Tuesday 4 May: A period of self-funding would show Scots the reality of independence

Posted on by Geoff Graham

An unofficial place to discuss the Telegraph letters, established when the DT website turned off its comments facility (now reinstated, but not as good as ours),
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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2021/05/03/letters-period-self-funding-would-show-scots-reality-independence/

658 thoughts on “Tuesday 4 May: A period of self-funding would show Scots the reality of independence”

    1. And the Lord said unto Moses “Come forth.”
      But he came fifth and lost his beer money.

      1. That used to be one of my uncles’ favourites (I had several uncles, but only one quoted that).

  3. US has ‘no closer ally’ than Britain but must protect Good Friday Agreement, says Blinken. 4 May 2021.

    The United States has “no closer ally, no closer partner” than Britain – but the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland must be protected post-Brexit, president Joe Biden’s top diplomat said in a visit to London on Monday.

    Morning everyone. The US has no closer ally than Britain provided that it does as it’s told!

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/blinken-biden-good-friday-agreement-uk-b1841445.html

    1. The US does what’s good for the US. I wish people would get that into their heads, and it means that there’s no “Special Relationship”, just the UK on its knees sucking American c*ck.

    3. those who want to rewrite the past history are doomed to repeat it. Or, given it’s Demented Joe and his brigade “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat the same mistakes”

      1. I’ve always suspected that you headed up the Colchester chapter of Hell’s Grannies.

    1. How wrong can you be? It’s not just every single newspaper and TV news station, right and left, that has betrayed us. But also pretty much every single commentator, including those whose stock in trade was (supposedly) telling it like it is without fear or favour.

      Morning Bob. Reads like a Nottler!

    2. By rights, the last eighteen months should have seen endless human interest stories about teenage suicides, ruined educations, destroyed businesses, closed pubs, the unconscionable cruelty of making children wear masks in class, the iniquity and unBritishness of vaccine passports, plucky rebels defying the burgeoning tyranny. Instead, what we’ve had to endure mainly is endless Captain Tom and ‘gawd bless our NHS’ and patently nonsensical drivel about Matt Hancock’s latest scary Covid variants.

      Delingpole omits the BBC’s war zone reporting, the few deaths of the young (including the two rather weighty nurses who were twin sisters†) and ‘long Covid’.

      † https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-52409765

    1. Good moaning, Eeyore.
      On the plus side, our water butts are full again.

      1. I wish, Annie. (Good morning, btw.) Mine is purchased, positioned next to the downpipes, but not yet connected. :-))

    2. We just had a brief downpour.
      When is Spring going to arrive? I see they had snow in Skipton yesterday!

      1. WE had a snow flurry on Sunday….

        Spring – supposedly NEXT week. (A bit like “jam tomorrow”…)

  10. Seems Peter Cawkwell will get some practice in shaking hands with the devil:

    SIR – According to government figures, in the current financial year Scotland will be spending £129 per person for every £100 spent in England. The Barnett formula will result in about £38 billion going from English taxpayers to the Scottish government.

    It is difficult to see how promises of billions of pounds of investmen to provide a faster rail link from Glasgow to London (report, May 2) will sway Scottish voters. Such money might be better spent providing free social care at home and undergraduate tuition in England – benefits Scots already enjoy.

    Rather than wooing Scotland with money we cannot afford, perhaps Boris Johnson could offer the SNP, should it win the coming elections, a trial period of self-funding. How long would Scots wait before deciding they were better off in the Union?

    Julia Leith
    Crewe, Cheshire

    SIR – Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP want another referendum on Scottish independence, which would affect the entire UK population. The PM shouldn’t waste his time negotiating handouts, but should instead tell the SNP leader: “Yes, provided the referendum covers the whole of the UK, including dependencies and ex-pats, that results are binding and that the SNP foots the bill, including incidentals such as publicity, for the whole exercise.” This should settle the argument as to whether the Scots need the English or vice versa.

    Norman Baust
    Fareham, Hampshire

    SIR – Surely there are enough good reasons to keep the Union without resorting to bribery?

    Janet Stukins
    Blencogo, Cumbria

    SIR – Nicola Sturgeon seems to take it for granted that Scotland would leave the United Kingdom and immediately join the European Union, without any intervening period of independence.

    What has Ms Sturgeon been told by the EU about a probationary period, for example, or using the euro? What about border controls with England?

    Surely we need some answers before the elections.

    Judith Beeley
    Keighley, West Yorkshire

    SIR – When Scotland is independent and broke, who will Ms Sturgeon complain to?

    John Sadler
    Berriew, Montgomeryshire

    SIR – Has anyone stopped to consider the enormous danger that an independent Scotland would create?

    Scotland has more than 6,000 miles of mainland coastline, much of which is uninhabited and difficult to defend.

    It is also home to the UK’s strategic nuclear deterrent, which guarantees our safety as a nation.

    In an increasingly unstable and uncertain world, it would be an act of suicide to separate Scotland, both for the Scots and for the UK as a whole.

    Ian Paynter
    East Kilbride, Lanarkshire

    Nazanin’s release

    SIR – Regarding the deal to secure the release of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe (report, May 3), who cares if we lose face? For heaven’s sake let’s cough up and get the poor woman home.

    John Taylor
    Purley, Surrey

    Lowry’s likely match

    SIR – Having studied the photograph of Lowry’s Going to the Match (report, May 1), I am persuaded that the painting represents crowds going to see Swinton rugby league team, which was the artist’s home team. Lowry lived in Station Road, Swinton (not Salford), from 1909, and his house faced Swinton rugby ground. The mill in the background reminds me of the Acme Mill in Swinton, and the church in the far distance looks like St Peter’s, Swinton.

    Descriptions of the painting have suggested that it represents supporters going to a rugby match in Salford. However, Salford rugby league team played at the Willows ground, Salford, which by the 1920s was surrounded by terrace houses, not mills.

    I realise that Lowry’s painting are often composites – part real and part imaginary – but I think there is a strong case that this painting relates to Swinton, not Salford.

    Dr Elizabeth Oliver
    Horwich, Lancashire

    Birthday wishes

    SIR – As I am also in the throes of moving house, I have a great deal of sympathy with Jane Shilling’s dilemma (“Has the time come to discard the baggage of my past?”, Comment, May 3).

    I do not find thinning out shoes and books to be a problem, but I have yet to fathom why I simply can’t bring myself to throw away my 21st birthday cards, which I was given more than four decades ago.

    Jane Moth
    Snettisham, Norfolk

    Don’t forget Flossie

    SIR – In my family research, I’ve often been frustrated by honest but inadequate labelling (Letters, May 3).

    Among a batch of photos of cousins, received from a relative, was one of four adults with the caption: “Here we all are, with Flossie the dog.”

    So I know the dog’s name, but who are all of you?

    The sender didn’t know either.

    Joy Hungerford
    Sidcup, Kent

    Assisted suicide

    SIR – Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, has asked for statistics on how many people with “terminal” conditions kill themselves (report, May 1). However, it is unclear how this will “inform a new debate on legalising doctor-assisted suicide in the UK”.

    Whatever the number, how do we know whether that condition was the reason they took their own life or, if it was, whether they did so while depressed and would not have killed themselves given support from mental health or palliative care services?

    Also, why has he not asked for statistics on how many people kill themselves who are “losing autonomy”, or are “less able to engage in activities making life enjoyable”, the two main reasons for physician-assisted suicide in Oregon, the state on which British campaigners model their bills?

    Then there are those who feel a “burden on family, friends or caregivers”, a reason for almost half. Inadequate pain control is way down the list. Indeed, the Oregon law does not require that the patient be suffering any pain at all.

    Statistics have their place, but they are no substitute for sound ethics. If you want the right answers it helps to ask the right questions.

    Professor John Keown
    Kennedy Institute of Ethics
    Georgetown University, Washington

    UK chip manufacture

    SIR – The idea that Britain should seize a greater market share of the chip manufacturing industry (report, May 1), through government investment in freeports, an innovation centre and a fact-finding mission to world-leading industries in Taiwan, is risible.

    Britain has failed to establish a world-leading chip manufacturing capability in spite of government investments in various initiatives over the past 60 years. As a consequence, unlike Far Eastern countries, we now have diminished skill sets in the complex engineering processes required to produce silicon chips for mass markets. This is in direct contrast to our world-leading pharmaceutical industry, and its associated chemical and biological capabilities required to produce vaccines. Scientific and technological capabilities have to be nurtured and cannot simply be switched on by government.

    Fortunately, Britain has continued to develop a world-leading capability in the important segment of chip design through Arm (Advanced RISC Machines) and other companies that do not manufacture anything. We must play to our strengths.

    Dr Keith G Barraclough
    Malvern, Worcestershire

    Jabs of joy

    SIR – I am one of the 15 million people in Britain to have received a second Covid-19 vaccination.

    The superb organisation I have witnessed must be recognised, with heartfelt thanks to the manufacturers, the NHS, the Army for distributing the vaccine and also to the thousands of volunteers who have made things work so smoothly.

    Kim Potter
    Lambourn, Berkshire

    SIR – While I agree with James Atkins (Letters, May 1) that it would be sad if we became a two-tier society of the vaccinated and the unvaccinated, I can’t see any logical reason why the elderly should remain restricted.

    Karin Proudfoot
    Fawkham, Kent

    SIR – I will miss having an acceptable excuse for refusing to hug people.

    Peter Cawkwell
    Kelton, Dumfriesshire

    A little princess with a look of her grandmother

    SIR – The charming birthday photograph of Princess Charlotte reminded me of a picture of Princess Diana, her grandmother, who wore a dress in what looked like very similar material when she visited some Aids patients while on a visit to Brazil about 30 years ago.

    Carol Glenister
    Great Bookham, Surrey

    ‘Wokespeare’ fails to do justice to the language

    SIR – Gregory Doran of the Royal Shakespeare Company (Letters, May 1) misses the point: if Shakespeare is not ultimately about the language, why is it being staged?

    An RSC production of Romeo and Juliet I saw at the Barbican seemed solely intent on parading race, regional and gender diversity. This was at the expense of the actual words, which were muttered, spat or snarled in such a way as to be almost unintelligible for much of the play – for which the seats cost £50 or more. If we can’t even trust the RSC to maintain the highest standard of spoken English, serious live theatre is doomed.

    Jonathan G N King
    Little Shelford, Cambridgeshire

    SIR – The RSC is quite correct – a deaf actor has the right to perform in The Winter’s Tale using sign language. And we have the right to stay away. That’s the glorious thing: we’re a free country.

    Michael Upton
    Edinburgh

    SIR – Shakespeare’s play is titled The Winter’s Tale. If, for whatever reason, large sections of the narrative are incomprehensible, the audience is literally not getting the full story.

    Denise Armitage
    Hepworth, West Yorkshire

    SIR – Greg Doran’s aim to cast Shakespeare using “the amazing diversity of talent across the UK” may be admirable, but he should be aware that these diverse decisions have been problematic in some RSC productions.

    While colour and gender-blind casting may work in theory, in practice it can cause confusion and dissatisfaction for the audience. Many regular visitors to the RSC, myself included, have been dismayed by the growing tendency to pack in as much diverse casting as possible, whether or not it is appropriate for the role.

    What used to be an enjoyable experience to see and hear Shakespeare has become ever more disappointing as the increase in “woke” productions
    continues, making people more reluctant to book seats.

    Diana Wilson
    Penarth, Glamorgan

    1. “SIR – When Scotland is independent and broke, who will Ms Sturgeon” blame?

      1. usual power outage here. Sturgeon will blame Ken Livingston.

        As for “Prof John Keown” he might find it prudent to ask the right questions in the right context or he’ll continue to howl at the moon. Mng btw

          2. Yes thanks. Apart from the usual. Mustn’t grumble. Others have it worse.

            On the upside my Crypto currency has quadrupled.

            Charlie Munger, right hand henchman to Warren Buffet said it’s a currency for kidnappers and extortionists.

          3. I’d got the odd feedback re Ethereum had stabilised and moving back up. this end of the parish, it’s a bit beyond them at present. They’re still trying to figure out where the next Kenya Shilling’s coming from

    2. There’s a simple answer to Michael Upton’s sign language problem; have someone at the side of the stage reading out the words, much as currently happens with signers.

    3. John Taylor seems to be happy to give carte blanche to all terrorists to kidnap and hold UK citizens in the sure expectation that their ransom demands will be met.

  11. My wife and I have had both Moderna shots. We had the second one two weeks ago. We have been more or less continuously sick since the first one. I am almost 81 and she is 78. Like good sojurs we dutifully went to a little pharmacy and were inoculated.

    Fever, muscle ache, joint ache, kidney ache, these have been our lot. It is still pretty bad. Our niece who is 31 and a robustly healthy woman has experienced the same things plus headaches.

    IMO the question is open on the actual effects of these vaccines.

    I see that Biden says he will not order our armed forces to be inoculated. Good idea, Joe! Good idea! Pat Lang.

    A personal view from the States by Pat Lang!

    https://turcopolier.com/how-safe-are-the-covid-vaccines/

    1. I considered that the risk of the jabs was greater the the risk of corvid flu, so I will not have any of these jabs. I am 73. They are not out of trials till 2023.

      2. In addition to never giving your consent, law’s on your side Johnny. Legally you can cite verbally or in writing:

        “By authority of the Nuremberg Code on Medical Experimentation, I do hereby exercise my right to refuse to submit to or administer the Covid-19 Vaccine.”

        The Nuremberg code on Medical Experimentation is part of international law and therefore applies throughout the world. Legal precedent set from the last Gulf War & Op Granby, UK and US troops refused jabs then citing same lines above

      3. I’m volunteering to be part of the unvaccinated control group.

        1. I am selflessly allowing someone else to have my share of the “vaccine” pool.

  12. Comment is superfluous:
    Headline to Bryony Gordon’s latest mental health effusion in the DT. (And no, I haven’t read the article.)

    “Hunter Biden: ‘Dad tells me he’s proud of my sobriety every day’”

    1. Morning Anne. I passed this over this morning as my stomach was already a little unsettled!

    2. ‘Is it breakfast time already? What day is it? Who are you? I’m proud of you Bunter’.

    3. Is there anybody here – be honest – who thinks that Bryony Gordon is a good journalist?

  13. Good morning all and a Happy Star Wars Day to one and all from a damp, windy and, at 2°C chilly Derbyshire.

  14. So the Gates’s Foundation has, er, foundered. Well, their infuriatingly “happy” marriage. I wonder when the arm candy will come to light…

    1. Greta Thunberg will step up. Beyond that, doubt there’ll be anyone. As you say, they key now is watching how the Foundation “rebrands” itself

        1. the UK Government’s funding will offset any costs, but he’ll for sure be looking to recoup the loss. And would have been planned well ahead of any announcement

    2. Has Mrs Gates found out that while she was setting out to do good her husband was not?

      1. ‘Morning, H. If it’s taken Melinda Gates twenty-seven years to recognise that her husband is a eugenicist maniac, whose ambition is to wipe out most of the human race, then she must be as thick as a navvy’s sandwich.

        I think it more likely that she sees a possible international backlash coming and wishes to distance herself from it, secure in the knowledge that her divorce settlement will ensure she will not be short for Christmas.
        ;¬)

        1. When Billybob triggers the secret in the vaccine will she regret having the jab and not being certain he had the same one?

          1. she might do if she hears of this https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/international-news/disease/2-year-old-dies-in-covid-vaccine-experiment/?__cf_chl_jschl_tk__=e2eb12bff321b9526f0d6331615c48a0ccc4530c-1620118247-0-AficGW4o2cdZS2H8rpH3hZODbxsWVZKhS4SFTTbr0CyxGTQUbajOC9GP–war4DlMFenN3NjuPoyOxTacNpX6dnB8OpxP9hrHUjPoDbJqb9P8C6lKovAe5gRYBA1f5T6SyKnYQXwb8aSnIzGAewLjrlt8aRBivPcBxFLNP4R5c_Bfbo_KWXIvoO-lNQkqjnzNHpAOWi7Tqyln5Cf5STLWHCMGdOZ3LNwMa9TwqFaLh7DcahvzVW8PP8XIsPMvZ85RxQugtzyxGkxyR2QQ0TtuJ4LO6uDZ7GiMz1Dj6uZwyVqPx3Jtp-sBWrAJyIH9czirmqmnBujRzAWVRCeF0862G62kgYzekhqCTjnnO238i8M9taMwIoyRjiL5xR-EvnXfRJRXtP-aaWfIFgw0VjZ66mUh_O8mQFU0SOTHqWuK6aS5I3IZiPXCJIbsWXN2PBPWIRDpjaokZF1Tz1djdRwPLKGE3FI5Ahr6wauOQCpUaV73fcKX-T1sD792FCb8_mO0fF0XunKODm1PzkJRRXp7o4IXb3ucPp9v_NoOVK4kEhC but I doubt it

          2. Holy Mother of God, is there no limit to the wickedness of these vaccine-pushing bastards? May they burn in Hell.

          3. Thanks NtN. I’ve never watched it, so I didn’t get the reference.

          5. I’d considered that, Sos. He’s the only Fourth Man I’ve heard of and I’d wondered if he was known as ‘Hanthony’ Blunt by those who insist on calling the letter ‘aitch’, ‘haitch’.
            ;¬)
            .

    3. I wonder how long they have remained celibate – or did they use surrogates?

    4. Foundered without giving an explanation why it gave US$22 million to Tony Blair.

      Anybody know why?

  15. I have been have been apondering

    When are countries like China, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Aghanistan etc , going to be convinced that having
    Religious, Ethnic, LGBTQWER, Equality is the correct way ahead: they are not

    Why should WE have out lives disrupted by incomers, who do not wish to live our way of Life. .If a book had been
    written 75 years ago, about the way life in UK is heading, it would have been titled “Apocalypse Tomorrow”

    Our Woke Politicians and Lunnun Labourites have made a mockery of those who have sacrificed their lives. in past conflicts
    to maintain our way of life, with slow evolution and stes of standards

    1. 332316+ up ticks,
      Morning OLT,
      Go far back in my post history and find
      “they will then come for the war memorials etc,etc”.
      Very sad to say but in short the political sh!te & action purveyors are operating as a coalition with the herds consent.

    1. I wish this were true but we have now attained Soviet Union standards of mendacity. We have a Society based on Lies! We will probably meet the same fate. Total collapse!

      1. 332316+ up ticks,
        Morning AS,
        The herd has grazed to long on political locoweed.
        When they “the herd” accept overseers of the anthony charlie lynton, clegg, major, brown, the wretch cameron, may,johnson ilk, then what must be acknowledged also IMO is child abuse in regards to the current LLCG coalition voters & the future generation/s.

        Heavens forbid the end ( bloody civil uprising ) becomes the
        “Beginning”

        Personal view.

    2. Well, we know that it is not the Möhne or Edersee dams, as the withstood the bombing of 617 sqn, in WWII

      If the had been damaged, the Codeword (the name of Guy Gibson’s dog) would have been sent.

      As all traces of his dog have been elliminated, the word was not sent!

      1. 332316+ up ticks,
        OLT,
        The missing word,
        With a touch of dyslexia it could be a river in West Africa.

        IMO the current dam as portrayed WILL eventually be breached
        when decent peoples unite under one banner,

      2. I was going to point out that those 2 dams had been breached, ironic given the point at issue, but then I realised you knew that already and were being sarcastic. I will, therefore, content myself with being pedantic over that codeword being used for breaching, not damaging, the dams (as clearly seen by the Moehne’s penultimate mine (pedant point 2: the term ‘bomb’ is wrong here) cracking the dam without the codeword issued).

        1. I’ve a pot of spray paint that’s labelled ‘negro’.

          Another labelled niggera.

          I must be SO racist! Or.. as the company these paints came from is Spanish, perhaps, just perhaps, that’s their translation of ‘black’.

          There’s racism to cause offence, misunderstandings and there’s just bally words.

    3. Well, we know that it is not the Möhne or Edersee dams, as the withstood the bombing of 617 sqn, in WWII

      If the had been damaged, the Codeword (the name of Guy Gibson’s dog) would have been sent.

      As all traces of his dog have been elliminated, the word was not sent!

    4. Haha..the facts tell a different story.

      As US President Joe Biden marked World Press Freedom Day with praise of heroic independent media, his government still seeks to jail Julian Assange of WikiLeaks for the act of journalism, said NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.
      The famed national security whistleblower took the administration to task on Monday, after Secretary of State Antony Blinken boasted of the US devotion to “press freedom” and “the safety of journalists worldwide.” Assange’s ongoing prosecution is impossible to square with those vows, Snowden said.

      “This would be more persuasive if the White House weren’t aggressively seeking an 175-year sentence for the publisher of award-winning journalism of global importance – despite pleas from every significant press freedom and human rights organization,” he tweeted.

      You will print “our truth and only our truth”

      1. 332316+ up ticks,
        Morning HM,
        As things are currently I do agree, radical change via the polling booth has got to be the way to go before hospitals really are under pressure from casualties of mass civil ongoing unrest & a body count daily mounting.

        Eliminate the positive political
        treacherous elements via people power on the 6th would be a good starting point.

        1. I,along with the other ex-pats on here have the advantage(?) of not living in the UK.
          I have to be honest..UK politics is of no concern to me.

          1. 332316+ up ticks,
            HM,
            By the same token it is of great concern to many who have the advantage of still being residents.
            As a construction ex-pat it was always a pleasure to return to the United KIngdom from foreign climes, but sadly now I see it as abuse of the Country via the polling booth that continues to hold sway.

        2. only afforded opportunity to vote in National elections / referendum, not local elections. So later this week is merely on the periphery for me

          1. 332316+ up ticks,
            Morning AWK,
            Understood, but an opportunity by NOT supporting / voting for the toxic three, close shop coalition party in the local elections would surely be a strong warning of future intent.

            For one to vote lab/lib/con on the 6th May is to give the party ones ongoing consent.

          2. this week, if allowed to vote in local elections it would certainly be NOTA, unless some rabbit got pulled out of the hat and a sensible candidate that could to match joined up thinking with joined up approach to implement. Given current status it’ll be the usual collective of flower pot men in tweed and “Lady in the Van” types pushing the usual matra garbage who manipulate the vote counts by adding the number of well tended plants in window boxes

      2. Has Biden become so senile that he honestly cannot see the difference between lies and the truth?

        2. I can’t find the Yes Minister clip but Humphy tries to explain to hacker that he lied. Hacker doesn’t understand.
          Humphy says ‘You did not tell the truth.’

  17. Government has ‘washed its hands’ of teacher who showed Mohammed pictures.

    The Government has “washed its hands” of the Batley Grammar School teacher who was suspended after showing pictures of the Prophet Mohammed in class, it has been claimed.

    Ministers are not doing enough to ensure that Batley Multi Academy Trust’s investigation is “unduly influenced” by local imams, according to the National Secular Society (NSS).

    Officials at the Department for Education (DfE) are also accused of failing to ensure that the probe will examine the school’s reaction to the incident and whether it was appropriate to immediately suspend the teacher.

    They’re all hiding at the back of the Bike Sheds. Lol! This guy is toast and no one wants to know! As a demonstration of Mass Corporate Cowardice it could hardly be better! The fearsome Ofsted? Disappeared. The NUT? “Don’t call us we’ll call you!” Gavin Williamson the Minister for Education. “Just go away!” It hardly needs pointing out that this man was carrying out their policies!

    Even by UK standards the sheer spineless hypocrisy of it all is pretty impressive!

    (No comments allowed!) Needless to say!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/05/03/government-has-washed-hands-teacher-showed-mohammed-pictures/

    1. Good morning Minty.

      I posted on this topic (above) before seeing your post. I commented on the selective indignation. We criticise the Chinese for their treatment of the Uyghur Muslims but do not criticise the Muslims for their treatment of Christians or the Batley teacher.

      Apparently in France at least one church each week is set on fire by Muslims

  18. Government has ‘washed its hands’ of teacher who showed Mohammed pictures.

    The Government has “washed its hands” of the Batley Grammar School teacher who was suspended after showing pictures of the Prophet Mohammed in class, it has been claimed.

    Ministers are not doing enough to ensure that Batley Multi Academy Trust’s investigation is “unduly influenced” by local imams, according to the National Secular Society (NSS).

    Officials at the Department for Education (DfE) are also accused of failing to ensure that the probe will examine the school’s reaction to the incident and whether it was appropriate to immediately suspend the teacher.

    They’re all hiding at the back of the Bike Sheds. Lol! This guy is toast and no one wants to know! As a demonstration of Mass Corporate Cowardice it could hardly be better! The fearsome Ofsted? Disappeared. The NUT? “Don’t call us we’ll call you!” Gavin Williamson the Minister for Education. “Just go away!” It hardly needs pointing out that this man was carrying out their policies!

    Even by UK standards the sheer spineless hypocrisy of it is pretty impressive!

    (No comments allowed!) Needless to say!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/05/03/government-has-washed-hands-teacher-showed-mohammed-pictures/

        1. Bill Gates would give her whatever she wanted. It is weird, but like a lot of very rich people he doesn’t care about money. It’s a means to an end.

    1. c/o BBC inside scoop

      “Mrs Gates now wishes to be referred to as Mee-Linda. Displaying her diversity and in line with the BBC approach, Mee-Linda’s choices are [a] join ISIS [B] move to Khazakstan and live with Borat to avoid any innouclations” [c] become a share holder in Buy Large Mansions.

      Her soon to be “ex” will, ex-post facto, be seeking expert advice from his highly paid NCO Johnson during a break in the G7 meeting as to the way forward.

      More to follow in due course” [Ends]

        1. shh! MSM couldn’t handle Mrs Wallis Simpson Jnr as well on the same day. Splitting the lead story would confirm split personality on both

    2. The war queen was having a moment with her idiot team and came down to stamp her feet, slam doors and draws.

      I told her to go to her room and stay there until she learned how to behave.

      Later on, she comes downstairs and says ‘when you ask why I married you, that’s the reason.’

      Don’t get divorced (unless the other is violent). Understand why you’re angry, why they’re angry and talk to them to solve the problem.

  23. Statement by the Media Freedom Coalition on World Press Freedom Day. 3 may 2021.

    The Windhoek Declaration is a historic call for media freedom. It upholds this freedom as a crucial component of the right to freedom of expression, as enshrined by Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and underlines that an independent, pluralistic and free press is essential to the development and maintenance of democracy and to economic development.

    A free media, both online and offline, is essential to upholding freedom of expression as a human right. Access to reliable and independent information is paramount, as exemplified by the dissemination of information during the COVID-19 pandemic. We need journalists to report the facts, keep us informed and to hold those in power to account.

    This is not only a sick travesty of the truth but a tragedy! There is no Free Press anywhere in the West! It has itself become a Purveyor of Lies and an Instrument of Oppression.

    https://www.gov.uk/government/news/statement-by-the-media-freedom-coalition-on-world-press-freedom-day

    1. “Access to reliable and independent information is paramount, as exemplified by the dissemination of information during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
      For a moment I thought, “Ok, someone really does want this.”, then I saw the source.

          2. Spot on. Wasn’t the season but we went after the copper sharks from the beach. We’d be waiting 2 or 3 days for our ship in Walvis Bay and a great way to spend time. The Raft restaurant in the evening.

          3. I remember the location of the Raft Restaurant well. Only managed long weekend thanks to UN Peacekeeping screwing up the flight out of Kloof. Not helped elderly Norwegian colleague insisted on goose stepping everywhere hence had to get him seated / nailed to restaurant and keep close eye on him. As you say, decent place

    2. We urge all states to promote and protect media freedom at home and abroad, offline and online, and call upon all states to release all arbitrarily detained journalists and to prosecute all perpetrators of crimes against journalists.

      I’m sure that Julian Assange will be greatly relieved to hear it. No doubt the UK Government will release him now and allow him to go to Mexico, where he’s been offered political asylum.

    3. The press chooses not to be “free”, by toeing the government line rather than thinking for themselves.
      Fuck ’em.

  24. A wet and windy Good morning, folks.

    Accidents Will Happen

    A rabbi and a priest are involved in a car accident and it’s a bad one.

    Both cars are totally demolished, but, amazingly, neither of the clerics is hurt.

    After they crawl out of their cars, the rabbi sees the priest’s collar and says, “So you’re a priest. I’m a rabbi. Just look at our cars. There’s nothing left, but we are unhurt. This must be a sign from God. God must have meant that we should meet and be friends and live together in peace the rest of our days.”

    The priest replies, “I agree with you completely. This must be a sign from God.”

    The rabbi continues, “And look at this. Here’s another miracle. My car is completely demolished but this bottle of Captain Morgan Rum didn’t break. Surely God wants us to drink the rum and celebrate our good fortune.”

    Then he hands the bottle to the priest.

    The priest agrees, takes a few big swigs, and hands the bottle back to the rabbi. The rabbi takes the bottle, immediately puts the cap on, and hands it back to the priest.

    The priest asks, “Aren’t you having any?”

    The rabbi replies, “No… I think I’ll wait for the police.“

          3. All my own work, old troop, collected over many years but I get the irony.

          4. My joke book is many thousands of pages long. Every day adds another one. After all, nothing about these bonkers times could be considered serious.

    2. If they are uninjured there should be no reason to call the Police, just exchange insurance details.

      2. If you are in a similar situation, and certain the other driver has been drinking, I would recommend a swift call to the police might be to your benefit.

      3. About 6 years ago i had a female try to overtake me whilst i was driving a small van, then almost (no rear view in a van) along side me, instead of breaking and dropping back she chose the exit of a roundabout which led to the two single lanes under a bridge. She tried to complete the manoeuvre before she had a head on with an approaching vehicle. I Tee boned her car she almost hit a pedestrian walking through with a bicycle, she ended up with a dent from his handle bar in the rear tailgate and badly dented driver door.
        She had just dropped her kids off at school and i was castigated for causing her such a trauma. So much so some of the friends she had chosen to phone quickly arrived accused me of drink driving. I was a little after 9am. A few of them had gathered and were very abusive towards me. One of her 4 nasty abusive friends called the police, i was breathalysed, no damage to my vehicle. Exchanged insurance via the police to avoid further abuse from her horrible friends. I would not accept Knock for Knock from the insurance people. I told them to look into her mobile phone use records. They did, she was on the phone at the time of the crash and i’m not sure if she was convicted, but i heard no more and didn’t have to pay for 50-50 for her stupidity. A good result for me. The two police officers were very polite and understanding and came in handy on that occasion.

    3. Did you hear the one about the unpopular local business man who goes to see the Rabbi and tells him he wants to make sure he gets into heaven and is willing to pay for it.
      The rabbi accepts a cheque for 500 grand and tells the Business man he’ll ‘have a word’ and let him know and come back next week.
      The man arrives the rabbi asks him to sit down and says well there’s good news and bad news……I can get you in and the cheque has cleared……..and the bad news rabbi ??? They are coming for you in ten minutes.

  26. 332316+ up ticks,
    In regards to the lab/lib/con coalition politico’s being en masse, complete strangers to the truth, I would tend to believe that Anne Marie Waters is leading by a country mile.

    Dt,
    Politics latest news: Tories surge ahead in Hartlepool with biggest poll lead yet

    4. Interesting version of an acoustic bass, i don’t think the young lady could reach the top parts on the full size instrument she played in a previous video.

  28. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9537915/Asian-grooming-gangs-abused-underage-girls-Birmingham-decades-survivor-claims.html

    Rochdale –

    The trial of nine men for grooming young white girls for sex attracted

    widespread public outrage and sparked a national debate when they were

    convicted in 2012.

    The gang received

    jail sentences of between four and 19 years for offences committed

    against five girls – aged between 13 and 15 – in and around Rochdale

    between 2008 and 2010.

    The case

    returned to the public consciousness earlier this year when the BBC

    broadcast its Three Girls drama based on the experiences of some of the

    victims.

    Newcastle

    – A total of 17 men and one woman were convicted of, or admitted,

    charges including rape, supplying drugs and inciting prostitution, in

    Newcastle last year.

    Older men preyed

    on immature teenagers who were plied with cocaine, cannabis, alcohol or

    mephedrone (M-Cat), then raped or persuaded into having sexual activity

    at parties known as ‘sessions’.

    The

    case raised huge controversy after a convicted rapist was paid almost

    £10,000 of taxpayers’ money to spy on parties where under-age girls were

    intoxicated and sexually abused.

    Northumbria

    Police launched a major investigation after receiving information from

    social workers and initially spoke to 108 potential victims. Over the

    course of four trials, 20 young women gave evidence covering a period

    from 2011 to 2014.

    Oxford

    – A group of men who abused teenage girls in a vehicle they called the

    ‘s**gwagon’ were jailed for a total of nearly 90 years in June this

    year.

    The men – aged 36 to 48 – befriended vulnerable girls as young as 13 before plying them drink and drugs at ‘parties’ in Oxford.

    The eight men – branded ‘predatory and cynical’ by a judge – were jailed for between seven and a half and fifteen years each.

    Bristol –

    Some 13 Somali men were jailed for more than a total of more than 100

    years after they were convicted in 2014 of running an inner city sex

    ring.

    Victims as young as 13 were

    preyed upon, sexually abused and trafficked across Bristol to be passed

    around the men’s friends for money.

    Aylesbury – Six men were jailed in 2015 for grooming vulnerable under-age white girls between 2006 and 2012.

    The

    Old Bailey heard victims would be plied with alcohol and forced to

    perform sex acts for as little as ‘the price of a McDonalds’.

    Peterborough – A total of 10 men were convicted of child sex crimes in the town, including ‘predatory’ restaurant boss Mohammed Khubaib.

    He

    was jailed for 13 years at the Old Bailey in 2015, after he was found

    guilty of forcing a 14-year-old girl to perform a sex act on him and

    nine counts of trafficking for sexual exploitation, involving girls aged

    from 12 to 15, between 2010 and 2013

    +3

    20 men were jailed for a total of more than 250 years for abuse in Huddersfield

    Telford – Earlier this year, Telford became the latest town to become the focus of the now sadly familiar stories of abuse.

    A

    Sunday Mirror investigation concluded that around 1,000 children could

    have been sexually exploited in the Shropshire town over a 40-year

    period, leading to calls for a public inquiry.

    Huddersfield

    – 20 sex abusers who targeted vulnerable girls as young as eleven in

    the Yorkshire town were jailed for a combined total of more than 220

    years.

    Leeds Crown Court heard

    evidence from 15 victims during the trials and the judge said he fears

    none of them will ever recover from their ordeals.

    In

    victim statements the girls described coming into contact with the

    abusers after being bullied at school and said the relationship became ‘one of those things that you couldn’t get out of’.

    ‘one of those things that you couldn’t get out of’.

    Anyone recognise the pattern? Yet more dereliction of duty by the Police.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e60fee4c584a231e678f9a031a8ad52096906170c7a1373fc6c415a4776e0650.jpg

    1. Morning Phizz, what happened there? Your post is coming out with all lined double spaced, taking up about six scrolls’ worth of screens.

      1. agree with that SID. Phizz, PPT pics – 2nd row from bottom, 2nd pic in from left – Is that a syrup on his cannister?

        2. Paste and edit in WORD, Philip. Gives you a chance to proof-read someone else’s copy.

      3. It’s likely because the article formatting was copied and has a significant number of hidden line endings and carriage returns.

    2. 332316+ up ticks,
      P,
      Lest we forget, they were introduced into a decent society by the lab/lib/con
      mass uncontrolled immigration coalition party.

      These parties still find support / votes
      currently via the polling booth & giving consent to the likes of the DOVER campaign.
      One should bring to mind when next voting the mental damage the rotherham 16 plus year cover-up alone has created, ongoing through adulthood

      1. No party in recent times has said, openly that when elected it would smash open the border and invite the third world here.

        1. 332316+ up ticks,
          Afternoon W,
          Yet they are a coalition in regards to that odious issue and with people’s consent again,again.& again.

    3. They are filthy diseased smelly swine .

      The sort who come down to rural county town markets , flogging cheap tacky stuff like mobile phone covers, gadgets of all types , shabby cheap clothes for teenagers , oriental rugs at rip off prices , watches and jewellery, that sort of thing .

      You can see them leering at young women , they joke and laugh .. You also see them coming down this way in their expensive cars , and you begin to wonder at the mindset of young white women who accompany them , the type of girls who wear large sunglasses no matter what the weather and fluffed up jackets and leather pants.

      There is an insouciant look about them , the day trips and no doubt the promises at the end .

      Probably resulting in discarded day old babies , usually found in city parks .

      1. The girls have been raised to believe the egalitarian myth is true and the Ten Commandments are repressive. They don’t have any core values and can’t understand the nature of the threat until it’s too late.

      1. No. What we need is for the law to stop ignoring the victims. For councils to investigate – and be punished when they try to brush it under the carpet and for the media to acknowledge that there is a clear and obvious problem in the Muslim community.

        1. Sorry Wibbling but you will not get justice of any kind as long as you oiks in the UK remain unarmed serfs . The Muslims have no respect for the law of the land & when they achieve critical mass of over 10% of the voters you will get shafted by them with the introduction of Sharia Laws both openly & by stealth as politicians dependent on their vote will increasingly pander to them.

    6. Just this collective pile of scum alone will cost our tax payers a million plus a year.

    1. I’m surprised the NHS hasn’t tried it: tents on greenfield sites are cheaper than hospitals, thus leaving more money for pay and bonuses.

      1. And then because they have been used as outdoor hospitals, those greenfield sites can be recategorised as “brownfield” and sold off for a mint to some friendly land developers.

      2. The frustrating thing is, there’s two NHS’. One is an expensive, time consuming, inefficient unionised collective of people who fill in paper.

        This group is beloved of the Labour party as it is expensive, inefficient and heavily unionised. This is the NHS the state loves as it typically supports their policies.

        Then there’s the other half which is the medical side which does all the work. This side probably wouldn’t mind being privatised as I imagine much of the frustrations it feels come from the inefficiencies of the office staff. The genuine annoyance i have with the NHS is that in amongst the waste, the inefficiency and the nonsense is a collective of people genuinely trying to help others. True public servants.

        These folk are constrained by the laziness of the rest.

  30. TTL has letters on the SNP and Scotland but BTL are now complaining the DT is censoring comments on the Issue. The more you delve into the practicalities of splitting from the U.K., from major issues such as funding through to passports/nationality and pensions, the more deluded and complicated ‘independence’ seems; it’ll make the 4 years of Brexit negotiations seem harmonious, straightforward and quick. Censorship isn’t going to make the problems disappear.

  31. Good morning, my friends

    Government has ‘washed its hands’ of teacher who showed Mohammed pictures
    Ministers urged to step in to ensure imams do not ‘unduly influence’ investigation into Batley Grammar Religious Studies tutor

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/05/03/government-has-washed-hands-teacher-showed-mohammed-pictures/

    And yesterday in the DT outrage is expressed by the Chinese treatment of the Uyghur Muslims. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/05/03/meet-man-china-taking-desperate-measures-silence/

    Why the selective indignation?

    Why should the government wash its hands sorting out Muslims in Britain giving death threats to teachers in Britain and then condemn the Chinese for their treatment of Muslims?

    1. Good morning Richard .

      My thoughts exactly , you took the words right out of my mouth .

      The Muslims in Britain regard us all with suspicion , they are newcomers , and they don’t fear us , we fear them , whereas the Chinese , well NO ONE messes with them , we are a soft touch .

      We have to be nice to BAME people , we have all been warned .

      1. We don’t fear them. They are dangerous fanatics who need to be controlled. The problem is when we state the obvious and demand that they integrate and vanish, the state attacks us.

        It’s truly bonkers. Here’s the state bringing in and supporting a group with clear terrorist intent who have no interest in fitting in and adopting British values and the state attacks those paying it to uphold those values.

      2. We don’t fear them. They are dangerous fanatics who need to be controlled. The problem is when we state the obvious and demand that they integrate and vanish, the state attacks us.

        It’s truly bonkers. Here’s the state bringing in and supporting a group with clear terrorist intent who have no interest in fitting in and adopting British values and the state attacks those paying it to uphold those values.

    2. Just once I’d like to see the press publish the behave of the Uyghur before bleating about how hard done by they are.

      Of course the state has squashed the teacher. it doesn’t care. The dept of ed. isn’t interested in children’s education. It is very interested in publishing statistics that show how good it’s policies are. These are often inverse to the teaching, academic achievement, children’s learning or future prospects.

    3. Reading this just furthers my hate for our useless political classes, the civil service, the police and judiciary.

    1. Some G7 people are meeting in London today for face to face meetings. Then G7 hangars-on in June will be living in hotels in towns around the meeting place. No protocols to prevent Covid virus variants being spread in Cornwall have been published. Our PM is taking a big risk and again in November when the Climate conference in Glasgow is still on the cards.

      1. No need to worry about spread of Covid. The usual security people, Special Branch, MI5, MI6, CIA, FBI, anti-terrorist police, and those with no name will make sure that all roads are closed, public and private transport forbidden, people confined to their houses, and that nothing moves.

        1. Biden’s armed security men/women will no doubt do that forcibly but the virus is clever and will get through..

      2. did get mailed response from both reform party and acknowledgement from Laurence Fox this am post my alerting / request re staging a full on march in Cornwall. They are liaising with each other, presumably coordination. They know I’m abroad so will update me by mail. I had posted on here last week generic outline, so others here, are aware

      2. And so the government (using UK tax payers money) sponsored invasion of England goes on and on and on.

        1. 332316+ up ticks,
          Morning RE,
          The 6th May will show
          who is consenting to the eventual replacement,
          a lab/lib/con vote guarantees more of the same.

          1. I just find it very difficult to understand why these political idiots are still allowing this to continue.

    3. Well, yes. When they demand that we never fly again to ‘combat climate change’ they didn’t mean themselves.

      1. Just as when champagne socialists talk of taxing the rich, they don’t mean their own wealth.

  33. Gormless Brown, ex Prime Minister, is presently on BBC Radio 4 campaigning for international Covid aid to the tune of £30 trillion. Vaccinating the entire world doesn’t not come cheap. The UK would only have to contribute 5% of the total. (£1,500,000,000,000). How very generous of him. This is in addition to the billions we give already. He is also not happy with people, who accept sinecures and gifts because of their current or past status, under the pretext of doing good for others. Who could he possibly be think of?

    Edited.

        1. Happy Tuesday Anne, not only have I seen the film several times but I was lucky to see the West End theatre version at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane back in 2005 with Nathan Lane & Lee Evans .

          1. Yes, I’ve seen it on stage. There is an extra dance – old ladies with their zimmer frames – that doesn’t feature in the film.
            Imagine the hysterical shrieks nowadays; but that film dates from 1968 and was conceived, filmed and acted by Jews who remembered the war and had probably lost relatives under the N@zi regime.

    2. ‘Morning, Rik, it just goes to shew how mad some people are. Probably had his double jab.

    3. Forgive me, but is he a bit dim? Why didn’t he wait for the snow to melt? Wet grass will be harder to mow and clog the mower.

      2. Perhaps he just wanted to get away from his missus….

        (Takes cover)

      4. Anyone who wears shorts like them doesn’t have any brain cells anyway

    1. Yep, absolute corruption. These people don’t get into place because of their abilities.

      1. Early life and education
        Symonds was born on 17 March 1988 to Matthew Symonds, co-founder of The Independent, and Josephine Mcaffee (née Lawrence), a lawyer working for that newspaper.[2][3] Her paternal grandfather was John Beavan, Baron Ardwick (at one time editor of the Daily Herald and later, during the 1970s, a Labour Party MEP), and her paternal grandmother was Anne Symonds, a BBC World Service journalist.[4][5]

        Symonds was brought up by her mother in East Sheen, London, and between 1999 and 2006 attended Godolphin and Latymer School, an independent day school for girls. She went on to the University of Warwick, where she studied art history and theatre studies, completing her degree in 2009.[6][7]

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrie_Symonds

        1. ‘Morning, Mags, a singularly unimpressive family tree and an arty-farty useless degree. Just what your average greenie air-head requires.

        2. “…art history and theatre studies…” Ideal qualification for running the country.

        3. Golly Gosh; she’s really had to struggle.
          She didn’t get where she is today by actually working.

          1. You can just imagine the look of bemused bewilderment on her face when someone pointed out to her that perhaps £850 for a roll of wallpaper might be a tad excessive…

            ‘Is it? Why?’

    2. ‘Cos the tablets are far cheaper than the untested vaccines and the after-effects of the tablets are known – unlike the vaccines. But cheap doesn’t sit well with Big Pharma ‘cos they couldn’t afford to pay all the medics prescribing their drugs.

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

    1. Jolly brave of them, but yes, hydrogen is the only fuel we need bother with.

      Frankly I’d have kept to a car or something in the first instance. The only danger – but also necessity – is that we’ll go down the route of using an intermediate transport chemical.

    2. Hmm

      The aircraft landed on its wheels and almost came to a stop, but was damaged as it reached uneven terrain at low speed.

      I believe pilots landing off runway in an emergency are recommended to land with wheels up to prevent the wheels digging in to soft ground and causing damage to the aircraft, including the aircraft possibly overturning.

      1. Hi Bob. Quite a lot of single engined light aircraft have fixed undercarriage. Cessna 150, 172, etc.

        1. Agreed, but this one appears to be a low wing monoplane which invariably has retractable wheels.

    4. Thanks, KP though I don’t think I’d want to fly in one of those for the same reason I wouldn’t ride in a Li-on powered battery car. When it burns it burns like the fires of hell.

    5. ZeroAvia Reg R102, Test 86? Taking over from R101.

      Edited for stupid errors etc.

      1. Fortunately, my number of landings was equal to my number of take-offs over 46 years, and with all the Dunlops deployed.

  39. Extreme right-wing terrorist group discovered in Keighley Several arrests:

    Following the discovery of potentially-suspicious material at one of the addresses, the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit was called to provide specialist advice and to arrange the safe removal of the items. An opened box of highly flammable fire lighters and a bottle of barbecue starter were found hidden in a garden shed. Several streets were evacuated while the bomb squad dealt with the potential threat to life. A spokesperson for the government said a vicious right-wing threat had been averted.

    On another topic, the number of sexual attacks has been reduced by 90% since the police reinforcements cordoned off the area in question and restricted the movement of the locals. The Chief Inspector of Bradford said he is mystified as to why that should happen in just one district of his jurisdiction. Yes sir, it’s a complete mystery.

    1. I would think everyone has the makings of a viable explosive lurking in the cabinet underneath their kitchen sink..

    2. I have isoprop alcohol, many, many sharp knives, countless accelerants, solvents…am I a crazed drug baron or… are they hobby tools?

  40. Well the grass is already looking greener. I’m sure Greta will be pleased. BUT ……I wish i could find a decent interest rate to further invest a few bob, current rates are ridiculous.
    I heard the Lagos peoples bank is paying a decent rate.
    Just Joe King.

        1. I have already cashed in my original investment. So whatever happens i’m quids in.

          6. Or a scruffy casino.
            I must admit I only ever by the occasional lottery ticket.
            I used to play cards in my local until the person who dealt the cards in three card brag somehow deftly dealt me three queens and had three aces himself. I lost a weeks wages to the cheating bastard.

          7. Could you detail how you put the money in, saw it increase and then withdrew the profits?

            What were the costs involved?

            For example, when Barclays shares collapsed to 50p I bought about 20,000 of them on a maxed out credit card. When they went back up to £6 or so I sold the lot within a few days – and the taxes were disgusting.

          8. I use an online broker called Kraken. You can deposit from your card into that account and then buy fractions of or whole coins. The fees are just about 2%. per transaction.

            On the Kraken site you can view your investments in real time on a dashboard.

            You are subject to tax from HMRC but my amounts don’t top out that high.

            Sounds like you still made a good profit even though they gouged you.

            As always…read the T’s&C’s.

            Doge and Ethereum are doing particularly well at the moment.

        2. Voopsch ! As was said to James Bond in Casino Royal when he lost his (government) money.

      2. Ethereum GBP (ETH-GBP)
        CCC – CoinMarketCap. Currency in GBP
        Add to watchlist

        Quote lookup

        2,442.5251+163.273 (+7.1634%)
        As of 11:34AM BST. Market open.

        I used to belong to a share club (12 guys) but left because they never took any chances. But it’s a different proposition when it’s all your own money. we had a large photo and a column in the DT.

        1. Etheruem as of now +8.87%
          Dogecoin as of now +25.63%

          Most of my stash is in NS&I +Bonds.

          1. We have some just maturing, but there’s little option for further investment the Leeds seems the best bet, but with a pathetic interest rate.

  42. Just a thought – if we’re going to rely on wind power, will sailing ships make a comeback?

      1. That looks really elegant. But will it work! It could be a bit tricky parking as well!

        1. Stopping was always a major issue when the old sailing ships often ran aground.

    2. I foresee a potential problem there, Sue. What if the ship is dismasted in a storm? Nothing worse than a drifting hulk on a lee shore.

      …..I’ll get me lifejacket.

      1. Then, the stand-by Electric Motor (powered by a Diesel generator) will kick in

        1. Nah – Carrion has banned them. So it may take three months to cross the Atlantic….

      2. I have a book entitled Champion of Sail written by David Walker a teacher and once bursar of Yardley Court School near Tonbridge, a building I restored 30 years ago.

        Walker traces the history of his ancestors and their Liverpool shipping line Leyland Brothers. His accounts mention many examples of their massive iron hulled sailing ships coming to grief. One such was rescued from the Falklands and now resides in South Port Museum New York viz. Wavertree.

        The sailing ships resembled Cutty Sark and Thermopylae but had iron hulls and each was named after a district of Liverpool.

      3. I have a book entitled Champion of Sail written by David Walker a teacher and once bursar of Yardley Court School near Tonbridge, a building I restored 30 years ago.

        Walker traces the history of his ancestors and their Liverpool shipping line Leyland Brothers. His accounts mention many examples of their massive iron hulled sailing ships coming to grief. One such was rescued from the Falklands and now resides in South Port Museum New York viz. Wavertree.

        The sailing ships resembled Cutty Sark and Thermopylae but had iron hulls and each was named after a district of Liverpool.

    3. One of my nephews lives in the north Pennies and invested in a free standing wind turbine many years ago. His electricity company then tried to ripp him off after they had promised to reimburse him for energy returned to the grid, the won the case.
      And supplies a cottage near by as well. But some times the wind Oopp Narth is too strong and could damage the turbine. I think he has a neutral motion adjustment.

          1. Actually the real Spartacus (no, you’re not) is in a right tetchy mood today.
            We have had to be very firm with him.
            “Spartie … don’t do that.”

          2. Cats ditto. It’s the weather. They are desperate to go out but it has been horsing down – and a gale.

          4. The wind is still noisy , I think the sound and strength of it makes us all tetchy, dogs hate it , it whiffles their ears , and horses gallop around and whinny at everything .

          6. It’s been horrific here. Monstrous noise from the roofing, Mongo’s been barking again but more whining and unhappy, but as it’s been truly furious all weekend it’s been hard to get out AND he went log pulling in the New forest earlier in the week so is very clear that he doesn’t want to go for a walk.

            Everyone’s getting a bit tense here, to be honest.

          7. Same here, the wind makes bods fractious .

            I have had a strange morning , an old property near me developed a sunken hole in their new driveway .. A builder was summoned , he investigated the new driveway by removing block paving and the clumsily constructed under bit etc ..

            I walked down our driveway and looked over the wall and saw a head and shoulders , builder was deep in a large hole, excavating earth and stones.

            He had dug down more than five foot , and of course , he was very cautious because he saw some fragile slates covering more of the hole .. an old well probably far deeper than one dare to imagine .

            The new owner had gone out , and I daresay on his return he would have had a helluva shock to see such a large hole in his driveway.

            I asked the builder if he would like a cup of coffee , and of course he said yes please .

            The gale has been blowing all morning , no rain today , patches of blue and sunshine , but the noise has been relentless.

            The dogs have been quiet , husband has been fidgety , and has cleared off to the golf driving range , and I have a stinking headache , which I hope doesn’t linger too long.

    1. Lots of regulations changed just before the “scamdemic” to facilitate the propaganda, I.e., the meaning of “pandemic”. I don’t have a link unfortunately.

      1. no prob. I also have loads of data going way before Wuhan even appeared on radar. Most, if not all, on here are plugged into reality.

  44. 332316+ up ticks,
    Hartlepool went against the three monkeys residing in the polling booth on the 24/6/2016 and I do NOT think the peoples have sh!te for brains.

    Karen King has surely got to reign supreme unless more of the same, killings, rape & abuse plus an indigenous replacement campaign is required.

    1. 332316+ up ticks,
      Afternoon Rik,
      They still hold anthony charlie lynton
      in great esteem as a role model.

    1. 332316+ up ticks,
      O2O,
      Surely voting for lab/lib/con candidate minions is the fact that mentally scarring kids going into the future is guaranteed as the past is showing us Og, it surely is, too many of the herd
      follow the three monkey mode of voting with eyes TIGHT shut.

    2. Look , my Moh and I listened to the radio when we were out in the car on the way to the shops
      I think it was either a Radio 4 or 5 programme discussing sex channels that people pay money for, young women earning £10k per month to do stuff for thrills , to supplement their college fees .

      This country seems to be be sex and booze and drug orientated .. Young women flout all conventional rules by doing stuff that the tabloids and TV love .

      Foreign men are getting sex on tap , stuff they would be chopped up for in their own home lands .

      If the price is right , these females go for it , money money money money !

        1. Got it in one. Even Johnson’s canine companion sneaked in [top pic on left behind Gove]. Both – powerful images

          1. I scanned it for that old toad Heath no sign of him ….and he did a lot of signing.

          2. the classic one [top pic] is Schwab [behind Cameron]. Millipede looks like he’s enjoying himself “sandwiched” between Marr and Kuessberg

  50. Do we really want to go to war for the climate? Spiked. 4 May 2021.

    Britain’s sudden embrace of green interventionism has echoes of the past failed foreign-policy doctrine of ‘humanitarian intervention’, which reached its peak in the Blair era. Humanitarian interventionism presupposed Britain’s moral superiority, but it quickly descended into interminable wars without objectives, unleashing forces that were even uglier than what it had promised to protect us from. As has been well documented on spiked, throughout the ‘war on terror’, foreign policy manifestly reflected Western governments’ domestic crises, that were projected on to the world. And as Jean Baudrillard had observed, following the outbreak of the first Gulf War a decade earlier: ‘Promotional, speculative, virtual: this war no longer corresponds to Clausewitz’s formula of politics pursued by other means, it rather amounts to the absence of politics pursued by other means.’

    “Humanitarian intervention.” Lol! This has been the excuse for a whole series of frankly catastrophic wars waged by the West over the last twenty years. These have been disastrous not just for those attacked or invaded and occupied, but for the West itself! They have all been Abysmal failures. Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya; etc. not one has yielded anything worthwhile.

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2021/05/04/do-we-really-want-to-go-to-war-for-the-climate/

  51. Decent enough piece on Hartlepool https://unherd.com/2021/05/how-the-left-lost-hartlepool/?tl_inbound=1&tl_groups%5B0%5D=18743&tl_period_type=3&mc_cid=bb97af7821&mc_eid=f8bf59e7dc

    And given site updates comments regularly. The most recent ones below:

    Fraser Bailey

    ‘Labour councillors, Fleming says, have voted against a council tax freeze, but didn’t vote against a 30.8% rise in their allowances.’

    The one fact alone tells you all you need to know about the modern Labour Party. Not that councillors from other parties wouldn’t do the same in a heartbeat. Anyway, hopefully Labour will soon be reduced to nothing more than its northern heartlands of QuIslington and Woke Newington.

    Andrew D

    Neither deserves to win. The Tories appear to have had a good local candidate, whose great-great-great uncle, we’re told, built the town. What a gift to the party! Yet idiotically they parachuted in someone from Yorkshire – somebody presumably deemed more suitable because she wasn’t cursed with a dangling thing between her legs.

    T Hopp

    It must be the irresistable lure of the underdog status – which in itself grants that other most coveted virtue: a rightful claim to a spot on the moral highground.

    If you can’t actually be an underdog (even though that bar has been set pretty low) you should at least be able to show a link to historic underdogs. If you can’t even manage that, well your only recourse is spend time learning about underdogs and, on their behalf, feeling moral indignation and rage against the privileged

  52. Why Labour deserves to lose Hartlepool. 4 May 2021.

    Labour is split between two metropolitan factions that look upon working-class voters with horror. The centrists view them as dumb Europhobes who didn’t know what they were voting for in 2016; the Corbynistas see them as a plebeian horde of xenophobes whose racism was exacerbated by the tabloid press and Nigel Farage. Make no mistake: running Paul Williams in Hartlepool is a searing testament to how out-of-touch and disdainful of northern voters Labour has become. The big shock will be if Labour wins on Thursday, given it has spent five years treating the people who were once the backbone of the party so atrociously.

    There’s a certain irony here of course. The Tories hate us as well!

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2021/05/04/why-labour-deserves-to-lose-hartlepool/

    1. Mrs Browns boys ? …..just askin’ …………..I’ll get me sombrero.

  55. We found a decent film to watch on Netflix last evening, The Dig, if you haven’t seen it, it’s very good, excellent acting, a true and quite a sad story.
    https://www.netflix.com/title/81167887
    After you have seen it take a closer look at the treasures found, at Sutton Hoo the workmanship is quite unbelievable.
    Not a good review from the guardian but what do they know ?
    https://youtu.be/JZQz0rkNajo

    1. It is a very good film – apart from the irritating Lily James – whose Nanny, at Downton Abbey, did not tell her to keep her mouth shut….

    2. Hideously white was problematic for The Guardian. Any claims made for an historic England of the Anglo-Saxons would be deeply offensive to their readers.

        1. That would look so bad to most Guardian readers. Make that ‘all Guardian readers.

    5. We saw a few weeks back. It is a very good film.
      Ralph Fiennes was brilliant; we have a Suffolk born friend who looks, sounds and even has the same stance and facial expressions which made the film even more moving.

    6. Another good one on Netflix is News of the World. Tom Hanks.

      My other Netflix recommendations are

      The Peanut Butter Falcon
      The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
      Their Finest
      The Staircase (a series)

    1. IPA ?
      With two mates we made a 6 weekly brew in Oz it was strong ale, not popular with the locals they preferred the gnats Peyess.
      We were forced to add water to it in the summer months it was too strong to enjoy as often as we did in the cooler months.
      Coopers Ale. i used to be able to get it from a shop in St Albans but last time i drove passed it looked defunct.

        1. I managed to educate our boys away from larger, I always referred to is as produce of a used tea bag with Alka-Seltzer in. Prob is when they come to ours and are not driving home they drink all my ale.

    2. “If they was to dehydrate war-time beer, we’d have nothing left to pour cold water on.” (Osbert Lancaster pocket cartoon.)

    1. While MSM attempt to paint the “Save the Union” pic, everybody else knows he’ll be topping up Billy Boy’s coffers to cover the divorce costs and planned rollout of extending lockdown and attempts at forced jabs on kids. Either way you’re right re Johnson’s strategy

    2. IT IS always a temptation to an armed and agile nation
      To call upon a neighbour and to say: –
      “We invaded you last night – we are quite prepared to fight,
      Unless you pay us cash to go away.”

      And that is called asking for Dane-geld,
      And the people who ask it explain
      That you’ve only to pay ’em the Dane-geld
      And then you’ll get rid of the Dane!

      It is always a temptation for a rich and lazy nation,
      To puff and look important and to say: –
      “Though we know we should defeat you,
      we have not the time to meet you.
      We will therefore pay you cash to go away.”

      And that is called paying the Dane-geld;
      But we’ve proved it again and again,
      That if once you have paid him the Dane-geld
      You never get rid of the Dane.

      It is wrong to put temptation in the path of any nation,
      For fear they should succumb and go astray;
      So when you are requested to pay up or be molested,
      You will find it better policy to say: —

      “We never pay any-one Dane-geld,
      No matter how trifling the cost;
      For the end of that game is oppression and shame,
      And the nation that plays it is lost!”

  59. ‘I don’t work for Russia Today’, says RT presenter and Alba candidate Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh. 4 May 2021.

    Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh, who is the lead candidate for Alba in Central Scotland, co-owns Slainte Media, which produces the former first minister’s show on the Kremlin-backed broadcaster RT, formerly Russia Today.

    Speaking to The Scotsman’s political podcast The Steamie, Ms Ahmed-Sheikh claimed she doesn’t “work for Russia Today” when asked for her opinion of Russian president Vladimir Putin.

    This is of course Alex Salmond’s fault. When he fudged the very same question a fortnight ago he left himself open. This has now devolved onto his team. All will now be asked if they think Putin was behind Salisbury. If they don’t answer they will be deemed guilty by evasion but leaving themselves without the ability to answer back! It’s a variation of the old “When did you stop beating your wife?” trick! The answer is of course to tell the truth and say you don’t believe it. You are certainly no worse off!

    https://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/i-dont-work-for-russia-today-says-rt-presenter-and-alba-candidate-tasmina-ahmed-sheikh-3222932

      1. Kremlin-backed broadcaster RT.

        Strange. They never say Westminster backed broadcaster BBC!

    3. As far as I can recall this is the third, or maybe fourth, political party of which Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh has been a member. When in the SNP, and an MP, she started a charity for muslim women and was given grant of sixteen thousand pounds by the Scottish government. The money was spent on a party (no, not a political party, a “knees-up”). She is a lawyer, but one may ask why the Law Society did not strike her off. This woman is a fraud and a shyster, in my opinion, and I assume that she possesses almost magical charisma to wheedle her way into the generous good graces of political parties.
      As for working for Russia, I doubt the the Russians would want an untrustworthy and unreliable such as she seems to me to be, although I am of the opinion that she would work for anyone prepared to pay her.
      (Examine that alleged statement; ”I don’t work for Russia Today” if you will. She is part-owner of a business that does work for Russia Today and she sometimes presents programmes for Russia Today. So if you work for Company A that works for Company B, you can say that you do not work for Company B? Legally, as companies are entities in their own right, that may be correct. In common parlance, it’s sophistry, in my opinion.)

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tasmina_Ahmed-Sheikh

      1. Why wasn’t she struck off? She espouses the ideology of the Untouchables.

        1. Charm, I suppose? I do not understand it. One of my acquaintances was a lawyer and borrowed money from a client account. He went to prison. He was also struck off.

          1. He was a) male and presumably b) indigenous, white and at least nominally Christian.

        1. He probably got compensation for being harassed – or was it hairyarsed? He is probably trading in ferry tickets at present… if he hasn’t snuffed it from an overdose of ‘happiness’. The police will all have been given medals for bravery and a rainbow sash for formal dinner occasions.

      1. I think they were tasering him, Belle, but with AC when he must have been DC, and didn’t fancy being charged.

      2. Racial crime. Must be given a chance to stab several people first – and given a stern warning before being asked to stop.

      3. Tasers often fail to work and have their limitations. US Police forces report 50%-75% success rates, with them succeeding typically only 2 in 3 uses. Any sensible person would use a gun against someone running at them with a knife. Would you roll the dice where a 1 or 2 gets you a knife in the chest?

      1. We don’t want armed police. It will lead to far more guns in private ownership, legal and illegal

        1. Criminals & terrorists have no problem obtaining weapons & using them with impunity knowing that the laws are heavily tilted in favor of the criminal. I repeat the reality in 2021 is that an unarmed police force is ineffective & nowadays the police force attracts the politically correct only & promotes the most cowardly & ineffective officers going with promotion on merit swept away by PM’s Blair & Brown reforms and replaced with sexual perversion preference and ethnic minority preference . Most people in the UK are law abiding & to deny them the right to legally defend themselves against violent criminals is immoral as legal ownership of firearms does not equate with increased criminal activity.

      2. We don’t want armed police. It will lead to far more guns in private ownership, legal and illegal

    6. What kind of training do those muppets receive? In my heyday, I’d have taken that knife off him and rammed it up his arse – sideways.

  62. Am I alone in having a chest half-drawer devoted to “odd socks” ? … waiting for their partner to show up …. some do, eventually, but the majority are left as “singles” forever after ….

    PS – don’t get me started on the subject of women’s socks …

    1. Check the filter on your washing machine.

      Buy socks only of one colour.

      Check the dog basket.

    2. Check the arms of jumpers and legs of trousers you have washed , if you have done a dark wash , some very strange things can happen

      1. We found a missing one on the floor behind a chair the other day – didn’t think to look there when it vanished…..

      2. Pillow cases, duvet covers, andthing else with a pocket that gets washed with socks.

          1. Nope, not me.
            Careful segregation before the wash, then the dryer, then the owners clean washing bag.
            Others, however, take pleasure in ramming as much as is humanly possible into the washer, then the dryer, and are perennially baffled as to why they don’t get properly cleaned, or dried, and the therrmal breaker keeps tripping!
            Grr!

      3. I bough a pack of eight patterned socks which each have a similar pattern but no two are exact.y the same so it doesn’t matter which two you pick out of the drawer.

    4. I know you said not to start you off but I’m intrigued. WTF is the problem with women’s socks?

          1. All mine are the same style, black. Had a mega-replacement a year or so ago, now there’s no issue about pairs.

          2. But, but – you may wear one sock a dozen times to the next ones once….

  64. Conservative Party staff are in uproar over the costly revamp of Boris Johnson’s Downing Street flat after officials were told there was no money for pay rises.

    Party officials were “furious” to discover that almost £60,000 from Conservative Campaign Headquarters (CCHQ) funds was channelled to pay an invoice for the flat refurbishment while at the same time staff were informed their pay was being frozen.

    Officials at CCHQ and at regional offices have not had a pay rise since Boris Johnson swept to victory in 2019. The Telegraph understands that in February, Aimee Henderson, the Conservative Party’s finance director, told employees the party was in no position to “splash the cash”.

    Ms Henderson said a pay rise even linked to inflation inflation would not be possible this year.

    It has now emerged that at about the same time, the Conservative Party picked up part of the tab for the flat in Downing Street occupied by Mr Johnson and his fiancee, Carrie Symonds. It is alleged that the party paid £58,000 towards the revamp.

    It is thought the cash came via a party donor, although Mr Johnson insists he has now paid the total bill himself. The total refurbishment is reported to have cost close to £200,000.

    One Tory staff member said: “People in HQ and in the field were furious that, after we’d all worked so hard on the general election, we couldn’t even have a pay rise in line with inflation. The finance director said it was no time to ‘splash the cash’, which went down very badly.”

    The Telegraph understands that the anger has been compounded by the recent revelations over the refurbishment. There is no suggestion Ms Henderson was aware that money from CCHQ was being used to contribute towards the flat.

    The refurbishment is now subject to three separate inquiries including one by the Electoral Commission, which said in a statement announcing its investigation that there were “reasonable grounds to suspect that an offence or offences may have occurred”.

    A CCHQ spokesman said on Monday: “As the Prime Minister has made clear, he paid for the renovation himself and no party funds are being used. As you can understand, there is a an investigation ongoing so there is no further comment.”

    Asked whether the party was aware of widespread discontent over frozen pay, the spokesman said: “We would not comment on internal matters.”

    The private flat above Number 11 Downing Street was given a makeover by Lulu Lytle, a “high end” interior designer, who was hired to oversee the revamp amid claims Ms Symonds was unhappy she had inherited a “John Lewis nightmare” from Theresa May.

    A prime ministerial allowance of £30,000 out of taxpayer funds was drawn down to cover some of the cost, but there were concerns inside Number 10 at the proposal to use Tory donors to pay for the rest.

    In a recent blogpost, Mr Johnson’s former key aide Dominic Cummings claimed the Prime Minister “stopped speaking to me about the matter in 2020” after he had complained that the renovation plans were “unethical, foolish, possibly illegal and almost certainly broke the rules on proper disclosure of political donations if conducted in the way he intended”.

    Mr Johnson has denied acting improperly.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/05/03/exclusive-tory-staff-furious-flat-refurbishment-told-no-cash/

    1. Strange fuss about £200,000 whilst some years ago the Blairs spent the equivalent of £410,000 doing up No. 10, and the MSM just smiled benignly.

      1. I was hoping to make some changes to our dining room and kitchen arrangements. I planned to spend about €30,000 (of our own money) on the project but the politicians have gobbled that money up by effectively shutting down our business.

      2. I don’t think we were as aware at the time. It was the Blair regime that opened our eyes to the grasping nature of all too many MPs.
        What gets up my nose is that Conservative activists work very hard – not just canvassing and leaflet delivery – but also at fund raising. There are many incidental expenses that many cover from often limited incomes.
        £30,000 maintenance for a flat is more than the annual income of many members.
        Central Office takes a cut of what’s raised locally – in fact it is busily trying to take over subscriptions which was a constituency matter. I’m now beginning to wonder why.
        I am not impressed by the hard raised cash being treated as The Lovebirds’ Bank of Mum and Dad. I wonder how temporary the subvention would have been if the public hadn’t got wind of it?

    2. From my experience, most CO staff are plummy ‘Rahs filling in time until they get a safe seat.
      Shortage of money is not one of their problems.

  65. ‘The landmark trial of two soldiers for the murder of an IRA commander almost 50 years ago has collapsed after just five days.

    The former paratroopers, both in their 70s, walked free from court after more than a decade under investigation.’

    And let’s hope that’s the end of the whole sorry business.

    Edit – unless, of course, the 2 Paras can find someone to sue for the stress of the last 10 years.

    1. Don’t bank on it. The IRA (now that the Northern Ireland DPP is of their ranks) has not gone away…

    4. Sorry I posted the same thing before seeing your post. However the important thing is that it is excellent news and let us hope that this will be the end of these ridiculous trials.

    5. I don’t know what the IRA are complaining about. After all, they set the rules of engagement by shooting not only off duty Security Force personnel, but prison officers and local government officials in the back of their head.

  66. Charles Moore

    The pitter patter of Lytle feet
    In the 20th century, there was little trouble about living conditions for prime ministers in Downing Street. That changed with tensions in the Blair/Brown era, caused minor difficulty in the Cameron/Osborne period and has erupted over Boris’s Lytle local difficulty involving wallpaper.

    One cause has been neglected: the patter of tiny feet. As far as I can ascertain, there were no prime ministerial children growing up in Downing Street from 1916, when Herbert Asquith left, to 1997, when Tony and Cherie Blair arrived with three, and then added a fourth, Leo, in 2000. Gordon and Sarah Brown brought up two infants while he was Prime Minister. David and Samantha Cameron arrived in office with two in 2010, and then added Florence after three months. In May last year, mid-Covid, appeared Wilfred, the child of Boris and Carrie Symonds.

    For singletons (Edward Heath) or prime ministerial couples with adult or no children, the Downing Street flat was serviceable enough. Once children’s Cozy Coupes started taking up valuable parking space, it was a different story. Both parents felt desperate at the lack of peace and quiet, time and space. Hence the struggle to improve accommodation.

    Is there a solution? Perhaps we should revert to having prime ministers old enough to have grown-up children. But that doesn’t answer the Boris problem. He was pushing 56 when Wilfred arrived. On past evidence, he does not necessarily know when to stop.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/05/04/doctrine-net-zero-will-make-mugs-us/

    1. This is result of a social shift.
      Prime Ministers are younger and still reproducing in their forties and fifties; an age at which our generation were worrying about our children’s ‘O’ level results. We had finished with all that breeding malarkey; been there, done that and got the T-shirt. Not an experience any of us wished to repeat at a stage of life when freedom beckoned.

    1. Today I made my second and final gesture towards giving our grandchildren something approaching a normal life. I’ve had the second jab and have added to the numbers.
      I doubt it’ll make a blind bit of difference to me – physically or any other way – but I’ve done my bit.

      1. I have too. I hope, as a result, that they will not vaccinate our teenage grandchildren.

        1. I would just like our second granddaughter to have one normal year at university – the others have been totally wasted by a combination of bolshie lecturers and an hysterical government.
          The two younger ones are still at school and I would like them to taste the freedoms that we had at their age.
          The oldest one is qualified and living and working in London so she is more in charge of her fate.

          1. I spent yesterday at a Heavy Horse event. Most of the handlers were happy to let you stroke the horses and generally make a fuss of them, but the youngest said, “no touching because of Covid”. I told him I’d sanitised my hands.

  71. On Thursday I will vote in the West Midlands Mayoral Election. I am allowed to have a first and second preference. My first preference is for the ReformUK candidate. My second preference would be for any other candidate whose party would 1. Deal with the BBC (defund thw Wokist anti-British Monster) 2. Not spout the “Build back Better”, Green New Deal nonsense, and 3. Would stop the boats of illegal invaders … This rules out the Conservative candidate as well as the woke lefties standing for Labour (Liam Byrne) and the “Liberal Democrats” …. So, I will not be giving any second preference.

    1. I voted by post today for the Police Commissioner and chose the Independent candidate. He is an ex-policeman and detective. He was a fraud investigator for a finance company on retirement. Unfortunately I posted the ballot paper without sealing it in the B envelope. I hope it gets to the count.
      I didn’t vote for a second choice.

    2. I filled out my postal vote for West Midlands as soon as it arrived. I also voted for Reform UK. I reluctantly voted Conservative (first time ever) as the second choice as the best of a bad bunch.

  72. Corn
    $6.9425/bushel +2.17% Jul 2021

    Wheat
    $7.2250/bushel +0.63% Jul 2021

    Futures prices today for July delivery.
    Its been a few years since prices have been this high (2013,i think)

        1. I shall reserve that pleasure until I am reincarnated as the alpha male in a baboon troop.

    3. Good gawd! Mrs Biden looks like a ventriloquists dummy…and so does her husband!

      1. I think its some sort of weird lens…look at the size of Jimmy’s feet!

        1. If they ARE his feet…!

          Could be a very small room and – as you suggest – a fish-eye camera.

    5. Must be fake. The two kneeling are three times the size of the two seated.

    7. that’s the first pic I’ve seen where something on JC is longer than his grin = his feet. But explains why Demented Joe popped in, so he can reserve the shoes for his coffin

    1. I will wait a week after it’s published and buy it for 50p for fire lighters.

      1. Extraordinary how their great desire for anonymity and to retreat from the World seems to elude them….

    2. Twinned with “Budgie the Helicopter”….

      Tremendous rhymes, I thought. Reelly, reely (sic) impressive….

    4. Surely she would only correctly be “Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex” if she’d been divorced or widowed, even if Harry IS brain dead.

      1. One lives in hopes, Our Susan.

        Perhaps you could offer to be their Director of Protocol…!!

      2. She’s American; they can never get their heads around titles – mind you, the Bbc isn’t much better. La Balding (who should know better as she’s related to Lord Huntingdon) kept calling Lady Cecil (widow of Sir Henry), Lady Jane Cecil.

          1. Can we get him for cultural appropriation? Still, it could have been worse; he could have worn his N@zi get up.

  75. It didn’t take Mourinho long..he’s been appointed manager of Roma..

    2. Millions in transfer fees, it’s all the team’s fault, fans bored to tears with defensive negative football.
      Sacked.
      20 million richer.

      Rinse and repeat.

      The most grossly over-rated manager of all time.

      1. When he last coached in Italy he did win The Champions League with Inter Milan.

        1. He inherits teams that other managers have built, generally going through a temporary bad patch, he gets a huge transfer budget and imports world class players. They get pissed off, start to lose, and he blames the players, never his tactics, he gets sacked.

          It has happened too often to be mere coincidence.

          Given the teams he starts with and the budgets he is given I suspect even I could make a pretty good fist of it.

          I would have a bit more respect if he stayed anywhere for more than a few years and built a mid-range team from a limited budget to become champions, qv Ranieri at Leicester or Brian Clough/Peter Taylor at Derby and NF.

          JM is a blow-hard waste of space.

    2. Better than chocolates or roses, and it will even supply its own chocolates for the roses.

    4. In my view, the NHS doesn’t think it’s there to make people feel good and improve their quality of life.

      1. It thinks it is there for its employees. Patients get in the way and are of no concern to management.

    5. I’m allergic to horses,the nearest I can get to a horse is a betting shop.

  78. Sigh
    Little Cat has climbed the tree outside the house, chasing magpies… hope he can climb down, we don’t have a ladder! The magpies have a nest up there, he’ll get a pecking if he keeps going up.

        1. I have been taking potshots at the magpies. I think i bagged one because i heard a squawk unlike their usual chatter when raiding the song bird nests. They haven’t come back yet.

          Food for the foxes.

  79. Deleted post about the Duchess of Sussex’s book about the red-headed soldier as Kaypea has already posted it below.

  80. 332316+ up ticks,
    We cannot surely go much deeper down into the pit of despair without a re-action.
    Children are running a gauntlet as been witnessed, & mentally damaged, consequences of mass uncontrolled immigration and treacherous political overseers.
    Now seemingly the cradle infant is being attacked,may one ask if it was a dog / cat receiving such treatment would the silence be so deafening.

    https://twitter.com/garethicke/status/1387672960773853187

    2. Very unnecessary, for all kinds of reasons. Honestly, who puts their healthy infant in for a medical experiment that won’t even benefit other children?

      1. 332316+ up ticks,
        Evening BB2,
        Reset in motion, start as you mean to go on.
        What types support / vote for mass uncontrolled immigration
        parties with a history of odious consequences of their semi covert agenda.

  81. That’s me for yet another cold, wet and wind-blown day. It is tipping down as I write. Supposed to be fine tomorrow – though windy.

    The garden is about three weeks behind. The poor old Wysteria started to flower – then was hit by gales.

    Anyway, sod all one can do about it – except keep on taking the medicine. Have a jolly evening.

    A demain.

    PS I had the misfortune to see the trailer for the latest version of “The Pursuit of Love” It served its purpose by ensuring that I did not bother to record the series.

    1. ‘Fore ye go, Bill:

      “Trial of two army veterans accused of IRA murder collapses.”

      Why the hyperbole? Why can’t a trial merely fail, stall or break down?

      1. These days, everything is hyperbole. Things plunge, not fall; everything is “ossom”, folk are gutted…

        1. I blame Brexit (or at least Project Brexit Fear). We couldn’t just leave, we crashed out and went over a cliff.

  83. Evening, all. I wouldn’t mind contributing to Scotland so much if they didn’t appear so ungrateful.

    1. It’s a bottomless pit, Conway! And they don’t do gratitude! Any joy on the doglet front? I was very sorry to see your new companion wasn’t to be.

      1. Thank you, Sue. No, I spent most of last night looking at rescue centres. There was either nothing suitable or I failed to have a high enough fence at the back to satisfy the terrier rescues. I could cure the gates fairly easily by securing 6ft privacy trellis to them, but the fence itself would require more ingenuity. After the last setback, I’m not too keen on making preparations that might end up not being used.

          1. They can do; they can be Houdini on steroids. Even if the fence is 6ft high, if there’s something they can use as a jumping off point to get over to reach something they fancy chasing (they have a high prey drive), they’ll use it. Having said that, neither of my two terrier crosses bothered leaping over fences. The youngster did manage to worm his way through a holly hedge that had a small gap in the bottom (filled in immediately once we got him back and found it) and escape.

          2. Try the vets, Conwy.

            We would have been adjudged by the RSPCA, Rescue etc. too old to have kittens. Bloody home visits to see if the premises were suitable etc etc (yawn).

            The vet put us in touch with the couple who wanted five kittens to go to good homes. They liked us- they could tell we were cat people – and it was all done and dusted in an hour.

          3. My vet knows I’m looking – that was the first thing I said as I paid the bill. I shall now try the other two.

          5. The MR came up with an idea over supper. I you have ever used a boarding kennel – (and trust it) ask them. They may know

          6. No, I’ve never used a boarding kennel; either the dog(s) came with me in the camper or MOH was at home to look after them.

          7. I have friends whose Yorkshire Terrier used to climb up and over a 4ft 6″ chicken wire-type fence in order to meet up with his girl-friends. They couldn’t understand how he kept escaping until they caught him in the act of paw over paw, up and over.

          8. I don’t suppose they appear as rescue dogs very often, but a West Highland White is a good companion.

          9. It seems to me, looking at the rescue sites, that the majority are Staffies who, mainly as a result of the people who have them, have an undeservedly poor reputation. Those who aren’t appear to have been imported from Eastern Europe (Romania, Hungary) or the Iberian peninsula. I don’t want to support importing welfare cases; we have enough of our own to look after without bringing them in from abroad.

          10. We had an English Bill (ho ho) terrier, Princess Anne’s favourite. It was a wonderful dog, loyal, extremely protective and ugly as sin.

            It had a tendency to kill all the neighbours pets that were stupid enough to try to come into our garden.

          11. The Princess Royal’s dog was awarded an ASBO for a fracas where he attacked another dog, I recall.

          12. Typical of the breed.

            Ours was sleeping in the kitchen when a war wounded, beggar tramp arrived at the door.

            It was only a fly-screen door and he realised that my mother was apparently on her own.He started to open the door and my mother shouted at him not to. He carried on.

            Very, very bad decision. The dog went straight through the screen and said tramp broke the 100 and 200 metres world records running away.

            We were never troubled by beggars again.

    1. “I think there was also significant evidence of Russian involvement, if not influence or interference, in Brexit”.

      Not according to the facts.

      2. The post war ‘Rocket Race’ was between:

        the Russia based German scientists
        and
        the America based German scientists

        1. And had Hitler not gone all Russian, and then Bomber Harris and the Norwegians and Poles not done their bits, I suspect the German scientists might even have beaten the Americans to the Bomb.

        2. And what is it that put America in the forefront of
          The nuclear nations? And what is it that will make it
          Possible to spend twenty billion dollars of your money
          To put some clown on the moon? Well, it was good old
          American know how, that’s what, as provided by good
          Old Americans like Dr. Wernher von Braun!

          Gather ’round while I sing you of Wernher von Braun
          A man whose allegiance
          Is ruled by expedience
          Call him a Nazi, he won’t even frown
          “Ha, Nazi, Schmazi” says Wernher von Braun

          Don’t say that he’s hypocritical
          Say rather that he’s apolitical
          “Once the rockets are up, who cares where they come down?
          That’s not my department” say Wernher von Braun

          Some have harsh words for this man of renown
          But some think our attitude
          Should be one of gratitude
          Like the widows and cripples in old London town
          Who owe their large pension to Wernher von Braun

          You too may be a big hero
          Once you’ve learned to count backwards to zero
          “In German, oder Englisch, I know how to count down
          Und I’m learning Chinese!” says Wernher von Braun.

      3. As opposed to her friends like Obama interfering in it? Stupid woman!

        1. That was different, that wax for the good of the country!

          Sorry I have been reading the Guardian again and that is what they said.

    2. If she really believed that Putin had such powers, Bill would have Arkansacided him, long before she stood against Trump

    3. The US is losing influence..the dying embers of their post-war empire are slowly going out.
      They are striking out at anyone the see as responsible for their demise.
      The engineered fall of the USSR was supposed to usher in a golden era of rape of Russia’s natural assets with big profits for all.
      Unfortunately Bill Clinton’s puppet,Boris the drunkard ,made his only sober decision…he nominated Vladimir Putin as his temporary successor.
      Putin saw things differently..the rest is history.
      Look around the World..
      The US has few allies but many colonies.

      1. The world belongs to China and India on stolen/donated tech. America just hasn’t noticed yet.

        When they do there will be war.

        1. Oh i don’t know.There was barely a ripple when the US stole/was donated the German tech after WW2.

          5. Félicitations. Il y a très longtemps, j’habitais Loudun (Val de la Loire).

          6. I spent a month in Montpellier being a very mauvais boy. ***whistles nonchalantly.

          8. The food in the Croix D’or was excellent and ,like me,the chef was a Liverpool supporter.

          11. May he live for a thousand years…erm…I think i just cursed him ! :@(

      2. The missing factor in US thinking is that they believe that everyone would think like them and go along with them. They never seem to get that other people love their countries and don’t want the US involved unless invited.

        1. And the invitations are a bit thin on the ground…or are engineered by those cuddly “colour revolutions”

      3. mng. Add to the fact before the Berlin Wall came down, the late Bush agreed when the wall came down ahead of USSR demise no weapnns on Russian border. Clinton ripped that up and tried to prop up Yeltsin. Then it went downhill as US had to create a new enemy [AQ] out of mujahadeen. And it keeps going downhill. As you saw US has few allies, mainly those it controls via US$ with usual threat of sanctions. Their economies gone, the old guard desperate to prop up the model by any means to protect themselves. It may take a while, but it’ll be a long drop and good to watch. If not seen, this is VVP tearing some septic a new matako https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPR3iJhpleY

    4. What is it with these people? How come they think we can’t actually think for ourselves? I wish they’d all shut up and go away.

    7. If Vlad had a quarter of the influence in Western Politics he’s claimed to have, he’d be doing well.
      It’s a total smokescreen.

  85. Heavens to Murgatroyd. It’s hailing massive great big huge hail stones.
    PCs came rushing in in a bit of a tizz.

    1. Been stabbed by black people or raped white girls. Didn’t bother with the link.

    2. They must be the ones stabbed as they’re smiling.

      Let’s ignore they were a second away from being the stabee and that they were stabbed because they were drug runners in violent gangs.

      But! All together! DIVERSITY STRENGTH!

  89. Our house went on the market about midday. Agent phoned to say he has a viewing arranged for tomorrow morning. Crikey that was quick.

        1. Probably not as one of the better architects of my generation, yet to be credited for my buildings as ever, I have very little regard for Modern Movement Architects who seemingly abound.

          I love stone and brick and flint walls, high ceilings and nice proportions. I like stone and slate roofs. I like stone mullioned windows, natural materials abounding and some distance from plastic windowed properties.

          Those plastic windows are the ultimate sign of idiocy such that I would not want such ignoramuses as neighbours.

      3. I have ruled out returning to Bath, my birthplace on account of the fabulous prices for even humble bijou properties. So whilst we love Suffolk and North Essex we are in our late sixties and wish to find a property with more ground floor accommodation and with a ground floor bedroom and bathroom.

        We had to care for my wife Carol’s parents and this taught us a thing or two about the necessities of having more manageable properties in our old age.

        So no we are looking at the more depopulated areas around Lincoln and the Lincoln Wolds where properties are substantial yet less expensive than those more readily commutable.

        North Norfolk is not out of the question but again these properties remain commutable to London.

        Of course, every old normal is questioned by the lockdowns where many have found that they are able to work from home without the dreadful daily commute that folk like me endured, unnecessarily, for decades.

        If any Nottlers wish to purchase a bargain check out Thatches, The Street, Ashen CO10 marketed by Richard Juszt.

    3. Good luck. I hope all goes well and nobody leads you on and then pulls out at the last minute (that happened to me with my first house).

      1. Had that several times when we were leaving the UK. Folk reducing their offer once accepted, dropping out… what a nightmare.

        1. We had this couple who enthused over the house, visited virtually every day (making a nuisance of themselves), measuring for carpets, curtains, etc., then they stopped coming. After a few days we contacted the estate agents only to find that they had withdrawn their offer. It was a bit worrying as the deadline for me to start my new job was looming and the commute wasn’t at all good. Fortunately, some decent people put down an offer which we accepted and, despite their sale having fallen through, they took out a bridging loan – ouch! – and completed. I only had the commute of horror for four days in the end.

          1. oh the benefits of the Canadian system which is like many others. Once that offer is signed and accepted, there is no backing out or changes possible.

          3. Yup. You need to pay a bit more for a decent agent. If the Agent shows no particular interest in the peculiarities of your property but simply sees you as a mere number on their list of available properties you are lost.

            Estate agents are a bit of a closed shop. I reckon any halfway decent property is sold on to some Agent’s family.

          4. I was looking at houses before t’dampandamic and am atvs loss to see what the estate agent does beside display a photo and open a door. None of those that let me into any houses could answer any of my questions.

    4. I hope the sale is for all good reasons. There is a shortage of housing according to the Media (spits). Hope you inflated the price !

      1. Only problem is we now need to find a suitable property to move to. Every time we find something some fleeing Londoner gets in first. They sell a two up two down in bloody Balham for a million.

        In truth most of those seeking a rural idyll actually become bored and where the man commutes the women find the ‘isolation and loneliness’ too much to bear and vice versa. So there is yet hope for some of us.

        1. That sounds like the problem we are having.
          In our case it is people in Toronto selling a condo for several million and moving out to the country where they can outbid any local. Add to that the fact that we are in a tourist area and there is additional interest in buying properties summer as rental investments. Prices have basically doubled in a year and there is no let up in the demand.

          Good luck in your search for a new place, hopefully we will receive reports from a professional architect on the state of the housing market.

          1. Don’t be cheeky. I know no more than anyone else about the peculiarities of the housing market in its present state and have said so.

          2. Don’t be cheeky. I know no more than anyone else about the peculiarities of the housing market in its present state and have said so.

        1. Just kidding. Hope you find a good home for them, and sorry your friend passed away.

    4. The MR writes: get in touch with local small refuges, NOT the RSPCA. In our experience the RSPCA is not really interested in homing animals – just demanding loads of pointless, bureaucratic box-ticking.

      1. Thank you. Another friend (who previously ran a Cat Rescue Centre, suggested Battersea). They will do the honours but not until we have a Death Certificate. Sod’s Law in a Time of Covid indicates that because of various cock-ups (on the part of professionals) – it could be up to two more weeks before said certificate arrives!

    7. She looks lovely. I would love to say yes but I already have two PCs. They are very timid and probably wouldn’t cope with others coming into their territory.

    9. Try Bluecross, they will home cats as well as dogs. Our Dotty (Chihuahua) came from Bluecross and the staff were very good and caring.

          2. Poor you , drat and double drat .
            She will have left a huge gap in your heart and home .

            Toothache is a darned nuisance , perhaps you need some antibiotics . Pain killers are the only route until you can get to the dentist .

          5. ‘Evening, Plum a good slug of neat whisky rolled around the mouth like mouthwash, acts as a pain-killer for at least an hour. A help-meet if you take it just before bed.

            Spitting it out or swallowing it is always your choice.

    2. Further to my above comment i now can’t see the attached post you or most others have made.

  93. Yet Another strange experience with disqus. On screen about an hour ago i clicked on my replies and the screen went blank then it told me to log in which i tried to to do. And time and time again it kept telling me my email address and user name were already in use well of course……….So i had to change the password yet again and it’s a good job i know that colour taxi cabs are in the US and what effing palm trees and traffic lights look like.

      1. They sent me an email on my mobile, It suddenly stopped working for no known reason. Months later I still cant get it to work, it keeps telling me the email address is already in use…well of course it is it’s mine. But I can’t reply and tell them the email has a no reply facility !!!

        1. Happy Wednesday Eddy I am a tech illiterate & don’t have a smart phone, I do all my Kom-Puta stuff on an old laptop at home so I cant help with getting Dick-Sucks to work on a mobile phone.

    1. I have finished your book, at the weekend, NtN. There was a lot there to read, I enjoyed reading it at night and disappearing back a few decades for a while, much reminded me of my own childhood and early young adult life. I was sorry when I got to the end, you will have to add some more! Interesting as our elder son went to Halton and Cosford and he took up a fairy trade – avionics. It filled in a few details for me.

    1. Oh Gordon Bennett! Dinghies will become obsolete. They will be flying in squadrons over the white cliffs.

        1. Bad weekend – time had come to explain to our sons who are too busy with their lives to pay much attention to what is going on around them apart from the brainwashing – the time was quickly coming round for call-up for the experimental injection. Sent them an email explaining stuff. It must have turned their world view upside down. The elder son was annoyed as he says he has to support his wife as she is vulnerable and shielding. Now I do not understand this… his ‘vaccine’ is not required for hers to work. And if the ‘vaccines’ don’t work, it doesn’t matter who has it, or if they don’t have it. I didn’t get into the viral shedding discussion, there was too much there already. I was totally exhausted by the worry of it all, younger son said he did ‘get the message’ but no more emails on the subject! I am quite convinced I am going to lose our elder son to this horrible experiment. Spent yesterday in tears, it was exhausting and went to bed with migraine developing. Feeling better today.

          1. Sorry to hear that. I have turned down the first offer and do not commit to those who enquire. We share the same birthday, but I’m a few years younger and lucky to be reasonably healthy, so I will wait and see what happens this winter. I am concerned with the talk of natural immunity being suppressed but I do want to travel before I become too decrepit. I managed a day skiing with my two remaining children last year before they closed the resort and I may have to submit in due course. A number of my NHS employed family have had CV and one of our friends has died so I am not a denier, as they say. A good sleep generally improves things.. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1b4bd723ac291c5c7bb59da919f3323a077d3ee87dd8bddf8058099f9b4c4e23.jpg

          2. I think caution is the watch-word here. It doesn’t look as if we will be allowed to go travelling any time soon and I am sure they will be more than happy to to give you the jab if you roll up for it at a later date. This winter may well be interesting. I’m fortunate enough to have good health and I am not on any medication and although my husband is 79 we have decided to take a chance. Lovely photograph, it reminds me of when I went cross country skiing in N Italy 15 years ago.

          3. We were in Sauze. I like Italy and its people, its not far from the airport either.

          5. That’s a lovely old fashioned ski resort, is it in the Alps?
            I can’t stand the over-developed ones with ski runs like motorways.

          6. Yes, an hour and a quarter west from Turin. An old town and reasonably priced. Sestriere is in the ski range which was purpose built for the olympics a while ago.

          7. They’ve got to make their own decisions. You’ve made sure they have the facts. Very few people get the immediate severe side-effects.
            Even if they have one jab, they may opt out of future ones. I’m not an expert, but having watched all the experts explaining, it seems that the risk increases the more of these jabs you have.

    1. Starmer must be wondering where it all went wrong for him. After all, he hasn’t changed, he’s only following the same agenda as he has all his political career, and it was so successful for Blair.

  101. Horror outside M&S as man, 21, is stabbed to death in brawl in London’s Brent Cross shopping centre – forcing customers to be evacuated as police launch murder probe and arrest two men

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9542703/Londons-Brent-Cross-shopping-centre-evacuated-reports-stabbing-inside-shop.html

    I looked and I looked but nowhere in this report could I get any physical description of the chap who was stabbed and the people who stabbed him. However we do know that the stabbed cap was 21 and the others involved were aged 18 so we must keep an eye open to see if we can spot any 18 year olds in Brent.

  104. Israel – Jerusalem protests: The mob ‘breaking faces’ learned from Israel’s establishmenthttps://www.jonathan-cook.net/2021-05-04/jerusalem-protests-mob-establishment/

    1. Morning, AWK. All well, I hope.
      Prolific posting this morning… difficult to keep up!

        1. Vlad as always impressive in person. The reason that so little of it makes it into the West’s MSM!

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