Tuesday 4 October: Poor political nous led the Government to pursue the right tax policy at exactly the wrong time

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 we prefer ours),
Intelligent, polite, good-humoured debate is welcome, whether on or off topic. Differing opinions are encouraged, but rudeness or personal attacks on other posters will not be tolerated. Posts which – in the opinion of the moderators – make this a less than cordial environment, are likely to be removed, without prior warning.  Persistent offenders will be banned.

Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here.

806 thoughts on “Tuesday 4 October: Poor political nous led the Government to pursue the right tax policy at exactly the wrong time”

  4. Royal Navy sends frigate to North Sea after Nord Stream ‘sabotage’. 4 October 2022.

    A Royal Navy frigate was on Monday night sent to the North Sea in a show of force after a suspected Russian attack on the Nord Stream pipeline.

    The Ministry of Defence said it was looking to reassure partners after the pipelines in the Nord Stream network burst in an act of suspected sabotage near Swedish and Danish waters.

    The ministry said a Royal Navy frigate was in the area and working with the Norwegian navy.

    In all seriousness how can the Russians sabotage or attack what they own? Why would they blow up something that they have already shut down? This ludicrous lie would have us believe that the British sank the Lusitania and that the Americans bombed Pearl Harbour. Fortunately it looks from the comments that no one believes this unutterable guff. I expect this to change later when the 77 Brigade Trolls get out of bed and onto the job. If this False Flag operation tells us anything it is how far the West has separated itself from the truth. Nothing its Politicians say or its MSM pronounces can be believed! This is a civilisation on the edge of societal collapse!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/10/03/royal-navy-sends-frigate-north-sea-nord-stream-sabotage/

    2. Wow! A whole frigate. There was a time when a whole flotilla or two could have been engaged in this important task.

    6. It is now absolutely settled and nobody doubts anymore that the right person was elected to the White House in the presidential elections.

    2. The challenge. Touch the curtain. Go on. Just touch it. See what happens. Go on.

  8. Poor political nous led the Government to pursue the right tax policy at exactly the wrong time

    I think the problem that the globalists had was that it was a Conservative policy that would benefit the nation state and not them

  9. Poor political nous led the Government to pursue the right tax policy at exactly the wrong time

    I think the problem that the globalists had was that it was a Conservative policy that would benefit the nation state and not them

  11. I’m with you, Tony:

    “ sir – Well, there we have it. In just over a week, hope has turned to despair, courtesy of Liz Truss. The mini-budget was the right thing to do but it was badly explained, especially given the present circumstances.

    However, a U-turn – capitulating to the Government’s opponents – was the worst possible thing to have done. Tony Farrar”

    I will add. I was originally no fan of Truss and had decided in any event I could not vote Conservative ever again (as they are not Conservative). Then came the mini-budget and I thought – hang on, maybe I will reconsider. But then, having seen the appalling behaviour of the party over the last few days, I have u-turned to my original position. So I am politically homeless again.

  12. I’m with you, Tony:

    “ sir – Well, there we have it. In just over a week, hope has turned to despair, courtesy of Liz Truss. The mini-budget was the right thing to do but it was badly explained, especially given the present circumstances.

    However, a U-turn – capitulating to the Government’s opponents – was the worst possible thing to have done. Tony Farrar”

    I will add. I was originally no fan of Truss and had decided in any event I could not vote Conservative ever again (as they are not Conservative). Then came the mini-budget and I thought – hang on, maybe I will reconsider. But then, having seen the appalling behaviour of the party over the last few days, I have u-turned to my original position. So I am politically homeless again.

  13. Richard Littlejohn
    *
    *
    *
    The over-praised Sunak was forced to borrow big because of Covid and landed us with the highest tax bills since Clement Attlee’s socialist spending splurge seven decades ago. After last week’s Labour conference, some commentators suggested that Starmer was being manipulated by Blair-era operators.

    Looking at the behaviour of the Tories over the past few days, it would appear much of the Conservative Party is singing from the Blair/Mandelson songbook, too. They seem to have swallowed the entire New Labour settlement whole. They must have a death wish, as they appear determined to commit electoral hara-kiri.

    Who could ever have imagined that a party with a massive 80-seat majority would unravel so spectacularly?

    Or that a hand grenade lobbed by Gordon Brown would detonate in the faces of the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham 12 years later?

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-11276797/RICHARD-LITTLEJOHN-needs-Labour-Tory-MPs-intent-electoral-hara-kiri.html

    1. Who could ever have imagined that a party with a massive 80-seat majority would unravel so spectacularly?

      IMHO, one answer is a total lack of real leadership at the top and down through all levels. Another answer is loss of moral compass throughout many of our political class. Yet another answer is allowing a globalist agenda to influence/formulate policy. And more, so many of our political class are just plain stupid: if any proof is needed one has only to look at the first three points. Oh, and by the way, I do not consider my list is exhaustive.

      2. I think that David Cameron’s election as leader of the Conservative Party in preference to David Davis was a masterpiece of manipulation by the Labour Party who knew that he would follow the Labour Party agenda while the Conservative Party took the blame.

  14. 365386+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Tuesday 4 October: Poor political nous led the Government to pursue the right tax policy at exactly the wrong time

    All depends on your take on present & past governing bodies, mine is telling me that all roads are leading to RESET the tax on / off issue has certainly worked in the deflection
    department.

    Our main issue underpinning ALL treacherous issues is the Dover / Dungeness landing beaches in regards to the very real invasion.

    One days intake placement will rapidly change any towns social fabric, that in a short space of time, once given the vote the
    social standing of the city & Country, what
    matters the economy & tax issues then ?

    In my mind the driving force behind repress,
    replace, RESET is people power via the electoral majority.

  15. Morning, all. Dull with a light breeze in N Essex this morning.

    My reply to Richard Tice re the risk to the UK’s gas supply. The rundown of our energy production from fossil fuels without a reliable alternative e.g. nuclear to replace that source, has been the policy of governments for years. All of those ministers in all of those governments were careless? It is not carelessness that has brought us to this point but wilfulness.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/dfaa158531a4e28c599e61eff9c3790b85046018e2e1ea20488dd5d7db8012e7.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ff0fc1f3a0296da05ae913373cb4a198cc83531d19cd0f9f6b83710872f5ddd7.png

  16. ‘Morning, Peeps.

    This obituary surely embodies the very finest heroism, where ordinary unarmed police officers hurled themselves into their task of stopping armed raiders without any regard to their own safety.  And I’m sure many of my generation will recall the tragic death of Supt Gerry Richardson, who led from the front without hesitation:

    Carl Walker, GC, policeman who was awarded the George Cross for his role in arresting armed robbers in Blackpool in 1971 – obituary

    He rammed the getaway car then gave chase and was shot in the groin, but the criminals were all arrested and the jewellery recovered

    ByTelegraph Obituaries 3 October 2022 • 1:25pm

    Carl Walker, GC, who has died aged 88, was a policeman who was awarded the George Cross for his heroism in attempting to arrest a gunman in 1971 after an armed robbery at a jewellery shop in Blackpool.

    Shortly before 10 o’clock on the morning of August 23 1971, a Triumph estate car pulled up in Queen Street, Blackpool, and four masked gunmen got out. They walked along the Strand and entered Preston’s Jewellers, where they threatened the staff and forced them to lie down on the floor.

    The gang smashed display cabinets and filled their holdalls with jewellery, but while they were engaged in this one of the assistants managed to raise the alarm. As they ran for their getaway vehicle, spilling valuables on to the pavement, a police Panda car drove into Queen Street with PC Walker at the wheel.

    He rammed the Triumph as the men piled in but it roared off up Queen Street towards North Shore. As Walker went off in pursuit, Frederick Sewell, one of the robbers, pointed a sawn-off shotgun at him through an open window. Walker continued the chase, and when the Triumph turned into a blind alley he seized the opportunity to block the roadway with his car.

    With the getaway car now trapped and the gang beginning to panic, Sewell, who was recognised as their leader, took over the wheel. He reversed at high speed down the alley, smashed the police car out of the way and drove off, with Walker, considerably shaken by the force of the impact, again in pursuit.

    A second police car manned by two officers joined the chase and was rapidly gaining on the fugitives when the getaway car suddenly came to a halt. One of the robbers, carrying a revolver, jumped out, walked to the side of the police vehicle and, after taking careful aim through the window, shot and wounded a policeman.

    The getaway car raced off to the end of Clifford Road and was mounting the pavement to get past a vehicle when two more police cars turned into its path, rammed it and immobilised it. The robbers, now outnumbered, jumped out and ran up a back alley, but with Walker gaining on them they turned and opened fire.

    Walker ignored the two shots fired at him and kept going after the gang until he came within reach of the man holding the gun. A bullet fired at close range hit him in the groin and he fell to the ground badly wounded.

    This held up the police for a few moments, and Sewell and his accomplices ran across Cheltenham Road towards a butcher’s van that was being loaded on a forecourt. Hearing the sound of shooting, the workers had run for cover and the robbers scrambled into the van and drove off with the police once more giving chase.

    To prevent the criminals escaping by the rear door, the police drove hard up behind the van, a stratagem that seemed to unnerve the robbers, and they crashed into a garden wall in Carshalton Street.

    Sewell leapt out of the front but was confronted by Superintendent Gerald Richardson. After a short, desperate struggle, he shot the superintendent in the stomach and ran off with one of his accomplices, the two men eventually making their escape in a stolen Morris van.

    All the injured men, including two of the criminals, were taken to Victoria Hospital in the town. The doctors fought for an hour to try to save Richardson’s life but his injuries proved fatal.

    Three members of the gang were apprehended later that day and both Sewell and the remaining fugitive were caught soon afterwards. Jewellery worth more than £100,000 (about £1.5 million today) had been taken from the shop but most of it was recovered from the pavement of the Strand or from the getaway car.

    Walker and Richardson were awarded the George Cross, Richardson posthumously, and four police officers received the George Medal. Walker was invested with the George Cross by the Queen at Buckingham Palace on December 5 1972. Sewell went on to serve 30 years in prison.

    Carl Walker was born on March 31 1934 at Kendal, Westmorland, the fourth of seven children of Alexander Walker, who worked in a paper mill, and Sara Jane, née Dickinson. He was educated at Kendal Grammar School before becoming an apprentice joiner. He served his National Service with the Royal Air Force before joining the Lancashire Constabulary in 1954.

    After leaving the force in 1956, he worked as a joiner until 1959 before re-enlisting with the police. Walker served with the Blackpool Borough Division and was later promoted sergeant and posted to Fleetwood.

    He was a regular player in police rugby teams and took part in many of their wrestling competitions. He received a commendation in 1961, and after the Blackpool robbery he was awarded the American Federation of Police Legion of Valor. In 1982, he retired on medical grounds with the rank of inspector, and he was later a partner in a cab company.

    Carl Walker married, in 1955, Kathleen Barker, the daughter of a joiner to whom he had been apprenticed. She died in 2018, and he is survived by their son.

    Carl Walker, born March 31 1934, died October 2 2022

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5a71791c7394372f230a560855d7ada2d9c9d4f737ee6c7ceee7b606102f9f8d.jpg
    Walker, right, with his wife Kathleen, and colleagues Ian Hampson, left – he was also shot during the jewellery robbery – his wife, and chief constable Bill Palfrey, a month after the raid

    1. Truly is the past another country.

      Nowadays, Walker would be disciplined for causing trauma to the scrotes.

  17. Good Moaning.
    It’s Not Easy Being Green.

    Dail Wail headline:
    “Joy for Ben Goldsmith as he celebrates birth of his seventh child”

    1. Perhaps he hasn’t yet worked out cause and effect. Not very bright, yer greeniacs…

      1. He is so used to telling people to get f*cked that he doesn’t foresee what will happen if his advice is followed!

      2. He is so used to telling people to get f*cked that he doesn’t foresee what will happen if his advice is followed!

    2. They will be able to do this to us without telling us. Our “opposition” will not matter.

      1. 365836+up ticks,

        Morning HP,
        Then we must dish up desserts before the ribeye,
        just desserts that is for the evil doers, long stretches of porridge.

  20. From today’s DT:

    Bus driver who swerved in front of ‘annoying’ cyclist appeals against being sacked

    Samir William felt the male cyclist had delayed the bus’s journey and swung to other side of the road, causing traffic to brake

    ByTelegraph Reporters 3 October 2022 • 7:02pm

    A bus driver enraged by a cyclist in the middle of the road was sacked after swerving in front of the bike, an employment tribunal heard.

    Samir William allegedly became incensed because he felt the male cyclist had delayed the bus’s journey by pedalling in front of it.

    To bypass the cyclist, Mr William swerved his bus on to the other side of the road, causing oncoming traffic to brake or steer out of the way, and then “retaliated” by pulling in front of the cyclist and stopping.

    As a result, the shocked cyclist had to leap out of the way and on to the kerb, the tribunal heard.

    Shortly afterwards the man caught up with the bus and kicked the doors before “remonstrating with [Mr William] through the driver’s window”.

    Witnesses, including the landlord of a nearby pub, came forward and Mr William then reported the incident in London to bosses at London General Transport Services.

    After they analysed video footage from the bus’s 13 onboard cameras they suspended Mr William, who worked at the firm’s garage in Putney, south-west London.

    The tribunal heard: “The footage showed that [Mr William] overtook a cyclist by going into the opposite lane, which caused vehicles travelling the other way to break or change direction to avoid the on-coming bus.

    “[Mr William] then deliberately stopped the bus at the kerb blocking the cyclist, who was forced to jump on to the kerb to avoid it. [Mr William] then drove away.

    “The cyclist then caught up with the bus. On the second occasion the cyclist caught up, he kicked the bus including the doors which bowed alarmingly.

    “The cyclist also hit the window next to the driver and appeared to be remonstrating aggressively with the [Mr William]. He then cycled off.”

    The tribunal also heard that footage on that day, June 23 2021, showed he had driven at 28mph in a 20mph zone.

    The company was contacted by Transport for London after a member of the public complained that Mr William’s driving during the incident was “atrocious and dreadful”.

    Mr William was summoned to a disciplinary hearing with the garage general manager, named in court documents as Mr S Patel.

    The hearing was told: “Mr Patel concluded that [Mr William] had been reckless. He had used his bus as a weapon to retaliate against the cyclist, who he felt was delaying him.

    “Mr Patel concluded that [Mr William] did not understand that his actions were dangerous and accordingly, training would have no effect and there was no alternative to dismissal.”

    Mr William appealed the sacking and when this failed he began a legal case against London General Transport Services.

    He claimed unfair and wrongful dismissal, saying he should have been given notice pay.

    The London South tribunal rejected all Mr William’s claims.

    * * *

    As annoying as the cyclist’s actions undoubtedly were, drivers in such a situation just have to rise above it and keep their cool. As a former accident investigator, and currently as a part-time community bus driver, I have seen it all before. The consequences of road rage can be tragic.

    A bus driver’s first duty is to the passengers, closely followed by a duty to other road users.  I can well understand Mr Williams’ keeness to keep to the timetable, but admonishment only follows if you are early, not late!

      2. The cyclist was actually following the new Highway Code rules I.E., cycle down the middle of the road! Yes I know it’s ridiculous and thank goodness no cyclist when we’ve been out has ever cycled this way.

    2. In Scotland vehicles overtaking cyclists have to leave gap of over five feet, a legal requirement. This invariably requires the vehicle to go on to the “wrong ” side of the road. Roads are narrow, one vehicle in each direction at most, so overtaking can only take place if the road is straight and clear. Roads are not straight. The Scottish Borders is, of course, a playground. Cyclists often ride two abreast, making it easier to chat.

  21. Morning Folks.
    It was very misty on the Thames at Windsor last Friday morning at 7:30 am – so much so that I decided to switch on my navigation lights. By the time I reached the stretch below Clivedon, the mist had lifted but light was very strange. It brightened up at Wargrave……
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7ede754030cebd4e38a3ea49a76b9df411501a4dc66a15d722ae7f5e84dd9628.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/59f9f2b81e7f3f1f49e63a05cffa9119fad88f68e2c2b99bc1b67283657d113a.jpg

  22. SIR – Lowering taxes for the highest earners during a cost of living crisis was never really going to go down well, was it?

    This policy revealed a complete lack of political foresight and joined-up thinking from the Conservative leadership, and voters will rightly neither tolerate nor forget it.

    Stefan Badham
    Portsmouth, Hampshire

    I agree. Their lack of foresight, combined with basic common sense, merely reflects the very low calibre of people in parliament. And before anyone says “We elected them” we were not given any choice in the matter of who stands for election!

    PS Lifeboats are ‘lowered’ whereas taxes are reduced…

    1. We also voted for Brexit and we still haven’t got it while EU fishing boats plunder our fishing waters and the EU controls the borders between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.

  23. SIR – The Conservatives are in a mess largely of their own making. They used the wrong system to choose a new leader; if they had left it to their MPs the outcome would probably have been different.

    Liz Truss, once elected, rushed into office with ill-thought-out policies, and the result has been a humiliating U-turn. Her irresponsible approach has seriously damaged the party, and this needs to be righted by a change of policy or leadership – or both.

    Paddy Dunseath
    Westbury, Wiltshire

    With an In-tray a mile high and with many of the items about to combust, I suspect that there was an element of overload in this cock-up.

    1. It’s hard to imagine with all the thousands of civil service employees hanging around behind the (running the whole show) scenes of Westminster, that so many dreadful and harmful mistakes are made in our political spectrum……..or perhaps not.
      Perhaps a complete reorganisation is long overdue.

      1. Sack them all. Divorce agencies such as DVLA from the State and make them self-funding, licensed by the government to whom big money should be paid.
        And so on. If government departments hade to self fund, they might sharpen their ideas up?

  24. SIR – After listening to Nick Robinson grilling the Chancellor on yesterday’s Today programme, I found myself wondering: do we need an official party of opposition?

    Graham Bond
    Matching Green, Essex

    Probably not, Mr Bond (!) but the media has taken to itself the task of opposing the government. Let’s face it, HM’s Loyal Opposition can’t even find the goal, never mind put the ball in it…

  25. SIR – With public spending cuts back on the cards, the usual suspects who have always been against HS2 seem to be rearing their heads again, notably Lord Wolfson (report, September 30).

    London to Crewe via Birmingham is deep into construction already. Nearly half of the total spend on these phases is committed, and nearly 28,000 people are working on building the new railway. Cancelling this section is virtually impossible and would save almost no money, but it would put those 28,000 people out of work – hardly a recipe for growth.

    The next section to be approved is Crewe to Manchester. Cancelling that one wouldn’t be too smart either. The Prime Minister says she is committed to Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR), and that particular section of HS2 is a prerequisite for NPR, providing 14 miles of NPR track and vital station works at Manchester Piccadilly.

    Trying to replan NPR without having that baseline will result in huge and costly delays, putting the benefits for the North back by something like a decade.

    The reality is that HS2 has passed the point of no return. The debate now needs to be about making sure it delivers growth, as well as the urgent need to decarbonise transport. No more time and energy should be wasted on squabbling about whether a project deep into construction should be happening.

    Richard Thorp
    Director, High Speed Rail Group
    London NW1

    No self-interest there, then!

    1. It matters not when it is finished, the railways ‘workers’ will still be on strike, but no-one will know because the postmen/women/thems will not have returned either.

    2. He would say that wouldn’t he? The idiot doesn’t know the difference between carbon and carbon dioxide.

    3. If it was really about the Northern Powerhouse they would have started in the north and not the south.
      Weasel words.

    4. There’s plenty of work required on the rest of the network to keep 28,000 people occupied.

    5. Everyone who lives along the London to Crewe route would throw a party if this “deep” construction were halted today!

  26. SIR – I think that in these troubled times the BBC is about to make yet another terrible mistake by cutting 400 jobs at the World Service (report, September 30), which is so important to all the people across the globe who are able to listen to it.

    Deirdre Lay
    Cranleigh, Surrey

    On the contrary, Ms Lay, the World Service has become Woke Central. Last year a series called Book Club (where various authors take part in a Q & A session before an audience) decided to discuss only female authors for 12 months. Thus, all male authors were deliberately excluded. Currently they are running a series called, I think, Women in Power. Yes, the same applies. I’m sure other Nottlers can come up with their own examples. The entire organisation must surely hit the buffers before long.

    1. I remember when the World Service was presented by white people with cut-glass accents.

      The last time I tuned in – it was all Bames with incomprehensible accents.

    2. BBC Radio 4 is the festering Rsole of Woke broadcasting. There has always been an anti-British, anti-colonial element deep in the heart – even during world conflicts. The BBC World Service it is a suppurating boil on the face of democracy. Together they infest and infect every aspect of British life and British heritage.

      I hope that is not to scathing, I should hate to tarnish the glorious reputation of our most sacred institutions.

  27. SIR – Thousands of vulnerable people are awaiting a letter inviting them to get an essential Covid booster jab. Royal Mail employees should get their priorities right.

    Brian Christley
    Abergele, Conwy

    So it’s not all bad news then??

    1. I’ve already had 4 reminders by messenger from my GP practice to book an appointment. They don’t appear to take notice of the replies.

        1. I’ve got an appointment Friday I’ll tell him. And remind him that he told me not to have the booster last year.

        2. Nor I. Last year I was offered my first flu jab and informed that ‘I may be offered a booster’.

          Ignoring the letter, a week later I was informed that I was now ‘a priority for a booster’ but there was no further mention of the flu jab.

          Meanwhile in Germany, the health authorities are desperately trying to portray Oktoberfest as a ‘super spreader event’ as cases are up – as flu cases always are at this time of year. However, the numbers of those admitted to ICU and deaths remain stubbornly low.

          It’s almost as if…

  28. Morning all 🙂
    According to the seemingly sensible and ordered Anne Widdecombe, slimey Gove is stirring it up again. Sack the horrible little git Liz, get rid of him. What has he ever achieved ?

  29. Good Morning. Another dismal day of drizzle* in prospect. Forecast for the next fortnight is much the same.

    *For the avoidance of doubt, lemon cake is not involved. That is because Lemon Cake is doing a gig in Glasgow this week

  30. A chap buys a talking centipede for £5,000, which he considers a bargain for such an unusual arthropod, and he takes it home in a small box. After 30 minutes he opens the box and says to the centipede, “Would you like to go out for a pint?”

    The centipede doesn’t answer him, so the chap raises his voice and asks the same question again, but he still gets no reply.

    Getting angry now, thinking that he’s been swindled, he bellows the question again, very loudly.

    At which the centipede sticks his head out of the box and says, “I heard you the first time. I’m putting my fucking shoes on!”

      2. If you want proof of that – read the BTL comments on the BBC website, especially the ones about Ukraine! They’ve swallowed the propaganda whole.

    1. Ardern would make wonderful target practice for a sniper (as would Michael Gove). As would Joe Biden … Emmanuel Macron … Justin Trudeau …

    2. Ah. So we can expect the counting in swing constituencies to stop mysteriously for as long as it takes to ferry in extra vote boxeseveryone to have a rest, before Bolsanaro’s opponent is declared the winner?

  33. There is never going to be a good time to introduce tax cuts if the country remains wedded to big state, high tax policies. MPs fighting for their posts instead of their constituents are always going to be looking for government to spend more on them to take the credit for it.

    Tax cuts help everyone. They’re a step to government doing far, far less which is a good thing.

    1. If anyone at all deserves war reparations it is Britain, but of course we were, are, and always will be the white evil Empire.

    2. Highly convenient bit of leverage they have now, with the only Nordstream pipeline to Germany running across Polish territory.

      Amazing, that.

      1. Indeed…I read some speculation last week that the USA could be planning to make Poland into Ukraine II, and ditch Germany.
        Poland has loads of natural resources and is more open to corruption than the Krauts, plus they hate Russia more.

  35. Good morning from Ollie’s cafe just up the A38 from Burnham!
    Pick up made, and what a bloody heavy lump it is! A bit gobsmacked that one of the auction porters just picked it up and carried it out to the van!!

    I ought to have made arrangements to meet up with persons on here that are close to my route home.

    1. Well – you’re welcome to drop in for a coffee (or tea) – postcode is GL5 2SW. You might have to park on the Common and walk down the hill unless I can persuade OH to move his car inside the gate.

      1. A bit late now I’m afraid. I’ve gone past the best turn off point and decided to head straight up home.
        Next time I’m down this way perhaps.

        Bob

        1. Yes – give us a bit of warning and I’ll have the kettle on! We were going to Sheffield by train this coming weekend but now they’re on strike Friday and Saturday so that’s put the knockers on it. Neither of us drives that far these days.

  36. Re unwanted adverts. Following lots of suggestions from helpful NoTTLers, I took advice from our IT guru – he recommended Adblock Ultimate. Installed. Works a treat!!

  37. Priti Awful offers advice:

    “‘Tories live and die by the economy’: Now ex-home secretary Priti Patel joins backlash at Liz Truss over unfunded tax cuts “

    Sour grapes, perhaps?

    1. And, as Priti Patel has found, by their effectiveness in coping with illegal immigration.

    2. They are absolutely pathetic. None of them have the guts to resign because they get paid for being totally and utterly useless. Where’s Henry the 8th when we need him ?

  38. Reading, in this forum, just t’other day about absent friends; my mind was alerted when my computer threw a wobbly and I needed to save all my accumulated data prior to having a new SSD drive installed. One aspect of that ‘surgery’ made a lot of my data become ‘confused’ and out-of-location. I’m currently in the middle of deleting a lot of old, unused, data and whilst doing so I came across reams of saved material throughout my time as a contributor to both the old DT letters’ page and to NoTTLe.

    I was quite astonished to see the names of countless old contributors to those vaunted columns; many of whom I remember fondly (others not so) and I wonder how many of them are still with us.

    I have collated those I remember along with those I found documented. I realise this will not be an exhaustive list, going back to early 2010 when I first emerged as grizzly. I have highlighted in bold those contributors who are still current. Apologies to those I have missed, those who I have forgotten their usernames, those who I have duplicated (or not noticed they had other names), and to those who have slipped my memory (The retired copper, Ian [was it “Ian_Oci” by any chance?] is just one of them).

    Anyway, I hope that all contributors on here, both new and old, get some hapy nostalgia reading through these names from the past 13-or-so years.

    Aberrant Apostrophe
    A Brit Abroad
    Adamaster
    Aethelfled [‘Lady of the Mercians‘]
    Airy Fairy
    Alan Moore
    Alpalu
    Andrew Banks
    Andrew Lockwood
    Andrew XUK
    Andy Cochrane
    Angie O’Edema
    Anglosaxonmike
    Anna Falactic
    AnneAllan
    Antoncheckout
    Anton Deque
    Araminta Smade
    Ascanius [‘Aeneas‘]
    Ashes Than Dust
    Assymetric
    Astrantia
    Azfal

    Bassetedge
    Bazzerman
    Bej
    Bill Jackson
    Billyrawmone
    Bionde
    Blackbox 2
    Bleausard [‘Still Bleau’]
    Bob of Bonsall
    Bob 3
    bravooscaroscartango
    Brian
    Bristol Boy
    British Awakening
    Bruce Hamilton
    Bryan Stives
    Buzzard

    Callaspadeaspade [‘Wee Fozzie Bear’]
    Carlmarx
    Caroline Tracey
    Catty & Co
    Cewubaaca
    Cgg
    Chad
    Cheshire Lad
    Chezz
    Clipstone
    Clydesider
    Cochise 1
    Coffeencake
    CoJaW
    ColinStClairedeLune
    Conister
    Conway
    Corimmobile
    Crockettxx
    Crosscop
    C Thomas Boone
    Cuthbert J Twillie
    Cynarch
    Cynicalm

    Dalekdave
    Damask Rose
    Daniel FG
    Danra2
    Dave of Down
    Dave Sauron
    David of Kent
    Delboy 36
    Delilah
    Des
    Devonian in Kent
    Dickgreendoxon
    Dilligaff
    Djang07
    Dodgy Knee
    Domlingus
    Durnovaria

    Edam
    Eddy
    EhCalmDown [‘Ready Eddy’]
    Emilia
    Emilie Lamplough
    Enri d’Aith
    Epidermoid

    Falkirk Bairn
    Feargal the Cat
    Fedup Voter
    Fenman
    Fergus Elder
    Flagellum
    Flashwork
    Flexico
    Fred Uttlescay

    Gagarin1
    Garlands
    Garthrod
    gavinrider [The Central Scrutiniser]
    Genius Loci
    Geoffrey Woollard
    Gizzee [‘Phizzee‘]
    Gladys Pew
    grizzly [‘Olaf Bloodaxe’]
    Grumpy Grey (‘Alf_the_Great’)
    Grumpy Old Fool
    Gunner Bear

    Hammered Taxpayer
    Handytrim
    Hardcastle Craggs
    Harry Kobeans
    HattieJaques3
    Herts Lass
    Horace Pendleton
    HoratioLordNelson
    Hugh Janus
    Hugso

    Ian_Oci
    Ice Annie
    Iffy the Prez
    Igonikon Jack
    Ilpugliese
    Intonsus
    Irish Neanderthal
    Issy Again

    Jack the Lad
    Jack Frost 27
    Jakobean
    James Wellings
    Jamspongecustard
    Janet JH
    Jay Igaboo
    JcDcFw
    JDavidJ
    Jennifer SP
    Jenny
    Jeremy Morfey
    Jewish Kuffar
    Jill the Lass
    JK
    Jobrag
    John A Roll Pickering
    John HB
    Johnhornetook
    John Francis
    John M
    JohnnyDuke
    Johnny Norfolk
    John SC
    John Standley
    Jonathan Wynne Evans
    Joseph B Fox
    JP1000
    J Scheckter [‘jdgarfunkle‘]
    JTRMedic
    Justin A Little

    Kaypea
    Ken L
    Kifaru 1
    Kiki
    Korky the Kat

    Lacoste
    Lady of the Lake
    Ladysmith
    Left Hand Kernel
    lbeagle [Bill Thomas]
    Lesley1
    Les Miserables
    Lewis Duckworth
    Lex
    Light and Shadow
    LingoStu
    Littlemo
    Lizzydripping
    Lms2
    Lonecia
    Lord Muck
    Lord Rayne [‘Sir Jasper’, ‘No to Nanny’]
    LW
    Lytham

    Madranon
    Maggieschild
    Magwitch
    MaHatMaCoatMaBag [Pud]
    Mancunival
    Man On The Bus
    Manusdepiedra
    Martyn J
    Me
    Meerschaum
    Meredith McKay
    Michael Knight
    Middlelandexile [Geoff Graham]
    Mike Ball
    Mikeypikey1
    Miss Deanniemite
    Mogulfield
    Molamola
    Monarch of the Glen [Duncan Mac]
    Monkbar
    More Info Required
    Mrs Average
    Mrs Bimble
    Mum’s Busy

    Nae a Belger
    Nagsman
    Naomi Onions
    National Treasure
    Ndovu
    Nickr
    Neil Ashley
    Neilox
    Nicol Sinclair
    Ninedeuce
    Noelfrances
    Norfolk and chance
    Normal for Norfolk
    Norto
    NotFatUnderTall.
    Noumenal

    Oberstleutnant
    Ogga1
    Oldgit 13
    Oliver Cromwell
    One Last Try
    Orangputeh
    Osier
    Ozzypom

    Pearsonfry
    Ped
    peddytheviking [‘Peter Anderson’]
    Perdita Plews
    Pete Green
    Peteh
    Pete Hayes
    Peteko
    Peter in London
    Peter Griffiths
    Pimlico Sound
    Plum_Tart
    Phranc
    Pobinr
    Pogleswoodsman
    Political Virgin
    Polymath
    Poopiebrain
    Poppiesmum
    Prejudiced [‘Tier5Inmate‘]
    Pretty Boy
    Pretty Polly
    Prof Watson

    Rastus C Tastey
    Red Panda
    Reith Symonds
    Richard L
    Richard Shaw
    Richard SK
    Richard Symington
    Rikdees
    Rik [‘Rik-Redux’]
    Rigel
    RKWL
    Robot Unicorn Attack
    Rosaline Sullivan
    Rusty Twig
    Ryeatley

    Sarah West
    Savant
    Scorpionderooftrouser
    Scousegit
    Sean Stanley-Adams
    70s Girly
    Sguest
    Sherrell
    Shidders
    Shoyad
    Silvers
    Simlington
    Simon Coulter
    Siphil
    Sirmoori
    Sir Richard of the Middle Park
    1642 Again
    Snotrocket
    Soldiernomore
    Sosraboc
    Spikey [‘Fallick Alec’]
    Squarepeg
    Stephenroi
    Steve Casey
    Steve Jones
    Steve the Beard
    Stigenace [David Wainwright]
    Still Politically Incorrect 1
    Stoobs
    Storm in a D Cup[‘Bug-spattered-knees]
    Streuth
    Sue E [Sue Edison]
    Sue Macfarlane
    Surfaceman
    Sweetalkinguy

    Tartan Pimpernel [‘Prickly Thistle’]
    Telfennol
    1066 Goldberg
    Thatlldo [‘Onourwayome’, ‘Watermelonineasterhay’, ‘Honkinginawardrobe’]
    Thayaric
    The Hidden Paw
    Theshoretankoilers
    Thomas Marsh-Connors
    Thrawn
    Tiddles
    Tim5165
    Tim Stafford Thornton
    Tony
    Toots
    Totusporcus
    True_Belle
    Truth Revealed

    Ubeany
    Uncle Beastly [‘Datz‘]
    Unimpressed One
    Usnuk

    VeryOldMan
    VeryVeryOldFella
    Vogon
    vw

    Walter
    Weezertt
    Wibbling
    William Foster
    William Garrett
    William Stanier
    Wilson
    Woodley Kid
    Wuffo the Wonderdog

    Yorkshire Calling
    Yorkshirewoman
    Youareastrangeone

    zaharadelasierra [‘Harry Lime’,’Elsie Bloodaxe’]
    Zimbalist
    Zorba the Jock
    Zorba the Turk
    Z3ddie
    Zxcv3 [‘Citroen1‘]

    1. I started following the ‘letters crowd’ in 2011, when I retired. I lurked for a long time before saying anything. I remember many of those names of those who disappeared. Are you still in touch with Toots?

      I think Uncle Beastly is still here – as Datz.

      1. Thanks for that, Jules. I’ll amend the UB/Datz. And yes, I am still in touch with Toots (as are a couple more on this forum) and he is very well.

        3. Someone called Kauru (not sure of the spelling, though not to be confused with Kifaru) – he used to post the DT letters when Epidermoid was having time off. Sometimes they both posted them.

          Also Persephone.

    2. Thank you, George, that has reminded me to back up my own files to an external hard drive (or two).

      1. Luckily, Tom, I have not lost any important data (but I’m still ‘spring-cleaning’ my system). I have a 1TB hard-drive but I’ve ordered a much better 1 TB solid-state (SSD) drive, which is much quicker and has no moving parts to go wrong.

        1. I got a new one from Samsung earlier this year to back up my photos – a T7 – very small and fast. The older one still works but you can’t be too sure.

          4. My other one is black – twice the size and twice as slow – but it does still work. I just didn’t want to risk losing years of photos.

    3. Some of those inactive names actually got banned – Coffeencake, JenniferSP, Peddy, and Rigel. And some, not mentioned above who I never would want to see here again – including Gedore and TheEvilThatMenDo. The Hatman was pretty two – faced as well – sometimes nice and sometimes very nasty – he was the reason I made my profile private.

      1. HattieJaques3 and ‘Colin’ StClairdelaLune were the nastiest trolls I came up against.

          1. His name was an anagram (a nasty play) on a very decent contributor who is much missed: Nicol Sinclair.

      2. I believe that Mr Viking started using the name Peter A ( his own name ) I understand he was posting until a couple of Christmases ago. That he lost Missy and become very
        depressed and never returned . Someone here who lives close to him was popping in to see if he was okay but he didn’t want to see people.

        1. He disappeared just before last Christmas and doesn’t respond to emails now. Poppiesmum went to visit him but was fobbed off – internet problems. But he was banned as Peddytheviking for a nasty and unprovoked attack on Conway.

      3. I believe that Mr Viking started using the name Peter A ( his own name ) I understand he was posting until a couple of Christmases ago. That he lost Missy and become very
        depressed and never returned . Someone here who lives close to him was popping in to see if he was okay but he didn’t want to see people.

    5. Bug Spattered Knees is Stormy. A lot of us made new profiles when Disqus removed all our upvotes. I have a different one in use on my phone, and a few months ago I found I had yet another.

      1. I invented Olaf Bloodaxe, originally, due to troll activity. The knock-on effect of that was that it brought my ‘auntie’, Elsie Bloodaxe, out of hiding.

        I still use Olaf frequently, in real life, and I tell the locals here that it is my official Viking name.

    6. Thank God Pretty sodding Polly has buggered off – to annoy another people on the Spectator (for one)

          2. It’s an astonishing amount of names and nice to remember people even if they’re gone.

        1. Rastus is probably here when he should be mowing the lawn or making tea, instead of being In the pub. He ‘s probably kept an eye on for that, kind of ‘ ah that’s where he is ‘

    8. Out of all the long-gone contributors who were an inspiration to me, when I first started, I miss most: Chezz, Orangputeh, JDavidJ, Grumpy Old Fool, JohnnyDuke, WuffotheWonderDog, Toots, Surfaceman, Pete Green, Norfolk and Chance, and Steve the Beard, who (among many others) were always good to chat with. Later along came Assymetric (Assy), Ilpugliese (Puggy), DanielFG, Oldgit13 and a few more who carried on the tradition.

      The one contributor who is missed the most, who everyone loved and listened to, and who amassed by far the most upvotes-per-comment I’ve ever seen, was good old Chezz. Does anyone know if he is still around?

    9. Out of all the long-gone contributors who were an inspiration to me, when I first started, I miss most: Chezz, Orangputeh, JDavidJ, Grumpy Old Fool, JohnnyDuke, WuffotheWonderDog, Toots, Surfaceman, Pete Green, Norfolk and Chance, and Steve the Beard, who (among many others) were always good to chat with. Later along came Assymetric (Assy), Ilpugliese (Puggy), DanielFG, Oldgit13 and a few more who carried on the tradition.

      The one contributor who is missed the most, who everyone loved and listened to, and who amassed by far the most upvotes-per-comment I’ve ever seen, was good old Chezz. Does anyone know if he is still around?

    11. You’ve left out a couple.
      1. Global warming fanatic Savant, the Saturday Night Stalker. He’d be the first to comment on Christopher Booker’s latest column. I had a mental image of him squatting in his student bedsit shortly before midnight, banging away at the F5 key until Sunday’s articles came up on the website.
      2. Animal rights fanatic Noumenal, obsessed by badgers, farmers and the dangers of eating venison because of TB in deer.

      1. I have to confess that I have no recollection of that pair appearing on the old DT letters or NoTTLe. However, I’ll take your word for it.

          5. I forget now exactly when I jumped over from the DT to Breitbart. Boy, what a breath of fresh air that was, with Milo, JD and Raheem Kassam writing for BB. I hadn’t realised how sick the legacy media was making me.

            OldGoat was another poster on the DT, he still posts on BB I think.

    12. You’ve left out a couple.
      1. Global warming fanatic Savant, the Saturday Night Stalker. He’d be the first to comment on Christopher Booker’s latest column. I had a mental image of him squatting in his student bedsit shortly before midnight, banging away at the F5 key until Sunday’s articles came up on the website.
      2. Animal rights fanatic Noumenal, obsessed by badgers, farmers and the dangers of eating venison because of TB in deer.

    13. You’ve left out a couple.
      1. Global warming fanatic Savant, the Saturday Night Stalker. He’d be the first to comment on Christopher Booker’s latest column. I had a mental image of him squatting in his student bedsit shortly before midnight, banging away at the F5 key until Sunday’s articles came up on the website.
      2. Animal rights fanatic Noumenal, obsessed by badgers, farmers and the dangers of eating venison because of TB in deer.

    14. You’ve got me there under two separate names! 🙂
      I remember a lot of those too – some of them are on TCW or other fora.

        1. In earlier years, I gave away a lot more personal information, before I realised how vicious sneaky little left wing activists can be about doxxing conservatives on the internet and attacking them in real life. Probably best if I don’t link the names together!
          Mostly they target young, politically active conservatives, but who knows what the situation will be next year?
          A young man who is a friend of a friend lost his job when his employer was bombarded with letters threatening to “expose” them as the employer of a “nazi.”

          1. I know, I used to have much attraction from undesirables. It would help, though, if I could remove or consolidate your old name, otherwise it make the whole list false.

        2. I changed my name from Ascanius to Aeneas a couple of years ago (it was a previous name from another forum).

    15. Bassetedge used to post some wonderful bird photos but he got fed up with us in 2020 during the long, spring lockdown.

      1. Bassetedge was also randomly (and unwantedly) attacked on here by another poster. Was that also Peddy, who attacked EhCalmDown (ReadyEddy) too?

        1. I don’t know – but I do remember Basset got stroppy one day and said he wasn’t coming back. Peddy was unpleasant to Reddy Eddy, because he was a great stickler for grammar and tended to disparage anyone who got it wrong.

          1. Peddy was a ‘stickler for grammar’ and would frequently get it wrong himself. Much of his ‘advice’ was contrary to that given by acknowledged experts, such as HW Fowler and Sir Ernest Gowers, who both knew a lot more about English usage than Peddy does.

      1. Thanks, amended.

        BTW: my brother told me of visiting the’ real (South African) one’ once at his farm (where he produces excellent wine as well as much top quality produce) which he sells to restaurants. I well remember Jody winning the F1world championship for Ferrari in 1979.

  39. DT Story

    Liz Truss has refused six times to rule out further mini-Budget U-turns after she ditched the Government’s plans to scrap the top rate of income tax.

    John Milton, possibly the most underrated of our great poets, coined the phrase

    SEMBLANCE OF WORTH NOT SUBSTANCE

    to describe the arguments of his great antagonist in Paradise Lost.

    Has the unfortunate Adultera Truss been left without even the semblance?

      1. If you head east from the Jeddah coast there is a ridge of mountains going up to 5000 ft. Flying over at night you could see that there was quite a lot habitation. Cooler weather and a bit or rain probably made the climate a lot more bearable in summer.

  42. Therese Coffey opens the door to more foreign nurses to plug NHS staff shortage
    Health Secretary says ‘I don’t mind if they are coming from abroad’ as she battles to deal with long waiting lists
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/10/03/therese-coffey-opens-door-foreign-nurses-plug-nhs-staff-shortage/

    BTL

    It is considered by some that the foul and sinful European racists plundered Africa and stole its mineral resources.

    Surely plundering Third World countries of their vital human resources such as nursing is a far greater sin?

      1. This points to one of the gross flaws in Blair’s logic. He preached the need for

        EDUCATION * EDUCATION * EDUCATION

        while at the same time opening the floodgates for

        IMMIGRATION * IMMIGRATION * IMMIGRATION

        He either did not see – or deliberately did not see – that the main economic purpose of Education is to train people to perform the necessary skills which society needs so that that society is independent in these skills and educates its own people to to learn how to do them. However, if you can cheaply import these skills from outside – such as nursing – you can do away with practical education and allow people to pursue completely pointless subjects from an economically practical point of view.

      2. Yes, we should be training our own doctors and nurses, and every other trade and profession. This is yet another dreadful failing of successive governments. Any one in the UK who wants to be come a doctor and as the entry qualifications should be admitted to medical school. Only then, if there are vacancies should foreign students be admitted. If necessary create new medical schools. It’s not rocket science.
        Of course it would go against the sacred mantra of “we need more immigrants”.

        1. That ghastly little savage who was caught playing with sh* recently was apparently a medical school dropout. That’s the standard of human being they are accepting nowadays.

      3. I understand that the Philippines deliberately train more nurses than the country actually needs. In effect, qualified nurses are an export.

    2. Yes and no. What about the situation where one nurse in the UK is supporting six people back home?
      Surely it would not be considered morally wrong to take Venezualan or Zimbabwean professionals, whose wages keep their families back home alive?

  43. 365836+ up ticks,

    May one ask, will there be any payback from those creaming off the money mills or at least will they carry the cost of whatever energy use digs them out of their treacherous money grabbing shite.

    Same can be said for mirror,mirror on the field, will the investors foot the bill for peoples imported veg.

    We won’t mention roofs over heads because seemingly, with them being built by illegals for illegals the electorate majority will find it upsetting.

    Blackout Britain: ‘Significant Risk’ of Gas Shortages This Winter.

  44. The 45p income tax U-turn is a totemic moment
    The wrong side has won this battle, and the U-turn weakens Kwarteng’s attempt to change our economic culture.
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/10/04/45p-income-tax-u-turn-totemic-moment/

    We need a Proper Conservative Party. The only solution I can see is for there to be a mass defection of Tory MPs to Richard Tice’s Reform Party but Richard Tice seems to lack the charisma to attract disillusioned MPs and the disillusioned MPs have the moral rigidity, principles and backbone of jelly fish.

    1. The closest this country got to that was with UKIP when they had Carswell in parliament after he left the Conservative Party. It didnt happen. One needs influence and financial backing . This is a 3 party country ( if you include the Lib Dums ).

      Liz Truss truly believes in reform and she is a true Thatcherite Conservative which is why the establishment will stop her. Blairism needs to be removed from the Conservative Party but they are all weak and spineless. Sadly I think we’re heading towards a Labour government – very woke – more borrowing- printing money – bursting public sector and low aspiration. We are doomed .

  45. Hello from a Saxon Queen with blooded axe and longbow in handbag accompanied with marmalade sandwiches ( a habit of Queen’s ) .

    Oh and I’ve got myself an adblocker which has solved my issue with disqus ads ( hopefully it’ll continue to work ) I’ve just a tiddly x on my screen which isn’t too annoying.

  46. Re adblockers. The one I installed – Adblock Ultimate – is free. However, when one looks at the logo thingy on the taskbar, it tells you that you are on a 14 day trial – “click here” to buy licence.

    Tim – my IT guru – tells me that they are trying to “upsell” a different product. I should ignore the invitation!
    Never heard of “upsell” – but I lead a sheltered life….

    Funny that an ad blocker is, er, advertising…!!

    1. Someone suggested using the Brave browser, which I already had installed, and that seems to have solved the problem. I didn’t like the access that Adblock had to my data.

      2. Nah – my nephew is a walking IT genius. If it is good enough for him, it is for me.

    3. On my Tablet ( I’ve not tried my laptop and I don’t use that for blogging anyway ) . On the right hand corner there are three lines which you click onto which says lots of things such as saved pages, down loads, history etc . There is a section named adblockers – lots of different ones. I just clicked on Samsung adblock ( but there were lots of others) .
      Simple and instant and no trials. I’m not sure how it’d be with the laptop, maybe you are on a laptop .

      1. I’ve got Samsung adblock on my phone – but it didn’t stop the ads appearing in the notifications last night. Perhaps I need to update it.

      2. The three lines you refer to, are often called ‘The Hamburger’.

        Just useful trivia if you know not what someone may be talking about.

  48. The problem for the new Conservative leadership is that when they appear on tv together people think they are just watching the adverts and turn over.

  49. Just installed Adblock Plus (Free). Tried to donate small sum via Paypal but was blocked. Tried again – “Adblock already installed”. Can’t find app on my computer but all adverts gone.

  50. Paul Craig Roberts makes a sobering read today:

    We have approached a fateful moment in world history, not because of global warming, Covid, over-population, white racism, or any of the “crises” that an ignorant media hypes, but becausem we face nuclear war originating in the total stupidity of Western elites.

    David Johnson publishes a daily Russian List, a collection of commentary by presstitutes and alleged “Russian experts.” I peruse these scribblings, and I seldom encounter anything the least bit intelligent. In the US and its European puppets, “Russian analysis” consists of Russophobic rants. Russia this, Russia that, and so on. These ignorant rants have created a frame of mind among Western decision makers that is unreal and is deceiving Washington policy makers into fatal mistakes.

    I read that Russia has been defeated in Ukraine or will be. I read that 4-star General Petraeus, one of the most stupid of Washington’s political generals, has declared that Putin is desperate and in an irreversible situation and that Ukraine will become a NATO member after the victory against Russia. nI sit and ponder how a person this utterly stupid got to be a four-star US general. God help us.

    Back in the days of the Cold War in which I was involved, we listened to each other and debated who was responsible for the Cold War. The Committee on the President Danger, of which I was a member, also listened to the Soviets as well as to the American left who thought that the conflict existed in order to serve the interests of the budgets and npower of the US military/security complex.

    Never were Soviet leaders insulted and ignored in the manner that Putin has been. President Reagan told the contingent that accompanied him to Reykjavik for his meeting with Gorbachev that anyone who took a rude or dismissal attitude toward the Soviet delegation would be fired on the spot.

    In those long ago civilized days, the US government took no risks that could result in a nuclear exchange with the Soviet Union.In the 21st century the US government’s rude dismissals of Russian concerns is unprecedented. Washington by overthrowing the Ukraine government and forcing a war there is vastly exaggerating its war fighting capacity.

    What explains the lack of Washington’s caution?

    The answer is that with the Western media reduced to a compliant propaganda ministry, Washington’s decision makers have no reliable information. The presstitutes, Western politicians, and so-called “Russian experts” have created a make-believe world for decision makers that causes them to think that they still control the situation. Nothing could be further from the truth.

    So, we have a situation that is comprised of arrogant Americans overflowing with hegemonic hubris, European puppets who obey instructions from Washington, and a Russian government forced to defend itself and Russian peoples.

    This is an explosive situation, especially as Putin has been slow to take a firm stand. Putin’s deference to international law means nothing to the West, for whom
    international law is nothing but a weapon to be used against those who don’t comply. Putin’s deference to international law is read by Washington as irresolution to really defend Russian interests.

    The consequence will be, as I have always said, that Washington misreads the situation and crosses too many Russian red lines. At that point, fire and brimstone take over. My concern is that we are very close to that point.

    Putin’s recent public statements and his address to the Russian people clearly show that Russia’s leadership has finally and reluctantly lost all belief in reaching accommodation with the West. It is the total failure of Western diplomacy that has greased the skids for war. The Kremlin does not want war, but Washington has convinced the Kremlin that it is not possible to negotiate away war. The unreasonableness of the West in refusing a mutual security agreement
    with Moscow, the complete involvement of the West into what the Kremlin regarded as a police action in the Donbass region, and now Washington’s
    sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines, together with incessant threats of dealing Russia devastating blows has resulted in Moscow preparing for war.

    NATO is an insignificant military force, and the US has zero chance of prevailing against Russia in conventional war. The only way Washington can avoid humiliating defeat is by going nuclear. One would think the Kremlin knows this, and would not wait for a first strike. (JWE: false flag or otherwise.)

    The complete and total failure of Washington to create an ally and business partner out of a willing Russia is the worst diplomatic failure in world history. The
    Jewish neoconservatives demanded hegemony at Russia’s expense. The US military/industrial complex demanded Russia as an enemy to justify its
    power and budget. The State Department needed a Russian threat to Europe in order to keep normal relationships between Europe and Russia from loosening Washington’s hold on its European empire. An American President who intended to normalize relations with Russia was driven out of office. All of these selfish material interests, without an honest media to expose and check them, have opened the road to World War III, a war that will forever remove the West as a force in history.

    2. The nudgers have honed their skills on covid and have even got most DT commentators accepting of nuclear war. Having been on the front line in RAF Germany in the latter days of the cold war, I never really want the prospect even considered in the conflict that should be none of our business.

        2. I’m a youngster! I flew the last Jaguar out of Germany in 1990 after it had apparently kept the peace sitting on readiness with those big bombs.

    3. Depressing.
      How come we can see these things, and greedy, influential decision-makers in Washington can’t?
      The only possible explanation is that they don’t want to see it – in other words, horrific as a nuclear war may be, they still think it’s preferable to the alternative, which might involve people turning on them for the crimes they have committed and the economic catastrophe for which they are responsible.

        1. Or do they mean to terrify everyone and pull back at the last moment? I did not think Putin was one of them. Perhaps, I am wrong, or perhaps I have misjudged their insane fear of anyone they can’t control.

          2. It is the neocons you should fear. They are the ones who have said that ending with less damage than the enemy would be a win. I will make a prediction: If nuclear weapons are used they will be first used by the neocons in Ukraine as a false flag. They are so mad and so stupid I would not be surprised if it was in eastern Ukraine but blamed on Russia anyway. A good way to remove 5 million people you don’t want….

          3. It is honestly hard to comprehend how stupid and evil such people are. I hope you’re not right!

          4. I go way back before then. I’m a remnant from the swinging sixties (with apologies to 10cc).

        2. Brace yourself. Most of the commenters have escaped the lunatic asylum. Especially Bill Thomas. Utter loon.

          2. Bill Thomas escaped, you say? Nah – they threw him out because he was too unruly and disruptive.

  52. Just back from flu jab and refusing Covid jab – not as well organised this time – everyone told the same appointment time – chaos in the hall and car park

    1. I made the same decision as you – flu jab but no covid jab. I expected to be asked why, but nobody batted an eyelid. Although I fully expect to receive a reminder from my GP.

      1. We’re not having either. I’ve only ever had one flu jab – in 2020, when the propaganda must have got to me. The nurse gave me a pneumonia jab at the same time.

        1. I would probably have come round to having the flu one sooner or later before 2020. In the light of what I now know about the vaccine industry…no!

          1. I was eligible for it when I turned 60 but I never considered it was something I needed. It’s always a lottery as they don’t know what flu strain will be prevalent. and it has side effects as well – my aunt was always ill after hers.
            I spent Christmas 1972 in bed with flu – it’s nasty and I was in my early 20s. But I never though it was going to kill me.

          2. I got a really bad attack of the flu after my first flu jab years ago but I still had them every year JIC

        2. I got a pneumonia jab with the flu jab a few years ago and I also got a shingles jab another year yet I’d had both

          1. I did have the shingles jab last year. I had shingles in 2019 and it was very unpleasant and painful – apparently you can have it more than once.
            As I told the nurse when she asked me why I’d never had the flu jab before – I’m not an anti-vaxxer – but I certainly don’t want any more covid jabs.

        3. I got a pneumonia jab with the flu jab a few years ago and I also got a shingles jab another year yet I’d had both

      2. The NHS staff didn’t ask me why but other people I knew who were there did – so I educated them

  53. Imagine – This poll combined with the latest electoral calculus predictor with 2023 boundary change boundries

    Britain Elects@BritainElects
    ·
    18h
    Westminster voting intention:

    LAB: 52% (+6) Predictor 551 seats
    CON: 24% (-5) Predictor 17 seats
    LDEM: 10% (-3) Predictor 11 seats
    GRN: 5% (+1) Predictor 1 seat

    via @RedfieldWilton, 02 Oct
    Chgs. w/ 29 Sep

    Labour MAJORITY 452

    Tony Blair with 179 seat majority in 1997 eat your heart out, Tory party all but wiped out.

    That’s not the worst poll i have seen

    His Majesty’s loyal opposition party, not the Tories, Not the Limp Dims – The SNP with 48 seats.

          4. Today’s medical students are far too delicate to be allowed to dissect cadavers any more. I wonder what they do with all the donations now?

          5. Well, the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital Anatomy School still accepts donated bodies.

          12. Our grandson, doing a Masters in Pharmacy, had to identify organs, arteries and nerves in his 1st year second term.
            They are still using donated bodies and they don’t all wince.
            It has always been wrong to accept the majority of students follow the Student Union. Like all other unions they are far left and the MSM do not report on the majority who get on and work hard.

          14. Today’s medical students are far too delicate to be allowed to dissect cadavers any more. I wonder what they do with all the donations now?

          15. Your a “cut” above the rest, any particular choice of slab and medical student of choice?

    2. It’s not that the Conservative party doesn’t deserve to be wiped out
      but we don’t deserve another decade of Labour.

          5. Not this lot. Someone or something will emerge it always does and it could be good or bad. History tells us that it will happen.

      2. Well, the only other party of the right, Reform UK are still polling 4% with zero seats predicted.

        Who do you think you will end up with?

        1. 365836+ up ticks,
          Afternoon AM,

          Reform party via the brexit party = tory (ino) top up party, my preference is
          Lawrence Fox, reclaim party.

          The nige chap is toxic.

          1. Farage is out of the party political game, Its Richard Tice now, Truss seems to be trying Farage economics, the Reform UK economic plan is for 74bn of tax cuts.

            Fox doesn’t stand a chance, it took Farage nearly 30 years to get a serious vote share

          2. 365836+ up ticks,

            AM,
            The brexit party’s only success in 19 was mountain climbing with nige in the lead and vote splitting , nige was always a tory (ino) coxawain.

          3. Indeed, Farage is not serious about power himself, far too much hassle, his purpose is to act as a conscience to the Tories to stop them going too far left.

            Without the Brexit Party the Tories would have got the scalps of another 15 Labour MP’s, including Millipede and Yvette Pooper and Ian Lavery easily

          4. 365836+ up ticks,
            AM,
            But surely that is how a successful in-house coalition works, seemingly to be opposing each other.

          6. 365836+ up ticks,
            AM,
            Been in the open for years they have been a coalition, take the rotherham odious
            16 + year cover up SEEN not to be there by members of the toxic trio lab/lib/con and the electorate majority ……. for the good of the coalition parties.

          7. Stop them going too far left !!!. He has totaly failed then. They are wet, green and left of left.

    3. We have yet to be hit by recession and mortgage repossessions which will all be put down to the wicked Toreees. Will Credit Swiss be the first domino to fall.

        1. I think many of us on here, apart from the one or two actual workers and tax slaves, are sweating on that thought.

          2. Don’t worry, it won’t affect public sector pensions which will continue to be paid out of taxpayers’ money.

  54. Gareth Roberts
    Why can’t MPs let Truss be Truss?
    4 October 2022, 7:04am

    Our common culture – the huge audiences that tv, film and pop music used to attract – has evaporated. Politics is about the only thing remaining where we are all on the same page. It’s perhaps inevitable then that public reaction has become ever more febrile and volatile. Poll percentages now go crashing and soaring with a regularity that’s disturbing to those of us who can remember the prelapsarian age when we were the only people who gave a stuff about politics and that we were considered odd because of it.

    The marked outlandishness of British party politics has been evident since that day in September 2015 when Jeremy Corbyn became leader of the Labour party. Followed closely by parliament’s inability to implement the referendum result, Theresa May’s manifesto massacre of 2017, the rise and fall of Boris Johnson, with a dollop of Covid and war in Europe on top, and the broadcast media screaming and clucking and gotcha-ing throughout, has made the country seem, at times, ungovernable. The events of the past fortnight have seen yet another crescendo in a frenzied symphony that never seems to stop.

    Like most people, I suspect, the workings of the financial markets are something of a mystery; like the Yeti or the Loch Ness Monster. When they panic I’m painfully aware that all I have to rely on are my prejudices and my tribal loyalties, weak as those are. I have no idea what a gilt market is, but then even people who do know what they are offer wildly contradictory takes. It’s a bit like overhearing a heated dispute in a language that you don’t speak.

    I do, however, know about engaging with the public, at least as much as anyone can hope to. The truth must be delivered wisely. And it seems clear that the fiscal event was the worst sold thing since Coca Cola proudly unveiled ‘pure’ bottled water that turned out to have sprung from the municipal supply of Sidcup. Expecting the already busy and worried British populace not only to react rationally to counter-intuitive ideas but banking on them to take a long-term view, when your legions of enemies will spin them in the most negative, and clear, way possible seems suicidally optimistic.

    The broadcasters reacted exactly as anybody except Truss and Kwarteng would have expected. They are horrified when anybody in government does something that Tony Blair would not have done in his first term. That is their factory settings for politics, as if those fleeting fool’s spring conditions could ever apply again. And it’s not as if the package was notably that extreme. Bizarre policies like lockdown school closures, the abolition of the category of sex, granting certain groups extra rights based on random immutable characteristics, etc: these just roll by, largely unexamined and subsumed into public life.

    But did the squawking and whinnying among Tories help? I’d suggest not. My attitude to the Conservative party is like that of a miner to a shaky pit prop, rotted, wonky and worm-eaten, but it’s all you’ve got to prevent thousands of tons of dross and clinker descending to flatten you.

    Tory MPs have behaved like a herd of antelope at the sight of a lion on the horizon. They are spooked and jumpy, and surprisingly active for people who are commonly said to be ‘exhausted’, but which I think really means bored. Liz Truss did pretty much what she said she was going to do, at length, again and again, throughout the summer. And she is, let’s put it politely, not renowned for her communication skills. Why were her MPs so taken aback?

    My advice to Tory MPs, now they’ve got the tax U-turn, is this. Yes, it may all very well be going wrong. But for goodness sakes, let it be.

    Yes, it would be very funny for people like me if you tried to defenestrate yet another leader. (And the seriously mooted idea of reinstalling Boris is even funnier – why stop there, dig up Bonar Law.) There is really nothing much you have to lose. You’ve tried everything else, doing the policy Hokey Cokey of austerity/massive public spending, firing thousands of police/hiring thousands of police, etc. You got rid of a leader who wanted to be loved, and replaced him with a leader who doesn’t care if she is hated. You did this. So accept it.

    And losing your seats, would it be so bad? Look on the up side: you wouldn’t have to sit looking at Richard Burgon every day.

    So let Truss be Truss. You made your bed. Lie in it.

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

    Rob Dixon • 5 hours ago
    I hold no particular torch for Truss but when she announced the mini budget I thought well at least here was someone prepared to try something different and radical, let’s see what happens before judging too harshly.
    Sadly the Blob, the BBC and the mainstream media, not too mention a substantial group of Tory invertbrates led by Gove have managed to derail any hope of real and meaningful change and we seem destined to have our country controlled by Twitter and the Westminster Press corps.

    Her U-turn made me realise there is currently no hope for the Tories, they’re going to gift the next election to a weak-willed, woke coalition of some sort and the UK’s current shallow trajectory into potential oblivion is going to go into a steep nose dive which will be very difficult to correct.
    Much of what is wrong could have been avoided if the Tories had used their time in power wisely. Instead they squandered a golden opportunity by being weak.

    http://i3.cmail19.com/ei/j/F7/1CA/156/csimport/Screenshot2022-10-04at12.04.26.120440.png
    ‘You might be better waiting for the next one.’

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/why-can-t-mps-let-truss-do-truss-?utm_medium=email&utm_source=CampaignMonitor_Editorial&utm_campaign=LNCH%20%2020221004%20%20House%20Ads%20%20HT+CID_ab24f331f51dbb4d490e277ab4a86c79

    1. There is only one agenda since 2016, which has developed since 2019, the MSM are running the country, the plan from the lefty MSM is

      1) Remove the head Brexiteers (Johnson & Cummings) by any means possible
      2) Tar and feather the Tory party as a whole for having supported them
      3) Big up Labour, or at least ensure all negative stories are buried
      4) Work with Labour to push the MSM agenda or else
      5) Run a narrative that “brexit isn’t working”
      6) Remove the Tories
      7) Install Labour
      8) Hound Labour with “brexit isn’t working” and if you don’t want the same treatment the Tories got you’d better take us back in.

      Successful completion of steps 1-5, step 6 looks a cert now, the rest is easy from here.

      And don’t knock a Boris comeback, he’s the only wild card they have left to stop them

      1. I wonder if Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage would ever join forces?

        Extremely unlikely, I admit, but unbeatable if they did.

        1. I can’t really see it, Farage hates his guts for stealing his thunder, but given what the country is facing, and if the parliamentary witch-hunt forces him out, I would never say never in these febrile times

          It would be tastey Rastus

          1. Politicians are only for themselves, not the country. Not that Farage or Boris could save anything, individually or collectively, in the political arena.

  55. UK drivers could face fines of up to £1,000 when letting emergency vehicles such as ambulances and fire engines past if they are seen to be breaking Highway Code rules.
    These include moving into a bus lane, stopping in a yellow junction box and driving through red lights to make way, pulling a long face or using a hurty word. Those issued fines and points could see them escalate if they fail to provide details or take the case to court and lose.

    https://www.cravenherald.co.uk/resources/images/16002220.jpg?type=mds-article-962

    1. How horrible and nasty can the people who run this stupid country get. What sort of distorted minds do they have.

    2. Is this really true? People responsible for this nonsense should sacked from their jobs, given no dole money and left to starve. Anyone who takes pity on them and tries to help them should suffer the same fate.

      1. It is true apart from my ‘long face and hurty’ bit. The law is an ass (The law makers are asses).

    3. So you are supposed to sit in the traffic lane and block the emergency vehicle rather than moving over into a partially clear bus lane?

      Are you sure that you have a conservative government, thats B.S.!

    4. I understand you should not pass a red light unless directed to do so by a Police Officer.

    5. It’s already the case that you can get fined if you pull into a bus lane to let an emergency vehicle overtake.

  56. Oxford University students fear freshers’ fair stalls may be too triggering for some

    Student union to place warnings on stalls which students could find distressing, as well as setting up a wellbeing zone

    By Louisa Clarence-Smith, EDUCATION EDITOR and Charlie Hancock
    3 October 2022 • 7:00pm

    Oxford University’s student union has said it will place “trigger warnings” on freshers’ fair stalls which students could find distressing.

    The union said it will also install a wellbeing zone for anyone who feels “uncomfortable” at the event this week.
    *
    *
    Toby Young, the founder of the Free Speech Union and an alumnus of Oxford University, told The Telegraph: “This absurd mollycoddling does students no favours. The Oxford Students’ Union is effectively telling students that just seeing a young man in a blue rosette standing behind a trestle table could have a catastrophic impact on their mental health. Surely, a better message to send to students is that sticks and stones may break their bones but words can never hurt them?”

    The move by Oxford’s student union comes after a study by King’s College London found that around a third of UK students say free speech is threatened in their university, up from a quarter in 2019.
    *
    *
    **********************************************************

    Alex Patrick
    18 HRS AGO
    Why not insist that students must bring their mum and dad along to ensure they are safe if they get “triggered”

    Karl Plummer
    16 HRS AGO
    Reply to Alex Patrick
    It seems like most of the students from Nigeria already have.

    1. Why not insist that the freshers wear a helmet, a flak jacket and water wings to keep them really safe?

  57. Meloni Becoming Italian PM Is Bad for Women Because She Represents ‘White’ Feminism: MSNBC
    https://media.breitbart.com/media/2022/10/GettyImages-1243636932-e1664807072816-640×457.jpg

    Giorgia Meloni being likely to become Italy’s first-ever woman prime minister is “anything but a win” for women because she represents “white feminism”, according to MSNBC.

    In an article titled ‘Giorgia Meloni’s feminism is a wolf in sheep’s clothing’, MSNBC Opinion Columnist Natasha Norman argues in no uncertain terms that the Italian conservative breaking the proverbial glass ceiling is the ‘wrong’ kind of win for women in politics, claiming that she “pursues a violently anti-feminist agenda.”
    *
    *
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2022/10/03/meloni-becoming-italian-pm-bad-for-women-because-she-represents-white-feminism-msnbc/

    1. And in other MSNBC “news” – “Disaster – joining the dots between Brazil, Brexit and Trump” – so, a really serious, well researched news channel – Not!

      Edit: Natasha Noman is a freelance journalist in New York City who has worked as a writer, editor, producer and presenter. They focus on the intersection of culture and politics, particularly LGBTQ issues, feminism and race. Their coverage also focuses on South Asia …

    2. I think he should stick to what he allegedly good at. Otherwise he acts and sounds like Gates and the other bastard billionaires who screw up our life.

      2. It’s a bit dangerous – he has too much influence. Still, he does seem to have a distinctive voice.

    1. This message in Caroline Farrow’s thread makes me see red.
      Do you know how hard it is to get someone sectioned, who desperately, desperately needs help? And who is actively destroying other people’s lives with torture like stopping them from sleeping or vandalising a dwelling – in real life, not just in hurt feelings on the internet?
      It’s well nigh impossible. Yet according to the poster, this “sarge” blithely uses sectioning as a threat to intimidate someone who hasn’t even been accused of anything. They do this kind of bullying, safe in the knowledge that it will never come back to bite them – I’ve witnessed it myself.

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8fbc3948328fd0ec78bfa27c9d22ffcda3d596986a06908590ebe4da5c8dd809.jpg

    3. Church organist wearing a crucifix necklace. What did she expect in today’s ‘rational world’?

  61. Just a question for the Tories who opposed the 45p tax cut, and claiming “unfunded tax cuts paid for by borrowing”

    They now want benefits increased not by average worker earnings (6%) but by inflation (10%) and public sector workers getting about 2%.

    Is it then OK for Truss and Kwarteng to borrow money to give away to people on benefits if its unfunded?

    There does seem to be a reality disconnect here, working doesn’t work, but being on benefits does

    1. Tax cuts are most effective when applied to the entire population of taxpayers. The 45p tax cut should have been accompanied by tax cuts across the board. This would have stifled the inevitable cries of lefties that the Tories are for the rich.

      I had hoped that a Tory PM would have stopped the insane support (with billions of our borrowed money) of the utterly corrupt Ukrainian autocracy. By supporting the crook Zelensky they are fuelling a conflict which might otherwise have been settled by negotiation. We should have distanced ourselves from the Soros/Obama/Rice/Clinton decrepit puppet Biden and their mad warmongering.

      1. It was to be implemented with a 1p cut in base rate tax, which benefits everyone who pays tax

          1. Same with the 45p rate, you can’t change tax rates in tax years it would create chaos at HMRC

          4. Oh – fear not. My newspaper today says that it will be a very mild winter. You’ll barely notice it……

          5. Latest prediction is for a La Nina winter event, large blocking highs, very cold, and very little wind, so we’ll be burning masses of gas.

            Just to cheer you up

          8. They claim a 91% certainty for that La Nina event, so get plenty wood or chop up your floorboards and doors into neat chunks

  62. OMG! Jacob Rees Mogg has announced the building of the first UK fusion reactor in Nottingham????

    The best they have managed thus far is fusion for 5.1 seconds……………

    Bit ambitious Jacob.

        1. Will HP do instead?

          If true, that’s about the standard one would expect from the technically illiterate Cons.
          Due to come online in, oh about 2122, would you say?

          3. Still, it has the possibility of succeeding in causing the fusion of public finances into thin air by nuclear annihilation of pound coins

          4. I’m sure someone’s pub landlord friend has a company that can develop a fusion reactor.

          7. You should have watched the join Health and Science select Committee’s, she came out of that with very good answers that stumped Hunt the Kunt and Greggs Clark

          8. She is clever in a political sort of way, but she’s been overrated ever since she was an undergraduate in my opinion. Never forget that when she was playing at being the CEO of a tech company, she didn’t know what an SQL injection attack was. All talk!

          9. I think you have fallen for the MSM lies that TT&T didn’t work, in fact in did and was by far the best system in the world as Boris promised, the only problem was the price tag.

            Might be worth watching those select committee’s on Youtube, 1000 miles from the MSM portrail.

            Have you noticed how quite Labour and the Limp Dims are on the public enquiry now?

          10. Test and trace was and is the most appalling, authoritarian, unnecessary system imaginable.
            That it was delivered with such inefficiency and waste was just adding insult to injury.

          13. You can question whether such a system was required at all, but every other country did.

            It was a hybrid which worked best, first communication by App and e-mail, if acknowledged that was it, if no response passed to local authority teams

            The German system for example worked very well in the early days (massive local system with huge contact tracing teams) but when cases went beyond a certain level it just collapsed, as did the South Korean system

            Believe me, ours was the best

          14. Ah, I see you are a covid believer.

            Anyone stupid enough to install one of these tools of fascism onto their phone deserves all they get!

          18. Test and trace was and is the most appalling, authoritarian, unnecessary system imaginable.
            That it was delivered with such inefficiency and waste was just adding insult to injury.

          20. The point is that anyone who works in a company that’s vulnerable to this kind of attack should know what it is. Especially if they are the CEO and their company falls prey to one, then they might look a bit silly if interviewed on the TV if they don’t.

          23. Very few CEOs do. Most are just placeholders to demand why things are late from developers who under specify, the few good ones are too busy being useful juggling projects and have folk who can explain such issues. I suspect she was parachuted in to achieve nothing.

          24. Ah the old “that’s for the little people to know” attitude.
            Perhaps if the high up management had known the right questions to ask, the system wouldn’t have been vulnerable to the attack at all.

          25. Ah the old “that’s for the little people to know” attitude.
            Perhaps if the high up management had known the right questions to ask, the system wouldn’t have been vulnerable to the attack at all.

          26. By the way, to put this comment into context, you should know that Hunt and Harding have known each other at least since they were in the same year at Oxford, studying PPE, both involved in Conservative politics, and both joined McKinseys after they left Oxford. As Harding’s husband is a Conservative MP, they will have continued to move in the same circles since.

    2. The reactor will be producing endless power just after Trudeaus promised green hydrogen starts shipping to Europe. Don’t hold your breath.

      1. Just reporting what I have heard, personally I think fusion is still 30 years away.

        And MORE borrowing for that as well?

        1. Fusion has been about thirty years away all my life! I remember being taken round the tokamak at Culham when I was a child, with the same promise!

        2. Huh.
          It’s taken 30-odd years to build Hinkley C, to a (buggered about with) standard Westinghouse PWR design, and it’s STILL not operating. I have no faith that they can build a fusion reactor anywhere, before the Second Coming – after which, it won’t matter anyway.

        3. Huh.
          It’s taken 30-odd years to build Hinkley C, to a (buggered about with) standard Westinghouse PWR design, and it’s STILL not operating. I have no faith that they can build a fusion reactor anywhere, before the Second Coming – after which, it won’t matter anyway.

        4. I always enjoyed this verse of John Betjeman’s ironic poem about the Village Inn:

          “The village inn, the dear old inn,
          So ancient, clean and free from sin,
          True centre of our rural life
          Where Hodge sits down beside his wife
          And talks of Marx and nuclear fission
          With all a rustic’s intuition.
          Ah, more than church or school or hall,
          The village inn’s the heart of all.”

          But now that green energy cannot provide us with enough electrickery for pubs to stay open we shall

          Stay at home in bleak confusion
          And sadly dream of nuclear fusion

    3. A friend of mine, the late Franz Gross, formerly Head of Research at Brown Boveri (now ABB) and expert in battery technology and power generation, told me back in 1978 that fusion was a myth. He reasoned that more power was required to overcome instability than power generated if such a device was ever achieved.

      1. It can generate more energy but a huge portion is required for the tokamac magnetic field to contain the plasma.

        The power actually comes from fission of a Lithium blanket you place round the reactor as a neutron absorber.

        1. I’ll believe it’s going to go ahead once they start paying for it from the HS2 budget.

      1. The ex banker history graduate probably doesn’t know the difference.
        My opinion of JRM has just lurched sharply downwards.

          2. No – I used to quite like him, though there was always a bit of uncertainty. He is very reserved – you never really know which layer of his public image you’re speaking to.
            Recently, he does seem to have sold his soul a bit and come out with stuff that no honest, self-respecting man should say.

    6. It’s just another giant solar panel, because I suspect that that’s the only way mankind will ever get power from fusion

    7. This is a good thing. The more reactors built, the more money that goes in to research the more likely we are to get fusion working.

      Of course, what we will do then is sell it to every country for a pittance and waste the opportunity to soar ahead in the energy game.

      1. We were the future once!

        And After WW2 Britain led the world as far as nuclear energy was concerned.

        “Sheer plod makes plough down sillion shine.”

        I only had an imprecise idea of what Gerard Manley Hopkins was on about but my dear old English master at school said that these words were relevant.

        1. Hard work (plodding along with the plough) makes (the rusty) ploughshare shine. Sillon is the French word for a furrow (as you know) but sillion could be an Old English word for the earth turned over by the plough which, if it is clayey, is made to shine by the action of the plough blade.

          Hard work has its rewards?

          1. Yes – Mr Brooke-Smith was telling me to pull my socks up as I was rather idle as an adolescent schoolboy and I did not like to have to work out what sprung rhythm was – the achieve of and the mastery of the thing would have to wait until I actually had to teach Eng.Lit. myself! And given the slang word used for girls at that time I preferred to misinterpret the line from ‘The Windhover’ : My heart in hiding stirred for a bird.

  63. Prayer doesn’t work.

    That abysmal Trudeau went Bungee jumping at the weekend. The combined prayers of all conservatives went unanswered – the string did not break.

    Must have been a lefty tying the rope, it wasn’t around his neck!

  65. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/pensions-retirement/news/millennials-need-save-extra-777000-enjoy-retirement-expect/

    Just to mention – I’m forced to pay for loafers, welfarists, the endless hordes of invading illegal immigrants, an obese bloated state and Windmills. I am taxed at an effective rate of 67%. I can’t save any more because we don’t have a huge amount of spare change at the end of the month.

    OK, it’s my choice to have two very large animals living with me – and the dogs. Yet when the state takes over £1400 off me directly, then another £150 in council tax, another £100 in fuel duty, £300 in VAT, road taxes, energy taxes, alcohol duties, parking charges, for absolutely bugger all in return I think I’ve a right to be rather fed up.

  66. I see Miss Braveheart hopes to limit the illegals to “tens of thousands a year...”

    What a relief. I feared she might be the same as Priti Awful……..

  67. Banks bring back mortgage deals – but with rates of almost 6pc
    Overwhelming customer demand forcing lenders to price loans significantly higher
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/personal-banking/mortgages/banks-bring-back-mortgage-deals-rates-almost-6pc/

    Some real loonies making fatuous comments under this article. For example: BTL

    Fixed rate mortgages set at outset at 5% for the whole mortgage term.
    Maximum loan 3 times salary (Or twice combined salary of a husband and wife couple)
    Minimum Deposit 10% of property purchase price. Special property build up saving accounts on offer with tax-free income set at the rate of property price inflation.
    That would have held property price inflation in check; more people would have had the chance of buying their own homes with no catastrophic and ruinous rises in mortgage rates.
    That’s how they do it in many countries and people are far happier.

  68. Another Birdie Three; I’m hoping for a cageful!

    Wordle 472 3/6
    ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
    🟩🟨⬜⬜🟨
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Well, 5 is a nice number.
      Wordle 472 5/6

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

      2. Wordle 472 4/6

        ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
        🟩⬛⬛⬛⬛
        🟩🟩⬛🟨⬛
        🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

        Daily Quordle 253

        5️⃣7️⃣
        8️⃣9️⃣

  69. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d10acda73176c59d3476acc5526d090b39db7db6b35cb4b37ae78cd5d5f80266.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ac280d374eebd4a6555f47172a5f87a0cb85a075c24699a0530834ca270965f8.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2032688a0428f5062eadebdf6daa2392aee1bb604ae55af315f3f7fd00a88f70.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cb13f5cc53342250965a386f01340d22fbac58a7348c089efed8d8cce5557727.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/465a5d1990c4fa784200934dde4337862c4ccdff89265adf5a6fc8ab63a8dfb1.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bf96f4fba2d694942b25ed22f408f5a063a60530dc3a9e9317d3790e83472bda.jpg

  70. That’s me for today. Very good work done by builders. Should see me out. The MR cut my hair – it was warm enough to do it outside….(so she insisted…)
    Potted on winter salads. Tomorrow – investigation whether apples are ready to pick for keeping.

    Interesting that an arch covidian has joined our ranks. Hope he doesn’t get carried away.

    Have a spiffing evening.

    A demain.

  73. I had a nice teacake with butter earlier, the first of the autumn / winter .
    Comfort food.

      1. That sounds lovely, I’ll make that In a few weeks.
        I’m using up things in the freezer so it can be defrosted and stocked up with winter meats etc .

      2. Green peppers go well with a slow cooked beef casserole. Though the skins give me gip, but you can burn those off.

      3. Bat Out Of Hell food for me tonight. Caroline makes a pretty mean meat loaf which will go down well with chips and peas with a glass or two of Beaujolais.

    2. Did you toast it?
      I’ve not baked any for a couple of months, I’ll have to get on to it since I’ve got some fresh yeast and lots of dried fruit.

      1. Yes it was toasted and eaten with lots of butter.
        We were using Olivio spread for years but for the past year have started using butter again. Much nicer and I’m sure healthier. Not baked them myself yet but homemade ones sound delicious .

      1. A tea cake is different from a crumpet and a crumpet is different from a pikelet which is a weedy pancake with holes in it .

        A teacake as being a sweet bun containing dried fruit .

        1. Not in Accrington, it isn’t. There, it’s a floury bap (best buttered and loaded with crispy fried bacon!)

  74. Off topic
    I quite enjoy watching “Pointless”, it’s a silly show but we have a glass of wine and compete with each other and the contestants.

    Yesterday and today there was a couple who were given the benefit of the doubt three times for their answers.

    They won the jackpot totally undeservedly, they should not have got through to the final.
    .

  75. Edward Fitzalan-Howard, 18th Duke of Norfolk.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/21641a85f4f18e6164d103a9e004d4f27148946645a44a1522210863fbc29d50.jpg
    Arranged the funeral of Her Majesty and is arranging the Coronation of King Charles. Good so far…………… Ran a red light and cut across a police car whilst on the phone to his wife. 6 points added to his licence where he had already accumulated 9 points for speeding. Lol. I don’t expect he will be using Uber.

    1. I think she should call an election, why die by 1000 cuts when we could elect the missing “n”

    2. They should have got Lord Frost into the job but the Conservative Party lacks ever the most primitive animal instinct for self-preservation.

      1. Frost’s interview on TCW (transcription today) wasn’t so impressive – too many “you knows” and wafflings.

  79. Part 3:

    At Shiplake lock the lock keeper advised me to watch out for a 100 foot long vessel heading towards me. Here especially for Kifaru1 is the vessel i wasn’t particularly keen on being sunk by…

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/dd128112972264d1ffc0e7e6d1d1e4fef14204fb24629816e31ca33f8a262379.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/30b148a7ff62adcdbb9ea9b23785cfe82043fda1232b290b4fc591e140bce138.jpg

    How TF it manages to get under Sonning Bridge is beyond comprehension….!

      1. It was until around 2:00pm then the Heavens opened and I got drenched until I was able to more up an hour later on the meadow opposite the Henley Regatta Course….

  80. 365836+ up ticks,
    The genuine UKIP always called for controlled immigration, that was needed and on seeing braveman say the UK must reduce immigration to tens thought for a moment she has to be an ex genuine UKIPPER, on reading further reality stepped in.

    ‘Unapologetic’ Braverman Says UK Must Reduce Overall Immigration to ‘Tens of Thousands’ to Fulfil Promise of Brexit

  81. Good to tune in late and see there are 655 comments on NoTTL. That looks healthy/vibrant …

    Unusual day for me as I met an old work colleague for a pub lunch, also an economist, and we see the world in the same way. He’s bang against the state/government doing so much, can’t stand the BBC, and reckons the MSM lines on 9/11, JFK assassination . and – of course – the Covid fiasco and vaccines are all completely wrong. I had Chicken Korma, he had Haddock & Chips, and we shared a bottle of House Red. He, a squash & racketball player, suddenly found himself lame with a bad hip in February after some months of the club being closed … it’s a bone-on-bone situation … he’s been to see a specialist privately … found out cartileges have gone … told he can have it done pronto for £1400 or wait 18? weeks on NHS. I know he’s got more than enough dosh sitting in numerous banks …. gosh, if I were him, I’d have thed £1400 ready in the nornng …

    1. The 18 week wait will be cancelled in the 17th week. If he has the money he does know what to do…

      I am beginning to have doubts about 9/11 too. They lie so easily.

      Korma? What’s wrong with a Balti !!!

    2. Are you sure it wasn’t £14,000? £ 1400 doesn’t sound much.

      The comment count is due to Alan Moore, who has joined us from the Trollograph for a bit of light-hearted chit-chat.

        3. My knee and my hip replacements cost my bank account nothing, and were done at times that suited me.
          Part NHS, part health insurance, but mainly my wife.

          I know it’s wrong, and I know I was very fortunate;
          HG was the “go to” physio for the local specialists who were seeking a second opinion, and yes, surprising as that may seem, even consultant surgeons seek a second opinion at times.

          My operations was their way of saying thank you to someone who had saved them an awful lot of hassle over the years.

          Her diagnostic skills, spotting different underlying physical problems from those presenting, were outstanding and the local surgeons trusted her judgement.

      2. Yes, I may have misheard (I will check later) … BTW I paid £10k for private angioplasty in 2000 rather than wait for NHS

        1. I had free (at the point of delivery) angioplasty in 2010. 8 bloody stents, all at once.

    3. I would have thought the evidence of the malfeasance of US politicians is amply demonstrated and suspicions reinforced by the more recent execrable performances of Clinton(s), Obama and their puppet Biden.

      These politicos will destroy everything and anything to maintain their privileges and grip on power.

    4. My titanium cobalt hip resurface cost me nothing. I had the operation 15 years ago. I have to be checked by X – Ray each year and a blood test.
      And it’s been fantastic. The guy who did was on the TV programme called Go Greek for a week.
      Just before I was put under by the anesthetic I said to him “I know where you live”.
      He laughed.
      He still lives close by.
      Nice man.

  82. Welsh A-level students to be graded more generously than those in England
    Education experts said this would be ‘bewildering’ for pupils and the widening disparity between grading could be ‘disastrous’

    Louisa Clarence-Smith: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/10/04/welsh-level-students-graded-generously-england/

    I would have thought that any self-respecting Welsh person would deeply resent the implication that the Welsh are more stupid than people in the rest of the UK.

    Doesn’t it rather suggest that Evelyn Waugh might have been right?

    “The Welsh character is an interesting study,” said Dr. Fagan. “I have often considered writing a little monograph on the subject, but I was afraid it might make me unpopular in the village. The ignorant speak of them as Celts, which is of course wholly erroneous. They are of pure Iberian stock– the aboriginal inhabitants of Europe who survive only in Portugal and the Basque district. Celts readily intermarry with their neighbours and absorb them. From the earliest times the Welsh have been looked upon as an unclean people. It is thus that they have preserved their racial integrity. Their sons and daughters rarely mate with human-kind except their own blood relations. In Wales there was no need for legislation to prevent the conquering people intermarrying with the conquered. In Ireland that was necessary, for there intermarriage was a political matter. In Wales it was moral. I hope, by the way, you have no Welsh blood?”

    “None whatever,” said Paul.

    “I was sure you had not, but one cannot be too careful. I once spoke of this subject to the sixth form and learned later that one of them had a Welsh grandmother. I am afraid it hurt his feelings terribly, poor little chap. She came from Pembrokeshire, too, which is of course quite a different matter. I often think,” he continued, “that we can trace almost all the disasters of English history to the influence of Wales. Think of Edward of Carnarvon, the first Prince of Wales, a perverse life, Pennyfeather, and an unseemly death, then the Tudors and the dissolution of the Church, then Lloyd George, the temperance movement, Nonconformity and lust stalking hand in hand through the country, wasting and ravaging. But perhaps you think I exaggerate? I have a certain rhetorical tendency, I admit.”

    “No, no,” said Paul.

    “The Welsh,” said the Doctor, “are the only nation in the world that has produced no graphic or plastic art, no architecture, no drama. They just sing,” he said with disgust, “sing and blow down wind instruments of plated silver….”

    1. Devastating. Although they tend to produce some extraordinary rugger buggers and refs!

      1. I understand there are a couple of billion in Africa that would like a nice hotel stay in the UK..It’s just like Monopoly – we will be paying for more hotels to be built!

    2. Insane?

      Or maybe the Albanian incomers will be the new land-owning aristocracy?
      No more of that democratic shit?

  85. OT
    I phoned Plum c 6.40pm; I spoke to her for about 15 mins.

    She was pleased to hear from me – and very pleased to learn of all your good wishes.

    She reckons that she is suffering from ‘Long Covid’.

    She will seek a new dog. She hopes to play tennis again; I reminded her that Federer has retired!

    She sounds a bit more cheerful but will not seek an early return to computers: “They tell you what to do,” is her mantra.

    On balance, this is good news.

    2. That really is good news.

      I hope she can get back on form.

      Very many thanks for keeping in touch with her and for updating us all.

    4. Thanks so much for the update on PT, we all miss her and wish a speedy return to health for her.

    6. I’m glad you managed to speak with her. She is much missed here. I hope she’ll start to feel better soon, but it’s the wrong time of year to be down.

    8. Great news lacoste! Much better than anticipated and she is much missed around here! Thank you for your efforts! 🌹

    9. Great news. Well done, lacoste. I hope she finds her new doggie soon. Life is empty without a pet.

  87. I have been up to the smoke for a couple of days to see a show with Mrs VVOF and on my return I have discovered the Conservative Party has a death wish which they have made public knowledge to all and sundry.
    All I can say is perhaps this is a blessing in disguise, the Conservative Party may need to die to allow us to have a conservative minded party in its place. I realise the country may pay a terrible price with Sir Cur in No 10 until we have a meaningful choice at the ballot box, but we deserve better than what we got now.
    Cor blimey Guv, we are in a right two and eight!.

    2. Is it better to die quickly or to die slowly, as hope is gnawed away and still one dies?
      I can’t help thinking that a Starmer Government now might be something we could recover from, two more years of dissipation followed by five year or more of Starmer would not be.

      1. It would certainly show those that voted for Sir Cur what consequences their votes bring about.

          1. I can’t remember anyone to rival Abbot or Lammy in Blair’s day, of course old age has a way of affecting the memory!

  91. Evening, all. Have spent all day decorating the sitting room after it had internal insulation fitted to the external walls. I had to give the plaster plenty of time to dry so I made a start today. One wall needed repapering so I have done that and now am waiting for that to dry before finishing off. There isn’t a lot to do; just that small section to paint and to replace the frieze. I also have two small splashes of coloured paint on the white to overpaint; the emulsion I had specially mixed to match the existing paint (and an excellent job they made of it; it’s perfect) was much more liquid than the white emulsion, so there were a couple of drips. It was far too liquid to use the roller with it, so that slowed things down a bit; I had to do it all with a brush. I knew that C&G decorative techniques qualification would come in handy some time! I’d rather be an artiste-peintre than a peintre-decorateur any day, though. Oscar is lame on his front foot, but he won’t let me look at it. I’ll have to see how he is tomorrow before I decide whether to take out a mortgage and take him to the vet.

      1. He’s walking okay now. Perhaps he just caught his claw and tweaked it. He has long claws, despite walking on pavements most of the time (he prefers it to grass).

        1. Poppie prefers the pathways to walking on the grass, where there is gravel she will walk on the grass/gravel margin. Sometimes she can get a bur or a seed between the paw pads which can cause her discomfort.

    2. Poor Oscar. I now have two Chihuahuas and the insurance quote was £100. I have decided to put £100 into a savings account each month and hope for the best.
      I now believe that insurance company are a scam.

      1. I let Oscar’s insurance lapse. Last year every time he went to the vet the bill was less than the excess. This year they had put up the excess and wanted to charge me over £800. I’ll put the money away to pay his bills. He’s sound now, so I don’t know what he did. Caught his claw possibly.

  92. Yeah, I know.
    It’s the Daily Mail.
    But really, who doesn’t believe we’re on the way out?

    And there’s really no need to look at the links, it’s becoming “same old same old”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11279147/Nurse-Lucy-Letby-32-appears-court-faces-trial-accused-murdering-seven-babies.html
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11279121/Mermaids-trustee-steps-speaking-event-hosted-paedophile-supporting-organisation.html
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11280003/20K-Reward-offered-killers-Sean-Fox-Donegal-Celtic-Sports-club-Belfast.html
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11279071/Boy-14-arrested-suspicion-murder-14-year-old-male-died-Gateshead.html
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11280329/Man-50s-left-fighting-life-village-stabbing.html
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11279715/Boyfriend-32-admits-killing-partner-35-two-children-11-13-friend-11.html
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11278923/If-voted-Tory-dont-deserve-resuscitated-NHS-Outrage-nurses-outburst.html
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11280299/Neighbour-hell-45-caused-enormous-gas-explosion-killed-beautiful-two-year-old-boy.html
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11279253/Woman-shared-video-performing-sex-act-child-paedophiles-online-jailed.html
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11278855/XR-activists-including-Olympic-champion-Etienne-Scott-tampered-brakes-Shell-oil-tanker.html

    AND, I also realise that I have better things to do with my life than read the DM!

        1. Honestly, honestly… The true meaning of ‘The Cunning Man” is that of a Wizard. i.e One who is able with a wand to pull off cunning stunts. Not quite like the use of a Police Officer’s truncheon which is used for stunning …..

        2. Honestly, honestly… The true meaning of ‘The Cunning Man” is that of a Wizard. i.e One who is able with a wand to pull off cunning stunts. Not quite like the use of a Police Officer’s truncheon which is used for stunning …..

        3. Honestly, honestly… The true meaning of ‘The Cunning Man” is that of a Wizard. i.e One who is able with a wand to pull off cunning stunts. Not quite like the use of a Police Officer’s truncheon which is used for stunning …..

      1. It was very good. I’m wondering if i should tell my cleaner about it. She might want a pay rise ! :@

  100. I am also off to bed. Up later than usual but another attempt at the quack’s tomorrow. Will leave earlier so waste more of our time.
    Sleep well Y’all and see you tomorrow.

  101. I am also off to bed. Up later than usual but another attempt at the quack’s tomorrow. Will leave earlier so waste more of our time.
    Sleep well Y’all and see you tomorrow.

  102. Goodnight (or good morning) Gentlefolk. Nothing new is happening, so I must cleanse my computer and put it to bed ’til the morning’s light.

Comments are closed.