Tuesday 4 February: Donald Trump should reconsider his destabilising trade threats

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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471 thoughts on “Tuesday 4 February: Donald Trump should reconsider his destabilising trade threats”

  3. Good morning, chums. I've been up since 3 am, so will now go back to bed.

    Wordle 1,326 4/6

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    1. Hope you get some refreshing sleep.
      Wordle 1,326 4/6

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      1. Lucky three today

        Wordle 1,326 3/6

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  4. Donald Trump should reconsider his destabilising trade threats

    Not while we are all enjoying it so much

  5. 401044+ up ticks,

    Morning GG & Each,
    For once I do agree with the letter, he could really open up with a political killing salvo, but up ro now "whats not to like" among decent folk.

    Tuesday 4 February: Donald Trump should reconsider his destabilising trade threats

  7. Trump says he will cut off funding to South Africa over land ‘confiscations’. 4 February 2025.

    Donald Trump has claimed South Africa is “confiscating” land and “treating certain classes of people very badly”, announcing he is cutting off all future funding to the country pending an investigation.

    Yes. He means White South Africans.

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/03/donald-trump-cutting-funding-south-africa-land-confiscations-cyril-ramaphosa

    2. Ever since DH Wilsons interference in Rhodesia Southern Africa has slowly but surely been slipping down the social and political drain.
      And this is exactly what our more recent labour political idiots have been carrying out in our own country.
      Destroying long established culture and our socal structure. But during the last period of tory leadership they have been at it as well. Our country is now a far more dangerous place to live in.

        1. Oh yes he wrecked thousands of people’s lives in Africa Rhodesia once the bread basket for thousands, but because they were white. Quite often born there.
          As were some lovely people I met on the ship heading to Cape Town.
          And South Africa was next.

    1. Patrick Christy and his panel were really going for it on GBNews last night.
      Even the Labour representative was not impressed: his take was that Stoma should admit to the failure and clear the air.
      Good Moaning, JN.

      2. It seems he wasted his money.
        Other people's money, it would have been claimed on expenses.

    3. Seems to me people are missing the point. The point is that Starmer had no compunction in arranging this meeting with someone who was supposedly under lockdown. So, as usual, do as I say not as I do.

      Every time I read about the utterly ludicrous rules and regulations imposed on us all during the scamdemic it makes me seethe. I hope when this happens again people are not going to bow down and do as they’re told. I notice they’re trying to scare us all with Mpox all over again and doling out injections.

      1. We did not bow down no tests no vax or boosters. They will queue up again to take any vax the government tells them to. Why so many took an unproven not fully tested vacine is a total unbelievable event. The world went mad.

        1. MOH did, for two. I tried and tried to persuade him not to, but in the end it's his body. I'm in the control group of not vaxed – and now never will, whatever any future vax is for.

        2. MOH did, for two. I tried and tried to persuade him not to, but in the end it's his body. I'm in the control group of not vaxed – and now never will, whatever any future vax is for.

    5. Voice coaching didn't work, in even is case. He still sounds like the dullest robot ever invented (not that anyone would admit to inventing one like him).

  10. Totally silly question that came to me as I drifted off last night.
    Carmen rollers – those large and heavy chunks of plastic that we heated up and then stuck in all over our bonce to produce "Big Hair".
    They weighed a ton; how did we keep them in situ while the red hot core did its job?
    I cannot remember for the life of me.

    2. My mother ad a set with big clips to put around them.
      I remember the rollers and the clips were colour coded by size.

    5. The Warqueen fiddles with her hair continually. One month it's straight, the next wavy, then curly. She knows I like it when she grows it and puts in it those loose ringlets and as a consequence avoids that.

      She critiqued my just shaving mine off when it got to privet hedge levels. Apparently I should 'style it'. As someone with no style whatsoever, I found this a bit silly.

        1. The powers that really be want him there. So he will stay, regardless.

          The powers that really be wanted Johnson distanced from the covid scene asap, so cake did the trick.

    2. What's even more worrying, who is actually behind his reasons for becoming leader of the Labour party.
      There is something strange about all this. Something lurking in the undergrowth. Possibly both beginning with the letter B.

  12. Latest Breaking News

    The NHS is under severe pressure at A&E departments, after a huge nationwide outbreak of Long TDS among the left-wing community

    1. In the doctors yesterday there were about 8 people waiting. 2 Chinese, 3 middle easterners and a baby, 2 black folk, me and another woman. Prior to that a Polish chap had come in.

      The problem with the NHS is evident in that single example. Too many foreigners.

      2. Oh but we need foreigners because they staff the NHS and do all the other jobs that the British won't do… cobblers.

        1. "…do all the other jobs that the British won't do because they receive too much on the dole."

  15. Now that is a trade partnership.
    Marco Rubio says El Salvador's president has offered to accept deportees from the U.S. of any nationality as well as violent American criminals now imprisoned in the United States.

    No, they will not be housed in the country's Travelodges & Holiday Inns.

  17. 401044+ up ticks,

    But this must not alter the fact if it is considered by the masses to be an act of terrorism that the party is in dire need of the incoming small boat peoples to boost party numbers AND, act as a politico's protective force
    when finally the shite does hit the fan as it must do when the number of dead FINALLY becomes unacceptable to the peoples

    https://x.com/SandraWeeden/status/1886667559040106586

    1. Morning Ogga

      Comment on Twitter I liked

      UNN
      @UnityNewsNet
      ·
      10h
      So many kids being stabbed in Britain you have a template now for these messages.

      1. Getting close there Derek.. on who to blame.
        They have a name; The Progressive Liberal Marxist.

    3. Of course, the killer isn't named yet – black or muslim? The Warqueen always chooses black whenever there's trouble and she's won most of the time.

      2. Albania is just about majority Muslim, pretty much white, and Omar tends to be a Muslim name, so where's your money on this one?

  18. UK to take in 10,000 refugees under a new "refugee visa"..

    The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Refugees claimed more safe and legal routes are the only way to prevent more people dying in the English Channel.

    2. The way to stop them dying in the channel is to ensure they never get here in the first place by returning them to France. If France won't 'take them', say tough, and send a gunboat. Keep them out, get rid of the vermin here. If they keep coming, start shooting them.

    4. 401044+up ticks,

      Morning KB,

      That would be at the expense of more children dying in schools then, the current lab/lib/con coalition & supporters would go for that.

    5. If people didn't try to get into this country, none of them would die in the attempt. That is the ONLY way. They won't stop coming across in little boats just because we are stupid enough to let more in another way.

  19. Macron’s brigade shows how not to fight in Ukraine. 4 February 2025.

    Announced during D-Day commemorations in Normandy last June by Emmanuel Macron, the brigade was given the finest French military instructors and weaponry at a cost of more than €900 million.

    But before the 155th ever fired a shot in anger, it was dogged with scandals and claims of rampant mismanagement. At least 1,700 troops had gone AWOL, including dozens in France, its commander had been fired, and it was fast becoming a major headache for both Volodymyr Zelensky and Macron.

    One cannot but suspect that this is an insight into the sentiments of the ordinary Ukie conscripts.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/02/04/emmanuel-macron-ukraine-brigade-how-not-to-fight-russia/

  21. 401044+ up ticks,

    Public health & safety well meant ADVICE,

    Beef and lamb to be phased out by 2030 may one suggest that we take out the WEF/NWO/RESET criminal cartel bastards by
    6.30 pm , at the latest

    1. They made energy horrifically expensive solely to force people to use less, they're doing the same with meat.

      Of course, the troughers won't lose out.

      2. The sheep will start to dissappear as usual from farmers fields by the end of February.
        Not long ago several unused carcass were found in the mid Hertfordshire areas.

    3. The Saudis are not stopping drilling oil, they are just going to sell it to China and India instead of the West.
      I wonder whether similar will happen with meat.
      The Russians are ramping up farming.

  22. In Memoriam.

    Well Tom has left us. May he find the peace that has eluded him these last few troubled years.

    RIP. No to Nanny.

    2. Did Tom serve in the RAF?
      Although the words originally refer to Agincourt (England 1 France 0), whenever one of a group leaves the stage I whisper:
      "We few, we happy few, we band of brothers…".

  23. Gold about to reach another all time high in London trading.
    $2830 per oz in Asian session.

    1. Performance art is what Democrats do.

      No no no.. stop it.. he's lidderally a fascist.
      Angry Dem Lawmakers been locked out of the USAID headquarters in Washington, amid efforts to get in and investigate what's going on..

      Hit fast. Hit hard. Hit first.
      Bruce Lee/ Dominic Cummings.

    2. Performance art is what Democrats do.

      No no no.. stop it.. he's lidderally a fascist.
      Angry Dem Lawmakers been locked out of the USAID headquarters in Washington, amid efforts to get in and investigate what's going on..

      Hit fast. Hit hard. Hit first.
      Bruce Lee/ Dominic Cummings.

    4. All this waste is just so that some smug bureaucrats can feel good about themselves "helping" and being "charitable".

      I do not believe that our government should be paying our money to charities, particularly where taxpayers are getting tax relief on direct donations.

      Such payments, either directly or indirectly through quangos should be stopped.

      Nor do I believe that UK charities should be spending money overseas unless it is very clear that the charity is set up to do so.

      1. I do wonder about the massive proliferation of "charidees", many of which seem to have identical aims/targets? For example, how does £2 per month to "Water Aid" cover anything but what must be a massive advertising campaign as the blasted advert seems to be on multiple times every evening!?

      2. I do wonder about the massive proliferation of "charidees", many of which seem to have identical aims/targets? For example, how does £2 per month to "Water Aid" cover anything but what must be a massive advertising campaign as the blasted advert seems to be on multiple times every evening!?

  25. Morning all 🙂😊
    Same old outside grey and damp but a bit less chilly.
    I think I have broken the record, 13 hours sleep with just one 'bathroom break'. I needed that obviously.

    So sad to hear about Tom, although I'd never met him or even seen what he looked like, he seemed like an old but modern version of a Pen friend.
    Rest in peace Tom.

    1. Good morning all.
      Just seen the post about Tom from yesterday. Poor Tom, he was fighting a lot of demons towards the end. I remember him from some years ago, always providing stout resistance to socialist fckwittery. R.I.P.

      1. He was indeed fighting, poor man – we can only trust that he is in a much better and happier place now than he was.

        1. He has 'found his way home'. (Gregorian – 'I will find my way home'.) I posted it late one evening here on Nttl a couple of years or so ago – he said how much it had helped him on a Youtube post which I saw only a few month ago.
          https://youtube.com/watch?v=jyfeuRtkqgw&si=GTPYcr4t428lTkLR
          There are several versions of this on Youtube – not to mention Van Gelis – so this link may not be the one under which Tom posted.

          I am so sorry that Tom's life ended in sadness, if you have read his autobiographies you will know that he had lead a very full and interesting life. He certainly looked a distinguished and handsome gentleman. Rest in peace, Tom, and thank you for the early morning jokes, and for our little supportive chats. I hope you have found your way home, and perhaps when my time comes I will visit you, we both having found our way home – from whence we came.

    1. No – the Irish can come over here without any restrictions. Apart from that, Ireland is a route into the UK.

  27. Good morning. There are some pictures about. Think Captain Birdseye or Father Christmas.

    RIP Tom.

      1. Poor Tom ..he really suffered hugely.

        Moffat Community Support ·
        Tom Hunn ·

        ·
        I'm 78, rising 79, an articulate and educated older man, who's written his autobiography and continued it into a journal, would like to meet an older, single woman in the area, with a view to companionship and the ability to talk together. I'm currently lonely and feel isolated. Feel free to PM me.

  28. Good morning all.
    A beautiful start to the day, sunshine and 6.2°C on the thermometer.
    Yesterday's maximum actually broke into double figures with 10.2° with 5.2°C as the minimum.

    A MUCH better sleep last night. Despite waking a couple of time, I was at least able to recommence pushing the zzzz out without too much tossing and turning.
    DT & self received £250 off ERNIE, she got £175 and I got £75.

      1. Neither an oik nor a slammer, he has encouraged his children to be brought up as Jewish. (with a seafood escape clause)
        I often wonder if the reason was to enable them to attend a good local school.

        1. Not an oik? Just listen: https://youtu.be/WUyMHjXufDw
          "Slammer" was the sobriquet I gave him a couple of years ago. He just loves slammers, anyway – just look at the way he cosies up to them….

          And as for your second sentence….words fail me. AS IF he'd do anything so dastardly as to get his children a better start in life than most oiks' children!!

          1. 'Oik' is an insufficient portrayal of the cretin. Any correct descriptions should be preferably using words of four letters.

    2. I find it deeply offensive that Starmer, at the expense of taxpayers, should be tucking into lobster.

      In fact this epitomises the Labour's Party's socialist philosophy: "Grab what you can for yourself and let the plebs starve and freeze."

      Incidentally shellfish is neither kosher nor halal so at occasions like this EU beano on what do Jews and Muslims – if you'll pardon the expression – pig themselves?

      1. The lobster looks like a revolting sci-fi monster and I think it's the only time I've seen TTK smile.

        1. Does one actually smile whilst tucking into lobster? It is a bit of a struggle with little instruments for winkling out the meat – I did wonder if it were an Al.

        2. TTK looks like a revolting sci-fi monster and i think it's the only time I've seen the lobster smile.

    3. Although i have seen this on my phone for some unknown reason the link does not appear on my PC screen ?
      There are no words that will help this young lads family, only action and a full clear out of all of these illegal invaders.

    4. A misquote but apt, "You vill own nuzzing, you vill eat ze bugs und you vill be happy".

  30. Must feel like the nightmare is over for the good people of America..

    Oh no scream Lefties.. more Executive Orders signed off in front of reporters.
    Unlimited water for CA.
    Mark Burnett special envoy to the UK to sort out Starmer.
    Ending war in Ukarine.
    US Sovereign Wealth Fund monetising US assets for American citizens including TikTok.
    Elon Musk full access to payment system.. "some of the numbers he found $100 million on condoms to Hamas.. tremendous waste & corruption fraud."
    OMG Rupert Murdoch in the Oval Office.

  31. Must feel like the nightmare is over for the good people of America..

    Oh no scream Lefties.. more Executive Orders signed off in front of reporters.
    Unlimited water for CA.
    Mark Burnett special envoy to the UK to sort out Starmer.
    Ending war in Ukarine.
    US Sovereign Wealth Fund monetising US assets for American citizens including TikTok.
    Elon Musk full access to payment system.. "some of the numbers he found $100 million on condoms to Hamas.. tremendous waste & corruption fraud."
    OMG Rupert Murdoch in the Oval Office.

    1. I hope Mark Burnett can sort out Starmer. We can certainly do with someone putting him on the straight and narrow path to sanity.

  33. Angela Rayner to set rules on Islam and free speech
    Ex-Tory Dominic Grieve tipped to head up advisory council but critics warn ‘blasphemy’ law could be created
     https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/02/03/angela-rayner-set-rules-islam-free-speech-dominic-grieve/

    Dominic Grieve is one of the most odious men ever to represent the Conservatives as an MP. He is completely against any form of democracy and was even deselected before the 2019 general election because he was so determined to reject the people's vote in the Brexit referendum. Indeed, he was one of those at the very root of the decay and sheer unpleasantness of the Conservative Party

    Elected as a Conservative, Grieve had the Conservative whip removed in the September 2019 suspension of rebel Conservative MPs. He unsuccessfully stood as an independent candidate in Beaconsfield at the 2019 general election.

    The fact that he has been selected to head Angela Rayner's council which will doubtless be determined to kill free speech should be a matter of very grave concern to us all. He has doubtless been selected for the sheer intensity of his nastiness as well as his fanatical anti-Brexit views

    1. Richard,

      I cannot remember anything like a blasphemy law in the Labour manifesto.

      What on earth is going on ..

      Dominic Grieve KC developed an extensive Common Law practice including in particular Health & Safety.

      He took silk in 2008 and has been a Bencher of the Middle Temple since 2004.

      From 1997 to 2019 he was MP for Beaconsfield and was Attorney General of England and Wales and Advocate General for Northern Ireland from 2010-2014.

      He was Chair of the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament from 2015-2019.

      His work as Attorney General has been in the field of Public and Constitutional Law with cases in the Supreme Court, European Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights. He has recently completed a review of governance for Islamic Relief Worldwide, a leading humanitarian charity. He is a visiting professor in Law, Politics and Human Rights at Goldsmiths, London University and a member of the Northern Ireland Bar.

      1. It is very difficult to decide who is the more odious: Dominic Grieve or Chris Bryant. A friend of ours who used to be a secretary for an MP says that both of these horrible people are afflicted with the most malodorous halitosis.

        1. So, me thinking the impossible , was he also in league with Starmer re the Rwandan exiles , and in particular in cahoots with Blair and his wife re the silence over the the Rwandan war crime migrants , who were given sanctuary here in the UK ..

          Remembering the appalling massacre of the little girls at the dancing school , which has now been shoved to the back of the drawer .. no discussions allowed on the why's and wherefores of the deeper matter of his parents ?

        2. The daughter of a good friend of mine was a secretary to a Conservative mp he would never tell me who the mp was, but he totally relied on her to write all his speeches.
          She's free now, so I'll ask him again next time I see him.

          1. No, T it’s just wishful thinking.
            It’s his job to take care of our country.
            But he clearly doesn’t understand that.

          2. It’s the most important part of the job for a monarch. Protecting the rights of the people.
            Oh hang on …….I don’t think he’s on our side at all.

      3. So it's not in their manifesto? – They got a resounding endorsement for CHANGE in the last election, dontyaknow everybody. So they are doing CHANGE.

        The country (well actually, not the country) voted for evil – we just didn't know it.

      4. So it's not in their manifesto? – They got a resounding endorsement for CHANGE in the last election, dontyaknow everybody. So they are doing CHANGE.

        The country (well actually, not the country) voted for evil – we just didn't know it.

    2. Of course they want a blasphemy law. They’ve been pushing for it since before the original one was repealed. They wanted islam included.

    1. There are some photo ops that should be avoided. The idiot should have known that was one of them.

      1. 401044+ up ticks,

        Afternoon DB,
        I totally agree but, would a confirmed idiot ?
        I must partake of a few Guinness and ponder the question you have triggered.

  35. Grieve's father – also an MP and QC – was an absolute shit. Like father, like son, I suppose.

  36. 401044+ up ticks,

    Regarding people power,
    What would be the outcome of a mass united rejection of the 10% council tax rise, joint reasons being other bills, dealing with life threatening issues as in food, energy, medication, being of more importance.

    While on the subject can we review the councillors rates of pay and perks / pensions, asking "are we the victims getting value for our monies"
    https://x.com/LeilaniDowding/status/1886709623639429223

  37. There is a restaurant in our part of Brittany which serves excellent fruits de mer. A mere napkin is not enough – it is advisable to wear a bib to protect one's clothes.

    When my dear father was my age I suggested that he wore a pelican bib with a built-in tray so that he could recover and enjoy any loose chewings later. My mother vetoed this suggestion and said it was not appropriate for his dignity. Be that as It may Caroline has made me some cotton bibs to wear around my neck when I an eating potentially messy food.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/146f4b663ab1ac2c58067815ce70160e3a87b3bc19390205b64b57cc9884db1c.png

    1. Well you know , we all tucked serviettes into our necks at lunchtime.. I remember my father, uncles and of course Moh did so to keep their shirts and ties clean .

      When I was nursing we did that at mealtimes to keep our dresses clean , and woe betide if our aprons became soiled because we had to go back to the nurses quarters to change into a clean one .

      Things are different now .

  38. You visited him?

    Well done , and I fear that many of us will feel wretched and helpless remembering his distress and plight .. when all he wanted was a cuddle and contact with his family and Judy .

    1. Yes Belle, I met up with Tom, Geoff the big boss, and Richard on a couple of occasions for lunch in Moffat! It was a lorra laffs and will be remembered with great affection!

    1. I was pleased to see that Trump has stopped foreign aid to South Africa since Cyril Ramaphosa has signed the bill confiscating white farmers land. He didn't quite come out and say it but he made it clear he knew the bill was a cover for what he called: "Terrible things going on." In other words genocide against white South Africans. He should and we should extend refugee status to all white South Africans. But I doubt that we would ever do it, our government is far to craven to admit genocide is happening in South Africa.

      1. Clearly our government is happy with the dregs of Islam and not hard working white South African farmers.

        Of course we know why. The government under WEF want to destroy farming in the UK.

        Russia has offered to take them.

        1. Yes Pip. There are plenty of farmers but there are also people of every profession and non who live in fear, under siege in South Africa, in the suburbs. Forced to live in fortified houses because they would be murdered in their beds if they failed to do so. No one, as far as I'm aware, is offering them refuge.

    1. They really are extracting the urine on this aren’t they.
      P155ing our money down the drain.

    4. 50 Mill.. that could go a long way to make up the loss of $100 million spent on condoms sent to Hamas.. that Musk just cancelled.

    5. Rik: So that's the thick end of £96,000 for DEI Comms and Marketing! What the hell are they doing MARKETING this cr@p?

      And 6x Positive Action Ambassadors – what in the name of Fortune are THEY doing??

      They certainly have become a Police FARCE. and I bet this is replicated in the other 38 English and 4 Welsh Territorial Police Forces, plus the 3 Special Polices Forces. I thought they were called Police Services nowadays.

      1. The positive action ambassadors are making sure no nasty whitey, no matter how well qualified, gets employed.

  41. Morning All! Not Sunny but not cold. So that's nice.

    I criticised Queen Elizabeth last week because people are awfully fond of criticising King Charles. But, as I explained, you can point to his mother for that. She may have been much loved etc but she was utterly useless as a Constitutional Monarch. Easy to be much loved when you never do anything to defend the institution of the monarchy but let its powers atrophy. So was rather pleased to see this morning that David Starkey backs me up. Here is the video.
    How The British Monarchy Is Busy Destroying Itself
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5D0A1kEKFQ&list=TLPQMDQwMjIwMjU3Dvynf139Sw&index=1

    1. I always thought that part of the reason she was loved because she just kept quiet, was inoffensive, and smiled – while this country and its people were allowed to go to the dogs. She appear to treat the Commonwealth and its people as a favourite toy, never mind what that did to her own country.

      1. Exactly Hertslass. She only tried once to speak up as a Constitutional Monarch, that failed, and she never spoke up again.

    2. There is another aspect of being "British" – in this country we may feel British but most of us feel that we are English, Welsh, Scottish (and N Irish – but that does not go back nearly as far). To have to put up with eg. obviously African second-generation immigrants, (like the race-baiter who trapped Lady Hussey) who claim that they are as British as others who have been in this country for generations, is an insult.

      British passports are handed out like plastic flowers were decades ago, with packets of cornflakes or whatever. The people who are doing the handing out are not indigenous – of course not, they want more of their own (or at least not us) in this country. It stinks to high heaven.

      1. It irritates the hell out of me that no official document will accept ‘English’ as a nationality!

      2. As far as I’m concerned there are the native English, Scots, and Welsh. The rest are British but they are not native to this country.

  44. Keir Starmer has broken the special relationship
    Under Donald Trump, the United States is more pro-Brexit than the British Government
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/comment/2025/02/04/keir-starmer-has-broken-the-special-relationship/

    BTL

    The right in UK politics must unite but this will only be achieved :

    i) if the left of centre Conservatives join the Lib/Dems;

    ii) if the right of centre Conservatives ally with The Reform Party under the leadership of Lowe and Farage.

    1. But the right in the UK won't. The Lib/Dems are such a joke that anyone leftie Tory wants the (self-perceived) gravitas of being in the Conservative party.

      Edit: plus, in many conservative people's view right of centre Tories are still tarred with the Conservative party brush. Their sense of entitlement will make them want to lead any alliance.

    2. Hallo Rastus. The Right, whatever that means since, in my opinion. they are just more moderate socialists, might as well join with Farage. He will do nothing other than preen as the leader of the Conservatives, which is really what he wants to be. At least, it will see the Labour Party sent packing for a couple of more decades. But the 'right' will do nothing about the real problem that this country faces, the increasing and final domination of the UK by Islam well before 2035.

      3. A question has just occurred to me: NATO stands for North Atlantic Treat Organisation, what words do OTAN stand for? Can any NoTTLers help me?

  47. That took some finding!
    Wordle 1,326 4/6
    ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
    ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨
    ⬜⬜🟩⬜🟨
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. What have our political idiots done the our country.
      I remember a while back watching a similar demonstration with the same vile banners aimed at the Israeli embassy in London with a police escort

        1. All this invasion nonsense was probably planned years ago TB, there seems to be no going back. The last government could have stopped the boats. And as it continues it’s pretty obvious to me that this is why the “they’ confiscated privately own guns. I’m quite sure there would have been quite a few bodies around if they hadn’t.

  49. Michael Deacon — Way Of The World.

    No one under the age of 30 will believe me. But when I was a student, all the way back in the late 1990s, my university had an LGB Society.
    No, there wasn’t a letter missing. That, in full, was the society’s name. Because in those days, everyone used to say “LGB”. There was no such thing as “LGBT”. So, if you’d knocked on the society’s door and asked, “Where’s the T?”, its members would probably have pointed you down the corridor to the café.

    And if you’d said, “No, T as in ‘transgender’. Why does your sign only say ‘LGB’?”, they’d probably have replied: “Because LGB stands for ‘lesbian, gay and bisexual’ – which are all forms of sexuality. Transgenderism, by contrast, has nothing to do with sexuality. It’s to do with gender identity, which is something completely different and unrelated. Having a society for ‘lesbians, gays, bisexuals and trans people’, therefore, makes no more sense than having a society for ‘lesbians, gays, bisexuals and trainspotters’. Obviously we’ve got nothing against trainspotters. We’re just saying that there’s no logical reason for them to be added to the name of our society.”

    Still, as I say, this was all a terribly long time ago. At some point, in the years since, things changed. Suddenly it was no longer acceptable, anywhere in the English-speaking world, to say “LGB”. A “T” had to be added, at all times, to make “LGBT”. Why? The reason is simple. Radical activists forcibly combined the two in a cynical attempt to manufacture public support for gender ideology. Most people already supported gay rights. Now they felt obliged to support both. After all, “LGBT” meant that you couldn’t support one and not the other, didn’t it?

    Activists reinforced this impression by using the mantra “No LGB without the T”, which falsely implied that gay rights were only secured in the first place thanks to the efforts of trans people. In gratitude, gay people were supposed to repay trans people by supporting all of the latter’s demands, from the right to undress in women’s changing rooms to the right to compete in the women’s Olympic weightlifting.

    At long last, though, it looks as if “LGBT” is on its way out. Under Donald Trump, the US federal government has formally ceased using the term.
    The Department of State’s website, for example, now provides gay Americans with travel advice under the heading “LGB travellers”. Not “LGBT”, or “LGBTQIA+”. Just “LGB”. Since the advice refers specifically to countries where homosexuality is illegal, saying “LGB” is only common sense.
    We may have to wait, however, for Britain’s elites to move with the times. In our schools, pupils are currently being made to celebrate an event known as “LGBT+ History Month”. A film about the alleged benefits of cross-sex hormones and chest binders (to help female teenagers look male by strapping down their breasts) will be shown to children as young as 11.

    Meanwhile, I suspect it will be quite some time yet before our national broadcaster accepts defeat, and reverts to “LGB”. Last month, in a news story on its website about the jailing of a rapist who identifies as “non-binary”, the BBC thoughtfully respected the rapist’s preferred pronouns, which are “they/them”. Apparently, “they” threatened “their” victim, a girl aged 14, with a knife.

    The day the BBC stops worrying about hurting the feelings of violent men who rape underage girls, we’ll know that sanity has finally been restored.

    Why is there a 'G' at all? The term 'gay' refers to both sexes. Lesbian refers to just one sex.

    Surely a better acronym would have been LPB for "Lesbian, Poofter and Bisexual?

    1. Why not just LG instead of LGB? The B are just being greedy.

      Anyway, a pox on all their houses.

      1. You can't have LG because that gives the XX brigade two bites of the rug and the XY contingent just one bite of the pillow.

        1. I couldn't give a stuff if any of them are happy or not. The fact is, I'm not happy listening to their constant propaganda.

    2. Homosexual works perfectly well and Queen Victoria was right. Women don't do that, because anyone equipped to do that is not a woman.

          1. That is precisely my point. The same with the slang word 'gay'; it refers to both male and female homos.

            To have 'gay' meaning just men, while 'lesbian' decribes women is absurd. Men need their own word that describes just them. 'Quare' [©Paul Whitehouse and Harry Enfield] would be a good 'un.👍🏻

    3. As I've often pointed out, there's a world of difference between LGB and LGBT. One comprises people who find themselves on the other bus, the other is just an excuse for deviants and kiddie-fiddlers to meddle in normal lives.

      A question often asked, why don't these deviants read books to groups in old peoples' homes instead of insisting on blighting the lives of young children?

        1. Exactly! Much like when the trustifarians sought to stop a commuter train (Canning Town?) and got a thumping from angry passengers for their troubles, they know to stay in the safe (plod protected) lane.

    4. Trudeau is still pushing his 2SLGBTQI+ classification.

      no I don't know what the acronym stands for and to be honest, I don't give a damn.

      1. There are two classes of people who believe in that crap:
        1. Those who have an avowed intent to control and deceive;
        2. Those who are irredeemably stupid and clueless.

    6. People gradually became more accepting about LGB. But Stonewall saw the money drifting away, so they looked for something else to keep the money coming in.

  50. 401044 + up ticks,

    Funny old world, I was just thinking the same about humans, and I really do not believe cats kill each other to any great extent.

    Dt,

    The SNP says it won’t cancel cats. But would it be such a bad idea?
    While our feline friends are great company, their proclivity for maiming wildlife is cause for concern

    1. Wolverhampton, you say. My ears have pricked up. One of the first towns (cities) whose “diversity” tipped it to “global majority” population, so i was always told.

  53. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/510bfdd8bac4d46b87db9310f5e9a63ba198419f0307b8f76ca54022c72142e5.jpg For all you crossword enthusiasts (including Spikey).

    Back in 2000 I was invited to become one of the editorial team on a newspaper brought out at Norwich Airport where I was a screening supervior. This rag was entitled (imaginatively) LIFT OFF but it only lasted two editions before the airport management pulled the plug on it citing expense!

    One of my duties was to compile a general knowledge crossword, so I opted for just one grid pattern for each one I compiled. Since there were only two published (they were hugely popular among airport staff) I thought I would reproduce them here if anyone is interested in attempting them. I shall post the answers to this one later today and I'll post the second one tomorrow, if the interest remains.

    1. Bill T does crosswords…
      I used to but haven't for many years.
      My mother was very good at doing the DT one many years ago.

      1. When I was a boy my father and I submitted an Observer Prize Crossword and we won a book token.

        We used it to buy Garret Mattingly's The Defeat of the Spanish Armada because I was doing The Tudors and Stuarts as part of my "A" level History syllabus.

        (There is a very vivid account of the execution of Mary Queen of Scots in the book)

  54. OH has just been sorting out the bits and pieces he removed from his car before it went….. including keys….keys to what? An old rug that was a wedding present in 1969 from an old friend……

  56. Dear Tom's fight against outrageous fortune reminds me of Dylan Thomas. Tom did not go gentle:

    Do not go gentle into that good night,
    Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
    Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

    Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
    Because their words had forked no lightning they
    Do not go gentle into that good night.

    Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
    Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
    Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

    Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
    And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
    Do not go gentle into that good night.

    Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
    Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
    Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

    And you, my father, there on the sad height,
    Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
    Do not go gentle into that good night.
    Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

    1. Marvellous, another of Dylan's may have some significance….

      And death shall have no dominion.
      Dead men naked they shall be one
      With the man in the wind and the west moon;
      When their bones are picked clean and the clean bones gone,
      They shall have stars at elbow and foot;
      Though they go mad they shall be sane,
      Though they sink through the sea they shall rise again;
      Though lovers be lost love shall not;
      And death shall have no dominion.

      And death shall have no dominion.
      Under the windings of the sea
      They lying long shall not die windily;
      Twisting on racks when sinews give way,
      Strapped to a wheel, yet they shall not break;
      Faith in their hands shall snap in two,
      And the unicorn evils run them through;
      Split all ends up they shan't crack;
      And death shall have no dominion.

      And death shall have no dominion.
      No more may gulls cry at their ears
      Or waves break loud on the seashores;
      Where blew a flower may a flower no more
      Lift its head to the blows of the rain;
      Though they be mad and dead as nails,
      Heads of the characters hammer through daisies;
      Break in the sun till the sun breaks down,
      And death shall have no dominion.

      1. Echoes of one of John Donne's Holy Sonnets:

        Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
        Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;
        For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow
        Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
        From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
        Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow,
        And soonest our best men with thee do go,
        Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery.
        Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,
        And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,
        And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well
        And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then?
        One short sleep past, we wake eternally
        And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.

        1. And of course the questioning Bard:

          Shakespeare, Hamlet (1602)

          HAMLET

          To die, to sleep—
          No more—and by a sleep to say we end
          The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks
          That flesh is heir to. ’tis a consummation
          Devoutly to be wish’d. To die, to sleep—
          To sleep—perchance to dream. Ay, there’s the rub!
          For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
          When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
          Must give us pause—there’s the respect
          That makes calamity of so long life.
          For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
          The oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely,
          The pangs of disprized love, the law’s delay,
          The insolence of office, and the spurns
          That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
          When he himself might his quietus make
          With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear,
          To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
          But that the dread of something after death
          The undiscover’d country, from whose bourn
          No traveller returns, puzzles the will,
          And makes us rather bear those ills we have
          Than fly to others that we know not of?

  57. When in law

    Net Zero,Rules

    All food is chemically made,

    It is illegal to say that you are male or female

    The C of E is a proscribed organisation

    etc

    Will PackHAM change it's name to Packapill.?

      1. One for Bob and all the other Nottlers who spend much of their time felling, chopping and sawing.

    2. It will certainly harm him in the eyes of the woke lefties who insist on judging all past actions against their current twisted world views

  61. Well that was a beautiful start to the morning, but it's turned wet & cloudy now.
    At least that's 3½h done up the lime kilns after 45min of wood splitting.
    Hopefully the van will be ready to pick up from the garage this afternoon.

        1. In previous terrorist attacks by ‘unknowns’, it was often an apparent lone wolf Norwegian called Dave that captured the media/plod attention…until the inevitable truth seeped out.

    3. Seems the gunman is dead. Other injured were not children (there's an adult education centre there). Nobody else dead.
      Report from Örebro by Aftenposten.

      1. Far right English working class thugs tweeting about railway journeys? Or the dangerous extremists that refer to our capital city as "Londonistan"? All this is very hurtful to our honoured guests.

      2. American packaging. They will frequently split a one pound lump of butter into four individually wrapped sticks which as Phizzee wrote are four ounces each.

          2. I have quite enjoyed watching the Hairy Bikers travel route 66 and the people they met on the journey. They missed all the big cities and corporate shit. The people seemed happy.

            They went to mom and pop places mostly.

          3. I saw it when it first aired.

            My surname (and city) appear in the lyrics of the jazz standard 'Route 66'. Yours doesn't!🤣

          5. Some people’s heads are full of hair roots.
            Some people’s heads have brains instead.

            I’m bald so I must be of the latter.

          6. It's years of wisdom, thought and care that makes one's head grow through one's hair!

    2. Calories are utterly meaningless in weight management. Ignore them and simply concentrate in the amount (and quality) of the food you consume.

      1. I never have bothered with counting calories.

        I'm making Hairy Bikers Southern Fried Chicken tomorrow. Got the chicken in the buttermilk.

        I'm also doing their dry rub triple cooked pork the next day.

  66. Five shot at school in Sweden. 4 February 2025.

    Five people have been shot and wounded at a school in Sweden.

    The shooting took place at an adult education centre, in the city of Örebro, some 125 miles west of Stockholm, on Tuesday afternoon.

    After this was reported on the BBC news a short passage was appended to it so that the Swedish journalist could tell us that it was very nice town and that shootings and violence in Sweden are very rare.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/02/04/five-shot-insweden-school-shooting/

      1. Afternoon Phizzee. It was quite noticeable. I suspect that the editor has decided to soften the reported violence so we don't all turn far-Right. We shall soon see.

          3. Also "A broach is an abrupt, involuntary change in a vessel's course, towards the wind, resulting from loss of directional control, when the vessel's rudder becomes ineffective. This can be caused by wind or wave action" I've done a few of those!!

    2. He wants to create a good impression so that his bid for leadership is successful.

      He is a slimy oik on the make.

      1. As for the first mentioned, gunman, good. As for the second – we all in Europe need to do something about what we have here now. Not with 2TK though – he'll sell us all further down the river that politicians for the last few decades have already been selling us. In a way I'm glad I'm now the age I am; I might have done something very illegal in the past.

  70. Wordle No. 1,326 3/6

    🟩⬜⬜⬜⬜
    🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    Wordle 4 Feb 2025

    A gnashing Birdie Three?

      1. Lacoste doent post until 5 o'clock – surely everybody has done Wordle by then, and if they havent they can always avoid the site until they have?

        1. I often don't do it until around 11 pm (after I've woken up from my first sleep). Sometimes after midnight, in which case it's yesterday's.

          1. Yes but then you might miss one, aaargh the trauma!…….

            PS on a more serious note I try to avoid any puzzles later at night as they may keep my monumental brain a-whirring!!!

        3. I don’t do it at a regular time. I have asked people not to give clues before it spoils things. Why do people give clues in the first place?

          1. Well, because it’s social media – people like to discuss issues, weather, puzzles etc…

            It’s a bit of a bugbear of mine. If people really dont want to know the answer to today’s puzzles, the latest score in the football/rugby etc then it’s up to them to stay off social media until they’ve done the puzzles, watched the football/rugby match etc

            I find it strange that people think that social media should exist to suit them and their timescales – it doesnt…..

    2. Well done. Par for me.

      Wordle 1,326 4/6

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

    3. Well done, I was quite relieved to get a par!

      Wordle 1,326 4/6

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

    5. Wordle 1,326 3/6

      For once my second word came up trumps/ How the heck you got yours in three is amazing!

      ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
      🟩🟩⬜⬜🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    6. Very good, a par here.

      Wordle 1,326 4/6

      ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
      ⬜🟩⬜🟩⬜
      ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  73. A ponder. Whenever a child is murdered, the immediate comments from schools, neighbours etc is that he was a wonderful person, clever, always smiling, life and soul of his class, keen sportsman etc etc. Cue tea-lights, teddy bears, garage flahs.

    I thought that the other day when a black teenage, would-be "rapper" was murdered. Glowing tributes along the lines of the above. Then, quite soon, the reality was revealed on sochul meeja – that he was an evil toerag drug dealer – who could just as easily been the murderer (he habitually carried a "bladed weapon"….)

    Is the initial reaction normal (and I am being an old cynic) or should there be minimal public comment until the reality of the situation – and the character of the "victim" are more fully known?

    Discuss.

    2. The trouble is that "minimal public comment" excuse was the reason that 2TK had people put in chokey over Animal Axel.

    2. No wonder they decimate the vole/rat/hedgehog/ birdies when you feed them that shit.

      Give them a piece of stewing steak three times a day and some kibbles.

  75. They are now saying that 10 people were killed in the Swedish murder. Expect to learn that the perp was a "far-right extremist"….

    2. I am heartened to hear that the massacre in Sweden is not terrorism. Prolly just a little worrying, I imagine, as the unnamed gunman went about his killing. Dont suppose those who downplayed this incident were anywhere near the site. I would be terrified if a madman in my vicinity was wasting random people.

    4. I just watched a local Swedish journalist say that the police were searching his home, so they know very well who dunnit, just a question of why. I believe some Reform UK leaflets have been found amongst his Nazi regalia and belongings.

  76. Mr Sensible
    6 HRS AGO
    Let me bet that the Blair millions, the Brown millions, The Starmer millions, The Reeves millions, The Milliband millions. . . . Are all already in Trust and will attract NO inheritance tax
    This is probably why Liar Reeves kept the loophole in the budget.
    Reeves household income is over £400,000 a year yet she thinks we should pay inheritance tax for the audacity of having a home combined with life savings and everything we possess worth more than £325,000 as this makes us what she calls the “Wealthy Elite” !!!
    Her husband earns £175,000 as a civil servant! She gets £159,000 as a Cabinet minister, making a total income of £334,000. Then there is the over £70,000 a year rental income she takes in.
    Then there are the expenses and allowances that all MPs can get worth tens of thousands of pounds. Not forgetting the free clothes she has been given. Then there are the gold plated pensions for MPs and Civil Servants.
    The pigs from Orwell’s Animal Farm are doing Ok for themselves.
    Tony Benn believed in inheritance tax on our £1,000’s but made sure his millions were not subject to the 40 % inheritance tax.
    I wonder what his Labour MP son has to say about inheritance tax ?
    Gordon Browns "Office of Gordon and Sarah Brown Ltd", a company he funnels all his earnings through, and currently has about £3 million cash sitting in its accounts, would no doubt escape inheritance tax if his shares were passed to his children, under current legislation.
    And then there was the Milliband brothers changing their father’s will after he died to avoid inheritance tax.
    These are Orwell’s pigs from Animal Farm who will hammer ordinary people with inheritance tax for having a semi in the South East and some life savings but avoid it on their own millions!!!

      1. I must apologise but Ms Reeves brings out my latent vulgarity

        Rachel was an oinking pig
        And would not stop her grunting
        Until the voters had enough
        And stove her f***ing c**t in!

      2. I can’t take the credit (geddit?) for that one which was penned by one Mr Sensible6….

  77. From the DT"
    "Richard Kemp
    Russia has almost run out of armour. Putin’s men are attacking in Ladas
    Russian and Ukrainian vehicle attrition rates should be keeping our defence planners awake all night every night"

    It's a ploy so that the Ukrainians will just die laughing!

    2. What do you call a Lada convertible?

      A skip!

      Why do some Ladas have an inverted aerofoil strip across the boot?

      To make it easier to push-start them.

  78. From the DT"
    "Richard Kemp
    Russia has almost run out of armour. Putin’s men are attacking in Ladas
    Russian and Ukrainian vehicle attrition rates should be keeping our defence planners awake all night every night"

    It's a ploy so that the Ukrainians will just die laughing!

  82. The stabbing of English schoolboys by immigrants is nothing new. I can recall an incident at my school from way back in the early 1960s.

    A family of immigrants from Dominica in the Windward Islands (Lesser Antilles), called Laurent, arrived in our village, the first black family ever. Peter was my age and his brother, Paul, was a year younger. They were both immediately popular and, since they were both very good at football, soon acquired the nickname Pelé.

    Then a curious thing happened. Around a year later a third sibling, Stephen, turned up. He claimed to be of an age between Peter and Paul (which confused us since there was only a year between those two). Stephen was a different kettle of fish altogether. A loner with a miserable personality, no one got on with him despite trying. As a consequence he made no friends and most of the school turned against him and called him names, the most frequent being 'Beans' (from cocoa beans), or 'Coon' (from "Till Death Us Do Part").

    One day, after a confrontation with a classmate in the playground, he pulled out a short-bladed knife and stabbed his adversary; causing a slight cut to his torso. He was dragged before the headmaster and his explanation was, "I stab him because he call me 'Beans'." Subsequently, he was reported to the police and expelled. We never heard from him again.

  83. Not wishing to put you off your tea/supper/dinner …. but I laffed.
    Gareth Roberts in the Spekkie.

    "Either way, let us stop to enjoy the mental image of Starmer repeating that he’s merely the pheasant plucker’s mate, and that on the slitted sheet he sits."

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-voice-coach-row-reveals-how-keir-starmer-will-come-unstuck/

    "The voice coach row reveals how Keir Starmer will come unstuck

    4 February 2025, 6:01am

    The news that the Prime Minister Keir Starmer, the adenoidal android, has employed a voice coach is simply astonishing. ‘I’ll take no lectures from the party opposite,’ is one of Starmer’s most well-worn sentences. At least now we know who he will take lectures from: actress Leonie Mellinger, star of The Winters Tale and the BBC’s Bergerac, who has been helping Starmer find his voice. ‘The transformation,” she says, “has been enormous.’ Really? Even after receiving years of tuition from the classically-trained actress, Starmer’s droning voice still send me to sleep.

    Mellinger started working with Starmer in 2017, when he was shadow Brexit secretary, and their work together continued through the pandemic. The future prime minister considered Mellinger to be so important that she qualified as a “key worker” in 2020, visiting Labour headquarters in a mask on Christmas Eve in 2020 to advise Starmer.

    During that time when Boris Johnson was prime minister, Starmer acted as something of a witchfinder-general, rooting out breaches of the covid rules. He was constantly calling for Johnson and Rishi Sunak to resign. It’s worth asking whether Starmer thinks the rules applied to him, too. Either way, let us stop to enjoy the mental image of Starmer repeating that he’s merely the pheasant plucker’s mate, and that on the slitted sheet he sits.

    If Starmer did break lockdown rules, one thing is clear: it wasn’t worth it. We could pause here to list the many soundalikes of those now familiar grating Starmer tones. There’s Miss Othmar from the Peanuts TV specials; a Dalek when it finds out that the Doc-tor has es-caped; the child of George and Zippy; a Speak & Spell with its battery running down; a mortally injured cassowary. Starmer’s forced laughter at Prime Minister’s Questions brings back the metallic mirth of the Smash Martians when they discover that we pitiful humans peel potatoes with our metal knives.

    At its heart, the Starmer voice strikes a chord because it’s very close to the traditional ‘nerd’ voice of British comedy. It’s hard to identify the patient zero progenitor of that tradition. There’s Harry Enfield’s ‘only me/you don’t want to do that’ character. Further back, we can point to Peter Cook’s EL Wisty, or Michael Palin’s Reg Pither from Monty Python: ‘thank you again for the excellent banana and cheese delicacy’. Richard Briers performed many variations, from Custard the Cat to Martin of Ever Decreasing Circles. This nerd voice is in our national bloodstream, almost always used to signify pettifogging, carping, unwanted advice. John Major was an earlier political sufferer of the phenomenon; ‘cones hotline,’ the telephone number introduced by the beleaguered PM in 1992, was meant to be said in that tone.

    But if Mellinger at least is wowed by Keir’s transformation, the question arises: what did he sound like before? We can check by loading up old footage. Here we get a surprise. This is Starmer in 1994, aged 32:

    Our future leader already has that familiar glassy demeanour, but he sounds (comparatively) positively normal. So where, and when, did he acquire that pronounced chunter on consonant-heavy words?

    In the clip above, he is talking about removing the splendour and majesty of the law courts, making them places where ‘an ordinary person feels they can go…much more like a GP’s health centre’. What an ambition! I’m reminded of the character described in Breakfast At Tiffany’s: ‘Her flat eyes…only turned toward the stars to estimate their chemical tonnage’.

    This mission makes it clear that Starmer, and Starmerism, is about procedure, form and forms; it’s about the law, not as something special, grand and separate from the flow of life, but as a process that infects and infests every waking moment. We are back in the very English world of wardens and jobsworths and chits and dockets and stamps and inspections, and – that horrible modern word – compliance.

    That love of tedious procedure solidified around Starmer. His voice changed to fit, subconsciously, around that world view; altering itself along the lines of the stereotype.

    Tory leader Kemi Badenoch appears to have spotted this Starmer obsession with procedure and doing things by the book. She has discovered that the perfect way to needle Starmer at PMQs is to imply that he hasn’t followed procedure in some way. It’ll be a delight on Wednesday to see how Starmer responds to her questioning him on whether it was right for a voice coach to be defined as a key worker during the pandemic. To my mind, it smacks of hypocrisy. Then again, this should hardly come as a surprise: Starmer seems to see the rules as things for lesser mortals to follow, but for a smartypants like him to cleverly work around.

    As the writer Alex Dale said on X: ‘No he’s not lying, but only because he genuinely sees himself and his class as being beyond the old fashioned categories of truth and lies. He does what he wants first and then makes it true afterwards.’ It was this kind of thinking that led Starmer to think it was OK to accept freebies to go to football games, and get thousands of pounds of clothes paid for by a nice generous Labour donor.

    At yesterday’s lobby briefing for Westminster journalists, Starmer’s spokesman refused to comment when pressed on whether the Labour leader had breached legally-binding measures during the pandemic, saying that he ‘wouldn’t get involved in matters relating to his time in opposition.’

    The rules bend around Starmer like laser light around an exotic dancer. None of this would matter if he was any good. But he isn’t. When Starmer eventually comes undone, you’ll see him sinking into the quicksand still blithering away, ‘The correct procedure was followed at all times glug glug glug’. But at least his voice will impress his coach."

    1. "The mental image of Starmer repeating that he’s merely the pheasant plucker’s mate, and that on the slitted sheet he sits."

      He ought to try :

      He swiftly sliced the sizzling sausages with a sharpened scimitar.

  84. I was listening to an article on the radio where Starmer was speaking four years ago, he spoke much clearer back then and even sounded human, now he is just like a robot

  85. Lots & lots of adjectives.. and of course "thoughts & prayers".
    But no mention of the 'bleedin obvious.'

  87. Evening, all. Back on the laptop now, having finally been allowed to log in by captcha. I did pop in while on the phone trying to convince talk talk that I didn't need to be cut off again.

    More power to Trump's elbow, frankly. He's done more to restore sanity in less than a week than anybody I know of.

    1. My TalkTalk internet signal disappeared this morning but thankfully rebooting the rooter worked.

      1. Mine was cut off by TT (no, not Starmer) last Thursday and it took me until late Friday to convince them that they'd lost the payment I'd made at the beginning of January. Then it went off several times in the intervening period and is still not reliable. None of the "agents" has an English name and I don't think they really understand what they are told. The latest was going to give me a refund – no! I just want the payment credited and for you to stop asking me for information you already have. If I disappear, it will be them cutting me off again. I can't wait until I'm out of contract!

        1. They're invariably useless and don't have ability to deviate from their script. It's boring to be kept on hold for so long only to deal with appallingly daft people.

  88. Can Starmer get more stooopid.. more treacherous?
    Trump mulling over buying Diego Garcia off the Mauritians after Starmer agrees on £18 billion give-away.

    1. Sooooo your "black hole" has now nearly doubled.
      Anyhow, why not make it £100 billion. or £1 Trillion. Sod it £100 Trillion.

    2. Sooooo your "black hole" has now nearly doubled.
      Anyhow, why not make it £100 billion. or £1 Trillion. Sod it £100 Trillion.

    4. What is the legal mechanism for unseating a traitorous government that sells our country down the river? There must be one, surely?

      1. Convincing all the constituents of the MPs in power to petition for a recall then booting them out at the ballot box. Failing that, pitchforks and barricades are not really legal.

        1. I don’t think they can petition in cold blood, though, Conners. I may be wrong, but I think there has to be some kind of legal solecism committed and exposed for a petition to be allowed. I don’t know that we could ever get the politicised judicial system to rule against any of the current incumbents, as they are well ensconced in the same stinking tarts’ parlour.

    5. The man is completely feckin deranged! We own the Chagos – if someone else wants to take it over, THEY pay US. The idiot needs to go before he completely ruins UK, sadly I think it's too late. If I was even a little younger I'd be gone form this madhouse.

    6. If there's a wrong decision to make, Starmer will make it. I forget the phrase, but government makes sense when you realise it's working for your enemies.

  89. vw made a Carbonnade of beef earlier warmed up this evening and I made dumplings with herbs in them and what an exquisite meal it was. Thankfully we have enough for tomorrow and, again, I will make the dumplings.
    Just like central heating for the body and manna from heaven.

    2. I made some very tasty meatballs and a sauce that is good and will be used on pizza on Sunday.

        1. A really thick ragu, with red pepper chucks and proper chillis and spices with sausage to make the meatballs really chunky works well.

          Every time I make meatballs and green pesto pasta here it goes in an evening. I make enough for two days for all our dinners.

    3. That sounds glorious. I've had a hankering for yorkshire pudding, cheesy mash and hickory sausages myself.

      But a really good stew with herby dumplings, beef, carrots, thick oniony soup…

      1. The recipe comes from a Good Housekeeping cookbook that was a wedding present when we married 57 years ago.

          1. Ours was cooked for 4 hours on 140C. The dumplings recipe is from a Stork recipe book a freebee from Unilever when we married.

    1. I actually thought, until very recently, those 3 or 4 star generals in skirts and makeup were a spoof.

      1. They really were unbelievable.But real. And incredible when juxtaposed with Russian defence personnel.

      2. I thought that the trans-female Admiral, USN, was a creature of Vice-President, Joe Biden (Rtd.).

  93. I am going to bid you goodnight, folks. I have a long and busy day tomorrow, so I'm about to stoke the Rayburn, fill the hot water bottles and retire.

  94. BT is to scrap diversity measures in its manager bonus scheme in one of the clearest signs yet that British business is rethinking the role of ethnic and gender representation targets.

    The former state telecoms monopoly has told major investors that it intends to replace the diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) component of its scorecard with a measure of employee engagement.

    The moves are being made despite criticism in recent days by Allison Kirkby, BT chief executive, of companies that are “stepping back from their commitment to inclusion”.

    BT’s new system is scheduled to come into effect in April after receiving what it told The Telegraph was “strong support” from shareholders.

    Under the current system 10pc of the annual bonus payable to up to 37,400 managers is based on targets for the representation of women, ethnic minorities and disabled people, and on measures of employee engagement among under-represented groups.

    1. Just another company holding up a licked finger to see which way the wind is blowing. The tide is turning.

      1. You would have thought that given their Asian Call Centres they ticked the 'Diversity' boxes decades ago!

    3. Many many years ago I used to work for them and can remember the first meeting where diversity was mentioned.
      At that point I decided to I was going to retire earlier rather than later.
      No doubt in my mind it was always going to get worse in the company, and speaking to colleagues who are still hanging on it has.
      Leaving Adelaide heading off towards Mr Gambier.

    4. Include the DEI, by all means. Just as long as they are selected on the same criteria as the rest of us – ie, ability to do the job well. Nothing else.

    1. A very good article. I would note that we're not being nudged into it, we're already at the controlled stage.

      During holocaust rememorial a group of people were raging at how awful it was and how easily folk did horrible things to their neighbours and, of course, that they would never do that.

      When I reminded them of home truths over their reaction to covid and their eagerness to silence those who were not vaccinated.

  96. Given the days of Ukraine as a place to launder taxpayers funs appear to be numbered.Is the Chagos 'deal' Ukraine's replacement?

    2. I think itit's fine for men to wear skirts and dresses. Women wear trousers after all.

  99. A few hours wood sawing and a bit of log splitting done today.
    Van's ready to pick up from servicing tomorrow morning and I've a load of logs to load up for Welder Son's place.

    And that's me off to bed.
    Goodnight all.

  100. from Coffee House, the Spectator

    I was highly amused to see that JD Vance has administered a right old ‘fagging’ – or whatever public school boys call it – to the ghastly Rory Stewart. Better known in some quarters as ‘Florence of Belgravia’, Stewart has developed a habit of dashing about in a dish-dash in search of broadcasting dosh, pouting all the while like an ambitious member of an all-boy fifth-form drama club determined to play Portia. Thanks to his inability to avoid spouting off, Stewart has embroiled himself in a spat on X with the new vice president of the US, JD Vance.

    In an interview with Fox News last week, Vance said:
    It’s a very Christian concept that you love your family and then you love your neighbour, and then you love your community, and then you love your fellow citizens, and then after that, you can focus and prioritise the rest of the world. A lot of the far left has completely inverted that.

    Stewart couldn’t help himself, and opined on X that this was ‘a bizarre take on John 15:12-13 – less Christian and more pagan tribal. We should start worrying when politicians become theologians, assume to speak for Jesus, and tell us in which order to love’. To which Vance answered – thrillingly: ‘The problem with Rory and people like him is that he has an IQ of 110 and thinks he has an IQ of 130. This false arrogance drives so much elite failure over the last 40 years.’

    The reason I found this thrilling is because working-class people who have become successful in their field generally don’t rub their achievements in the faces of their less talented but more privileged colleagues. Even despite the huge handicap we started with, and the fact that our class-ridden society has seen social mobility – never going great guns – savagely reversing in recent years.

    There are several reasons why we meritocrats don’t crow more in the manner of Vance. American success stories of humble origin are prouder; they’re less liable than Brits to make themselves into cuddly mascots who accentuate the worst alleged qualities of their class, like the ghastly pugilist and toilet-seat-breaker John Prescott. Also, no one wants to be called ‘chippy’ – a slur only ever used to describe the white section of the proletariat who complain about the unfair set up, I’ve noticed – probably stemming from plain cowardice at the wrath that would descend on the mockers should they sneer at anyone non-white. Also, meritocrats by their very nature swerve anything that sounds like our old mate the politics of envy.
    Vance is not just the second most powerful man in the world’s most powerful nation, but was born into poverty and abuse, raised by his grandparents due to his mother’s drug addiction. He describes himself as a ‘Scots-Irish hillbilly’ from the Appalachian region and might well have been described as ‘white trash’ by his alleged betters – a ‘deplorable’ (Clinton, H) or ‘garbage’ (Biden) at least. As is often the way of those who are poor enough to be patriots, he joined the military as a teenager, afterwards utilising the excellent GI Bill to study political science and philosophy and then attending Yale Law School. During his first year, he began his majestic memoir, the best-selling Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, published in 2016. He’s 40 years old.

    Rory Stewart’s CV, at the age of 52, isn’t quite so striking – and very predicable for one literally to the manor born. He was expensively educated at Eton and Oxford. He joined the diplomatic service and became an MP. He has, over the years, carved himself a cushy billet with the BBC, making several series: The Legacy of Lawrence of Arabia; Afghanistan: The Great Game – A Personal View by Rory Stewart and Border Country: The Story of Britain’s Lost Middleland. He hosted the Radio 4 podcast The Long History Of Argument as well as cosying up to the ghastly Alastair Campbell for The Rest Is Politics, best described as the tubular bells of podcasts.
    Stewart is a cut-and-dried, dyed-in-the-wool member of the establishment. He’s not some exotic outlier, despite his liking for posing in the flowing robes of Araby like someone who was enthralled by too many Fry’s Turkish Delight commercials at an impressionable age.

    That’s why it was so typically cloth-eared of him to take on a man like Vance: of all the dumb things anyone can do, a privileged person trying to appear cleverer than an under-privileged person who has made it big has to be the dumbest. When he brought up the IQ thing, Vance was basically saying ‘You, like many of your kind, had a great start in life, and you are still nowhere near as smart as me.’ Rory Stewart’s dad was – surprise! – a diplomat and high-flying government functionary. This brings to mind something Mrs T’s character says in the new Thatcher/Walden drama Brian and Maggie about some Tory MPs: ‘There are so many of them who didn’t earn their place; they knew someone who knew someone, and they bluff their way through.’

    It’s a fact: if you reach the top of your profession without having had family money, a famous name or inside help, you are a really exceptional person. You’re far cleverer than those who had a head start. It’s so simple that saying it aloud – as Vance did – can sound quite shocking and rude. I’d love to know how Stewart will react; maybe he’ll even use this opportunity to keep those luscious lips buttoned and learn something rather than ceaselessly offering his precious opinion and getting it wrong.

    Maybe all those – from actors to journalists – who haven’t made it totally on merit might learn something here. A handy little momento mori when your head gets a little too big might be to look in the bathroom mirror and say ‘I am Brooklyn Beckham…’ in the manner of the Spartacus film highlight. That way, you will hopefully avoid the curse of Stewart, flouncing through life thinking you’re something special when the best that can be said of you is that you had a very good start in life. And make the best of your hand-me-down name while you can, because AI is no respecter of lucky sperm, I’ll wager – and no one’s easier to replace than someone who didn’t make it on merit.

    Julie Burchill
    Written by
    Julie Burchill

    1. I used to feel sorry for Rory Stewart , I assumed he was smart and worldly and painfully different in a delicate way!

      He actually knows nothing , and I believe he is a schill , grindingly boring , and an absolute pansy ..

      Me being horrible , I expect he has taken tea many times in tented communities whilst wearing his robes (titter ye not)

    2. I may be on my own here, but much as I generally approve of the VP I think his IQ comment is a cheap shot rather than a response, and Julie B ( who I also like generally) is the Greek chorus to that. Rory Stewart has done a lot of good things – some of which are pissed on by JB with the BBC perejorative. His account of his walk across Afghanistan is one. His short series on the Northern Kingdom at the time of the Scottish referendum was another. I don't know if he's become a leftie or not, nor do I care – he is, contrary to the dismal stuff of this story, a bright spot – one who thinks for himself.

  103. Well, chums, I'm off to bed now. So I wish you all a Good Night, restful sleep, and I hope to see you all in fine fettle tomorrow.

  104. I've been to the local tonight with two old friend's. Really enjoyed it. Bumped into a few people I have known for a long time. I feel alive again. Well…..sort of I'm,….. just popping off to bed now.
    Night all 😴

      1. One of our pubs has closed down , it was popular , middle of the village , the landlord put the rent up and the pub went bankrupt ..

        Rumour has it that it might be turned into flats of all things ..

      2. I can. I use our NoTTLe site whilst enjoying a glass of Chilean Merlot or even a cuppa. Much cheaper and just as much fun.

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