Tuesday 5 September: A cross-party effort is required to tackle the growing concrete crisis

Posted on by Geoff Graham

An unofficial place to discuss the Telegraph letters, established when the DT website turned off its commenting facility (now reinstated, but we prefer ours),
Intelligent, polite, good-humoured debate is welcome, whether on or off topic. Differing opinions are encouraged, but rudeness or personal attacks on other posters will not be tolerated. Posts which – in the opinion of the moderators – make this a less than cordial environment, are likely to be removed, without prior warning.  Persistent offenders will be banned.

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

466 thoughts on “Tuesday 5 September: A cross-party effort is required to tackle the growing concrete crisis”

  1. Good morrow, Gentlefolks, today’s story

    A New Slant
    A woman went to her doctor for advice. She told the physician that her husband had developed a penchant for anal sex, and she wasn’t sure it was such a good idea.

    The Doctor asked, “Do you enjoy it?” She said that she did.

    He asked, “Does it hurt you?” She said no.

    The Doctor then told her, “Well, then, there’s no reason that you shouldn’t practice anal sex, if that’s what you like, so long as you take care not to get pregnant.”

    The woman was mystified. She asked, “You can get pregnant from anal sex?”

    The Doctor replied, “Of course. Where do you think lawyers come from?”

    1. Good morning Tom,

      As Kenneth Williams might have said in one of his Carry On films:

      “It’s odd of me, it’s odd of me – they all think it’s sodomy!”

  3. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e44cdbb5f75d96550f2b186d61a6d5586b17be3770d31cbdee15e9572c795281.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5b51dfd1594fec4f294862dcc27bd33f26f5f6ab70894f0069e326dbf828268f.png

    No comments allowed under the DT article – I wonder why?

    Shelley’s description of Ozymandias with the frown, And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, comes to mind.

    The artist captured her evil nastiness even if this was not his original intention

    Nothing beside remains except the damage this wicked monster has inflicted on Britain. May Barrenness May get her just deserts!

    1. Doesn’t exactly flatter her.
      She looks like an evil character from science fiction.
      Dr. Spock or Dan Dare would deal with her.

    3. No comments allowed under the DT article – I wonder why?

      The DT are becoming increasingly wary of allowing comments!

    4. No comments allowed under the DT article – I wonder why?

      The DT are becoming increasingly wary of allowing comments!

      1. Congratulations on passing the three quarters point for your century. Here’s to health and happiness.

      2. Sorry to have been so late with the posting.

        We hope you’ll have many good unbirthdays as well as birthdays to come!

  6. Good morning all. A bright start with 8°C on the yard thermometer.
    A lovely walk was had yesterday evening, across Dunsley Meadows, drop down past Slinter Mill, the long climb to Slinter Tor then drop down Alabaster Lane to the Bell for the 1st pint.
    Another 2 in the Boat and back home.
    A couple of views from Slinter Tor, Ball Eye Quarry
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4bc2e5e807e262e223b9882a17b2ef5394d205bf55aa7e2e83012dbc473e25e1.jpg

    Looking up the valley:-
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/36fe0c6478c212e3b4da8a145d9f3f902f7adf56d74441abd4e7702a1719a226.jpg

    1. Before that, how about the houses occupied by Sir Kneeler, Jezza and Lady Nugee?
      And hundreds of other champagne socialists that infest the area.

      1. Perhaps Bliar, a keen supporter of immigration, would care to turn over at least one of his houses to them?

      1. I was disenfranchised in 2004 for the same reason after having moved to France in 1989

        As I am not a French citizen I cannot vote in national elections in France so I am totally disenfranchised. However I feel fully entitled to be as rude as I can about the politicians as a result!

        The oleaginous slimeball Cameron promised that UK subjects living in the EU would be able to vote in the referendum on Brexit but – surprise, surprise – he reneged on this.

        1. I have applied for full Swedish citizenship (currently I have the Swedish equivalent of the ‘green card’, i.e. permanent residence status). If granted I shall again have a vote.

          As for Brexit, since I had only lived here for five years when the referendum took place, I was indeed permitted to cast my vote for OUT!

  9. Good Moaning.
    Bright yellow thing in sky. I must make some more cake to take us through the apocalypse.
    But, beforehand, another session of hanging out of windows at precarious angles to apply paint to tired frames.

  10. Good morning.
    We’re all familiar with medical staff who daren’t speak out against things like vaccines. It seems that we can add firemen in the US to that.

    This is an hour long, and I can’t point to one specific time, because there are interesting points throughout the whole video. It’s an arborist who has studied forest fires, and it seems that Lahaina was not the first.
    He says that for the last seven years he has seen suspicious forest fires in California, where metal objects burn very intensely while dry wood or plastic nearby is unaffected. This is evidence of directed energy weapons.
    The fires are blamed on climate change or “strong local winds” and disappear quickly from the news.
    People are forbidden or discouraged from going back to their homes but instead directed into “housing for the workforce.” (“workforce?” servants for Oprah?)
    Initial cleanup after the fires is done by people whose nationality he didn’t know, but he speculated scandinavian, with brand new vehicles. I’d speculate eastern european. The same troops who appeared in Canada?
    It seems that Lahaina was merely the most egregious example in a series.
    Apparently Hawaii is not a US state, as I believed – it is an occupied territory. Poor Hawaiians.
    https://www.bitchute.com/video/XHaX2l6cQYxT/

  11. We’re not far from this state in Wellingborough and we don’t have Greeniacs in control!

    Unsafe and ‘looking like a dump’: How Brighton’s controversial eco policy went to seed

    A council decision to ban weed killer was well-intentioned – but created a city full of unsafe, overgrown roads and pavements

    By Boudicca Fox-Leonard • 4 September 2023 • 2:50pm

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/607cb63fe7a23950e1e799d833e423ef4cb2a2bc61a469a38390d62d9f1df93f.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a74fb2a8a2fe5093b46469bc2a76e915d77956cc86914a802b4754d272e0a705.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/688ea3fdb7b286253bac45de340a912335a22797f5baec8c78952fb4d003987d.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9472c05107ba4889bc92cb2d7871132f44f57914a9a09941ef9546b0bae2763a.jpg

    Conservative councillor Ivan Lyons has run 257 marathons to date, but says that he would never train on the streets around his home out of fear of falling

    Borage, yarrow, knotgrass and ribwort; for the enthusiastic forager there are herbs enough to fill an apothecary’s cabinet. This is no countryside hedgerow, however, but rather the pavement outside a £1.5 million house in Hove.

    Five-foot tall horseweed growing up between the cracks in the paving slabs has become a familiar sight for the residents of Brighton and Hove. On some streets a tapestry of grass has formed that makes it impossible to walk in a straight-line down the hilly streets. It is a verdant sight, but not, however, a welcome one for residents.

    “My mother is 89 and if she’s walking around on these pavements, she can’t do it,” says one local who preferred not to be named. “I worry about her falling all the time.”

    For the past four years nature has been left to its own devices after the then Green Party-led council in 2019 banned toxic weed killers that include chemicals such as glyphosate following a petition from residents.

    Glyphosate, best known as the active ingredient in the weed killer Roundup, has been the subject of many studies and legal challenges regarding its potential to cause cancer, specifically non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Its environmental damage, particularly to soil quality, is also well documented.

    Rewilding in order to promote greater biodiversity has been championed by the nearby Knepp Estate 20 miles away, where Isabella Tree has transformed a struggling farm into a wildlife haven – and inspired thousands of landowners, large and small, to rewild.

    But the trend for leaving nature to its own devices in order to create a habitat for plants and animals to thrive has become divisive – its critics include the RHS and garden presenter Alan Titchmarsh who, in a letter to the House of Lords, described the rewilding craze as an “ill-considered trend” loaded with “misleading propaganda” that will “deplete our gardens of their botanical riches” and be “catastrophic” for wildlife.

    While many of Brighton & Hove’s residents support the reduction in use of herbicides, they are unimpressed with the failure to provide another solution. Having been left to navigate weed-choked pavements, there is scepticism amongst locals as to whether the policy was intended to be environmentally friendly or part of a cost saving measure by the council as it cuts back on services.

    “The previously Green council was very receptive to listening to people who didn’t want to cut lawns and verges,” says Ivan Lyons, Conservative councillor for Westdene and Hove Park. “But it was also about saving money as well. Councils are a bit strapped for cash. So they basically didn’t cut anything for a couple of years.”

    Each week he receives emails from residents with photos and stories about how the weeds outside their homes have become a blight. Ruth White’s 86-year-old father-in-law Norman experienced a bad fall last year after tripping over weeds near his home. At the time they reported the accident to the Green led council who said they bore no responsibility.

    Lesley Fallowfield, a professor at Brighton & Sussex Medical School, ended up in A&E after tripping on weeds outside the home she has lived in for 30 years. She spent six weeks wearing an orthopaedic boot and crutches.

    “I think that the council’s neglecting to maintain our pavements and verges are using ‘being eco-friendly’ as a disguise for saving money but savings on things like this just result in other costs to the hard-pressed NHS through treatment of trips and falls,” she says.

    There has also been a spike in vet visits in the area, with dog owners reporting that grass seed has become stuck in their pet’s ears and paws. And driving in the area has become difficult as the size of verges often makes it difficult to see around corners.

    Lyons has run 257 marathons to date, but says that he would never train on the streets around his home out of fear of falling. As a result of the reports of accidents he says the Green council then decided to employ some people to pull out the weeds. “It’s laughable. There’s more pavements and roads from here to the top of Scotland and a handful of people maintaining them.”

    So many locals have taken matters into their own hands, including Ruth White who now weeds the pavements herself. However, there is a concern that some residents are using the very insecticides that the Green Party was trying to curb the use of.

    It isn’t the service expected by those living in one of the highest council tax areas in the country.

    “We’re paying around £3k a year for council tax and you wonder what you’re getting for it,” says one resident. “I asked for our road to be done and they did turn up about a year later. But by that time I’d had to do it myself for safety reasons.”

    In the May local elections the Green party lost to Labour. “Getting weeds back under control in Brighton & Hove is a top priority for our new Labour administration,” Labour councillor Tim Rowkins told The Telegraph.

    The ban on glyphosate in 2019 emerged from a cross party consensus when the Council was under no overall political control. “While well-intentioned – to reduce the use of chemicals and enhance biodiversity – there was no proper contingency plan, and the issue has simply not been treated as a priority since,” he says.

    The Labour-led council are now trialling new methods and machinery including mechanical sweepers, weed rippers and specialist strimmers, and looking at a hot water removal system from Finland not currently being used in the UK.

    “We are currently working on a new weed management policy with a view to deploying resources much more effectively, as well as identifying any additional needs and preventative measures we can take early in the spring when weeds take root,” adds Rowkins.

    “Our priority is to ensure our streets, pavements and environment are safe and accessible for residents and to limit damage to highway infrastructure, while also welcoming the net gains for biodiversity that come from a reduction in the use of herbicides.” However, not enough is being done, says Lyons.

    “They’re following the previous council’s policy of no cutting of verges between April and September and operating a traffic light system. So if something is flagged red they will go out and clear the weeds up, but if it’s yellow or green then they won’t.”

    A photograph of a bench on Goldstone Crescent, Hove taken two days earlier shows that it has become so overgrown you’d struggle to reach it let alone sit on it. However when we visit the site it has been trimmed back, clearly having met the red light threshold.

    Some residents worry about the damage as a result of a policy of neglect. “After three years of nothing being done, the curbs are starting to lift from large roots of trees that haven’t been pollarded. And the pavement is more uneven,” said one. “If they’ve been trying to save money then it’s a false saving in the long run. It’s going to cost them a fortune to put it right.”

    With street drains also overgrown another resident adds: “This isn’t about rewilding, but laziness.” While Lyons says the situation has improved since the Greens were voted out, he says: “It’s gone from awful to shoddy. There’s still work to be done.

    “Brighton has always had a bit of an edgy place, if you think back to the mods and the rockers. But now when people visit it just looks like a dump.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/environment/2023/09/04/brighton-hove-green-party-rewilding-eco-policy-dump-weeds

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/607cb63fe7a23950e1e799d833e423ef4cb2a2bc61a469a38390d62d9f1df93f.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a74fb2a8a2fe5093b46469bc2a76e915d77956cc86914a802b4754d272e0a705.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/688ea3fdb7b286253bac45de340a912335a22797f5baec8c78952fb4d003987d.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9472c05107ba4889bc92cb2d7871132f44f57914a9a09941ef9546b0bae2763a.jpg

    1. Tis an unweeded pavement that grows to seed
      Things gross and rank in nature possess it merely.
      That it should come to this.

      (With apols to the Late Mr Shakespeare)

    2. Just another example of how stupid our political idiots are.
      And think about the ungreen position they are now in. Petrol strimmers are the only way to clear up all the mess they make of everything they come into contact with.

    3. I have some sympathy with banning weed killer, but they should make each householder responsible for weeding the pavement outside their house.
      Hand chopped off if they use weed killer, of course.
      A spot of actual work would sort the true supporters from the mere virtue signalers.

      1. I believe in Germany it is the responsibility of the house occupier to keep the pavement outside their property clean and tidy.

    4. Thanks to the v-s greenies Brighton has been turned into an expensive festering dump, scruffy and most unwelcoming. We stopped visiting there years ago.

  12. We’re not far from this state in Wellingborough and we don’t have Greenies in control!

    Unsafe and ‘looking like a dump’: How Brighton’s controversial eco policy went to seed

    A council decision to ban weed killer was well-intentioned – but created a city full of unsafe, overgrown roads and pavements

    By Boudicca Fox-Leonard • 4 September 2023 • 2:50pm

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/607cb63fe7a23950e1e799d833e423ef4cb2a2bc61a469a38390d62d9f1df93f.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a74fb2a8a2fe5093b46469bc2a76e915d77956cc86914a802b4754d272e0a705.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/688ea3fdb7b286253bac45de340a912335a22797f5baec8c78952fb4d003987d.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9472c05107ba4889bc92cb2d7871132f44f57914a9a09941ef9546b0bae2763a.jpg

    Conservative councillor Ivan Lyons has run 257 marathons to date, but says that he would never train on the streets around his home out of fear of falling

    Borage, yarrow, knotgrass and ribwort; for the enthusiastic forager there are herbs enough to fill an apothecary’s cabinet. This is no countryside hedgerow, however, but rather the pavement outside a £1.5 million house in Hove.

    Five-foot tall horseweed growing up between the cracks in the paving slabs has become a familiar sight for the residents of Brighton and Hove. On some streets a tapestry of grass has formed that makes it impossible to walk in a straight-line down the hilly streets. It is a verdant sight, but not, however, a welcome one for residents.

    “My mother is 89 and if she’s walking around on these pavements, she can’t do it,” says one local who preferred not to be named. “I worry about her falling all the time.”

    For the past four years nature has been left to its own devices after the then Green Party-led council in 2019 banned toxic weed killers that include chemicals such as glyphosate following a petition from residents.

    Glyphosate, best known as the active ingredient in the weed killer Roundup, has been the subject of many studies and legal challenges regarding its potential to cause cancer, specifically non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Its environmental damage, particularly to soil quality, is also well documented.

    Rewilding in order to promote greater biodiversity has been championed by the nearby Knepp Estate 20 miles away, where Isabella Tree has transformed a struggling farm into a wildlife haven – and inspired thousands of landowners, large and small, to rewild.

    But the trend for leaving nature to its own devices in order to create a habitat for plants and animals to thrive has become divisive – its critics include the RHS and garden presenter Alan Titchmarsh who, in a letter to the House of Lords, described the rewilding craze as an “ill-considered trend” loaded with “misleading propaganda” that will “deplete our gardens of their botanical riches” and be “catastrophic” for wildlife.

    While many of Brighton & Hove’s residents support the reduction in use of herbicides, they are unimpressed with the failure to provide another solution. Having been left to navigate weed-choked pavements, there is scepticism amongst locals as to whether the policy was intended to be environmentally friendly or part of a cost saving measure by the council as it cuts back on services.

    “The previously Green council was very receptive to listening to people who didn’t want to cut lawns and verges,” says Ivan Lyons, Conservative councillor for Westdene and Hove Park. “But it was also about saving money as well. Councils are a bit strapped for cash. So they basically didn’t cut anything for a couple of years.”

    Each week he receives emails from residents with photos and stories about how the weeds outside their homes have become a blight. Ruth White’s 86-year-old father-in-law Norman experienced a bad fall last year after tripping over weeds near his home. At the time they reported the accident to the Green led council who said they bore no responsibility.

    Lesley Fallowfield, a professor at Brighton & Sussex Medical School, ended up in A&E after tripping on weeds outside the home she has lived in for 30 years. She spent six weeks wearing an orthopaedic boot and crutches.

    “I think that the council’s neglecting to maintain our pavements and verges are using ‘being eco-friendly’ as a disguise for saving money but savings on things like this just result in other costs to the hard-pressed NHS through treatment of trips and falls,” she says.

    There has also been a spike in vet visits in the area, with dog owners reporting that grass seed has become stuck in their pet’s ears and paws. And driving in the area has become difficult as the size of verges often makes it difficult to see around corners.

    Lyons has run 257 marathons to date, but says that he would never train on the streets around his home out of fear of falling. As a result of the reports of accidents he says the Green council then decided to employ some people to pull out the weeds. “It’s laughable. There’s more pavements and roads from here to the top of Scotland and a handful of people maintaining them.”

    So many locals have taken matters into their own hands, including Ruth White who now weeds the pavements herself. However, there is a concern that some residents are using the very insecticides that the Green Party was trying to curb the use of.

    It isn’t the service expected by those living in one of the highest council tax areas in the country.

    “We’re paying around £3k a year for council tax and you wonder what you’re getting for it,” says one resident. “I asked for our road to be done and they did turn up about a year later. But by that time I’d had to do it myself for safety reasons.”

    In the May local elections the Green party lost to Labour. “Getting weeds back under control in Brighton & Hove is a top priority for our new Labour administration,” Labour councillor Tim Rowkins told The Telegraph.

    The ban on glyphosate in 2019 emerged from a cross party consensus when the Council was under no overall political control. “While well-intentioned – to reduce the use of chemicals and enhance biodiversity – there was no proper contingency plan, and the issue has simply not been treated as a priority since,” he says.

    The Labour-led council are now trialling new methods and machinery including mechanical sweepers, weed rippers and specialist strimmers, and looking at a hot water removal system from Finland not currently being used in the UK.

    “We are currently working on a new weed management policy with a view to deploying resources much more effectively, as well as identifying any additional needs and preventative measures we can take early in the spring when weeds take root,” adds Rowkins.

    “Our priority is to ensure our streets, pavements and environment are safe and accessible for residents and to limit damage to highway infrastructure, while also welcoming the net gains for biodiversity that come from a reduction in the use of herbicides.” However, not enough is being done, says Lyons.

    “They’re following the previous council’s policy of no cutting of verges between April and September and operating a traffic light system. So if something is flagged red they will go out and clear the weeds up, but if it’s yellow or green then they won’t.”

    A photograph of a bench on Goldstone Crescent, Hove taken two days earlier shows that it has become so overgrown you’d struggle to reach it let alone sit on it. However when we visit the site it has been trimmed back, clearly having met the red light threshold.

    Some residents worry about the damage as a result of a policy of neglect. “After three years of nothing being done, the curbs are starting to lift from large roots of trees that haven’t been pollarded. And the pavement is more uneven,” said one. “If they’ve been trying to save money then it’s a false saving in the long run. It’s going to cost them a fortune to put it right.”

    With street drains also overgrown another resident adds: “This isn’t about rewilding, but laziness.” While Lyons says the situation has improved since the Greens were voted out, he says: “It’s gone from awful to shoddy. There’s still work to be done.

    “Brighton has always had a bit of an edgy place, if you think back to the mods and the rockers. But now when people visit it just looks like a dump.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/environment/2023/09/04/brighton-hove-green-party-rewilding-eco-policy-dump-weeds

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/607cb63fe7a23950e1e799d833e423ef4cb2a2bc61a469a38390d62d9f1df93f.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a74fb2a8a2fe5093b46469bc2a76e915d77956cc86914a802b4754d272e0a705.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/688ea3fdb7b286253bac45de340a912335a22797f5baec8c78952fb4d003987d.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9472c05107ba4889bc92cb2d7871132f44f57914a9a09941ef9546b0bae2763a.jpg

  13. ‘Morning, Peeps. Yesterday was scorchio and today likewise – the Met Orifice says 25°, but yesterday’s forecast of 24° became 27.5°, so we should be frying today.

    One of today’s letters:

    SIR – It is clear from recent reports that the Loch Ness Monster has not gone away (“Loch Ness pictures hailed as ‘most exciting monster sighting ever’”, September 1). The late naturalist Sir Peter Scott firmly believed in its existence. In 1975 he even honoured Nessie with a scientific name, Nessiteras rhombopteryx, referring to its supposed rhombohedral shape.

    Not long afterwards, it was pointed out that this name is an anagram of “Monster hoax by Sir Peter S.”

    James Darling
    Dublin, Ireland

    Nessie can always be relied upon to pop up whenever tourism in the area is flagging…

    2. Well you would have to pay me to go to Scotland. I hear terrible stories about anti-English racism from certain quarters and I’m certainly not going to make the effort to go there and be insulted.

      1. We toured the Highlands for 3 weeks in 2008 and again in 2012. The best I can say is that we were tolerated (but not by the midges, out 3 weeks early on the first trip) but it is not difficult to imagine that since Mrs Murrell’s arrival on the throne things are a lot worse. We have no intention of returning.

  14. ‘Morning, Peeps. Yesterday was scorchio and today likewise – the Met Orifice says 25°, but yesterday’s forecast of 24° became 27.5°, so we should be frying today.

    One of today’s letters:

    SIR – It is clear from recent reports that the Loch Ness Monster has not gone away (“Loch Ness pictures hailed as ‘most exciting monster sighting ever’”, September 1). The late naturalist Sir Peter Scott firmly believed in its existence. In 1975 he even honoured Nessie with a scientific name, Nessiteras rhombopteryx, referring to its supposed rhombohedral shape.

    Not long afterwards, it was pointed out that this name is an anagram of “Monster hoax by Sir Peter S.”

    James Darling
    Dublin, Ireland

    Nessie can always be relied upon to pop up whenever tourism in the area is flagging…

  15. Good morning, all. Late on parade. Another – shorter – outing planned as the MR is working this afternoon.

    Any news? Concrete solution?? They are bricking it.

  16. SIR – Humza Yousaf, the Scottish First Minister, is to roll out a pilot scheme for a four-day working week in the public sector (report, September 4).

    I predict it will be deemed a resounding success, that productivity will plummet, and that taxpayers will fund what is essentially a pay rise for the rest of the public sector when the scheme is inevitably extended.

    Archie Douglas
    Whitton, Middlesex

    Come along now, Mr Douglas – buying the votes of the public sector is the next logical step in the face of a collapse of support for the Scottish Nasty Party.

    1. Surely this is a joke? If the public sector can work 4 days a week with no reduction in service then 20% of the staff are unnecessary.

      1. If they work 4 days a week, this will be a great improvement over the current level of, ooh, 3.5 hours a week.

  17. Because I knows NOTTLERs is dead cultured, I thought this spot of news from the Front Row might beguile.
    Richard Littlejohn in the Wail.

    “When Ivor and Mad Frankie made the jailhouse rock

    Here’s another one of those sentences I thought I’d never read, let alone write. From The Times, yesterday:

    ‘Prison cancels gay opera about Frankie Fraser and Ivor Novello.’

    You couldn’t make it up.

    A theatre group called Homo Promos (yes, really) had planned to stage an opera at Wormwood Scrubs imagining Novello, the gay singer/actor/composer, had shared a cell with Mad Frankie during his eight-week incarceration for misuse of petrol coupons in 1944.

    (Novello, that is, not Fraser, who specialised in robbery, extortion and violence.)

    Frankie’s proudest boast was that he spent 42 years behind bars without a single day’s remission. I can’t imagine him reacting well to the notion that he was cased up with a well-known theatrical homosexual. When I knew Frankie, who died in 2014, he was in a blissfully happy relationship with Marilyn Wisbey, daughter of Tommy Wisbey, one of the Great Train Robbers. (Her mum knitted the balaclavas.)

    Peter Scott-Presland, the opera’s producer, said he had the backing of the prison’s ‘neurodiversity support manager’ to put on the show, but the plug was pulled at the last minute. (Neurodiversity support manager? We’re not talking Mr Mackay here, are we? How much is that costing us?)

    The Prison Service was apparently worried the ‘Right-wing Press might get hold of it’. How’s that working out then?

    The Right-wing Press may have been the least of his problems. Scott-Presland should have been worried about retribution from beyond the grave. There are still a few of Fraser’s former associates and admirers knocking around. I can remember appearing with Frankie, along with the former England goalkeeper Ray Clemence, on a football phone-in show hosted by my old LBC mate Tony Lockwood, who was a bit of a gangster groupie.

    Somehow, I can’t see Novello — who in 1944 was the Scrubs’ answer to Lukewarm from Porridge — lasting long as Fraser’s cellmate. Frankie was an Arsenal fan. I asked him on air how he managed to follow the Gunners when he was in solitary most of the time. He said the trustees would listen to the results on the wireless and pass on the score. But they always told him Arsenal had lost.

    Why was that?

    ‘Because they wanted to see me chin one of the screws.’

    We’ll gather lilacs . . .”

  18. SIR – I once asked a GP friend if he was a member of the British Medical Association. He replied that the only reason he would ever join was so that he could resign. I said this neatly summed up my attitude towards the National Trust. Should I now add the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds to my list (Letters, September 2)?

    James A Fergusson
    Baildon, West Yorkshire

    SIR – Perhaps the RSPB – so busy with environmental and now political activism – might like to reflect on the RSPB Christmas cards I have received, which were made in China.

    Rosemary Ussher
    Windsor, Berkshire

    Setting aside for the moment what looks like some technical reason for the mis-spelling (?) of two pretty routine letter-writers’ names – yes Mr Fergusson, you should immediately ditch all so-called charities with ludicrous management titles and equally ludicrous salaries, and devote your support to the smaller, local ones where value for money will be streets ahead of the big and bloated type. Just do it.

    1. Fergusson is a legitimate spelling. Robert Burns said that he was inspired to write poetry by the work of Robert Fergusson (1750-1774). Another poet who died at a very young age. Burns helped fund his gravestone.

      There were Fergussons at school with me.

      Not so common is Ussher, but James Ussher was an archbishop in the Church of Ireland in the 17th century.

      Edited to add about Ussher.

  19. Morning all 🙂😊
    Sunny again, two days in a row, my word.
    What a great Shame RAAC wasn’t used when the offices were built at Westminster.
    I do hope it hasn’t been used in the construction of and illegal invaders/immigrants hotels. But I expect hoomun riaghts law yars are on to it already.

      1. Hopefully only closed for surveys and safety checks. Not quite as eventful as our lunatic media have been suggesting.

    2. Going to be steaming all week. 30’c is presented until next Monday. The advantage is that clothes will dry quickly.

  20. The ‘Far Right’ AfD’s platform includes:

    The document goes on for many pages about protecting the nation’s culture and how Islam is not a good fit for Germany. What exactly is that culture?

    The AfD is committed to German as the predominant culture. This culture is derived from three sources: firstly, the religious traditions of Christianity; secondly, the scientific and humanistic heritage, whose ancient roots were renewed during the period of Renaissance and the Age of Enlightenment; and thirdly, Roman law, upon which our constitutional state is founded.

    Islam does not belong to Germany. Its expansion and the ever-increasing number of Muslims in the country are viewed by the AfD as a danger to our state, our society, and our values. An Islam which neither respects nor refrains from being in conflict with our legal system, or that even lays claim to power as the only true religion, is incompatible with our legal system and our culture. Many Muslims live as law-abiding and well-integrated citizens amongst us, and are accepted and valued members of our society. However, the AfD demands that an end is put to the formation and increased segregation by parallel Islamic societies relying
    on courts with shari’a laws.

    Here is the AfD immigration policy in a nutshell:

    Current German and European asylum and refugee policies cannot be continued as in the past. The ill-fitting term “refugee” used for all the people who enter Germany irregularly with the aim to stay here forever, is characteristic of this misguided policy. It is necessary to make a distinction between political refugees and people fleeing from war on the one hand, and irregular migrants on the other. It is the AfD’s view that true refugees should be granted shelter as long as there is war in the countries of origin. Irregular migrants, who are not persecuted, have no right to claim protection, contrary to refugees. Once the reasons for fleeing, such as an end to wars, or political and religious persecution, no longer applies, shall residence permits of refugees be terminated. These refugees need to leave Germany. Germany and its EU partner countries should provide incentives for those who have to leave. It is in the interest of domestic and foreign peace if refugees return to their home countries and contribute to the political, economic and social reconstruction of these countries.

    We advocate moderate legal immigration based on qualitative criteria where there is irrefutable demand, which can neither be satisfied from domestic resources, nor by EU immigration. The interests of Germany as a social, economic and cultural nation are paramount.

    https://www.afd.de/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/2017-04-12_afd-grundsatzprogramm-englisch_web.pdf

    1. Hmm, all sounds like horrific common sense. Best put a stop to that.

      What bothers is that anything against the Hard Left narrative of big state, high tax, massive uncontrolled gimmigration is screamed at and labelled ‘far right’. Because then you can demonise your enemy while hiding your own agenda.

      1. UKIP has that sort of policy – that’s why lefties have tried to get the conference cancelled. It’s had to be moved twice.

  21. Good morning All,

    Hot sunny day here in N W Hants, wind in the East, 15℃ going up to 28℃.

    “Best Documentary” recently uploaded to YT this 2017 documentary video on The City of London and offshore tax havens. You thought the British Empire was history? It just morphed into something else and it doesn’t work for you, pleb. It controls a staggering amount of global finance, more than double the US if you include the offshore havens, and it’s responsible for the planned de-industrialisation of the US and the UK. 1 Hour 16 minutes and everyone should view it.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmQK1n-iBFY

    It could clear the National Debt with ease.

    1. Only part way through watching it, but it pushes the traditional line that Britain and the US are separate sovereign countries. I don’t think that has been the case since the seventeenth century in Britain and 1913 in the US. They are both arms of the international banking octopus.

  22. ‘Morning All

    Start with one for Pip

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/66d75b2ad6dff3ef3565d34c96e579e3252cbf59cc35b29dddec218b86d8f984.jpg

    Rest

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4f4e5c2dc4ad143fdb200ab6b3595566eb6ca6372d5a1e6259b40a810a5c5958.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7407fd89ad3459d594ffb6433d43ac417f77fc43f947a04aaa5a418772dc4f63.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/166f6c994d2a6bc47446d70e1a978bb3e74ca0b1458d0080db6d770e0c6e523d.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3255b9d06e013515b0e097355f1d41abef57767d40b0d9331e57084b666a8248.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6effa5753a43ab9b0fa6ec50a7d9d886a71a1746c3b5906407e7990dbf5da204.gif

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5b219701e180f4af50641864f6941a93d5ab83452114e3eeb41ee74a6e8e76b3.jpg

  23. Something else now nobody could make up.
    Our youngest grandson, four in February.
    He has Leukemia and has a similar situation as the Hickman line. It’s used for direct chemotherapy.
    But our son and his wife have discovered via his visiting nurses that the silicone plastic tubing is very slightly damaged.
    It’s a danger to his recovery.
    They took him to their usual hospital for help, (replacement is carried out by a surgeon) were told none was available for at least two days. Usually anything slightly untoward is remedied almost immediately.
    They then took him to Addenbrooks in Cambridge and were told that the whole country was short of or had run out of this medical product. Silicone is apparently in short supply and the tubing is, guess what ? Is Made only in China and Germany. His young life is at risk and the pressure that our son and his wife and the little fellas little baby sister is mounting.
    What a mess our country is in.

    1. Oh Eddy, what a mess. I do hope your little grandson will not be harmed by this.
      Can you order it privately over the internet and take it to the hospital?
      This is what my African friend does.

      1. He’s such a lovely little fella.
        But he’s not in distress. The hospital have made a temporary repair. It’s just a matter of how long will it take.
        It’s a dreadful situation, despite the claims of shortage of materials, this problem might even have occurred because of the strikes.
        Thank you all for your kind thoughts. xxx

        1. Bless you Eddy, and your loved ones. Hope all goes well and the replacement arrives very soon. Thinking of you. 😘

    4. Our country is broken beyond repair. 30 years of going with your feelings rather than adhering to facts has taken its toll. Bliar took a wrecking ball to it and the coalition Govt and subsequent TINO Govts have finished it off.

      1. I have the recording of the 2010 film The Ghost Writer. What a shame it wasn’t all based entirely on fact.
        I’m of course referring to the rifle shot taken from the roof.
        By the father of one of the many sons killed in the Iraq conflict.

    5. Oh, Lord, Eddy.
      You can do without that shit. How can a country run out of silicone tubing?
      I’ll keep my fingers crossed for the wee man, and hope the situation is fixed before you read this.

  24. Royal wedding cellist would prefer ‘folk tunes’ over Rule, Britannia! at the Proms

    Sheku Kanneh-Mason ‘doesn’t quite see’ why the patriotic anthem is so important to people

    By Anita Singh, Arts and Entertainment Editor • 5 September 2023 • 12:01am

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/843adae31c0da2856c5bf26fe817ae63feb5c0dcef1efb9222cd14bd098e8a93.jpg
    Sheku Kanneh-Mason has said he does not understand why Rule, Britannia! “is so important to people” and he would prefer the Last Night of the Proms to feature folk songs.

    The singing of the patriotic anthem, accompanied by flag-waving, is one of the great traditions of the Proms. The BBC provoked an outcry in 2020 when it unveiled plans to perform only an instrumental version of the song, amid suggestions that the lyrics had uncomfortable associations with slavery and colonialism.

    Kanneh-Mason, who won the 2016 BBC Young Musician award and became a household name when he performed at the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, told Radio Times: “There’s nothing inherently wrong with waving a flag. It always depends on context.”

    However, on the debate over Rule, Britannia! and its suitability for modern Britain, Kanneh-Mason said: “I don’t quite see why that song is so important to people, but it’s not really something I’ve involved myself with.”

    Asked what songs he would programme for the Last Night, Kanneh-Mason said: “It would be a bit different – and probably not as popular with the audience. I’m into older folk tunes. There’s so much really beautiful British music. I’ve been listening to a lot of old Scottish and Welsh songs.”

    Kanneh-Mason has Welsh roots: his maternal grandmother is from South Wales, and met his Sierra Leonean grandfather when both were studying at college in England. He comes from a prodigiously talented family with seven musical siblings.

    The row in 2020 involved both Rule, Britannia! and Land of Hope and Glory. The corporation insisted that the plans for instrumental-only versions were due to Covid restrictions, but the decision was reversed following fierce criticism.

    Boris Johnson, then Prime Minister, said of the furore: “I do think this country is going through an orgy of national embarrassment about some of the things that other people around the world love most about us. People love our traditions and our history with all its imperfections. It’s crazy for us to go around trying to censor it. It’s absolutely absurd and I think we should speak out loud and proud for the UK and our history.”

    This year, the songs will be sung by Lise Davidsen, the Norwegian soprano.

    Kanneh-Mason described the Proms as “a wonderful celebration of music” and said: “To be there at the end? That’s really special.” He will perform Deep River, one of the 24 Negro Melodies composed by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and published in 1905.

    “It’s a piece I always played with my family. That makes it special. I’ve got to know the music of Coleridge-Taylor over the past few years, I think he has some beautiful melodies,” Kanneh-Mason said. Coleridge-Taylor was a mixed-race, British composer who shared Kanneh-Mason’s Sierra Leonean heritage.

    The conductor for Saturday night’s concert will be Marin Alsop, who made history in 2013 as the first woman to conduct the Last Night. She has described the event as “the greatest classical music party I’ve ever attended”.

    In 2015, tenor Jonas Kaufmann became the first German to sing Rule, Britannia! at the Last Night. “It’s an old song but a great one and if they don’t have a problem hiring a German to sing it, why should I have a problem myself?” he said.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/09/05/sheku-kanneh-mason-rule-britannia-why-important-bbc-proms/
    ______________________________________________________________________________________

    A FOLK-SONG FOR THE PROMS – Ivan Hewitt

    Sheku Kanneh-Mason’s suggestion that we should programme the Last Night with good old British folk-songs sounds nice in principle. In practice it’s a minefield. Which bit of Britain would it be from? If it were England, the other “nations” would be up in arms. Then there’s the subject-matter. Rule, Britannia! reminds us of Britain’s imperial past, but most folk songs are about even worse things like sex and drink. A Jug of Punch would actually be my first choice for a rousing sing-a-long, but the BBC would never allow a song that praises the demon booze.

    Another problem is that nobody knows folk songs anymore, apart from the people who haunt folk clubs. But as the great folk-singer Eliza Carthy once said to me, folk is anything you can sing in a pub. So I reckon the best choice would be an old pop anthem that all the generations can join in, like The Beatles’ Hey Jude, or Madness’s It Must be Love. If you insist on a proper old folk song I’d go for Barbara Allen. It has that special sadness that brings a lump to the throat, and it’s one of the few old songs that most of the audience would actually know.
    ______________________________________________________________________________________

    If Mr Kanneh-Mason isn’t being naive or mischievous, then he is demonstrating that it’s possible for some people of immigrant background to be absorbed and yet not absorbed.

    As for Ivan Hewitt’s observations, I despair. Hey Jude is quite one of the dreariest tunes to come out of the 60s, Madness didn’t write It Must Be Love and, predictably, he puts down Rule, Britannia! as imperialist.

    The pair of you, listen. It’s just a bloody good sing-song and if the Albert Hall audiences don’t give it what they used to in the days of Flash Harry, the crowds at the outdoor concerts most certainly do. Mind you, with the dreary Marin Alsop in charge, it’ll be another deathly, humorless affair in SW7. She just doesn’t get it (if you, er, see what I mean).

    “Most folk songs are about even worse things like sex and drink,” writes Hewitt. Indeed, and if he wants to look at folk songs in a more modern idiom (well, 1980s), he could do worse than the repertoire of Cheshire’s finest strummers, The Macc Lads, although Beer & Sex & Chips ‘n’ Gravy might be pushing it a bit.

    GET SOME IN!

    1. That’s presumably because the cellist has no clue as to the origins of the words and thinks (erroneously);it’s some kind of white supremacist racist thing. The ignorance of modern people is staggering and depressing in equal measure. They all have an opinion, whether or not it’s based in fact.

    2. And this kid’s opinion is important because…?

      It’s so predictable. Get a person with desired characteristics, big him up, then he has “gravitas” because he’s won prizes/carried out high profile role, then quote his every saying as gospel.
      Nothing against this particular kid, he’s only riding the wave, and who can blame him, but it’s a pattern we’ve seen over and over again.

    6. Dear Sheku Kanneh-Mason,

      Kindly far cough, there’s a good chap. I will even chip in for a a one-way ticket.

      Up yours,

      HJ

    7. Dear Sheku Kanneh-Mason,

      Kindly far cough, there’s a good chap. I will even chip in for a a one-way ticket.

      Up yours,

      HJ

  25. Royal wedding cellist would prefer ‘folk tunes’ over Rule, Britannia! at the Proms

    Sheku Kanneh-Mason ‘doesn’t quite see’ why the patriotic anthem is so important to people

    By Anita Singh, Arts and Entertainment Editor • 5 September 2023 • 12:01am

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/843adae31c0da2856c5bf26fe817ae63feb5c0dcef1efb9222cd14bd098e8a93.jpg
    Sheku Kanneh-Mason has said he does not understand why Rule, Britannia! “is so important to people” and he would prefer the Last Night of the Proms to feature folk songs.

    The singing of the patriotic anthem, accompanied by flag-waving, is one of the great traditions of the Proms. The BBC provoked an outcry in 2020 when it unveiled plans to perform only an instrumental version of the song, amid suggestions that the lyrics had uncomfortable associations with slavery and colonialism.

    Kanneh-Mason, who won the 2016 BBC Young Musician award and became a household name when he performed at the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, told Radio Times: “There’s nothing inherently wrong with waving a flag. It always depends on context.”

    However, on the debate over Rule, Britannia! and its suitability for modern Britain, Kanneh-Mason said: “I don’t quite see why that song is so important to people, but it’s not really something I’ve involved myself with.”

    Asked what songs he would programme for the Last Night, Kanneh-Mason said: “It would be a bit different – and probably not as popular with the audience. I’m into older folk tunes. There’s so much really beautiful British music. I’ve been listening to a lot of old Scottish and Welsh songs.”

    Kanneh-Mason has Welsh roots: his maternal grandmother is from South Wales, and met his Sierra Leonean grandfather when both were studying at college in England. He comes from a prodigiously talented family with seven musical siblings.

    The row in 2020 involved both Rule, Britannia! and Land of Hope and Glory. The corporation insisted that the plans for instrumental-only versions were due to Covid restrictions, but the decision was reversed following fierce criticism.

    Boris Johnson, then Prime Minister, said of the furore: “I do think this country is going through an orgy of national embarrassment about some of the things that other people around the world love most about us. People love our traditions and our history with all its imperfections. It’s crazy for us to go around trying to censor it. It’s absolutely absurd and I think we should speak out loud and proud for the UK and our history.”

    This year, the songs will be sung by Lise Davidsen, the Norwegian soprano.

    Kanneh-Mason described the Proms as “a wonderful celebration of music” and said: “To be there at the end? That’s really special.” He will perform Deep River, one of the 24 Negro Melodies composed by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and published in 1905.

    “It’s a piece I always played with my family. That makes it special. I’ve got to know the music of Coleridge-Taylor over the past few years, I think he has some beautiful melodies,” Kanneh-Mason said. Coleridge-Taylor was a mixed-race, British composer who shared Kanneh-Mason’s Sierra Leonean heritage.

    The conductor for Saturday night’s concert will be Marin Alsop, who made history in 2013 as the first woman to conduct the Last Night. She has described the event as “the greatest classical music party I’ve ever attended”.

    In 2015, tenor Jonas Kaufmann became the first German to sing Rule, Britannia! at the Last Night. “It’s an old song but a great one and if they don’t have a problem hiring a German to sing it, why should I have a problem myself?” he said.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/09/05/sheku-kanneh-mason-rule-britannia-why-important-bbc-proms/
    ______________________________________________________________________________________

    A FOLK-SONG FOR THE PROMS – Ivan Hewitt

    Sheku Kanneh-Mason’s suggestion that we should programme the Last Night with good old British folk-songs sounds nice in principle. In practice it’s a minefield. Which bit of Britain would it be from? If it were England, the other “nations” would be up in arms. Then there’s the subject-matter. Rule, Britannia! reminds us of Britain’s imperial past, but most folk songs are about even worse things like sex and drink. A Jug of Punch would actually be my first choice for a rousing sing-a-long, but the BBC would never allow a song that praises the demon booze.

    Another problem is that nobody knows folk songs anymore, apart from the people who haunt folk clubs. But as the great folk-singer Eliza Carthy once said to me, folk is anything you can sing in a pub. So I reckon the best choice would be an old pop anthem that all the generations can join in, like The Beatles’ Hey Jude, or Madness’s It Must be Love. If you insist on a proper old folk song I’d go for Barbara Allen. It has that special sadness that brings a lump to the throat, and it’s one of the few old songs that most of the audience would actually know.
    ______________________________________________________________________________________

    If Mr Kanneh-Mason isn’t being naive or mischievous, then he is demonstrating that it’s possible for some people of immigrant background to be absorbed and yet not absorbed.

    As for Ivan Hewitt’s observations, I despair. Hey Jude is quite one of the dreariest tunes to come out of the 60s, Madness didn’t write It Must Be Love and, predictably, he puts down Rule, Britannia! as imperialist.

    The pair of you, listen. It’s just a bloody good sing-song and if the Albert Hall audiences don’t give it what they used to in the days of Flash Harry, the crowds at the outdoor concerts most certainly do. Mind you, with the dreary Marin Alsop in charge, it’ll be another deathly, humorless affair in SW7. She just doesn’t get (if you, er, see what I mean).

    “Most folk songs are about even worse things like sex and drink,” writes Hewitt. Indeed, and if he wants to look at folk songs in a more modern idiom (well, 1980s), he could do worse than the repertoire of Cheshire’s finest, The Macc Lads, although Beer & Sex & Chips ‘n’ Gravy might be pushing it a bit.

    GET SOME IN!

  26. Good morning all

    Fine morning here , but a very hot night , hotter than this morning , because we now have a slight breeze .

    The past few weeks have been a bit tough, but now glad to see some more summer weather and more accessibility to our lovely beaches, now most of the tourists have gone home .

    Things happen when you least expect them , I have a wonky hip and knee and post Covid breathing issues .

    Yesterday was a rare day that Moh and I were able to share a couple of non golfing hours together , so we took ourselves off to a pleasant beach in the Weymouth area , we put the chairs in the car and a couple of cold drinks .

    We positioned ourselves on a grassy bank and were focussing on a dinghy race near the horizon , the seaside was busy with people in canoes , swimmers, dogs and children .

    Half an hour later , to the right of me a voice was shrieking help , some one call 999,

    A frantic woman was screaming and an elderly lady , her mother was lying on the grass, her legs buckled under her ..

    Moh dialled for an ambulance , I ran and was shocked the lady wasn’t breathing , and I thought she was dead , blue etc . I checked her mouth, not choking , ran my fingers inside her mouth … no false teeth ..

    I thumped her chest , then gave her the kiss of life for about five minutes or more , there was utter panic around me , because Moh had to get to a spot where there was a better phone signal.

    The lady started spluttering and breathing , and she opened her eyes and her colour returned . Her poor daughter looked as if she herself was going to collapse . I calmed her down and told her her mum is a strong lady , , put mum in the recovery position , and shaded her, the sun was so strong .

    Other people turned up offering cushions and water , I must say I was also shaking like a leaf as well, after math I think and an adrenaline high.

    The Mum was 83 yrs old and had arrived with daughter for caravan holiday.. from the Cheltenham area . The ambulance arrived 20mts later , by then we had sat her up to give her a sip of water .. the afternoon temp must have been 29c +, too hot for me really .

    I have no idea what the real problem was with the poor lady , but the heat must have been partially responsible.

    An emergency situation is a strange thing really, because I was still shocked and shaking for a few hours after I arrived home , prepared supper and had a shower .

    Moh was quiet and reflective because years ago he had the same experience on the golf course , but the result wasn’t good. news .

    Here endeth a wonderful result that our Dear Lord moves in mysterious ways.

        1. Yes I have often thought so. Though it is just one minor glitch in a completely useless educational system H.

    4. Oh well done, Belle! Wonderful that your training and calm came back to you! What a star! 🌟

    6. Good on yer, Maggie.

      I learnt first-aid from the age of 10 (among other skills) as a St John’s Ambulance Brigade cadet. Even then I could never understand why first-aid was not (and is still not) part of the school curriculum.

    7. Well done TB you saved the old ladies life. She was lucky you had the expetience and time to go out for a leisurely break.
      A Fantastic and fortunate and life saving encounter.
      A star 🌟

        1. Instruction #1 I recall: Gardez le sang froid. Especially when people around you are screaming and shrieking and flapping about, a cool head is what’s needed.

    9. Well done Maggie! You were the right person in the right place at the right time. I hope the rwo ladies were suitably grateful.

    10. Good on you, Belle! All stand in respect for the lady!
      A life saved – there’s not many around who can say that.
      I hope your knees don’t remind you later for that indignity.

    12. Well done, Belle! Maginificent effort and outstanding result! The lady was very lucky:

      “The rates of successful mouth-to-mouth ventilation and compression were 11.9%, and 39.1%, respectively. Conclusions: The effectiveness and short-term retention rate of mouth-to-mouth ventilation after video self-instruction CPR training in laypersons was significantly lower than for chest compressions.”

      I can’t vouch for the accuracy of these figures, but during a recent discussion with our nurse d-i-l on this subject they sound about right.

  27. US Open fan thrown out after using ‘most famous Hitler phrase’ against Germany’s Alexander Zverev. 5 September 2023.

    A tennis fan was ejected from the US Open on Monday night after being accused by Germany’s Alexander Zverev of shouting “the most famous Hitler phrase there is in this world”.

    The article does not (predictably) tell us what the phrase was but I who do not share this neurotic compulsion to conceal the truth or view it as such think that it was almost certainly:

    “If you win, you need not have to explain…If you lose, you should not be there to explain!”

    ― Adolf Hitler

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tennis/2023/09/05/us-open-fan-ejected-for-using-hitler-phrase-against-zverev/

    1. They should not be so squeamish about repeating the phrase, which I assume was “heil Hitler” or similar, but it’s right the fan was thrown out. It’s not fair if every German is followed by nazi catcalling all over the western world, nearly 80 years after that short-lived regime ended.

      1. “It’s not fair if every German is followed by nazi catcalling all over the western world, nearly 80 years after that short-lived regime ended.”

        Especially with Zverev being a Russian.

      2. It was explained to me a few years ago, that it’s more complex than that. The initials HH are taboo, as is the number sequence 88. Small errors that can get you into hot water.

        1. What happens to those who live in a house with 88 on the door? Is a very sticky end on the cards?

    1. “Going out for a Bharati” doesn’t have quite the same ring to it as “Going out for an Indian”. Still I suppose if they change the name from ‘India’ we can stop paying foreign aid to them.

      1. They even said they didn’t want it, but the UK, being awash with money, didn’t stop the payments.

    3. Before British Rule, did India even EXIST as a country as opposed to a region of Southern Asia?

      1. Saudis selling US Treasuries because they are slowly ditching the petro-dollar and will use yuan or the BRICS exchange currency more in the future.
        They started doing it in 2020 because the last major financial crisis happened in the autumn of 2019 – spring 2020.
        https://wallstreetonparade.com/2020/06/blackrock-authored-the-bailout-plan-before-there-was-a-crisis-now-its-been-hired-by-three-central-banks-to-implement-the-plan/
        The covid panic covered up the Federal Reserve printing huge amounts of money.

    1. He’s right. The real question at the heart of every single one of these stupid policies is why can we, the public, in a democracy not stop their manic tantrum? Why can we simply not say ‘nahh, you won’t be doing that.’?

      Why when they do persist in stupid activity can we not simply say ‘thank you, but you’re under arrest for being an MP. You’ll be shot at dawn.’?

    2. Well said, Moggy! But unfortunately this government – and probably the next – seeks the very opposite of this simple truth.

  32. Funny thing about hip and bad knee with which I have great difficulty when doing things at home , climbing stairs , kneeling on the floor , getting out of the car passenger side , not driver side and a million other things , yet I knelt on the grass yesterday giving mouth to mouth resuscitation , with out thinking about my knee and hip and got up painlessly , again with out pain , yet today I am cautious and not so nimble .

    Adrenaline highs do wonderful things , and can save us from all sorts of deeper perils ..

    Just saying , that’s all, and no doubt many of you have experienced that can do feeling with any qualms and pain ?

    1. You saved someone’s life? Well done!

      Kneeling on the floor is a bit painful whether you’re old or young…… maybe a lot of the pain is in your mind.

      1. She wasn’t breathing. I guess that warrants a ‘dramatic intervention’ especially by someone with Maggie’s training.

  33. Morning, all Y’all.
    Sunny, not overly warm. Last gasp of what we call “summer” because it happened to be between June and October, but really was a delayed late autumn based on temperatures and rainfall.

  34. Last night’s degustation of Spanish wines was booked out – so we missed it. Pity. I like many Spick wines.

    Funny thing, though. Yer French are VERY sniffy about any “foreign” wine. In Laure (an hour from Spain, and where many locals are Spanish in origin) we used to have blind tastings. They would be very appreciative of excellent Catalan wines (and the occasional English one) – but when the sock came off and they saw they label they said that they really thought the wine disgusting but were being polite!!

    So I would have expected them to boycott last night’s do…

    1. I’m very sniffy about French wine, which is probably why I have avoided it for some years now, on a matter of principle. New World wines for me, particularly Oz.

      1. Q: Who first came up with the phrase “hideously white”?

        A: I think it was that BBC DG or Chairman who both Rose and fell during the Blair years …. can’t remember his name, but I know he supports Brentford FC.

          2. Anyone else from the non-rainbow, non-leftie, non-diversity tendency would have been executed on the spot.

          3. Anyone else from the non-rainbow, non-leftie, non-diversity tendency would have been executed on the spot.

          1. Jon Snow said he’d “never seen so many white people in one place” during a report on a pro-Brexit rally in 2019. Dyke said the BBC was hideously white in 2001.

    3. The diversity is really low. Which is good! In the UK of course, the pakistanis would have 30+ children, there’s be no black men as they abandon their partners once the child is born – to claim benefits. That would leave a small number of white families with children who would all be at work and unable to come.

    4. On my recent short break in Pembrokeshire I noted numbers of young white couples with 2, 3 or 4 children. Good to see.

      1. Looking up football commentator, Chris Sutton, I noticed he had six children. He was always sharp in the penalty area.

  37. Birmingham City Council declares effective bankruptcy. 5 September 2023.

    Largest local authority in Europe issues Section 114 notice – meaning it cannot balance its budget .

    Europe’s largest local authority, which provides services for more than a million residents, has issued a Section 114 notice – meaning expenditure will solely be used to protect core services.

    In a statement, the council’s Labour leadership said the action was a “necessary step” to ensure the city can return to a “sound financial footing”.

    In June. the council said it was in talks with the government as it faced having to pay up to £760 million to settle equal pay claims. The bill is equivalent to its entire annual spending on services and had grown to up to £14 million a month.

    The costs were incurred after the council agreed a settlement following a landmark case brought in 2012 which found hundreds of mostly female employees missed out on bonuses given to staff in traditionally male-dominated roles.

    The end draws nigh my friends!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/09/05/birmingham-city-council-declares-effective-bankruptcy/

    4. I’d heard about this being imminent. Now what we need is to put all the judges and bureaucrats who’ve supported this equalisation of pay between dinner ladies (no shortage) and binmen (shortage) on the very same equal pay as the dinner ladies.

    5. It’s not the first. Thurrock, Croydon, Slough and Northamptonshire have all gone the same way. I see the consequences of it every day as I hack my way to the shops through the hawthorn and bramble jungle.

    7. What are they wasting money on that could possibly bankrupt them? Why is every single day not an absolutely only essential spending day?

    8. Not enough people working to be able to pay council tax, too many people living in social housing on benefits ?

  38. Amongst all the evils that the “vaccine” pushers (including politicians of all stripes) this must be the most egregious. Attacking innocent children through the fear of their parents knowing that the potion would kill, maim and destroy the innate and acquired immune systems takes a certain level of evil misanthropy that is hard to comprehend.

    https://twitter.com/JimFergusonUK/status/1698612631026741649

    1. Does it? Does it really? The same claim was made in The Expose and Dr Adrian Wong thinks it’s nonsense. The photograph chosen by igor-chudov.com is rather inflammatory as readers might conclude that the child depicted was one of those chosen for the study. The tests were carried out in vitro and none of the children tested developed symptoms such as that.

      Did Study Show COVID Vaccines Cause VAIDS In Children?!

      Posted by Dr. Adrian Wong Date: August 31, 2023

      Did an official study show that COVID-19 vaccines cause VAIDS in children?!

      Take a look at the viral claim, and find out what the facts really are!

      Claim : Study Show COVID-19 Vaccines Cause VAIDS In Children!
      People are sharing an article by The Expose (formerly Daily Expose), which claims that an official study just showed that COVID-19 vaccines cause VAIDS (Vaccine-Induced Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome) in children!

      Here is an excerpt from the really long article, so feel free to skip to the next section for the facts!

      A new study shows covid injections cause VAIDS in children

      A study published last Friday showed that Pfizer’s covid injections cause VAIDS in children.

      The study aimed to investigate the effects on the functioning of children’s immune systems after being injected with Pfizer’s covid “vaccines.”

      It found that covid-vaccinated children had decreased immune system responses to a variety of commonly encountered pathogens 28 days after the second dose. Many specific immune reactions declined by a factor of over ten times.

      Decreased immunity to pathogens caused by vaccination is what is referred to as Vaccine-Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome or VAIDS.

      Finally, we have scientific confirmation that vaccination against covid-19 causes a marked decrease in immunity to heterologous pathogens. Heterologous means “derived from a different organism” such as other viruses, bacteria and fungi. This decreased immunity to other pathogens, or acquired immune deficit, is what people colloquially refer to as “VAIDS.” VAIDS stands for Vaccine-Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.

      The study titled ‘BNT162b2 COVID-19 vaccination in children alters cytokine responses to heterologous pathogens and Toll-like receptor agonists’, set out to measure the quality of immune responses in children injected with the Pfizer covid “vaccine.”

      Blood samples from 29 children, aged 5-11 years old, were taken on the day of the FIRST dose of covid vaccination and subsequently retaken on the 28th day after the second dose.

      Unfortunately, the 29 covid-vaccinated children aged 5-11, had markedly decreased immune responses 28 days after the second dose of Pfizer. Many specific immune reactions declined by a factor of over ten times.

      In the ideal world, careful scientists, cautious public health authorities, and principled medical doctors would investigate covid injections’ effects before vaccinating tens of millions of children and billions of adults. Had they investigated and done the basic science – such as the study above – before mandating and injecting covid “vaccines,” such dangerous injections would never have been given to children and young adults!

      Instead, in the mad rush to “vaccinate the world” with “vaccines” that do not even work, we ruined the immune responses of millions of children and likely others.

      Headlines about the “unexplained rise in children infected” with the above-mentioned bacteria abound:

      Truth : Study Did Not Show COVID-19 Vaccines Cause VAIDS In Children!
      This is just another example of FAKE NEWS from the notorious fake news website, The Expose, and here are the reasons why…

      Fact #1 : The Expose Is A Notorious Fake News Website

      Like Real Raw News and NewsPunch, Daily Expose is a website that capitalises on making shocking but fake stories to generate page views and money. It was later rebranded as The Expose.

      Founded in November 2020 by Jonathan Allen-Walker – a mechanic from Lincolnshire, The Expose / Daily Expose is infamous for publishing COVID-19 and vaccine misinformation.

      Fact #2 : Study Did Not Mention AIDS / VAIDS

      You can read the study, which was conducted by Australian scientists, here – BNT162b2 COVID-19 vaccination in children alters cytokine responses to heterologous pathogens and Toll-like receptor agonists. (https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2023.1242380/full)

      Anyone who reads through this study will note that it does not mention AIDS, VAIDS, or even immunodeficiency.

      So the claim that this study showed that COVID-19 vaccines cause VAIDS is utter nonsense. The study has nothing to do with AIDS, VAIDS, or immunodeficiencies of any kind.

      Fact #3 : It Was A Laboratory Study On Blood Samples

      I should also point out that this study was conducted in the laboratory, using blood samples from 29 children.

      To be clear – no children were found to have developed any side effect or disease from their COVID-19 vaccinations.

      Again, the claim that this study showed that COVID-19 vaccines cause VAIDS is utter nonsense.

      In addition, because this is an in vitro (laboratory) study, it does not necessarily mean it accurately reflects what happens in our bodies. This research will need need to be verified and replicated in animal and human studies.

      The study authors also pointed this out in their paper, noting that:

      There are currently no data on the clinical effects of COVID-19 vaccination-related heterologous effects in children.

      Fact #4 : Study Showed Changes In Cytokine Response

      The study does not show any actual changes in immunity against viral or bacterial infections, because it was only evaluating the cytokine response.

      A whole blood stimulation assay was used to investigate in vitro cytokine responses to heterologous stimulants (killed pathogens, Toll-like receptor ligands) and SARS-CoV-2 antigens.

      The study showed that there was a decrease in cytokine response to bacterial and viral stimulants one month after vaccination. But that changed six months post-vaccination – there was increased cytokine response to bacterial stimulants.

      In addition, it should be noted that while the study showed “evidence of temporal associations between BNT162b2 vaccination and altered heterologous effects”, there was “no consistent correlation between BNT162b2 vaccination-induced anti-RBD IgG antibody titre at V2 + 28 and cytokine responses”.

      Fact #5 : COVID-19 Vaccines Do Not Cause AIDS

      To be clear – there is no medical disease called VAIDS – Vaccine-Induced Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome. It appears to be something made-up by anti-vaccination activists to scare people.

      AIDS is caused by the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). Nothing else causes AIDS. Certainly no vaccine, not even the COVID-19 vaccine, causes AIDS.

      Robert Charles Gallo – one of the two scientists who independently discovered that the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) was responsible for AIDS, said in response to the 2021 claim by Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro that COVID-19 vaccines cause AIDS:

      [I]t’s hard to believe anyone would claim that the covid-19 vaccine causes AIDS. We know what causes AIDS.

      Perhaps your president wanted to say that, immediately after vaccination, HIV can become a little more active, which is true of any foreign antigen. Or that vaccines might activate immune cells, but that doesn’t have any meaning, and it doesn’t last long.

      I don’t know what your president said. So I don’t want to be too critical. But it is obvious that neither the covid-19 vaccine nor any other vaccine causes AIDS.

      Fact #6 : HIV Is Different From SARS-CoV-2

      Just to be clear, the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is a completely different virus from SARS-CoV-2 – the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.

      HIV viruses are double-stranded retroviruses from the Lentivirus genus, and are transmitted through sexual contact, or transfer of blood and bodily fluids.

      SARS-CoV-2 is a single-stranded coronavirus from the Betacoronavirus genus, and is airborne, mainly transmitted through respiratory droplets and aerosols.

      There is no conceivable way for COVID-19 vaccines, or even COVID-19 infections, to cause AIDS…. or to create a new form of AIDS. That’s nonsense.

      Everything posted by The Expose must be regarded as FAKE NEWS, until proven otherwise.

      https://www.techarp.com/facts/covid-vaccines-vaids-children/

      1. Igor ponts out in his substack blog that he posted the original article which was reprinted by the Expose. Dr Wong did not acknowledge the source but merely implied that nothing published by the Expose could be believed.

      2. No doubt there will be a lot of different studies done before they make up their minds. Meanwhile, open debate is normal and desirable before people can consider giving a medication to their children. It is not a case of wicked fantasists trying to destroy a noble (vaccine) effort, as it has consistently been portrayed in the mainstream.

      3. DW, in my comment I referred to Jim Ferguson’s tweet that in turn referred to Igor-Chudov’s substack comment. I’ve quickly scanned over Chudov’s comment and I can’t find any reference to the Expose article, only to the Australian scientific research article. The latter’s Discussion segment of the report concludes:

        These data show that a SARS-CoV-2 mRNA-based vaccine alters heterologous immunity in children and that these effects can persist up to six months after vaccination. Whether SARS-CoV-2 mRNA-based vaccines can induce the epigenetic and metabolic changes associated with trained immunity to provide protection against other infectious diseases remains an open question. That SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccination in children could impact immune responses to other pathogens emphasises the need for further research and consideration of heterologous effects in vaccination policies given their broad public health implications.

        One doctor/scientist in a specialised field challenges another group of doctors’/scientists’ findings in that specialised field. Is that news? I rather believe that that is how science works.
        Is the Dr Adrian Wong you cite an expert in the field that the Australian researchers are working in?

        As for the (V)AIDS mention Chudov uses the following wording: (emphasis is mine)

        This decreased immunity to other pathogens (acquired immune deficit) is what people colloquially refer to as “VAIDS.” (VAIDS stands for Vaccine-Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome)

    2. Never wear a mask… Never have the jab or a flu jab…never have a booster. Dio not be one of the sheep.

  39. First British Challenger 2 tank destroyed in Ukraine advance. 5 September 2023.

    Social media footage appears to show vehicle’s flaming wreckage on side of road but there may be hope of repair for the four-man tank.

    Hamish de Crettin-Gordon says that all it needs is a lick of paint and a polish and it will be able to wipe out those evil Russkies again!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/09/05/british-challenger-tank-destroyed-video-ukraine-robotyne/

  40. While we’re enjoying this Indian summer, sorry, Bharati summer, I thought I’d pop up some weather stats I’ve been looking at.

    The average maximum daily temperature over the years 1990-2022 for September in Oxford ( the nearest station to me) from Met Office data is 19.50℃ so you can see we’re so far having a month to make the climate hysteria mob froth at the mouth.

    The provisional figure for July was 21.5℃, 1 degree below the average for 1990-2022, and August 21.9℃, 0.64℃ below the average. Thinking back over the last two months I feel those figures may have been ‘massaged’ upwards a tad. I should have kept a daily record.

    1. Recall last year much was made of temperature reaching 40 degrees, albeit – as I understand it – measurement taken close to an airfield where military planes had just landed. Surely, if those frothing at the mouth then were right, we should have had at the very least a repeat of this, if not even higher temperatures this year?

    2. I always wore my summer school uniform for the first couple of weeks of the autumn term. This warm weather is completely normal!

  41. Timing, it’s all about the timing.

    According to whistle-blower reports it was to be masking for certain groups around now, followed by other groups being mandated over the next month or so. Are they going for the “vaccine” early and before it’s been through the thorough testing regime?😎

    Distinct lack of sympathy in the replies. Who would’ve thought that?

    https://twitter.com/DVATW/status/1699003518487560701

    1. They do have to get full lockdown in for next November, dontcha know. The election steal won’t work otherwise. And the Dems do have to win or the WEF/UN/WHO Great Reset falls.

    2. But, but … this impossible. She has been triple vaccinated.

      Still, looking on the bright side…she might infect the idiot “president.

      1. You’ve reminded me of a quote attributed to Dorothy Parker. “When told that President Coolidge was dead all she said was, “How can they tell?”

    3. Oh right, perhaps she’s doing a
      Bore-us and pretending to have it.
      He was in and out and back at number 10 well within the isolation period. Then the ozzie nurse who looked after him left the UK for the USA.
      No comment.

      1. The Ozzie nurse is a Kiwi, She’s Jenny McGee from Invercargill, New Zealand. She quit more than a year after treating Boris Johnson over an insulting 1% pay rise offer, for feeling underappreciated and after what had been an exhausting year or so. She left for a nursing job in the Caribbean ahead of a holiday back home in New Zealand later that year. She hopes, one day, to return to the NHS. She said Johnson “looked very, very unwell… a different colour, really”.

        https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/may/18/nurse-who-cared-for-boris-johnson-resigns-over-lack-of-respect-for-nhs-workers

        Johnson was in St Thomas’s Hospital for seven days, including three nights in intensive care. After discharge, he returned to Chequers to continue his recovery before resuming work.

        https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/apr/12/boris-johnson-leaves-hospital-as-he-continues-recovery-from-coronavirus

        2. You’re right Stig, but it’s not what I read straight after the event.
          Probably due to more sloppy journalism.
          But the irony is, instead of moving into the private sector here, she’s not gone to the US, she’s gone to where many of our nurses originally came from.
          The Caribbean. She would have been paid more elsewhere.

    5. No problem. Just give her the standard jab of sterile distilled water, just like all the other politicians (and their families) had.

  42. Well when I’m cleaning windows…..
    Just sat down for a lunch break.
    And switch on the TV and a chat prog Called Alexis Conran has just ask the most stupid question I’ve ever heard. Should young children at school be known as gender neutral.
    And not as boys and girls.

    1. Utter rubbish! And people will believe anything they’re told by these shysters.

      Children are either boys or girls. It is an innate characteristic and cannot be changed whatever the mentally ill want.

      1. Terrible isn’t it.
        The guy on the two person panel called it stupid.
        Apparently it’s directed at the uniforms.

      2. We had a female dog for 14 years. She was soft and gentle with plenty of spirit, but not ‘feisty’. She had a tennis ball sized ping pong ball which she played with a great deal and in all the 14 years she never punctured it nor put a toothmark upon it. She was careful in her way of life and made every effort to fit in with us. She treated other dog’s poo with disdain and stepped carefully around it if she encountered it. She simply wasn’t interested in it (although pheasant poo was a different matter).

        Our new male dog is bonkers – he races around the garden without a care or thought for his safety, careering down slopes and up steps, jumping up to try and grab the washing from the line, anything that can be tugged is tugged – hard. Racing around the room he took a flying leap at my big toe in passing. My sandals have toothmarks in them, tissues (counted all out from the box) are shredded. He will challenge poppiesdad….. I am hoping his little op will calm him down.

        And this is the difference between boys and girls, be they humans or dogs or any other species. They are different from the moment they are born. A Guardian-reading colleague informed me that they are the same, that its just our expectations that are different, girls from boys, and that moulds their behaviour and character. I should add that this person is not married and has never had a partner, no children. And yet these people choose to inform and pontificate on a subject of which they know nothing.

        1. Both my babies were boys……….. I’ve had male and female cats, but no dog since the one my mother had when I was a child. He was lovely but bonkers.

    2. What mostly annoys me is that I never get to meet these people and have the opportunity to scream at 100dB right in their faces:

      YOU FUCKING USELESS WANKER!!!!!

  44. New Labour knew in 1997 from the previous Tory Government that there could be a serious issue about the structural integrity of Raac concrete roof planks.

    1996 – The UK’s Building Research Establishment (BRE), an executive agency of the government, issued an “information paper” about Raac concrete roof planks installed before 1980 that warned of “excessive deflections and cracking”. There was no evidence “so far” to suggest they posed a safety hazard to building users, but it said Raac could not be expected to have a useful life of much more than 30 years.

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/sep/04/raac-crisis-who-knew-what-when-crumbling-concrete-england#:~:text=May%202023%20%E2%80%93%20The%20DfE%20identified,Raac%20is%20now%20life%2Dexpired.

    Labour had until 2010 to do something about it.

    Instead, Gordon Brown’s ‘prudent’ management of the UK economy resulted in the sale of a staggering amount of gold reserves:

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/blog/2009/jan/08/economy-gordonbrown#:~:text=According%20to%20today%27s%20report%2C%20Brown,would%20have%20fetched%20%2410.5bn.

        1. Wonderful photos Phizzee, you really are a key interlocutor of amazing events .

          You all looked so handsome and pretty, and wow a cobra meeting by accident , did you all sort out our political mess?

          1. Catering and events was my forte. Getting even 14 Nottlers together is like herding cats !

            For the most part day to day nonsense was avoided.

            I believe the gang all enjoyed themselves and it was a lovely warm sunny day.

            One of guests was from Shrewsbury so you have no excuse next time!

            I think it would be hilarious and bold of your husband to turn up.
            Would love to see you too.
            These lunches are always great fun.

            I paid for the wine and drinks and John and Maggie took the lion share of the Bill this time. So a relatively cheap lunch for all concerned in lovely surroundings.
            Can’t beat that.

          2. By the next one, life should have settled.
            Would probably be better from my POV to drive down and book somewhere for the night.
            From experience, I know proper lunches have a long recovery period.

          6. You are a split photon and I claim my £5.

            A group of scientists tried a variation on the double-slit experiment, called the delayed choice experiment. The scientists placed a special crystal at each slit. The crystal splits any incoming photons into a pair of identical photons. One photon from this pair should go on to create the standard interference pattern, while the other travels to a detector. Perhaps with this setup, physicists might successfully find a way to observe the logic-defying behavior of photons.

            https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a22280/double-slit-experiment-even-weirder/

          9. Speaking of twins. Alf is twice as tall and broad as me. When we went to pay the Bill i introduced myself as his twin. They didn’t bat an eyelid. If they has laughed they might have got a tip…

      2. From the left…Alf the Great. Richard SK. Hertslass. Harry Kobeans and Alison. Phizzee. Steve. Rik Redux. David. Sue Eddison. VW. StorminaDcup.

        Geoff was an hour late !

      1. That’s a cool look.

        Geoff is toying with the idea of somewhere in East Anglia next year for the official Nottle lunch on April 1st 2024

          1. A few Nottlers live in that area. Harry Kobeans, Anne Allen and of course Billy ‘no mates’ Thomas.
            You might be able to cadge a bed for the night.

    4. Obviously you all had a great time. I was not aware that it was happening until I started seeing yesterday’s posts. Woking would be sort of get-at-able from here in Bracknell, if next year’s is in eastern England it would probably not be. Glad it went well and I can now put a few more faces to names.

      1. The official one is in April. I just organised a lunch at the Red Lion because i felt like it. Would be nice to have more newbies to celebrate the blog and Geoff for his work in providing it.

      1. It was to celebrate three things:
        Your 75th birthday
        Hacking your bank account
        You paying…
        };-))

        1. Dinner in daughter’s back garden with SiL and their two dogs, drinking champagne left over from theri wedding two years ago.

  47. China makes microchip breakthrough in blow to Biden’s tech sanctions. 5 September 2023.

    China has made a major breakthrough in microchip manufacturing, undermining US President Joe Biden’s efforts to block Beijing from accessing the most advanced technology.

    Chips in Huawei’s latest smartphone appear to have been made using cutting-edge techniques developed in Europe, using technology that is now subject to trade restrictions.

    Research company TechInsights analysed the Mate 60’s main processor chip and concluded it was manufactured using what is known as EUV, or extreme ultraviolet lithography. EUV is an advanced manufacturing technique used to etch a chip’s inner workings into its silicon.

    A closely-guarded secret, EUV was developed by Dutch company ASML and incorporated into its multi-billion dollar chip manufacturing machines. China is now largely blocked from buying these machines under trade restrictions spearheaded by the US.

    I’m not very tech savvy but I would have thought that just knowing something has already been done would be an enormous fillip to solving a problem. There is a profound truth here about the world. Doing something for the first time; climbing the North Face of the Eiger, splitting the atom, is incredibly difficult. After that it gets progressively easier until people are looking at moving pictures in their living rooms.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/09/04/china-microchip-breakthrough-blow-bidens-tech-sanctions/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr

    1. Very true. The Sovs would have developed nuclear weapons sooner or later without the help of the traitor Fuchs.

    2. It’s a messy market of Biden trying to hold up Chinese development to suit his own interests rather than allowing the domestic market to flourish.

      AMSL are the only people who make the high end etching machines. Biden thinks he can hold up Chinese development by stopping them buying the etching machines.

      I find the wish to hold up China to be comical. They can still buy the processors and most go into mobile telephones. Some go into cars, but the processing power our Volvo needs is trivial compared to what a telephone does – and distributed.

    2. Apologies for ruining the run of birdies but Par for me

      Wordle 808 4/6

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

  50. People caught in possession of laughing gas could face up to two years in jail under new Home Office plans. 5 September 2023.

    People could face up to two years in jail for possessing laughing gas “nitrous oxide” under plans to ban it for recreational use published by the Home Office today.

    Rishi Sunak announced the plan to ban laughing gas (except for when it is being used for legitimate purposes, such as catering and medicine) earlier this year as part of a commitment to tackling antisocial behaviour.

    Another useless and pointless legislation exercise. These people cannot prevent the use of Marijuana or Cocaine in vast quantities and they are going to stop nitrous oxide?

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2023/sep/05/schools-concrete-raac-building-safety-jeremy-hunt-conservatives-labour-uk-politics-latest-news

  53. That’s me one. Out to supper in what is universally recognised as the best resto for fish.

    Market and more tourism tomorrow. St Nazaire an the remnants of Operation Chariot on Thursday.

    Have lovely evening.

    A demain

  54. Yesterday at about 20:15 hrs whilst watching Only Connect, all Freeview terrestrial channels disappeared from our TV screen without explanation – they came back half an hour later.

    Could this have been due to the Coronal Mass Ejection that occurred on September 1st 2023?

    Yesterday’s M1.2 solar flare from departing sunspot region 3413 produced an impressive partial halo coronal mass ejection which is likely to arrive at our planet on Monday, 4 September.

    https://www.spaceweatherlive.com/en/news/view/507/20230902-stormy-space-weather-ahead.html

    1. I’ve written to the government about this (in green ink) and demanded that they pull their socks up and do more about Climate Armageddon.

      Why can’t they just send up a fire-engine space-ship and cool the sun down a tad with a bloody long hosepipe? Their inertia on this makes my piss boil!

        1. I think it might take a bit more mint, than even Jeremiah Colman has in his mint fields, to quench the sun’s thirst.

    2. No, solar flares don’t really affect UHF TV signals. What is far more likely is tropospheric propagation as a result of the high pressure and warm weather. Remember back in the old analogue tv days when you got patterning on the picture, especially in the old 405 line VHF days. Freeview is not that robust when it gets signals from multiple transmitters at the same time. Or maybe it was a fault at the transmitter and it actually went off, does happen.

      1. My godparents lived in Egham – under the Heathrow flight path.
        Every time the telly screen went wobbly, my godmother would rush outside and wave her clenched fist at the sky.

    3. No, solar flares don’t really affect UHF TV signals. What is far more likely is tropospheric propagation as a result of the high pressure and warm weather. Remember back in the old analogue tv days when you got patterning on the picture, especially in the old 405 line VHF days. Freeview is not that robust when it gets signals from multiple transmitters at the same time. Or maybe it was a fault at the transmitter and it actually went off, does happen.

  56. Another low in Canada.

    Two of the leaders of last year’s freedom convoy go on trial today, their crime is Mischief.

    Not content with their having been imprisoned for many days and subject to severe bail conditions this past eighteen months, the prosecution have been suggesting ten year jail terms are appropriate.

    One of the bail restrictions on Tamara Lich is that she cannot be in central Ottawa unless accompanied by her lawyer – the trial is being held in Ottawa.

    In the meantime the despised emporer is off on another one of his overseas trips, probably giving away more of our money that we don’t have.

  57. Off topic.
    Some of you may recall my moaning about the recent cottage guests.
    Well, we’ve finally cleared up after them.

    What usually takes about 6 man hours to do everything, took the better part of 30, and that doesn’t include the multiple extra washes to clean all the stains from the linen. We used almost a season’s supply of special cleaning products just to remove blood, sweat, urine and God knows what else from sheets, pillow cases, mattress protectors, valances etc.

    We need the extra income, but HG is starting to think “To Hell with the cottage” and I’m tending to agree.

    1. You have my sympathy Sos. I couldn’t think of anything worse.
      Send us their names and address we’ll sort them out 🤗😉

      1. Believe it or not, they mean well. They are kind, just utterly thoughtless and couldn’t care less about the outcomes of their actions.

        HG was almost in tears when she saw what she/we had to do, most unlike her.
        By the end, “rage” didn’t cover it.

        1. It’s hard to understand or belive that some people have very low standards. What sort of age are they ?

        2. At a certain point, one has to wonder whether simply relegating the linen to dog beds and painting sheets and buying fresh ones is more cost effective.
          Hope you have a bit of peace from your next guests.

    2. Very understandable.
      Do you take a deposit from your guests?
      But then that means inspections and argy bargy.
      And in Blighty, the government is imposing at very short notice a raft of extra health’n’safety rules on those owning holiday lets.

      1. In theory, there is a security deposit, but it only covers breakages.
        More trouble than it would be worth trying to claim and you can guarantee a dreadful review would follow.

    3. The Pig of Lead over the road has the same problem.
      They’d run it as an excellent B&B for some years and decided to go down the Self Catering route and it’s been nothing but trouble for them to the point that have stopped taking bookings and will probably move back in.

  58. Thank you for all of your kind words earlier. The little fella actually went to nursery school this morning. There could be some replacement tubes available from a London hospital but it has to be carried out by a surgeon. Let’s hope it can be attended to in the next few days.
    It’s very worrying for us all.
    I’ll be in bed before 21:00.
    So it’s good night from me 😴

  59. Thoughts and prayers for the many Nottlers who have not been around for a while because of illness etc, lacoste, Plum, Datz, LotL and many others.

  60. Thanks SoS and others. Have been in Hospital about 2 + weeks. Have had some nasty falls and have been in a lot of pain and my cheek is giving me hell.
    I have been in lots of pain and my face is killing me!
    I escaped today, thank god,

    2. Oh bugger. Hope you’re feeling a lot better now and, despite the pain, more relaxed at home.
      Like everyone else on here, I’m relieved to hear from you though.

    4. What a time you’ve had.
      Pleased that you’re out of hospital and hopefully you loved ones to care for you.

    6. If I was in your Shoes LotL I’d take myself off to the local Hospice and ask to speak to their pain management team (taking your meds with you) and seek their advice on the best pain management regime for your symptoms then back to your GP for the goodies! Hope this helps. S

    11. We’re all thinking of you, Lottie. I hope it won’t be too .one before your troubles start to ease.

    12. Well done, Ann, despite the pain, you shew such resilience. Just KBO. You’re a lesson to us all in fortitude.

  61. And after a rather warm day, that’s me off to bed.
    Did a shopping run to Belper, spent far too much and, by the time I got home, it was too hot to bother going up the suntrap that calls its self “my garden”.

    Good night all.

  64. 375911+ up ticks,

    May one ask, In parliament you have the lab/lib/con coalition ?

    What other party’s.

  65. The Guardian is now joining the BBC in the schools-falling-down-because-of-evil-Tory-spending-cuts campaign. The headline will be enough to have Latte Land frothing with indignation even though the fifth paragraph separates the two issues:

    “The schools rebuilding programme is not directly linked to the current turmoil over schools forced to close classrooms or buildings because of increased concerns about crumbling reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac), although some of the work will be to replace Raac-constructed blocks.”

    https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/sep/05/more-than-half-of-dilapidated-english-schools-were-refused-rebuilding-money

    I’m surprised we haven’t had a reference to ‘330,000 killed by Tory austerity’. In case you need reminding:
    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/oct/05/over-330000-excess-deaths-in-great-britain-linked-to-austerity-finds-study

    But lockdown was a good thing…

    2. The noise generated by MSM on this relatively minor issue (which has been known about and monitored for decades) is just another pointer to the reality that something sinister is afoot.

      Expect school closures, lockdowns, mandatory mask mandates, police chasing folk on the beaches or sitting on park benches in the depths of the Peak District and the rest of the armaments of government directed against the people with Covid vaccine boosters and the imposition of vaccine passports.

      Incidentally, Biden’s regime lost 280 billion dollars of Covid aid to fraud whilst our lot have lost a mere 40 billion pounds of Covid investment to fraud.

      When do the Nuremberg II Trials commence. All the evidence is at hand.

      1. The idiot media will be bringing aerated breeze blocks and thermalite blocks into the situation soon.
        And how about block and beam floors, all about to collapse ?

      2. It worries me that they might be working up to a massacre to enforce lockdowns. People not taking covid seriously enough?
        Have a school building collapse on children, then parents will keep them at home.

        We’ve been in an unreal summer, with a financial crisis slowly building behind the scenes while people have been manipulated with a series of irrelevant news stories.

    3. The noise generated by MSM on this relatively minor issue (which has been known about and monitored for decades) is just another pointer to the reality that something sinister is afoot.

      Expect school closures, lockdowns, mandatory mask mandates, police chasing folk on the beaches or sitting on park benches in the depths of the Peak District and the rest of the armaments of government directed against the people with Covid vaccine boosters and the imposition of vaccine passports.

      Incidentally, Biden’s regime lost 280 billion dollars of Covid aid to fraud whilst our lot have lost a mere 40 billion pounds of Covid investment to fraud.

      When do the Nuremberg II Trials commence. All the evidence is at hand.

  67. Evening, all. Shan’t be long before I go to bed. Busy day today (crematorium, memorial service, racing – my horse finished last! – then the licensing of a new vicar) and an equally busy one tomorrow (medical appointment, parish council “surgery” at the coffee morning and then a lodge council meeting and rehearsal to finish. No rest for the wicked!

  71. Bear with as computer is playing silly buggers! I did manage to post last evening and read your comments so I thank you.
    New bed is here and very comfortable. I have a carer 4 times a day, a a cleaner once a day and nurses 2 day.
    The carer today found my wedding ring which made my day and hers also.
    My sister in law left abut she has been wonderful.!
    I hope you are all well and I hope to feel better asap. More late.

Comments are closed.