Wednesday 1 October: Starmer attacks Reform UK yet still fails to articulate his own vision

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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601 thoughts on “Wednesday 1 October: Starmer attacks Reform UK yet still fails to articulate his own vision”

  2. Good morning, chums. And thanks to Geoff for today's new NoTTLe site. I got a Par with today's Wordle.

    Wordle 1,565 4/6

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  3. Good morning, chums. And thanks to Geoff for today's new NoTTLe site. I got a Par with today's Wordle.

    Wordle 1,565 4/6

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

  4. Good morning all.
    A tad over 12°C and overcast with little wind and a light rain only just starting as I checked the temperatures.

    An auction purchase to pick up and possibly a run down to Stoke to see Stepson afterwards.

    4. Incitement to violence? Where's plod? Oh, hang on, it's a black so they won't do anything.

    1. Does anyone remember Paul Gallico's story of Dunkirk, and the wounded snow goose helped by Rayader and Fritha?

  7. Morning all, thanks to Herr Oberst's help I'm still here under a slightly different handle.
    Managed Wordle today in 3. Lucky second word:

    Wordle 1,565 3/6

    ⬛⬛🟨⬛⬛
    🟨🟨🟨⬛🟨
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    2. What a stupid statement. If someone considers themselves Polish and lives here, then they're not British, are they? If the call themself 'Afro carribean then they're not British, are they? If they call themselves a British muslim then they're not British, are they?

        1. Take big cat in his box, or better still with a walking harness to the place where little cat disappeared and wander around there in the hope that scent of each other or mewing will reunite them.

          It was suggested when Oberstleutnant first told us what happened.

      1. Just been over to search again – no luck. Leafletted the neighbourhood, hope that helps. Posted in local Facebook, also trying to book an ad in the local paper. Neighbours have been asked to look out for him… his familiar blanket is there to try to lure him in.

        2. Such terrible news, Obers. If it's any comfort, we had a cat (also, bizarrely, called Little, for the same reason) who often disappeared for weeks, but one time we had given up hope. She reappeared saturated with shit from clearly having fallen into a slurry tank. Washing her off involved injuries to human staff but she did survive for a very long time after that. She survived her brother, Big, who met a sticky end on afar away road on which he had no business being. I so hope that Little Cat will reappear, dear Obers.

          1. He’s disappeared before, and reappered. He’s quite used to the outdoors, so we hope that he’s just taking an adventure holiday in the country. Trying to get an advertisement in the local paper, otherwise not sure what to do.

    1. Of course, Bill. I forgot to say "A Pinch and a Punch" and "White Rabbits" to all my chums. (Good morning to you, btw.)

    2. Good morning Bill

      This poem is for you , because I imagine you have a bonfire slowly burning and reigniting gently .

      Autumn Fires
      Robert Louis Stevenson

      In the other gardens
      And all up in the vale,
      From the autumn bonfires
      See the smoke trail!

      Pleasant summer over,
      And all the summer flowers,
      The red fire blazes,
      The grey smoke towers.

      Sing a song of seasons!
      Something bright in all!
      Flowers in the summer,
      Fires in the fall!

      2. LOGS TO BURN!

        Logs to burn! logs to burn!
        Logs to save the coal a turn!
        Here’s a word to make you wise
        When you hear the woodman’s cries.

        Beechwood fires burn bright and clean,
        Hornbeam blazes too –
        If the logs are kept a year
        To season through and through.

        Oak logs will warm you well
        If they’re old and dry.
        Larch logs of Pinewood smell,
        But the sparks will fly.

        Pine is good and so is Yew,
        For warmth through wintry days.
        But Poplar, and Willow too
        Take long to dry or blaze.

        Birch logs will burn too fast,
        Alder scarce at all.
        Chestnut logs are good to last,
        If cut in the fall.

        Holly logs will burn like wax,
        You should keep them green.
        Elm logs – like smouldering flax –
        No flame is seen!

        Pear logs and Apple logs
        They will scent your room.
        Cherry logs, across the dogs,
        Will smell like flowers in bloom.

        But Ash logs, all smooth and grey,
        Burn them green or old.
        Buy up all that come your way –
        They’re worth their weight in gold.

  11. https://x.com/realMaalouf/status/1973002638506569990

    Jim Chimirie 🇬🇧🎗
    @JChimirie66677
    ·
    17h
    Keir Starmer is wrong. "Islamophobia" isn't a neutral term. It was built as a political shield – a tool of the Left's long alliance with Islamist activists.

    The word itself didn't appear in British political life until the late 1990s, when the Runnymede Trust – backed by left-leaning academics and lobby groups – pushed it into policy. From the start it blurred a vital line: between protecting ordinary Muslims from hate and ring-fencing an ideology from scrutiny. That move suited both sides. The Left wanted a new bloc of votes and a moral weapon against its critics. Islamist organisations wanted to silence questions about doctrine, gender, and the behaviour of some communities inside Britain.

    Once the label was in place, it was deployed to shut down talk of forced marriage, honour abuse, and the industrial-scale grooming of girls by men from overwhelmingly Muslim backgrounds. Councils, police and social services feared the charge of "Islamophobia" more than they feared protecting children. The result? Decades of cover-ups – from Rotherham to Rochdale and now right across the country.

    Now Starmer wants to push further – building hate-speech laws around a term designed to make criticism untouchable. That would put whole areas of British life off limits: the right to call out misogyny when it's rooted in imported codes of honour, the right to question mass migration from cultures openly hostile to Western freedoms, the right to say that equal treatment for women and gay people isn't negotiable.

    This isn't about hating Muslims. It's about refusing to let a manufactured term be used to criminalise dissent and shield abuse. Britain needs honest speech and equal law – not more blasphemy codes in disguise.

    "The Left wanted a new bloc of votes and a moral weapon against its critics. Islamist organisations wanted to silence questions about doctrine, gender, and the behaviour of some communities inside Britain."

      1. Good morning K

        Since this government took the seat last year , we have had nothing but commands/ orders / frighteners / threats/ innocent people imprisoned for talking , yet yesterday the disgusting slanderous utterings from all the brainwashed far lefties sounds as if they have been taking lessons from the Chinese or North Korea and soon we will have to bow down and obey by paying the price they demand !

    2. Without wishing to be crude, he seems to be obsessed with Islam to the extent i wonder if it os a deviancy

    3. 'Islamic phobia' is something that has developed after people from overseas countries have chosen, selected to arrive in a forgien country. When they then go out of their insistent and harmful, almost prehistoric way to change long established laws and cultures back to the cultures they have come from. That suits only them. In this particular and ongoing case that dates back several centuries. They insist just to emphasis their 'point' in dressing up in very unsuitable vastly out of date clothing and mainly do not take any notice of public opinion. They protest against all modern law rules and regulations.
      Quite obviously they are being as awkward as they possibly can. And therfore do not fit in or even attempt to do so. And should be excluded in every way possible from 21st century society and its forward thinking culture. They are deliberately provocative and the proverbial cats amongst the pigeons.

      1. Morning Eddy

        I am just going to repeat part of my own comment I posted yesterday .. Yes it sounds daft , but.

        I feel that the Labour party is similar to a post Independence African party , inexperienced and unable to use strong skills to initiate stability in Britain .. They are post Colonial .. and knowing how countries in Africa like the Sudan, Nigeria , Uganda , Kenya and even South Africa post Colonial, have deteriorated into madness and financial decline , surely that fact should be a warning to us all .

        We do not need /require mixed government , we do not require multifaith governments , we will be courting trouble because of ineptitude and negligent treatment of our own English / Scottish/ Welsh residents ..

        The breach of freedom of speech has demonised everything we think about this appalling Labour government .

        1. The scary thing about your comparison, Belle, (a really good point) is that the countries you list only got some form of stability after a civil war… I was in Nigerian for their one, and it wasn't fun.

      2. Morning Eddy

        I am just going to repeat part of my own comment I posted yesterday .. Yes it sounds daft , but.

        I feel that the Labour party is similar to a post Independence African party , inexperienced and unable to use strong skills to initiate stability in Britain .. They are post Colonial .. and knowing how countries in Africa like the Sudan, Nigeria , Uganda , Kenya and even South Africa post Colonial, have deteriorated into madness and financial decline , surely that fact should be a warning to us all .

        We do not need /require mixed government , we do not require multifaith governments , we will be courting trouble because of ineptitude and negligent treatment of our own English / Scottish/ Welsh residents ..

        The breach of freedom of speech has demonised everything we think about this appalling Labour government .

      3. A 'phobia' is an irrational fear of something – there's nothing irrational about Islamaphobia, it's perfectly understandable considering the way these backward savages behave

    4. Starmerphobia: The greatest threat to the British way of life is Starmer and his battalion of Stalinist monkeys who, bereft of a collective brain, slavishly applaud and ape every idiotic proclamation from the Führer.

    5. 'Islamophobia' is a term invented by the Muslim Brotherhood. This Islamic political group had a close relationship with the Nazis, going so far as to raise an Arabic regiment to fight on the German side. The organization has never disavowed its. Almost every Suni terror group has its origins in the Muslim Brotherhood, Al Fatah, Al Qaida, Boko Haram, Islamic State, etc, etc, etc.

    7. I agree. Islam has had a terrific (in the true sense of the word) effect on the UK. Manchester Arena, London Bridge, Christmas Markets, 7/7 …

  12. Good morning, all. Misty start, now brightening up. Crabapple and grape jelly laced with home grown Tabasco chillies to be made this morning.

    I haven't heard Starmer's speech but I can believe that the following isn't far off the mark. Starmer admits that he deliberately didn't put much emphasis on policy issues. I wonder why?

    https://x.com/HoodedClaw1974/status/1973049629747896513

    1. My grape jelly this year was a disaster. I ended up with purple glop, which is only useful to bung into stews and casseroles.
      I just do not trust the bloody conduction hob; they are not as controllable as gas. And I need to replace the preserving pan I binned when we moved.
      Morning, Korky.

      1. We have induction – vastly better than gas. As controllable, yet doesn't set fire to wayward cloths waved over it; spills & overflows don't fall into a pit by the burner, to be then caramelised onto the enamel requiring a small thermonuclear device to get clean. Only the pan gets heated, not the air, so no energy wasted. Nothing better.

        1. I looked at converting, but would have had to get rid of some of my favourite pans as they are not induction friendly.

          Interestingly, the company that made my gas hob, also make a conventional electric unit and an induction unit all of the same size (need same size hole in the counter top), same numbers of burners. Price wise the induction is the most expensive, conventional electric the cheapest.

          Surprisingly, given it's claimed efficiency, the induction unit needs heavier wiring and a higher rated circuit breaker than the conventional electric unit. Very odd. And of course there's lots more to go wrong – the gas unit has been happily doing its thing since we built the house 18 years ago. And all parts are still available as it was in production for a long time.

          1. Induction often has a quick-heat function that can use a lot of current – ours has a "B" for boost button. Boils a pan of water in no time, but there's a lot of 'leccy used in a short time to do that, hence the high fuse rating.

          2. My big gas burner does the same, and has a setting that brings in another "row" of nozzles, intended for large pans, – but my English 240v Morphy Richards still does the job. To meet US regs, it has to have a dedicated circuit and be protected by a Ground Fault circuit Breaker.

            Interestingly, looking at the manufacturer's website, I could refurb my gas cooktop for not too much money – new igniters and transformer and even a replacement stainless steel top panel that supports the burners, if I wanted to. Giving consideration to buying the parts while they are all still available.

      2. Good afternoon, Anne.

        I’ve got an induction hob with 17 settings and I’m very pleased with it. I made jelly from my white grapes – after the heavy rains a few weeks back I noticed that quit a few grapes were splitting, much as tomatoes do if they’re over-watered, and crabapples for their high pectin. Setting point took a while but I made two 500ml Kilner jars and six mini-pots rescued from a local garden centre and a hotel I stayed in last week. They come with the name of a local jam making firm on the lids!
        That’s it until January when the Sevilles arrive, mincemeat next on the list.

  17. Right, I'm off! Pickup in SW Manchester then possibly Stoke to see Stepson about a bloody stupid bill British Gas says he owes.

    TTFN

    1. Heck. The brain dead, dogmatic 'mental health' service providers need to come into the real world.
      We've had 40 years of this nonsense.

  18. Morning all 🙂😊🤗
    Pinch and a punch, grey 11c
    And still starmer is in number 10. Why ?

  19. Good Morning!

    In Regulated to Death – The Dire State of the EU Thomas Kolby relates how Europe's self-appointed elite have destroyed economies and lives through their endless regulation and globalist dogma. This is a warning that Labour is determined not to heed.

    Please be sure to read our report, Nigerian Christians Wonder Why Nobody Cares , which looks into the largely unreported war on Christians being waged by Islamist terrorists, and of the Nigerian governments corruption-ridden response.

    Energy Watch: Over the last 24 hours: Britain's average power requirement was 32 GW, sourced from Gas, 39.5%; Solar, 7%: Wind 18.9%; Imports, 13.6%; Biomass, 9.8%; Nuclear 7.8% and Miscellaneous, 3.3%.

    Digital ID, as proposed by our evil government, is a sinister move towards totalitarian oppression. Please sign the petition opposing it; https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/730194 and ask all your friends, colleagues and family to do so. Over 2,662,000 have.

    1. Why would Labour heed it? They agree with it! They don't think it's a warning of what not to do, they see it as something we must do.

  21. Tim Stanley
    Starmer plays the patriot card, but could have sent it in an email

    There was more about Reform at this conference than at Reform’s as PM laid it on a bit thick

    This year, there was no “release the sausages”, but we have reached a “pork in the road”.

    Our porcine PM used his conference speech to offer a stark choice between fascism under Reform and patriotism under Labour. It was long, paradoxical, and most of it could’ve been said by email.

    Look. Let him be clear. Contra everything Keir Starmer told us 12 months ago, Britain is now doing great, and though he shares the worries of “single mums juggling kids” – they’re not half as worried as the kids, I bet – if you disagree with him, you might be a Nazi.

    I honestly think I heard more about Reform at this conference than at Reform’s. The level of imitation suggests not just flattery but infatuation à la Fatal Attraction. One hopes Nigel doesn’t own a bunny.

    Union officials had distributed flags to wave. I went with Wales; the red hand of Ulster was curiously absent. The PM eats, sleeps and, twice a year, makes love in front of a Union flag, so appeared before an enormous patriotic backdrop that broke into golden rays over an image of rolling hills.

    Wouldn’t you rather Jerusalem, he suggested, than Reform’s “politics of grievance”?

    Yet having made a plea for tolerance, the PM slipped into an Airing of the Grievances that implied Festivus come early. Keir Starmer, we learnt, hates Nigel Farage, Reform, Liz Truss, Andy Burnham and, in an unforeseen twist, Tony Blair – for globalisation and sending everyone to university.

    The US president won’t like the sound of that. He’s just appointed Sir Tony to run his latest project, Trump World: Gaza, a casino where the dress code is tie and a flak jacket.

    The source of all this hate? Class grievance. “I think by now you know what [my dad] did,” he said, and the conference laughed: the old toolmaker schtick. The PM wasn’t joking. But the delegates thought he was. So as he complained that his father was “undervalued because he worked with his hands”, MPs were giggling.

    Laughter, too, when he asked if Britain could be broken when it’s full of people doing such jolly nice things? “Painting the fence, running the raffle, cutting the half-time oranges… Debbie recycles school uniforms.” And Kim from Batley euthanises the old.

    Most governments try to fix things and then say Britain is booming, but Labour has skipped to the John Major circa 1996 stage of wee Britain twee that insists there’ll always be an England so long as people donate their false teeth to Oxfam. It had the poetic quality of Kipling rewritten by a sales clerk at Ryman’s.

    The PM is not a bad man, let alone a commie – just spectacularly unqualified to reunite a country that, by his own admission, both the Tories and New Labour ruined. Wes Streeting gave the same speech two hours earlier with far better delivery, his ambitious little black eyes darting about the conference hall, spotting opportunities.

    He got a standing ovation for mentioning Angela Rayner, who tweeted that she couldn’t make it but was there in spirit, which probably meant she was at home, feet up, drinking spirits.

    Halfway through, Keir, she probably said: “Turn it over, love, Bargain Hunt’s on t’other side.”

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

    James Frost
    11 hrs ago
    Starmer: I will ‘never surrender’ our flag.

    But, Sir Keir, that is exactly what you did over the Chagos Islands.

    General Mustard
    11 hrs ago
    Reply to James Frost
    And fishing grounds.

    Andy Fitton
    11 hrs ago
    Reply to General Mustard
    Not just surrendered. They have been using it as toilet paper for years. Until now when they need it. Proving once and for all that patriotism, however you define it, is the last refuge of the scoundrel.

    Gary Halstead
    11 hrs ago
    Reply to James Frost
    And not just the flag, he's surrendered the actual UK to Brussels, Beijing and in the not too distant future, totally and irreversibly, to Islam.

  22. 413722+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,
    If nothing can be done immediately about the TOOL (starmer) and KIT ( the cabinet) then we the peoples have lost.

    He is, and couldn't be bettered as a successful WEF NWO, davos loving agent of destruct and renew, following the cartels orders to the letter, and daily the boats come in.

    This , will be the party mantra via rote to accompany the daily boat arrivals, the parliamentary parties will seemingly argue and ALL the while, daily, the boats will come in,

    Dt,
    Live, Brexit to blame for small boats crisis, says
    Starmer

    ALL IN ALL when you recognise it for what it is then the TOOL is running a very successful campaign and the boats will daily, continue to come in until……..

  23. SIR – Yet again the Prime Minister has told us about all the things he is doing for “working people”.

    Will he ever explain to us who this description includes – or, perhaps more importantly, who it doesn’t?

    Philip Aust
    Swanley, Kent

    Indeed, Philip (the most sensible letter of the week). I have always been confused by the vapid expressions "working people" and "working class".

    To go to work means to endeavour to earn a living. Anyone who is in employment — whether self-employed, employed by the state or a private concern — is (by definition) a 'worker'.

    The chairman of a multi-national concern; the Dean of St Paul's; the manager of your local branch of Boot's the Chemist; a welder; and the bloke who sweeps the pavement (or the woman who cleans the bogs) are all employed by someone. Ergo they go to work to earn a living. Doing that work makes them … a worker!

    Only the pretentious and the anally-retentive look down on "workers". What those clowns cannot assimilate is that if you are not a worker — you are simply a scrounger. Or, as the old Vagrancy Act of 1824 lyrically put it: an idle and disorderly person; a rogue and vagabond; or an incorrigible rogue.

    Two hundred years on, we have a country still filled with a growing number of all those types.

      1. Struggles now, Eddy …from GPs telling those who want appointments to 'go to A&E' to the huge rise in patient numbers (immigrants, larger elderly population numbers) to the ones who don't pay PAYE/NIC contributions….difficult to see how it can keep going.

      2. One headline is that they are going to remove the two child benefit cap. We’ve got no money, no growth and they are going to pay the feckless to breed. Words fail me!

    2. Your alter-ego used to change his avatar from time to time for our entertainment – sometimes he wore a hat, sometimes he wore a beard, sometimes he was in uniform, sometimes in mufti.

      Is Olaf going to have a variety of different avatars?

      1. Hard to say how the future will play out regarding the Grizzly/Olaf Bloodaxe scenario. It all depends on how Disqus want to play.

          1. No. I haven't. Grizzly is still lost in the Disqus universe.

            This is still Olaf Bloodaxe with a (temporarily) renamed account. I've still lost all my previous Grizzly posting history.

    3. 'Morning Olaf (x to Elsie)…what about the ones on benefits…are they 'workers' or 'scroungers' (must surely take some effort to be liable for LTSB – the gift that keeps giving….)

      1. Good morning, Kate.

        Those on benefits come as two flavours. A good many are incapable of work, mainly as a result of genuine incapacity.
        Another good many are de facto scroungers since they refuse to work and no one makes them do so.

        The second clique would be made to work in my world. Shovelling snow, weeding verges, filling potholes and collecting litter are just some of the tasks they could be made to perform in order to collect their 'dole'.

        1. The first lot will soon "disappear" when the Compulsory Suicide Act comes into force.

          1. If those scheduled for 'compulsory suicide' fail to top themselves, will the state then murder them?

        2. Where would you put pensioners in those orders? We've had our working lives and built up our pensions and savings so are not scroungers.

          1. I'm struggling to think why you need to ask such a question of me.

            I am one of those said pensioners who worked all his life. My pensions are not "benefits" (despite the twats telling us they are!).

        3. That’s right, Grizz. I like to see the babushkas clearing the snow from Moscow roads and streets …this coming winter may be due snow falls it being a while since we had any – what usually happens UK is the snow plough does its job and blocks the sole entrance to where I live which we then have to clear. On my many walks I must have collected bin bags full of litter, I don’t understand why anyone would litter – the earth is our home, the only one we know of in our universe. No-one should have ‘money for nothing…that’s the way to do it’ (was that Dire Straits?)

          1. "I don't understand why anyone would litter — the earth is our home, the only one we know of in our universe."

            By precisely the same token, Kate, I can't understand why humans hell-bent on overpopulating the planet. Every other species knows — by instinct — how to keep its numbers (and the vital — crucial — biodiversity) in check.

          2. Unfortunately, Grizz…the ones overpopulating are in many instances the ones who don’t work but instead collect benefits (i.e. taxes paid by previous workers, invested in Gov’t bonds by current Chancellor/BofE). And then there’s the old canard about today’s contributions being necessary to pay future pensions, together with the reasoning for current OAPs having been funded solely by previous contributions. Many now have private pensions, some with IFAs some not, recognising Ms Reeves not worth her weight in gold and better to invest in it directly (NB: this is NOT a recommendation to invest directly). As for every other species- they know full well each and every offspring need feeding and also there’s not always the food (milk in the first instance) to feed them – some even kill the weaker offspring…..apologies for length of post..K…x

          3. No apology necessary, Kate. Ever! xx

            I agree with what you are saying; however, my rant was more aimed at worldwide overpopulation. 2,500,000,000 humans on planet earth in 1951 when I emerged; 8,250,000,000 today, more than three times as many humans in just 74 years.
            It took us, as a species, a well over a million years to reach the 1951 mark then just a blink of an eyelid to triple it. Homo sapiens is dead. H. imbecilus is truly the new morph.

          4. Back at you, Grizz x…I hear you, what’s happened I think is that we discovered medicine above and beyond the natural world of plants, various bits of different animals…to vaccines, and that could just be our downfall as a species. I will use H.imbecilus, if I may 😀 (My dog has more sense than I have ..only just eating lunch at 2pm, whereas her dinner digested and now up for the hunt again….and she will sleep when it’s dark, wake when the light hits am and the blackbird sings…

        4. Roadside maintenance is handled here by the inmates of the local jail, selected for not being likely escapees, though the guards are armed with shotguns just in case.. A big minibus full of prisoners, a driver and one guard is the norm, plus a towed portable loo.

          Often see the vans parked on the hard shoulder, and the team well spread out, all dressed in day glo orange overalls.. Lots of local reports that the prisoners would rather be outside than locked up. And no, the roads are not closed for them.

    4. It is a marketing term that has no meaning whatsoever. It's specifically designed to give them idea of broad appeal while refusing to be pinned down to anything tangible and ensuring it applies to absolutely nobody.

      It is more tripe, spewed out by a useless, arrogant, ignorant, destructive government that clings to such meaningless terms because it has no interest in doing anything positive whatsoever.

      1. This useless government (all all similar of that ilk) will always rant on about how they are "for" working people, yet give them a far worse deal than any other government ever has.

    1. I'd never heard of a Brimstone moth. I get loads of Brimstone butterflies in my garden, from early spring until late summer..

      There are so many moths that identifying most of them is nigh-on an impossibility.

      I also get loads of Walls, Commas, Peacocks, Red Admirals, Orange Tips (my favourite), Ringlets, Small Coppers, Small Heaths, Meadow Browns, Large and Small Cabbage Whites, Small Tortoiseshells, as well as smaller numbers of Small Pearl-Bordered and Silver-Washed Fritillaries and just one White Admiral. So far, though, I have neither seen a Gatekeeper nor a Speckled Wood here.

      1. The brimstone moth (Opisthograptis luteolata) is a moth of the family Geometridae. The species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae. It should not be confused with the brimstone butterfly Gonepteryx rhamni.

        1. It would be difficult to confuse the two. I looked up the moth in my Collins Guide to the Insects of Britain and Western Europe and noticed that it is less than half the size of the butterfly, with different markings.

    2. Does the headline mean "butterflies that you might see in October" or "Butterflies that welcome October"?

  27. Last Updated: Thursday, 2 October, 2003, 11:11 GMT 12:11 UK

    Words of the Red Flag
    Here are the words of socialist anthem 'The Red Flag' reinstated for the end of this year's Labour conference.
    The people's flag is deepest red,
    It shrouded oft our martyred dead,
    And ere their limbs grew stiff and cold,
    Their hearts blood dyed its every fold.

    Then raise the scarlet standard high (chorus).
    Within its shade we'll live and die,
    Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer,
    We'll keep the red flag flying here.

    Look round, the Frenchman loves its blaze,
    The sturdy German chants its praise,
    In Moscow's vaults its hymns are sung
    Chicago swells the surging throng.

    It waved above our infant might,
    When all ahead seemed dark as night;
    It witnessed many a deed and vow,
    We must not change its colour now.

    It well recalls the triumphs past,
    It gives the hope of peace at last;
    The banner bright, the symbol plain,
    Of human right and human gain.

    It suits today the weak and base,
    Whose minds are fixed on pelf and place
    To cringe before the rich man's frown,
    And haul the sacred emblem down.

    With heads uncovered swear we all
    To bear it onward till we fall;
    Come dungeons dark or gallows grim,
    This song shall be our parting hymn.

    "The Red Flag" has been the British Labour Party's official anthem from its founding; its annual party conference closes with the song. "The Red Flag" was first sung in the House of Commons on 1 August 1945, when Parliament convened after Clement Attlee's Labour defeat of Winston Churchill's Conservatives.

    Irishman Jim Connell wrote the song's lyrics in 1889 in Nicholas Donovan's house.[8] There are six stanzas, each followed by the chorus. It is normally sung to the tune of "Lauriger Horatius", better known as the German carol "O Tannenbaum" ("O Christmas Tree"), though Connell had wanted it sung to the tune of a pro-Jacobite Robert Burns anthem, "The White Cockade".[9] The use of the tune of "O Tannenbaum" was popularised by British socialist writer Adolphe Smith Headingley in the 1890s; Connell disapproved of the tune which he regarded as "church music" and conservative by nature.[10][11][12]

    Now then , what do you make of that little lot?

    1. And the reply used to be:

      The old red flag is turning pink
      It's not as red as people think.

    2. The working class can lick my arse.
      I've got the foreman's job at last.

      Out of work and on the dole,
      You can shove your red flag up your hole!

    3. "…Connell disapproved of the tune which he regarded as 'church music'…"

      In the 1960s, when we were still both primary school children, it was known to me and my sister only as a Christmas carol. When we sung it one day in the car, Dad reacted angrily, such was his deep-seated hatred of Wilson's Labour government.

    4. There was one version of the first verse I used to hear many years ago:

      The people's flag is deepest red,
      Dyed in the blood the workers shed.
      Beneath that flag we'll live and die,
      To keep the Red Flag flying high.

  29. Excellent! Now I am going to check my lottery tickets:
    Wordle 1,565 2/6

    🟨⬜⬜⬜🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  30. Lammy backtracks on claim Farage ‘once flirted with Hitler Youth’
    Deputy Prime Minister’s comments come amid deepening racism row between Labour and Reform
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/10/01/lammy-backtracks-claim-farage-flirted-hitler-youth/

    You may say that Macron is too clever by half; you may say that Tony Blair is too clever by half; you may say Mandleson is too clever by half. But what ever you say about Lammy this is an accusation that will never be directed at him!

      1. Abbott may have meant a good kicking in one sense but people could also interpret it as incitement to violence.

        1. If the boot was on the other foot and Farage had said similar about Lammy or Abbott or even worse the Muslim Shabana Badmood the sky would fall in.

      2. When the chairmanship of the IMF came up there were two candidates. One a trained economist with decades of eexperience rescuring failed economies with sound, Libertarian priniciples.

        The other was LaGarde, a failed communist with no use, ability, skill, talent or worth.

        Guess who got the job? This is why now when we are forced to the IMF they will say 'you must rechain yourselves to the EU and adopt the Euro, and pay them trillions…' i will be political spite, nothing else.

        The economic mess we are in is forced, not accidental.

  31. Mongo wanted to go out early today but my enforcer, Lucy stood in his way. Then Oscar decided to walk around and I got up anyway and took them out very early. As a result, they were fed late…. compared to when they walked. Mongo did his obligatory stopping nonsense and I am a bit ashamed I just carried on. It was only when I got around the second corner I realised he wasn't with us – half a kilometre without noticing an 80 kilo black bear.

    On getting to the field they all had a gambol about like loons and we met our chum who has a Springer which compared to my three is an agility champion. A Newfie attitude to obstacles is to go through them, not around. But they played until they were knackered.

    Home, did he ablutions, took Junior to school and the Warqueen has headed off and by the tyre ruts is also in a bad mood. Now facing the day with 4 hours less sleep than usual while the dogs doze off.

    Is there any news on little cat?

    1. No news, I'm afraid. Planning to go & search a bit later, in the hope that he's listening. If that doesn't work, we'll take Big Cat round and see if we can lose him too that will produce a result.

      2. Not shut in anywhere, someone's shed? Try late evening when sounds have died down, it will be easier to hear him answering with miaows. That is how we found our little cat – he was stuck up a tree in the churchyard and couldn't/wouldn't climb down.

  33. Rumour.. nah won't happen.

    The US Federal Government's holding of gold surpassed $1 Trillion for first time in history prompting speculation that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent could revalue (mark to market) the massive pile of precious metal.

    “Gold” gets dug out of the ground in Africa, or someplace. Then we melt it down, dig another hole, bury it again and pay people to stand around guarding it.

    1. Cooper & Reeves.. just look at em.
      Can barely hold in their excitement at being a flag-waving patriot.

    2. They are demonstrating the true meaning of the quote that, 'Patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels".

  35. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c834c621c00ba9758385259898e829b7bdbffea401d4972d733eb304e4aa60d9.png
    It seems I am not the only one who has experienced trouble retaining my normal (and preferred) username. And it seems inconceivable that the same thing happened to our old, and much-missed, chum — Plum-Tart — NINE YEARS AGO NOW!

    It also seems that she was forced to become just plain 'Plum' against her express wishes and she only remained with that ersatz username for a short while before leaving us.

    For my part, I never stopped calling her by her preferred name of Plum-Tart.

    3. Have you managed to recover your Grizzly account or did you rename the Olaf one?
      Plum-Tart is much missed.

      1. I still cannot find my proper Grizzly account so this renamed Olaf will have to do for now.

  36. Morning all. Another cool day, no sun, sort of foggy. It will burn out I expect and become another sunny day.

    I saw the accusation by Lammykins that Farage consorted with the Hitler Youth in his younger days. I suppose I should be outraged. Instead I laughed, it just proves, yet again what a hopeless individual he is with history. It's either that or Farage is remarkably well preserved for someone who has to be 100+plus in age.

    As for Der Obermisterfuhrer Starmer. His speech was plain offensive and ugly. Quite suited to his personality and his twisted view of the British people. A first class racist who can't see that is what he is. In effect advocating genocide for the English and the erasure of our culture. No doubt he lost several thousand more Labour voters to Reform and other parties. Really, who would want to be associated with such a disgusting individual?

    I read, also, that MeAgain Markle's father is trapped in a flat in the Philippines. She is so worried she had to have a manicure to sharpen her nails.

  38. I couldn't get round the intrusive Disqus screen on my phone. . So far I haven't come across it on my laptop account. I don't mind confirming I'm over 18 but I object to being subject to their intrusive adverts and privacy questions.

  39. Madeline Grant
    Starmer’s speech was nothing but stale, reheated guff
    30 September 2025, 6:44pm

    ‘Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel’. So wrote Dr Johnson. Sadly for the good Doctor he was an avowed Tory and so, according to the rules of Labour conference, a de facto evil and probably racist monster. Alas, if only the Labour party had heeded the great moralist’s words, we might have avoided the clatteringly embarrassing display that was the Prime Minister’s speech today.

    As delegates arrived they were handed British, Welsh and Scottish flags. Even a few St George’s flags were fluttering – look away now, Emily Thornberry! Alas, no Northern Irish ones; presumably Lord Hermer thinks they’re against international law.

    No. 10 had been briefing the press that Starmer was going to make a big open appeal to ordinary British patriots. To show just how normal this was going to be, a huge block of seating near the front had been reserved for something called the ‘Society of Labour lawyers’. This is an organisation which seems to vie with the Luftwaffe and the Spanish Armada in the ‘damage done to Britain’ stakes. Meanwhile the blobular mass of backbench MPs were back in the cheap seats next to the journalists, where they whooped and gave standing ovations at frequencies and decibel levels that would shame the telecasters of North Korea.

    No sign of the King Under The Water though. Having prowled around the conference like a lion in a David Attenborough documentary who’d had his attempts at marking his territory flustered, Andy Burnham was nowhere to be seen.

    Before the speech began, there came a broadcast video listing various government successes: slogans like ‘legal aid boosted’ and ‘Ninja swords outlawed’ beamed around the hall. Hip hip hooray, went the MP blob! Quite a few took selfies. Only Labour could try to pitch an appeal to ordinary people by filling their venue exclusively with wonkish goons who treat Darren Jones as if he’s Madonna.

    The patriotic theme continued; ‘It’s an urgent task’, began Sir Keir. This was ‘a fork in the road – we can choose decency, or we can choose division’. Perhaps the single most repeated buzzphrase was ‘patriotic renewal’. Naturally, he’d said every word of this speech before. Sir Keir warned of ‘a fight for the soul of this country, and we must all rise to this challenge’. Cue more flag waving; this was Maoism courtesy of the Early Learning Centre.

    The problem with all Sir Keir’s patriotic shtick is that it’s tired, reheated and a vision probably unrecognisable to 99 per cent of the people he actually needs to win round if he has any hope of keeping his job. On the subject of which, vast swathes of the speech were dedicated to Reform. Mr Farage has been given such extensive free accommodation inside Sir Keir’s head that you’d think he’d recently arrived on a dinghy. ‘Do they love our country… Our beautiful, tolerant, diverse country?’ Sir Keir bellowed. Here there was the air of Dr Frankenstein cradling his monstrous creation. He accused Reform of ‘stirring the pot of division’. The kettle might have been more appropriate, given Labour’s own record in that area.

    Incidentally, shortly after Sir Keir’s call for ‘decency over division’, in an effort to show just how patriotic they were, No.10 dispatched David Lammy to claim that Nigel Farage had ‘flirted with the Hitler Youth’ when younger. I know the passage of time has never been Mr Lammy’s strong suit but it’s worth pointing out that Mr Farage was born in 1964. It’s also probably worth mentioning that smearing your opponents as Nazis doesn’t fall under most people’s definition of ‘open and inclusive’ but there we are.

    The real nadir came at the end. He talked about visiting an old lady in Oldham, who was afraid of addressing issues in her community due to fear of being called racist. Over ‘a cuppa and a rich tea biscuit’, Sir Keir had listened to her concerns. He warned delegates of the dangers of patronising working-class voters, which was a bit like warning the Pope about Catholicism. Today’s Labour party essentially exists to scold and belittle ordinary people: asking their delegates not to do so is like begging water not to be wet. Not treating your voters like scum should be politics 101; it was testament to how ingrained this attitude is in Labour that Sir Keir presented it as some radical new approach, as if he were sharing the secrets of alchemy with conference. Unfortunately, moments later he went on a winsome verbal detour about ‘investing in chippies’, so patronising to working-class people that he might as well have delivered it in the accent used by Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins. His own advice had gone in one ear and out the other.

    This tyrannous twee only got worse as he reached his climax. He turned the patronis-ometer up to maximum and praised his ‘fellow partners in the project of Britain’. By this he meant, and please do make sure you’re near a bucket when you read this, ‘the grit of the Lionesses, the swagger of Oasis’. Clearly he thinks that pumping the general public with this brain-rotting, sub-Paddington guff will stop them noticing the catastrophic problems around them. ‘I do not accept Britain is broken,’ said the man who consistently said the opposite until the day before yesterday.

    He mentioned a teenager called Caitlin who’d set up a girls’ football team. A boy called Isaac who’d scrubbed off some racist graffiti, a man called George who delivers food parcels ‘with a smile’. He also went off on a weird tangent about the Euros and, in particular, how happy and unified the public had been in 1996. Gosh, what could possibly have happened in 1997 to change that? I guess we’ll just never know.

    Sir Keir clearly thought this was a great cri de coeur, a ‘which way Western (or Eastern) man/woman/neither’ moment for the nation. Instead it was just yet more of the same. A stale repetition of all the failed liberal mantras that got us into this mess. Here was a deputy head trying to rally the staff room after a special measures report from Ofsted, except Sir Keir showed no contrition, no recognition, no responsibility.

    Unfortunately for the PM, political legacies, as his predecessors are finding out, are based on deeds not words. His claim to love this country as he gives away its territory, bankrupts its farmers, perverts its constitution and, increasingly, fails to provide justice or security to its citizens, rings ever more hollow. The last refuge of a scoundrel indeed.

    1. You Basket of deplorable racist scum..
      Worked for Hillary.. worked for Kamala.. and it's going to work for Sir Keir.

      1. Abuse – I can handle abuse – it's the praise that I can't stand.

        (with apologies to John Cleese)

    2. Well done Madeline – another Lammy howler …. "Incidentally, shortly after Sir Keir’s call for ‘decency over division’, in an effort to show just how patriotic they were, No.10 dispatched David Lammy to claim that Nigel Farage had ‘flirted with the Hitler Youth’ when younger. I know the passage of time has never been Mr Lammy’s strong suit but it’s worth pointing out that Mr Farage was born in 1964. It’s also probably worth mentioning that smearing your opponents as Nazis doesn’t fall under most people’s definition of ‘open and inclusive’ but there we are"

      1. One of the newspaper headlines read “ the day politics was dragged into the gutter” referring to that smear.

    3. Our country used to be beautiful and tolerant before Labour made it diverse. Some absolute corkers in there!

  40. This is even funnier than Grant's put down of Starmer

    Madeline Grant
    Labour conference is a triumph of anti-talent
    29 September 2025, 6:18pm

    In German they have a concept whose equivalent is sorely needed in discussion of British politics: ‘anti-talent’. It means exactly what it sounds like – the opposite of talent, something any given person is uniquely ill-suited to doing.

    Labour has an innate ability to recognise and reward anti-talent, by putting the very people least suited to run departments in charge of them. While Yvette Cooper is in charge of charming our foreign allies, Rachel Reeves, who is increasingly becoming the Florence Foster Jenkins of gilt yields, runs the Treasury. Today both spoke at the Labour conference, an anti-talent double header in Liverpool. Cilla and Charybdis.

    As almost all Labour foreign policy is toxic to both the electorate and common sense, Cooper’s speech majored on ‘patriotism’. She has clearly decided that a convenient attack line against Reform is to suggest that ‘real’ patriotism is about Labour’s values. Again and again we are given haunting visions of what members of the cabinet love about Britain. I can imagine the sort of things which make these people proud: ‘real’ patriotism is not assuming your pet’s gender, ‘real patriotism’ is clapping for our brave Covid marshals on the anniversary of lockdown, ‘real patriotism’ is thanking the person who stabs you on the tube for being part of what makes Britain strong.

    Cooper feels particularly unqualified to the task of sounding authentically patriotic. She recently told the BBC that she owns and displays in her home ‘Union Jack bunting, St George’s flags, St George’s bunting, Yorkshire rose bunting, Union Jack flags and tablecloths’, which made it sound like she lived in one of those souvenir shops near Buckingham Palace called something like Ye Olde English, while Ed Balls no doubt sleeps in a Big Ben snow globe.

    Today, in the midst of her cod-Churchillian codswallop, the anti-talent struck once again, and Cooper mangled her attempt to call Reform ‘plastic patriots’, making it sound like she’d used a slur for disabled people. Sometimes it’s best just to give government ministers endless supplies of rope.

    ‘We know what our flag really means’ Cooper continued, scarcely making more sense than when she was accidentally using the old name for the charity Scope. Well, what the flag has come to mean internationally is inexplicable handouts of cash and sovereign territory for Chinese puppet states and a foreign policy seemingly designed to cause maximum damage to British interests.

    The second part of this amphisbaena of incompetence was the Chancellor of the Exchequer. She gave what she doubtless thought was an inspiring sermon, urging delegates to ‘have faith’. She reminded me of a Deep South preacher having to explain two days after the announced date why the Rapture they’d promised hadn’t happened. Though, looking at some of the delegates who watched her describing a fantasy economy on the uppers, you got the impression that some wished it would.

    There were rumours that the Labour whips had manipulated the seating ballot so that the MPs with the least backbone ended up closest to the stage to indulge in a bit of North Korean-style emotional support for our previously teary Chancellor. The rest of the MPs were relegated to some terrible seats at the back, where they sat alongside the press pack. Many looked unenthused; however, a few had clearly surmised that the best way to escape this Whip-induced purgatory was to abandon what shreds of dignity they had left. Consequently, at random intervals during Reeves’s speech, members of this unhappy band would stand up and scream and shout, like teenage Beatles fans circa 1964. It was odd seeing the Chancellor receiving repeated, Pavarotti-esque standing ovations shortly after saying blobular soundbites like ‘a renewed economy for a renewed Britain’ and ‘I call this approach “securonomics”’.

    The Chancellor criticised ‘the nagging voices of decline’, which, when you’re standing a matter of inches away from Sir Keir Starmer, is either very brave or very stupid. Indeed, it was fairly rich from Ms Reeves herself. I suspect if you picked 100 members of the public at random and asked them to draw whatever came into their head when they heard the phrase ‘nagging voice of decline,’ the distinct Playmobil-headed visage of our dear Chancellor would emerge in a majority of sketches.

    ‘I’ll tell you about my patriotism’, she said, adopting a chummy tone. ‘It’s not just about flags.’ Apparently, it was also about ‘the security of our borders’. Ah yes, borders, that infamous Labour success story.

    At one point Reeves’s voice suddenly took upon the texture of gravel and she growled, triumphantly, ‘never let anyone tell you that there is no difference between a Labour government and a Conservative government.’ The fact that the latter almost looks like a period of competence and stability for the economy shows that Reeves is right, just not in the way she imagines.

    Inevitably, a man who looked like a testicle with a goatee stood up and began ranting about that favourite topic of Labour conference – Palestine. One thing that can be said for Reeves is that, never having had a thread to her speech, it was impossible for her to be thrown off it. Instead, she repeated the ‘sensibilist’ mantra which Labour have been using to justify their leader to the public for years: ‘We are now a party in government, not a party of protest.’ The preposition was an interesting one. Doubtless they are in government, but of all the things one can sling at Labour after a year and a bit, few could accuse them of actually governing.

      1. Are you suggesting a transitioned, disabled, Lesbian black Christian has arrived in the small boats?

        That'll be a first.

    2. The Church of England churches are now just a series of community social services centres.
      David Starkey

    4. There are small pockets of Christianity left, Richard. Ironically, I've just left one, having "been" retired.

      Here in Guildford Diocese, the powers that be don't understand rural parishes at all. There's no support; just ever increasing demands for money, partly to pay for the burgeoning Diocesan staff.

      They're only interested in large urban churches, yet a typical rural parish has a greater percentage of the local population in attendance than in any town parish.

      I said to the Rector on Sunday "I'm done with the CofE" – he agreed. He has 30 months until retirement, but the feeling is mutual.

      Turning up at a strange church is somewhat scary – at least compared to turning up when you've just been appointed organist. But my social life has largely been connected to the church for as long as I remember. Notwithstanding this site, obviously. So I'm off in search of a new place of worship. There are many to choose from.

  42. It looks to me like Labour in the face of complete electoral defeat are appealing to the extremists out there to do something about their opposition through violence and intimidation, I guess there will now be a step up of the counter protest brigade.
    The aim I suppose is to deter people from standing for Reform by creating a hostile environment towards them and their families.
    This is not how democracy is meant to work, not in the West anyway.
    I wonder if those that do overstep the mark and commit crimes against Reform canvassers and the like will receive light two tier punishments, as we are seeing all the time at the moment.

      1. Actually, that is a good question! On a similar topic – how long before we get the new, female, AOC??

          4. Our new female vicar is a nice woman, but her shrill, giggly and trivial (babyish) delivery of solemn Christian church services is simply intolerable

          5. I have to say our female vicar does the ceremony nicely and with dignity. Her sermons are cogent and well thought out – and, thankfully, much shorter than Fr Philip’s.

          6. Nothing new, then.

            I'm honestly past caring. My parish* is blessed with a sound, unwoke Rector: a former Army chaplain, whose politics would fit in well here.

            *Technically, it's my parish no longer. I moved beyond the boundary five years ago today, and I'm no longer employed there, as of today.

            I'll try Guildford Cathedral on Sunday: It's a shame they built it on a bloody mountain peak… (I exaggerate somewhat).

    2. 413722+ up ticks,

      O2O,
      We may laugh at wooden horses but
      horses for courses they can also portray messages of freedom as well as treachery.

      1. 413722+upticks,

        Afternoon LIR,

        As with our 48% referendum result I would say much the same as us.

  44. Morning all… just- but may have to send this later because of poor WiFi signal.

    I've received an email today from my boiler installer that it has passed a heating sequence test, after the technician's visit, to prove that I have at last regained control of my boiler.

    Had to regain WiFi connection to send this.

  45. Quelle surprise…

    Farage’s security cut by Home Office

    Reform UK leader’s taxpayer-funded protection reduced before Starmer launched ‘racism’ attack

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/10/01/keir-starmer-cut-nigel-farage-security-zia-yusuf-reform

    Reform UK donors are now footing the bill for his security, understood to be more than £1m per year. All of Mr Farage’s security is now privately funded, because his team decided that having two different providers, one private and one public, would be unworkable.

  46. Sunshine here !

    Slow old morning for me , Moh playing golf .

    Slept 4 hours last night , awake 3.30 .. anxiety kept me awake , plus my IBS.

    Where has the year gone , Moh has had an excellent golf season , not bad for a 79 year old, and the hot summer has reduced the need for grass cutting here at home .

    I loved the visit from my 2 younger sisters .. my 74 year old had her new hip 6 weeks ago , and now she is driving short distances . she lives on her own in Muizenberg .. a career girl, astute clever and bossy as hell .. my other sister is 11 years younger than me , one of twins ( a brother ) … just as smart and full of zing, married with 2 daughters , lives near the Kruger park , she is also due for 2 new hips ..

    Private health insurance has it's rewards .. one is dealt with quickly and the after care is excellent .

    We knew that here when Moh was working , but sadly now we are just at the back of the queue and regarded as an elderly nuisance ..

    So now we will all become patients of an A I health system ?

    My doctor clatters on his lap top , doesn't bother to examine me , feel me as in the tap tap method .. and just suggests blood tests or other specific things , but no post drama discussions about follow ons!

    We are greatly abandoned elderly white people , and are not regarded as precious by Asian or African hospital doctors !

    Well, isn't that true or isn't it ?

    1. "Private health insurance has it's rewards .. one is dealt with quickly and the after care is excellent ."

      If private companies can do it, why cannot Government-run schemes?

      1. Has any government run service or scheme been consumer friendly? Certainly none of the nationalized services ever were.

  47. BBC ditches Boat Race amid claims director of sport ‘views event as elitist’

    Channel 4 secures five-year deal to broadcast an event that the corporation believes does not offer value for its audience

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/rowing/2025/10/01/bbc-loses-boat-race-to-channel-4

    Alex Kay-Jelski is a British sports journalist, currently the BBC Director of Sport.[1] He was previously the sports editor of The Times and the Daily Mail newspapers,[2] and the editor-in-chief of The Athletic.[3]

    Early life and education
    Kay-Jelski was educated at University College School in London. In 2007, he took an MA in French and Spanish from Edinburgh.

    Career
    Kay-Jelski began his career as a graduate trainee and sub-editor at the Daily Mail in 2007. He was promoted to deputy sports news editor in 2009, before being named the sports editor in 2015—the first openly homosexual man in such a role.[4][5] He left the Mail less than a year later to become sports editor at The Times.[6]

    Kay-Jelski was recruited in June 2019 to join the startup US sports website called The Athletic.[7][8] He also had appearances on Sky Sports and TalkSport radio.

    In April 2024, Kay-Jelski was announced as the new BBC Director of Sport, replacing Barbara Slater.[1]

    Alan Maynard
    1 hr ago
    Unfortunately there weren’t enough transsexuals in the women’s race and not enough migrant/afghan/asylum claimants in the mens. Also the BBC objected to the boats being referred to as mens and women’s as it is offensive to any drag queens hoping to participate

      1. It survives because they take every opportunity to ensure that all teams are filled with 'diversity'. The vast majority of those 'diverse' students tend to be as thick as pigshit.

        In the past two years I've only seen one team fielding four white Englishmen.

    2. I'm told I need a TV licence because one is needed for all terrestrial tv, and not solely for the BBC. Anyone know if that's true, or otherwise?

      1. Nope.
        We don't have TV licence in Norway, and the cost of NRK is now on general taxation.

        1. Thanks Paul..any ideas what % Norwegian population pay general taxation. (It used to be the case UK – anyone over 70 then 75 would get foc tv licence, but I think everyone pays it now, or should do).

          1. About 80% of Norwegians pay income tax. The "missing" 20% are either unemployed or too young. Tax is paid on pensions, if they are above the threshold.

          2. Thx, I think about 85% PAYE in UK, but those will only be the ones in paid employment, declared. Many jobs in black economy where cash is king – why gov’t wants ID cards/digital currency.

      2. To view any 'live' broadcast you must have a license, that includes watching recordings. I have had inspectors turn up 3 times asking to come in and look at my, err equipment. A curt no thanks, and they go away. The scary letters keep coming with 'investigation codes' written on the outside!

        1. Thanks Kp…it really makes no sense, a waste of resource in country areas. Only programme is MotD, and often not that. Husband refers to it as ‘B*nt Broadcasting Corp. If I watch TV at all…GBN and Netflix (currently rewatching Breaking Bad)…love the ‘investigation codes’ :-DD

        2. Being pedantic you can watch recordings as long as you didn't record them.
          You cannot watch anything live or record anything on any channel (inc BBC iPlayer) on any device without a licence (the exception being a laptop not connected to the mains in eg a cafe)
          The 'goons' who might visit you if you don't have a licence, have no powers – you don't have to talk to them, they can't come into your house if you don't invite them, they cannot force their way in. If you get a knock on the door and it's one of them (they must identify themselves) just tell them you're not interested and they have to leave. Whatever you do DON'T TALK TO THEM

        3. We completed the 'Declaration' years ago and have heard nothing from them since. It must have been back in 2018 that we decided enough was enough. About the time 'they' did away with free tv for pensioner viewing. Having been in France and returned to poor ole Blighty we had simply got out of the habit of passive viewing in the evening; indeed it seemed an odd thing to do!

          1. I've done a 'declaration' 4 times now, nobody has visited – mind you I'm out in the sticks. I'm disappointed because I am looking forward to dealing with the goons

        4. I've just renewed my "no licence needed" declaration. I've never had a visit from C(r)apita goons.

          I have a 42" wall-mounted TV facing the front window. I rarely use it, and then only for streaming video from the likes of Amazon Prime, YouTube* and Discovery Plus.

          When I moved here, five years ago today, there was an aerial and a satellite dish in situ. The TV has tuners for both, but is connected to neither.

          *I find it far easier to navigate YooToob on the laptop, than via a handheld remote.

      3. I have read that there are plans afoot to totally cease terrestrial TV.
        The TV spectrum has already been partially usurped for mobile phone usage and I had to replace the supplied aerial on a now abandoned holiday home with a phone band filter TV aerial.

        1. Thanks, Angie – hadn’t heard that but has a ring of truth, many don’t watch it wholesale as they once did. Have you seen the list of BBC salaries, bit eye-watering. And yes, everyone has a mobile phone, I think in schools they have to be handed over at the start of school day, can be used break time, then handed back end of school day. Presumably each child recognises their own phone.

        1. Thx, this chimes with what I’ve been told…MotD will continue, and I will continue early night…

        1. Thx jonathan, news to me but I suspect he knows, there’s no way he’s not going to watch MotD and other footie, he loves the sport too much. I believe he has an up to date licence, tucked away in his emails. I generally beetle off and do something else, can still hear him shouting at the tv in the distance 😀 …Kate x

  49. Just now, I tried to log in. The page went dim and sat there. Gave it a few minutes then refreshed the page – and of course I found I was logged in.

    Bug or feature?

    5. "Oh dear, so many to choose from but it's so hard trying to reach the bottom shelf!"

  51. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/244ff75f7cf2245743384e8b585e0cf21c78dbd899b288c388b866b7014e3075.png In response to a comment by Johnathanrackham (on yesterday's thread), here is a photo of my full set of well-thumbed and dog-eared Waverley's The Book of Knowledge; published in 1955, bought in 1956.

    Despite a lot of the information contained within this encyclopædia being outdated now, they still remain a fascinating source of reference on a myriad of topics.

    The accompanying dictionary is long gone. It was my late mother's constant companion while doing crosswords and newspaper quizzes.

    1. My father bought the Encyclopedia Británica in 1955at a time when they had little money and for that reason my mother always criticised it. For years it was used by all of us, extremely useful tool. As a widow my mother still hated it and tried to give it away to charity but by now it was considered out of date. However it now graces my brother's bookshelves and he treasures it with love.
      My children demanded an encyclopedia and we spent a fortune on Larousse. Almost immediately afterwards we bought a computer with internet and no one used the Encyclopedia ever again. And it still rests on our bookshelves dusty and unopened.

      2. When I married my first wife I gave my Encyclopaedia Britannica away as she knew everything and it was therefore redundant

        1. MOH says she would rather try and stop a local 1200 home housing development than have central heating.

          BTW does your boiler have a pump overrun or Is it a later 'live controlled' version?

          2. Old boilers are very reliable if they are serviced properly. I had bad experiences with British Gas servicing my old Potterton which I kept going for 20 years.

            The modern replacement is comperised and has self diagnosis but ended after its seven year warranty date by taking full control of the central heating and would not even respond to a reset..

        1. Caroline has the one written by Moyra Bremner.

          She also has Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management. I always thought that in the account of how to cook a rabbit the opening sentence was: "First catch your rabbit." I was very disappointed that I could not find this in Caroline's copy.

          1. I have a Mrs Beeton as well. Her father was clerk of the course at Epsom and they lived in the grandstand.

          2. I have my late Mother-in-Law's Mrs. Beeton.
            the adverts are fascinating.
            Anyone remember Mazawattee tea?

      2. The Children's Encyclopedia (wasn't that an Arthur Mee publication as well?) had a full coloured reproduction – covering several pages of shiny paper – of the Bayeaux Tapestry.
        It has fascinated me ever since.

    3. The family encylopedia when I grew up had an entry with a picture of a mountain headed Everest Unconquered.

        1. Probably fascinating – my grandfather’s books were also pre 1939 and contained a huge amount of detail on the "war to end all wars"!

    4. Had Newnes when I was a kid. Always fascinated by by grandfather's family set of Chambers. Old enough to have a long contemporary account of the Schleswig Holstein "question". Bought a used set of Britannicas here many years back, and the local used book shop always had the yearbooks. When we came to move to this house, we elected to get rid of them as the Britannica was by then online.

      Took them back to where we got them and the owner was apologetic but said nobody buys them anymore. But we did finally manage to donate them.

      1. Of the three people who had understood it, one had died, another gone mad and the third had forgotten it. If I recall the one who had died was Prince Albert?

          1. I looked it up and found this: “Lord Palmerston used to say of the Schleswig-Holstein question, that only three persons knew the truth about this complicated affair. One was Prince Albert, who unfortunately was dead; the second a Danish statesman, who had gone mad; and the third, he himself, who had forgotten all about it.” So I was wrong and you were almost. But since you posed it as a question… Seems a suitable ending on both our parts to the problem.

    5. We also had that same full set when we were kids. I found them absorbing. I think they finally went when we were clearing Mum's house.

    6. No books in my house when i was a child. I don't think Playboy counts. I knew where Dad hid it.

      1. I once found a copy of Fanny Hill under my parents' bed.

        It was beyond boring and its erotic value was zero.

        2. I did manage to read 'One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich'. And a history of the French revolution but i had to steal those.
          I also pinched a copy of the school hymn book so i could learn all the Christmas carols by heart and then go out and extort the neighbours throughout December.

    8. That is indeed my companion of many years as a kid. A wonderful thing full of treasures and a magical introduction to the world. I remember the dictionary too. Am I correct in thinking it was a larger volume than the rest of the set?

      1. Indeed the dictionary was much larger. I still refer to my eight volumes every now and then; it is a proper nostalgia trip.

    1. Take yer pick from Madeline Grant..

      Cue more flag waving; this was Maoism courtesy of the Early Learning Centre.
      ..they whooped and gave standing ovations at frequencies and decibel levels that would shame the telecasters of North Korea.

          1. She's the only reason I still subscribe, after Shipman's sycophantic bolleaux. I could live without Rod, Douglas, Lionel if needs must, but Maddie is – as you say – outstanding.

    2. Gareth Roberts in the Speccie:

      “The Labour conference, given the government’s current levels of popularity – somewhere about the same rung occupied by, say, galloping dysentery or Huw Edwards – was always going to be a macabre spectacle. But there’s an aspect to this Grand Guignol that I wasn’t expecting; the unpleasant sight of various members of the cabinet vying, in their addresses, to show who can wave the flag with the greatest gusto.

      We’ve had Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper railing against Reform, describing them as ‘plastic patriots’. Housing Secretary Steve Reed is trying to reinvent himself as a likely lad, full of laughs. Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy is very upset about Robert Jenrick having the sheer temerity to criticise our wonderful judiciary: ‘His attacks on our judges and institutions would make Winston Churchill shudder in his grave. Robert, patriotism isn’t smearing our independent judiciary from the pub on X’.

      Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has used X to tweet out a stomach-clenching video paean to herself with the legend: ‘A greater Britain not a littler England’. (Note that it’s always England that’s the problem. The flinch from the concept of Englishness while professing patriotism is a bit of a giveaway, isn’t it?)

      All this hot patriotic air comes hard on the heels of Lib Dem leader Ed Davey’s excruciating lyrical flight last week, describing ‘the many incredible things’ the country has going for it: ‘The land of the Lionesses and the home of Formula One. Windermere and Loch Ness. Male voice choirs and Hogmanay. County shows and school fairs. Fish and chips. Village greens and cricket pavilions’.

      It’s enough to make a horse sick.

      2. "A greater Britain not a littler England!"

        Littler? Well we know what it rhymes with!

        Is she thinking subconsciously of the leader of the Reform Party?

    3. The body language says it all.
      The wavers are not sure whether the Union Flags are UK patriot symbols or a token of allegiance to a philistine organisation.

      1. They’d be happier if they were a token of allegiance to the Palestine “nation””.

  54. Spinning at 666 rpm with a whiny nasal sinus sound effect

    Keir Starmer has said he will look at how international law is being interpreted by British courts in an effort to tackle small boats, which he labelled “Farage boats” because of their increase in number since Brexit.

    key words; tackle. law. farage. brexit.
    What no mention of moral, racist, protection of the country wot i love.

    1. I think Starmer believes he is above both international law and British law but happy to abide by EU laws and the ECJ.

    2. I blame the Starmer government for paying private companies to collect the boats and life jackets and deliver them back to the French coast.

      1. Sabotage them by cutting them into little strips, and give them back as a boat kit.

  55. Return via Stoke cancelled. Stepson has made himself ill (yet again) with his drinking.
    He's apparently down for an abdominal scan tomorrow but they're sending him home for the night and bringing him back in the morning.

    And I'm bloody fuming.
    I try to hold his benefits in what I call his Reserve Account and drip feed them into his Spending Account so that they last the full month.
    This worked very well until he found out he could circumvent the arrangement by going to the branch counter and withdraw cash direct from his reserve a/c.

  56. Starmer was on TV this morning explaining why energy prices were going up today before he could promise again that they would get cheaper.

    This is an old supermarket trick of getting consumers acclimatised to paying elevated prices for so long that when a big reduction comes it looks like a good offer.

  57. Afternoon all. Made it up to the gallops and back to the yard to see the horses work and parade. At least when I see the MO this afternoon I shan’t be in remission.

    Starmer won’t articulate his vision because he fears the mob will invade Westminster and lynch him if he admitted what he has in store for us.

    1. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage's publicly-funded security detail has been cut by 75%, the party's head of policy has claimed.
      https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj4ypey88kdo

      This is truly sinister.

      If Farage is now attacked, injured or killed then insurrection is bound to follow.

      Starmer is evil and will undoubtedly rot in Hell – but in the meantime how can we be rid of him?

    2. I hope Westminster H&S are checking all the lamp posts for stability.
      We wouldn't want things to go wrong.

  60. So let's get this straight.
    Labour rubber stamp hate speech laws and then use them to imprison people with long sentences, for twitter posts under incitement to violence.
    Then Labour ministers then break those very laws themselves at their party conference.
    You couldn't make it up.

    1. Jolly good – 31 months in chokey and his children taken into care – then fostered – then adopted. That'll teach him.

    2. What is really annoying apart from the fact that this is indeed as bad as Xi's China, is that they handcuff people and don't explain what is going on. For all the co-operation you get from these petty dictators they may as well be robots. And when they get you to the interrogation centre it becomes perfectly obvious they could have talked to you right there, at your home. This procedure is obviously designed not to get at the truth of anything but to frighten, intimidate, and silence you. A gang of thugs working for a government unworthy of the people of Britain. I cannot imagine what my brother in law and his wife, my sister, both were police, would have to say about this. But I suspect that it would not be polite words for these slugs who besmirch what was once a respected profession.

    3. Ooooo. He touched a nerve there.
      Don't piss them off.. they soon close ranks.
      I'm surprised he's still alive.

      Dr K and his wife got arrested at their home by the police for sending 'angry emails' about a defrocked priest who had visited their chapel after giving the impression that he was a cleric in good standing . This predator priest – who had been stripped of the clerical state due to child abuse in another country -was being allowed access to children in the UK and Ireland with the collusion of his Bishop. Dr K's angry (but definitely not threatening) emails about this safeguarding breach upset the Bishop and Predator priest. Seething with anger at being held to account, predator priest – with the support of his Bishop – went to the police and reported Dr K and his wife for 'harassment.' After a two month police investigation, all charges against Dr K and his wife were dropped due to a 'lack of evidence.'

    4. Ooooo. He touched a nerve there.
      Don't piss them off.. they soon close ranks.
      I'm surprised he's still alive.

      Dr K and his wife got arrested at their home by the police for sending 'angry emails' about a defrocked priest who had visited their chapel after giving the impression that he was a cleric in good standing . This predator priest – who had been stripped of the clerical state due to child abuse in another country -was being allowed access to children in the UK and Ireland with the collusion of his Bishop. Dr K's angry (but definitely not threatening) emails about this safeguarding breach upset the Bishop and Predator priest. Seething with anger at being held to account, predator priest – with the support of his Bishop – went to the police and reported Dr K and his wife for 'harassment.' After a two month police investigation, all charges against Dr K and his wife were dropped due to a 'lack of evidence.'

    5. How can you be arrested for 'Har-ASS-ment'? [hɘr-as' ment] That is Pidgin English, aka Americanese.

      The proper English word is pronounced HAR-ass-ment [har' ɘs-ment].

    1. He's a British doctor working in the USA but of course they always follow the American lead here. Older people naturally have higher BP than young people. It doesn't mean they need pumping full of drugs.

    2. One of my fellow inmates in the nursing home was a guy who’s prone to sudden drops in blood pressure causing dizziness. It had happened to him one day when getting off a bus and he fell and broke both legs.

  64. It's all looking like work is getting very tight at the moment for tradesmen,
    enquires have dropped off to a trickle, suppliers say that they are very quiet.
    I think Labour has finally broken the economy.

  65. Owen Jones: Labour revoked my conference pass over Gaza.

    OWEN JONES has claimed he was thrown out of the Labour Party conference after criticising the party’s record on Gaza.
    The Left-wing commentator, who quit the party last year, accused Labour of “Trumpian behaviour” after his pass was cancelled yesterday with immediate effect.

    An email from “Team Labour” stated that his access had been revoked for “safeguarding” reasons. In a post on X, Mr Jones stated: “Labour has cancelled my conference pass. Absolutely pathetic, Trumpian behaviour. “They are here suggesting that an attempt to question Cabinet members and MPS about Britain facilitating Israel’s genocide is a ‘safeguarding issue’. This is clearly insane.”

    Mr Jones, who is a supporter of Jeremy Corbyn’s new party, was in the process of making a video about the conference in Liverpool. He has been a vocal critic of Labour’s stance on Palestine, accusing ministers of being complicit in a “genocide” in Gaza.

    In an article for The Guardian earlier this month, he claimed that the Government was refusing to describe the conflict in that way to avoid admitting “its own hand in it”. In follow-up posts on X, he said: “The Labour Government has armed and facilitated one of the worst crimes of our age. They can try and shut down scrutiny of this fact – but they will not wash away their guilt. Anyway, I’ve left conference, but our annual video will be up soon!”
    He posted a screenshot of an email from “Team Labour”, which said: “I’m writing to let you know that we’ve had to make the difficult decision to cancel your conference pass with immediate effect, following complaints we have received about your conduct.”

    It said the action had been taken because “we have a responsibility to safeguard all of our delegates, staff, volunteers, and visitors, and to maintain a safe and welcoming environment for everyone at conference”. The email added: “After careful consideration, we’ve concluded that we cannot continue your attendance while ensuring we meet our safeguarding obligations to all attendees.”

    The decision means Mr Jones will not be able to attend any further conference sessions within the secure zone. He quit Labour in March 2024 to back the We Deserve Better Campaign, which aims to build a new “electoral alliance” on the Left. Mr Jones said he was leaving because the party would not “even do the bare minimum to improve people’s lives”. He blamed his decision on Sir Keir’s position on Gaza and abandonment of policies he championed during his leadership campaign.

    Labour was approached for comment.

    That is one head I would love to use for 'conversion' (rugby) practice … over and over and over again.

    2. Does he think the same applies to recently arrived Labour supporting [for the moment] "Asian" activists?

  69. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a8208bf7e0ff995b1c6cfbf404186257c787b0eea0d0c58799d78641c8318a90.png Eurostar unveils its new 'gender neutral' uniform.

    EUROSTAR has unveiled its first ever gender neutral uniform, introducing a collection featuring skirts, trousers and Dr Martens boots.
    The new staff apparel range, unveiled at Eurostar’s Gare Du Nord terminal in Paris yesterday, features more than 50 items including graffiti-print neckerchiefs and replaces a uniform introduced more than a decade ago. Designed by Emmanuelle Plescoff, who previously worked under French designer Christian Lacroix, the collection is “interchangeable and made to fit all genders, body types and personal styles, empowering staff to express their individuality”, Eurostar said.

    Gwendoline Cazenave, the chief executive, called it “chic, elegant and iconic”. The move to gender neutral clothes follows the scrapping in 2022 of “gendered uniforms” by Virgin Atlantic. When they were first introduced, the airline said it would allow staff to “wear the clothing that expresses how they identify or present themselves”, while making make-up optional and allowing crew to sport visible tattoos.

    Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group is aiming to compete with Eurostar from 2030 as Britain opens up the Channel Tunnel to a second operator.
    A submission on the scheme said the service would be “innovative, bold and unmistakably Virgin”.

    Eurostar unveiled its new uniform during Paris’s autumn fashion week and plans to introduce it among all 2,600 train and station staff immediately.
    It said the design combines elements from its four main markets, including French “navy blue monochrome and simple cuts”, a neckerchief inspired by street art from Brussels and Amsterdam, and green Dr Martens, described as a “British icon of self-expression”.Staff will also be able to choose from shoes or punk-era eight-hole boots.

    The uniform took two and a half years to create following consultation with 80 employees on practical requirements, which led to the use of stretchy sports-inspired fabrics. Eurostar said its old uniforms will be recycled into products such as mattresses and hanging basket liners.
    The new collection will be the fourth in the company’s history and replaces one designed by London-based Jermyn Street Design and introduced in 2014.

    2,600 Eurostar staff who will be issued with the new uniform following its launch at Paris’s autumn fashion week.

    No comment!

    2. OK, I’ll comment. There isn’t any such thing as gender neutral clothing. There are men’s clothes and women’s clothes. Nothing emerges out of a vacuum, nor is it governed by “intersectional power structures”. The underlying principle of evolution is the survival of the species. Yes, also the fittest – because that’s essential to the process. Instead, we reward lunacy, deny biological sex and destroy fertility. We’re doomed!

    4. I wonder how long it will be before someone is escorted from the aircraft for upskirting one of these 'steward/esses'?

  70. Hardline Islamic extremist Shabana Mahmood says identification could have much wider purpose than just dealing with migration.
    ..who Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy described as a “rising star” of the Labour movement, admitted she one day wants to hold the top job.
    .
    shudder.. shiver.. down every spine in the land.
    .
    https://www.youtube.com/shorts/hI6awzJTdCs

    1. Every little Englander to pay باب الْجِزْيَةِ وَالْمُوَادَعَةِ مَعَ أَهْلِ الْحَرْبِ
      Al-Jizya taken from the Dhimmi

      Radical extremist Islam? "It is the absolute driver of everything that I do."

          2. He's certainly undone all the Attaturk (one of my heros) modernisations. Islamic ideology is now a lost cause, that will only bring harm

  72. Michael Deacon
    Lammy’s Hitler Youth slur is proof that Labour has lost the argument to Farage

    The Deputy PM’s baffling outburst suggests his party is now at desperation point in its battle with Reform

    01 October 2025 2:35pm BST

    Whatever his other talents and accomplishments, David Lammy is not widely acclaimed for the depth of his general knowledge. This is largely due to his unfortunate experience as a contestant on a 2009 edition of Celebrity Mastermind. During a truly unforgettable performance, Mr Lammy revealed that he thinks Henry VIII was succeeded by Henry VII, Red Leicester is a type of blue cheese, and Marie Antoinette was once awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics.

    Remarkable stuff. Especially given the fact that, at the time of the recording, Mr Lammy happened to be the minister for higher education.

    One subject on which you would expect him to be knowledgeable, however, is the law. For one thing, he’s a lawyer. And for another, he’s the Secretary of State for Justice. As a result, he presumably has at least a passing acquaintance with such concepts as libel and slander.

    It was with some surprise, therefore, that I heard what Mr Lammy said on Tuesday during an interview with the BBC. Specifically, the mind-boggling assertion he made about Nigel Farage. “I’m not going to play the man, I’m playing the ball,” began Mr Lammy – before proceeding to play the man with an aggression that would have left Roy Keane needing smelling salts.

    “I will leave it for the public to come to their own judgments about someone who once flirted with Hitler Youth when he was younger.”

    Shortly after uttering these extraordinary words, Mr Lammy must have suddenly recalled what defamation is – or possibly been reminded of it, during a phone call from a panicking colleague or a very scary-sounding lawyer. Because he then hastily backtracked, declaring: “[Mr Farage] has denied it, and so I accept that he has denied it, and I would like to clarify that position.”

    Well, nice of him to clear that up. Even so, I’m still struggling to understand what on earth possessed him to make such an outburst in the first place. Unlike Mr Lammy, I did not study at Harvard Law School. But I am at least aware that, as a rule of thumb, it’s generally unwise to go throwing around highly damaging allegations about someone unless you’ve got pretty strong evidence that those allegations are actually true.

    I, for example, would never allege that Mr Lammy once painstakingly fashioned a life-size papier-mâché sculpture of Margaret Thatcher, which he keeps on a golden pedestal in the centre of his living room and serenades nightly with tear-jerking ballads he’s personally composed about how much he loves her, her policies and in particular her exquisitely breathy way of saying the name “Geoffrey”.

    And the reason I would never make that allegation is that I have absolutely no evidence to support it. Furthermore, I have no reason to believe that any such evidence has ever existed. Indeed, I have very good reason to believe that I’ve completely made the whole thing up. Which is why I don’t go around saying it. And neither should you.

    By contrast, we are all entirely at liberty to go around saying that Mr Lammy thinks Henry VIII was succeeded by Henry VII, Red Leicester is a type of blue cheese, and Marie Antoinette was once awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics. And the reason we’re at liberty to make this claim is that there’s very strong evidence to support it. Specifically, the footage of Mr Lammy saying all those things to an audience of millions on national television.

    At any rate, his extraordinary behaviour on Tuesday is worth dwelling on. And not just because it raises questions about his fitness to be Deputy Prime Minister, Justice Secretary or indeed hold any other form of high office. It also shows us just how pathetically desperate Labour has become in the battle with Reform. Labour’s most senior figures clearly know they’ve lost the argument on immigration to Mr Farage. Which is why they’ve now resorted to shrieking words like “racist”, “worse than racist” and even “Hitler Youth”, in the frantic hope that this will frighten voters away from him and his party.

    As for Mr Farage himself, I trust that he’ll have the sense to rise above it all. Rather than respond in kind, by, for instance, alleging that in the late 1930s Ed Miliband served as a senior officer in Stalin’s NKVD.

    After all, such an allegation wouldn’t be true. Of course it wouldn’t. Stalin would have thought him far too Left-wing.

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

    keith brown
    39 min ago
    Unbelievably stupid man. He makes Starmer look intelligent, perhaps that's why he keeps him around.

    Brendan Berry
    34 min ago
    I love David Lammy. He used to be my MP many many years ago and he never fails to put a smile on my face, along with his Sister from Stoke Newington, Diane Abbott.

    It's amazing how many years have passed since they both caught Foot-In-Mouth disease and they still haven't shaken it off…… thank goodness 🙂

    Kassandra Brit
    11 min ago
    Reply to Brendan Berry – view message
    At a bus stop in Lammy's constituency a bla ck man said to my elderly whi te female friend – "I ha te seeing white people in bla ck peoples neighbour hood."

    1. I, for example, would never allege that Mr Lammy once painstakingly fashioned a life-size papier-mâché sculpture of Margaret Thatcher, which he keeps on a golden pedestal in the centre of his living room and serenades nightly with tear-jerking ballads he’s personally composed about how much he loves her, her policies and in particular her exquisitely breathy way of saying the name “Geoffrey”.

      There are things you just cannot unsee.

      1. Whatever his other talents and accomplishments, David Lammy is not widely acclaimed for the depth of his general knowledge.

        If I were still teaching and I needed a good example of litotes or the use of understatement for effect I could not do much better than to show some of Mr Deacon's uses of it.

      2. I'd like to say the same, Milioaf. You're far, far more dangerous, stupid and treacherous than Musk could ever be.

        Given the choice between him and you, it's not even a flicker: you're a moron who should be sectioned. He's a genius billionaire philanthropist.

      3. Frightening stupidity.

        I suppose Miliband has never gazed into the night sky to see a procession of satellites travelling across the Earth. This is Elon Musk’s Starlink.

        Then again I doubt Miliband has watched videos of Musk’s massive rockets descending back to the pad from which they were launched, rotating to a launch position and being clasped by robotic arms on landing.

        Tesla cars are put together using fantastic robotic arms that have to be seen to be believed.

        Musk’s contribution to technologies is enormous and I have mentioned just three of many positively good inventions.

        Miliband’s contribution to civilisation is by contrast entirely negative. I wish he would get out of my country and take his embittered politics elsewhere.

        1. As an early adopter Starlink user, all I can say is thank you Elon or I would still be suffering with DSL. Starlink is a perfect solution for rural areas, as it does not require major investments in cabling, switching and other infrastructure. Let alone tearing up the roads or placing tall poles everywhere. Just put the small dish where it can see the sky, and off you go. Plus using LEO (Low Earth Orbit) satellites, there is no traditional satellite delay problem. And it's quite fast enough (50-100 MB) for normal use.

        1. “The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
          Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
          Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
          Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.”

    2. Is there any mention these days that the 'Covid 19' shite came from the secret US supported Wuhan bio-warfare lab just down the road from the bats, cats and pangolin food market?

  75. Wordle No. 1,565 3/6

    ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
    ⬜🟨⬜🟨⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    Wordle 1 Oct 2025

    Blemish for Birdie Three?

    2. Same here – good result from guess 2 made it quite straightforward…

      Wordle 1,565 3/6

      ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
      🟨🟩🟨⬜⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    5. Well done Did mine this morning then forgot about it. Off on the wrong track to start, but made a par.

      Wordle 1,565 4/6

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

    2. If anyone is "Investment-crushing, job-destroying, bill-raising, poverty-driving, science-denying" it's Labour, and it's idiot net zero cheerleader Ed Millipede! The man is a moronic zealot.

    1. Morgan McSweeney is mini Mandy.
      Epstein scandal goes to the very heart of the Starmer administration.
      18,000 emails of which a chunk belong to Labour, known as the Labour Files.
      Labour files ignored by the broadcast arm of The Guardian known as the BBC.
      Newsnight has photocopies of emails before election. BBC sat on it for a very long time. Then decide not to go with it.
      Then ITV got hold of the files and handled it in a sympathetic way.
      The Guardian frames Paul Ovenden as a victim.

    2. I think most (white British) have gone to France, Italy, Scandinavia and Germany.

      As revenge for the Normans, Romans, Vikings, Jutes, Angles and Saxons. Well, they started it!

  80. Sometimes the NHS are wonderful. Or should I say Imperial College Faculty of Health, rather than the Envy per se. Yesterday the Practice Nurse was worried about my heart rate and I’ve noticed it jumping around since I got home. It may be stress of course but my bisoprolol and digoxin doses were reduced post surgery with a note “GP to review HR and adjust dose accordingly”. Just had a call from a specialist cardiac nurse at Charing Cross. I’m to present at Cardiac Investigations tomorrow.

      1. Oh it was. It was stopped and replaced with an injectable blood thinner four days prior and nothing on the day before. Dapagliflozin also stopped until three weeks after.

    4. Good news. Rather different from my experience. Just back from seeing the MO who had an impenetrable foreign accent despite having a fairly English name. He asked what I hoped for from seeing him!! Well, first off not to hobble in using a stick! Secondly, some effective pain relief. Thirdly an investigation to see if anything can be done! We will send you for physio, he said! I gritted my teeth and explained that I had been doing physio for years, but had stopped because it made things worse. When, as a result of the econsult I was sent for physio I did try because I am not uncooperative but I had to stop because it turned the pain from a constant dull ache I could live with into a pulsing pain which was impossible to ignore so I thought a different approach was needed. Upshot is stronger painkillers and a referral to a consultant. What outcome would I like? Being able to walk normally without the aid of a stick and being pain free! I am not holding my breath. Extra pain relief will not be available until tomorrow because he had to get a doctor to prescribe it! Why do I feel I am being fobbed off with substandard treatment? Going to Specsavers in Shropshire is useless- I enquired today. They don’t do NHS hearing aids and the wait for cataracts is at least east 12 weeks. I was so fed up at the surgery forgot to chase that up.

    7. I have been using a pulse oximeter to monitor my heart rate along with other vital signs that can be derived from it – it's my avatar.

      Surprisingly my pulse oximeter can not only measure how well my heart and lungs are oxygenating my body through the percentage blood oxygen display (SpO2) but also two other highly relevant measures: peripheral index (PI) and respiration rate (RR).

      A waveform is also displayed which can show heartbeat irregularities.

      My first (recording) pulse oximeter was instrumental in recording my nocturnal high resolution blood oxygen level, a printout of which I presented to my GP to demonstrate the unwanted side effects of the medications he had prescribed.

      It was not until I was hospitalised for a cardiac event that I was put under the care of a cardiac consultant following which I was prescibed a completely different group of medications.

      I have an annual meeting with my consultant at which he reviews my prescription drugs and these are authorised by the prescription team at my GP's surgery. I periodically look at my pulse oximeter readings where even small changes can signify having accidentally missed a drug.

      I have managed to keep the same prescription drugs for ten years now but with only minor changes to dosage to keep me stable and minimise side effects. I haven't seen my GP for ten years since my hospital discharge.

      Just commented in case it may be of interest to bear in mind that there may differences in viewpoints between a cardiac expert and a GP.

    8. Good to know that someone gives more than a shit, Sue! Hope it's all false alarm.

  81. Prince of Wales condemns killing of Gaza aid workers
    Every death is a tragedy, says Prince at opening of London memorial for humanitarian workers
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2025/10/01/prince-william-gaza-aid-worker-deaths/

    If he has any common sense then he will distance himself from anything to do with the conflict in the Middle East.

    He must learn from the very bad example set by his father, the Idiot King, and not meddle in politics because the more he meddles – the less the respect and affection in which he is held.

    His grandfather, Prince Philip, had very grave doubts about his eldest son to the extent that he thought that his reign would bring down the monarchy and there would be no more kings or queens after him.

    1. If you wish to know just how well organised, ruthless and corrupt the Royals are go watch The Godfather. The similarities with the Corleone clan are staggering.

          2. A Googlewhack is a word or phrase that generates only a single result from a Google search as it is so bizarre – either that or I thought it might be a particularly exotic ‘what3words’ location!!

    2. I understand Princess Anne has visited Kiev and has been photographed with Zelensky. That’s bad.

  82. I'm currently listening to the Lotus Eaters' podcast from yesterday and the first segment is a discussion on the Digital ID. Dan Tubb, leading the discussion, has been listing reasons why it is not a good idea and he has directed one reason specifically at "lefties" who would support this idea. Dan's submission points out the problem that should the DID be implemented and a government opposed to "lefties" comes to power then they, the "lefties", will be exposed to any and all nasties such a government would use use against them. Pretty much a "beware what you wish for" scenario.

    I'm not convinced that a government that imposes DID etc. will differentiate between left and right plebs: recent past governments along with the current government have shown that they hate the people and want total control over everybody. In addition, I can't see that a government that has implemented DID will allow free and fair elections, ever.

    Whatever, DID must never be implemented, for all of our sakes.

    1. I suspect that the muslims will refuse. A completion of the two tier society. Freedom for muslims, eternal slavery for the indigenous British. We must resist, whatever the cost.

    1. Everyone of working age has a National Insurance (NI) number. Using that works very well in a number of countries that do not issue Identity Cards.

      3. In the US, it's one of two things depending on circimstance – driving license or Social Security Number. (SSN). If you don't (or can't) drive, the local Motor Vehicle agency wil issue an official ID card in its place. Valid for things like proving age in bars, etc. And I do mean local, the various states all have DMV offices in all major towns/cities. I live in a fairly rural area, nearest office is about 8-9 miles away.

  84. That's me done for the day. And what a difference a day makes. Yesterday very warm and sunny – T-shirt time. Today bitterly cold. Two pullovers and the stove going and I am still frozen.

    Have a spiffing evening

    A demain.

          3. That’s a shame – in which case you have my sympathies – chronic pain is highly debilitating…..

          8. it makes you feel sleepy, hungry and de-motivated to do anything but eat or sleep. Prove me wrong :-)))

          11. I only tried it once and didn't bother getting any more after I'd finished the first lot of tablets.

  85. Early Xmas presents?

    Nepal.. Beijing? .. then London.
    China’s future about to be redefined with leaks about Xi Jinping's exile plans all point to a power struggle at the top.
    100 military vehicles belonging to arch rival Zhang Youxia trundle towards Beijing.
    Will Xi step down, cling to power, or escape abroad?
    Will Starmer follow or commit Harry Karaoke?

  86. Early Xmas presents?

    Nepal.. Beijing? .. then London.
    China’s future about to be redefined with leaks about Xi Jinping's exile plans all point to a power struggle at the top.
    100 military vehicles belonging to arch rival Zhang Youxia trundle towards Beijing.
    Will Xi step down, cling to power, or escape abroad?
    Will Starmer follow or commit Harry Karaoke?

  87. Early Xmas presents?

    Nepal.. Beijing? .. then London.
    China’s future about to be redefined with leaks about Xi Jinping's exile plans all point to a power struggle at the top.
    100 military vehicles belonging to arch rival Zhang Youxia trundle towards Beijing.
    Will Xi step down, cling to power, or escape abroad?
    Will Starmer follow or commit Harry Karaoke?

  88. Early Xmas presents?

    Nepal.. Beijing? .. then London.
    China’s future about to be redefined with leaks about Xi Jinping's exile plans all point to a power struggle at the top.
    100 military vehicles belonging to arch rival Zhang Youxia trundle towards Beijing.
    Will Xi step down, cling to power, or escape abroad?
    Will Starmer follow or commit Harry Karaoke?

  90. Envy of the world strikes
    My friend Frank rings the doc and is told "you may have had a heart attack"
    Emergency ambulance right??
    Not as such……
    Make your own way to St Peters A&E
    3 swift volunteer drivers we are a good mob here
    Bob the driver returns A&E rammed Frank told may be ten hours wait
    Sorry that's just not good enough just as well i wasn't the chosen driver i'd be under arrest for starting a riot!!

    1. The doc I saw said if any of the particular symptoms got worse I was to go to A&E immediately (which I already knew from the e consult). Yes and exactly how do I do that? Drive myself there, leave the dogs unattended and wait a couple of days on a chair?

    2. I noted from my pulse oximeter that my heart rate was 166 bpm whilst resting. My daughter, a prescribing nurse, told me not to try seeing my GP but go straight to A&E MOH drove me to A&E and I walked in.

      After registering my symptoms at A&E reception I was quickly seen by a triage doctor who diagnosed supraventricular tacchycardia following which I was tranferred at haste to a wheelchair and wheeled in to resus.

      After transfer to the cardiac ward the consultant said that without treatment I would have 48 hours to live.

    3. When the family drove me to A&E when I had a stroke, there was a queue. Firstborn, a big lad, just boomed in the reception: "Emergency! In the car-park! Now" and they came running with trolley and several nurses. Thank God.

    2. Those in charge of NHS Fife who were responsible for this hideously crass waste of funds should be sacked and then made to find the money to recompense the NHS.

      Then they should be thrashed to within an inch of their miserable WOKE lives!

      1. Likely under the floor of the caravan, Grizz. Be plenty of volunteers to deliver the 'damned good thrashing' (dear old dad's saying re various politicians).

      2. Don't hold back, young Olaf. Let all hell let loose and call them Very Silly Sausages! Lol.

        1. No! Shan’t! [Stamps feet]. There is a snag in your statement. MY sausages are far from silly. They are very educated and erudite sausages.🌭🌭

    3. I think it's helped getting rid of the ghastly Sturgeon, mum…albeit temporarily, apparently been approved for vetting to stand as a candidate. Party members, of course, may ask for the (as far as I know still missing) £600k. Or perhaps that was just a rounding error….

        1. I know, and I suspect that you know.

          "Pikey" is now a racist term for the "travelling community"

          8. Now for Cher, I'd make an exception….. hubba hubba!

            Edit: cracking track as well Gromit!

          11. Don't know about that. After all the surgery including rib removals, she looks weird. Not that she did not previously, of course. Nice voice, but no Monroe, that's for sure.

          13. I should hope not. And I have just never found her physically attractive at any age.

          15. You're conversing with GGGGaspar.
            If it's female (or even mistakeable as female) he's as bad as Phizzee, unwrap her he'll have her…
            the fairer sex is fair game…

          23. You know me too well, Vlad, happily settle for sainthood…. I will always prop you up x ……Sos? hmm….

          25. My grandfather always referred to them as Didicoys. When they were in the area he was always careful to keep his workshops fully locked up.

          27. Technically, apparently this was the word for Romany/Roman "cross breeds". Still thieving buggers though.

          28. It's a word that was used in "our" generation.

            I haven't heard it, or read it, in many years.

          29. Didicoy went out of favour a long time ago. My parents called them gypsies, we called them gypos. Or Tinkers if they were Irish. Nobody called them travelers. A traveler was a company's rep back then. properly called commercial travelers.

          32. Diddicoys were the fake ones, people who took to the road to evade all sorts of oppressive laws As opposed to the Romanies, now revered as Roma, who did have a roaming/nomadic ethos. And, of course, a separate set of values, .I don't understand why this stuff should overrule the laws of the land, although I do agree that the laws of the land are becoming more and more oppressive

          35. Oh for the days when you could be politically incorrect, in a humorous fashion, and not give a shit, eh?

          37. Those of us of a certain age and older, grew up with the sure knowledge that every good joke had to have someone or some group as the butt of the joke. Otherwise they were not very funny.

            The mild ones started with" "An Englishman, a Scotsman and an Irishman…"

            Can you imagine the reaction if the BBC started replaying the Jules and Sandy sequences from Round the Horn without half a page of warnings?

          40. The lovely Kenny, I was always a big fan. Some footage on YouTube (eg Michael Parkinson). Wonderful. Very educated and intelligent man, as well as being a fine comic.

          41. I remember once on Any Questions, he lit into a questioner and told him to get educated by going to his local library and stop expecting anyone else to "educate him". The following Any Answers was about 100% in favour of his position.

          43. And a sad man, too. He kept a daily diary, in which the last entry is "Oh, what's the use?" after which he took his own life.

          44. Yes, very well educated. I’ve read he wrote ‘what’s the bloody point’, and it was never known if suicidal or accidental large dosage. But as I never heard him swear, and far too clever to not know what he was doing – I tend to agree with your version, Elsie. We can likely imagine him bullied as a child, think he found himself in acting, especially radio. Sadly missed, when things were better than today – including the blasted BBC!

          45. A term that we will be imprisoned for using in normal human discourse. It refers to those itinerants who clustered around the pikes on the canals It is now used to refer to those itinerants who claim exceptionalism due to their alleged ethnicity but are really just wrong'uns with zero ethnic cohesion, though many are rich Irish,above the law.

          51. They still camp at those turnpikes. I refer to gypsies not Irish ‘travellers’.

            These are the people described by George Borrow in his books The Romany Rye and Lavengro.

    2. I see some BBC programme went undercover and concluded that the Met was racist – great, I thought, two tier policing exposed; white people nicked for tweets!? Seems however that the Met is racist against black and brown people and misogynist too! Who'd have thunk it?

  93. October rolls around again,
    The autumnal season of strong winds are upon us.
    Just the time to sit back smugly in the armchair and reap the benefits and rewards of our nations world beating wind farm cheap energy production.
    Just at the time when we need the lights and heating on.
    But wait a minute, my bills have gone up yet again,
    To some of the highest in the world.
    Most people cannot afford to switch it on.
    Industry cannot compete,
    Manufacturing and jobs are moving to countries that burn fossil fuel.
    The cost of everything is soaring.
    This is not what they promised.
    Should we blame Brexit?
    Should we blame Farage?
    Should we blame Reform?
    But at least we are saving the planet from out of control warming and climate change.
    What is that you say?
    All these sacrifices have made no difference, whatsoever?
    How can all the government experts have been so wrong?

    1. Why is Starmer not admitting that the high price of electricity is due to having to pay the generators for creating energy that they can't sell.

    1. It's an 0-4-0 well tank locomotive (the water tank is underneath the boiler, between the frames).

      1. That's an odd design. All the tank engines I have come acoss were either side or saddle tanks. Not much room down in the frame for much a water supply, what with axles and the like. I always liked the condensing tanks the old Metropolitan Railway used, where the steam from the cylinders exhausted into the side tanks, which cut down on the steam in the tunnels, and replenished the water supply. The original "green" design?

        1. Just behind the steam exhaust pipe to the chimney, you can just see the raised filler for the tank.

          1. I see it.

            Did you ever see Bulleid's (he of Merchant Navy and West Country class fame) design for what could be described as a "next gen" tank engine? Called the Leader – looked like a diesel, but was steam driven, designed during WWII. Lots of info online.

          3. Never really developed and by the time it was running the first diesel electrics had arrived.

            There's an interesting comment I read about US locomotives. Pre WWII the biggest builder was the Baldwin Locomotive Company. After WWII, the biggest builder was General Motors – the division that was spun off later as EMD, who among other things supplied most of the modern UK freight locos.

          4. The only Bulleid I saw was the Pines Express. This ran from Crewe to Bournemouth (from memory) and the track through Bath, where I lived, is now a ‘linear park’ and once familiar bridges over the roads have been removed.

          5. Manchester to Bournemouth West via the S&DJR (Somerset & Dorset Joint), probably the most written about, photographed, filmed and lamented lost railway in the country. Some of the viaducts still stand, notably Tucking Mill (Bath), Midford and Shepton Mallet (two).

          6. The only Bulleid I saw was the Pines Express. This ran from Crewe to Bournemouth (from memory) and the track through Bath, where I lived, is now a ‘linear park’ and once familiar bridges over the roads have been removed.

      1. Narrow gauge, very short wheelbase. Good on curves, but rocka and rolls wherever it goes!

    2. "not clear cut"

      Perhaps if certain appendages were 'clearly cut off', then things might be more open to discussion.

      1. Not wishing to excuse the left (in any way, shape or form!) but there are certain sports (horse sports, for instance) where men don't necessarily have an advantage, so if it comes to eventing, dressage or show jumping or racing then it's pretty much a level playing field (except where jumps are concerned, of course!). Somehow, however, I don't think this is what they have in mind.

  96. Washing up done kitchen tidy.
    Feet up, finding it difficult to stay awake, I might just sneak off now. Only another day to go before we are off on our holiday. It all seems strangely out of place due to all the upsets we've been having.
    Night all Nottlers sleep well 😑😴

    2. Was this before or after he claimed Farage was often dining with Hitler in the Eagle's Nest?

      1. Don't exaggerate. It was coffee and cream buns; lotsa cream buns.
        The Fuhrer was very partial to a cream puff.

  98. French troops have boarded the deck of a tanker alleged to be from Russia's 'shadow fleet' and suspected of involvement in drone flights over Denmark last month.

    A source within the executive branch told AFP earlier that the French navy had boarded the Boracay, a Benin-flagged vessel blacklisted by the European Union for being part of Russia's sanction-busting fleet of ageing oil tankers.

    French President Emmanuel Macron did not confirm reports of a connection to Danish drone flights but said on Wednesday that the ship had committed 'serious offences'. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15153243/French-troops-board-Russian-shadow-fleet-tanker-suspected-involved-Danish-drone-incursions.html

      1. Macron has apologised and explained that the navy forgot to bring the appropriate flags…

  100. Part of this was posted earlier.

    Labour conference is more deluded than a Doctor Who convention

    GARETH ROBERTS
    1 October 2025, 6:29am

    The Labour conference, given the government's current levels of popularity – somewhere about the same rung occupied by, say, galloping dysentery or Huw Edwards – was always going to be a macabre spectacle. But there's an aspect to this Grand Guignol that I wasn't expecting; the unpleasant sight of various members of the cabinet vying, in their addresses, to show who can wave the flag with the greatest gusto.

    We've had Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper railing against Reform, describing them as 'plastic patriots'. Housing Secretary Steve Reed is trying to reinvent himself as a likely lad, full of laughs. Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy is very upset about Robert Jenrick having the sheer temerity to criticise our wonderful judiciary: 'His attacks on our judges and institutions would make Winston Churchill shudder in his grave. Robert, patriotism isn't smearing our independent judiciary from the pub on X'.

    Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has used X to tweet out a stomach-clenching video paean to herself with the legend: 'A greater Britain not a littler England'. (Note that it's always England that's the problem. The flinch from the concept of Englishness while professing patriotism is a bit of a giveaway, isn't it?)

    All this hot patriotic air comes hard on the heels of Lib Dem leader Ed Davey's excruciating lyrical flight last week, describing 'the many incredible things' the country has going for it: 'The land of the Lionesses and the home of Formula One. Windermere and Loch Ness. Male voice choirs and Hogmanay. County shows and school fairs. Fish and chips. Village greens and cricket pavilions'.

    It's enough to make a horse sick.

    In my former life, I attended a number of Doctor Who conventions. For the uninitiated, these are occasions where Gallifreyan misfits descend on a hotel or conference centre for a weekend. But there is one big difference between this and Labour's meet-up: the Whovians are gathered to discuss minute production details, to touch the hem of the garments of forgotten assistants and to carp at bemused scriptwriters. The Labourites are running the country, but I would suggest that they are at a far greater distance from reality than Doctor Who fans. (Though Labour supporters probably smell a bit better.)

    Labour's conference also reveals another flight from reality: that Keir Starmer's cabinet of misfits seem genuinely to believe in magic money. Chancellor Rachel Reeves took a thinly-coded pop at leadership wannabe Andy Burnham for advocating even higher taxes and public spending, a thing she intends to do anyway. Reeves might as well have said, 'There are some who come in here and say we should be throwing money into the fire. How reckless. We should obviously stick to my fully costed plan of flushing it, at pace, down the toilet'.

    But then, there's so much going wrong with Britain that it's very hard to keep it all up front in your head at the same time. Energy costs, the small boats crisis, free speech outrages, soaring inflation, mounting debt; these are things that would been headline news for weeks on end in the 1980s or 1990s. Now, they pile up one after the other into an indistinguishable wreck of twisted metal and mangled flesh. Such is the mountain of misery that I forget shocking, appalling things; 'Oh yeah, the Pakistani rape gangs'. It's not a surprise that people in Britain are very, very angry. Labour's deluded conference pours fuel on the fire.

    The mediocrity of the Labour response to that anger is almost overwhelming. Cooper's use of the term 'plastic patriots' brings back memories of the part-time punks and weekend New Romantics of my youth; 'Oh, that Jane she's so plastic – she works in the cake shop all day and then does her hair and makeup like Toyah before she goes out, such a fake'.

    And for all this chunter about Churchill and cricket pavilions, what are the real 'values' of progressives like Labour and the Lib Dems? Breakfast clubs and Sure Start hubs? Motability cars and cousin marriage? Not looking back in anger when children are stabbed or blown to bits?

    Tech secretary Liz Kendall's newly-announced fund for 'tech sisters' to take on the 'tech bros' of Silicon Valley just about sums it up. All this puff and fluff while millions subsist on benefits; I think it's just possible Churchill, scrolling down his ghostly timeline in an Oxfordshire churchyard, might be having more of a shudder about that.

    Starmer's big speech was the icing on the cake. The Prime Minister vowed in that inspiring half-George, half-Zippy tone of his, to make Britain 'a new country…a fairer country, a land of dignity and respect. Everyone seen, everyone valued, wealth creation in every single community'. Bring me my bow of burning gold!

    We don't want a new country. We were happy, in an understated never-given-it-much-thought way, with the one we had. It was Tony Blair's stated intention in 1997 to make 'New Britain' 'a young country'. But we've now had decades of this progressive guff, shamefully unreversed by the Tories, and we are on our knees. The very last thing needed is more of the same.

    Labour have been so spooked by Nigel Farage's Reform that they're trying to fire back on his territory, which is comically transparent. If I was giving them advice, and if I meant them well, I would recommend that instead they fight their corner on their record. They should defend mass immigration; replace the Union Jack with the Palestinian flag. They should follow the lead of Shabana Mahmood and call those like Farage who object to their harebrained schemes 'worse than racist'. See how well that goes down. My expectation would be that it wouldn't land very well at all, but at least Labour wouldn't look duplicitous and snivelling.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/labour-conference-is-more-deluded-than-a-doctor-who-convention

    The Doctor Who reference is apt. It's been said more than once that the pro-immigrationists appear to suffer from Tardis syndrome, seeing the UK as small from the outside but apparently enormous inside.

    2. Gareth is another intelligent and sound man who was previously firmly of the left, was shunned for telling the truth, and is now very entertaining on the whole scam

        1. Possibly. Should’ve confined herself to working with chimps. There’s no doubting she did pioneering work in that field.

    1. Women commonly used to die in childbirth of course. Hildegard of Bingen lived from 1098 to 1179. The secret of her longevity was being an aristocratic nun. Mind, Eleanor of Aquitaine lived from 1124 to 1204. She was just tough.

    2. Let's face it, women live longer than men through sheer bloody mindedness and being able to hear only what they want to hear.

      I'm searching for my suicide pill as I type.

  104. Well, chums, it's rapidly approaching my bedtime. It has been a very busy day for me today, so I shall say my Good Nights a little early. I hope you all enjoy a good night's sleep and awaken bright and refreshed. I hope to see you early tomorrow morning. Toodle pip!

  105. Well, chums, it's rapidly approaching my bedtime. It has been a very busy day for me today, so I shall say my Good Nights a little early. I hope you all enjoy a good night's sleep and awaken bright and refreshed. I hope to see you early tomorrow morning. Toodle pip!

  107. We've had an uplifting evening out – Tosca from the Royal Opera House at our local cinema. Anna Netrebko in fine voice.

    No matter how often we've seen it it always hits the spot.

    1. That was such a brilliant idea to stream these concerts to local cinemas. Though i expect there weren't many in the audience under 50.

      1. You’re right. We could spot where the people walking in front were going. The small auditorium they use for these was packed and people were arguing over the seats although everyone had booked numbered seats ours were already occupied when we got there. Still we sat in 1 &2 instead of 3&4 as it wasn’t worth arguing.
        The performance was wonderful.

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