Tuesday 5 March: Unsolved burglaries are a symptom of the police’s misguided priorities

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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964 thoughts on “Tuesday 5 March: Unsolved burglaries are a symptom of the police’s misguided priorities”

  1. Good morrow, gentlefolk. Today’s (recycled) story

    THERE ARE TWO STATUES IN A PARK…

    One of a nude man and one of a nude woman. They had been facing each other across a path way for a hundred years, when one day an angel comes down from the sky and, with a single gesture, brings the two to life.
    The angel tells them, ‘As a reward for being so patient through a hundred blazing summers and dismal winters, you have been given life for thirty minutes to do what you’ve wished to do the most.’
    He looks at her, she looks at him, and they go running behind the shrubbery.
    The angel waits patiently as the bushes rustle and giggling ensues. After fifteen minutes, the two return, out of breath and laughing.

    The angel tells them, ‘Um, you have fifteen minutes left, would you care to do it again?’

    He asks her ‘Shall we?’
    She eagerly replies, ‘Oh, yes, let’s! But let’s change positions. This time, I’ll hold the pigeon down and you shït on its head.’

    1. Fascinating report. I have commented before, in the days before I was banned by ‘The Spectator’, for suggesting that there is a shortage of senior royals of working age, following the departure of Prince Harry to spend more time with his preferred family of A-listers in Montecito. I do not see how the Duke of Sussex can continue to maintain any close connection with the British military needed to remain Patron of the Invictus Games, even though he founded it. He would be constantly torn between his old loyalties and his current ones.

      The King has already made the Duke of Edinburgh (14th in line) and the Princess Royal (17th) companions to support the Prince and Princess of Wales, especially when William and Kate are preoccupied with personal matters. This undoes Charles’s plan for a “slimmed down monarchy” which will really have to be put on hold until the three Wales children come of age – When the old guard finally goes to a better place (a while off hopefully), George becomes Prince of Wales, Charlotte Princess Royal, and Louis the Duke of Clarence.

      Princess Anne deliberately asked that her children Peter and Zara be raised commoners, and the latter reinforced that wish by marrying a potato-headed rugby player. It seems, however, that Mike Tindall has turned out to be quite an asset, and he is not only quite resourceful, he is of working age.

      1. Duke of Clarence? has that already been indicated? Louis would have to be a model of sobriety to overcome the associations with that title…

        1. The last Duke of Clarence was the eldest grandson of Queen Victoria who died just before he was due to get married, so his fiancée was dusted off and handed down to his younger brother who became George V. There were all sorts of conspiracy theories about Prince Albert Victor – that he was actually Jack the Ripper, and that he took part in homosexual orgies at a time that such things were frowned upon.

          The one before was known as “Silly Billy” (aka King William IV), had an enthusiastic non-marital relationship with an Irish actress, producing many daughters bearing the surname “FitzClarence”, had no surviving legitimate children, fell out with his widowed sister-in-law, the Duchess of Kent and her sinister lover John Conroy, and was desperate, despite failing health, to live long enough to avoid a regency, since their heir to the throne was a teenage girl. He made it by three weeks, and the Duchess of Kent sent into exile to Clarence House while the girl Queen took up residence in Buckingham Palace, who then set about populating the royal houses of Europe with gusto.

          Clarence House is today the preferred London residence of the present King.

          2. “It is the duty of the wealthy man
            To provide employment for the little man.”

  5. Good Moaning.
    Hurrah!!! Some good news from Michael Deacon in the Tellygraff.

    I have one suggestion to help the police butt out: claim that the “refugees” used the wrong pronouns. Then they will be only too glad to let them go. As long as PC Brownnose doesn’t decide to get officious and start charging them with such heinous crime.

    “When it comes to tackling the small boats crisis, ministers keep on making the same fundamental mistake. They only ever focus on the migrants who are desperate to get in.

    But what about the migrants who are desperate to get out?

    According to reports, there is a growing number of people who have entered this country illegally, only to find that life in Britain is even worse than in whatever godforsaken hellhole they originally came from. Yesterday, for example, one newspaper carried an interview with a teenager from north Africa who arrived here last July via small boat. He said: “I hate Britain and wish I had never come here. I want to go back to France.”

    Meanwhile, an illegal migrant from Sudan said: “I want to go anywhere else in Europe… There are many young migrants wanting to leave because there is nothing for them in the UK.” And last month, an illegal migrant from Syria said: “A lot of people who came over the Channel want to leave now – there is nothing for us here.”

    Unfortunately for these illegal migrants, however, there’s one small problem. They can’t leave Britain – because the police keep stopping them.

    Take the illegal migrant from Sudan. Four weeks ago, the police caught him in Dover, trying to sneak aboard a truck bound for France. They then drove him all the way back to Preston in Lancashire, where the Home Office had housed him. The same thing happened to the migrant from Syria. He says he’s been trying to sneak out of Britain since last summer – but has been caught by the police every time.

    What a remarkable situation. We’re hopeless at keeping people out. But we’re brilliant at keeping them in.

    Personally, though, I find it cruel that we’re forcing these poor migrants to stay in this awful country against their will. In the name of human decency, surely we can find it in our hearts to let them go. All they want is the chance of a better life elsewhere.

    If the British Government had any gumption, however, it wouldn’t just let them leave. It would pay them to go to Calais and warn wannabe migrants about how wretched life in Britain is – so that they don’t come here in the first place. Supply the ex-migrants with loudhailers, so they can march up and down French beaches, bellowing: “Don’t board that dinghy! It’s not worth it! Britain is skint, miserable and falling apart! And the people-smugglers will charge even more to get you out than they’re charging to get you in! Please, take it from us – you’re much better off staying in France!”

    That’s the way to solve the small boats crisis: tackle it at source. Let all of Africa and the Middle East know that our country is now so woebegone, even people from warzones feel as if they’ve come down in the world.

    It’s got to be worth trying. Then again, the plan does have one possible downside. If word gets out that we’re paying these former migrants good money to deter aspiring migrants, the aspiring migrants will be even keener to come – so that we’ll pay them to do the same thing. Thousands upon thousands of penniless people will come pouring into Britain, in the hope of being kicked straight out again.”

    2. Their entitlement is staggering. They’re not thinking about anything except what benefits will be poured into their ungrateful hands, and how easy the host government will make their lives for them. They don’t even realise of course, that they are killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.

      There is one problem with recycling the dinghies – when the RNLI picks them up in the Channel, how will they know whether to drive the taxi to Britain or France?

  6. German leaks putting British troops at risk are ‘tip of the iceberg’. 5 March 2024.

    August Hanning said more Nato secrets may have been compromised after Russia intercepted and published a video call disclosing military information, telling Bild newspaper: “This leak could have been just the tip of the iceberg.”

    On Monday, sources claimed that Russia had identified Germany as the “weakest link” in Nato and was using Olaf Scholz as a “useful idiot”.

    The German chancellor was under major pressure on Monday after the German air force accidentally leaked details of British “troops on the ground” in Ukraine in an unsecure video conference call.

    You would be forgiven for thinking in the midst of this foofaraw about German perfidy that the Government is concerned about the safety of “our lads” doing their duty. Not really. Such a position assumes that the Russians were not aware of it. An inconceivable idea. I have no access to secret intelligence and have always assumed that such is taking place and the reports of several foreign young men being killed while performing “humanitarian acts” at the front have confirmed it. At least to myself. What has really upset the Government is that the voters have been informed by an unimpeachable source. This has resulted in a diplomatic smokescreen where they are berating Scholz for it as a distraction. It saves having to make any admissions as to its truth.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/03/04/german-leaks-british-troops-at-risk-tip-of-iceberg/

  7. Anyone else read this in same way as I did?

    Channel 4: The Political Spot
    Richmond Park MP Sarah Olney sets out plans to tackle water pollution by the Liberal Democrats.

    1. The word order puts what must be an unintended slant on it.

      I expect this is closer to what it was supposed to convey: Richmond Park MP Sarah Olney sets out plans by the Liberal Democrats to tackle water pollution.

      1. They say that drinking water has gone through fourteen sets of kidneys by the time it supplies Westminster. Having been born not far from Richmond Park, I can honestly say that I made my contribution in the past.

    2. 🙂

      But she’s a horse???

      If she does anything it will be a miracle.

      [She is my useless MP and has no values in common with me].

    3. 🙂

      But she’s a horse???

      If she does anything it will be a miracle.

      [She is my useless MP and has no values in common with me].

  10. Hello everyone! I’m so happy to have discovered this site courtesy of kind Angelina over at the Speccie, where Fraser Nelson has decided to smash the jewel in his crown by destroying the comment section. Greetings and salutations to all!

    4. Mr Nelson is on the Globalist pathway. Cut my Speccie sub a while ago as Jezza is deceased Taki is available elsewhere.

      1. Their management on a mission to monetize (sic) the goose that laid the golden egg that attracted the entertainly argumentative sort to their rag. They will regret it when readership falls.

    5. Mr Nelson is on the Globalist pathway. Cut my Speccie sub a while ago as Jezza is deceased Taki is available elsewhere.

    7. Frank Johnson was the last editor of The Spectator of whom I approved. Indeed, I stopped my sub during Boris Johnson’s tenure.

      1. Frank Johnson was a great writer who died far too young.
        I always enjoyed his story about his encounter as Dolore (?) with Maria Callas. I appreciated it even more after grandson played the same role at Covent Garden.
        (Madame Butterfly would find it a challenge to play his teenage mother now!)

    8. Good Moaning and welcome.
      I nipped over to the Spekkie and saw NOTTL recruits lining up.
      I can still post, but my avatar has vaporised.

  12. Good day all and the 77th,

    Grey at damp at McPhee Towers after overnight rain. Wind in the Nor’-Nor’-West, 5℃ rising to 8 or 9℃, remaining cloudy.

    Further evidence that the RNLI, a once revered and well -supported charitable organisation, has been brought low by the Long March through the Institutions and the remote managerialism of people with no experience of the rôle and lives of the volunteers and the risks they take (think the Solomon Browne at Mousehole).

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cb19190a0ddc602bc9c11b7b8ca369259be74891708505e61340388fd50369ee.png

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/04/volunteer-told-to-resign-or-face-sack-for-criticising-rnli/

    1. Good on Mr Oxley. If I was over his way, I’d buy the man a whole pubfull of drinks as a tiny thanks for all his efforts to try to do the right thing.

    2. Frinton is probably too far from Calais so doesn’t need a bigger boat as it doesn’t ferry gimmegrants.

  13. Good morning, all. Wet, for a change 🤢.

    Following the CoE’s desire for £1,000,000,000 to be raised to pay reparations to the descendants of slaves: well, it can’t go to those poor devils sold into slavery by their African ‘brothers’ can it?

    Here’s a take on California’s similar idea. A bit coarse towards the end but Nottlers are grown ups.

    https://twitter.com/juneslater17/status/1764748866702758350

    1. I can only assume that the Church of England is trying to drive people away in order to accelerate church closures.

      1. Standard “business friendly” ploy to open up more real estate for much-needed housing development opportunities.

      2. I wonder if the Archpillock’s personal investment folio includes church property and he is trying to speed up the dissolution of the CofE so that he can sell up and make a packet.

      3. Well, I am convinced the rectorette was put in place to achieve that (and she’s making an excellent job of it). The hierarchy is determined to keep her in place and thwart the parishioners’ attempts to remove her.

  14. Justin Trudeau is creating a Canadian thought police. 5 March 2024.

    There’s a way of getting children to eat something they dislike – medicine, for example – where you bury the goods in a spoonful of jam. Justin Trudeau’s Liberals are trying this method with their Online Harms Bill C-63. But it may not go down as well as they hoped.

    The stated intent of the Bill is something every decent person supports: protecting children from online victimisation. Yet behind this noble aim lurks the thought police.

    This is of course also applicable to the UK. It is no accident that they share the same name. The “thought police” here will be Ofcom. That there will be an attack on Nottl and its fellow travellers is almost certain.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/justin-trudeau-is-creating-a-canadian-thought-police/

  16. Good morning all.
    Not raining when I checked the temperature, but it’s a slightly less cold 3½°C outside. Dull and overcast with a dry forecast until late afternoon.

    I’ve a trip to Stoke planned today to check up on stepson.

  19. Good morning, chums. I couldn’t get to sleep last night, so am only just up, with a jam-packed action day. My next post will be this afternoon, so I’m signing off straight away. Slayders.

    Wordle 990 X/6

    Disaster today! Too many options for the final letter.

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

  20. Underwater internet cables cut in Red Sea area targeted by Houthis. 5 March 2024.

    Several underwater cables have been cut in the Red Sea, disrupting telecommunications networks in a key waterway that has been targeted by Yemen’s Houthi rebels.

    Four of the 15 undersea cables in the area have been cut, affecting about a quarter of traffic between Asia, the Middle East and Europe, according to a statement by HGC Global Communications, a Hong Kong-based internet service provider.

    These are the people Joe Biden was going to shut down with a few bombs?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/03/04/underwater-internet-cables-cut-in-red-sea-area-houthi-yemen/

    1. I recall seeing pictures of hundreds of these “fighters” training in the desert.
      A few Moab airburst bombs above those camps might discourage them.

        2. A Moab would wipe out the entire camp.
          Hornet nests are best destroyed in their entirety, when they are all in residence.

    3. I don’t think the bbc have mentioned any of this yet. It’s not in Vlads precinct. Nor near a synagogue.

  21. Underwater internet cables cut in Red Sea area targeted by Houthis. 5 March 2024.

    Several underwater cables have been cut in the Red Sea, disrupting telecommunications networks in a key waterway that has been targeted by Yemen’s Houthi rebels.

    Four of the 15 undersea cables in the area have been cut, affecting about a quarter of traffic between Asia, the Middle East and Europe, according to a statement by HGC Global Communications, a Hong Kong-based internet service provider.

    These are the people Joe Biden was going to shut down with a few bombs?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/03/04/underwater-internet-cables-cut-in-red-sea-area-houthi-yemen/

  22. Our elected no-marks have created the following…

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/78ed2be6c729e46620966e955cd2c7b70c307c68057beb420f8ed91ede8dc12e.png

    Brave men had to defeat the Wolfpacks that set out to do us great harm during 1939 – 1945. Brave men will be needed again, I fear.

    Our elected no-marks do not agree with the following…

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/60da5449b5024eeb5a209c8dd5f8c8992a951c12ef05f121f6889986a0d816a9.png

    Our elected no-marks need to pop out to their pharmacy of choice and stock up with…

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/61ae6e2eecc3db5f8fc5139df25317e22b932271aee93693a177e1a4a66803e0.png

  23. Tricky five today

    Wordle 990 5/6

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

    1. Very tricky, Bob3. Far too many possibilities for the first letter. You were lucky to get it in five.

  24. Unsolved burglaries are a symptom of the police’s misguided priorities

    The police consider all property is theft anyway

    And that if we have nothing we will be happy

  25. – I see that the government has announced a freeze in fuel prices.

    At least they are right for once.

    They are so high most people are freezing.

    1. I note the energy price cap is reducing by a small amount but the standing charge is increasing markedly to cover those who cannot or will not pay their bills.

      1. I’ve just checked, and they slipped that in under the radar. Why do you think they publicise the fraudulent spin “average fuel price cap” in their press releases and public information? That does not interest me. All I want to know is standing charge and unit rates. Standing charge goes to pay the executive bonuses, and the public can do absolutely nothing about this, other than to go off grid. Using less energy does not affect the standing charge.

        It seems to me that Ofgem only pay lip service to Net Zero. If they were at all serious about it, they’d be keeping standing charge at no more than cost to maintain the grid, and all the rest piled onto unit rates. Consume less, pay less.

        As for covering the risk for bad debts, maybe this is the cost of privatisation. For as long as essential services are privatised, I hold the Government responsible for creating that situation, and the shortfall should be met from central taxation, not out of bills customers have no option but to pay, yet the pundits insist that it operates in a free market. Not that it will though, influential people do not like their taxes going up, and they have more clout that hapless householders.

        I of course have been censored by ‘The Spectator’, as I was by ‘The New Statesman’ a while back. They do not want this to be debated.

        1. And as more and more people can’t afford energy the higher the standing charge will go. This is socialism.

          1 The state is making energy unaffordably expensive.
          2 People can’t afford energy
          3 Those who can are forced to pay for those who can’t or won’t.
          4 Energy gets more expensive
          Go to 2.

          When no one can afford energy, what do we do? When energy costs is not based on energy use, what’s the point of charging per unit?

          Oh! I see! That’s the point of it all.

    2. Pretending not hiking a tax is somehow a cut is Brownian nonsense. Until fuel duty is cut anything else is just waffle.

      Those workers who ‘do’ something instead of thinking about it need to drive. Cleaners, factory workers, nurses, teachers – all requires fuel. Thus the higher fuel taxes the more a proportion of people’s income, especially hurting the working low paid.

      Same as high energy charges hammer the lower earner most. Taxation should be on earned income only as a flat proportion, not simply used as a weapon for ideological or social enforcement.

  26. 384359+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Tuesday 5 March: Unsolved burglaries are a symptom of the police’s misguided priorities

    Surely this is down to the dangerously misguided majority voter ( the best of the worst selector, IS the worst) this “misguided priorities” lack of action in one, plain to see issue alone,proven facts concerning the sixteen plus year cover-up revealed by the Jay report appertaining to Rotherham and the pakistani paedophile fess.

    The “misguided” is NOT viewed as “misguided”
    through the eyes of the lab/lib/con coalition party gang bosses, but as the WEF / NWO agenda of subduing the peoples via manipulation, treachery into taking the road to RESET.

    Lest we forget, the majority voter is the master of its own destiny.

        1. Ah, the excellent Clancy Brown! “It’s better to burn out than to fade away” I saw that film for the first time in Edinburgh and there were genuinely people crying with laughter at Lambert’s “Scottish” accent!

          1. To be fair, by the time of the present-day scenes at least, he wouldn’t sound Scottish any more. A cop asks him where he’s from and he replies, accurately, “Lots of different places”. If you’re 400 years old you presumably don’t sound like you did when you were 30.

            This is presumably also why Sean Connery’s “Spaniard” sounds like Sean Connery.

            It’s a guilty pleasure, that film. Stupid but enjoyable, the three acts leap out at you, and the Danish National Symphony Orchestra does a lovely cover of ‘Who Wants To Live Forever?’ on YT.

          2. To be fair Sean Connery almost always sounds like Sean! As for Christophe Lambert [now Christopher] I was thinking more of his early scenes, especially in the boat! I think you are spot on with “guilty pleasure” – I can’t hear “New York, New York” without thinking of the Kurgan!

        2. Ah, the excellent Clancy Brown! “It’s better to burn out than to fade away” I saw that film for the first time in Edinburgh and there were genuinely people crying with laughter at Lambert’s “Scottish” accent!

      1. Yes, all very nice on paper but in reality this just doesn’t apply. The police are now the thugs of the state, enforcing law unequally depending on the political affiliation or demographic of the criminal.

        This is a very depressing situation and a frustration I imagine police officers feel as well, but the fact remains: if the farmers block the roads plod set out to stop them. When greeniac mentalists do it plod offer them tea.

        Trudeau tried to destroy the lives of truckers rather than listen to them. Everywhere Lefties use force, violence and thuggery to get their own way. The police are no longer neutral. They’ve been made to take a side against the public.

  28. The proper mustard?

    SIR – Have any other readers noticed that Colman’s mustard seems to have lost some of its fire?

    I’m worried that, perhaps as part of a diversity and inclusion drive, the manufacturer has watered down the recipe to make the product accessible to those with a more delicate palate.

    Tim RF Wilson
    Bradfield, Berkshire

    Colman’s mustard powder is still universally available in its traditional rectangular tins. All it takes is to add some water to a teaspoonful of that powder, in an eggcup, mix it with the handle of that teaspoon and you have proper, full-strength, Colman’s English mustard.

    3. Nah, his palate is getting older , things lose their oomph as one ages .. so I have been told …

      Having said that , a delicious slice of proper back bacon and a large fresh mushroom fried , with golden yolked egg and a round slice of black pudding gently fried , and a few griddled baby tomatoes is a welcome treat on a rainy day like today .

      Being virtuous can be very boring .

      A bit of what you fancy does you good . 😊

    4. I’ve noticed that too. It’s to comply with American demand. Also something to do with Unilever closing down the ancient works in Norwich according to Business Best Practice when it comes to taking over a British staple. Maybe it’s the variety of seed used to make the mustard. French varieties are milder.

      Guide books written for Americans used to warn them about British mustard (and also horseradish in the old days). They are used to sloshing it on their hot dogs, but when they tried that in Britain, attempted to douse it in lukewarm beer, rather than spreading it gingerly.

      1. If Colman’s English is a bit too hot for their delicate palates, I wonder how they’d cope with a smidgeon (soupçon) of bright green wasabi paste.

        I love the stuff and it is an essential condiment on decent sushi.

    5. Argh – but thanks for the reminder. Can’t find powdered mustard here, and the ready-mixed ones are rubbish. I shall get a friend to smuggle.a tin of Colman’s in when she visits. 🙂

        1. Good idea, thanks, were I in a different country. Things tend to get snagged by Customs coming into Argentina, and it’s a nightmare trying to claw them out. Easier to suborn visiting friends!

          1. Send me a ticket and I’ll bring you mustard – send me a list of other necessaries..

          3. I’ve no idea of your reply, Katy, as those symbols do not appear on Microsoft machines.

  31. Why Britain is still paying the price for Gordon Brown’s gold bullion blunder
    Telegraph Money reveals what went wrong 25 years ago – and outlines the repercussions
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/investing/gold-hits-all-time-high-gordon-brown-blunder-cost/

    BTL

    Was there ever a nickname so inappropriately applied? “Prudence” Brown was most imprudent in selling the UK’s gold reserves and his economic policies were disastrous.

    And our feckless chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, wants to follow Brown’s approach to the economy and taxation rather than that of Lawson, the most effective chancellor in modern times.

    1. The better nick name Is Daft Vader.
      He’s Just another political idiot that effed up everything he came into contact with.
      Even Bliar was reluctant to let him have the job.

  32. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LojqhHnmyvc

    Reposted from late last night:

    Tuesday 5th March 2024

    OUR LOVELY

    SUE MACFARLANE

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bab4375a73c857c116659edef44f68f27d5a5e2240e1cd45854837bdc717ee00.jpg

    and

    a Multitude More Happy Birthdays

    Very best wishes,

    Caroline and Rastus

    https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=6416c49529b0d5b1&q=Runaround+Sue+movie+scene&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiGmqy-4tuEAxWhUaQEHTpkATUQ1QJ6BAg7EAE&biw=1280&bih=613&dpr=1.5#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:33ee7489,vid:beb0ixalSPs,st:0

      1. Thanks Spikey! Glorious windy sunny weather here in the Borders! Just put the washing out!

    2. I think Little Susie is enjoying a birthday breakfast in bed:

      Have a Happy, happy day, Sue, followed by 364 happy unbirthdays. Hugs

      1. You’re having a larf Tom! Been up since 6! Grandchildren very wide awake!
        Thank you for your good wishes! We’re currently about 18 miles north of you!

        1. Feel free to drop in – always welcome.

          I see Richard Scott is looking to organise another NTTL luncheon.

        3. Treat yourself to a comforting thought.
          Give it another 10 – 15 years and you won’t be able to get them out of bed before lunchtime.

  33. Morning all 🙂😊
    Still outside, but still grey.

    The police don’t often turn up after a burglary, I believe they issue a crime number.
    Their recognised lack of interest started quite a few years ago. But I suspect now that if a house holder used a ‘blunt instrument’ to defer a burglar, they’d be on site like a shot. And the house holder would be wearing the cuffs.
    How times are changing and have changed dramatically.
    “The line it is drawn,
    And the curse it is cast”

    Bob Dylan had the gist of it years ago.

  34. 🎶Happy Birthday to you Sue M 🎶
    🤩 have a lovely day 🥂🍾 and many more of them.

    1. Thank you, Eddy! Currently ‘down on the farm’ looking after the two elder grandchildren and ‘keeping house’ while daughter feeds Finlay!

      1. I can only repeat:

        Have a Happy, happy day, Sue, followed by 364 happy unbirthdays

      5. 67, a good age to start a new career as a carer, just after you thought retirement had beckoned at 66.
        Happy birthday.

      7. Happy Birthday, Sue.
        Are you whooping it up today or saving your energy for a big bash at the weekend?

          1. Grattis på födelsedagen, to a fellow-Piscean, Mrs Macfarlane, hope ye have a wee stoater of a day, bonny lass.😘🎂👍🏻🥂😊

            Do ya knaw, March 5 has always been a special day for me, hinny, since it was my beloved paternal grandmother’s birthday and today she would have been celebrating her 131st birthday.🍷

          2. Bless you, Grizz! Thank you for that – I’m thrilled to share her birthday!

          3. Happy Birthday, Sue! Adding my voice to the chorus of good wishes. (A bit tardy due to time difference, so I’ll sing a descant and pretend I meant to chime in late… 😉🤣).

            Have a great day!

            Katy x

        1. Thank you Sue! I’m having a lovely day! Can’t think of anywhere I’d rather be, or better company!

    1. Exeter School. I used to take my school teams to compete against them when I was a teacher at Allhallows, in a school near Lyme Regis. The houses there were named after previous headmasters.

      My enjoyment of a good limerick lies in the ingenuity of the rhyming scheme. One of my favourites:

      There was a young lady from Exeter,
      So pretty than men craned their necks at her,
      One went so far
      As to wave from his car
      The distinguishing mark of his sex at her.

    2. The Left are desperate to erase history.

      They read 1984 as a guidebook, not a warning.

  41. **COMING SOON!!**

    Jane Stannus
    Canada’s Orwellian online harms Bill
    5 March 2024, 6:15am

    There’s a way of getting children to eat something they dislike – medicine, for example – where you bury the goods in a spoonful of jam. Justin Trudeau’s Liberals are trying this method with their Online Harms Bill C-63. But it may not go down as well as they hoped.

    The stated intent of the Bill is something every decent person supports: protecting children from online victimisation. Yet behind this noble aim lurks the thought police.

    This is no exaggeration. This legislation authorises house arrest and electronic tagging for a person considered likely to commit a future crime. It’s right there in the text: if a judge believes there are reasonable grounds to ‘fear’ a future hate crime, the as of yet innocent party can be sentenced to house arrest, complete with electronic tagging, mandatory drug testing and communication bans. Failure to cooperate nets you an additional year in jail. If that’s not establishing a thought police, I don’t know what is.

    What is a hate crime? According to the Bill, it is a communication expressing ‘detestation or vilification.’ But, clarified the government, this is not the same as ‘disdain or dislike,’ or speech that ‘discredits, humiliates, hurts or offends.’

    Unfortunately, the government didn’t think to include a graduated scheme setting out the relative acceptability of the words ‘offend,’ ‘hurt,’ ‘humiliate,’ ‘discredit,’ ‘dislike,’ ‘disdain,’ ‘detest,’ and ‘vilify.’ Under Bill C-63, you can be put away for life for a ‘crime’ whose legal existence hangs on the distinction between ‘dislike’ and ‘detest.’

    Despite this Trudeau claims to stand against authoritarianism.

    The Canadian psychologist and author Jordan Peterson says that under Bill C-63, his criminalisation would be a certainty. The legislation appears to apply retroactively, meaning you can be hauled up before the Human Rights Tribunal for any material you’ve left online, regardless of its posting date. Anonymous accusations and secret testimony are permitted (at the tribunal’s discretion). Complaints are free to file, and an accuser, if successful, can hope to reap up to a $20,000 payout, with up to another $50,000 going to the government.

    Hold on, you may be thinking, what does all this have to do with protecting children online? So far it seems more geared towards protecting the Liberal government online. There is in fact a section that requires social media companies to establish plans to protect users, including children. But if you’re getting your hopes up, prepare to have them dashed.

    All the social media companies are going be supervised by a brand-new government body called the Digital Safety Commission. The Digital Safety Commission can, without oversight, require companies to block access to anycontent, conduct investigations, hold secret hearings, require the companies to hand over specific content, and give all data collected to third-party researchers accredited by the Commission. All data. Any content. No oversight.

    Does that sound crazy? There’s more.

    The ostensible purpose of putting the Commission (and not the ordinary police) in charge is so that it can act informally and quickly (i.e. without a warrant) in situations where material victimising a child could spread quickly across the Internet. What that means in effect is that the Digital Safety Commission is not accountable and does not have to justify its actions. As the Canadian Civil Liberties Association says in its sharply worded critique of the Bill, it endows government appointees with vast authority ‘to interpret the law, make up new rules, enforce them, and then serve as judge, jury and executioner.’

    Is it possible, that in the beautiful and once civilized country of Canada, leading politicians seriously want to punish people for crimes they might (but actually haven’t) committed? Canada already has a law that criminalises conspiracy, and another law criminalising threats—so we’re not talking about someone who is planning murder or terrorism. Then who are we talking about? People who read the wrong websites? People who didn’t get vaccinated? People who criticise the government? People who go to church and believe certain types of immorality will send you to hell?

    There’s something Trudeau and his minions don’t seem to realise. With the Online Harms Bill, as with the reckless invocation of the Emergencies Act and the debanking of protestors, they are making a mockery of the rule of law and of the public order they are sworn to uphold.

    2. The entire point of the online harm bill – here and there – is to control what people can do and say. That is it’s only purpose: control.

  42. Ross Clark
    ‘Levelling up’ is finished
    5 March 2024, 7:28am

    Just what has the government done to try to retain the Red Wall vote? It seemed when they won a majority of 80 in 2019, thanks largely to a big switch of working class votes in peripheral areas of the Midlands and North, away from the main cities – that Boris Johnson and his ministers got it. There was a very large constituency of former Labour voters which was is fed up of that party’s fixation of the sorts of issues which appeal to metropolitan liberals and they were looking for a new political home. It was a constituency which likes state intervention, but was socially conservative.

    Johnson’s government at first seemed to oblige: the furlough scheme heralded a move towards bigger government. There was also a big step up in funding for the NHS.

    But now the impetus seems to have been lost. The Guardian is reporting that only 20 per cent of projects under the Levelling up fund have gone ahead. Many others have fallen by the wayside as a result of a surge in construction costs which have made them unviable.

    One of the biggest losers has been affordable housing. Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove seems to have started trying to blaming second home and holiday home owners for the housing shortage instead. This is not going to cut much ice with the Red Wall as holiday and second homes do not tend to be a problem there.

    The real problem with trying to appeal to the Red Wall is that the interests of former Labour voters do not well align with those of Conservative members and MPs. We saw what Conservatives thought of big government when Liz Truss was elected leader. Conservative members still largely favour low taxes and a smallish state. And they absolutely hate taxes on aspiration, which is why Gove’s second homes tax is not going to go down well with his own party.

    The trouble is that the alignment of the Red Wall with the Conservative right was the product of unique circumstances in 2019: anger at those trying to undermine Brexit. Those circumstances are not going to be repeated – which is why the Red Wall is as good as lost. ‘Levelling up’ is a term which has had its day. Don’t expect to hear much about it after the next election.

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

    An0nymousBosch
    an hour ago
    In 2010, David Cameron promised to “rebalance” the economy away from its over-dependence on the City of London.

    George Osborne promised a “Northern Powerhouse”. A “march of the makers”.

    Then after Brexit, the Conservatives promised us “Levelling Up”. Theresa May set herself against “citizens of nowhere”.

    After 14 years of this, what have they actually done?

    Watered down Brexit as much as they could get away with. Replaced mass immigration from Eastern Europe with even more mass immigration from everywhere else.

    Built HS2 entirely in the southeastern quadrant of Britain. They’ve cancelled it in the North. They’ve arranged for Britain’s only car battery gigafactory to be built in Somerset. They are spending more on “levelling up” two London Tube stations (Colindale and Leyton, £43.1 million) that they’re spending on the whole of Teeside (£40 million).

    They’ve cut the budget of the Canal & Riverside Trust by over £300 million – most of the canal network is in the North and the Midlands, where its towpaths double as cycle lanes.

    They scrapped English Votes for English Laws, cementing the second-class status of the English regions, who have less democratic representation than the devolved areas, including London.

    And Rishi Sunak’s Cabinet is overwhelmingly made up of people from Southeastern England, including all four of the big jobs. They’ve not even “levelled up” in their own political party.

    Toss them out.

      1. Not from Albania, which coincidentally seems to produce significant numbers of drug lords and gangsters as exports to the UK.

  43. SIR – Is it a coincidence that police performance appears to have fallen since the introduction of police and crime commissioners?

    Ray Cantrell
    Colchester, Essex

    What I would love to know , who are the wretches who appear from nowhere in the middle of the countryside and who break into your car .. with in an hour or so..

    Nothing visible in the car , but returning from pleasant walk to find the car has been nobbled by a light fingered criminal with no respect for property or privacy .

    Opportunist thieves are everywhere , including the so and so who nicked a hidden copper airing cupboard cylinder from our driveway.. How did they know?

    1. We know who the opportunist thieves are in the countryside but they are a protected minority.

  44. Richard Sk
    an hour ago edited
    I wonder where I’ve heard phrases like this: “This will create a modern, accessible and sustainable business …..”
    This one is from NS&I

  46. ‘Morning All
    Although I hold no brief for many areas of Police behavior I do not think they are the problem as far as burglary car theft etc etc
    The problem lies with the CPS and the Judiciary and their catch and release policies if you watch the police docos they regularly catch young feral criminals with not tens but hundreds of previous convictions who are released over and over again the reality is that it is unlikely that these scofflaws have been caught more than one time in ten so that hundred convictions probably means a thousand criminal offences
    Banging up a thousand of these prolific offenders who currently have no fear of the law would prevent a million offences a year
    It must be completely dispiriting to see these ferals laughing at you as they walk out of court yet again

    (The birch would be a cheaper alternative)

  47. BF

    Bernard Franklin
    27 MIN AGO
    And are they going to pay money to the families of thos taken into slavery, from the UK, by the Barbary ‘Pirates”. At least those slaves were abducted by ‘furriners’. The very great majority of slaves taken from Africa were rounded-up and taken to the sea ports by fellow Africans, but of different tribes, unless of course the Brits had invented the Stagecoach bus, diesel engines and fuel stops back then.
    I believe Slavery still exists in Saudi Arabia and other countries that ilk.

    Rule, Britannia!
    Lyrics
    Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves!
    Britons never, never, never shall be slaves.

    When Britain first, at heaven’s command,
    Arose from out the azure main,
    This was the charter of the land,
    And Guardian Angels sang this strain:

    (Chorus)

    The nations not so blest as thee
    Must, in their turn, to tyrants fall,
    While thou shalt flourish great and free:
    The dread and envy of them all.

    (Chorus)

    Still more majestic shalt thou rise,
    More dreadful from each foreign stroke,
    As the loud blast that tears the skies
    Serves but to root thy native oak.

    (Chorus)

    Thee haughty tyrants ne’er shall tame;
    All their attempts to bend thee down
    Will but arouse thy generous flame,
    But work their woe and thy renown.

    (Chorus)

    To thee belongs the rural reign;
    Thy cities shall with commerce shine;
    All thine shall be the subject main,
    And every shore it circles, thine.

    (Chorus)

    The Muses, still with freedom found,
    Shall to thy happy coasts repair.
    Blest isle! with matchless beauty crowned,
    And manly hearts to guard the fair.

    (Chorus)
    Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves!
    Britons never, never, never shall be slaves.

    And of course , a visit to the https://www.tolpuddlemartyrs.org.uk/ confirms all that many people of this country were subjected to.

    1. The lyrics should be placed in front of those objecting to the song and they should be asked to point out what they object to.

    2. I am just saying here , that many locals who are related to the Dorset Martyr’s are very peed off that that the radical wing of the Labour party , commies or what ever you call them have commandeered the message that springs out of the museum display .

  48. Medley Time

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/24c336898342d62c9acf475de64597b46bd281baae91fcae8a58a975fe914732.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/96e740a9b8ca8ce39faf676604cbdf24ecbfdfc02fc849d0ab215d1e036a5a78.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bdd57398e67fc8d3305d893d202cbc58774ddd00e8f07a0f573cd83dd9001f98.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/39912276494473a5e6855e758da2b81261b6083e0ed03363800cbbbd372f26a3.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/aac13cccb671730b95dab4aa21680cde05fb9ea2673d9ef6022de75a45541a49.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b12cb1ca2feb78f522e452af64afa438b31d2a9e7bb4b202b26b24c4a4423aef.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/de6d686cb1eb37a0271098586fffcf15857fa6b1390c279d0b44f7febf9304cd.jpg

  49. Hello all

    Wrecking the Speccie comments is the biggest own goal imaginable – glad I only paid for the trial sub!

      1. The number of comments is down to single figures on most articles there now.

        1. A pity.
          It used to be a fine site.
          More hassle to comment on, but do you know TakiMag.
          It’s still free.
          Not everyone’s cup of tea, but I often find thought-provoking articles.
          https://www.takimag.com/

  50. A warm welcome to all the refugees from the Speccie NoTTLer’s know how you feel…….

  51. Hello chums
    I don’t approve of postal voting (except in exceptional circumstances). Certainly not for all-comers.

    But I also don’t approve of the new requirement to take photo ID to vote in-person – because this is not where the fraud is being perpetrated.

    So today I applied for a postal vote for myself. The only requirement is to put in my NI number and upload a copy of my signature, which must match that on my postal vote.

    Well that was difficult. I have applied for postal votes for my children and husband too. I am good at signatures.

    Good job we have the new photo ID requirement to stop voter fraud though.

    3. Postal votes should only apply for those individuals in another country.

      As it is, we didn’t need this farce before muslims brought corruption and fraud to this country.

      1. We used to have postal voting for those who were unable to get to the polling station, through age, infirmity or being abroad. We should have kept that system in place.

        1. Well we know how to thank for the loosening of the postal vote system, don’t we? The man who destroyed the entire country in 10 short years. Thank you, Bliar.

          Now he is working on wrecking the world.

  52. I made this comment to a post by Jeremy Morfy last night about having NOTA on each ballot paper and thought it worth repeating.

    To emphasise the point I made to the Electoral Commission the Rochdale by election had a turnout of 39.7% and Galloway got 40% of the vote ie 15.88% of the electorate.
    We have to ask ourselves if that is a democratic mandate.

    Edit. Of course none of the media would have commented on that.

    1. 60.3%, by not voting, in effect stated that they didn’t really care who got in and would be content to be represented by the winner, Galloway; so why isn’t it a democratic mandate?

      1. I think it’s more the case of “would it make any difference?”. If there had been a NOTA on the ballot paper at least people could show their dissatisfaction with the system. Spoiled ballots are counted but not reported. NOTA should be reported.

        1. I would make voting compulsory and make NOTA an option.

          If NOTA wins, no representative for that election.

          2. Why shouldn’t it?

            Extra taxation without representation is the new universal law.

  53. Oh yes also this may make you laugh. Or despair.

    One of the questions was, have I ever changed my name? (Yes – on marriage). But i ticked the box “Prefer not to say”, because I never give any info away is I can tick that box.

    But this is the kicker. I had to give my date of birth. But there was also a box to tick, if I didn’t know my date of birth.

    1. And I bet most of those who have been given a postal vote don’t know they applied for one.
      You couldn’t make it up, could you.

      1. No. You really couldn’t.

        But hey they are stamping out on in-person fraud which is as prevalent as far-right extremism.

      2. Presumably as an anti-fraud measure? But who doesn’t know their date of birth?

        1. Those whose culture does not have a written tradition (in other words, boko haram).

  54. Oh yes also this may make you laugh. Or despair.

    One of the questions was, have I ever changed my name? (Yes – on marriage). But i ticked the box “Prefer not to say”, because I never give any info away is I can tick that box.

    But this is the kicker. I had to give my date of birth. But there was also a box to tick, if I didn’t know my date of birth.

  55. Oh dear how inconvenient for the glowball warmists. Huge snow falls in northern Pakistan.
    I wonder who will get the blame for this.

    2. You could argue that no British military action or involvement is voted for. Although before my time, I don’t believe that the two world wars were subject to a popular vote, nor were the politicians elected on a platform of commitment to warfare.

      1. Ahem

        In 1939 the U.K.
        declared war against Germany. Before the motion was put and carried,
        other members responded to the Prime Minister’s speech in a short
        debate.
        Where is the Parliamentary debate on boots on the ground in Ukeland??
        Because from where I’m sitting that’s an act of war against Russia!!

        1. That doesn’t contradict my comment. The motion wasn’t put to the electorate either in a referendum or a general election. It was the vote of a small elite.

          1. Referenda are very seldom held in this country. I can only think of two in my lifetime – 1975 and 2016. The electorate vote for that small elite and theoretically trust them to make the right decisions. Sadly they have now lost that trust placed in them.

  57. I ran in the students’ Presidential elections at UEA in 1968. I ran in the interest of the Apathetic Party.

    My slogan was:

    REMEMBER A VOTE CAST IS A VOTE WASTED

    I claimed the moral victory because all my supporters were those who were too apathetic to vote and the uncast votes outnumbered the total number of votes for all the other candidates by an extremely large margin.

  58. I ran in the students’ Presidential elections at UEA in 1968. I ran in the interest of the Apathetic Party.

    My slogan was:

    REMEMBER A VOTE CAST IS A VOTE WASTED

    I claimed the moral victory because all my supporters were those who were too apathetic to vote and the uncast votes outnumbered the total number of votes for all the other candidates by an extremely large margin.

  59. #me too

    Also, the Remoaners used to argue that the people who hadn’t voted must have wanted to Remain hence Leave hadn’t really won…

    1. We know the the terror of Islam , and I have lived as a child and teenager in such places .. We know , but as my late father used to say .. Churchill and Kipling , Kitchener and Gordon , and many others knew many things about the scourge of Islam .

      Worldwide modern luxury holiday travel for pleasure masks the reality of the pain that Islam causes to millions.

      1. Indeed Belle, those of us who have first hand experience of Islam are not deceived. The governments sidestepping of the problem as “Islamism”, a term made up of whole cloth, know very well it is a fiction and that the problem is Islam. Until the government admits that we will always have a problem which will only get worse because of the lack of reality in tackling this ideological evil that means us harm on a social and individual level.

    1. A Muslim who gang raped a young girl was also sentenced to. two years in prison. Some equivalence!

      1. The state is desperate to crush any resistance to the machine. You will never, ever be able to say you do not want more muslims.

        It’s abuse. Pure, unadulterated invasion. We don’t want them here They don’t work, they don’t contribute. They aren’t welcome. They were forced on us.

        1. At the risk of a jail term, I can only advocate the removal of EVERY Muslim in the country to somewhere like Soddin Arabia or Somalia

  63. The laws of unintended consequences never fail to produce unanticipated problems.
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-13156803/Electric-cars-release-toxic-emissions-petrol-powered-vehicles-worse-environment.html

    Electric cars release more toxic emissions than petrol-powered vehicles and are worse for the environment
    EVs weigh 30 percent more than petrol cars, causing tyres to wear out faster
    The tire tread releases toxic particles 400 times greater than exhaust emissions

    2. EVs weigh 30 percent more than petrol cars, causing ROADS – as well as tyres – to wear out faster …

    3. “Tyre particles” was the reason given by our leaders in the sunny London Borough of Richmond upon Thames for their introduction of the 20 mph speed limit.

      We also probably have one of the highest ratio of smug “Lib Dem” twats driving EVs to “save the planet” in the country.

    2. I think you are right about the white trans “woman” winning that race – that should really put the cat amongst the pigeons! Surely, at last, such lunacy should prompt an outbreak of common sense???

  66. I think NoTTLers should beware these refugees from The Spectator. They are – to a man – far-right extremists…

    3. They seek them here.
      They seek them there,
      They seek those far-righties everywhere.
      Are they in Heaven or are they in Hell?
      Where do those far-righties dwell?

  67. Book weighing: “Statistics of the Military Effort of the British Empire during the Great War” = 5 lb 2½ ounces.

    1. You pipped me at the post!

      Did you see my post yesterday? The Bowen Cooke Family Bible weighed in at 2.326 kilos = 5 lbs 2 oz in real money!

      1. Mrs Beeton’s Cookery & Household Management = 6lb–2½oz.

        Handbook of the Birds of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa (The Birds of the Western Palearctic) Volume V, Tyrant Flycatchers to Thrushes = 6lb–0½oz.

    1. If Saudi Arabia wants to ban Christianity then that is their decision.

      But we should reciprocate. For a long time I have argued that with an established church we have every right to insist that we have no more mosques in Britain than there are churches in Saudi Arabia.

      The problem is a very fundamental one: how does one show tolerance to those who refuse to be tolerant in return?

      2. This country doesn’t dare cross swords with the Arab oil producing countries .

        They own us .. simple really .

        They will do what they jolly well like .

      3. Those running Saudi Arabia have balls, brains and scimitars.

        Those running the UK (and most of You Rope) have none of those.

  69. 384359+ up ticks,

    Could it be said that paying the licence fee is helping to finance these type issues?,
    Post
    See new posts
    Conversation
    UNN
    @UnityNewsNet
    Ex UK Newsnight producer, but still working for the BBC, Katie Razall helped with the sympathetic 2016 documentary on the Badreddin family who were brought from Newcastle to Syria.

    After Omar Badreddin was found not guilty of child sexual assault in 2016 she wrote this:

    “Omar Badreddin’s father, Marwan, in the public gallery, began to cry when he heard the verdict. But when I walked into the Badreddin’s home this afternoon, there was little celebration – and the tears they shed were not of joy.

    The family told me ever since their son’s arrest, they have felt humiliated and dishonoured, even though they were certain their son was innocent. In Syrian culture, this type of accusation is so damaging to their reputation, that even though Omar Badreddin has been cleared, they fear the stigma of it will stick.”

    Omar Badreddin is now serving 18 years in prison for multiple child rapes.

    https://x.com/UnityNewsNet/status/1764975483085566198?s=20

    1. I’m confused, was he moved back to Syria? The BBC isn’t ever going to apologise and the family should be ashamed. Their son is a paedophile rapist.

      1. 384359+ up ticks,

        Afternoon W,
        I too was confused, and put in down as a typo error.

      1. Instead of buying that takeout, he could have paid for the bus ride like wot I have to do when I come over.

  72. For your amusement , as it amused me , and made me laugh .. please enjoy this interesting obituary .

    It appealed to my naughty sense of humour ..

    Patrick Hanks, lexicographer who illuminated the history of rude words and surnames – obituary
    He knew his work was worthwhile when the characters on Coronation Street began discussing the exact meaning of ‘condoned’

    Patrick Hanks, who has died aged 83, was a lexicographer, corpus linguist and onomastician, one who studies names; he edited the Collins English Dictionary (1979), shed light on the meaning of surnames on both sides of the Atlantic, and unearthed the history of rude words.

    Hanks, a genial figure with the build of a rugby forward, discovered that the surname Daft, popular in Leicester, originally meant submissive, humble or gentle; that someone named Barrett might be a fraud; a Mallory was considered unlucky; and a Purcell was a little pig.

    While most Bastards have changed their name over the centuries, a whole category remains of appellations given to children abandoned to orphanages. These include the French name Jette (meaning “thrown out”), the Italian Esposito (“exposed”), which is the fourth most popular surname in Italy, and the English Parrish, someone who was raised at the expense of the community.

    He thought that Shakespeare was “probably an obscene name, originally for a masturbator”. He was, however, stumped by the etymology of Nimmo in Scotland and Clutterbuck in Gloucestershire.

    Hanks enjoyed the ever-changing meaning of language. “Nice”, for instance, has historically meant both “wanton” and “abandoned”.

    Slang is a particularly fast-moving area. In the Collins Concise Dictionary (1988) he included “bonked” and “toyboy”, though omitted “bimbo”, adding: “We didn’t have enough evidence to warrant its inclusion.”

    That dictionary drew criticism from the Daily Telegraph for embracing “the often-invigorating verbal innovations of our American and Antipodean cousins”. Among the least desirable words were “ankle-biter” (child) from Australia and “hooker” (prostitute) from America which, the paper added, “should still suggest first and foremost to English minds a position in the game of rugby”.

    Channelling his inner Samuel Johnson, Hanks explained that “the harmless drudges” who compile dictionaries do not legislate which words become part of the language; that is something determined by its users. “The reporting of modern words and modern meanings in a dictionary does not ‘sanction’ them, any more than a report of a violent killing in your pages ‘sanctions’ the act of murder,” he responded

    To illustrate the difficulty of predicting which words will remain fashionable, he told of the 1950s dictionary editor who refused to include a certain word. “The word is a piece of slangy journalese,” said the editor. “It will not even last until the dictionary is published.” It was “brainwashed”.

    At the turn of the century Hanks was alarmed to discover how promiscuous the prefix “euro” had become, noting that it was cosying up to words where it had no business at all. One amusing misuse was in the Journal of Gut Biology. “The correct word was urogenic, which means generating urine,” he said. “They had just written ‘eurogenic’.” His own work was inevitably not immune from typos. The blurb for the Collins Pocket English Dictionary proudly boasted that its editor lived “near the shores of Loch Lomond”.

    Patrick Wyndham Hanks was born in Worcester on March 24 1940, the son of Wyndham Hanks and Elizabeth (née Rudd). He was educated at Ardingly College, West Sussex, and read English at University College, Oxford, where he was a contemporary of Richard Ingrams, founder of Private Eye and The Oldie.

    His editing career began on the Hamlyn Encyclopedic World Dictionary (1971), a work that according to this paper was “notable for its comprehensiveness, the simplicity of its definitions and its remarkable cheapness [£4.95; equivalent to £59 today]”. He spent much of the next decade working on the Collins English Dictionary, which contained 1,728 pages, 162,000 entries and just about every four-letter word imaginable, plus a few that were not.

    The moment he knew his work was worthwhile came during Coronation Street, when the characters began discussing the exact meaning of “condoned”. To his delight, they concluded that a new dictionary was needed.

    In 1980 Hanks was appointed director of the Names Research Unit at the University of Essex, where he began a PhD; many years later he was awarded his doctorate by Masaryk University in Brno. He then joined a joint venture between the University of Birmingham and Collins, using computational linguistic techniques to create the Collins CoBuild English Language Dictionary (1987) that uses context to provide the definition of words.

    His other work included A Dictionary of First Names (with Flavia Hodges, OUP, 1990), which explores the origins of 7,000 names from Aaltje to Zygmunt, though he was disturbed by the fashion for non-traditional names such as Blagnat, Flint or Kylie. “This is part of the decline of traditional values of church and state,” he declared when Tom, Dick and Harry were joined by Thessaly, Dove and Heaven in the second edition in 1997.

    His three-volume Dictionary of American Family Names was published in 2003.

    Hanks, who failed to recover from long covid, was twice married: to Helga Lietz in 1961 and Julie Eyre in 1979. Both marriages were dissolved. He had a son and a daughter from his first marriage and two daughters from his second.

    Patrick Hanks, born March 24 1940, died February 1 2024

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2024/02/29/patrick-hanks-lexicographer-history-surnames-collins/

    Apols for the lengthy screed.

    Comments

    Aelfwynn Erin
    3 DAYS AGO
    To paraphrase Mr E. Blackadder Esq. when addressing the esteemed Dr Johnson; I am anaspeptic, frasmotic and compunctuous in my pericombobulation at hearing of Mr Hanks’ sad passing.
    Sincere contrafibularities to his erstwhile colleagues who assisted him in his interfrastic Dictionary endeavours.
    RIP Patrick Wyndham Hanks

    1. Hanks, who failed to recover from long covid…………..

      No doubt jabbed and boosted to the eyeballs, poor chap.

  73. The pitter patter of rain has ceased , the sun is peeping through , and I am now going to fiddle around refilling the bird feeders in the very soggy garden .

    Our English weather is quite amazing , some warmth there as well. 8c

    1. A foggy morning here.
      Time to get going to the golf course while it is possible to hit the ball out of sight (a rare achievement for me nowadays unless you allow for trees and water).

      Amazing weather indeed. Back home in Ontario the temperature reached 17C yesterday but is now plunging down to -1C tomorrow night.

    2. Sunny here now after a foggy morning. OH has finally (after a lot of hard work) managed to remove the battery from my car so this afternoon we’re off to the local spare parts place for a new one. Hopefully.

  74. A little bit of sanity.
    Yesterday there was a by-election in a riding near to toronto. No surprise that a conservative won this safe seat with well over fifty percent of the vote, a significant increase over the last election.

    However, despite the liberal record about thirty percent were misguided enough to vote for the lefty parties.

  76. Murdoch shuts down TalkTV channel as losses mount. 5 March 2024.

    Rupert Murdoch is taking TalkTV off air to staunch heavy losses, weeks after Piers Morgan’s show retreated to YouTube.

    Mr Murdoch’s News UK on Tuesday confirmed that TalkTV will shut down its terrestrial channel, and will move to streaming-only from early summer.

    It comes after it struggled to attract audiences and was eclipsed by fellow opinion-led upstart broadcaster GB News.

    Well that’s cut down the opposition to GB News though that has already been nobbled!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/03/05/murdoch-shuts-down-talktv-channel-as-losses-mount/

    1. It seems though that Talk Radio is continuing, at least for the moment. That said, although I listened a lot during the early days of covid their recent schedule change, in particular the new breakfast show and moving Julia and Mike Graham to later slots didn’t work. These days I tend to listen to LBC News (a bit better than straight LBC which seems to get into endless debates). With GBNews also, as noted above, having problems I can see neither of them lasting that long.

    1. £184 million on an IT system? I thought that only national initiatives could go that far wrong.

  80. For anyone with an interest in architecture.

    I am going to be contributing to the inauguration of a new cultural salon here in Buenos Aires on Saturday (insh’Allah). The building in which it will be hosted is rather magnificent, and the first time I was invited, I admired the lift.

    Turns out it has a history! 🤣🤣

    The attached newspaper article is in Spanish, but a friend in England to whom I sent it said that Google automatically translated it into English. Apologies if this isn’t the case!

    https://www.lanacion.com.ar/propiedades/casas-y-departamentos/en-recoleta-asi-esta-hoy-el-edificio-donde-se-filmo-la-inolvidable-publicidad-del-ascensor-de-una-nid25052023/

  81. 384359+ up ticks,

    George can keep Mr A Bridgen company when he stands to talk, and the political scuttlers are activated.

    Heralded by Houthis and Comparing Israel War to Holocaust, ‘Gaza George’ Sworn into UK Parliament

    Every right via democracy to be there.

  82. GB News losses balloon after spending spree on high-profile presenters

    Channel plunges further into the red despite a jump in revenues

    Luke Barr
    5 March 2024 • 10:33am

    GB News’s losses have ballooned to £42.4m despite a jump in revenues as the broadcaster spent heavily on high-profile presenters.

    The outspoken news channel plunged further into the red in 2023 after losses widened from £30.7m in 2022.

    Growth in viewing figures led to turnover almost doubling to £6.7m last year, but income remains only a fraction of the channel’s expenses.

    Losses were fuelled by investment in salaries for high-profile presenters such as Nigel Farage and Jacob Rees-Mogg, who joined in January 2023. GB News’s wage bill surged from £12.7m to £21.2m in 2023, newly filed accounts show.

    The channel deepened its reliance on billionaire hedge fund investor Paul Marshall, who helped found GB News through a holding company called All Perspectives.

    Filings on Companies House show that money owed to the parent company almost doubled from £42.8m to £83.8m in the last year alone.

    Bosses at GB News, which was launched in 2021, stressed that All Perspectives has an “ongoing commitment to funding the operations” of the channel.

    Details of the company’s finances come after a turbulent year for the right-leading news channel, which has been repeatedly targeted by the media watchdog Ofcom.

    The most high-profile incident concerned misogynistic on-air comments made by Laurence Fox, who asked “Who would want to shag that?” about Ava Evans, a female journalist, during an episode of GB News’ Dan Wootton Tonight show last year.

    Ofcom recently found that comments by Mr Fox, who was later sacked by GB News, breached Ofcom rules. In a ruling, the watchdog said Mr Fox’s comments “constituted a highly personal attack on Ms Evans and were potentially highly offensive to viewers”.

    The broadcasting watchdog currently has 13 open investigations into GB News. They include two into Jacob Rees-Mogg’s State of the Nation programme under Ofcom’s impartiality rules, and three into the morning programme hosted by married Tory MPs Esther McVey and Philip Davies.

    Last month Ofcom launched an impartiality investigation after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak faced questions from an audience of undecided voters in a programme called The People’s Forum.

    The channel’s repeated struggles with Ofcom compound GB News’s difficulties with advertisers. Companies launched an advertising boycott in 2021 amid concerns that the broadcaster would prove divisive and clash with corporate values.

    Advertising revenue rose 44pc last year from £2.9m to £4.2m as the channel made some progress in convincing companies to work with it.

    GB News last year launched an online paywall to shore up revenues, including rolling out a membership scheme that offers exclusive commentary and analysis to subscribers.

    The channel reached an average of 2.7m people each month last year, according to BARB figures quoted in the accounts, up from 2.3m in 2022.

    The broadcaster has stated an ambition to become the UK’s largest news channel by 2028.

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

    Roger de Coverly
    2 HRS AGO
    It’s obvious the establishment, fronted by the far-left ‘Stop Funding Hate’ and its Ofcom attack dog is determined to crush this populist broadcaster and its continued survival is remarkable.

    Andrew Cook
    2 HRS AGO
    As usual anything right of centre attracts hate and outright hostility from those of a left leaning political view who increasingly believe that nobody should be allowed to hold any views but theirs. Offcom is hostile because GB News doesn’t fit into the broadly left wing niche where it seems to believe all broadcasters should sit. Then we have the ironically named ‘Stop the Hate’ which actively intimidates any companies advertising on the station. The best political discussion forum on TV sadly put under all sorts of pressure because it promotes open, honest debate.

    1. The Left have always hated dissent. Such uncontrolled, boundless hatred of difference is almost comical.

    2. I think JRM’s salary is about £100k which hardly touches the surface of the losses and I guess the other presenters are on a similar wage so where are all the expenses? They must get something from all those irritating adverts on Youtube

    3. I rarely look at it any more. I think it has become the Reform Channel., Reform in my mind is not a Political Party but a Ltd Company with only 1 or 2 shareholders and the Co. House person of influence is Farage. It has no members – only supporters to pay money to be dictated to by Farage and Tice. I think GB News is making a big mistake in pinning their colours so closely to that mast.

  85. – Latest Breaking News – Top private school swaps inappropriate Raleigh & Drake house names for famous Islamic Barbary Corsair Captains to hit inclusivity targets

      1. April 1st might be tricky this year – so much that is unbelievable but apparently true!

  87. First 14 letters wrong:
    Wordle 990 6/6

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    1. Luck was on my side
      Wordle 990 4/6

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    3. What ‘they’ are terrified about is that any reasonably intelligent working Blacks or Latinos will realise voting Republican is in their own interests.

  89. Alberta is bringing in a fee ($200) for EV, the justification is that EVs are heavier than normal vehicles and owners need to pay for the wear and tear on roads.

    Another province have announced that they will not be collecting or paying the hated carbon tax on home heating fuels.

    Needless to say, the federal environmental mob are having a hissy fit.

  90. Car all sorted now – local firm had the replacement battery and tested the old one which after eight hours on the charger, still didn’t hold enough to be any good. They kept that for recycling and we took the new one home for £82. That’s now in place in the car and it started with no problem.

    1. Good that it’s sorted an not too expensive.
      My dishwasher has sprung a leak ! Off to BH Foundation for a reconditioned one. Not buying new any more.

  91. Well top marks again to front line NHS staff.
    Within 5 minutes of arrival a 35 minute Echo cardiogram and then the tape applied wiring electro cardio check. Including to and from, (there and back) all done and dusted in a little over two hours.
    Lovely friendly and efficient staff.
    Now to wait for the results.

      1. Yes it was. 😊
        Safari so goodie as it seems to have worked very well.
        And I will never have any more jabs in my life. Not even a flu jab.

  92. What a lovely site! Thank you Angelina for telling the abused Speccie refugees that it exists, and to all the posters on here for some marvellous antidotes to the despair induced by the awfulness of our MSM. And particularly to Geoff for providing such a delightful platform. Happy sugar glider here.

    1. Faced with that choice, I’d either not vote or pick a fringe candidate who’d finish a very distant third, at best. Fortunately, I’m not a US citizen.

      1. I don’t think, as things stand now, you have not much of a choice, in the UK , either!!

        1. I’m minded to spoil my ballot paper as this constituency doesn’t much attract candidates outside the mainstream. I’d not be at all surprised if the choice was restricted to Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat and Green. I expect Labour to win here as it’s a bellwether seat, electing the candidate of the party that finishes with most MPs overall.

          1. I’ve now got a face and a name of SE Cornwall’s Reform candidate. Got to check him out.

    1. Funny I would have said something very similar to my council (who are well in the red, but spending £6.2m

      on a consultancy to tell them how to save money).

    1. I’m not being funny but…”made being Muslim seem toxic”, with that imagery, one could be forgiven for saying QED.

          5. I only stalk old gits in Chateaux.

            Everyone else gets treated with kindness and love.

          7. Rik and Alf will be round later to ‘adjust your thinking’…thems me mates. :@)

      1. Everyone with a gram of commonsense knows this.
        It’s about time, before it’s too late, our government stood up and told these disruptive and insidious people to STFU or clear off.
        It’s perfectly obvious what their goal is.

    4. These people will have been fully aware of the school’s reputation and ethos before they enrolled their children.
      As seems to be the case almost invariably, they come in and immediately want to change everything to suit themselves.

      1. Those particular girls were already present when the no-prayers policy was introduced one year ago, so I can partly understand their grievance, although they’re clearly milking it. Your comment is, though, very pertinent when it comes to the intake of September 2023.

        1. The policy was introduced precisely because people like those girls were making an “issue” of it and bullying fellow Muslims to join in.

          Assuming the reports from the school are to be believed.

          1. Not so difficult to believe. The same has happened in many other places. Malaysia was put up as a poster place for integration. It isn’t and doesn’t happen. They are still segregated and the muslims indoctrinate and apply pressure to the point where Monks lose their temper.

        2. I have never quite understood where you are politically – now I know: you are are an Islamophile.

  98. No nor will I. I’ve only ever had one flu jab and that was in 2020 when the propaganda got to me.

    1. Yes, I cannot walk more than 70 meters due to:

      Ischæmic Heart Disease,
      COPD,
      2 prolapsed invertebrate discs in the lower back,
      Low Blood Pressure causing dizziness and falling over.

  100. Well, Gorgeous George Galloway said – quite rightly – that the coming election will be about the slammers.

  101. Just back from a useful walk – leafleting. BLOODY letterboxes – with either teeth or thick, skin ripping “brushes”.

    It is to promote a talk on Friday evening. A local lady has done research on the Great War and WW2 casualties in local villages. Very interesting material she has, too. BUT…….she came last week to do a run through. She is DIRE. Simply reads, very badly (and very softly), the text she wrote. Many people will, I fear, fall asleep. Trouble is – how does one explain to her that her presentation is dull as ditchwater?

    1. The worst letter boxes are the very low level ones that make you bend over, and the ones with snarling dogs behind them.

      1. All you need is an elastic band around the leaflet a round a brick. Front window. Problem solved.

    2. Be honest?
      Say to her she will need to speak up if there is any chance of people hearing. And to litter her talk with some risque jokes.

      1. I told he to speak up the first time I heard one of her talks. She promised she would do so. I sat in the front row, four feet from her. Couldn’t hear a word….

    3. Try to get her to accept questions as she goes along, she might become more animated.

      If she knows her subject it shouldn’t be a problem for her to answer them and get some interaction.

        1. Try a double act, a good reader presenting her screed but who asks her to add bits of extra information as they read what she has prepared.
          e.g. From the screed: “Corporal X was involved with mining and was killed in a tunnel collapse.”
          Additional input requested:
          “Can you explain how the mining was undertaken and why it was considered effective as a tactic?”

    4. I suggest you make yourself a paddle (or use a spatula) to push the leaflets through, Bill. Much easier on the fingers and disappoints the dogs of their pound of flesh.

  104. Gangs are on the verge of taking over Haiti. 5 March 2024.

    On Saturday there was a mass prison break, with around 5,000 former prisoners on the loose, some of them notorious gang leaders. Just in the past few days, there have been attacks against police stations, the port, the police academy, border force officials and the international airport. Threats have been made against the state hospital, which was forced to close, and the national palace. US based airlines have suspended all flights in and out of Haiti. Domestic flights that operate in the country have also been curtailed.

    At the same time, the few remaining neighbourhoods in Port-au-Princethat aren’t controlled by gangs are now experiencing a violent attempt at occupation. This is being led by the G9 gang alliance, headed by the flamboyant and loquacious Jimmy Cherizier, a former police officer who is behind much of the violence in the capital.

    Papa Doc! What’s new?

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/gangs-are-on-the-verge-of-taking-over-haiti/

    1. What happened to the millions promised to rebuild Haiti after the earthquake? I bet none of the ordinary folk saw a penny of it. They will probably be better off under the gangs/warlords.

  108. One might have hoped that within the whole USA they could have found younger and better candidates.

    However, given the choice between the two I would choose Trump every time.

    1. It seems to me anyone with political inclinations, takes one look at social media with its intrusive agenda into family life, and runs a mile away! And that goes for both sides of the pond.

      2. Only if they might actually make good politicians as opposed to being worthless parasites…

    1. We have signed it.
      It won’t be debated but they’ll know all about it when they’re decimated at the next election.

    4. They only allowed me to vote once…spoilsports…they don’t understand our new national voting ethos since we welcomed those coming from foreign parts with a more flexible approach to these matters. {:^((

  110. We’re called both woke and fascist over Palestinian protests, says Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley. 5 March 2024.

    But Sir Mark said it was not correct to suggest the police had stood by while people had broken the law.

    He said: “At each of the major protests where the majority have been peaceful we have seen wrongdoing, and we have acted, arresting at most of these big events between ten and 30 people for a range of public order and terrorism offences.”

    He explained there had been around 360 arrests in total, of which 90 were far-Right protesters.

    He should have hung on to those far-Right protesters. They are an endangered species! He must have had most of the world population there!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/05/met-branded-woke-fascist-palestinian-protests-says-chief/

    1. “Sir Mark, how do you define ‘far right’, is it anyone who happens to disagree with the Pro-Palestinian marchers and says so out loud?”

    2. Blimey. How the heck did he find 90 Far-Right protesters?
      I thought they were so scarce they were up there with the Chequered Skipper.

      1. They probably wore stickers saying ‘i’m far right’.
        The only way plod would know.

        1. It’s a help if they were white, polite, well dressed and courteous. The Met beat the bejayzuz out of the Anti Hunting Bill protesters.

  111. There is one. She manages to turn her head from it…(sighs).

    Th talk is in the church, which has a good acoustic. I had thought of putting up a sign at the back – “For God’s sake speak up.” But the PCC was against it.

    1. All my neighbours think i’m the bees knees. I mow their lawns. Weed their gardens. Get their shopping. Go to their funerals. Pinch all their jewellery while everyone else is at the wake….erm..forget the last bit…

  113. An inkling of a Par Four!

    Wordle 990 4/6
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    1. Well done. 6 for me – phew!

      Wordle 990 6/6

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  115. Me too but I did look for clues as in, what 5 letter words end with…etc!

    Wordle 990 4/6

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    1. I saw earlier that the first letter was the problem. Didn’t do me much good though.

  116. Won’t work. She already has far too much extraneous material – that she insists on adding (such as the causes of the Great War – who Haldane was etc etc…)

  117. Good news and farce all rolled into one! https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e318c0692721e90e049c34eb253fe71c057cba1b8e3b94c287bb91ea46611cf1.png https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/05/unbelievable-farce-sums-up-britain-immigration-nightmare/

    According to reports, there is a growing number of people who have entered this country illegally, only to find that life in Britain is even worse than in whatever godforsaken hellhole they originally came from. Yesterday, for example, one newspaper carried an interview with a teenager from north Africa who arrived here last July via small boat. He said: “I hate Britain and wish I had never come here. I want to go back to France.”

    Meanwhile, an illegal migrant from Sudan said: “I want to go anywhere else in Europe… There are many young migrants wanting to leave because there is nothing for them in the UK.” And last month, an illegal migrant from Syria said: “A lot of people who came over the Channel want to leave now – there is nothing for us here.”

    Unfortunately for these illegal migrants, however, there’s one small problem. They can’t leave Britain – because the police keep stopping them.

    Take the illegal migrant from Sudan. Four weeks ago, the police caught him in Dover, trying to sneak aboard a truck bound for France. They then drove him all the way back to Preston in Lancashire, where the Home Office had housed him. The same thing happened to the migrant from Syria. He says he’s been trying to sneak out of Britain since last summer – but has been caught by the police every time.

    What a remarkable situation. We’re hopeless at keeping people out. But we’re brilliant at keeping them in.

    It’s the way to go, though. Make life for them so bloody awful that they beg to leave.

    1. There must be a lot of dinghies stored at Dover. Some entrepreneur could send ’em back to France full of illegals and only charge half of what they paid to get here.

      1. Some entrepreneur (border force) is already collecting lifejackets which get sent back over the channel for the next lot.

  119. Talking of £5 – as Stephen was – we came across an excellent wheeze. Last week a letter arrive from “Sports England” (don’t ask). It invited two people in the household to complete an online questionnaire about, er, their sporting (and physical) activities. Well, the MR and I had some fun lying through our teeth. The reward was a £5 voucher for a range of shops. JLP, Amazon, Tesco etc etc. e selected Tesco – as we park there every Thursday. this arvo, along the wire the electric message came – and I have just printed off a tenner’s worth of free money.

    3. We had those questionnaires months ago. OH filled his in, but I decided to keep my info to myself.

  120. What a pig of a word.

    Wordle 990 5/6

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  121. We had a lovely sunny walk this afternoon with the spaniel , my goodness everywhere is sodden , but the sun was lovely and I saw a large flock of fieldfares .. and a pair of ………. dare I tell you … White tailed eagles .. yes , the pair of them are residents of this part of Dorset , and they soar so gently over the landscape , huge .

    We were hoping to see a few Osprey , who will be returning we hope to nest here on the edge of Poole harbour .

    https://dorset-nl.org.uk/purbeck-heaths-national-nature-reserve/

      1. Half a dozen (?) breeding pairs of sea eagles (magnificent creatures, apex predators with an 8ft wingspan and a beak like a whetted meat cleaver) were introduced to the IoW some years ago. They have proved greatly successful and now soar majestically across much of coastal southern England. No chihuahua, lamb, foal or other prey being of similar size has been affected.

          2. Thanks, Maggie, but it was actually my 500mm lens (pushed to 750mm) that got me that ‘close’.

        2. That is why Dolly and Harry have kill vests on when they go walkies. They detonate at a height of 2 foot six. (being the highest Harry ever jumped)…Dolly only managed a few inches. Fat bitch.

        1. Thank you for that, Maggie.
          Very interesting. It is strange how animals and birds live happily alongside firing ranges.
          We see the same in Colchester.

          1. I think it was Middlewich I used to ride over (when the red flag wasn’t flying, of course). I used to live in Fingringhoe.

    2. I frequently get white-tailed eagles (and golden eagles) flying over my house. They breed in the area and I took a load of photos of one last year.

      1. Firstborn has Golden Eagles (Kongeørn) at his place. Massive bird, so it is.

  123. Rupert Murdoch is taking TalkTV off air to staunch heavy losses, weeks after Piers Morgan’s show retreated to YouTube.

    Mr Murdoch’s News UK on Tuesday confirmed that TalkTV will shut down its terrestrial channel, and will move to streaming-only from early summer. It comes after it struggled to attract audiences and was eclipsed by fellow opinion-led upstart broadcaster GB News.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/03/05/murdoch-shuts-down-talktv-channel-as-losses-mount/

      2. GB News May not be far behind.

        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/24125cbf95499dec1e6c9423d941a0aecece9a3d191d6adc8922d1a678d4e2fe.png

        https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/03/05/gb-news-losses-balloon-presenters-spending-spree/

        GB News’s losses have ballooned to £42.4m despite a jump in revenues as the broadcaster spent heavily on high-profile presenters.

        The outspoken news channel plunged further into the red in 2023 after losses widened from £30.7m in 2022.

        Growth in viewing figures led to turnover almost doubling to £6.7m last year, but income remains only a fraction of the channel’s expenses.

        Losses were fuelled by investment in salaries for high-profile presenters such as Nigel Farage and Jacob Rees-Mogg, who joined in January 2023. GB News’s wage bill surged from £12.7m to £21.2m in 2023, newly filed accounts show.

        The channel deepened its reliance on billionaire hedge fund investor Paul Marshall, who helped found GB News through a holding company called All Perspectives.

        Filings on Companies House show that money owed to the parent company almost doubled from £42.8m to £83.8m in the last year alone.

        What on earth are they paying Rees-Mogg and Farage?

    1. It is high time for me to put an end to your sitting in this place, which you have dishonored by your contempt of all virtue, and defiled by your practice of every vice. Ye are a factious crew, and enemies to all good government. Ye are a pack of mercenary wretches, and would like Esau sell your country for a mess of pottage, and like Judas betray your God for a few pieces of money.

      Is there a single virtue now remaining amongst you? Is there one vice you do not possess?

      Ye have no more religion than my horse. Gold is your God. Which of you have not bartered your conscience for bribes? Is there a man amongst you that has the least care for the good of the Commonwealth?

      Ye sordid prostitutes have you not defiled this sacred place, and turned the Lord’s temple into a den of thieves, by your immoral principles and wicked practices?

      Ye are grown intolerably odious to the whole nation. You were deputed here by the people to get grievances redressed, are yourselves become the greatest grievance.

      Your country therefore calls upon me to cleanse this Augean stable, by putting a final period to your iniquitous proceedings in this House; and which by God’s help, and the strength he has given me, I am now come to do.

      I command ye therefore, upon the peril of your lives, to depart immediately out of this place.

      Go, get you out! Make haste! Ye venal slaves be gone! So! Take away that shining bauble there, and lock up the doors.

      In the name of God, go!

    2. Thames Water’s stop-cock rusted up and got jammed open and everyfink down sarf got flooded. Severn Trent and all points North remained normal. Thames Water is owned by furringers.

    3. That rings very true. I cannot recall a time when rainfall has prevailed so much as in recent weeks.

      1. It has been a very wet February and March but that doesn’t support climate change. More likely to do with the Sun cycles.

    4. Moh has just examined the weather forecast on Metcheck.com , he wants to play a few week end golf competitions , the outlook is dismal , wet , wet wet . for most of March

    5. They backed out of that phrase when it obviously all went pear-shaped.
      Climate change is a safer option.

      1. A stupid option as the climate has been changing since our planet developed an atmosphere.

        1. Ah, but it’s a catch-all phrase; too hot? Climate change. Too cold? Climate change. Too wet? Climate change. Too dry? Climate change. Too windy? Climate change.

        2. I’ve been telling my family the same thing for years. I think it might be sinking in at last. 🤞

        1. Our reservoirs in the west country are crap, but will they do anything about it? No, they’ll just hike up their prices.

    7. Blimey – it seems that the Lake District has stolen East Anglia’s ‘arid’ designation. It also explains the state of my carpets, having ventured out with the mower at the weekend.

  126. Why Hunt’s holiday home crackdown could leave tourist hotspots in ruins
    Second homeowners’ incomes risk being slashed under Chancellor’s proposed tax raid

    Holiday home owners could lose an average of £2,835 a year in a tax raid that risks ruining tourist hotspots.

    Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is reportedly considering abolishing the preferential treatment for furnished holiday lets in this week’s Budget, in a move that would raise an estimated £300m for the Treasury.

    However, it could force holiday let owners out of the sector and leave tourist towns with a gaping hole in their economies, the industry has warned.

    There are around 70,000 second homes registered as holiday homes in the UK, according to the latest Census data, visited by 200,000 holidaymakers every year.

    In some areas of England and Wales, more than one in 10 homes are used as holiday homes, with the greatest concentrations around coastal areas and national parks including the Lake District and Dartmoor.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/property/hunts-holiday-home-tax-raid-leave-tourist-hotspots-ruins/

    Here , in this area , the holiday business is successful , set aside apart from agriculture and other countryside businesses , the holiday trade / 2nd home sustains the area , keeps people in work, housekeeping , pet sitting / home stitting / granny sitting / local shops happy and many other benefits that second home owners bring. They are no doubt wealthier than most village residents , but they contribute to the economy and up keep . They are the ones who can afford the thatched cottages and up keep of them !

    1. The WEF agenda is to destroy all small businesses/entrepreneurs/small holdings. By destroying tourism there will be no need to leave your 15 minute city/town/slum.

    2. I read this assuming that Hunt’s personal holiday homes were to be cracked down upon and took a salacious interest, only to be dashed.

    3. Of course it helps the economy – like so many things politicians are determined to destroy. I see that Chris Packham has finally been denounced; his crime? encouraging JSO to target MP’s homes. Strange how they’ve only just noticed the toxicity.

  127. That’s me gone for this dull, grey and slightly damp day – though it was flat calm…which was nice.

    I shall look in briefly tomorrow. We have an Arts Society Study Day on the “Impressionists and the Seine” – which I know will be wonderful. Three lectures, lunch, questions and just pleasure.

    It is a period that I know and like very much. Should any of you be staying overnight in Rouen, the Musée des Beaux Arts has a fabulous collection – big names, natch, but also many lesser known painters who live in the region.

    So – have a spiffing evening – and DON’T forget to read all about Fishi’s private life (how he is brilliant at “tidying the bedroom”) in some sort of Hello! type magazine. Why the nerd does this tripe ….

    A demain – briefly.

    2. Does Fishi not have staff to do that sort of thing?

      I jolly well would if I were that wealthy.

      1. Fart while you still may. It will come under the scrutiny of those who like nothing more than to force others to do what they don’t want and outlaw that which they do. They take their pleasures in the coercion of others.

        1. A mandatory CH₄ meter is integral with smart meters I’m told. Smart Fart Meters are already among us.

    2. Does he mention that methane, CH₄, is the major constituent of natural gas, without which most of us would be freezing to death in the winter?

      1. Doubt it, but I zoned out. I heard him say it doesn’t linger in the atmosphere, unlike CO2 which lasts for Evvah!

        1. I don’t suppose he mentioned that with no CO₂ in our atmosphere the planet would die.

      2. It’s recently been discovered in many countries that there are immense resources of hydrogen that are sometimes mixed with subterranean natural gas.

        Hydrogen reserves have been found in France in sufficient volumes to provide global supply needs for two years.

        There are different colours for hydrogen with Green Hydrogen being the least polluting variant as explained below:

        https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-67541581

        1. Green Hydrogen is produced through the electrolysis of water into oxygen and hydrogen. This is energy expensive, hence only 1% of hydrogen production. Where does the energy come from to enable this process?

          “One problem, he says, is that there’s currently a lack of market for hydrogen in the US, reducing the incentive for exploration.

          According to industry group the Hydrogen Council, Europe is the global leader in hydrogen project proposals, accounting for 35% of global investments, with Latin America and North America each representing about 15% of investments.

          “So there’s a sort of chicken and egg problem: markets aren’t really developing until they see the supply, and the supply won’t really be developed until they see the market,” says Mr Ellis.”

          All proposals and possibilities.

    1. I went to a bar/restaurant in NZ the other day and many of the staff were Irish – so perhaps that is where they all are!

    2. Some Americans get a bit mixed up with their geography, perhaps she had flown to Eritrea instead of Éire.

  136. From rt news:

    US Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland is poised to leave her post in the coming weeks, Secretary of State Antony Blinken has announced. The senior official, widely regarded as a foreign policy hawk, played a key role in the Western-backed coup in Ukraine in 2014.

    In December 2013, she visited Kiev with the late Senator John McCain to hand out pastries to armed protesters in the city’s central square. Days before the February coup, as orchestrated mass murder gripped the city, she was recorded discussing how to “midwife this thing” with then-US ambassador to Kiev, Geoffrey Pyatt, reportedly exclaiming “F**k the EU” when it came to a choice of new leader in the war-torn country.

    Nuland resigned from the State Department during the Trump administration, taking the helm of the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) think-tank before joining the Albright Stonebridge Group and the board of the neo-liberal National Endowment for Democracy (NED). She rejoined the government after President Joe Biden’s inauguration in 2021.

    She has worked on arming Ukraine and assembling a Western coalition that would supply Kiev with weapons and ammunition for the conflict with Russia. Last month, she pleaded to Congress to approve $61 billion in funding to Ukraine, arguing that most of it would be “going right back into the US economy,” to create jobs in the weapons industry.

    Putin defeated US plan for Russia – Nuland READ MORE Putin defeated US plan for Russia – Nuland
    Her most recent trip to Kiev involved intervening with President Vladimir Zelensky on behalf of General Valery Zaluzhny, though to no avail. Zaluzhny was subsequently fired.

    In a CNN interview at the end of February, Nuland admitted the defeat of US efforts towards Moscow, acknowledging that the target of her policy is “not the Russia that, frankly, we wanted.”

    Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova attributed Nuland’s exit to “the failure of the anti-Russian course of the Biden administration.”

    “Russophobia, proposed by Victoria Nuland as the main foreign policy concept of the United States, is dragging the Democrats to the bottom like a stone,” Zakharova said. Posting a photo of Nuland taken at an Orthodox church at some point, she said that if the US politician wanted to “go to a monastery to atone for your sins, we can put in a good word.”

    Nuland is married to neoconservative stalwart Robert Kagan, a co-founder of the Project for the New American Century. Her sister-in-law Kimberley Kagan, married to Robert’s brother Fred, runs the Institute for the Study of War. Her temporary replacement at the State Department will be Under Secretary for Management John Bass.

    In a statement on Tuesday, Blinken noted that his friend “Toria” has held most of the jobs at the State Department, from a consular officer to ambassador and deputy secretary, over her 35-year career. Her most recent posting was as undersecretary for political affairs. She was also Blinken’s acting deputy after the July 2023 retirement of Wendy Sherman, until Kurt Campbell was confirmed to the post last month.

    “What makes Toria truly exceptional is the fierce passion she brings to fighting for what she believes in most: freedom, democracy, human rights, and America’s enduring capacity to inspire and promote those values around the world,” Blinken said.

    He also noted that her “leadership on Ukraine” will be the subject of study “for years to come” by diplomats and students of foreign policy.

      2. She is the fattest of the neo-con swamp dwellers to jump ship. A roughly spherical pig without the lipstick. A murderous warmongering piece of excrement responsible for US foreign policy for decades viz. the cult of Russophobia; Russia bad, the collective west good.

        Nuland resigning signals that Ukraine has lost its war with Russia.

  137. I was burgled in the UK in around 2000.

    The police turned up, told me it was probably the local gypsies and that they could/would do nothing about that or them and gave me a crime number to pass on to my insurers.

    The useless approach is not recent!

    2. And so just passed on back to us via increased insurance premiums costs.

      Edited to include ‘increased’.

    3. My experiences are very similar.
      circa 1983, 1996 and 2000.
      Crime number and no arrests.
      The second time they fingerprinted everywhere, zilch. They’re professionals and nothing we can do sir, unless it gets sold locally, but to be honest (ha bloody ha) it’s probably already on its way out of the country.
      Family silver and jewellery and rare collectables.

      1. I am amazed at how many hundreds of top of the range stolen cars get to leave the country every month !

        2. Cars are sometimes stolen here in New Zealand.

          Given how difficult it is to get one out of the country and how small the nation is, with an entire population of circa 5 million, I often wonder what the point of stealing cars here is.

          Aside from cheap cars stolen so hoodlums can burn rubber in the middle of the night that is. Why, for example, steal an expensive car? You will never be able to sell it.

      2. When my first VW Fox was nicked, I assumed that even a Noddy car was worth something, somewhere..
        A month later, Plod found it abandoned in a local ALDI carpark.

    6. I had a similar response about five years ago when my garage was broken into (although, fortunately, nothing was taken); the local plod turned up, said he knew who’d done it but he couldn’t arrest him because there was no evidence (he didn’t bother to dust for fingerprints, of course). Gave me a crime number and that was the end of it apart from asking if I wanted counselling (victim support)!

  141. 384359+up ticks,

    EU could halt weapons exports to Britain if war breaks out with Russia
    Brussels seeks powers to control arms production so that it can secure European capitals in case war in Ukraine escalates over its borders.

    Anyway, adhere to the current voting pattern and we will be back in the long bow era.

    Trust none of the eu /uk political cartel, hold your own council and always keep in mind
    there was NEVER EVER any weapons of mass destruction, but evil peoples filled that vacuum.

  142. Joanna Williams
    Drake, Raleigh and the irony of ‘inclusivity’ drives
    5 March 2024, 1:24pm

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/GettyImages-1248709168-e1709644923580.jpg
    Sir Francis Drake (Credit: Getty images)

    The past has been cancelled at Exeter School in Devon. The names of Elizabethan naval heroes Sir Walter Raleigh and Sir Francis Drake are being erased from their school buildings. For so long central to Britain’s national story, the pair have now been tried and found wanting. Forget their brave exploits: the head teacher Louise Simpson has decreed that neither Raleigh nor Drake ‘represent the values and inclusive nature’ of the school. Deemed inappropriate for today’s children, their names must be scrubbed out, their legacy forgotten.

    A by-now familiar irony of ‘inclusivity drives’, such as the one being undertaken by Exeter School, is that they almost always involve exclusion. Drake and Raleigh, Simpson explains, have ‘less than positive connotations’ in modern times. In other words, Elizabethan sea dogs do not stand up to woke scrutiny. They are tainted by association with a less than perfect past and must be expelled.

    The children of Exeter School will be spared exciting tales of British victory over the Spanish Armada and the circumnavigation of the globe for fear they might accidentally imbibe some of those ‘less than positive connotations’. This is a grim view of the past. Raleigh’s ventures contributed to the colonisation of North America and Drake helped captain trading vessels carrying slaves across the Atlantic but neither was primarily involved in the slave trade. These dark allusions to slavery and imperialism brand Drake and Raleigh with the very modern stamp of ‘racist’. At a stroke, their remarkable achievements and contributions to British naval history have been deleted. Exeter’s head teacher hardly thinks highly not just of the past but of her own pupils if she deems them too stupid to comprehend the nuance of historical context.

    This is not the first time that Drake in particular has been targeted by the history-erasers. A petition was launched in 2020 calling for the removal of a statue of Drake in Plymouth. Signatories incorrectly claimed he was a ‘pioneer’ of the slave trade. And just last year the Sir Francis Drake primary school in south London was renamed Twin Oaks following a vote by parents and teachers. Tellingly, the BBC’s online coverage of the school renaming had to be amended. The broadcaster’s initial report ‘suggested Sir Francis Drake was predominantly known for his links to the slave trade’.

    One argument against plaques, statues and buildings named after historical figures is that they do not simply inform but valorize. They help transform men into heroes by literally putting them on a pedestal. But what is wrong with children having heroes? Mythologising of the two began while Drake and Raleigh were still alive. Over the centuries, they have come to represent idealised British values. Whatever the truth about either man, their names came to stand for bravery, daring, courage and determination. Beyond even this, they became powerful national symbols of British identity, recalling an age of heroism and – yes – British military might. It is precisely these values, and the idea of a positive sense of British identity, that are now considered ‘less than positive’.

    Bravery, a spirit of adventure, a desire to travel further and faster than any Englishman has ever done before. These ideas have the power to excite, inspire and also, crucially, to unite.

    They have been ditched for an identikit set of woke platitudes: justice, equity, diversity, inclusion. These are not values to aspire towards but meaningless soundbites. In place of historical figures, Exeter School will name buildings after local woodlands, castles and topographical features. Woodland is certainly beautiful but it hardly represents the pinnacle of human achievement. It is to be admired, not emulated.

    In terms of history, the same rejection of nuance in favour of mythologizing is taking place today as in the past. But instead of idealising Drake and Raleigh as representatives of the best of British, they have been transformed into monsters who symbolise all that is shameful about Britain’s past. The hope of the revisionists and the erasers is not so much that erstwhile heroes will be forgotten, but that they will be remembered only for their sins. Rather than offering a new generation inspiration, they serve as a lesson in the dangers of national pride and hubris.

    The charges against Drake and Raleigh are historically illiterate. Removing their names from buildings tells us far more about today than it does about the past. It tells us we are a country uneasy with our national history and determined to dislocate future generations from all positive associations not just with the past but with national identity. This is a mistake. Few things are more inclusive than the nation. Citizenship has no regard for race, sex or religion.

    If head teachers want to promote inclusivity, then making pupils aware of their nation’s story is a good place to start. Children raised in ignorance of their past, with scant knowledge of only national sins, are not ‘included’ but left rootless and alienated from their country.

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

    An0nymousBosch
    5 hours ago
    We’re importing people with their own national histories that depict the British as the villains.

    Rather than correcting their views, Britain’s asinine cultural elite has decided that the British were, in fact, the villains, and that this is the version of history that white British people must also be forced to swallow.

    Thus they enforce the propaganda of Irish nationalists, which bears no historical scrutiny whatsoever. Thus we’re told that Britain practised “divide and rule” in India, when Britain did more to unify India in 300 years than the Indians themselves had managed in the previous five thousand.

    Thus we’re told that the British were entirely to blame for the African slave trade, and that the Americans, West African chiefdoms and Portuguese were just a sideshow. (Most African-Americans trace their ancestry back to Angola, which was never a British possession.)

    Thus we’re told that the British empire was an evil entity that did no good at all, whereas anyone who said the same of the Roman empire is rightly treated as a moron.

    If you want complete national collapse, this is the way to do it. It’s also one of the main reasons the Conservative party must now be abolished, given their collusion in this campaign over the past 14 years.

    Quercy An0nymousBosch
    4 hours ago
    I have a fear that the Spectator will soon be surrounded by pink haired tragedies demanding its closure for once having championed free speech, before introducing an Orwellian commenting system and causing an exodus of subscribers!

    Dahlia Travers
    6 hours ago edited
    Effingham, Grenville, Raleigh Drake
    Here’s to the bold and free!
    Benbow, Collingwood, Byron Blake,
    Hail to the Kings of the Sea!
    Admirals all for England’s sake
    Honour be yours and fame.
    And honour as long as the waves shall break
    To Nelson’s peerless name.

    NB this was from memory – I learned it over 60 years ago so apologies if I’ve made a mistake. What a shame that today’s children are unlikely to have the pleasure of reading stirring tales of derring-do.

    Quercy Dahlia Travers
    4 hours ago

    Admirals Allby Sir Henry Newbolt

    Effingham, Grenville, Raleigh, Drake,

    Here’s to the bold and free!

    Benbow, Collingwood, Byron, Blake,

    Hail to the Kings of the Sea!

    Admirals all, for England’s sake,

    Honour be yours and fame!

    And honour, as long as waves shall break,

    To Nelson’s peerless name!

    Admirals all, for England’s sake,

    Honour be yours and fame!

    And honour, as long as waves shall break,

    To Nelson’s peerless name!

    Essex was fretting in Cadiz Bay

    With the galleons fair in sight;

    Howard at last must give him his way,

    And the word was passed to fight.

    Never was schoolboy gayer than he,

    Since holidays first began:

    He tossed his bonnet to wind and sea,

    And under the guns he ran.

    Drake nor devil nor Spaniard feared,

    Their cities he put to the sack;

    He singed his Catholic Majesty’s beard,

    And harried his ships to wrack.

    He was playing at Plymouth a rubber of bowls

    When the great Armada came;

    But he said, ‘They must wait their turn, good souls,’

    And he stooped and finished the game.

    Fifteen sail were the Dutchmen bold,

    Duncan he had but two;

    But he anchored them fast where the Texel shoaled,

    And his colours aloft he flew.

    ‘I’ve taken the depth to a fathom,’ he cried,

    ‘And I’ll sink with a right good will:

    For I know when we’re all of us under the tide

    My flag will be fluttering still.’

    Splinters were flying above, below,

    When Nelson sailed the Sound:

    ‘Mark you, I wouldn’t be elsewhere now,’

    Said he, ‘for a thousand pound!’

    The Admiral’s signal bade him fly

    But he wickedly wagged his head:

    He clapped the glass to his sightless eye,

    And ‘I’m damned if I see it!’ he said.

    Admirals all, they said their say

    (The echoes are ringing still).

    Admirals all, they went their way

    To the haven under the hill.

    But they left us a kingdom none can take,

    The realm of the circling sea,

    To be ruled by the rightful sons of Blake,

    And the Rodneys yet to be.

    Admirals all, for England’s sake,

    Honour be yours and fame!

    And honour, as long as waves shall break,

    To Nelson’s peerless name!

    2. We could do with some pirates in the English Channel to rescue would be slaves and take them back to North Africa!

    3. Memories of prep school poetry learning.

      Bertie Wooster had two formidable aunts: Agatha Gregson and Dahlia Travers. Glad to see that the poster chose the hearty jolly one rather than the austere one for her pseudonym.

    4. That photo of Drake’s statue, unless there are other identical ones, is in Tavistock. We pass it once a week when shopping. 2 or 3 years ago it was daubed with paint by some pathetic anti-British vandals. These vandals would have been home grown too. Schools are belching out self hating kids by the million.

    5. Thank God Nelson was disabled! Mind you, soon he will be black (confused with the terrorist freedom fighter).

  143. As a newbie here, I am intrigued as to how a whole discourse (uncomplimentary to Fraser nelson) has disappeared. I feel myself to be in the land of nightmares, again.

      1. I might be being paranoid. Have not yet got the hang of this site, but come to it scarred 🙂

      1. I think everything is still there? I just looked at the oldest comments and there seemed to be a lot. Disqus can be quite misleading sometimes.

    5. When the comment tally gets high it often goes wobbly but settles down after a while.

  144. Interesting.

    Musk criticises ‘eco-terrorists’ as fire breaks out in Tesla factory near Berlin

    An environmental group has published an open letter online claiming responsibility for a fire in a Tesla factory on Tuesday, which has since halted production. An “anti-authoritarian” group has claimed responsibility for a suspected arson attack at Elon Musk’s Tesla car factory in Berlin on Tuesday.

    Posting a 2,500 word open letter on alternative media website Kontrapolis, the ‘Volcano group’ said they were to blame for the attack. The group said that Tesla’s Gigafactory “has become known for its extreme conditions of exploitation” and said that the attack was a gift marking International Women’s Day on March 8th.

    Elon Musk, who is the CEO of Tesla, took to X slamming the group as ” either the dumbest eco-terrorists on Earth or they’re puppets of those who don’t have good environmental goals.” The entire plant, located 30km outside of Berlin lost electricity when a power pole caught fire at 4:50 am. The Oderland Regional Control Centre said that the nearby city of Erkner and parts of the southeast of Berlin were without electricity as a result of the attack.

    A tent belonging to eco-activists was discovered near the site.

    A spokesperson for Tesla told the Berliner Zeitung that they have “taken all measures to secure production facilities.” Although the letter has not been verified by the local police, Brandenburg police have said that they have filed the incident as arson, as initial investigations indicate the fire did not start by itself.

    The Interior Minister for Brandenburg State Michael Stuebgen commented that authorities will punish those responsible said “with the utmost severity.” Brandenburg’s Minister President called the “suspicion” a “serious attack on our critical infrastructure.”

    https://www.euronews.com/2024/03/05/musk-criticises-eco-terrorists-as-fire-breaks-out-in-tesla-factory-near-berlin

    1. Well I suppose it saves the batteries from catching fire a bit later than they would have otherwise….?

    2. Sorry, I’m not seeing the words “left wing extremists” anywhere in this report?

    3. That’s very interesting. We, mainly, think that EVs are not currently a viable option due to many reasons, but are reasonably happy to see them come a cropper solely by how the car market reacts to their large scale non-viability. Will the eco-zealots be let off with smacked wrists from an eco-judge?

  145. Someone said that we judge ourselves by our intentions and others by their actions (results), It would be interesting to turn that around.

    1. How could we judge others’ intentions when we don’t know what they are? We all know that our actions will be judged for better or for worse. We could mutter about mitigating circumstances, but we all know what the road to hell is paved with.

      1. we all know what the road to hell is paved with.

        Yeah, better than the rubbish they use to pave the roads in the UK!

      2. we all know what the road to hell is paved with.

        Yeah, better than the rubbish they use to pave the roads in the UK!

    2. How could we judge others’ intentions when we don’t know what they are? We all know that our actions will be judged for better or for worse. We could mutter about mitigating circumstances, but we all know what the road to hell is paved with.

    1. Be wary of this sudden influx of “Refugees” from the Spectator today. I don’t recognise all their names/avatars and not all of them smell good to me. There are sure to be some bogus impostors from the 77th Brigade or worse.

      1. What a chill that comment introduces to the previous warm welcome that I, for one, so appreciated. Geoff was also a frequent poster on the Speccie (maybe still is?) and we got on well. I am astonished, really, that i never found this site before now.

        I suppose that I just didn’t realise how helpful (and fun) it can be to interact with sympathetic, intelligent strangers in cyberspace.

        1. I still say “Welcome!”
          Glad to see you guys. I was never on the Speccie, all Y’all are new to me.

          1. Well, we’re hardly homogeneous. We have all, however, been comprehensively betrayed. It was a bloody good comments BTL system that suddenly no longer exists. So thank you for having us – but we are ornery.

        2. Yes Geoff Graham was there earlier, he posts at the Spectator very often and will be pleased to see you here, as he will Kate ( KJ ) when she’s released from pending and finds her way here, she is a good friend of Geoff too and he has welcomed Spectator friends here to his site . We know a few others here too .

        3. Don’t take it to heart. When NoTTL started, it was plagued with trolls. We stopped feeding them, and they got bored and went away in the end. Citroen1 is just being cautious.

          1. Thank you, Geoff. We have interacted before and I think you must know that I have deep respect

        4. Evening Opo, surprisingly there have not been many new joiners to this site over the years so the new characters are welcome. Having been here a while, I find it a place for letting off steam about the modern world rather than too much serious argument. Now and again things blow up but I am happy to just read the opinions of others, maybe state my pov, but not try and change anyone’s views. I’m banned from Twatter but appear in the DT now and again. Its a pretty sociable place here and an interesting spread of backgounds and life’s experience which often generate some valuable ideas. Most of us are pretty ancient and in bed by 10 but there are one or two still working as tax slaves to pay our pensions!

      2. Let’s give ’em all the benefit of the doubt.

        (Until we get the front doors kicked in)

          1. I hope, at least, they all enjoy a drink in the evening, and might prepare themselves for the occasional poster that has over imbibed.

      3. Whilst you may be correct to be cautious, so far the group that has arrived today have settled in agreeably.
        Give them the benefit of the doubt pro temps.

      6. Geoff is allowed to invite his Spectator Refugee friends here to his site and he graciously Is fine with a few other things too .

      7. I’m not unduly concerned, Michael. Opoponax is a Speccie regular. It seems that Minty has been doing some ‘marketing’ on our behalf.

        The comments were always the best part of the Speccie, and now that they’ve ruined the platform, I’m more than happy to see Spexiles (see what I did there?) over here.

        2. I’ll just add that I’ve prolly been spending more time at the Speccie than here, so I have a pretty good idea who is ‘friend’ or foe’.

          In fact, I have a list of foes…

          1. Read that as “… a list of toes”, and thought, well, yes, Geoff would need a list of toes…
            Sorry. New pills. I’m a bad person, really.

          5. I still think you should get ‘blades’. Just imagine how fast you could run.

          8. In fairness, I don’t believe that blades confer some sort of magical ability. The NHS don’t provide them anyway. Signed, Fat Slug.

    2. Nor are mine, Phizzee. It was a philosophical (or epistemological) proposition.

      1. That’s Phizzee you’re conversing with.

        Unless it’s about food, booze or sex, words of more than three syllables are filtered out, more than two are treated with the utmost suspicion.

        BUT, to be fair, on food drink and deviancy, he’s the “go to” Nottler.

        1. He has the most fantastic lunches, and entertains all the Nottler laidees.. I am told.

        2. Food, booze, sex. All three at the same time for preference. I do sometimes get some funny looks in the restaurant though.

      1. Mr Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg who utterly screwed his college mate with whom he devised the original. Massively nasty piece of work and relentless liar.

          1. It’s just possible that he has confused Mr Sugarmountain with Mr Gates, although both my be guilty of the same sneaky intellectual theft. I don’t know.

    2. I’d be happy to lose FB, but some friends and family would think I’d died perhaps.

      1. If you are permitted to use F/B, that would suggest that you are NOT a paid up member of the Fahrenheit.

    3. https://www.margaretrivermail.com.au/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/Emma.Horn/2ae6b371-099c-4e49-a0df-1dd7d63353b2.jpg/r0_0_846_423_w846_h423_fcrop.jpg

  148. Evening, all. Have spent a wasted day (beautifully sunny, too) waiting for phone calls. By the time I’d received them it was too dark and cold to do much in the garden other than plant a few brodiaea.

    The headline reminds me of the fury when, at a meeting with the PCC, the gathered masses were told that the police’s top priority was hate mail. There was a lot of snarling about solving real crimes and fingering the collars of burglars. It was not a happy meeting!

    1. Oh dear! sounds like a stressful day.
      I went over to Stoke to see Stepson. As usual he’s spent all his benefits and has until the 13th for his next lot so I’ve had to lend him £35 to tide him over.
      Had a bus ride to Hanley but the drive over the moors was gorgeous!
      As usual I spent FAR too much money on shopping for myself!

    1. It seems I can’t log into F/B unless they email a code to the original email I signed up with. Problem is, that email died several years ago. That’s F/B finished then.

      1. They had a serious outage today; I just got back in with a login I can barely remember. Try again tomorrow, maybe? I hoped tha the picture would show, but no.
        Bummer. It’s been that way for the most of the week.
        🙁

      2. They had a serious outage today; I just got back in with a login I can barely remember. Try again tomorrow, maybe? I hoped tha the picture would show, but no.
        Bummer. It’s been that way for the most of the week.
        🙁

      3. Not necessarily.
        HG uses it, I don’t.
        When it reappeared she turned off her iPad and rebooted it.
        Problem vanished.

          1. I don’t know why I never did, anti-social bastard probably, but I still don’t feel any need to use it.

          2. I used to keep in touch with my Aussie friends, but over time the connections just withered away. That’s the problem with long distance friendships.

          3. Doesn’t your browser have your password? It may show the email address it is associated with. Log in with both then change the email address and password in fb settings.

          4. Yes, it automatically put in the password, but that wasn’t the problem. It didn’t tell me I had the wrong password, it wanted a code to verify my email address. Since that has been defunct for several years (the provider closed down) that wasn’t possible.

          10. Everyone who legally exists has a F/B account, although some have yet to be activated.

          14. I opened Facebook and Twitter accounts, just to see what they were about. Have never used FB since, and have only ever X’d (formerly known as Twatted) in an attempt to resolve complaints with several organisations. I find it gets a much swifter resolution.

            Most recently: Dear Amazon, just visited your complaints site, and am disappointed to find that you don’t have a “thieving courier walked to the far end of my path, tapped his device then turned around and walked away with my package” option on your site.

            A replacement arrived the following morning…

      4. Not necessarily.
        HG uses it, I don’t.
        When it reappeared she turned off her iPad and rebooted it.
        Problem vanished.

    2. It seems I can’t log into F/B unless they email a code to the original email I signed up with. Problem is, that email died several years ago. That’s F/B finished then.

  150. BTL Comment:

    “Nonsense. London nightlife is the envy of the world. Can NY, LA or Ibiza boast about having a 24hr Greggs? I think not..”

  151. No wonder Bitcoin is going through the roof….

    “The IMF said on Tuesday that small and regional US banks’ exposure to commercial property was the main threat to financial stability, given around two-thirds of US banks’ $3 trillion (£2.4 trillion) exposure sit on small lenders’ balance sheets.”….

    1. Local lenders should know their clients, probably better than the big boys.

      Their real problem is that the Biden/Soros/Obama administration has allowed black and illegal immigrant crime to go unpunished which threatens commercial viability very badly. It will be crime as much as interest rates that exacerbates the bad debts and failures.

      1. WFH won’t be helping the commercial property market. That may well be the catalyst for the next financial crash.

  152. Phew – that’s a relief they are safe thanks to this Human Guinea Pig!

    “A 62-year-old man from Germany has, against medical advice, been vaccinated 217 times against Covid, doctors report.
    The bizarre case is documented in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal.
    The shots were bought and given privately within the space of 29 months.
    The man appears to have suffered no ill effects, researchers from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg say….”

      1. On a serious note, I atttended the funeral of my next door neighbour, Edgar, on Friday. His wife.. er.. widow, Sue, has given a running commentary re. their vaccination status over the garden fence, since the jabs were rolled out. “Edgar and I are having our boosters tomorrow”. A week or two later: “Edgar and I have been very ill with Covid”. At the risk of exaggerating, this scenario has played out half a dozen times. I’ve quite bluntly said that the boosters don’t work, and can be dangerous. You can lead a horse to water, etc…

        It may well be that Edgar simply died of old age (he was 85), but he had been fit and active, involved in many sports. I’m suspicious.

        Then yesterday I went to friend Lisa’s funeral. Would have been 60 later this year. Brain haemorrhage, Just like that. As a fine, upstanding, God-fearing and evidently left-leaning pillar of society, I assume she was up to date with her jabs. Obviously, I’ve no idea whether there was a connection. But…

        1. I also have some horrific anecdotes and I do realise that the plural of “anecdote” is not “evidence”.

          However.

          One distressing thing being the number of vaccine enthusiasts amongst my friends who have developed weird and fast-growing cancers – unusual cancers, which I understand are now identified by certain doctors and oncologists as “turbo-cancers”, perhaps connected to the mRNA injections. But no-one knows.

          1. Seek out Professor Angus Dalgleish re ‘turbo cancers’. I’ve lost friends who were in remission, and suddenly weren’t. We lost a regular poster here to agressive skin cancer. It may be a stretch to associate it with the vax, but her care – by the National Covid Service – was shockingly bad.

          2. I know, Geoff. Of my friends with these weird galloping cancers, many have died (but we are, to be fair, “of an age”). The others are now getting pretty excellent and very expensive treatment, but it doesn’t seem to be doing very much good, although one friend is holding on and another has been declared to be in remission.

        2. I had the inital two shots of the AstraZeneca vaccine (not mRNA) followed by three Pfizer boosters. I’ve had no ill effects from any of them nor have any of my family and friends. I’ve had no confirmed Covid-19 infection, although a persistent cough back in August – without typical cold symptoms – did raise my suspicions. I’ve personally known of two people hospitalised with Covid-19, both unvaccinated. One, sadly, died.

          1. I had the initial two shots of AZ, and soon after, lost feeling in part of my right hand. Had singing been allowed, I’d have been unable to play the organ. Had various tests, consultant agreed that it was likely to be due to the vax. Thankfully, most feeling returned within a few months, but still not 100% restored. I’ve refused any subsequent (especially mRNA) jabs. Covid finally caught up with me a week before Christmas. I had a mild cough for about a week. It was only when a church colleague emailed to say she’d tested positive, that I thought I should order some lateral flow tests. A group of us were supposed to be goinground the local care homes, singing carols. As a supposedly vulnerable diabetic, I’m pleased to report thay – for me – Covid was a nothingburger. Apart from the cough, my sense of taste and smell abandoned me for a couple of weeks. That’s all.

            I know of only one person who died ‘from’ Covid. He was admitted to hospital with pneumonia symptoms, placed on a ventilator, which frankly is likely to be what finished him off.

        3. One can’t help wondering. My doctor was very surprised when I reported my heart attack.

    3. Yet the man is not very bright as he’s not realised that a vaccine should only be needed once. Multiple such are not necessary – unless the original doesn’t work.

      1. Now Phizerland, Phizerland, show us the sign
        Your children have waited to see
        The Covid won’t come
        Then the world is mine
        The Vaccine belongs to me
        The Vaccine belongs to me
        The Vaccine belongs to me
        The Vaccine belongs to me

        (With apols to Songwriters: John Kander / Fred Ebb)

      2. That’s dependent on how often the virus mutates. Covid-19, a coronavirus, mutates to some degree as does its cousin, the rhinovirus, or common cold as we all know it.

        Some other vaccines lose effectiveness over a longer period of time. Tetanus is a good example. I wouldn’t shun a tetanus booster just because the effectiveness of an earlier shot has faded.

    6. The Lancet, a once responsible and distinguished journal, has been discredited following its inept and corrupted commentaries during the Covid ‘pandemic’ and its sanction of scientists (epidemiologists, immunologists …) espousing opposing views to the approved government narrative.

  153. I know it’s happening Conners, but it makes me very angry to think of all the sacrifices made to stop our country being invaded by nazis.

  155. Well I’m off till the morrow, fingers crossed a resultful day at the cardiology department. Let’s hope that the results are favourable. Lunch out again tomorrow. Just the chaps this time.
    Clear skies now could be frost but it doesn’t feel that cold.
    Catch up in the morning, night all.

      1. The good thing Obs is its only about a mile walk to my local, so a couple of pints will be in order.

  156. Very, very weirdly, the Speccie having told me via red banner that i could not comment because i am banned forever (when I replied to KJ and mentioned this site) I have just been allowed to post a throwaway remark (meaningless). So I’m not actually banned, it’s what I choose to say that is banned

  160. Well whilst I still can without the assistance of Stannah, I think I’ll bid you all a good night and head for the apples & pears ….

      1. If it was an American woman you couldn’t tell the difference (with apologies to any Yankee women here)

          3. did you miss the comma between dead and sexy or were you calling me sexy 😂?

    2. I would normally agree with the “import the third world..” sentiment, but surely necrophilia is not their most prevalent vice?

      1. The recent UN admission that rape was used as a weapon against the victims of Oct.7th might suggest otherwise.

  162. RAF drone squadron has conducted no trials since 2020
    216 Squadron has not been able to recommend any weapons for purchase or development due to lack of funds

    A drone trials squadron has completed no tests or trials since it was formed by the RAF four years ago due to a lack of funds, despite ministers admitting unmanned systems are “transforming warfare” around the world.

    James Cartlidge, the procurement minister, admitted that 216 Squadron had recommended no drones for purchase or development since April 2020 and although one trial was planned for last summer, it was cancelled due to “competing resource priorities”.

    His explanation came in response to a parliamentary written question submitted by Stewart McDonald, SNP MP for Glasgow South. |It meant there was “no money” for the trial, according to an RAF source.

    There are only three full-time personnel and four part-time reservists in the squadron, with the source saying that it was a squadron in “name only”. They added that if funding became available the team could be expanded. A typical fighter jet squadron would have more than 150 personnel assigned to it.

    216 Squadron, once a transport squadron, was reformed in April 2020 as an experimental unit that would test future drone swarm technology.

    Air Chief Marshal Sir Mike Wigston, who was head of the RAF at the time, said it would deliver the service’s “futuristic and ambitious” plans to harness drone swarms.

    Military chiefs believe that future wars will involve large groups of drones hitting multiple targets at the same time. Western countries such as the US want to be able to deploy thousands of drones together so they can overwhelm anti-aircraft defences.

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/raf-drone-squadron-has-conducted-no-trials-since-2020-c0hcbkr3n

    1. John Kerry is a really, really – especially – nasty piece of work, even in climate scam terms.

      1. He certainly is. Arrogance is off the top of the scale and bonkers (unpleasantly) with it. He is insane. He has a daughter who made a C/change speech recently who may take up the reins.

        1. It’s not just the arrogance, it’s the cynicism, the naked greed, that marks these people out

      2. Merry married a Heinz heiress. His wealth derived from his marriage. The man is an ignorant oaf who deservedly owns the nickname Lurch.

      3. Yes indeed, if ever there was a candidate for deservedly roasting in hell, John “private-jets-for-me-bugs-and-buses-for-thee” Kerry is it.

    2. John Kerry is a really, really – especially – nasty piece of work, even in climate scam terms.

      1. Now now O, in times past that’d be a leading question! It’s my first time. That’d be material for just any Carry On film, (double entendre intended).

          1. I was tipped off about it a few days ago by KJ. I don’t get around commenting sites much, so yes a very nice surprise. I’ll have to get out more I think.

          2. Just a point. You mentioned that you were banned from commenting ‘over there’, as we’re others. How was that communicated to you? Email maybe?

          3. It was a bright red banner when I pressed the “comment ” button, which said that ” you cannot comment because The Spectator has banned you permanently”. The Speccie being mentioned by name, note. But it didn’t apply (I did a test) when I posted something anodyne, just to see. The post then appeared and the banner didn’t. So, they did not actually ban me forever, as the banner suggested, they just banned anything important that I wanted to say.

          4. The same has happened to me re the Telegraph and the Times ..

            Freedom of speech has been eroded , and it seems to me as if GB News will end up the same way .

          6. It’s the Party calling in its loyalties. In a way I don’t mind that, since it’s just about partisan politics. I’m the first to admit and have stated openly… repeatedly in fact… that I’m deeply unimpressed with all the Lib-Lab-Con alliance. They belatedly have seen where the danger now lies.

          7. If you haven’t been banned from somewhere these days, you’re doing something wrong!

          9. I am a Telegraph and, now, Spectator exile as they’ve banned my ability to comment. What a lovely surprise to find this place !

          10. Thanks I didn’t know if it was Disqus or Spectator, so I asked someone to flag my comment. The theory was that the Disqus algorithm immediately puts a comment into pending until moderated. Not so it seems. I’ve never had the red banner; however, the four or five blocks I’ve had in the past month lead me to conclude it wasn’t the auto system. These generally trap trigger words and we’ve all slipped up on those from time to time. The way mine were banned leads me to believe a human looked and made a decision to “Removed”, if you’ve seen that one.

      1. Morning JDDP, fancy meeting you here. Refugees will seek refuge. Now then, where’s me benefits payout and could you be so kind as to direct me to my hotel, now.

        1. If you don’t mind sharing with a load of psycho Afghans and Somali drug gang members. 🙂
          Are Peta and AA Locrian still there?

          1. I do know AA is now here, because upvoted a comment on this thread only minutes ago. Peta, not yet to my knowledge.

          2. Thank you. I would be sad to lose contact with those two especially, now that you, Oppo and AngloM are here.

          3. Yes, you have to go far and wide to find a decent conversation sometimes. And the government wants us to believe they are the grown ups in the room. What a cheeky suggestion when I can just talk to you and the others for far better interactions.

            No, as I always say. If the foot draggers cannot keep up then they’ll just have to get left behind. It’s the story of the past 14-years. The “puddings” have had far too much influence.

          4. PetaJ safely rescued. We now have to send out a search party for AA Locrian, JD

          6. Yup. I’m sure there are others, JD, stranded on that hostile beach on that inhospitable island, hungering and thirsting, as it were.

    3. Yay! All of my Speccie friends appear to be here! Unlike on the censored Speccie website.

      1. Yes they do A, which is nice.

        I noticed someone put up a reply over there about how due to user demand they might start unlocking a few features over the coming months but that in the early days it was restricted. A lot of word salad was involved about which many were rightly cynical. I’m cynical too, but I read it slightly differently in that I think there’s a doubling down going on until the election. A divided party and all that….

        To cut a long story short I think it was a veiled plea to ride it out for now but please don’t cancel your sub. Needless to say I do not approve. Very hamfisted in keeping with much of the way that the Wets have acted for the past 14-years. I don’t do censorship.

        1. Hello JG! I have threatened to cancel unless they revert back to what it was. They won’t but it was essentially an idle threat.

        2. Forgot to say…it’s interesting…the Daily Mail has changed their comments section too. Is this all pre-emptive of the “Online Safety Act”?

          1. Might be, yes. It’s obviously a possible connection and thing is I don’t think the Spectator and others are too much against free speech as such. There are various layers of Woke at play obviously and the usual “you can’t say that” involved. But in the end I think this is driven centrally, whichever way you look at it.

            So yes, wherever the logic goes it looks like a back covering exercise. Remember too that the proposal for legislation was always to make the defending news outlets pay cash for frivolous and mendacious litigants who complain about so-called online hate speech whether justified or not.

            That’s censorship purely and simply, only it’s being done through the pocket so as to distance the State from the consequences. All Lib-Lab-Con parties are for trimming up any criticism and so it’s just not on.

  167. Good night, chums. I’ve had a busy but enjoyable and productive day today. Sleep well, and see you all tomorrow.

  168. Stop being scared of Islamophobia. Start worrying about Anglophobia

    All over the UK, there are bright, talented women being held back by a system of patriarchy we have unwittingly imported

    ALLISON PEARSON • 5 March 2024 • 7:00pm

    Fad leads a double life. She had two weddings. The first, a traditional Muslim ceremony in the northern town where she grew up. The second, a much rowdier affair with dancing and cocktails, took place in the south-west where Fad now lives with her English husband and their two children. No guests at the former wedding attended the latter. Her parents don’t know their daughter looked stunning in a white lace dress with a gaggle of bridesmaids in coral.

    Fad has two wedding albums, two sets of ornaments, twice the number of framed photos and clothes which she changes into when her parents or siblings visit. If she’s been home to see her family, as soon as she gets on the M62, she takes off her hijab.

    But Fad thinks she is one of the lucky ones. When Fad was at school, there were girls in her class who went on “holiday” to Pakistan and were never seen again. Later, they would hear that their absent friends were married to uncles or cousins. Clever girls in Fad’s class used to deliberately fail their exams because they knew the fate that awaited them once they completed their education.

    Fad’s mother is a bright woman but, like many other mums of her age in “the community”, she never learnt to speak English. She has lived in Lancashire since she came over as a 14-year-old bride for an arranged marriage almost 60 years ago, but she barely knows 10 words to exchange with the locals. “Hello”, “Thank you”, “A’right, love”. So she has no non-Pakistani friends and she has never worked. Fad’s father used to taunt her mother, telling her that she could never run away because no one would understand what she was saying.

    When she was still a teenager, Fad told her mother that it wasn’t normal for men to beat their wives. It wasn’t normal to cower when you heard his key in the front door. Fad’s mother said her daughter was mistaken. It was perfectly normal.

    Fad wasn’t allowed to go to university – very few fathers were happy letting their daughters travel alone without a chaperone – but she was really good at maths and managed to train as an accountant at a local firm. She got upset sometimes because she thought her English colleagues assumed she was thick or weird because she was Muslim and didn’t go to the pub with them. But, then, on a training course, Fad met Nick and did something she wasn’t supposed to do: she fell in love. Because Nick had a house and a nice car, her father agreed to the marriage. A miracle really.

    If you ask them, Fad’s son and daughter will say they are Muslim, but they attend a Church of England school, sing hymns and Christmas carols and do all the normal stuff the other kids do; netball, violin, Fortnite. Fad loves her mum and her siblings, and she carries her religion like a rosebud curled tight within her, but she wants her children to be British not Pakistani. (She would never allow her daughter, now 12, to visit relatives in Pakistan in case they abducted her and married her off.) Fad knows that, one day, her lies will be exposed. On their last trip up north, her son asked: “Mum, why do you cover your hair when we go to Nana’s?” It’s exhausting keeping up the pretence. But Fad can’t face the almighty, violent row that will ensue if it’s revealed that her father’s dutiful daughter now acts and behaves like she’s any other British woman. So the double life, two of everything, goes on.

    I thought of Fad when I watched George Galloway revel in his victory at the Rochdale by-election. There were no women on the ballot paper and, as far as I could see, there were no female faces among the Muslim “brothers” at Galloway rallies apart from George’s foxy fourth wife. Islamic patriarchy ruled. How many of the avalanche of postal votes that secured victory for a candidate who unashamedly turned it into a Gaza election were cast by women like Fad’s mother? Women who don’t understand English, women who do as their husbands tell them.

    There were 13,460 postal votes cast in Rochdale last week – that’s 43.2 per cent of the total and more than 12,335 were received by Galloway’s far-Left, pro-Palestine Workers Party of Britain. The proportion of postal votes was up from 22.7 per cent in the 2019 general election to 43.2 per cent in the by-election.

    Disgracefully, the Electoral Commission has chosen not to investigate this startling increase in voters who cannot be seen or checked. That’s a can of worms the authorities clearly don’t want to open. For the same reason, Labour MPs turn a blind eye when they attend meetings of “the community” where women are either segregated or absent entirely. (Even arch-feminists like Harriet Harman temporarily set aside their loathing of male privilege.) It’s the kind of blatant discrimination, exclusion, misogyny and sexism on which the Labour party constantly lectures the rest of us, but which apparently doesn’t count when the offenders are South Asian, not ghastly white males in their ghastly white vans. And when the Muslim vote is at stake, of course.

    That sort of cowardly collusion by our political class has enabled both the continuing isolation of Muslim women like Fad’s mum and the mass grooming of white working-class girls, whom it was fine to go on raping as long as no one got accused of Islamophobia. The common thread is bone-headed tribal elders who have prevented their women integrating into their new homeland, the better to keep control over them, and who have slaked their lust on vulnerable girls.

    That is one reason why the victory of such men in Rochdale, and their growing influence on policy and electoral fortunes, is so disturbing. Indeed, George Galloway’s triumph delivered such a shock to the complacent, “diversity is our strength” status quo that the Prime Minister shot into Downing Street to give a speech fretting about “national disunity”. He noted how protest on our streets has “descended into intimidation, threats and planned acts of violence … Now our democracy itself is a target. Council meetings have been stormed. MPs do not feel safe in their homes. Long-standing Parliamentary conventions have been upended because of safety concerns. And it is beyond alarming that the Rochdale by-election returned a candidate … who dismisses the horror of what happened on Oct 7, who glorifies Hezbollah.”

    I mean, who could possibly have warned the PM that allowing flagrant displays of anti-Semitism and pro-Hamas slogans to go unchecked on the streets of our capital would end badly? Why, there was Suella Braverman whom Rishi Sunak sacked as home secretary last November after she insisted that the police needed to take a harder line against the Islamists who hate our way of life. An argument that Sunak himself finally made to a meeting of Met officers, four months too late, when he claimed that “mob rule” was breaking out in Britain.

    It wasn’t a bad speech [Oh, yes it was!], but it took refuge in comforting platitudes about “immigrants who have integrated and contributed”. And, to avoid causing offence when we have now got to the point where causing offence may be a matter of national security, Sunak absurdly equated the threat posed by “Islamist extremists and the far Right”.

    Praying it will all blow over, the Government’s solution is to come up with a new definition of extremism by next week to encompass any group or individual that promotes an “ideology that undermines the rights or freedoms of others”. Anything, it would seem, to avoid admitting that multiculturalism has been a disaster for the UK.

    This top-down theorising won’t work. We know it is mothers who drive integration, mothers who are desperate for their children to succeed in a new country. (Think of Rishi Sunak’s own mum who said she didn’t want her son to speak with an accent so he would fit in.) For the sake of Fad’s mother and thousands like her, our focus has to be on empowering women to break free of patriarchal communities. There is a strikingly low employment rate among Muslim women – almost 70 per cent don’t work compared to 20 per cent among Christian [sic] women. That means no opportunity to mix with their fellow citizens, no chance to improve their language skills, no opportunity to earn money that will buy a bit of independence from those husbands who still think it is their right to dominate their wives (which suits those men just fine), no chance to feel British and pass on that settled loyalty to their offspring.

    So, here’s a plan for Rishi, the Man With a Plan. First, you cut immigration to the bare minimum to give us a fighting chance of assimilating those who are already here. Forget useless posturing about banning foreign hate preachers from coming to the UK; kick out the extremist imams who are already here, spreading anti-Western hatred in this country’s mosques. Make cousin marriage illegal. It keeps too many locked in a narrow, incestuous clan and reproduces the poor conditions of rural Pakistan instead of building bridges with other economically successful ethnic groups. Ban postal votes except for the infirm or the elderly. No access to benefits unless you either speak English or can prove you are learning English. Compulsory free English classes for anyone who can’t speak English (I volunteered as a teacher in Tower Hamlets years ago, and I’m sure many Brits would step forward to do the same). No access to benefits, full stop, unless you are applying for jobs, and a time-limit on how long you are entitled to state aid.

    Stop being scared of Islamophobia. Start worrying about Anglophobia.

    Fad feels obliged to live a double life because her values and lifestyle would appal her family who don’t live in the Britain the rest of us live in. That can’t be allowed to continue. Suspicion and hatred fester when communities remain strangers. The cycle of poverty won’t be broken if mothers can’t speak English or find work. If Fad acts and behaves like she’s any other British woman, that’s because that’s exactly what she is: a British woman.

    *Fad and Nick’s names have been changed

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/columnists/2024/03/05/the-government-new-extremism-laws-needs-engage-muslim-women/

    I hope Fad & Nick are not AP’s equivalent of Enoch’s working man and the landlady. And it’s not just Britain’s Pakistanis who have a bad attitude towards women…

    2. What Allison Pearson conveniently forgets to mention is that the majority of women like Fad’s mum appear think that the white sluts deserve everything they get…they have been caught on video saying as much, and plenty of them speak perfectly good English and could speak out IF they wanted to. Not all Pakistani women are cowering and beaten, just like all other women, some of them wear the pants.

      1. Quite a lot of Pakistani women are enablers to their men’s actions; and to cheating the system (it has been exposed that sometimes two or more out of four wives will each “leave” the marital home and get council housing for themselves and their offspring; however, they actually stay living in the main family unit and rent out the council property).

    1. Nice and peaceful – and unmistakeably Bond Barry. He has distinctive chords and note progressions (I can’t remember a word for that).

      Good morning Belle, good morning NoTTLers!

        1. We did but it was very flying visit and we packed in a lot of miles. Loved Wimbourne and Wareham, Swanage was lovely too, nice and quiet (probably for the last time this year). Also went from Bridport to Dorchester and Blandford Forum – a bit too much in two days, especially when you walk around in the areas.

          We don’t want to leave our cat for long, as she is quite old now and seems to get stressed if we are not generally around, so no point in neighbours coming in and feeding her, or a cattery. My dear brother used to come and stay when we went on holidays, and he got on really well with her, but alas that is no more.

        2. We did but it was very flying visit and we packed in a lot of miles. Loved Wimbourne and Wareham, Swanage was lovely too, nice and quiet (probably for the last time this year). Also went from Bridport to Dorchester and Blandford Forum – a bit too much in two days, especially when you walk around in the areas.

          We don’t want to leave our cat for long, as she is quite old now and seems to get stressed if we are not generally around, so no point in neighbours coming in and feeding her, or a cattery. My dear brother used to come and stay when we went on holidays, and he got on really well with her, but alas that is no more.

    2. Nice and peaceful – and unmistakeably Bond Barry. He has distinctive chords and note progressions (I can’t remember a word for that).

      Good morning Belle, good morning NoTTLers!

  170. Well – that’s been quite a day. Since I’m still awake, Wednesday’s new page is here.

    Normally, the new page is online by 7 am, which is when the Letters page in the DT used to appear.

    A warm welcome to our new friends, especially Mid Atlantic, Carter, Robert Bidochon and The Wanderer (only joking)…

    Good night, all.

    1. And I’ve woken up and not been able to get back to sleep!
      Still, Saint-sans’s Organ Symphony on R3 is of some consolation.
      At least it’s not that bloody appalling “Tearjerker” produced by Aurora (Who the fuck’s Aurora???) that insomniacs have to put up with in the small hours of a Saturday morning.
      I hope you sleep better than I have so far.

    3. Ha, @ the flab four.

      Another refugee from Spacworld, here. We begged them not to use the Telegraph dustbin of tech, but they did anyway. Oh well.

        1. Comments are in the same numbers on some articles. I see a few recognisable names, but not everyone will have used the same one under the new platform. For a bit of fun, I did consider switching one of the four mentioned above, but decided against.

          Many comments are gripes about the change, rightly so. Below is a response from the Spector to one of them:

          Hello Dave, some Disqus features (notifying users of thread replies, custom avatars alongside display names, open comment history) are no longer available with our new system. We appreciate it may feel like a regression. But, this change means we’ll have more flexibility to improve the commenting experience. Our new system is in its preliminary stage – we’ll hone it and add features, based off subscriber feedback.
          The ability to comment in the app is the most requested feature from our subscribers. Our new system will allow us to turn on this function in the coming weeks. Soon after, we’ll look into further improvements.

          I had my first comment on the new system removed because asked if Fraser Nelsons underpants had turned up yet.

          It doesn’t bode well, I’ve already lost interest in commenting. Which is perhaps what they really wanted. C’est la vie.

          1. Thank you. It’s just the first turn of the screw in ‘cleaning up’ the commenting section I suspect. I assume they’re doing it to prevent any embarrassment that might impede a sale – Mr Nelson will have had his orders from the owners.

          2. I remember when the DT did the same. This was around 2015? A change no one wanted or desired and then the feeble attempts to explain why it was, somehow, better.

            The DT even had a post up at the time essentially saying “We asked you to say what you thought about having your say and you told us you didn’t want to have your say!” And hey, what luck, that’s what we got. I did sign up for the new system but tired of it almost instantly. I certainly won’t be bothering with the new Speccy one.

            In case anyone has forgotten The Independent, CNN and ABC News among other large entities all used Disqus in those days. Though, as per my earlier comment, 95% of the commenters at each site were probably completely oblivious to the fact or at least never exploited it.

        2. Testing to see if I can comment.

          Sorry, JD, seeing if I can comment! I tried using my normal Disqus account and it claimed that I was banned! Apparently, I am not !

          2. You too, JD ! I will certainly be reading Graham’s blogs and commenting thereupon.

        3. Testing to see if I can comment.

          Sorry, JD, seeing if I can comment! I tried using my normal Disqus account and it claimed that I was banned! Apparently, I am not !

    4. Geoff,
      Tom Armstrong here. Thanks for the plug you gave my new site, freespeechbacklash dot com. It’s a leap in the dark for me, and if it has a fraction of the traction your site has I’ll be truly thankful.

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