder if you know of a Scottish borders geek/nerd who can replace a busted USB socket on a Dell Latitude E5430?

          1. Sorry, Tom, can’t help.
            7 years ago my own 10-year-old workhorse had its front USB and SD-card Reader panel ‘blown up’ after I connected something ‘live’ to it. A replacement was no longer available, so I just use one of the other 5 USB2 and USB3 sockets at the back with a dangling Card Reader attached.

          2. Thanks anyway, I have a similar set-up, with all feeding into the one remaining USB skt

        2. Clucking Bell.
          I can read English; Chaucer, even Langland and Wace.
          I could, once upon a time, cope with Anglo-Saxon.
          Though I do draw the line at Joyce and Woolf.
          But …. reading the above I’m reminded of the painful day when Grandson had to rescue me from entanglement in CalSpeak.

      2. Had problems with win 10 – it kept spontaneously disconnecting from the internet. After much buggeration and reloading of drivers, Microsoft upgraded me to Win 11. It was their only solution – if that didn’t work, I’d have to send the machine back and they’d do that anyway. So far, it seems to work.

        1. I wonder that anyone who was used to earlier Windows versions was comfortable or understood 10 or even 11.

          1. I have a Win 10 laptop. I hardly ever use it because I don’t find the OS very user friendly. I stick to my Win 7 machine.

  11. Happy ULEZ day everyone,

    Cloudy overhead McPhee Towers all day, rain tonight, wind Sou’-West, 13℃ rising to 18℃. Not that it matters to us because we won’t be here, we’re off to drive through the approaching band of rain to Pembrokeshire for the rest of the week.

    The most amusing comment I’ve seen on ULEZ was from Melissa Kite in the Speccie. Here’s it is:

    ‘What a worry the Ulez must be for you both,’ said a friend with a nod to the pick-up truck parked outside our house.

    It was kind of him to wonder. The builder boyfriend drives an old Mitsubishi L200 to work in London every day and like almost every other working man he cannot afford to buy a new vehicle that is Ulez compliant so you would presume he has to pay the charge. But that’s not quite how it’s turning out.

    There is no Ulez problem for any Khan supporter who can find an old granny to put in his old car once a week

    If I might speak for the working man for a second, because not many seem to be doing that, let me explain with an anecdote from the life of the builder boyfriend, who came home the other day in a buoyant mood to tell me this. He had been working on a large house where he and a plumber were among four or five men retained by a wealthy lady with an electric Audi parked outside.

    This lady, who was nice enough, came out of her house as the workmen sat drinking their tea and struck up a conversation on a topic she evidently thought they might find sympathetic of her.

    ‘I do feel so sorry for you chaps,’ she said, ‘with the Ulez expansion.’ The men kept drinking and said nothing. ‘I suppose you’ll all have to get rid of your old vans now.’

    And she glanced at the BB’s black L200 ‘Warrior’ and the plumber’s panel van. And still the men sat quietly drinking their tea.

    In the end, the plumber piped up: ‘We ain’t getting rid of nothing, love,’ he said. ‘I can’t afford a new van.’ And the BB shook his head to indicate that neither could he.

    ‘But then how will you afford to pay this charge?’ said the good lady. And the plumber laughed and said: ‘We ain’t paying it, love. You are.’

    It fell to the builder boyfriend to explain to the lady that if they were still on her job in a few weeks’ time, when the Ulez is expanded to all London boroughs, their bills at the end of each week would include a new item. On top of labour and materials, the £12.50 a day Ulez would be added.

    For her renovation job, that came to an extra £250 a week at least.

    As I understand it, it was no use her wondering if she might get a better deal out of another set of tradesmen. Everyone the BB has spoken to in his world has said the same thing: we’re not buying new vans, and we’re not paying the emissions charge.

    This Ulez may well represent a small fightback for the common man, or poetic justice of sorts, or just an ironic turn up for the books. Perhaps you might call it schadenfreude at the expense of the electric Audi drivers who thought it was not something to concern them.

    Because they will have to foot the bill.

    Of course, you could argue that low-income people will also face the rising cost of getting in tradesmen, but then again, the working classes are more likely to be able to fix their own stuff or get a deal out of a mate.

    More specifically, the BB has heard on the QT from his mechanic that poorer people are bringing in their old bangers for MOT as usual as the 29 August deadline approaches, because they are registering them as a car used to drive their old granny.

    Sadiq Khan has provided an opt-out, you see. Those who can register a non-compliant car with the DVLA as necessary to transport a disabled friend or relative will be exempt from the charge. He really does think of everything. There is no Ulez problem for any Khan supporter who can find an old granny to put in his old car once a week.

    So it does look like Ulez will be hitting the responsible, upstanding professionals who have dutifully gone out and bought expensive electric cars. Those who do not know how to plug a leak or unblock a gutter must now pay £12.50 a day extra to get a working-class oik to come to their rescue in an old van choking black smoke. The builder b will fix any roof in London so long as the owner pays his congestion and Ulez charges. And so far, people have.

    There are so few workers who can buy new vehicles that the playing field seems to have been levelled with everyone hiking their rates.

    The builder boyfriend and I once bumped into Sadiq Khan at a friend’s party in Richmond. He and his wife and their entourage arrived in a fleet of luxury Range Rovers.

    Now the BB has worked out how to survive the Ulez until we leave for Ireland, that doesn’t bother me as much.

    1. “Those who do not know how to plug a leak or unblock a gutter must now pay £12.50 a day extra to get a working-class oik to come to their rescue in an old van choking black smoke. ”

      Emily Thornberry springs to mind…but I suppose in her case, we will be paying it as it will go on her expenses.

      1. I entertained hopes that white van men would say to her ‘sorry love, too busy’ when she needed a bit of gutter draining.

    2. Do drivers get a refund when the wind is blowing the grossly over estimated pollution away ?

  12. Good morning, all. Overcast.

    Bad news for Khan & Tfl.

    The comment attributed to zebedee raises a good point.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/14302457729b38652ada22f18c8e9657b48628eb69df13dc738dffb8940a3ba6.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e09f4efbfff3f5e23b62fb2bbcf4fe4c0c6db0a31bea62571037d393eaed23f5.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/526c25eeef2064c40a85e9ccc09654fc33b74d3d1deaadeae599ff4911d38ff9.png

    Daily Sceptic – Chaos for Khan as LEZ Signs Ruled Illegal

  13. Re the ULEZ. Presumably people that coughed up the charge “voluntarily” will not be entitled to a refund. Shame.

    Good for the scaffolder who took this to court. I thought Piera Corbin was also amassing fines. But he didn’t do anything positive to fight back. So congratulations to the little man who fought back. Sir, I salute you.

  14. Good morning all.
    A dull start with a grey stratus overcast and 10°C on the yard thermometer.
    Rain forecast for this afternoon.

  15. A Letter and a response:-

    The worst accent?
    SIR – Andrew H N Gray (Letters, August 25) refers to Michael Caine’s “painful” Scottish accent in Kidnapped.

    Most painful of all, surely, is Dick Van Dyke’s attempt at a Cockney accent in Mary Poppins. Appalling. How Julie Andrews could bear it, I don’t know.

    Rosemary Carter
    West Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

    RS

    R. Spowart
    1 MIN AGO Message Actions
    Yes, agreed, Dick Van Dyke’s attempt at a Cockney accent in Mary Poppins was painfully appalling, but how many of the millions of children who were enchanted by the film actually noticed it?
    Yes, it was a children’s film and as such was a huge success.

    1. When we married I asked Caroline to translate a piece of my address into Dutch; my accent was so poor that the Dutch people at the reception thought I was speaking in Japanese.

          4. Yes, it needs the glottal stop at the end. I learnt a lot of this living and working on the German/Dutch border in the 196os.

          6. Whatever, I’ve learnt to handle them. yet I don’t speak Dutch, only Plat Deutsche, though it is understood far and wide auf Deutschland., von Bayern bis Prussia, Ost und Oest auch.

          7. We have had this conversation before. You might be understood all over but that is not the same as speaking Platt.

    2. Dick Van Dyke is immortalised forever in history for his portrayal of a Cockney chimney sweep. Drama students rely on it as an encylcopaedia for pretty well every nuance of dialect within the British Isles, real and imaginary.

      Singers know that whilst Italian has five basic vowel sounds, English English has about fifty, and all must be pronounced correctly or they become unintelligible. These vary according to district, class and mood and all must be distinguished. Someone from Yorkshire can tell the difference between a Barnsley accent, and one from Sheffield and another from Huddersfield. Someone from Surrey can tell not only one’s social standing and one’s education, but also the difference in accent between Dorking and Sutton. Dropping or enunciating the ‘t’ consonant in Surrey can instantly make one a social pariah, in either direction. Posh people have been know to drop their ‘t’s in order to be accepted in chav & chancer society.

      Americans give themselves away when attempting to say the vowel ‘o’ or ‘aw’. They cannot hear it, and invariably come out with ‘ah’, as in ‘cart’. Incidentally, the local way to say ‘Dorking’ is “Doh-oo-kin’ ” with the pursed lips almost closed with the ‘oo’.

      1. In my youth, I could distinguish a Colchester Essex accent from a Braintree one. And so on and so forth throughout my Essex patch.

    3. But something much more annoying has emerged as far as accents are concerned. Vastly over emphasised American accents with several Rs at the end a word like Adventurrrrrre for instance. And the distinct female growled vowels.
      Has anyone else noticed in recent conversations and some othet verbal
      activity from our media. The over emphasising of the letter C and K.
      Almost similar to the south Africa Xhosa.

      2. Not as annoying as current youf’s inability to pronounce “th” or the le’er “t”.

        My son cannot (will not). My dau’er speaks beau’ifully.

    1. I hope Michael Portillo isn’t in Pyrenees again re-making his ‘four day’ adventure across from coast to coast.
      Dress up for Walking of course 🤔 sarc.

    2. It was so globally boiling yesterday that I added socks and cardies to my fashionable ensemble.

        1. Actually, it’s Swiss and can charge up in four hours using a 13 amp plug. Range is about 120 miles and a top speed of 55mph.

          They manage it because it is about a quarter of the weight of a Tesla.

          Barbecued, like any modern electric car, it puts out a fair amount of heat.

    2. One of my teachers had one, she wasn’t popular and the big lads in the sixth form lifted it and placed it on top of a raised brick flower bed.

    3. The BMW Isetta ‘bubble car’ was iconic. An iconic joke.

      I remember the so-called ‘Bubble Car Murders’ in Derbyshire (Clodhall Lane) in 1960–61, where one of these vehicles was allegedly seen near the site of where the bodies of two poofs were discovered a year apart.

      1. An RAF pal of mine had one of those Messerschmitt bubble cars where 2 occupants sat in tandem – he was 6ft 4in, his girlfriend was 6ft and he reckoned he got his leg over with the hood shut, the front seat came out easily apparently

  18. SIR – One does not hear much good news about the NHS, but my
    experience of using the 111 service to report a breathing difficulty
    over the weekend deserves mention.

    I called mid-afternoon and, after the usual questions, was told that a doctor would ring me. This
    happened within minutes; we discussed my symptoms and I was advised that
    an ambulance would be with me in a short time.

    It arrived in less than 15 minutes. A paramedic checked me out and gave me treatment
    before taking me to my local hospital. Here I was taken to the emergency
    assessment unit, where I was seen by a doctor, had some blood tests,
    was X-rayed and then seen by a consultant, all within two hours. I was
    back home with medication by early evening, well impressed.

    Michael Robinson
    Banbury, Oxfordshire

    Bet that wasn’t on a weekend.

      1. Good for you.

        Not all departments are fully staffed at weekends though.

        At my hospital you can’t book a blood test over the weekend because there is no one manning/womanning the phones.

        Consultants are on call and only for emergencies.

        The only department running 24/7 at my hospital is Oncology. Besides A&E of course.

        1. When I was admitted (via A&E) to a surgical ward and subsequently transferred to a medical ward, although I was ready to be discharged on the Sunday, I had to spend an extra day in hospital (thus taking up a bed) because the surgical doctor didn’t work on Sundays and the medical doctor (who was Roumanian) couldn’t sign me off. No wonder the system doesn’t work.

          1. I was admitted on a Saturday to have a potassium drip over night. They wouldn’t release me on the Sunday for the same reason you stated. I told them that if they didn’t remove the canula i would take it out myself. They eventually did then i discharged myself.
            I believe they washed their hands of me in spite. They didn’t forward any paperwork to my GP.
            Managers have taken too much power upon themselves when a the ward nurse could have made that decision.

      2. Yes, our local hospital is using expensive equipment at weekends and into the evenings.
        Sweat those assets.

      1. It’s a post code lottery.
        MB has been treated pretty well (give or the odd letter detailing the wrong heart condition, therefore wrong medication for a retired paratrooper!).

        1. Wrong meds? That’s so sloppy, could have been seriously dangerous. Good job you’re a nurse!

          1. My Consultant wrote to my Doctor telling them to add two meds to my prescription. They didn’t. It was only picked up by chance six months later. Each time i have seen a Doctor over the last two years it has been a different Doctor. If it had been the same Doctor they would have been more familiar with my records.

            I have officially complained. Still waiting.

          2. MB and I read the letter with ever increasing puzzlement.
            At the moment we read he was a retired paratrooper, we fell about laughing.
            Then we contacted the GP surgery and the hospital; MB actually stood over the GP clerk while she altered the records.
            When I looked more carefully, the wrong hospital case number had been used.
            If it was straight number swap, that was bad enough, but if that mistake had applied to several patients then there would a major muddle that would take hours, if not days to sort out.

          4. When MOH was discharged after a stroke, there were so many mistakes in the letter – wrong dates, wrong DoB, not to mention that the things that were supposed to be put in place (physio, etc) never happened. Oh and I never mentioned the poor use of grammar or the misspelling of the patient’s name.

      2. Maybe, vw, with such staff shortages, they should devise a 24/7 rota to operate everything.

        Oh, I forgot, that’s beyond the wit of NHS.

        1. I do think the NHS should operate around the clock with staff working shifts. People are not ill between 9-5, they’re ill at all times of day and night. There’s an awful lot of expensive equipment just sitting doing nothing at night time.

    3. My own phone call just over a week ago went slightly astray, after receiving an indifferent response from the cardiology nurse’s department I was told to ring 111. And was quickly connected to a medic. Who told me they would ring my GP practice and inform them of my problem. And my gp practice would ring me back same day…….and I’m still waiting !

      1. Similar for me. I called on a Saturday morning and they said a Doctor would call me back. 9.30pm Sunday night i got a call from a young Chinese lady who apologised for calling so late but she was caring for two young children. I assumed she was a Doctor. But she was still useless.

    4. The NHS costs the average taxpayer several £thousand per year; the same (possibly more) as private health insurance.
      I doubt people would write cringing thank you letters if Spire, Ramsey etc… just did their job.

    5. I once worked as a postman in the days when it was run as a public service. Anyone caught coughing during Inward Sorting was met by a chorus of “Die, y’bugger!” followed by “It wasn’t the coughing that carried him off…”.

    6. Nor is Banbury deepest rural England. Six hour (and longer) waits for an ambulance are usual. Then, when you get to A&E you wait hours on a trolley to be seen (this last is personal experienc and the former the experiences of several friends).

  19. 375807+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Tuesday 29 August: The senseless Ulez expansion risks turning London into a ghost town

    As the peoples living outside the ex capital city really have no say since it was handed over to RESET as an appeasement gift,
    all they can do is fight the ulez virus outside and stop it spreading.

    This is the result of these political reptilian types gaining position of power

    Beware,this virus will use the voting pattern and a multitude of misguided fools as a very successful carrier.

    1. A friend of the family came over to see us last week, he owns lots of property, he rents different properties out either privately or to the council . He is a good fair minded man .

      White flight out of London is a reality , and could also create a different cultural balance in our big cities in the blink of an eyelid.

      We were impressed by his beautiful 4×4 Bentley, ahhhhhh!

      PS His views and outlook were Nottler orientated .

      He said he would never vote again . Several governments have trashed our country. He has travelled widely .

      He loved Japan , it is disciplined , well ordered and efficient and a tech dream .

      1. Is it true that if a train runs more than ten seconds late, some rail administrator commits suicide?

  20. I am no great fan of Nadine Dorries but I think her resignation letter saying just how appallingly Sunak and his government have conducted themselves is very apt.

    A phrase which I have stolen from a BTL comment is Vichy Sunak. Just as the former French hero from WW1, Marshal Philippe Pétain, sold out to Hitler so Vichy Sunak sold out to the EU at the Great Windsor Surrender in agreeing to Northern Ireland being still tied up by EU rules which take precedence over UK rules.

    2. I think her letter might well have been based on public opinion.
      But good for her for saying so.
      And she is absolutely correct.
      Shame she didn’t name the other group of slime bags who are wrecking our country.
      I suspect the promotions would give the game away.

      1. Yes, Nads was saying what many – including me – actually think.
        Sadly, she has written that letter after throwing a hissy fit because she didn’t get an automatic pass to the House of Lords.

    3. “I am no great fan of Nadine Dorries.”

      I am. I think she’s well fit and probably a sensational snog. Probably just as good as any tattooed lezzie!😛

  21. Morning all 🙂😊
    Back to normal grey. Rain later. Oh dear.
    I had a message from a relative in QLD and she’s happy it’s raining there. But it’s still late winter. And probably warmer than here.
    And don’t get me started on ulez !
    That little turd should have been jailed for what he’s doing and already done to our capital city.
    He has no right to impose and force his own opinions on anything, on anyone else.
    Many thought Living (under a) stone was terrible. But this takes the all-time record.

    2. It’s all a bit clearer now: A sniveling toad wasted tax payers money to buy a study from a disgraced institution that showed what he paid them to say.

      Isn’t this just the climate change con in miniature?

  25. ‘Dying by the dozens every day’ – Ukraine losses climb. BBC 29 August 2023.

    There has been a dramatic rise in Ukraine’s number of dead, according to new estimates by unnamed US officials. The BBC’s Quentin Sommerville has been on the front line in the east, where the grim task of counting the dead has become a daily reality.

    The unknown soldiers lie piled high in a small brick mortuary, not very far from the front line in Donetsk, where 26-year-old Margo says she speaks to the dead.

    “It may sound weird… but I’m the one who wants to apologise for their deaths. I want to thank them somehow. It’s as if they can hear, but they can’t respond.”

    At her cluttered desk outside the mortuary’s heavy door, she sits, pen in hand. It is her job to record the particulars of the fallen.

    Ukraine gives no official toll of its war dead – the Ukrainian armed forces have reiterated that their war casualty numbers are a state secret – but Margo knows the losses are huge.

    I’m not myself making any comment on the present advances of the Ukies since there is no way to tell if they are genuine, though this article suggests it is being accomplished at horrendous costs. We know that they have committed their western trained reserve forces that were supposed to exploit a breakthrough, to the breakthrough itself. There is a military term “Fighting your command to destruction” One suspects that is what is happening here.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-66581217

    1. Could the Ukraine losses have to do with running out of experienced soldiers and now using blokes pressganged off the street, given a camo jacket and a rattly AK47, and sent out to fight?

    2. But we keep getting told how Ukraine is destroying the Russian forces and taking no losses. Is that all lies?

  27. I have a magnificent foxy coloured spaniel , as well as many golden haired / auburn haired relatives including 2 sisters and brother .

    My father and his twin sister were auburn , not ginger.

    Funny how genes work. Mum was a brunette and a product of her County Cork Spanish Armada genes .

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12452857/Red-alert-Redheads-world-gather-celebrate-fiery-locks.html?ito=push-notification&ci=3xThMTCNPW&cri=e3j-e92BXu&si=p3DSQ2YwOLik&ai=12452857

    1. My maternal grandfather had a touch of joungè (a posh word for ginger) 🤗
      But it only became obvious in one of my mother’s brothers.
      He and both his sons were bald before they reached 40 years. The rest of the family had darker hair except for me and my younger sister. ‘Strawberry blonde’. Now light grey.

      1. My daughter had beautiful auburn hair but in her 20s, started dying it. It’s never been the same since – what a pity.

    2. I remember the Scottish director of one of our development centres who was definitely a product of the Armada storms.

    3. And you are blonde? My mum was blonde, I was dark-haired but fair skinned. My Dad was dark haired and brown eyed. I have hazel eyes.

        2. From the age of 0–5 my hair was blond.
          From the age of 5–18 my hair was brown.
          From the age of 18–72 my head was pink!

  28. Climate change protesters disrupt Paul McCartney exhibition

    Around 12 activists wore wigs and held a yellow banner protesting against Bank of America, a partner of the gallery, accusing it of funding “climate chaos”.

    Funding ‘climate chaos’? How the fuck do you do that? Pay the sun to make more sunspots and chuck out more solar wind?

      1. Some people still belive the sun falls into the sea at various times of the evening.

          1. Oh Phizzee. Everyone knows the sun pulls down a blind. Really. you are sooooo out of touch.

        3. I’ve never believed that. I’ve watched the bloody thing do that and I’ve never seen the sea bubbling enough to even make a cup of instant coffee with!

          Probably a good idea since I don’t like instant coffee and it’s even worse with salt in it!🤣

      2. As above, you’re bringing a knife to a minigun fight. This isn’t about science. It’s not about ‘globul worming’. It’s about power. It’s about who gets to control how society functions: the fanatic Left and their socialist dementia or normal people and laissez faire capitalist markets.

    2. Apollo demands sacrifice. I suggest we start with the climate protestors. They must be willing, shirley?

    3. It’s boo and hurrah words, isn’t it? You’re also applying science to what is, for them; a religious issue. You cannot reason with these people. They’re insane.

    1. If they’re that proud of afghanistan, why don’t they live there? In fact, we should encourage their leaving.

      Put it another way – 70% of that rabble are entirely dependent on welfare. They have no income – except the usual drugs, prostitution, theft, mugging and rape of children.

  30. I’ve heard it all now. Vine is agreeing that weeds should be allowed to grow anywhere.
    Because councils can’t be bothered to do anything about it. It’s coming under the stupid category of re-wilding.
    No mention of the weeds destroying footpaths making it dangerous for people to walk.
    There’s an idiot now claiming its beneficial to wild life. But not mentioning the massive house building projects that are now wrecking our countryside.
    Ivy alone is destroying trees and making them lean and become unsafe.

    1. Councils can’t be bothered, or won’t invest public money? After all, they’re incredibly motivated when someone suggests that taxes be cut.

      Council tax is an utter con that should be abolished. The money is appalling spent – on management salaries – while services decline. Worse, it ratchets up every single year, regardless.

      1. If some one in the public eye writes to them and tells them that personally they will be sued for any damage caused to pedestrians falling over weeds, or vehicles hit by falling trees already leaning across our country roads because of ivy growth. They just might buck their ideas up.
        Meanwhile the very same people are allowing and encouraging the destruction of our countryside by building on it. Because they can make financial gain.

        1. They would say they are not responsible as the council does the work. The problem is a complete lack of democracy. In a democracy, the public could simply refuse a tax hike. They could sack officials who fail them. They could control what their money is spent on – should they wish.

          The state refuses any form of democratic accountability because that hinders their activity. Look at Khan’s tax scam.

        2. That bit about building is so true. I went to visit someone in hospital yesterday and I was horrified by the sight of housing estates where once there were green fields. It’s EVRYWHERE.

      2. The council tax you physically pay out covers councils’ pension liabilities.
        The other 75% comes from general taxation.

        1. I don’t think that’s actually true; councils have statutory duties which they must finance (social care being one of them). The government “grant” (ie taxpayers’ money) doesn’t cover these entirely.

      1. It does. Can pull an old tree that would have survived another 100+ years down if it’s lobsided.

      2. It does in the end it shortens a trees life. I have seen it time and again. Ivy has destroyed many oak trees in norfolk where the tree has not been managed.

    3. Rewilding is just code for gross neglect. A couple of local examples here are Shepherds Bush Green and Fulham Parish churchyard, both supposedly looked after by the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, who raised my council tax this year but seem to be doing f-all.

      1. In Wellingborough this year, large parts of the big, green open spaces have been left uncut by the gang-mower, mostly around trees and copses. Many of the residential roads have foot-high weeds growing in the gutters as a result of failing to send out the road sweeper and the weed-killing contractor. Tarmac footpaths are cracked and crumbling, with weeds growing in the gaps, while the grass verges are smothering them.

      2. One of the points a caller made was how the growth on roundabout approaches stop drivers from viewing what is coming from the right. And road signs are being obscured.

      3. They show pictures of land scape filled with wild flowers to try and justify the ridiculous concept of re-wilding.
        But because the plants are all the same, it’s pretty obvious it was all man made.
        I wonder how long it will be before it’s considered a hate crime for using weed killer.
        weed killers are pretty much useless now since Glyphosate was removed under EU mafia orders.

    4. A generous helping of Japanese knotweed and giant hogweed spread near where he cycles and in his garden might make him reconsider.

      1. Giant Hogweed* outside his front and back door so that he can’t get out without touching it. Mwaahaaah!

        * I know that they are notifiable.

    7. They need reminding that ragwort is a dangerous weed under the 1944 Act and should be controlled.

      1. It seems that they already know everything Conners. But they never appear to learn from their continuous mistakes.

  32. Morning all,

    (Problems with editing on this page)

    As I reported last Friday my BT Digital Voice phone arrived with a new BT Smart Hub 2 and were installed by a guy from Morrisons.

    On that day the installer left without demonstrating that incoming calls
    would ring the digital phone. However BT said by email that it was “Good
    to go”.

    However we returned home this morning and there was a pile of voice messages registered on the digital phone and two unanswered test calls that we confirmed to check ring tone:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4c4415c4ab499d7e098e27a7ac7ff03be9f261f48024eb3f7724622ef134be63.jpg

    Thanks to wibbling and Geoff for comments on my problem but it seems it was a bit premature of BT to say it was good to go.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/99e7e61faf8c4e4a1e43f8e03a8bbc6ce7779523df20065ac951030844828084.jpg

    However we had to leave early the next day forvour lodge without having incoming calls diverted from our home number to my mobile. After getting home today I found that

      1. In the good old days BT would do internal phone wiring to a customers specified Plan configuration and finish demonstating that phones would ring using the automatic ringback number.

        Nowadays BT’s reponsibility stops at the OpenReach network termination on the wall.
        Geoff is quit right when he says you should ideally internally rewire your home with Cat6 wiring from the fibre connected router – there are alternatives by using WiFi connectivity to all your domestic equipment but the radio spectrum is becoming so crowded with even dogs now having a radio collar.

        Is there such a thing as a Cat6 dog lead?

    2. We gave up with landline a month or so ago. Still have fibre for t’web, though.

      1. I gave up years ago when i got my first mobile phone. Wasn’t going to pay £25 a month for something i didn’t use. A little awkward at first because some services/suppliers wanted a landline number. They caught up quite quick though.

      2. I like to have a landline number though I never use it for outgoing calls which cost silly amounts. Differentiates me from mere cellphone users who could be anyone, anywhere.

        1. A client of ours initially eager for ‘profile’ has a London number. He’s based in Wales. The number just routes over the internet to his phone.

      3. I like to have a landline number though I never use it for outgoing calls which cost silly amounts. Differentiates me from mere cellphone users who could be anyone, anywhere.

      1. Seemed like a nice guy but with only a few weeks training in fibre he must have been off his trolley.

    4. What with you EV and now a digi-phone, Angie, you seem a glutton for self-inflicted Neo-technical harm.

      1. They’re not self inflicted – both the change from diesel to electric and the universal adoption of nationwide fibre communication have been instigated by the Government. The first to save the planet and the second to make jobs for supermarket workers who are left on it.

        1. I suggest you don’t comply, Angie. Become ungovernable and part of the (non-digi) revolution.

          1. I traded in my diesel before it became completely valueless as it was Euro4 and I bought the EV because I know more about electrical problems than fixing diesel particulate filters.

            I converted from copper to fibre because I know that BT can pay for fibre installations from the money it gets from selling the copper cables that get pulled out – furthermore BT contributes to my BT pension scheme.

          2. I now have a petrol car. I can fill it in minutes and don’t have range anxiety as long as the garages still have fuel. Moreover as it’s second or third hand the carbon footprint from building it is now negligible and it doesn’t need subsidised renewables to charge it. My mechanic is very reasonable (he recommended the car to me as being reliable and not needing much in the way of maintenance and so far he’s been proved right). Fibre does not come to my home so any connection is likely to arrive in the same way as the current one; through the trees. My pension scheme, such as it is, doesn’t have anything to do with BT.

          3. I no longer force vegetable products down my diesel tank and have seen the light.

    5. That’s really good news. Fibre’s wonderful stuff! I don’t know what need you have of telephony, but do make sure people have an alternative number if you need them to.

      1. I have an existing four handset DECT system with master on a copper exchange line. I couldn’t be sure that a fibre only connection with one router would provide the same service to remote parts of the property without spending a lot of money for facilities I didn’t need.

        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8ad7e3fd3f7b04f15c8e33e34511e52358d9bdff7f4eb654182f4085bc4f63d3.jpg

        Thankfully I can plug the master handset of the Panasonic system into the Green socket on the Smart Hub 2 without having to buy more of these:

        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/99e7e61faf8c4e4a1e43f8e03a8bbc6ce7779523df20065ac951030844828084.jpg

    6. Here, in Skåne, we had the fibre-optic cable service installed six years ago. The package came with TV service, internet broadband and telephone. We seldom use the telephone but it is a good stand-by facility. The most immediate change I noticed was that the internet connection was blazingly fast, more than six time faster than it had been before, and even that was not slow. Internet connections and mobile telephone signals, in Sweden, are far better than what I used to experience in the UK. Even in rural locations here, they are much faster than they are in urban locales in Britannia.

    7. Well at least you have got it working (or maybe not). Last week the road digger chaps came and installed the ducting under my lawn, they even lifted the paving slabs to run it under there (and cracked one in the process). Four weeks after placing order. Now waiting for Openreach to come and draw the fibre through the ducting to the house, no sign yet but they now have until next Monday to do that bit. Appointment to do the final installation and switch on digital voice is not until September 13th, nearly 8 whole weeks since I ordered it.

      They didn’t offer me one of their digital phones, claims they no longer do it for free, but I expect my BT DECT phone will work just fine with the hub 2.

      The joys of technology…

  33. Countryfile diary, Sunday 27th August

    This week, Matt-nice-but-dim-Baker was accompanied by the girning Sean Fletcher on a trip to the Bannau Brycheiniog, otherwise known to generations of Great Britons as the Brecon Beacons. The first part of the programme explored the effect the renaming might have on the economy of the area.

    We were introduced to Helen Lucocq (very Welsh name that, cariad), Head of Policy of the Brecon Beacons National Park Authority. Here’s a brief bio of her from Wales Online:

    Based in Brecon, Helen was the ideas-person and driving force behind Brecon Beacons National Park Authority adopting the doughnut model as a way of making decisions. She also developed the approach the park authority are [sic] taking to its emerging Local Development Plan, which aims to create ’20-minute neighbourhoods’.

    Helen projected the air of a shiny-eyed, 19th century Valleys Baptist evangelist who has just been told that The Lord Our Saviour is dropping in for a nice cup of tea and a plate of bara brith. I was expecting her to burst into song, bashing a pair of tambourines. If Jesus had turned up, I wonder what would he have done with her doughnut?

    Down the road in Crug Hywel (Crickhowell), Steve Hindmarsh, the un-Welsh-sounding owner of the 600-year-old Bear Hotel, was pragmatic, asking how the change will affect tourism. I think the tourists will still find their way there, Mr H, although there may well be some who will ask “Where have all the Beacons gone?”

    The presenter, dopey Sean Fletcher, gushing almost as effusively as Countryfile’s Gusher-in-Chief Margherita Taylor, told us “Just along the High Street, Chloe Masefield runs a zero-waste grocery store.” Translated into English, that means beans, seeds, herbs and spices etc. displayed in giant Kilner jars and sold at extortionate prices to English-born Guardianistas with second homes in The Land Of Somebody Else’s Fathers. When you’ve listened to Chloe for about 15 seconds, you’ll be wanting to dunk her in one of Wales’s sacred lakes, if only to cure one of the worst cases of vocal fry you’ll hear this year. Crickhowell is but 20 miles from Hay-on-Wye, another stronghold of the Mung Bean Militia. There’s clearly something in the air down there.

    Most of the rest of the programme was about food production versus nature conservation. Government targets are that 30% of the UK should be protected for nature by 2030. It’s estimated that currently the figure is about 5%. West Penwith in Cornwall was also featured, declared an SSSI only very recently for its ‘heath, bogs, mires and grasslands’. Its dairy farms are in the sights of the professional conservationists to close down to meet the target. Catherine Mealing-Jones, the CEO of the Brecon Beacons Park Authority, appeared more reasonable about the balance between production and conservation in her part of the world than Geoff Ransome, Natural England’s Head of Agriculture, who came across as a man heading for a face-first confrontation with a dung heap in England’s most westerly county (and yes, I know that to the militant Kernovian, that’s Devon.]

    The programme ended with one of its favourite subjects, local micro-scale food production with a view to reducing food miles, featuring a scheme to promote the growing of fruit and veg on what were effectively leased smallholdings. First-time farmers Catherine and David Langton, the equal of shiny-eyed Helen in their optimism, raked the soil on their plot and plucked undersized tomatoes in their rickety polytunnel while taking turns to carry their baby daughter on their backs. Come off it! As if that’ll feed them ’till they want no more!

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001q292/countryfile-bannau-brycheiniog

    1. We cannot protect a third of the country at the current rate of welfare shopping gimmigration. The state is importing over 1 million foreigners a year. That must stop and be reversed.

      Child benefit must be stopped completely. The state must be reduced by about 70-80 per cent. Taxes must be cut. Big government put through the shredder. That is the only way to stop the massive overpopulation of this country and restore it to sanity.

      1. One detail is that child benefit is linked to National Non-insurance contributions for non economically active women, so the breeders are going to get a nearly free pension if they can keep their wombs active for long enough. E&OE.

    2. Great satirical description William!

      “Mung Bean Militia”?

      Brilliant term is this week’s new entry to my Wokabulary charts, straight in at No 1.

    3. currently the figure is about 5% – rubbish. Lots of untillable ground in Scotland, Wales and English areas – according to Google,
      “Where the claim came from. It is commonly stated that some 71% of land area in the UK is agricultural, with a recent example including an article from Sky News1. Although the number can vary, it is a generally accepted statistic that around 70% of the UK is farmland.”
      Who can farm heathland, moors and hilltops? Most of these are wild, naturally so, as who needs to plant heather for sheep to eat?

      1. At 25 minutes: “It’s estimated that across the whole of the UK, just 5% of land is effectively protected for nature.” [Source: British Ecological Society]

        That’s not the same as saying only 5% of rural land is not agricultural.

      2. Sheep graze on upland farms that are not suitable for cultivation. Grouse moors are an important part of the ecostructure. Then there is horsiculture, not generally accepted as “agriculural” for some reason.

    4. Ah, but it’s Bread of Heaven that will feed them. The land won’t once it’s been built on. Interestingly, the CMC (of which I’m a member) is advertising stays in the Brecon Beacons. Clearly they haven’t got the message.

  34. China continues coal spree despite climate goals. 29 August 2023.

    China is approving new coal power projects at the equivalent of two plants every week, a rate energy watchdogs say is unsustainable if the country hopes to achieve its energy targets.

    The government has pledged to peak emissions by 2030 and reach net zero by 2060, and in 2021 the president, Xi Jinping, promised to stop building coal powered plants.

    But after regional power crunches in 2022, China started a spree of approving new projects and restarting suspended ones. In 2022 the government approved a record-breaking 86 gigawatts (GW) of new coal-fired power capacity. One gigawatt is the equivalent of a large coal power plant.

    Whoops! The censor must have been taking a nap!

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/29/china-coal-plants-climate-goals-carbon

      1. Rather like the French who agree to EU’s rules and then only follow the ones that suit them. This is one of the fundamental reasons why UK had to leave the EU : because Britons too slavishly follow rules specially devised and designed to hurt the British.

        1. That is largely due to our (white and mainly Anglo-Saxon) heritage, not having a continental culture.

  35. 375807+ up ticks,

    Lets not no more beat about the bush for just once get the taste of facing facts,the electorate ( the peoples) without let or hindrance or having a despots gun to their heads these past 40 years returned to power treacherous despot after treacherous despot.

    Every voting opportunity they denied decent folk a lifestyle we once had of freedom of mind & spirit all for the sake of a phony party name, they took a decent dependable country and following the cottaging devils desciple pm with eyes wide open proceeded to destroy and succeeding, a once decent nation.

    The true and amazingly sad thing is, we let you.

    https://twitter.com/brixwe/status/1696172340474675536?s=20

    1. Yes, slavery does live on – in taxation. Taxes you love to levy, you hateful bag of pakistani scum.

      2. I disagree. Pus can be squeezed out. Shit can be used as fertiliser.

        He, and his ilk, are more like nuclear waste: no use whatsoever and goes on poisoning everything it touches for centuries, if not millennia.

  37. Morning all.

    “ Sadiq Khan is the “one person responsible” for punishing working families with the expansion of the ultra-low emission zone (Ulez), Rishi Sunak has said.”

    The so-called “Conservative” prime minister has no intention of preventing the expansion, slime ball hi risk anus has sloped shoulders into the other slime ball.

    How I loathe and detest this government.

    The Prime Minister lashed out at the Labour Mayor of London, saying the widening of the £12.50 daily charge for the worst-polluting cars throughout the capital’s boroughs “is going to hit working families

    1. The nasty little turd had a perfectly good and legal way of stopping the ULEZ expansion but he chickened out.

      1. I take it you’re talking of the pseudo, Hindu little Indian turd. Another who needs a rabid dog at his throat.

      2. As I said he has no intention of stopping it. If he thinks he’s making capital out of a Labour mayor instigating it, when people know that he could stop it, he has another think coming.
        Edit: to make sense.

  38. Mark Steyn on ropery:

    A world that becomes more Muslim becomes less everything else. First it’s Jews, already abandoning France. Then it’s homosexuals, already under siege from gay-bashing in Amsterdam, ‘the most tolerant city in Europe’. Then it’s uncovered women, targetted for rape in Oslo. And if you don’t any longer have any Jews or (officially) any gays or (increasingly) uncovered women, there are always just Christians in general, from Nigeria to Egypt to Pakistan. More space for Islam means less space for everything else, and in the end for you.

    The Undocumented Mark Steyn: Don’t Say You Weren’t Warned (Simon and Schuster, 2014)

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/mark-steyn-a-hairy-successful-version-of-myself-says-julie-burchill/

    1. Is there an armed wing of the Salvation Army which will fight Muslim aggression with the same aggression returned?

      2. The Christian Church on Earth is the Church Militant, but it doesn’t fight with guns or swords.

      3. No, we need to bring back Jan Sobieski and the Winged Hussars who fought the Ottoman army at the Gates of Vienna. I saw a tweet the other day slagging off Catherine the Great for putting an end to the Crimean Khanate. Wrong! Catherine was right.

  40. Afternoon All

    Very late on parade,belated medley

    Oh yes

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/01f22934f8c88b29c3236d1e1cf2895a90c9e5effd1791b54d1954da6c78ee46.gif

    Rest

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1d71e4db6dbdfec79daaa05b7777dc36e13b381c1f1bfac5ff34b0e44aad833a.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/724122506f05d87f01172d4699a9b3dff8bbd0bd2a98586f4c7f0686350cbecc.jpg

    https://media.greatawakening.win/post/DR4fZJ1PsNpm.jpeg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6c0209a2dcec092d23b78f5b03f1752b165844eef2de0ca1e1bcad205bd9b6c7.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ab4aa0a7dd68f31bfec2107fac060c7073798a09f6ff0c363c7518992df02055.jpg

    Finally……..

    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5833ddde95f52f7c21cf60d64d3ea59a4f615c982270428e5788a83d74dfabcd.gif

    2. The best selection yet, Rik.

      I’ve just had to go and change me kecks … that one on the differences between the Conservatives and Labour made me piss myself!🤣

    1. I wonder if DH mayor is extracing payment from London City Stanstead LHR and Gatwick airports ? For all the emissions they are spreading over the M25 Area ?
      Our youngest lives inside the M25 boundary I’m not sure he’s having to pay just for owning a car inside the area.

      2. The irony is (and this is why it’s nothing to do with clean air and everything to do with making money) the M25 runs over (and thus, through) the LEZ. No problem with all the pollution produced on the motorway.

          1. For those despairing about Global Warming, you should have seen EarthX TV last night.

            There was a fascinating programme about how the Americans are encouraging the ranching of

            cattle because the dung encourages the retention of carbon in the soil.

            I’m sure that other governments will follow, and encourage the keeping of cattle to reduce Global Warming.

          4. This is the latest scientific consensus Sue.

            Being practised in the USA, Mexico and Kenya.

            Either the Irish government is way behind the science, or they are trying one of the weird EU

            “control the population” projects.

            –take your choice.

          6. I thought that cow burps and farts were bad for the environment and that is why the Irish were talking about reducing the herds there.

            It is very hard to keep up with what is good and bad nowaday.

        1. I really can’t understand why they do it – and why they can’t just take their stuff home with them.

          2. No – but everything gets cleared up very quickly. The people know how to use litter bins.

    4. A horrific story.

      A boy who was expelled from the school in which Caroline and I taught went on to become a drug dealer a few years later. His dead body was found with a machete embedded in his head in an abandoned tent at Glastonbury by those who were clearing up after a festival in the early 1990s. Apparently he had been trying to poach on somebody else’s territory.

  43. OT – we did an experiment with Lidl washing up liquid.

    Cheap one = 1 litre = 49p. Lasted 12 days = 4p per day.
    Posh one = ½ litre =79p. Lasted 16 days = 4.9p per day.

    Would still buy the posh one next time. The foamy water lasted much longer.

    1. I agree with your findings. The ‘Premium’ is much longer lasting – the cheap one is a washout.(informal)

      1. Now hands that do dishes can be soft as your face
        With mild green Fairy Liquid

        I don’t think I want soft hands for any of the things I do.

  44. 375807 + up ticks,

    May one inquire,
    Were any of the eight stabbed indigenous or foreign imported via the current lab/lib/con coalition party, and portraying the delights of multiculturalism seen as its finest ( although some believed the stab r=rate could have been higher)

    Eight Stabbed, Police Assaulted and 275 Arrested at London’s Multicultural Notting Hill Carnival

        1. I had a few of those as customers when I was working – some died and the rest probably have by now.

          1. How have so many drug addicted pop singers who are our contemporaries managed to survive just as well as those of us who have always steered clear of recreational drugs?

          3. Better management. Amy Winehouse possessed one of the great voices of the 21st century, but she failed to understand that male and female metabolisms are different.

    2. Could you enlighten me as to who this person is please???? I’m not good with faces esp. if the are “Slebs”.

    3. To think that over here in Canada, they are legalizing safe injection sites and handing out hard drugs to addicts as the liberal way to tackle drug addiction.

      Works a treat. The addicts pick up their free heroin, sell it on to other addicts and then buy the latest hard core drugs for their own demise.

      1. Very depressing…just I have just read DT’s article “Canada’s woke nightmare is a vision of Britain’s future” by Steven Edginton.
        There’s nothing I can say…

        1. Without revolution there is nothing we can do to stop this decline. Trudeaus actions during the Truckers convoy make people rather cautious about voicing dissent.

          Trudeaus minority government is supported by a left wing party which gives him an effective majority. Until MPs start questioning their own leader and demand change, we are stuck.

          Latest news is a report that some liberal judges appear to have paid the Liberals just before being appointed. No conflict of interest there obviously.

          1. As you probably know, we don’t get much news from your neck of the woods, especially down south in so called Biden country!

      1. All compiler of “gifs” and “memes” have to be: retarded, illiterate, or American. Usually a combination of all three.

  49. Police officer sexually assaulted and six others bitten at Notting Hill Carnival. 29 August 2023

    Dept Asst Commissioner Ade Adelekan, who oversaw the policing operation, said it was “regrettable” that for a second year in a row, Monday night at the carnival had been “marred by serious violence”.

    The Metropolitan Police Federation said that 75 officers were assaulted, six were bitten, one was sexually assaulted and another is in hospital.

    “Once again Notting Hill Carnival marred by serious violence – and attacks on police officers… This is absolutely disgusting. No wonder our members dread policing this event,” a spokesman said.

    Where were they bitten?

    PS. No comments.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/08/29/officer-sexually-assaulted-six-bitten-notting-hill-carnival/

      1. https://news.met.police.uk/images/deputy-assistant-commissioner-ade-adelekan-2766635.

        Hello Bill,

        Yep fight diversity with diversity , black lives matter .

        14 October 2022
        Counter Terrorism Policing is proud to celebrate Black History Month, Metropolitan Police Commander Ade Adelekan, who is responsible for security and aviation commands, writes about why it is important to get involved.

        Black History Month means a lot of things to me, but I’d like to focus on it from a policing perspective.

        Policing is all about people. Everyone who signs up to be a part of policing, wants to do the absolute best they can for the communities they serve up and down the country.

        For us to be able to deliver a service that truly reflects our communities, we have to ensure that we understand people.

        Black History Month allows us all, regardless of our colour, the time and opportunity to focus on Black people in particular, and to reflect on Black history and what it means to them.

        It is an opportunity to celebrate individual contributions and achievements. It also gives people who are not Black, a chance to walk in a different pair of shoes. By being open to that, it means that we can try to understand or appreciate some of the issues that others face. In turn, this enables us to police in a way that our communities want us to – fairly and with understanding.

        We can all play our part, and I would love to see everyone take a moment, big or small, to reflect during Black History Month.

        This can help open up a conversation about and increase our understanding of Black history and where we are today. Most importantly, it will provide an insight into how Black people are actually feeling, which allows the police to improve our response and earn the trust of the community.

        We are all individuals, and the fact that I may look similar to someone else does not necessarily mean that we think the same, or our cultures are the same. Whilst there may be similarities, there will also be differences. This is how starting a conversation with your colleague, your peer, your neighbour, or even someone you know well, can help you understand the people around you better.

        There are many events across Black History Month that you can take part in, and I encourage everyone, inside and outside of policing, to find the time to get involved. Even if it’s a small act like reading an article or listening to a podcast to help broaden your own understanding of Black history and Black experience.

        My wish is that one day, there will be no need for Black History Month. Instead, we would all strive to consistently and continually understand people who have different backgrounds and experiences to our own.

        So let’s work together to get to the point, across the world, where we don’t need to mark months of the year, but we seek to understand people every day.

        Ade Adelekan is the Security and Aviation Commander in The Metropolitan Police’s Aviation and Security Specialist Operations unit. The Operational Command Unit (OCU) works to protect and police airports and keep people safe from threats, including terrorism.

        1. A month? I thought it went on years. Why don’t we have white history weeks? After all, the history of this country is due to white people.

      2. https://news.met.police.uk/images/deputy-assistant-commissioner-ade-adelekan-2766635.

        Hello Bill,

        Yep fight diversity with diversity , black lives matter .

        14 October 2022
        Counter Terrorism Policing is proud to celebrate Black History Month, Metropolitan Police Commander Ade Adelekan, who is responsible for security and aviation commands, writes about why it is important to get involved.

        Black History Month means a lot of things to me, but I’d like to focus on it from a policing perspective.

        Policing is all about people. Everyone who signs up to be a part of policing, wants to do the absolute best they can for the communities they serve up and down the country.

        For us to be able to deliver a service that truly reflects our communities, we have to ensure that we understand people.

        Black History Month allows us all, regardless of our colour, the time and opportunity to focus on Black people in particular, and to reflect on Black history and what it means to them.

        It is an opportunity to celebrate individual contributions and achievements. It also gives people who are not Black, a chance to walk in a different pair of shoes. By being open to that, it means that we can try to understand or appreciate some of the issues that others face. In turn, this enables us to police in a way that our communities want us to – fairly and with understanding.

        We can all play our part, and I would love to see everyone take a moment, big or small, to reflect during Black History Month.

        This can help open up a conversation about and increase our understanding of Black history and where we are today. Most importantly, it will provide an insight into how Black people are actually feeling, which allows the police to improve our response and earn the trust of the community.

        We are all individuals, and the fact that I may look similar to someone else does not necessarily mean that we think the same, or our cultures are the same. Whilst there may be similarities, there will also be differences. This is how starting a conversation with your colleague, your peer, your neighbour, or even someone you know well, can help you understand the people around you better.

        There are many events across Black History Month that you can take part in, and I encourage everyone, inside and outside of policing, to find the time to get involved. Even if it’s a small act like reading an article or listening to a podcast to help broaden your own understanding of Black history and Black experience.

        My wish is that one day, there will be no need for Black History Month. Instead, we would all strive to consistently and continually understand people who have different backgrounds and experiences to our own.

        So let’s work together to get to the point, across the world, where we don’t need to mark months of the year, but we seek to understand people every day.

        Ade Adelekan is the Security and Aviation Commander in The Metropolitan Police’s Aviation and Security Specialist Operations unit. The Operational Command Unit (OCU) works to protect and police airports and keep people safe from threats, including terrorism.

    2. Violence at the Notting Hill stabfest? Whoda thunk it? Those who had been bitten will need lots of jabs. They’d have been better off being bitten by a police dog (you can get far more, and nastier, diseases from same species as across species).

      1. Our son can be very prickly towards criticism thus I am inclined to agree with you. A least said, soonest mended approach is best although it is hard, I have to be careful what I say. I did explain to our grandson when everyone had calmed down that we have to teach the puppy good manners, and we will be able to do that only by behaving with good manners towards the puppy, and not winding him up.

    4. Perhaps grandson will have learnt his lesson .

      Fib to your grown up son that he was bitten when he was a small child , despite the fact that he was warned not to tease and fiddle around with dogs , tell him his nose was bitten because he got too close for comfort .

      A little white lie is a cautionary tale for children , and he in turn will tell his child NO messing around with dogs or cats .

      Will you show us a pic of pup please PM.

      My son was bitten on the eyelid when he messed around with a JR pup, when he was five years old , he was warned , and took no heed .

      My second son was grabbed by a monkey when we visited a very unsafe Nigerian zoo, despite our warnings … DO NOT stand too close to the fencing , long arm reached for son’s blonde hair , then his T shirt … It was a panic stricken moment .

      1. Actually our son was bitten as a small child by a black and white collie type dog, he bent down to stroke it before I could say anything to him and the dog sprang up teeth bared, fortunately his skin wasn’t broken. He was scared of dogs for years after that. Our younger son was a very gentle little lad and perhaps the dog might have had a bad experience with children. Anyway I explained to grandson later when we had all calmed down that we want a well mannered dog and we will achieve that only by showing him good manners and respecting him.

        Yes, I’ll post you a photograph, I am sending this by the red blob notifications page – it doesn’t give the ‘post photograph’ symbol.

      2. Here you are, Belle. We got Rico when you were probably having your sabbatical, I posted photographs back then. It was only a month after we lost Poppie, but our home felt so empty, the days were long and the hours were even longer! – and we were sad and lonely. So home we came with this little Yorkiepoo. I still think of Poppie all the time, I miss her so much and would do anything to see her just one more time – but our home is no longer empty and we are no longer lonely, rattling around dogless together. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/99cbb42100ff3f984400af15cabf9a2390d244b1de619bdd3e91ab5f3e2038db.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/93ab22c04e0954e8b471ddc054a959b48df1530352a964aabe731751d595d835.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/52429b5b496dc52511b2f3dc5f268a09be4715da3eb604e2a3772b8718503004.jpg

        And here is a photo of Poppie at the same age: https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9d5949b1b71c794e3afd539fb6065c55748d043ea9b6ca21fbdbea161a8185e3.jpg

    5. He also knows what his child is like! I have 2 scars from my first cat Steve when I treated him like a toy! I was certainly under 6 at the time and didn’t get, nor expect any sympathy! I had been told not to do it!

      1. Yes, I think he does know! I think it was a case of pup and grandson winding each other up and yes, grandson treating him like a toy. I did have a word with our grandson before he left (see my other replies). I fear discipline has been rather lax in their household, our son has married a left winger (social worker).

        1. Ah! Difficult isn’t it? I have to zip it with our elder daughter. Her lack of discipline of the children may be quite amusing now but as they get older, I fear she is storing up trouble. And the hysteria which surrounds every little cut and graze….they’re children, for heavens sake! Our granddaughter even refuses to take her asthma medicine because she told Mummy it doesn’t work!🙄
          How is the little puppy?

          1. Puppy is doing fine, Sue. He has mushroomed. I am wondering whether he actually is a Yorkiepoo!! The ‘poo’ part is miniature poodle which is larger than a toy poodle; the standard poodle is, of course, the largest. You can never be too sure with these crossbreeds.

            Yes, I too fear our younger son and DiL are storing up trouble, they have not been too hot on the discipline front and chickens are coming home to roost, I regret to say. Just after elder grandchild was born I pointed out to our son that they were the parents, not the best friend. It didn’t go down too well, and so I learned not to say anything controversial and to MMOB, after all, what do I know about parenting….. I suppose it did sound preachy. And yet, the same son would say proudly to his mates (up to the age of 9 or 10) that he was ‘not allowed to do xyz’. I suppose he realised his parents cared for him by giving boundaries.
            https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4993624240d5cc12f6db4edc78b82f4986be69406da2dcf0f99421cfcb797c52.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4f6f16bca88bb0235e6397e2d3e6f7a5b0df2ca7689d6a8b0f25a9513e1ad5fc.jpg

          2. Oh pm! He’s a little beauty! And unfortunately, he does look like a soft toy! Of course, his little needly teeth are nibbly! Our daughters Lab puppy seemed to be permanently attached to 3 year old grandsons T shirt bottom, or his socks, so much so that he was heard to shout that Fern was eating him!

    6. The puppy is not to blame. The father should make sure the child doesn’t tease the puppy and the child should put it down to experience.

      1. Hello Ndovu – I attempted a reply earlier by the red blob notifications, it suddenly disappeared as the notification page ‘wobbled’ – it is possible it may suddenly re-appear as a reply, one never knows. Yes, I agree, the puppy is not to blame at all – they were both winding up each other in excitement, I wasn’t there, and our son was looking after his younger son (2) although in the vicinity. I explained to our grandson later that we want a well mannered dog and we will only get that by showing the puppy, and behaving towards him with our good manners, and by showing him respect.

    8. Point out that the puppy isn’t a toy and it’s his way of telling the brat elder grandchild not to do it. Father should take more care over educating his children about responsibility (personal as well as for animals). As for the Twitter, the more that protest against ULEZ the better.

      1. I agree. I have said to poppiesdad that our grandson treats him like a toy – I think on this occasion they were both winding each other up and pup grabbed grandson as puppies do, usually they grab the hem of a jumper or a loose part of trouser leg. This time it was a leg. I agree with your comment about the father. I said to grandson before they all left that we need a well mannered dog and we will only achieve that if we show good manners and respect towards him (the pup). He is less bitey than he was towards us now than several weeks ago.

        1. I think that’s natural in children unless they’ve been told not to. I can remember squeezing a kitten (I was about 3) until it squealed (I am bitterly ashamed of it now, but I didn’t know any better then). I got a right telling off!

          1. Any three year old, told or not, would do that – don’t reproach yourself. At the same age I remember pulling off the wings of a butterfly simply because I wanted to see if it could still fly… when the memory strikes I still berate myself. We were children and didn’t know any better. Now we do, and that is what is important.

  51. Children evacuated as fighting intensifies on southern front line. 29 August 2023.

    Ukrainian authorities ordered the “mandatory forced evacuation” of children from five towns near the southern Zaporizhzhia frontline as fighting in the region intensifies.

    Yurii Malashko, head of the regional military administration, said that 54 children and 67 accompanying family members were being forced to evacuate from one settlement in the Vasylivka district and four settlements in the Polohy district.

    When the Russians do it, it is called abduction and you end up on charges with the ICC!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/08/29/ukraine-russia-war-latest-news-drone-jets-black-sea-putin/

    1. I never took any of my cats for annual boosters – they were vaccinated as kittens but that was it. It’s a nice little earner for the vets.

  53. Health and safety Bureaucrats.

    They are replacing a bridge across a very small stream on a road near to us. At this time of year, the stream is just a few feet wide and about three or four inches deep. For health and safety reasons, they have installed one of those round life saver floats beside the stream.

    For God’s sake, it’s only a few inches of water, the fliat probably won’t float in what is essentially a ditch. If you have to sit up to grab the preserver, you are safe.

    2. The equipment isn’t there to be useful. It’s to protect the council from lawsuits. Never underestimate the mendacity of spiteful ambulance chasers.

  54. https://twitter.com/ActivePatriotUK/status/1696456207534334461

    This is the person who shot at protesters outside RAF SCAMPTON yesterday

    The registration plate of the car involved is YD59 BBK

    The police took 1 HOUR to respond to the initial call and when they did eventually turn up they said it was because they had reports of us being on the road and being abusive to people working at the former RAF BASE

    YOU REALLY CAN’T MAKE THIS SHIT UP

    Full footage slowed down here ⬇️

  55. Canada’s woke nightmare is a vision of Britain’s future. 29 August 2023.

    Under Justin Trudeau, Canada has sought to position itself as the global bastion of progressive politics. In my latest Telegraph documentary, seen above, I went to the former British colony to find out how Canadians are dealing with Trudeau’s radical reforms; from the promotion of gender ideology in schools and the mass legalisation of drugs, to his extreme new suicide laws and clamp downs on freedom of speech.
    I began my investigation in one of the country’s most liberal cities, Vancouver.

    Possession of up to 2.5 grams of hard drugs, including heroin, cocaine and fentanyl, has been legalised in the city as part of a three year experiment which began in January of this year. If the aim was to combat the opioid crisis that already beset the city then it appears there is still much to be done as vast tent sites line the streets, patrolled by roaming zombie-like drug addicts.

    As we filmed on Hastings Street, infamous as the epicentre of Vancouver’s homelessness crisis, I witnessed a topless man shoot a needle into his arm five feet from me. Though it wasn’t quite as bad as San Francisco, where my cameraman and I came under attack from angry vagrants, the scenes were still shocking.

    It’s not just the homeless who patrol the streets of Vancouver. Chris Elston, better known online as Billboard Chris, campaigns against the imposition of gender ideology on children, whether through Canada’s education system or via dangerous operations to “transition” young adults. As his nickname suggests, Chris walks around Vancouver wearing signs protesting gender ideology, encouraging lively debates with passers-by which he puts on YouTube.

    Chris kindly allowed our crew to join him on a walkabout, where we found many Canadians horrified by the use of puberty blockers in children and the promotion of biological men in women’s sports.

    We did encounter some opposition of course, mostly through the odd shout or flicking of the finger. So much for Canadian politeness.

    One aggressive gentleman, tall, ageing and angry, began a tirade against Chris with the rather bizarre singular message that he is “queer”.

    For those who do question gender ideology there can be severe consequences. We spoke to a nurse, Amy Hamm, who faces losing her licence to practise after two members of the public complained about a poster she pit up pledging support for the gender-critical author J K Rowling.

    The promotion of transgenderism in Canadian schools has led to a fierce backlash from some parents, not least from some of the country’s ethnic minority communities. While multiculturalism has become a key pillar of Justin Trudeau’s vision of Canadian identity, not everyone fits in with his mould of the enlightened immigrant.

    In Toronto, I caught up with a family originally from India to discuss their experiences of modern Canada. Neerunjun, a social worker fired by his company for refusing to take the Covid vaccine, discussed how his eight-year-old son was asked to wear the opposite sex’s clothes for a school day promoting cross-dressing. He let his child have a day off instead of submitting to such woke indulgence.

    Part of Canada’s social revolution can also be witnessed in its extreme new euthanasia laws. In 2016, the ruling Liberal Party passed legislation enabling assisted suicide for terminally ill Canadians. Next year the legislation will be expanded to include those with mental health problems. As Christianity declines across Canada, and the liberal obsession with “bodily autonomy” and “personal freedom” reaches its logical conclusion, a new dystopia is forming. As Dr Konia Trouton, a euthanasia advocate, told me, “we are an organised society but within that organisation we have to allow some freedoms and opportunities, this is not a communist system where we can try and reign that in”. The campaign group Euthanasia Prevention Coalition estimates that 13,500 people chose state-assisted suicide last year.

    For a nation to be truly woke, it must have its own narrative of oppression. In America, activists focus on the country’s history of slavery and racist laws. In Britain, they focus on the Empire. In Canada, where historically there were very few black people, the nation’s story of guilt centres on a so-called genocide against its indigenous population. Supporters of this narrative point to the discovery of hundreds of disturbances in the earth around an Indian residential school in Kamloops, which is supposedly evidence of a mass grave site.

    However, no bodies have ever been found and many question the idea of a genocide as being at best an exaggeration and at worst a total fabrication. We interviewed a man who questioned the genocide story, and was fired from his job as a teacher as a result. Canada’s Justice Minister David Lametti has said he is open to punishing those who deny the indigenous genocide narrative, similar to bans on Holocaust denialism.

    To prevent wokeism from spreading it is important to have a strong opposition party. Canada’s Conservatives have been historically weak in pushing back against Trudeau, however, their recently elected leader, Pierre Poilievre, has injected fresh energy into the party. Whilst there are some who still question Poillievre’s conservative credentials, his strategy seems to be working; one recent poll gave his party a twelve point lead over Trudeau’s Liberals.

    However, the most successful opponents to Canada’s social revolution have so far not been politicians but members of the public. Our film highlights some of these brave individuals, including Dr Jordan Peterson, perhaps the most high-profile Canadian in the world other than the country’s leader.

    During my travels I found ordinary people appalled at Canada’s surrender to drug dealers, its contempt for freedom of speech, its enforcement of gender ideology on children and a breezy willingness to terminate the lives of its own citizens. However, for all the depressing stories of people losing their jobs, or being hounded by the government, these cases were equally inspirational. Whilst Canada is a warning to the West, there are also individual messages of hope from those brave individuals fighting for their freedom.

    I thought that was worth reading in it’s entirety though the author’s title premise is wrong. It will be much worse here!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/08/29/canadas-woke-nightmare-is-a-vision-for-britains-future/

          3. Butt..butt..we Geordies would say tab…as in ‘just lobbin’ his tab-end ower the battlements’!

  60. Two women jailed for torturing and killing pet parrot in Carlisle. 29 August 2023.

    Two women who tortured and killed a friend’s pet parrot during a lengthy drinking session have been jailed by a judge who described their cruelty as “beyond comprehension”.

    A court heard that Tracy Dixon, 47, and Nicola Bradley, 35, sprayed Sparky the female African grey parrot with Mr Muscle oven cleaner, daubed it with gloss paint and tried to feed it to a dog. They later threw it in a tumble dryer that was turned on.

    Both women blamed the other. Judge Archer, sitting at Carlisle crown court on Tuesday, jailed them for 25 months each and said Dixon and Bradley had “together, sadistically tortured and essentially killed Sparky. It is frankly beyond comprehension how anyone could treat an animal in this way.”

    The court heard the two women had been collected after a night out by their friend Paul Crooks, Sparky’s owner, on 30 July last year. He took them to his Carlisle home at about 5.30am and as the women carried on drinking, Crooks went to bed.

    Drunken sadism!

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/aug/29/two-women-jailed-torturing-killing-pet-parrot-carlisle

    2. Jesus! Nasty bitches. I hope they burn in hell. Poor parrot. That’s really upsetting. Love a West African Grey, me.

    3. Sorry about the parrot but they let muslims who rape people off with suspended sentences.
      No justice for those who are raped..

  61. Bogey Five today.

    Wordle 801 5/6
    ⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩
    ⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩
    ⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩
    ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Par four here

      Wordle 801 4/6

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

    2. Boring par

      Wordle 801 4/6

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

    3. Par today.

      Wordle 801 4/6

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

    4. Similar problem. Par four.

      Wordle 801 4/6

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

      1. 375807+ up ticks,

        Evening C,

        Correct, they do, I believe become
        “refugees” in many peoples minds
        when a General Election draws near
        to salve peoples mindsets when supporting a governing party, again.

  63. What a day. I slept OK but was still awake at 6 and down here by 7. Yes, it does take me that long to dress!
    Sister in law came again and I asked her if she’d help wash my hair. Brought in a wheely stool to bathroom and figured out how to go about it. I stood up to get closer and sit on stool and the stool shot away from me and I landed on the hard floor- 2 more inches and I would have cracked my skull open- yuk.
    There are scaffolders outside so I suggested to s-i-l that she asked one to come in and help her get me up, which he did. Put your arm round my neck and I’ll get you up, which he did. Very nice bloke called Dan and I was never so glad to get to my chair. No side effects but my face really hurts.
    District nurse Thursday and I will tell her I want this sorted. It is causing inbalance and other things and I need to get on with life. Sorry to to bore you all but have to download now and again.

        1. Just take things as easy as you can. One day at a time. KBO. I hope you are still able to have a glass of suitable medicine of an evening.

    3. Ooh! Care, Ann.
      Not the right way to go round picking up younger men, however muscly!

      1. Not optimal, given the shock, pain and inelegance (sorry, Ann – poor you!), but you have to admit that it’s effective…

    4. If a regular like you cannot offload here, Nottle will have taken a turn for the worse.

      Glad to read it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.

    7. We all have to let off steam now and again, or in some cases again and again, so keep blowing up whenever you want.

    8. You are not boring us at all, Ann….we all need a good place to yell and scream at life from time to time, so keep on with the ranting!!!

        2. You do ! Just being here allows me to let off steam, and Eddy,you have been through more than I.
          Thanks pal.

    9. What a good job s-i-l was with you! And the helpful young chap outside. Good job you didn’t try the wheelie stool on your own.

      I hope you feel a bit better now. A glass of something might help.

    10. That’s what friends are for, Ann. Thank goodness you weren’t alone. Well done, Dan the Man 🙂

  64. Afternoon, all. I’m here early because I’m chairing a meeting at home tonight and thus will be otherwise engaged. I think it isn’t just the ULEZ that is turning Londonistan into a ghost town. Who, given a choice, would go somewhere violence is part and parcel of living there?

    I see Ofcom is putting out applications for limited licences as Ramadamadingdong is ahead. That is not “religious purposes”, that is ideology. Alas, no comments are allowed, just like Sunak’s propaganda about cleaning up the anti-social behaviour on social media. Words, spin and sod all effectiveness.

    1. It’s what I call corporate mas*erbation. It makes the individual feel wonderful warm inside but does sweet bugger all for everyone else.

  65. That’s me gone. A grey day all day. Time for medicine.

    Have a jolly evening.

    A demain.

  68. So my car’s fallen foul of Ulez,
    The charge was a kick in the goolies,
    All down to the Mayor,
    Said he wanted clean air
    Then half-inched all our spondoolies.

    2. I bought my BEV because I refuse to lose my vehicular freedom by facing the possibility of being charged for visiting my parental home in South London where I was born in 1943. I survived the bombs, V1s and V2s so I think I deserve the freedom to visit my birthplace.

        1. When the dust settlrs I shall be more than likely be dust myself.
          At the moment I can see at least two years without having to pay for road tax or oing for an MOT and never having to queue up at a filling station ever again whilst only paying 5% fuel duty.

        2. ALL vehicles will be charged. The whole Greater London area will become one huge congestion zone.

    1. One for a sorrow …

      There are so many around here that I counted six (for gold) on the journey to and from Nantwich on Sunday.

  71. My word I’ve just about recovered from my days toil. Because the forecast this morning was rain later. I set up the mower on low cut.
    Two ups and two downs and the catcher box was full. Compost bins now full. I was absolutely knackered. But no rain !
    I cut up a pile of previously pruned small branches all dried and hard to cut, uncovered the fire pit cut it all up into smaller pieces and piled it up. With my blow lamp to sart It, it went up like Pudding Lane. Two nice glasses of Australian shiraz. And feet up.
    I’ll bid you all goodnight and plan to be back in the morning.
    😊🤗

    1. I’m glad I don’t have to do all those buttons up! With my arthritic fingers and thumbs it would take me a day to get dressed!

  73. Blimey- computer just through one hell of a wobbler. Hopefully sorted now but I won’t ask you to hold your breath!
    Just had a nice chat with old school chum- she is off to Eire in a week with her Irish husband, she loves it there, the scenery especially.
    Won’t be up much later.

  75. Well, chums, I’m off to bed now. Good night to you all and sleep well. See you all tomorrow.

  76. I had a bid on the Notting Hill carnival – 25 stabbings. It was part of an accumulator of rapes and drug arrests – within 2.

    I was so far out it was shameful. Over 40 stabbings. The bloke who did win apparently walked off with about £2000 on a stake of £20.

    1. The stabbings are horrific; the upvote is for the black humour of the authorities encouraging this event and turning a blind eye to the annual carnage and disruption, and pretending it’s all just fun.

    1. Twentyfive years ago when we lived in a multi-kulti paradise it was already known that each group went to a member of their own ethnicity when asking for a council house.

  81. I’ll say goodnight and God bless, Gentlefolk, even if at 04:00 it’s too late to go to actual bed. Bis speiter .

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