Tuesday 7 June: Greenery, wokery and high taxes have made the PM an electoral liability

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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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.

653 thoughts on “Tuesday 7 June: Greenery, wokery and high taxes have made the PM an electoral liability”

  1. SIR – It seemsof the party. that some Tory MPs have embarked on another act of regicide. They had a choice of winning the next election with Mr Johnson as leader, or of seeing him go and losing it.

    Is a coalition of Labour and the SNP what they want?

    Mark Robbins
    Bruton, Somerset

    Good morning, Gentlefolk. I bring you a prize remainer (p*ick) who things Johnson will be the saviour of the party.

    1. Yo NTN

      The ideal situation for Ms Krankie would be a Lab/SNP coalition

      Then the referendum for Scotland to be independent would be held

      They would vote Leave, well that is what the Ballot Box would say

      The SNP would then spend the rest of their time in ‘power’ asset stripping England to pay for their ‘freedom’

      After the Leave Date, the SNP would leave Parliament with a well feathered nest.

      We would be in Deep Do Do, paying for Scotland, whilst leaderless

      1. Very dark thought, OLT but I don’t think any party – sane or otherwise – would consider a coalition that included the SNP. Anyway a further referendum requires approval from Westminster and I doubt, with what would happen, it is within the sights of any other Party.

        2. Labour would go into coalition with Satan himself if it gave them a chance at government. Oh wait a minute – they already are…

  3. A Fiddle

    For goodness’ sake stop bickering. There is more Carrieisma on Mr Johnson’s (insert suitable body part) than there is in any of the Tories who want him out.

        1. But the Government already steals from us today – let alone tomorrow. Tomorrow will just be worse, that’s all.

  5. As I said yesterday, I still think the prospect of an early General Election might just spur on Reform, Reclaim and For Britain to amalgamate and put together a mandate, that a lot of the electorate might well find worth voting for.

    My only concern is, and I repeat, that the leaders of these vote-splitting parties may be so full of their self-agrandisement, that a vote-winning proposal will not happen.

    1. All of Shakespeare’s tragic heroes are destroyed by what is false within – by what is described as the vicious mole of nature : a blemish that wipes out all his other virtues and qualities however good they be.

      Hamlet’s vicious mole is his indecision; Macbeth’s vicious mole is his ambition; Othello’s vicious mole is his jealousy; Lear’s vicious mole is his impotent vanity and Antony’s vicious mole is his lust for Cleopatra. The trouble with Nigel Farage is that he cannot work with others – his vicious mole is his arrogant vanity.

  7. Secretary of State Blinken says Russia is stealing Ukraine grain to sell around the world in a plot to ‘blackmail’ the West into lifting sanctions. 7 June 2022.

    During a meeting with aid agencies and private-sector groups, Blinken said that 20 million tons of wheat was trapped in silos near the Ukrainian port of Odessa, with more stuck on ships that could not depart because of Russian warships.

    ‘We know that President Putin is stopping food from being shipped and aggressively using his propaganda machine to deflect or distort responsibility, because he hopes it’ll get the world to give in to him and end the sanctions.

    ‘In other words, quite simply put, it’s blackmail.

    ‘The Kremlin needs to realise that it is exporting starvation and suffering well beyond Ukraine quarters, with countries in Africa that are experiencing an outsized share the pain.’

    It cannot be stolen if it has never left port and so far as I am aware the Russians have not intercepted or detained one commercial vessel (unlike their western counterparts) of any description let alone a grain ship in the Black Sea. The reason that they are where they are is because the Ukrainians have mined the ports and the approaches to them! Apart from this threat these ships could sail unescorted today and Russia would be unable to interfere because of the political and public relations disaster that would certainly follow such a move. If they did so it would in fact make Blinken’s false accusations real! This attempt to blame the Russians for an as yet unrealised shortage is simply another propaganda ploy!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10890643/Antony-Blinken-accuses-Russia-stealing-Ukraines-grain-exports-sell-world.html

    1. Remember the second suitor for Portia’s hand in The Merchant of Venice?

      The chap chose the silver casket and in it he found: The portrait of a Blinken idiot”

    1. 353016+up ticks,

      Morning J
      Gone are the days when the King led the battle
      the King now hires peoples to go & get dead in his/her/it’s name,
      .

      1. It works for me…the interviewer asks this Biden admin man whether he personally is affected by expensive petrol, and the guy flounders around, he is clearly either far too rich or never pays for his fuel, and you can see the cogs whirring in his head as he realises how easily he can be called out if he lies and says he is suffering too.

        1. As a matter of interest, BB2, do you have an active adblocker in place? I do and it may be the reason but thank you for the precis.

          1. Yes, I do, and I don’t have a profile on Reddit either. Could be internet connection speed? The VPN slows things down sometimes.

          2. Speed is currently 51.62 for download and 16.67 for uploads, even though I operate through a VPN.

  10. If you haven’t read “one hundred years ago today”, you simply must. “SCENES IN A REC­TORY. Woman charged with libel”.

    Compulsive reading shedding a light on what it was like 100 years ago.

    1. She got a lot of stick on Twitter from people who think we should live like the Chinese do.

      1. She got hammered in the Express comments as well! Weird really when she was actually telling the truth!

    2. She got a lot of stick on Twitter from people who think we should live like the Chinese do.

    3. I am still waiting for all those MPs who believe in Brexit and honouring the referendum vote to resign their seats and stand again in the resulting by-elections for a party which puts Brexit at its heart or, if there is not a suitable party, to start a new party run by someone like Lord Frost or Steven Baker.

      The sad truth is that Brexit will have been cancelled before that happens and we shall be fulty back in the EU under even worse terms than before.

    4. I am still waiting for all those MPs who believe in Brexit and honouring the referendum vote to resign their seats and stand again in the resulting by-elections for a party which puts Brexit at its heart or, if there is not a suitable party, to start a new party run by someone like Lord Frost or Steven Baker.

      The sad truth is that Brexit will have been cancelled before that happens and we shall be fulty back in the EU under even worse terms than before.

  12. Good morning all.
    A dry and somewhat less chilly start with 8½°C outside. Generally overcast with blue patches.

    1. Unfortunately you cannot read that one reply because I’ve been ‘modded’ for saying, “We all know which ‘Community’ they are referring to. Wait until it’s one of Plod’s children who is raped…“

    2. Absolutely scandalous – The police and justice system in this country is sick. It needs serious reform.

    4. Is there not a single person in government who wants to tackle this disgusting disgrace and see to it that all the offenders are dealt with properly?

      How many child rapists would be deterred if castration was the penalty?

    5. This is a complete perversion of justice. So now “they” are setting their own laws quite openly.

  14. SIR – For goodness’ sake stop bickering. There is more charisma in Mr Johnson’s big toe than there is in any of the Tories who want him out.
    Dr Trevor Masters
    Southend-on-sea, Essex

    Indeed there is, Trev, indeed there is.
    Unfortunately that charisma is not matched by statesmanship. An effective prime minister needs more of the latter if he is to succeed. Boris has none.

    3. The trouble is that the Fataturk is sharing his brain with one of his big toes and his cockadoodledoo!

    1. It would have been more informative if the bleeding hearts at Twatter had not censored his speech.

    1. Obviously hungry and couldn’t wait for the guy to crash and kill himself!

    2. That titchy little thing is an American black vulture Coragyps atratus, which has a wingspan of 1·3 metres (just over 4 feet). I’d like to see him do that with a proper Eurasian black vulture Aegypius monachus, which has a wingspan of 3·1 metres (over 10 feet).

      I saw the massive Eurasian version in Majorca, it was being mobbed by a tiny black bird. That ‘tiny’ black bird was, on closer inspection, a raven! ‘Our’ black vulture is a formidably huge bird.

    1. Sun crackin’ the flags up here for the 8th day in a row
      Edit – merde, it’s clouding over
      2nd edit – clouds gone , hot again

    2. Morning from South Devon. And rain.
      The only thing that I haven’t heard from the poisoned bbc is the weather is also the fault of Boros.

    3. A fine morning on the golf course this morning. Great views across the Firth of Clyde towards Arran and the ball went for miles on the hard ground – when hit straight.

      1. Morning, Phil. I have replied to your greeting yesterday instead of today. Sometimes my age catches up with me.

  21. 353016+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Tuesday 7 June: Greenery, wokery and high taxes have made the PM an electoral liability

    There is many a joker out there supporting / voting for the tory (ino) party
    knowing it is a political facade as with lab/lib but cannot truthfully face that fact.

    May one ask, what reasons were electoral fodder from say the likes of,
    shirttail major, leg over clegg, the wretch cameron, treacherous treaser ?

    Seems like in regards to the electorate the politico;s CAN fool the majority of the peoples ALL of the time, repeated.
    ,
    For instance, is this political facade party still succeeding in overseeing their open door policy at DOVER potential illegal troops, patients, house holders entering daily in large numbers, you member / voters explain that to your kids at a later date,…… then run.

    1. Morning ogga, think we all know the problems with politics in the UK. That being politicians are in the main not capable of the tasks and are frankly collectivly quite useless. And they by age old habit let the civil service run everything. The 600 plus only pretend while they top up their salaries with bungs and outsider delving and tax payer’s contributions to their takeaway expenses. 132million last year between them.

      1. 353016+ up ticks,

        Morning RE,
        “Morning ogga, think we all know the problems with politics in the UK”

        If that is the case .then in the nicest possible way may one ask, why in hells name are the electorate still feeding the lab/lib/con politico’s knowing every vote is encouragement.

        The voting pattern regarding the lab/lib/con close shop party before country is a nation killer.

        1. I think “we all” referred to NoTTLers, not to the general population of this country. The general population is a howling desert of ignorance and stupidity, with NoTTL being one of a few small oases.

          1. 353016+ up ticks,

            Morning HL,
            I comment mainly in regards to the majority electorate but do totally agree with you regarding Geoff blog.

          2. ‘Morning, ogga.

            I am dreadfully remiss nowadays in not greeting people individually. No I know you did, my remark was slightly tongue in cheek (concerning your definition of “we”).

        2. You’re asking me? 🤗 I would vote for anyone who doesn’t represent one of the three main parties. But we have never had the candidates. I’ve voted independent once. But they have no chance. So I’m never going to vote for any of these self promoting AHs again. My conscience is now clear. But I still hate our useless political classes.
          Recently one of the tory candidates rang our door bell seeking support. I told him politely that I’m never going to vote for any politicians again, because they eff up everything they come into contact with. Even in small villages like ours.

  22. ‘Morning, Peeps.  Yes, HJ is back (groan) having succumbed to a bad dose of the Chinese Virus, which wiped out not only both of us but everything in the diary we had planned for the Jubilee.  Fortunately the presence of various family members in the days preceding its arrival has not affected any of them, which is quite a relief. I’m now ‘negative’ (Mrs HJ has yet to achieve this useful status) but still in the hangover phase – brain fog like a pea-souper and feeling generally knackered, which is rather like a kind of no man’s land.  Still, it is progress…

    I thought I would start with an obituary.  This was published in the DT yesterday, which is rather poignant bearing in mind his remarkable D-Day exploits:

    Bob Sullivan, sapper who was parachuted into Normandy in 1944 on a vital mission – obituary

    Sullivan subsequently took part in the Battle of the Bulge, the campaign to repel Hitler’s last-ditch offensive in the Ardennes

    ByTelegraph Obituaries 6 June 2022 • 3:36pm

    Bob Sullivan, who has died aged 99, was parachuted into Normandy on D-Day on a mission to destroy a bridge of great strategic importance; after the war, he had a successful career in industry.

    In the early hours of June 6 1944 Sullivan, a sapper serving with 3rd Parachute Squadron (Royal Engineers), part of 3rd Parachute Brigade, 6th Airborne Division, was dropped into Normandy.

    His troop was tasked with destroying the bridge over the river Dives at Robehomme to prevent German armoured attacks on the landing beaches from the east.

    Many paratroopers of the Division were scattered over a wide area instead of landing in their planned drop zones but one sapper and 14 men from “B” Company 1st Canadian Battalion, who were the supporting force for the sappers, arrived at the bridge within an hour of landing.

    The explosives that were needed to blow up the bridge had not arrived so 30lb of high explosive was collected from the Gammon bombs that each paratrooper carried. This caused considerable damage to the structure but did not destroy it.

    At 0600 hours, a much larger party of sappers finally arrived with 200lb of explosive and demolished it.

    Sullivan was so exhausted, having been awake for 36 hours, that he fell asleep in the crater that he had blown at the bridge approach. He was awoken by the sound of gunfire.

    As the squadron were about to withdraw from the bridge towards the brigade defensive position at Le Mesnil about three miles away, they came under heavy fire from a German counter-attack. The fields had been flooded by the Germans and the men had to wade down flooded ditches alongside the hedgerows, keeping their heads down until they were out of range of the enemy machine gunners.

    To evade the strong enemy presence in the area, they spent the night in the churchyard at Robehomme. There was a danger that they would be fired on by their own troops as they reached their lines so a young officer was sent to Brigade HQ to warn the sentries that the group was trying to return to them.

    Moving quietly along country lanes the following night, they were stopped by a German staff car. The occupants took them for Germans and asked for directions. Sullivan and his group opened fire, dealt with them and moved on.

    They reached 3rd Brigade HQ later that night and were ordered to man the front-line slit trenches and relieve men who had been fighting all day.

    Robert James Sullivan was born at North Woolwich, London, on December 19 1922. Always known as Bob, he left school aged 14 and was called up in 1942. He joined the Royal Engineers and, after parachute training, was posted to the 3rd Parachute Squadron (RE).

    Sullivan returned to England with 6th Airborne Division in September 1944 to retrain and refit. On Christmas Eve, however, he was ordered to Belgium and took part in the Battle of the Bulge, the campaign to repel the German offensive in the Ardennes.

    In March 1945, he was dropped with the 6th Airborne Division to support the amphibious assault across the Rhine. During this action, while helping to bring in stragglers who had landed wide of their drop zone, he was targeted by a German mortar unit.

    Caught in the blast when a bomb dropped close to him, hit in the knee by shrapnel, stunned and unable to walk, he managed to drag himself into cover. He was later found by medics, his wound was dressed and the next day he was evacuated to England.

    In August 1945 he was discharged from hospital and in December he rejoined the 6th Airborne Division which had deployed to Palestine on internal security duties. He was demobilised the following year in the rank of sergeant.

    Sullivan joined Taylor Woodrow, the house-building and general construction company, and became a director. Major projects in which he took part included Heathrow Airport and Hinkley Point nuclear power station.

    In 1983 he was appointed MBE for services to the construction industry.

    Two years later, he retired and settled in a village in Hampshire. He regularly attended the annual Normandy commemoration service at Ranville war cemetery. He also travelled extensively on holiday and to visit friends. In 2018, he entered the Royal Hospital Chelsea as a Pensioner.

    Bob Sullivan married first, in 1946, Norah Quinlan. She died in 1965. He married, secondly, in 1970, Edna Graham who also predeceased him. He is survived by three sons and a daughter of his first marriage. Another son predeceased him.

    Bob Sullivan, born December 19 1922, died May 23 2022

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/308682cf9aaa44de3ef7cb57ee8f1779eb82f2063c7a41076e2406bb2d71f912.jpg

    1. Good morning Big Bum

      Good to have you with us again.

      Caroline and I are unjabbed and had Covid very mildly in February. I took to my bed for one day; Caroline did not bother do so. We both fully recovered immediately with no lingering after effects.

      By contrast Caroline’s thrice jabbed sister had Covid quite badly last month and many of our unjabbed friends have escaped mildly while our jabbed friends have been quite ill – not only with Covid but with very sore and aching limbs. One of our friends – a woman in her 70s – seems to have a completely paralysed wrist.

      Have you any views on this matter which you would like to express?

      1. Thanks for your good wishes, Mr T. Yes, as it happens I do have some views on this matter, but to express them would place me on the wrong side of Geoff and earn me a much-deserved lifelong ban for some very un-gentlemanly language!

    2. Morning HJ glad you have recovered. Echoing Richard’s comment below would you kindly let us know how many (if any) shots of the ‘vaccine’ each of you had. Thanks.

      1. Thanks Stephen. Two (Pfizer) in Jan and Apr ’21, + booster in Oct ’21.

        I had already decided not to accept any further shots before the real thing came along a couple of weeks ago.

    4. Hello Hugh

      Sorry to hear you have been down with Covid .

      I had it in March, but by the time April came it got worse , and only 2 weeks ago my taste and sense of smell returned .. but my brain fog and lack of energy is worrying me .

      1. Me too, Belle, but in my case it is obviously early days to expect an early return to normality. My first infection came right at the start of the pandemic, and the usual symptoms were over in 3-4 days and with no obvious after effects. That was, of course, in pre-vaccine days. I understand that exercise helps recovery, so although I don’t feel like it some local strolls will commence today – sadly without our lovely Lab but there we are…

        1. *Gentle* exercise – don’t overdo it! Sad to stroll sans lab, though. Hope you both feel better soon.

        2. I cannot keep up with my husband , he is like an overactive spaniel .. even though he had Covid the same time as me .. he just keeps going , though sadly his concentration etc is a bit lacking , or maybe I am just so damned boring.

    6. Hi Hugh J! Lovely to see you back, but sorry to hear you’ve not been at the top of your game! Best wishes to you both for a speedy recovery and KBO!

    7. Let’s hope it gives you proper immunity
      Enjoy the recuperative evening red medicine

      1. Thanks, sos. As it happened I did partake of the aforesaid medicine yesterday evening, but unfortunately it did not taste as it should, so for now I have abandoned that line of treatment.

      2. Funnily enough getting Covid in February has given us an unexpected piece of freedom.

        Those who have a certificate declaring that they have had Covid in the last six months do not have to produce a vaccination certificate for travel. We went to Turkey via the UK last month and will be travelling again to the UK for Christo’s wedding next month.

        Indeed the younger members of one family we know made a point of trying to catch Covid by kissing and sleeping in the same bed as those who had the disease. Sadly in spite of all their efforts they failed to catch it.

  23. Boris Johnson’s hollow confidence vote victory tears the Tories apart
    Prime Minister’s authority crushed as he vows to battle on – but with rebels circling to finish him off
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/06/06/boris-johnsons-hollow-confidence-vote-victory-tears-tories-apart/

    I agree wholeheartedly with the poster who posted this BTL comment:

    But if the remainer, Jeremy Hunt, is the alternative to Boris Johnson then the Conservative Party, Brexit and Britain will be lost for ever.

    All the other suggested successors to Boris Johnson are also remainers who would take delight in continuing to sow the seeds of conflict against democracy and destroying our country – as remainers have tried to do ever since the referendum in 2016.

    The only thing that might work would be for Lord Frost to stand down from the House of Lords; run in a safe seat and be elected to the House of Commons and then elected as leader of the Conservative Party and ergo prime minister until the next general election.

    If Boris Johnson had an ounce of decency and respect for the electorate’s choice in the referendum he would support this idea.

    1. 353016 + up ticks,

      Morning R,

      To me that really does smack of a thick coat of plaster
      over a facade tory (ino) party, the rot is WELL established & has been since M Thatcher was awarded the order of the knife.

    3. The state machine wants us back in the EU. Every single effort it is putting in is solely dedicated to achieving that aim. There is no exception, no opportunity to leave. They simply won’t let us.

      As I said to my chum when he ranted about the referendum: “Don’t worry. They’ll never let us leave.” He knew what I meant, but he couldn’t see just how disgusting this was.

  24. 353016+ up ticks,

    Maybe October is a better time to contemplate this twitter post to really appreciate it,

    🚨🚨 BBC News – ‘China is one of 34 countries planning new coal power stations, India is planning to reopen 100 coal mines’

    ➡️ In the UK we have average £150-£160 as a green levy

    💥 If the UK got to net zero overnight, it would make negligible difference to world Co2 emissions

    1. £15 to 160 as green levy? Bollocks.

      Tax on energy is 40%. Of a bill, 40% of combined fuel is green taxes. https://www.netzerowatch.com/boris-johnson-accused-of-misleading-the-public-on-the-rising-cost-of-green-energy-levies/

      Green is not about helping the environment, it’s about forcing a narrative. It’s about the state commanding how we live and the choices we have for it’s own benefit. It is about a tiny minority of fringe tyrants getting rich of tax payers money.

  25. 353016+ up ticks,

    Maybe October is a better time to contemplate this twitter post to really appreciate it,

    🚨🚨 BBC News – ‘China is one of 34 countries planning new coal power stations, India is planning to reopen 100 coal mines’

    ➡️ In the UK we have average £150-£160 as a green levy

    💥 If the UK got to net zero overnight, it would make negligible difference to world Co2 emissions

  26. He has to go , why , because he utters absolute twaddle and has no spine .. he cares not a jot for us here , okay he will support the illegal boat people and Ukraine , India , Hong Kong etc etc but what about us here , you know , us lot who voted him in?

    He is scared of the Woke brigade
    The BLM movement
    The Net Zero maniacs.

    https://www.conservatives.c…. This speech is absolute balderdash.

    https://www.conservatives.com/news/2022/the-prime-minister-s-speech–tackling-illegal-immigration

    In fact I reckon he is scared of his own shadow and fellow MP’s

      2. No one. Let’s shut the damned thing down. Start off by cutting taxes by 50% and just close government down. Keep HMRC, Police and hospitals running but close the rest. When people start to notice problems, reopen those elements – only those elements to respond to that work.

        After 6 months of indolence don’t re-open the rest.

      3. David Frost. I predicted before Xmas that Frost would be moved into No10. I badly misjudged the power behind the throne. It is no longer the Tory grandees but NWO placemen, manipulators, and facilitators.

    2. I suspect that those who control such things will be planning his removal. He is surely damaged beyond recovery.

    3. Well, his shadow must be rather large – I wouldn’t fancy seeing such an enormous, dark blob close to me…

    4. There’s a great deal of difference between a refugee applying from a safe country to settle here, having a skill we need facing genuine persecution, an economic migrant with skills we want who we need and the dross pouring in from France.

      They’re just criminals. They’ve no right to be here, no utility, no value. Most are criminals in their own countries, most are violent, none share any of our values, all will immediately sit on welfare for the rest of their lives. It is fundamentally wrong that they should step foot on these isles. It is malice and spite from the state to force them on us. For this, the home office is utterly not fit for purpose as it has deliberately undermined the very purpose of Brexit – intentionally.

    1. Morning JD. Starkey seems to be making something of a recovery from his cancelling! Still not on the BBC of course but that is no loss to anyone!

    2. Coincidentally I was on YT yesterday, catching up with David Starkey’s various appearances on GBN. A real treat to see a proper expert speaking unhindered by the wokery that invests so much of the media now.

  29. Having mistimed my milk consumption I had to buy some from a Shell station. Delighted to see they sell milk in Real Pints, apparently 568ml !

  30. Having mistimed my milk consumption I had to buy some from a Shell station. Delighted to see they sell milk in Real Pints, apparently 568ml !

    1. They’re not really listening to the little people, are they? All done for their own benefit – same as every other state-sponsored edifice! Never for the ones who actually pay for the ‘service’!

    2. When they have th emoney and time to waste putting up a flag and having pictures taken, they obviously don’t need any more. This is the problem: these irrelevant minority groups were, by virtue of disinterest accepted. It was ‘ok, whatever?’. Now they’re screaming about demanding special treatment, special laws and making demands the public are looking at them with derision and annoyance. A loud, uppity group wanting one up on the rest of us?

      These very groups, who were tolerated are now creating through their own arrogance, the very intolerance they complain exists. It’s almost as if they want it.

    5. Gawping, smug-faced idiots, the lot of ’em, particularly the twat in the fruit-salad hat.

      Their mere presence, coupled with their favouring 1.8% of the population without regard for the remainder, constitutes a hate-crime, according to their book.

      1. Come on then, arrest me for your version of a hate-crime and see how far you get.

    1. I can’t remember if i posted this before but i recommend this book…O-Zone by Paul Theroux.

    2. As much wood as a wood chuck would if a wood chuck could chuck wood.

  34. Forest closed after rave disturbed nesting birds.

    A forest in Cornwall could be closed until August after a three-day illegal rave disturbed birds and wildlife.

    Forestry England said Davidstow Moor, near Camelford, needs a specialist clean-up after 1,000 people visited over the weekend.

    Chris Mason, from Forestry England, told the BBC: “Anything that was on the ground like ground-nesting birds has just been trashed, anything that’s breeding in the trees, like buzzards and other birds of prey, they all would have been put off their nests.

    “There could be younglings nesting now with the parents abandoning them so it could be quite detrimental to them,” he added.

    The only way to successfully stop ‘raves’ is to round up all those attending them and thrash them soundly with a cat o’nine tails. This would also be an effective deterrent for gang membership.

    1. “… it could be quite detrimental to them.” . That’s one way of describing death.

      1. Pfizer is already doing its best to further the advancement of eugenics with its Covid gene therapy.

      1. I don’t like her. She used to make unnecessary and snide references to white people in her films.

        1. I feel the urge to make unnecessary and snide references to barrage balloons.

          1. People cannot help that they may be ugly; however, she abuses the right to be ugly.

      1. I think she may have joined the ‘Preppers’ – the stick being a first line of defence when, given the world famine we are being warned about strikes, it will be used to fend off emaciated cannibals…..

      2. Are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin.
        (Thank goodness smell choker has better taste than I do.)

  38. I’m wrong!!! A first of course. Just checked my new milk bottle stock. They’re all 568ml. I was fooled because the one I bought at the Shell station is thinner and taller than the normal supermarket ones…

  39. A major new survey shows that most people wildly overestimate the size of racial, ethnic, sexual and other minorities in UK society.

    Respondents thought 20 per cent of the British population was black. The true figure is more like 3 per cent. The survey’s median guess was that 5 per cent of us are transgender. In reality, between 0.3 and 0.7 per cent identify as a different gender from their biological sex.

    So why would the normally intelligent British public get this basic arithmetic about our society so wrong? Might it be because Britain’s Leftist woke elites are obsessed with identity politics, and determined to re-educate the rest of us to accept their prejudices?

    Every virtue-signalling politician, broadcast media outlet, big corporation, advertising agency and educationalist constantly drums home the message that minorities are cool and should be centre-stage.

    They view the white, heterosexual majority with contempt, a blot to be removed from public view. Little wonder that so many of us appear to have swallowed a distorted view of UK demographics.

    That distortion doesn’t only mean that TV adverts increasingly fail to reflect most of the audience they are aimed at. It has far more serious consequences for us all, skewing public debate by focusing on relatively marginal issues. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-10890631/MICK-HUME-argues-little-wonder-swallowed-distorted-view-UK-demographics.html

    1. Morning Belle.

      I do not care what personal proclivities others have, I am not interested. But TPTB pander to all minorities, it seems to me, to the detriment of the rest of the population. Government listens far too much to minority groups pushing their own agenda, just look at all the ridiculous “hate” laws that have been passed, and the non crime hate incidents the police record. In their heart of hearts they all must know that people actively dislike some others, for whatever reason, it’s human nature. But everything has now been skewed to give certain groups far more leeway than the indigenous population.

    2. Good Moaning, Everyone – including Maggie.
      At least the skewed numbers, particularly in adverts, saves me a lot of money.
      Those companies don’t want my money so I’ll oblige by not spending it with them.

      1. I think that you’ll find that ? Liz Truss? signed an agreement committing the UK to banning the sale of all ivory,
        In France it is nigh on impossible to sell anything containing Ivory, no matter how old it is,

          1. I have an antique piano which has been passed down through the family – I have no intention of selling it. What my sons choose to do with it when I’m no longer here will be up to them.

            My husband plays it and it gives us both a lot of pleasure – him to play and me to listen.

          2. The old piano we had at home when I was young had ivory keys; the piano I had in the US had keys made from another material.

          1. I think so, but I have a dressing table set that is now worthless, so I’m biased, as well as bemused
            When will it move to ebony or teak or other exotic woods?
            And given the conditions of workers in rare earth metals etc why not ban them too?

          2. Excellent idea. We could replace mobile phones with Universal Communication Stations on street corners. They could be called “phone boxes”.

          3. I’m not certain it was her, it was done on an overseas jolly, virtue signalling

    2. Banning the sale of Ivory that is very old won’t save a single elephant, in fact by destroying the old ivory it makes poaching even more attractive as black market prices rise significantly

          2. I guess there aren’t that many indigenous people involved but, like slum landlording, there are plenty of British people in the chain.

      2. It won’t but they had to draw the line somewhere. a lot of the stuff sold as ‘antique’ was in fact artifically aged.

        1. It is mad here, one can’t even sell antique cutlery sets if the knife handles are ivory,

          2. I wonder what I might get for my old tape of “Till Death Us Do Part” on the black well maybe another market, or would that be burnt as well. Me too probably, for owning it.

          3. I wonder what I might get for my old tape of “Till Death Us Do Part” on the black well maybe another market, or would that be burnt as well. Me too probably, for owning it.

      3. Poached ivory that was seized by the authorities was burned. My suggestions (supply and demand) were ignored.

    3. I have an ivory lion on my fire surround. Two aunts lived in Africa and it was a gift to my Granny from one of them. I also have a small wood African elephant with ivory tusks. Had them for years and they are family heirlooms- made when people were not as aware.
      Poaching of any animal for ivory or anything is wrong.

      1. I have a number of nineteenth century Chinese ivories. I do not intend to dispose of them: they are rather beautiful and well carved.

      1. There is a cut off point before which it can be traded as an antique, I believe, although more stringent measures were being mooted (I feared for my piano keys – it’s a Victorian piano).

  41. ‘Nothing but a nightmare’: Commuters moan buses are ‘like cans of tuna’ amid great battle to get home in rush hour chaos caused by 24-hour Tube strike – with militant union bosses set to reveal rail walkout dates tomorrow.
    Daily Mail….

    QUE…?
    Fishy or wot….

  42. ‘Nothing but a nightmare’: Commuters moan buses are ‘like cans of tuna’ amid great battle to get home in rush hour chaos caused by 24-hour Tube strike – with militant union bosses set to reveal rail walkout dates tomorrow.
    Daily Mail….

    QUE…?
    Fishy or wot….

  43. I see the GPs ( or the BMA ) are threatening to strike over the requirement to provide longer opening hours during the week and opening on Saturday, well of course they would as a lot of them are employed by various out of hours services across the country for an hourly rate that would embarrass most reasonable people. During the daytime many of these are also “Part Time” for a good “work/life balance” .SWMBO works in our local OOH service and used to defend the Docs but is now so disillusioned with their venal approach that she’s given up trying. One of the “local” Docs triages from home – Dubai – and flys over (Business Class natch ) occasionally to keep his U.K. G.P. registration valid.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/06/07/gps-threaten-strike-extended-opening-hours-contract/

    1. It is the BMA that destroyed medical care. That union should be dismantled from the ground up.

      1. It took me a while to “cotton on” that the BMA, Medical Council, Law Society, and all the other host of similar were in fact powerful trade unions defending the practitioners of their monopolies in medicine, law, etc.
        No help may be found there for abused mortals, customers, clients and victims. (Pull the head off a baby… just an accident.)

    2. One simple solution, would be for those not in the BMA to withhold their services/products/business/fuel etc from these workshy overpaid people.
      Then, they would not be able to get to the Private Facilities where they “mend for money” : they would be starving too

  44. I see the GPs ( or the BMA ) are threatening to strike over the requirement to provide longer opening hours during the week and opening on Saturday, well of course they would as a lot of them are employed by various out of hours services across the country for an hourly rate that would embarrass most reasonable people. During the daytime many of these are also “Part Time” for a good “work/life balance” .SWMBO works in our local OOH service and used to defend the Docs but is now so disillusioned with their venal approach that she’s given up trying. One of the “local” Docs triages from home – Dubai – and flys over (Business Class natch ) occasionally to keep his U.K. G.P. registration valid.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/06/07/gps-threaten-strike-extended-opening-hours-contract/

    1. A silly 5.
      Wordle 353 5/6

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

      1. #MeToo! Two blanks again …
        Wordle 353 5/6

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

    1. Owen Jones is a gormless moron. He insists how awful this country is, blithers on about ‘da wight’ but never considers that his view is where we’re heading and that is is entirely the wrong way.

      1. How did that little twit ever get into the public eye? He seems a living embodiment of Dorian Gray, but at least DG was interesting, in more villainous way.

  48. Sir Keir Starmer says the ‘vast majority’ of women do not have penises but suggests there is a ‘small minority’ who do
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10891143/Sir-Keir-Starmer-suggest-LBC-small-minority-women-penises.html

    I very much doubt if there are any Nottler ladies who would claim to have such appendages!

    Remember the old riddle about how to test the sex of a chromosome?

    It is now out of date! You can no longer tell the sex of a chromosome by pulling down its genes.

        1. And yes, Phizzee – from your post yesterday I think I’ve lived in a continual form of stress for many years. I don’t really know what to do about it.

          1. I know it sounds new age hippy shit but breathing techniques have a calming effect. Controlled breathing is something i do prior to a flight. Doesn’t take long to do. A couple of minutes. Brings the heart rate down.

          2. I was on a management course once. A disparate groups of senior managers from many different industries. There was a section on stress and the presenter, a doctor, asked us if we experienced stress. “No” we all said. The doc the outlined the many various manifestations of stress. “Recognise them?” he asked. “Yes” we all said. He went round the group asking how we dealt with stress. smoking, drinking, kicking the cat.
            Me, I would have a bath. I’d lie in the warm water and consider all the horrors that I was facing and I would let go. I’d cry my eyes out for ten minutes or so. Then I’d pull the plug and many of my stress worries would go down the plughole.

          3. I’m not especially good at the letting go bit. It’s daft really, as the big stuff is being handled, but it’s all nagging at me.

          4. As i said. Controlled breathing will act as a distraction. Your mind focuses on that and not much else. Then there are activities like hill walking where your mind floats free. Do take care. You will live longer.

          6. You may laugh, but what helped me some years ago was living on the Continent where everything is closed on Sunday.
            Enforce a no-shops rule on Sundays, and your life improves immeasurably. It’s hard at first as you get used to doing everything on Saturdays, but soon you learn to appreciate the deep relaxation that comes with the knowledge that nobody can make you go to the shops on Sunday.

          7. I’d hate that. When I was working in the US, unless one had the stamina to go to the shop after school, you could go at the weekend. That is when most people have the time. Ditto estate agents. Why do they close at 1 on Saturdays and are shut all day Sunday? US realtors are open and working all weekend because that’s when people have the free time to house hunt.
            I can understand restricting hours on a Sunday but shops should be open.

          8. Apparently workers in the US only had 2 weeks paid holiday a year. Is that still the case?

          9. I can only speak for education. There were options; you could get paid monthly through start of the school year until the end. You could get a slightly reduced packet to be paid over the 2 months summer break or take what was called a balloon and get the rest of your money at the end of the school year. I always opted for the reduced through the year and summer pay.
            Pay for teachers was not great and I was paid far less in GA than in CT!

          10. I wrote a long spiel regretting the old times, when Sunday closing was a part of life – but life itself was in many ways much nicer. I have deleted that, because I guess that nowadays it would just be waffle.

            There were plenty of drawbacks in the past. But in some ways it was much nicer.

          11. You never wind down properly when you’re on the go seven days a week, but it’s hard to realise that unless you take a break. It’s rotten for staff that get odd random single days off during the week as well.

    2. This is what Political Correctness does to you! It makes you into a Fantasist and Liar!

    3. This is what Political Correctness does to you! It makes you into a Fantasist and Liar!

    4. The vast majority of men called Keir Starmer are as thick as two short planks.

      1. His parents obviously named him afer Keir Hardie. How delusional people fool themselves…

  49. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ww47bR86wSc&list=WL&index=43 As most of you are aware, I’ve been warning about the accelerating rate of human stupidity for some time. This is not a new phenomenon, however, Dietrich Bonhöffer announced his theory at a very unfortunate time … for him. He was hanged!

    I wonder if I shall also be persecuted or punished for propagating that prominently provable postulation. Time will tell.

    1. Nice video, but they barely mention that Bonhoeffer’s motivation was Christianity, and that the New Testament makes the individual responsible for his or her choices.

      1. Bonhöffer also said, “Upon closer observation, it becomes apparent that every strong upsurge of power in the public sphere, be it of a political or of a religious nature, infects a large part of humankind [sic] with stupidity.”

        Here he correctly equates power (and the desire for power) to be closely associated with — and driven by — the twin evils of civilisation, i.e. politics and religion. He knew that both are the premier and most successful methods of mind-control ever devised.

        1. A “strong upsurge of power in the public sphere” is the Church – not Christianity.

          2. A Church is an organisation led by men like Bergoglio and Welby, whereas the Word of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is the best advice for keeping a clear conscience and a healthy soul that has ever been devised.

          3. That hasn’t answered my question. Only the acolytes (followers, devotees) of the various factions of Christianity worship or attend a Church. Other religions have different names for their places of worship.

            Moreover, I do not need to adhere to the word of anyone (past or present; fictional or real) to know how to conduct myself in a proper, decent, lawful and socially-acceptable manner.

          4. You asked for the difference between the Church and Christianity and I answered that question.

            All atheists think that they can figure out how to conduct themselves in a proper and decent manner. Yet they will happily go to school to learn about far less complex things!

          5. “All atheists think…”

            And there goes the god-botherer, forever labelling those who don’t agree with their mindset. I don’t arbitrarily attack those who have different beliefs to me, I generally get along with them. Unfortunately, many of those who have had their minds conditioned tend to go on the attack as some kind of warped mission to show their holier-than-thou ‘goodness’.

          6. I think you’re reading way too much into my post, which was merely an observation.

          7. It might have helped had you said so. As it stands it comes across as an attack on those who do not believe in a deity.

          8. I think it was a suggestion as to a source of morality, rather than a prescription, Bamse.

          9. All those standards of what is decent, lawful and socially acceptable have been arrived at down the ages because of religions and politics and people who challenged and continue to challenge some of what the priests and politician/rulers required, probably because many of those requirements benefited the leaders more than the ruled,

            One learns such morality, for want of a better collective word, from ones parents and peers

          10. Without a doubt all of that is true. Perhaps when we were a less sophisticated entity much of that was important. For me personally, today, I don’t feel any of it is. I have read extensively from history and have made my own mind up on what I choose to believe is right for me. I think a lot of us do likewise.

          11. The church, properly speaking, is not the building, it’s the people who belong to it.

        2. True, but how do you counter the (admittedly biased and rather simplistic) argument of T. Hobbes that without some kind of power, life would be “nasty, brutish and short” for the general populace.

          There is something to be said for Voltaire’s: “I would rather be ruled by a lion than by a thousand mice” – qualified by the fact that that lion (whatever form it takes) should be sensible, and have the welfare of its citizens as the prime aim (i.e. not for example ruining the county by grandstanding for green brownie points or unquestioningly supporting a rather questionable Ukraine…but there we go).

          I would even prefer the thousand mice, if they were properly educated, could think for themselves, and were English, N. Irish, Scottish or Welsh (not British, the passport for which comes with a cornflake packet nowadays).

          1. Greetings, Lass.

            I do not feel the urge to counter the uttering of others. They state their beliefs coherently (some wear it on their shoulders) but I am simply happy to conduct my own life in an equable manner without recourse to a belief in a ‘higher power’ or deity.

          2. True, min skat, but Hobbes, being a political philosopher so many years ago, was only stating whether we need some kind of governing or government, or not. Oh, and justifying the reigning monarch in the process.

            I would love to be able to conduct my life in a manner whch was equable but I don’t want a socitey where anyone can break my windows, nick everything inside, and then take my home. Mind you, our successive govrnents are getting to that stage, and the majority of the people of this country are too dumbed-down/foreign to care…

            Edit: My goodness – I knew my thumbs have got more unruly and that my laptop is not much good, but I am finding that every time I write anything nowadays I have to go back and edit for typos or for letters that simply were missed out even though I pressed the key, if not for other things (which is often the case anyway). It didn’t used to be like that :o(

            And, I was talking about a belief in something above people to order society, to giv us a moral compass, and to put that compass into our everyday lives.

          3. I would suggest that most of us would also wish to return to an age when politicians cared for the defence of the realm instead of making it an open-house for all manner of enemies of the state.

          4. Yes, yes, yes. But they won’t. Philosophy (of which ethics/morality is a branch) has been castrated. I think that the 666 “do what you will be the only law” is the belief and mantra of the rulers now. They have the money and therefore the power – and they will try to do what they will.

          5. I know you are right, Dukke, but it won’t stop the pipedreams. Reminiscing about the far better times of yore is much better for one’s peace of mind than accepting the reality of a dystopian future. Sad to say but I am happier to be 71 than I would be if I were 17.

          7. It’s not easy to see who you are replying to :o)

            I don’t want to be a twit and respond to a post that was not meant for me!

          8. It was indeed meant for you. I spend more time editing than I do typing 🙁

          10. It’s not easy to see who you are replying to :o)

            I don’t want to be a twit and respond to a post that was not meant for me!

          11. Some yob broke a stained glass window in Shrewsbury while a service was in progress. We have raised a feral generation, it seems.

          12. More like, Connors, a generation that has no respect for its elders, it history and what are the social morés – if they even understand what morés are.

          14. Mice: hyper-intelligent pan-dimensional creatures whose rodent aspect represents merely a three-dimensional projection of their actual form.
            Douglas Adams.

    2. Thank you, George, watched and saved the link, with about 100 more pointing up the many different ways people, are or, act stupidly

    3. On a related theme:

      “The only requirement for the triumph of evil is for many good men to do nothing”

      There is the old Jewish gag about the multitudes having misheard the old proclamation as: “The only requirement for the triumph of evil is for Manny Goodman to do nothing….and when we find Manny, oiveh are we going to kick the living shit out of ‘im”.

      From The Slog.

      1. Alliteration. As in: Proper Planning and Prior Preparation Prevents Piss-Poor Performance.

        1. Always Accept Alternatives to Alleviate All Already Accepted Ailments. Including Piss-Poor Performing Politicians…

          edited second sentence:

          Including Politicians whose Plotting, Planning and Prior Paid Preparation = Piss Poor Performance.

        2. Always Accept Alternatives to Alleviate All Already Accepted Ailments. Including Piss-Poor Performing Politicians…

    1. 353016+ up ticks,

      O2O,,
      These politico’s in overseeing positions of power should
      really be suspended & awaiting a short sharp drop, to much to ask their hard core supporters to join them as they are not renowned for acting in a manner to benefit the Country.

  51. Something is chewing the ends of my lily buds, It’s not red lily bug. Any ideas?

      1. I don’t believe so. Certainly not deer, dear. I think it might be something that pierces the bud and lays an egg.

  52. Britain faces blackouts thanks to Vladimir Putin’s war on shale

    Fracking was wrongly demonised by an unholy alliance of the Kremlin and Green activists

    MATT RIDLEY • 1 June 2022 • 6:00am

    I recently bought a diesel generator. Five days and nights without power last November following Storm Arwen reminded me how utterly dependent on reliable electricity we are. (I was lucky that I could charge my phone in my diesel car that week.) It took so long to get the power back on partly because the power company ran out of telegraph [sic] poles. Running out of gas would be much worse.

    Britons may face power cuts this winter if Russia cuts off gas supplies to Europe. The madness is that we have enough gas beneath the ground to last for centuries but our political masters have chosen to leave it there and depend on expensive, and emission-heavy, imports instead.

    Fifteen years ago, the conventional wisdom was that the world would soon reach “peak gas”, and it would begin to run out. But then came the shale gas revolution and suddenly there was enough accessible natural gas in shale to last for hundreds of years. This annoyed two groups of people in particular: the Russians and the environmentalists. So they demonised “fracking”, a decades-old technology that had recently changed to using cleaner water instead of gel to crack rocks miles underground – with spectacular results.

    The greens mostly did not realise that they were the Kremlin’s useful idiots. The Russians wanted the world to depend on them for gas imports. Alexander Medvedev, a senior executive at Gazprom, said in a speech in Brussels that the Russian state was “ready to wage its war on shale”.

    True to his word, Russia Today ran story after nonsensical story about how fracking was “wrecking the Earth”, “disrupting human hormone functions” and so on. According to one Belgian think tank, the Russian government “invested €82 million in NGOs whose job is to persuade EU governments to stop shale gas exploration”.

    Vladimir Putin himself took the trouble to make false claims about shale gas resulting in “black stuff” coming through people’s taps.

    The greens, with the active help of the BBC, used many of these arguments as well. It worked, and the Government effectively banned shale gas extraction in 2019 by imposing absurd rules about not letting it cause minor vibrations one-fifth as strong as those caused by other industries.

    Wind was going to be our saviour instead. Tens of billions of pounds have gone into the wind industry in recent years, yet in 2020 it provided just 4 per cent of our energy, compared with 42 per cent from gas. (Whenever I cite these figures somebody complains, saying the true figure for wind is over 25 per cent. To save them the trouble, for the umpteenth time, there is a difference between electricity and energy: the latter includes energy used in transport, heat and industry.)

    Yet wind gets 78.354 per cent of media coverage on energy and announcements from the Government: I made that number up, but it can’t be far off.

    Wind failed, therefore, to step up to the plate: it was never going to make much of a dent in gas use, let alone within one decade. In fact, wind helped gas increase its share of electricity generation, by requiring a highly flexible alternative to generate power when the wind drops.

    Then having a system that depends partly on the weather started to cause power cuts. In South Australia in 2016 and in Texas in 2021, systems with lots of wind power and not enough backup capacity proved vulnerable to thunderstorms and ice storms respectively. In both places, getting wind on the system had been prioritised over creating security of supply.

    On August 9, 2019, a windy day, much of Britain was plunged into darkness [actually it happened in the afternoon] when the grid frequency dropped to 49 Hertz after a lightning strike near a gas-fired power station, and a wind farm tripped off. Even an averagely well-engineered system should have shrugged these shocks off without difficulty, but this increasing fragility comes as no surprise to careful observers.

    The situation has only become worse since that time, and the problem is not simply meeting peak load, but being able to withstand a shock: a lightning strike or a terrorist attack on a substation. There just isn’t enough thermodynamically competent generation to render the British grid robust in the face of accidents.

    The system management costs have gone through the roof and play a large part in the current cost crisis. In the early part of the 2000s annual balancing costs were less than £500 million and they were still at this level in 2015. By 2020 they had risen to £1.3 billion a year, a trend that has continued, with the costs in the last year, April 2021 to 2022, amounting to £2.2 billion.

    And we now face a new threat, where the grid may simply not be able to find the resources required to prop up the system at any price. In the long term, we need to start extracting shale gas. In the short term, we need mothballed coal- and gas-fired power stations back on line fast. What a farce.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/06/01/britain-faces-blackouts-thanks-vladimir-putins-war-shale/

    1. Well, a number of efficient large coal-fired stations have been demolished. What’s your other plan?

      1. Sue any of the politicians who have wealth and who were instrumental in the demolitions. Make them homeless (apart from a two-room flat in a council block). ANd sue any recipient of lots of money that they have tried to divert from themselves into other companies/friends/relatives/paid shills.

        And then I woke (in our sense of the word – my house is a designated woke-free zone) up. Can’t be done. Pity.

    2. Excellent article, thanks for posting, WS.

      Currently there are just 3 coal-fired stations in the UK. One of those is due to be decommissioned in September this year. There is a small one in NI, due to finish in September 2023, before conversion to gas. The last one is due to finish in 2024. So the government’s recent instruction to National Grid to have all remaining coal-fired capacity available for this winter rings a bit hollow, given that, as recently as 2015, all 14 remaining coal-fired stations were listed for closure, the last of these going in late 2024 (as above).

      Short-termism seems to be alive and well, and could well cripple this country in something as essential as electricity generation. This government seems to prefer virtue-signalling, rather than having the capacity to keep the lights on, if we have a bad winter. NG will struggle to get through even an average one.

    3. Excellent article, thanks for posting, WS.

      Currently there are just 3 coal-fired stations in the UK. One of those is due to be decommissioned in September this year. There is a small one in NI, due to finish in September 2023, before conversion to gas. The last one is due to finish in 2024. So the government’s recent instruction to National Grid to have all remaining coal-fired capacity available for this winter rings a bit hollow, given that, as recently as 2015, all 14 remaining coal-fired stations were listed for closure, the last of these going in late 2024 (as above).

      Short-termism seems to be alive and well, and could well cripple this country in something as essential as electricity generation. This government seems to prefer virtue-signalling, rather than having the capacity to keep the lights on, if we have a bad winter. NG will struggle to get through even an average one.

    4. A repeat of my post from some days ago, in relation to heat pumps, but still relevant:
      From t’Web: “According to Ofgem, the average British household has 2.4 people living in it and uses 2,900 kWh of electricity and 12,000 kWh of gas. This works out at 242 kWh of electricity and 1,000 kWh of gas per month. ”

      So, to replace the gas, you will need to add 4x the current demand on electricity.

      1. Is there enough generating capacity? No

      2. Is there enough transmission capacity? No

      3. Is the wire from the pole in the road to the house capable of taking 5x the current load? No.

      So, the entire generating and transmission system in the UK needs replaced. Hell, you roosters can’t even build a new power station in 30 years, let alone renew the whole system.
      And that’s without electric car charging – witness the obligation to have smart meters if you want to charge at home. UK is rapidly running out of electrons.

    5. A repeat of my post from some days ago, in relation to heat pumps, but still relevant:
      From t’Web: “According to Ofgem, the average British household has 2.4 people living in it and uses 2,900 kWh of electricity and 12,000 kWh of gas. This works out at 242 kWh of electricity and 1,000 kWh of gas per month. ”

      So, to replace the gas, you will need to add 4x the current demand on electricity.

      1. Is there enough generating capacity? No

      2. Is there enough transmission capacity? No

      3. Is the wire from the pole in the road to the house capable of taking 5x the current load? No.

      So, the entire generating and transmission system in the UK needs replaced. Hell, you roosters can’t even build a new power station in 30 years, let alone renew the whole system.
      And that’s without electric car charging – witness the obligation to have smart meters if you want to charge at home. UK is rapidly running out of electrons.

  53. Britain faces blackouts thanks to Vladimir Putin’s war on shale

    Fracking was wrongly demonised by an unholy alliance of the Kremlin and Green activists

    MATT RIDLEY • 1 June 2022 • 6:00am

    I recently bought a diesel generator. Five days and nights without power last November following Storm Arwen reminded me how utterly dependent on reliable electricity we are. (I was lucky that I could charge my phone in my diesel car that week.) It took so long to get the power back on partly because the power company ran out of telegraph [sic] poles. Running out of gas would be much worse.

    Britons may face power cuts this winter if Russia cuts off gas supplies to Europe. The madness is that we have enough gas beneath the ground to last for centuries but our political masters have chosen to leave it there and depend on expensive, and emission-heavy, imports instead.

    Fifteen years ago, the conventional wisdom was that the world would soon reach “peak gas”, and it would begin to run out. But then came the shale gas revolution and suddenly there was enough accessible natural gas in shale to last for hundreds of years. This annoyed two groups of people in particular: the Russians and the environmentalists. So they demonised “fracking”, a decades-old technology that had recently changed to using cleaner water instead of gel to crack rocks miles underground – with spectacular results.

    The greens mostly did not realise that they were the Kremlin’s useful idiots. The Russians wanted the world to depend on them for gas imports. Alexander Medvedev, a senior executive at Gazprom, said in a speech in Brussels that the Russian state was “ready to wage its war on shale”.

    True to his word, Russia Today ran story after nonsensical story about how fracking was “wrecking the Earth”, “disrupting human hormone functions” and so on. According to one Belgian think tank, the Russian government “invested €82 million in NGOs whose job is to persuade EU governments to stop shale gas exploration”.

    Vladimir Putin himself took the trouble to make false claims about shale gas resulting in “black stuff” coming through people’s taps.

    The greens, with the active help of the BBC, used many of these arguments as well. It worked, and the Government effectively banned shale gas extraction in 2019 by imposing absurd rules about not letting it cause minor vibrations one-fifth as strong as those caused by other industries.

    Wind was going to be our saviour instead. Tens of billions of pounds have gone into the wind industry in recent years, yet in 2020 it provided just 4 per cent of our energy, compared with 42 per cent from gas. (Whenever I cite these figures somebody complains, saying the true figure for wind is over 25 per cent. To save them the trouble, for the umpteenth time, there is a difference between electricity and energy: the latter includes energy used in transport, heat and industry.)

    Yet wind gets 78.354 per cent of media coverage on energy and announcements from the Government: I made that number up, but it can’t be far off.

    Wind failed, therefore, to step up to the plate: it was never going to make much of a dent in gas use, let alone within one decade. In fact, wind helped gas increase its share of electricity generation, by requiring a highly flexible alternative to generate power when the wind drops.

    Then having a system that depends partly on the weather started to cause power cuts. In South Australia in 2016 and in Texas in 2021, systems with lots of wind power and not enough backup capacity proved vulnerable to thunderstorms and ice storms respectively. In both places, getting wind on the system had been prioritised over creating security of supply.

    On August 9, 2019, a windy day, much of Britain was plunged into darkness [actually it happened in the afternoon] when the grid frequency dropped to 49 Hertz after a lightning strike near a gas-fired power station, and a wind farm tripped off. Even an averagely well-engineered system should have shrugged these shocks off without difficulty, but this increasing fragility comes as no surprise to careful observers.

    The situation has only become worse since that time, and the problem is not simply meeting peak load, but being able to withstand a shock: a lightning strike or a terrorist attack on a substation. There just isn’t enough thermodynamically competent generation to render the British grid robust in the face of accidents.

    The system management costs have gone through the roof and play a large part in the current cost crisis. In the early part of the 2000s annual balancing costs were less than £500 million and they were still at this level in 2015. By 2020 they had risen to £1.3 billion a year, a trend that has continued, with the costs in the last year, April 2021 to 2022, amounting to £2.2 billion.

    And we now face a new threat, where the grid may simply not be able to find the resources required to prop up the system at any price. In the long term, we need to start extracting shale gas. In the short term, we need mothballed coal- and gas-fired power stations back on line fast. What a farce.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/06/01/britain-faces-blackouts-thanks-vladimir-putins-war-shale/

    1. Ire;and’s properly in the toilet. It has little fuel manufacturing of it’s own yet has huge reliance on it.

      The suggestions were really quite sensible in terms of conservation of resources, but also terrifying when you think about the implications for an economy without fuel.

      There’s only so long that the state can control the public if it cannot enforce those laws.

      1. The question you should be asking is why the governments have imposed policies that have led directly to an oil shortage.

    1. The law of unintended consequences. I see that the Scots drunks merely bought less food when the unit price of booze went up.

        1. Or he fancies the photographer – desire is supposed to have the same effect.

    2. It’s funny how some cartoon/puppet characters get away with eyes that show lots of white. That is normally something that can strike someone as fearful or threatening –

    3. It’s funny how some cartoon/puppet characters get away with eyes that show lots of white. That is normally something that can strike someone as fearful or threatening –

    4. There’s a touching photo of him today holding the hand of his Chinese wife…. Xi me to the Moon…

    5. What an extremely nasty looking man Jeremy Hunt is.

      If the current members of the Conservative Party want to destroy the party forever so that it never returns then they must make this piece of slime their leader.

  57. ‘Afternoon all. There was a post on Gab Social yesterday which shocked me. It said simply, “I hate Jews” and generated a long comment thread. It’s indicative of a rising tide of anti-Semitism and it’s being driven not just by Islam and the political left but also by an understandable reaction to the banking establishment, the Trilateral Commission, the Bilderbergers et al. Predominantly Jewish in their leadership and responsible for immense damage. The resentment will be dismissed as far right extremism but it isn’t entirely based on prejudice. Very uncomfortable.

    1. It’s the “all chickens are feathered bipeds, but not all feathered bipeds are chickens” problem. There is a part-truth in part of the sentence.

    2. Surely the first and most obvious question is ‘all of them?’ People don’t hate Jews because they’re bankers, they hate that those people have more than them. That they’re Jewish is mostly irrelevant. May as well hate the Swiss.

      What the person really means is ‘I’m angry and unhappy and jealous and need someone to blame for that, someone nebulous and ephemeral.’

      I doubt the person really does hate Jews. He really hates himself. The same applies to people who slate Rhian Sugden or Liz Hurley. They are envious and jealous.

      On the upside, I’m glad he felt he could say it, but I don’t think folk really went the right way with their replies (from reading your post). Same as I don’t hate all welfarists – some urgently need more, others need a kick up the bum. I don’t hate any Muslim. The one I know I think is top bloke – because he is. I don’t like how some think we should change to suit them. There is a problem in that community and it needs to be addressed, but it isn’t ‘hatred’ or racism.

      I DO hate those who would destroy my freedoms (life choices, finances, future plans) for their own ego. And that’s the government. I’m sure individually they’re probably tolerable, but as a collective the entire edifice of the state is a menace to society. Thus I am angered by the institution as a whole.

  58. I’ve read many versions of the elevation of the current POTUS to the Oval Office but none quite like this version:

    ‘the placement of obscenely empty taxidermy into the Oval Office’……

        2. Good afternoon, Grizzly

          Please would you give us an honest account of the feelings you have for Paddington Bear which have been stimulated in the course of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations.

          .

          1. Belated good afternoon, Rastus. I have actually no feelings — good or bad — for the children’s book character you mention. I was never exposed to Michael Bond’s writing during my childhood and I only became peripherally aware of it after I’d reached adulthood. Similarly, I didn’t read any of A A Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh books as a youngster. Rupert Bear (and his Nutwood chums) was the only anthropomorphic ursine fiction I enjoyed when I was a youngster. I did read some standard children’s fiction but, out-of-school on rainy days, my nose was usually found in one of the eight volumes of Waverley’s The Book of Knowledge which, though now dated, is still frequently referred to. It has much more charm than Wikipedia could ever have.

          2. I had all of A A Milnes offerings, George, avidly read Swallows and Amazons (the whole 12 books) while suffering from rheumatic fever at age 7 and, as prescribed by the doctor, spent the summer of 1951 sitting in the sun on the front lawn. I also received Rupert Bear annuals until I was about 10 and was also devouring Enid Blyton’s Famous Five and Secret Seven. I nicked my sister’s In The Fifth At Mallory Towers but couldn’t get into The Cloister and The Hearth I think I was reasonably well-read by age 11 with a good grasp of the written word.

          4. Yep, I had Biggles as well and also nicked my sister’s Worralls books to avidly read. Aah, Childhood.

  59. National Action: Nazi Alex Davies jailed 8 years, 6 months. 7 June 2022.

    A 27-year-old man described in court as a Nazi has been jailed for eight and-a-half years for being a member of a banned fascist group.

    Alex Davies, of Swansea, was a member of National Action (NA) after it was outlawed in December 2016.

    A jury found him guilty after it heard NA had not disbanded after its ban, but morphed into regional factions.

    All the members of National Action, this just being the latest have; despite never having killed or seriously injured anyone been subjected to terms of imprisonment more suited to former members of ISIS or the IRA. They have of course never posed the slightest threat to the British People or the State. They do however provide the opportunity for the PTB to demonstrate their moral superiority hence these pointless and politically malevolent prosecutions.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-61716651

    1. They pick on people who cannot fight back and cause any trouble. That’s why they don’t pick on Muslims but tell them that if they rape 12 year old white girls they will just be told to apologise and they won’t even have a criminal record.

      1. 353016 + up ticks,

        Afternoon R,

        That sounds like the electorate are supporting party’s that allow a certain amount of paedophilia to continue, would that be ,in a twisted sort of way, to keep the peace, tell me are the lab/lib/con current supporter / voters aware of this ?

        There is a party that would NOT entertain that dangerous nonsense for a split second, along with a chap who has done time for fighting against paedophilia that also earned him much castigation from opposing party members.

        1. If that is being done to “keep the peace”, what else in the future will be asked of us all to keep the peace? Universal Sharia law? Only halal meat (we are already cheated into buying meat that we aren’t told is halal).

          We already have to put up with paedophilia and rape – we have to put up with more of that ilk being allowed here every day (and having to py for them – a very high percentage of them don’t want to, or can’t work), while suffering Christians in other countries somehw were not welcomed).

          Our PTB stink.

          1. 353016+ up ticks,

            Evening HL,

            halal is on the parliamentary canteen menu I do believe & oaths are sworn on the koran that rests between the two dispatch boxes, bearing in mind that it is I believe permissible to tell lies to NON believers in the islamic jobee.

          3. No doubt you earn one more virgin in heaven. In their case, probably an underage virgin.

          4. It flags up the difference between Christianity and islam and one of the many reasons the two are incompatible. We are taught “thou shalt not bear false witness” while they are taught to lie through their teeth to kuffars to further the cause of islam.

      2. I.e. pick on the law-abiding people in favour of letting free those who break the law, want to break the whole moral structure of our society and who will murder you for punishing them. Talk about a nation (well its pathetic little flowers in government and our branches of so-called law and enforcement) being held hostage by fear of violence. Violence that they are supposed to be supressing in the first place…

      1. Afternoon Wibbles. Antifa, Hate not Hope, etc. are all clandestine Government organisations!

        1. And ironically, St Jo’s preferred charidees – together with White Helmets. She wasn’t far off when she said that there was more that unites MPs than that divides them.

      1. 353016+ up ticks,

        Afternoon OLT,
        Double that up with the LLC = WEF / LLC a copper bottom win double.

        It is the voting pattern that is killing the nation & the future.

        1. Tasteless, Phizzee, but true. To point out much of what is, or what has been, true is not tasteful, but then so much of what is, and has, happened isn’t either… :o(

        2. Tasteless, Phizzee, but true. To point out much of what is, or what has been, true is not tasteful, but then so much of what is, and has, happened isn’t either… :o(

  60. Fuel hits £2 A LITRE as petrol and diesel prices reach record-high with cost to fill a family car rising to ‘unbelievable’ £110 as drivers share priciest pumps from around the country. 7 June 2022.

    Fuming drivers are being forced to pay more than £2 per litre for both petrol and diesel from today, as the war in Ukraine and supply chain issues continue to drive up wholesale costs.

    The never-before-seen prices have led the RAC to declare a ‘national fuel crisis’, warning that the 200p threshold could soon become the norm for much of the country, at a time when Brits are already struggling through the cost of living crisis and a 9% inflation rate.

    Sanctions! The gift that keeps on giving!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10892243/Fuel-prices-hit-record-high-Price-petrol-pump-climbs-178-5p.html

    2. The plan is working. Soon the peasants will all be compelled to abandon their cars completely.

    3. We have just had a notification from our coal merchant .. order now because coal will be escalating in price by £100 per tonne soon as coal comes from Russia and Ukraine .

      Hang on, don’t we have coal mines in the UK?

    4. I’m obviously not au fait with the concept of sanctions – i thought they were supposed to hurt the “other guy” not us?

    5. What with sanctions, destroying the value of the pound and taxes, petrol/diesel will be unaffordable shortly. My local rag’s editorial suggested we bring back gallons rather than litres for fuel along with the other imperial measures. Then the £8 gallon would really hit home.

  61. I suggest that they build an eco cottage in the grounds of Prince William’s current Norfolk home. He and his family should be obliged to live in it for the whole winter for the next two years.

    Solar panels on the roof and a small wind turbine should be their sole sources of electricity and the sole way of heating the home and hot water should be provided by a heat pump. No woodburning stoves or open coal fires and no gas should be allowed in the property. His budget to run his home should be no more than the average earnings of a family in his part of Norfolk.

    He should be allowed no cars and have to get about by foot or on a bicycle.

    When he, his wife and his children have enjoyed this for a couple of years he should then be invited to lecture us all on global warming.

    1. Good idea.
      No plastic either – they can clean their teeth with twigs. And no garden – they’ve got to buy bug-burgers from the Coop.

    1. The only chance the Conservative Party has of surviving the next couple of years is for David Frost to become party leader and prime minister.
      Why is this not completely obvious to the Conservative MPs currently in parliament?

      1. Unfortunately, I doubt Frost could garner as many MPs as even Hunt, let alone Boris.

  64. Jeremy Hunt stands for nothing. Spiked. 7 June 2022.

    If Jeremy Hunt’s Tory leadership ambitions are the worst-kept secret in British politics, then the best-kept secret is his political ideology. No one really knows what he actually thinks. His nine years in the cabinet and 17 years as an MP don’t offer many clues.

    Without wishing to do Hunt any favours this would apply to most of the present Tory Party. As individuals they exist in a moral vacuum. They don’t believe in the UK. They despise its people. They have no interest in its history or institutions. What they are all seeking is a bigger pay check; a more impressive position, praise from their equals on the World Stage. They would sell their Mothers for a mess of Political Pottage

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/06/07/jeremy-hunt-stands-for-nothing/

    1. Hunt’s always been smug and vacant, but I didn’t suspect his enthusiasm for Chinese style authoritarianism until recently.
      He’s probably just the stalking horse though! Which WEF shill is waiting in the wings? Javel? Gove? Truss? or an outsider like Tugendhat?
      Still can’t make Sunak out – he doesn’t come across as ideologically one of theirs, but doesn’t seem able to raise a spark of rebellion.
      Mogg is out for his own interests at the end of the day – he’s not a rebel either.

      1. I’m afraid I wouldn’t trust Tugendhat as far as I could throw him. His Muslim/Catholic combo background fills me with despair!

        1. Last seen at the WEF, I think, or was it Bilderberg? One of these places where no honest Englishman desirous of serving his country should be seen dead!

        2. Last seen at the WEF, I think, or was it Bilderberg? One of these places where no honest Englishman desirous of serving his country should be seen dead!

    2. Lack of belief in anything is hardly new in politicians.

      In the days when I used to have a brain I used to write satirical songs to amuse myself and my pupils. Here is the conclusion of a song I wrote about Tony Blair in the first couple of years of his being the populist prime minister from a minor public school who loved adulation and offered the ‘third way’ and to ‘make Britannia cool’ :

      I won’t believe in anything unless you want me to.
      I’ll wreck the Act of Union – What’s history to you?
      I’ll be so oleaginous on me you’ll bet your shirts
      And with New Labour – endlessly – you’ll get your just deserts

      And how prescient my song was. Since Blair resigned whatever the party in power has called itself it was – and still is – New Labour.

    3. A most apposite description:

      ‘It is not for nothing that one of his parliamentary colleagues once branded Hunt an ‘unprincipled windsock’.

      2. One of his former employees called him “an amiable lummox.”

        Hunt’s particular brand of effortless, privileged mediocrity does tend to attract this sort of reaction.

        1. It’s not his lack of ambition that worries me, it’s his alleged lack of competence….

          1. Oh, I’m sure he’ll be competent enough at following the WEF’s orders!

    4. When I think of the PM and some other MPs, including our local one – I am reminded of the part in Animal Farm where the animals look at the pigs, then at the humans, then at the pigs again. And they can’t tell which is which.

  65. 2 weeks ago , Moh and I had eye appts .. we were tested Boots opticians .. we have both gone up a notch in our sight test , and require new specs .

    We looked at the prices and gasped .. varifocal stuff/ scratch protection etc and frames etc for 2 pairs each would have set us back over £500 .. I nearly fainted , so we decided to walk away and do some research .

    Today was a non golf day , so we organised ourselves to get out fairly early to visit the great connurbation miles away.. We had 3 destinations on our list , Spec Savers . Vision Express, and ASDA.

    We decided to mingle with the crowds in Asda first , and managed to find their opticiian corner in the store , which was thankfully fairly quiet . (I haven’t visited Asda for about 3 years.

    If I say I was delighted , that would not be an exaggeration.. I was amazed by the huge selection of frames ranging from £80 to £100+

    I chose 2 frames .. presented my optician result from Boots and was measured up for the varifocal new glasses .. £80 per pair , but I had a £40 discount , special offer .. so £120 for the 2 pairs .. nice frames , well I think so , and all the extras scratch proof etc etc, thrown in for the price .

    What do you think of that then?

    https://opticians.asda.com/info/our-complete-price-on-glasses

    1. We visited our local Asda soon after moving here as MH needed his frames fixed. No problem said the nice lady- sorted it and no charge! We were pleased and, as my eyes are in need of testing, Asda is where I will go.

      1. Brilliant Anne , I had great service from very nice staff, and I was able to visit a very clean loo, and now Moh, who was lingering in the background of the spectacle display , has had a look and he will be choosing his frames next time we are in the area.

        1. Ann- no E. Just to be different.
          The glasses I am wearing are from the optician in Walmart- I believe they are affiliated with Asda… ditto good service and the doctor’s name was Doctor Apple;-)

    2. Standard price for Chinese frames. Lenses will be machined by a computer system in Parkystarn.

    3. Excellent. I bought some off Vision Express (Tesco) for about 3 times that price. I shall look in ASDA for my next lot.

    5. Those are the sort of prices I pay at a local – private – opticians. They have the expensive frames, but I use glasses only for reading and driving vanity comes a poor second to care for my bank balance.

  66. ‘It was the one in a lovely shade of schadenfreude’: Ballgown Theresa May wore to Boris Johnson confidence vote becomes subject of hilarious memes
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10893165/Ballgown-Theresa-wore-Boris-Johnson-vote-subject-memes.html

    I had forgotten just what an evil old hag this foul witch is. This BTL comment is far too kind to her.

    BTL

    She said: “Brexit Means Brexit”.

    She said “No deal is better than a bad deal.”

    I don’t give a damn what this repulsive, very ugly and unattractive woman wears – her malicious lies, dishonesty, duplicity and determination to derail Brexit have had disastrous consequences for Britain. I cannot and will not ever forgive her.

    1. When she said “no deal is better than a bad deal” she meant that there is no deal to be had that is better than her bad deal.

        1. I thought that this morning as I listened to an exchange at the coffee morning. One woman (who strikes me as completely humourless and po faced) was insisting, when one of the others said many people were interested in the contents of HM’s handbag (we were discussing the Paddington Bear sketch), that it had NO interest to her whatsoever. When the other woman said, people were interested in other people’s lives, said po-faced woman insisted she was only talking about herself (and, as far as I think, only concerned with herself). Things became somewhat tight-lipped for a coffee morning! Interesting that the said po-faced woman insisted that she couldn’t remember anything about the Coronation being celebrated (while we all chipped in with what we could remember – mostly about street parties and watching flickering TV).

          1. Perhaps the po-faced woman was an established and influential coffee morning member, and therefore felt free to be po-faced?

          2. No, she is po-faced even outside coffee mornings. We used to be on the Parish Council together.

    2. Every time this happens, I feel sorry for the parents, but looking at their reactions, you can see exactly how it happened.

    3. The BBC was in deep mourning at lunchtime. I have never heard of him or his family, so these people mean nothing to me. It is of course sad for the family, but experimenting with ‘recreational’ drugs is a mug’s game. How many warnings do people need??

      1. Georgie Floydie had many in his system when he got the knee. Fentanyl is old news now.

    1. Orwell wanted it called 1948 but his publishers refused as they thought it was too soon after the war. So it was changed to 1984. I wonder if he suspected that he was writing something so prescient?

    2. A lot of folk think it is being used as Manual – ‘Governing for Dummies’……

  69. Funny Old World
    Surely those 40% of “Honourable Members” who have voted no confidence in BoJo cannot possible serve a Prime Minister they have voted to remove
    Surely the only “Honourable” thing to do would be to resign the whip??
    Oh wait…………
    Honourable my left buttock

          1. Bottoms up!! Yes, I am going- cab coming at 6 so you will have some peace- well apart from Phizzee.

    2. At least when Douglas Carswell and Mark Reckless wanted to support UKIP they had the grace to stand down from their Conservative seats in parliament and stand in by elections.

      If the odious creep and Rhyming Slangster, Jeremy Hunt, should become party leader and a leader committed to returning the UK to the EU then even Johnson’s pretence of getting Brexit would be over and at least 100 Conservative MPs who won their seats in 2019 on the back of Brexit would have to resign if they had any integrity.

      But how many would?

  70. We are going out but here’s a little rhyme for you:

    There once was a runner named Dwight
    Who could speed even faster than light,
    He set out one day
    In a relative way
    And returned on the previous night.

    I love limericks!!

    1. My father told me that there were three types of limericks: limericks could recite in mixed company; limericks which you could tell to clergymen; and limericks.

      Most of the best limericks are obscene but ingenious but one of my favourites in the first category which has clever wordplay in it is:

      There was a young lady from Ryde
      Who ate so many apples she died
      The apples fermented
      Inside the lamented
      And made cider inside her inside.

      But of course the limerick celebrating the Bishop of Birmingham’s activities during the confirmation service is in the third category.

  71. We are going out but here’s a little rhyme for you:

    There once was a runner named Dwight
    Who could speed even faster than light,
    He set out one day
    In a relative way
    And returned on the previous night.

    I love limericks!!

    1. We gave them an inch and…well, look what happened! We really shouldn’t be surprised!

      1. Everywhere they go.
        There was an article a few years ago mapping their demands growing as their numbers increase.

    3. Let them be offended – they have no right not to be offended. Their prescence and their demands and their drain on this country offends lots of us.

      Their perfect man didn’t exactly create a wonderful society. They have created nothing, and done nothing to improve conditions for mankind.

  73. I am considering buying a bungalow with cash but want to keep my present house before putting it on the market to allow time for preparing for the alterations needed to bring my bungalow up to my wishes.
    How long have I got and what are the problems with the authorities . I am intending to move in the same parish.
    I would be grateful for some advice.

    1. If you’re altering the bungalow I think you can get exemption from council tax for up to 2 years while this is being done

      2. Thanks Alec. My young son suggested this. It is probably true. The alterations will be internal so it looks as if I will have to have my house on sale at the same time

    2. My council charges double the Community Charge if a property is unoccupied for more than 6 months…regardless of building works in progress!!!

    3. My council charges double the Community Charge if a property is unoccupied for more than 6 months…regardless of building works in progress!!!

    4. Different country and tax system but if we held onto our current house after buying another one, we would be into second home taxes and capital gains taxes.

      I am sure tax people talk to each other to learn how to maximise income (theirs)!

  74. Revealed: The British towns at risk of being wiped off the map FOREVER by rising seas and coastal erosion – as official in charge of flood defences warns some communities will have to relocate
    Some UK coastal towns may have to be deserted because of rising seas — expert
    Sir James Bevan, chief executive of the Environment Agency, issued the warning
    Said rising seas and rivers mean homes can’t be defended with walls of concrete
    But he added it was ‘far too early to say which communities will have to move’

    Man made global warming and climate change eh?

    Remind me, when did Dunwich decide to go for a swim…

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-10892275/The-British-towns-risk-wiped-map-forever-rising-seas-coastal-erosion.html

    1. I guess they’re too lazy to look at an Ordnance Survey map to see the contours and hence deduce the areas which will come under water first

    2. The National Trust has already ceded some land to the sea. The Dutch must be laughing at us!

    3. This is terrible news. The new immigrants will need to paddle further before they can collect their well deserved benefits.

    4. Glug,glug glug……….
      That was the Maldives drowning under the sea level rises
      Oh wait it was the weight of the 14 new airports
      These cretins think we have the memory of an amoeba

    5. Glastonbury is thought to have once been coastal. Hasn’t the coast always been shape-shifting?

      1. Oh don’t start with the facts, Sue! It ruins the green loons narrative!🤪

    1. Not HMQ, obviously. She has her own.

      But for Rupert, there is honey still for tea – to take our minds off some of HMQ’s rather worthless family members and remember the real royalty of this country. Lest we ever forget all the brave, wonderful people that this country once produced.

    1. Birds and animals learning to live with nature.
      If only humans ……..oh, forget it
      ………
      Belle did you have a dry hacking cough after covid?

      1. Hi Plum,

        Have you got Covid , Plum … I didn’t start with a cold , just a drained lack of energy / temp/ cough/ loss of taste and smell

        Yes I did , then it became gunghy after about 10 days , very horrible and sinusitis, , and when I coughed I could hardly breathe because the gunge was so thick . Rang the doctor and told could not get appt for 2 weeks , so I rang every day ro see if there was a cancellation, my voice was odd and my breathing rubbish. After nearly a month my doctor had space for a phonecall , heard me , put me on antibiotics and a special pill that clears gunge , breaks it down ..

        So much for the jabs … then the doctor quipped about the alternative!

        1. I had flu before the Covid pandemic!
          I thought it was just flu then the pandemic kicked off.
          It may have been Covid, hopefully I built
          up my own antibodies but I did have a lingering cough and felt pretty rough.

          Hope you are feeling much better..

          1. Then that sounds as if you probably had .

            Christmas 2019, son and I had a very strange five day bout of something resembling flu , the whole village more or less was knocked back by something very odd .. a few months later Covid kicked in .. I had a silly idea that clouds could be seeded with something horrible ..if Saharan dust can fall on us here and cover our cars , why not a virus?

          2. My Achilles injury didn’t help, muscle wastage doesn’t take long does it?
            So tennis was off….. never felt so unfit!

          5. I do! Given the present state of things one has to laugh or we’d all be crying!

          7. So sorry for you ,

            I suspect you are a racing snake like Moh .. I know what he was like when golf was off the menu during lockdown , he practically raced around the village during our so called hour of exercise.. no one has questioned lock downs and one hour exercise periods have they. Then waiting in shopping queues in the rain and cold weather .

          8. Our Polish cleaner is a racing snake – my God how that woman cleans at warp speed. It takes yer breath away, so it does. Thinner than a bamboo cane, too.

          9. Ow! Nasty.
            Yes, fitness takes forever to collect and only a moment to lose.
            Still working at fitness after lockdown by working on Firstborn’s farm, but my God, how hard can it be? Still end up in a lather of sweat and blackberry prickles after even a few minutes… age doesn’t come into it, naturally, it’s just I’m a klutz.

          10. I’m slowly but surely building up my distances in the pool, losing flab steadily but muscle bulk increasing.
            I know I’m making progress because I’m very slightly skinnier but heavier.

          12. Last year was a fail for some reason, this year it won’t be long before I’m back to twice a day and hopefully hitting two miles minimum a day by the end of June.

          15. I don’t like pools. Too crowded, and the chlorine atmosphere puts me off. For us, the fjord is close, but colder than a witches tut. Brr!
            Although being 21C last weekend ( we were away wrestling brambles – as SWMBO said, like brushing a Great White’s teeth: So may spikes, so quick to stab you.

          16. My pool has views across the valley and the usual population is two, often only me.

          20. Now I have a husband who loves and respects me. I can live without a pool.

          21. That’s a lovely comment, Ann!
            Have you told him?
            If SWMBO said that to me, I’d be blown away.

          23. A pool is a real bonus even though it is very hard work keeping it in top notch condition and expensive to run.

          25. Hand – cable-tying the creepers onto a hurdle made from sheep-fence, so we can harvest “easily”. And cutting out the dead stems. The berries are about £35 a kg (sold in tiny punnets) over here, so it’s worth it!
            The beehives are close by, too, so hope for successful pollination & loads of fruit!

          26. There’s about half an acre of the things. More spikes than you could imagine.

          28. God I miss swimming! No access to a pool over the last two years and can’t now until this sodding skin cancer is fixed. I know damn well that the arthritis in my knee would not be an issue if I could swim.

          29. I’m riddled with arthritis and there is no doubt the swimming helps, even though I would rather be doing it in the sea, ideally body-surfing in 6 foot waves

          30. Courage, ma brave… it’s a real bugger, that. Can you take gentle exercise leg-wise, eithout immersing your face? (stationary) bicycle, for example?

          31. I used to have an exercise bike in CT – I cannot ride a real bike to save my life.
            Also, am a bit of a piss artist now because it is the only thing that kills the pain. Sad innit?

          32. Exercise cycling will help to burn the alcohol calories.
            Anyhow, “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.”
            One has to have some way of raising the spirits. Red medicine is quite effective! My favourite, BTW.

          33. Paul, if I lose any more weight I will go down the plughole.
            Have lost two stone in the last two years.

          34. Don’t let on, or everyone will want some… anyhow, a lass should have some padding. Back boobs… four for the price of two… :-D)
            Anyhow, gentle exercise without weight on the knee should help, yes?
            Get YOH to massage it with warm oils, too. Fun, at least.

          38. Much easier than you might imagine. I tease HG by saying it’s easier for me to swim a mile than it is for her to walk two.
            For a competitive swimmer those are warm up distances.
            OK, I exaggerate, but a “real” swimmer, in training, will be doing such distances and more at a proper pace.

          39. Hi TB, it is probable that it would have been respiratory syncytial virus, RSV.

  78. Evening, all. What a difference a day makes! It was 25 degrees C outside this morning! I now have all my wheels alloys (the steel spare has been put back in the boot) and at long last I’ve been able to move all my riding kit off the back seat and into the boot. Phew!

    1. I can make no sense of that, Connors:

      Do your alloys melt?
      Or, does your riding kit smell too much?

      1. I had a puncture (which I mentioned on here about a week ago) and so had to have the spare put on and a new tyre on the other wheel. Normally, all my wheels are alloy wheels, but it so happens the spare is a steel one. Hence, for about a week, while the new tyre/wheel is being balanced and before it could be put back on, I drove around with three alloy wheels and one black steel one (which wasn’t bolted on in the same way as the alloys either and stood out like a sore thumb for several reasons). I normally keep all my riding kit (hats, spurs, gloves, whips) in the boot, but because the spare wheel compartment needed to be accessed, I took everything out of the boot and left it on the back seat. The “Phew!” comment was more that it had finally been sorted than that my riding kit ponged 🙂

    2. It makes such a difference to get some of the necessary stuff back out of sight!

  79. ‘Night All

    The infiltration of the judges by political leftards has removed one off the checks and balances we always relied on
    Meet Mark DennisQC

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-58092234
    This is the SAME judge that sent the alleged Nazi down for 8
    Equal justice under the law…………
    Soooooooo last century

    1. Going the same way as Scotland – the police, and the judiciary bought and paid for. Very worrying.

  80. Some news since our Open Letter went to the NHS Chief Executives to end the mask ‘requirement’ in healthcare settings:

    NHS England has changed its mask guidance for healthcare settings – this IS progress – but not good enough, and here’s why…

    Last week, NHS England issued further guidance regarding the use of face masks in clinical settings.
    It directs hospitals and other care settings to end the ‘requirement’ for staff, patients and visitors to wear face coverings in most wards
    and departments and – as such – is welcome news.

    There are, however, several aspects of this latest directive that indicatethe war against masking in healthcare is not won, even in England.

    Firstly, it is worrying that our national heath service – which should be all about evidence-based practice – perpetuates three flawed assumptions in
    this latest guidance:

    Masks are effective – The real-world, more robust, evidence consistently concludes that face coverings achieve no meaningful reduction in the transmission of respiratory viruses.

    Covid-19 deserves special treatment – Respiratory viruses have been on this earth longer than humans and there is now no justification for giving the SARS-CoV-2 virus specialstatus; we must return to the pre-2020 mindset where mass masking was not even considered.

    Masks are harmless interventions – There is a plethora of evidence that face coverings are associated with many physical, social and psychological harms, several of which are especially problematic in healthcare settings. Any ward or department considering imposing a mask requirement should always include these significant harms as a central part of their local risk assessments.

    Secondly, the new guidance is shot through with woolly statements wide open to interpretation.

    Ambiguous suggestions that mask requirements might be needed where there is a ‘local outbreak’, ‘suspected cluster transmission’ or the emergence of a
    ‘variant of concern’ seem designed to keep the way clear for future impositions of face coverings, and/or pass the buck to local hospitals.

    Two years after the imposition of masking in English hospitals, it is most regrettable that NHS England and the authors of this latest guidance
    (Professor Stephen Powis and Duncan Barton) could not simply have signalled a clean break and consigned this unprecedented, poorly-evidenced, and ultimately failed policy to history.

    Since they have chosen not to, by far the most likely outcome is that masking in English hospitals will now become a ‘postcode lottery’ based on the
    whims of local staff.

    Within hospitals themselves, we may well also get inter-departmental ‘caste systems,’ with higher status office workers mask-free but receptionists,
    security staff, porters, frontline workers and patients masked.

    Not only will all this further diminish the NHS’s reputation for scientific good sense, but it will create a pointless source of confrontation
    between staff and hospital users alike, just as masking has done on airlines.

    The upshot is we must keep up the pressure to ensure that mass masking is permanently removed from our health services.

    You can help us do this by:

    -→
    Sending the UK Medical Freedom Alliance template letter to local hospitals, GP practices and health centres who are persisting with the
    mask ‘requirement,’ or to your local MP (see here and here)

    -→ Looking out for our calls-to-action, which will include addressing the situation in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, too

    Keep smiling 🙂

    The Smile Free Campaign

    smilefree.org

      2. #MeToo – I hit two bunkers again!
        Wordle 353 5/6

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

        1. Wordle 353 5/6

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

        1. Bob:
          When you finish, your boxes – with letters will be displayed.
          Click the ‘Chart’ motif in top right-hand corner.
          You will now see your ‘Guess Distribution’ stats in a horizontal chart.
          Press the ‘Share’ button, lower right.
          When you start your post, Press & Hold the Microsoft button and click the ‘V’ button: your box chart will appear. Click on it – it will transfer to your message.

          Job Done! It is simpler than it sounds.

  84. More Bank Holidays in UK
    https://www.penarthtimes.co.uk/news/national/uk-today/20191311.union-calls-least-four-extra-bank-holidays-uk-workers/
    What they don’t say is that European public holidays happen on the day, not shifted to the nearest Monday if they happen to fall on a weekend.
    Here in Norway, we’re finished with public holidays dueing working days until Easter 2023, and Finland have moved them all to Saturdays.
    Hell, hardly anybody except small businesses does a stroke of work in the UK anyhow, why give even more days off?

    1. Here in Sweden, if a BH falls on a Thursday, they invariably take a day’s holiday on the Friday to make a long weekend. Effectively the country shuts down for that period.

      1. Same here: Inneklemt dag – but you need to use annual vacation for that.

    2. Bank Holidays were the only paid days off people had. Now everyone has paid holidays for weeks and weeks. Bank holidays should end, they are no longer required.

  85. Watching Southgate’s England being picked apart by Germany. Another monumental virtue signalling failure posing as a saviour.

    Edit: Saved by a Harry Kane penalty.

    1. I thought he was doing really well with England and then he got woke.

      The decision over the penalties, so he could say “black lions won it” blew up in his face.

      1. He was never doing well! He’s aways been a complete moron and an incapable ‘manager’

        2. I disagree, his overall results have been pretty good. It’s only since he got woke that it’s fallen apart.

          2. He’s there to coach the England team. Virtue-signalling is not part of his remit.

          3. Quite
            And that’s where it has all gone wrong.
            If they must virtue signal, it’s better it’s left to a PR spokeswallah

          5. Black and mixed race players make up about 35% of the team. What are the PTB going to do about whites’ being under represented?

          6. Precisely. I simply refuse to believe that black players are superior to white players. The great players and hero’s of my youth in the West Country were all white and English.

            I recall John Atyeo of Bristol City, Don Rogers of Swindon Town, Alan Skirton of Bath City and later Bolton Wanderers, Tony Book of Bath City and later Manchester City (both under Malcolm Allison), later Tony Currie of Sheffield United and England (one of the greatest strikers of the ball), and so many more great white players.

            I remain mystified that for some unknown reason, all of a sudden, footballers have become mostly black.

            The footballers I mentioned were not only white but possessed of a working brain. They were able to play intelligently and work out strategies to defeat opponents. This is sadly missing from the modern game.

            No manager can tell his players how to play, it is ultimately up to the individual to do his stuff.

      2. Something to do with William the Woke being given his post as titular head of the Football Association, a Royal Prince as ignorant, if not moreso, than Greta Thunberg, whom he evidently worships. Silly Sod.

    2. I missed the start, did they take the knee?
      England looked pretty clueless, back passing is not the way to play that game. Germany scored. Then I lost interest.
      I expected a French referee with a can of teargas. 😉

  87. That’s a bit of wall extended, and a 3″ diameter ash dropped today.
    Off to bed so goodnight all.

    1. “…3″ diameter ash dropped today.” Wow! That must have been some cigar!

  88. That’s me. Sleepy time.
    See all Y’all in the morning. Have a good zed!

  89. We had a nice meal out- I had a delicious avocado and feta salad and some spicy chicken wings. Husband had calamari and salad. Was all lovely. There is a man working there- Dabi by name, and he helped me down the couple of steps from outside to an indoor table. I thanked him and he said it was his pleasure.
    I moan and groan about some immigrants but there are some- like our mate Ashish, whose face lit up when he saw us tonight- those who work and fit in- all credit to them.
    I am off soon because I am exhausted.
    I hope you all have a good night.

  90. Goodnight, Gentlefolk and God bless. Hopefully not another sleepless night.

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