Wednesday 15 February: Ulez advocates ignore the realities of life on the outskirts of London

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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665 thoughts on “Wednesday 15 February: Ulez advocates ignore the realities of life on the outskirts of London”

  1. Good morrow, Gentlefolks, today’s story

    Definition Of The Word “Coincidence”.

    A chicken farmer went to the local bar. He sat next to a woman and ordered champagne.

    The woman said, “How strange, I also just ordered a glass of champagne”.

    “What a coincidence” said the farmer, who added, “It is a special day for me – I’m celebrating”

    “It is a special day for me too, I am also celebrating!” said the woman.

    “What a coincidence” said the farmer.

    While they toasted, the man asked: “What are you celebrating?”

    “My husband and I are trying to have a child for years, and today, my gynaecologist told me that I was pregnant”.

    “What a coincidence!” said the man. ” I’m a chicken farmer and for years all my hens were infertile, but now they are all set to lay fertilized eggs.”

    “This is awesome” said the woman. “What did you do for your chickens to become fertile?”

    “I used a different rooster.” the farmer said.

    The woman smiled and said: “What a coincidence”

    2. Good one, Tom!
      Good: Morning / Afternoon / Evening / Night
      (Delete according to the time of day you read this!)

    1. If anyone thinks that the gaping man on the left and the gaping man on the right have the people’s best interests at heart, then I have news for you.

  6. I didn’t realise the time until 03:00 so I’m off to pick up a few more zeds,

    Incidentally, does anyone know a gentle dating site where I might meet an older lady in the Scottish Borders?

  7. I’m sick of people with an ounce of common sense being labelled ‘far-Right’. Allison Pearson. 15 February 2023.

    I am so sick of the demonising of ordinary, decent people by their supposed betters, aren’t you? Judging by the headlines over the past week, it is astonishing how the media has been persuaded to categorise the common-sense views of millions of Britons as utterly beyond the pale. Parents who worry about the warping of children’s minds by highly ideological, self-styled “role models” are somehow cast as the bad guys. (What is “far-Right” about not wanting your bewildered five-year-old to be read nursery rhymes by a drag queen?) Men and women with genuine concerns about the presence in their community of undocumented young males, from parts of the world which often hold appalling views about women and girls, are caricatured as racist, ignorant and, inevitably, “far-Right”.

    She’s talking about us fellow Nottlers!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/columnists/2023/02/14/sick-people-ounce-common-sense-labelled-far-right/

    1. Further down in the article

      Let me leave you with the devastating insight of Colin, a reader who responded when I asked how on earth someone like Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai (found guilty of stabbing 21-year-old Tom Roberts to death) was allowed into this country posing as a 14-year-old asylum seeker.

      “Because the default position has to be accepted as the result of a court case,” explained Colin. “Last year, the claim of a migrant to be a ‘child’ was not accepted by Border Force and they classified the individual as an adult – a decision proven correct by an age test which confirmed the man was, in fact, over 25. The man’s lawyers argued that the officers were not qualified to make that decision and he should have been treated as a minor until the tests proved otherwise. The judge agreed. Costs were awarded against Border Force and the migrant was awarded compensation despite the fact he knowingly made false claims.

      “Essentially, he was compensated because Border Force officials would not believe his lies. Now, Border Force officers are instructed to accept any claim that a person is a child.”

      Most sane people would still be horrified by what Colin reveals about our immigration system, although some dozy dolts would no doubt defend it on the increasingly laughable grounds of “human rights” If the Government and a liberal elite continue to stigmatise and silence working-class people for a perfectly rational reaction to policies which threaten their children and their communities then I’m afraid they must prepared to reap the whirlwind.

      Are those who think this way far-Right? Or could it possibly be that we are just right?

      1. The idea that individuals cannot make a decision over someone’s age is laughable. What this screams is that we must end legal aid.

    2. I do not believe that my political and societal tenets have changed much over the last few decades. I do know that both the political and societal landscapes have been moved so far to the left that I am now positioned as right wing or, in the nutters’ view, even worse. My late socialist father would now be right of centre. The World has literally gone mad.

      1. Morning Korky. Same here. My core political views have hardly changed in forty years. Where they are different is in response to the lies of the Elites.

    3. 371077+ up ticks,

      Morning AS,

      They forget the additive “SO”, add the SO as a front runner to much of UKIP actions under Gerard Battens leadership many an issue makes sense.

    4. Another passage:-

      Back in 2003, the journalist Andrew Norfolk started looking into concerns raised by Labour MP Ann Cryer about gangs which were targeting vulnerable, underage girls, but Norfolk was apparently put off because the story “felt like a Right-wing fantasy”. Unfortunately, that appalling, far-Right “scaremongering” turned out to be true.

      Yes, and he sat on the story for EIGHT YEARS until the BNP took up the matter and shamed him into publishing what he had learnt.

    5. I am wading my way through Silent Witness.
      On one of the last episodes on Series 15 there is a graphic account of the grooming gangs at work. How they encourage young girls to become friendly with them and what they really think of them [whores] and multiple rape which they suffer. This episode should be shown to senior schoolgirls which describes the reality of their fate if they are snared by the groomers.
      I doubt the PTB will allow it.

      1. Not so Minty. I hear they are ramping up production of the new Brompton Cocktail
        It’s the latest model in their range of affoldable bikes!

      2. 371077+ upticks,

        AS,
        If that is the case then as a nations peoples ( the herd ) we should submissively hang our heads in shame.

        The legacy being constructed now for the childrens future after their rape & abuse ordeal via their parents voting pattern, ( the age of consent will be brought in as 10) to satisfy the invaders needs, then straight into political overseers education camps.

        Childrens love of parents will be a frowned upon item of history.

    2. 371077+ up ticks,

      Morning JN,
      We will only be too glad to get back under the wing of brussels will satisfy many a mindset,

      supporting lab/lib/con the eu assets once again & relaxing in a warm encompassing bed of shite.

    3. The state does not care. For them, it’s a reduction in energy use, so they’ll hail it as a great success.

    4. Redwood, a lone voice in the ‘green’ wilderness just as Bridgen is in the “vaccine” debacle.

    2. “…Must date trans women…”

      Remember all those jokes about homosexuality eventually becoming compulsory?

      2. 371077+ up ticks,

        Morning KtK,

        Did hear tell that once a year at the conclusion of a black mass ALL the 650 politico’s form the worlds biggest daisy chain, in parliament, many a dildo in evidence.

  11. Vladimir Putin travelling in armoured train on secret rail network for personal security. 15 February 2023.

    Russian president said to be convinced train travel is safer than planes as flights can be more easily tracked – and shot out of the sky.

    Vladimir Putin has been using a special armoured train to travel around Russia as he steps up his personal security amid the war in Ukraine, according to local media reports.

    The Russian president has had secret railway tracks and stations built for his personal use, the Dossier Center investigative website reported.

    The armoured train is heavier than normal trains and so has more axles and a number of powerful locomotives to pull it.

    This will almost certainly be this year’s winning entry in the MSM’s Stupid Propaganda Stories about Vladimir Putin category. It is brought to us by the Khodorkovsy Dossier Centre, the same people who brought us Navalny’s Novichokked Underpants and Vlad is the Richest Man on the Planet we just can’t Find the Money team.

    To those of you of a more innocent and credulous nature can I point out that railways are major projects and nowhere so than in Russia where vast distances are involved. That it takes seven day to cross on the Trans-Siberian. That they have timetables. That their progress may be interrupted by the most minor and irritating incidents, but most of all, that Vlad is a Russian and the country’s President and no one would be better placed to know the story of the last Tsar whose train was stopped by a group of revolutionaries on 14 March 1917 and the result.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/02/14/vladimir-putin-travelling-armoured-train-secret-rail-network/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr

      1. HS2 is an EU project and will not be stopped, defunded or cancelled because then we would not meet our obligations for TENs (or TEN-T.

        Yes, I know, we’ve left the EU. Someone tell the civil service?

  12. Vladimir Putin travelling in armoured train on secret rail network for personal security. 15 February 2023.

    Russian president said to be convinced train travel is safer than planes as flights can be more easily tracked – and shot out of the sky.

    Vladimir Putin has been using a special armoured train to travel around Russia as he steps up his personal security amid the war in Ukraine, according to local media reports.

    The Russian president has had secret railway tracks and stations built for his personal use, the Dossier Center investigative website reported.

    The armoured train is heavier than normal trains and so has more axles and a number of powerful locomotives to pull it.

    This will almost certainly be this year’s winning entry in the MSM’s Stupid Propaganda Stories about Vladimir Putin category. It is brought to us by the Khodorkovsy Dossier Centre, the same people who brought us Navalny’s Novichokked Underpants and Vlad is the Richest Man on the Planet we just can’t Find the Money team.

    To those of you of a more innocent and credulous nature can I point out that railways are major projects and nowhere so than in Russia where vast distances are involved. That it takes seven day to cross on the Trans-Siberian. That they have timetables. That their progress may be interrupted by the most minor and irritating incidents, but most of all, that Vlad is a Russian and the country’s President and no one would be better placed to know the story of the last Tsar whose train was stopped by a group of revolutionaries on 14 March 1917 and the result.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/02/14/vladimir-putin-travelling-armoured-train-secret-rail-network/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr

  13. Good morning, all. Misty with a pink sunrise.

    Missed this yesterday but I can both sympathise and smile at the tweet from Eric dunn.

    The roads in and around Colchester are atrocious with some losing the top surface for many yards with potholes almost everywhere and some metal manhole frames exposed.
    I am taking my car to a local tyre repair shop this morning to have a slow puncture repaired. On my regular routes I am aware of the worst potholes but it’s impossible to not hit some on unfamiliar routes, especially at night. I have done so and maybe one of these hits has damaged my tyre.

    https://twitter.com/Ericdun19416783/status/1625403915872219136

    1. The council around here ‘repaired’ a pothole in the road. Two days later it’s a gaping mess again. All they seem to do is pour bitchumen into the hole and walk off, where really it needs to be cleared, emptied, shored and then sub surface all the way down to the reason the hole is opening. Otherwise they’ll just constantly bodge it.

        1. Makes you wonder why they bother. They botched (see bob! I’m getting better!) around a drain on a major traffic route. The hole appeared within a month or two. A giant tank of a car got wedged in it and brought all the motorway traffic to a standstill at rush hour – no way around except to completely re-route.

      2. The word is BOTCH if you don’t mind.
        A “bodge” is a makeshift repair using improvised materials that do the intended job and will last long enough for a proper repair to be organised.

    2. YoKorky

      A ponder, that I icannot solve,

      “Where does ‘The Pot’ go to, when it escapes, to allow the Pothole to form?”

      1. Shame they don’t rigg him and a few more up like that and float them all off.
        No one would be interested in landing any of them.

  16. Man becomes eighth British national to die in Ukraine since war began. 15 February 2023.

    A man has become the eighth British national to die in Ukraine since the start of Russia’s invasion.

    The identity of the individual, who the BBC reported was a man, is not yet known but the Foreign Office said their family has been informed.

    A Foreign Office spokesperson said: “We are supporting the family of a British national who died in Ukraine, and are in contact with the local authorities”.

    These people are almost certainly Special Forces in Mufti reporting directly to NATO command. Why? Well my guess is that the military have no more faith in what the Ukies tell them than I do! This way they know that they are getting the real deal!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/02/14/british-national-dies-ukraine/

    1. Can’t sleep over here but i notice the report says it’s a man who was killed but their family has been informed.

      I guess we can only be grateful that the report didn’t say that that their family have been informed.

      Sic sic sic.

        2. Indeed. Or just evidence of the Terriblegraph’s inability with the use of English (mine is not perfect- but i am not a journalist…)

      2. He was a Scotsman with a long history of Military Service which carries my point pretty well!

    2. Ah, so he’s a man. Are you sure? Perhaps we should call him a ‘non egg laying individual’?

      It reminds me of Tommy, by Kipling.

    3. Now identified as Jonathan Shenkin, 45, a trainer of paramedical personnel.
      It is said that he formerly served in the Israeli Defense Force, then ran a security business.

      1. Not really, Ndovu. Amy is the gentle one of the two who work in the dental practice. When I drive to see her I always sing “Once in love with Amy” from (I think) a musical by Frank Loesser.

          1. Now, now, Eddy, she’s a happily married young woman who has just returned to work this week after the birth of her second child.

          2. What were you thinking ? 🤔
            I need my teeth sorted and I fell out with my previous dentist 10 years ago after the 250 pounds repair fell out within 4 days. I made another appointment insisting they rectify the problem and they cancelled the appointment mire than once.
            And then cut me off.
            The Cheating crooks.

          3. You could try Devonshire House in Cambridge (a small stone’s throw from Addenbrooke’s); I’ve just had two implants done there and the dentist was brilliant. They have a hygienist service, in fact anything to do with dentistry, state-of-the-art equipment. I highly recommend.

          4. Sounds like you need to find a better dentist and hygienist, Eddy. On my last visit to see Amy (the hygienist) as she was cleaning and polishing my gnashers a small filling fell out. Fortunately I saw the dentist, James, at the same practice the following day and he replaced the filling. When I asked for the bill he said “There is no charge today. The filling fell out whilst Amy was giving your teeth a cleaning, so I won’t charge you for putting the problem right.” A really excellent dental practice which I am glad that I eventually found after several initial nightmares on moving to Essex from Scotland.

          5. Scrolling through this site some 16 hours after you posted I noticed that you had a downvote and that I seemed to have accidentally clicked on the wrong button. My apologies for this error, which I have now corrected.

        2. My hygienist, Emma, is very good and thorough but I do always dread going to see her.
          She was very kind though when I had an appointment in December and she was sympathetic as I explained my OH was in hospital.
          Last time was a week ago and she did a good job on a gum infection.

    2. All dentists are weird. What sort of person thinks ‘when I grow up, I want to stick sharp objects, some powered by a mechanical drill in people’s mouths!

  20. ‘Morning, Peeps.

    From today’s DT…well, whoda thunkit?

    Big companies aren’t being fully honest about the astronomical costs of net zero

    Electric cars will be a disaster for blue collar workers

    BEN MARLOW

    CHIEF CITY COMMENTATOR

    15 February 2023 • 6:00am

    Now is not a good time to be working in Britain’s car industry. Nobody said the shift to electric vehicles was going to be smooth, but the true scale of the disruption is only just starting to be understood.

    The level of reinvention required on the path to decarbonisation is almost akin to starting again. Entire business models that have existed for decades are being torn up, factories mothballed, and car line-ups dramatically scaled back.

    Honda brought down the curtain on its Swindon plant in 2021, not because of Brexit as some Remainers had disingenuously claimed, but due to a need to “accelerate” its “electrification strategy” and “restructure” the Japanese outfit’s “global operations accordingly,” Honda’s Europe chief, Katsushi Inoue, said at the time.

    More recently, BMW has announced it will shift production of the electric Mini from Cowley, Oxford to a new plant in China’s eastern province of Jiangsu later this year. Jaguar Land Rover had been planning to build a battery gigafactory near Bristol or Redcar, but after a row with the Government over the level of state support, has reportedly threatened to choose Slovakia instead.

    Meanwhile, a new generation of start-ups that is meant to be spearheading the revolution are struggling to get off the ground. Battery hopeful Britshvolt managed to last all of a year before it collapsed after burning through its cash pile.

    Ultimately the company’s business plan was deeply flawed and its prospects wildly over-egged, but none the less it is further evidence of the huge challenges inherent in trying to create not just an entirely new industry from scratch, but so too the infrastructure required to support it.

    But it is the announcement of several thousand job losses at Ford that will send the biggest shockwaves through the global car sector – 3,800 in total, 2,300 of which will come in Germany, 1,300 in the UK, and the remaining 200 across the rest of Europe.

    While the numbers themselves are pretty grim, it is the pointed comments from its German chief about the reason behind the redundancies that jump out.

    One of the central premises of net zero is that the resulting job destruction in old industries such as car-making, but also oil and gas exploration, construction and farming, will be more than offset by the job creation in green industries such as renewable energy – but if the remarks of Ford Germany’s boss Martin Sander are anything to go by, that looks doubtful at best.

    There were the usual empty corporate platitudes about recognising “the uncertainty it creates” for employees – an understatement if ever there was one – and how those affected would receive “full support in the months ahead”.

    Meanwhile Tim Slatter, chairman of Ford’s UK arm, was at pains to point out that the economic backdrop was at least partly a factor. “Here in Europe … the outlook is uncertain. High inflation, higher interest rates, the ongoing war in Ukraine, cost of energy and so on,” he said.

    But it was Sander who eventually cut through all the noise to lay the decision fairly squarely at the door of electrification. “There is significantly less work to be done on drivetrains moving out of combustion engines,” he said. “We are moving into a world with less [sic] global platforms where less engineering work is necessary. This is why we have to make the adjustments.”

    Ford’s intervention is particularly significant because it is possible to extrapolate from the latest round of job cuts and arrive at an approximate figure for the industry as a whole as it goes electric.

    The redundancies make up just over 40pc of Ford’s European product development team, which includes designers, engineers and testers, and is roughly in line with boss Jim Farley’s recent warning that a company employing 183,000 worldwide would ultimately need 40pc fewer staff to develop battery models. One assumes that the figure will be roughly the same for other major carmakers.

    There will be those who argue that as one of the world’s biggest manufacturers of petrol and diesel cars, it is in firmly in Ford’s interests to exaggerate the fallout, and that might have been true not so long ago.

    But having been a late adopter, Ford is now among those leading the charge with a pledge to boost spending on electric vehicles to $50bn (£41bn), from $30bn previously, by 2026 and run its electric car unit separately from its legacy combustion engine operations, in a move aimed at catching trailblazer Tesla. So perhaps we should take Farley at face value.

    The fate of Swindon’s Honda operations is similarly instructive but for other reasons. When the plant closed its doors for the final time, the 3,000 people that lost their jobs were promised they would quickly find new jobs – either at other local manufacturers, or under plans to transform the site from a car factory into a logistics park.

    But recruiters in the area were quick to dismiss the suggestion that there were enough local jobs to go around, or that many would offer the same pay, while converting the old Honda factory is expected to take a decade.

    None of this is to doubt the benefits of decarbonising the planet, but the Government and big companies need to be more honest about the costs of net zero, because they are likely to be astronomical, and to be born disproportionately by the sort of blue-collar workers that Ford employs across the world. So in that sense, its frankness is something of a breath of fresh air.

    * * *

    The cost of net zero?  Hideously unaffordable.  And there you have it.  It is high time this wretched government realised that it is there to do our bidding and not the other way around, but with the major parties being wedded to this stupidity I’m glad our generation at least had the best of it, but I pity the those that follow us.  What an appalling legacy we have left them.

    The responses from BTL posters are predictable:

    Andy RoadKing26 MIN AGO

    Net Zero is insane. Believing you can make the weather do what you want by driving electric cars and using electric to power homes and industry is a religion, not science. It’s on par with the logic of burning witches.

    It is bankrupting the country.

    J R Bentley35 MIN AGO

    Ben – Does this mean you are beginning to understand the complete and utter folly of Net Zero – every other article you’ve written was in support of it. The green chickens are coming home to roost well and truly. A green revolution in jobs? You believed it but its turned out to be powder puff for griffters (EVs are shockingly expensive and note they require few moving parts? Odd don’t you think?). Cheap electricity by using wind and solar? – you believed it despite record prices and energy misery across the world.

    Your standard of twitter level investigative journalism is but one of the many reasons I’ve cancelled my Telegraph subscription after nearly 30yrs…. a bit like supporting the Consocialists.

    The legacy media’s abject refusal to report the facts and counterfactual means you are done.

    David Tallboys9 MIN AGO

    JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, McKinsey and others have reports showing the high cost for no effect that Net Zero has. You can read some of them here and be appalled at the utter waste of money that could be spent on hospitals schools and roads : https://www.juststopnetzero.com/

    1. The ‘juststopnetzero’ page should be compulsory reading by the government and local councils

      1. The technical reality, the logistical facts are irrelevant. They do not care. They don’t care about jobs lost, unemployment, impoverishment. Nothing matters except the frenzied desperation to meet the unnecessary – EU mandated – target.

    2. When government said ‘no more coal’ and the mines closed, entire towns were lost. They’ve never recovered. Luton after Daggenham is still heavily welfare dependent.

      The government is incompetent. Handing out money to support industry it is trying to destroy, to keep jobs it wants rid of but cannot do without because it loses them votes. It is pathetic.

      We would be far, far better off if MPs spent all day in stocks, having vegetables thrown at them. Yes, it is a waste of good vegetables, but they’re useless for anything else. Everything they’re doing – every single thing – is wrong.

    3. Here’s one: The entire layout of towns and cities is based on easy transport, effectively cars supplemented by the occasional bus. So, supermarkets are out-of-town, people visit for a megashopping trip weekly or monthly. When you cannot travel like that, and carry lots, how are you to resupply? Corner-shops (back to the 1920s). Buy a bit every day – increased costs, decreased choice, and a redesign of the neighbourhood. I wonder if anyone has thought about that in these 15-minute open prisons?

  22. Ukraine needs Western support now more than ever. 15 February 2023.

    As the Nato meeting got under way at the Ramstein air base in Germany, Jens Stoltenberg, the secretary general, said Kyiv would be supported “for as long as it takes”. He said there was no sign that Vladimir Putin was preparing for peace. But all the fine words and plaudits will be meaningless unless the military assistance arrives soon, before it is too late.

    This is an Elite War. I see no sign that there is any general popular support for NATO becoming directly involved. They are running out of ammo! They’ve reneged on the planes! The Germans have been frog marched into it and know that even if Russia is defeated they (Germany) will still be much poorer than if they had stayed out of it. Hence the reluctance that the MSM always berates them for. Stoltenberg is quitting! In the middle of a war? Seriously? The Spectator hasn’t published a single Gung Ho article since last week!

    Just saying!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2023/02/15/ukraine-needs-western-support-now-ever/

  23. Morning all 😉 😊
    Just scanned the ‘news’ not much of
    interest. Good old Ann Widcombe has a pop at that complicit EU turd Heseltine. Likewise people are getting really fed up with the other resident turd in London and his attempt to become Lord of everything inside of the M25.
    And poor old Kiwi’s after the cyclone and the floods, a 6. Something earthquake.
    Slayders 😉
    And it’s a frosty start.

  24. SIR – Sherelle Jacobs is wrong to claim that “Brexit is finally dead” (Comment, February 14). She is, however, right in her criticism of Theresa May, whose expression that “Brexit means Brexit” was meaningless, and whose farcical negotiations, combined with the utter failure of the Chequers proposals, meant that she did not last long.

    Ms Jacobs mentions neither the impact of Covid on our economy, costing around £400 billion, nor 
the energy and cost of living crises, which are the direct consequences of Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine. These are uncontrollable global factors, and were not the fault of the Government or the policy of leaving the EU.

    Nowhere does she identify the real reason for leaving the EU, which is that we were subjugated for 45 years to a law-making process, ultimately run by the undemocratic Council of Ministers, which relied on a majority vote among 27 other countries, behind closed doors, without even a transcript.

    The EU was, and remains, a democratic failure, only interested in its own political objective of greater EU integration, and never in British sovereign economic or political interests and competitiveness.

    Sir Bill Cash MP (Con)
    London SW1

    Well said, Sir Bill. However, I fear that your sensible and logical views will cut no ice with the slippery little socialist lawyer who is effectively out of control. Why, even some of the thickos in the Labour Party are trying to distance themselves from his money-grubbing and utterly ruinous plans. The next London mayoral election will be interesting; dare we hope that Khant has finally cooked his own goose?

    1. Ms Jacobs mentions neither the impact of Covid on our economy, costing around £400 billion, nor 
the energy and cost of living crises, which are the direct consequences of Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine. These are uncontrollable global factors, and were not the fault of the Government or the policy of leaving the EU.

      The energy crisis is caused by a decade of following EU diktat on energy and the idiotic force to use less. The cost of living comes almost directly from that combined with a massive population, crippling taxation, inflation as policy to control outrageously profligate state waste.

      A lot could have been done locally to better protect our economy from global chaos – for example, Brown could not have fiddled the banking code to encourage banks to over lend. Cameron should have cut back on welfare, state spending and the debt. May could have pursued a WTO leaving mechanism. Boris should have bloody well obeyed Covid rules knowing that the enemy within – the civil service wanted to do him down and radically cut taxes. The Left wing media could have not spewed lies about truss tax plans giving thick Lefties ammunition (our economy is far worse now than it was then, but no one mentions that).

      We could have let markets rule energy, fuel, housing and food prices but the state continually meddles, fiddles and interferes to force it’s demented policy on us.

      Everything could be resolved through some straightforward, market led, small government ideology but the state doesn’t want that and so we have an energy crisis, a cost of living crisis and inflation mess, hordes of illegal invaders being paid for by the tax payer who promptly set about raping children. It’s as if every possible wrong decision that could be made is being made.

    2. Somebody sticking up for Brexit? Wow! A pity this kind of detail is allowed to disappear from view.

  25. SIR – I have just returned from a short break at the Wörthersee lake in Carinthia, Austria.

    The water is so clean you can drink it as you swim. Almost 90 per cent of the swimming locations in this beautiful country were found to be of “excellent” quality after the state invested more than €50 billion in the last decade.

    It is now reported (February 14) that Thérèse Coffey, the Environment Secretary, may be backing away from plans to hit British water companies with fines of up to £250 million for spilling sewage into rivers and seas.

    Whose side is she on?

    Mark Macauley
    Heytesbury, Wiltshire

    That is a rather naive question, Mr Macaulay. The answer is surely “Not ours”. Southern Water was recently fined £90m for creating so much pollution off the south coast and yet huge discharges continue almost every time we experience wet weather, and will do so for years to come. Surely prison now seems to be the only option.

    1. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cea60aa4522a1d4cabba72f05fe3e1c8ab1c80b8dee998d12a3ba5264dd3a08f.png What clearer example of a dichotomy of governments’ attitudes towards their people could you possibly wish to see?

      Austria is clearly run by an intelligent and competent chappie, who chooses to have other clever and astute people around him, to make sensible decisions for enhancing the lives of their countrymen.

      The UK is run by a succession of cretins, who select other halfwits to work alongside them, and en masse they make imbecilic decisions that trash the lives of their countrymen.

      1. She is on the side of the EU who have dictated our water maintenance and quality laws and, when remoaners get their way will continue to do so.

        1. The same EU that forced the beaches to be cleaned up and sewage-free? That EU?
          I think you’ll find it’s Whitehall gold-plating the Directives into the law and backsliding that’s the problem.

      3. One of the advantages of being in the EU, was that they forced the UK to do exactly this kind of thing, despite the Whitehall whining and backsliding. What a shame the UK can’t seem to do the right thing on it’s own but instead relies on the grown-ups to tell them what to do.

    4. I can never understand why they take a winning car like Hamilton’s, in his last championship winning year, and piss around with it so it comes nowhere in the next year other than to comply with the ever changing silly rules

      1. The FIA tinker with the regs every year without fail. I think it’s to justify their existence.

  30. Vladimir Putin is about to win the ammunition war against the West. 15 February 2023.

    ‘The current rate of Ukraine’s ammunition expenditure is many times higher than our current rate of production,” Jens Stoltenberg, Nato’s secretary general, said this week. “This puts our defence industries under strain.” In two sentences he confirmed a major hitch in the West’s efforts to support Kyiv, one that experts have been highlighting since the first months of the war: we are running out of supplies.

    In fact, Ukraine is not using excessive amounts of artillery shells compared with historical conflicts. These shortages are instead a stark demonstration of the hollowing-out of Nato since the end of the Cold War. Now, lifting munitions production cannot be done with an on-off switch – it will require several issues to be resolved concurrently.

    This article ought to come with a Health Warning: Beware the Author Knows What he’s Talking About!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/02/14/vladimir-putin-win-ammunition-war-against-west/

    1. So, as well as running out of gas, the West now has too few bullets… good thing we’re not in a hot war or anything – what kind of wazzock numpties run the place?

    2. Couldn’t help noticing the last remark: “Nato must strive to ramp up production before Moscow resolves the inefficiencies, corruption and inertia of its manufacturing base.”
      No mention then that Ukraine is the most corrupt country in Europe and that large amounts of goods and cash are being siphoned off by the establishment there in order to fill there own coffers before they have to flee to the West. Zelenskyy will need a considerable amount for the upkeep of his $35 Million Villa in Florida.

        1. Unkorret spelin iz ve sine ova elfie mind

          Also, it far easier to spot someone ‘elsie’s’ mistake, than yor own

          1. Morning OLT.

            How are you today.. all seeing and happy?

            My poor old lap top is 7 years old , cracked screen , and I have to hammer hard on the keys because some of them don’t work.

            One of the dogs sent the laptop crashing to the floor .

            My insurance company wanted £250 excess before I could replace it . Moh said no no no.

            That is a bad excuse for poor spelling , I don’t have a spell check installed , so I just muddle on

          3. I don’t use spellcheck – so all mistooks are mine own.

            My laptop is 10 years old and quite a lot of things have stopped working as the browser is out of date – fortunately I can still use it for Nottl.

          4. My laptop, a Toshiba, is 20 years old, runs XP. Had a new HDD about 4 years ago, battery died years ago so only runs on mains. Only used now for music software. I remember it was £1800 new

          5. I always use it plugged into the mains as the battery only lasts a few minutes. XP is ok – we used that in the office before I retired in 2011. My sons wouldn’t have any Microsoft stuff in the house so we’ve always used Linux here. Not sure this one can be updated, though the desktop downstairs is ok for most things that won’t work on the laptop now.

      1. Morning Bill,

        My vivid imagination and Miss Marple investigative mind just wondered whether the missing river walk Lancashire mother might have ended up in Paris to be disposed of ?

        1. Good morning Belle and everyone.
          Too far, and it is unlikely that Ms Bulley was carrying her passport. On the other hand, it is possible that she was trying to start a new life away from her partner. But she had a Mercedes Benz.

          1. Morning Tim

            My theory is darker..

            She was a mortgage advisor, she originally came from Essex , her face book page was available for everyone to scrutinise .. she even had her dog walk photos etc and also her mobile phone number there ..

            Some bad person might have been stalking her , there might have been a mortgage refusal etc so what ever happened to her might have happened in the UK, BUT evidence disposed of elsewhere .

            People just don’t vanish into thin air , or hang on , yes many do.

          2. Not at all.
            I just found it rather upsetting. I wouldn’t want you to censor a perfectly reasonable remark

    4. Yukk… that’s awful. Poor lass – an “honour” killing, I wonder?
      Imagine going for a walk and finding that – it would take a lot of alcohol to erase that image from the mind.

    5. Not nice to think about, but it would be interesting to know what body parts, especially internal organs, are missing.

    2. Actually I don’t blame them, if the Indonesian government is behaving as it did in its illegal occupation of East Timor, the Papuans need all the attention they can muster from the international community. I’m sure that they don’t enjoy genocide being inflicted upon them any more than the people of East Timor.
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Timor_genocide

      2. She’ll have something lined up could be in a skirt or a pair of strides. AKA Callard and bowsers.

    1. Wow, he is really up to date, rearrange the following words into a well known phrase or saying: Going long on how has this been?

    1. His initial IQ rather suggests he isn’t bright enough to decide for himself what sex he is.
      He is being abused.

    2. 371077+up ticks,

      O2O,

      In reality we are as a nation are being ruled by a set of really nasty manipulative treacherous
      political bastards and if the lab/lib/con/current ukip mass controlled immigration/ paedophile umbrella coalition continues to find support then we as a nation deserve ALL WE GET.

    3. Strewth. An IQ of 70-80 is on a par with a bright gorilla. This is eugenics. Sterilising the undesirables and on a Mengele wet dream scale.

      1. It’s a bit worrying, all told. The Warqueen gets consistently rated at well above 150, her entry exam had her at 170. Sometimes it can feel like she’s in an entirely different universe, such is the scope and breadth of her awareness and data cognition.

        However, on the other end of the scale I’ve found the people who simply don’t understand the complexities don’t think about them and have far easier lives.

    4. A child with an IQ that low should never be put on any such medication. The psychoses of these people is staggering.

  40. Morning all 🙂
    According to the latest at the Telegraph, Sturgeon is going to resign. What a tragedy!
    Anyone read the excellent article by Allison Pearson today? I’m sick of people with an ounce of common sense being labelled ‘far-Right’
    Justifiable annoyance is stigmatised by a sanctimonious class that largely escapes the consequences of its own idealistic opinions
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/columnists/2023/02/14/sick-people-ounce-common-sense-labelled-far-right/
    Well done her.

      1. Allison. I suspect that Krankie is incapable of an iota of decency, so to call anything she does as “well done” would be a misnomer.
        Also. Good Morning to you.

  41. Have we mentioned this?
    “Nicola Sturgeon set to resign as Scotland’s first minister.

    The announcement is expected to be made at a press conference in Edinburgh later this morning.”
    From sky news apparently

  42. The EU’s imperial court hates UK independence
    The ECJ is no ordinary court: it is political, and determined to crush Brexit and empower Brussels
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/02/14/eus-imperial-court-hates-uk-independence/

    “…….The Government is reportedly nearing a deal with the EU over the Northern Ireland Protocol. Apparently, goods entering Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK will not face “physical” customs checks if they will be consumed in Northern Ireland. But – and it’s a big but – the suggestion has been made that Downing Street is prepared to accept that the EU’s court at Luxembourg should continue to exercise jurisdiction over UK territory.”

    Backbone-free but poisonous Medusa Jellyfish Sunak is determined to destroy Britain completely before returning either to India to enjoy his wife’s vast wealth or to reapply for a green card – as he did before – and go to live in the USA.

    BTL Percival Wrattstrangler

    The only thing to do is for every pro-Brexit MP to threaten to resign today and force a general election if Britain agrees again to surrender sovereignty in Northern Ireland which is British and not EU territory.

    The Conservative Party under May, Sunak and Johnson have never had the slightest intention of getting Brexit done properly.

    This is an absolutely key moment but I very much doubt whether Sunak actually understands this. My bet is that if the EU’s court is allowed to continue to have sovereignty in UK territory that it will be a matter of only a couple of years before Britain is fully back in the EU under considerably worse terms than before.

    2. “The only thing to do is for every pro-Brexit MP to threaten to resign today and force a general election”

      How many, half a dozen?

      1. I would like to think there were more – but a threat of mass resignations would certainly concentrate the minds of Hunt and Sunak.

        2. I don’t think that the Conservative Party as it is presently constituted has any intention of getting us out of the EU properly, let alone Labour. Both are duplicitous with enormous contempt for the voters or carrying out the will of the people. I honestly think their policies and intentions, along with that cancer, the civil service, are to destroy Britain and reduce it to an empty shell of its former self. ‘managed decline’ is their euphemism for strangling Britain. Individual MPs may be decent people but collectively they are lazy, malign, and evil, bent on destroying this country. The proof is that they cannot act on remedies that are obvious, let alone do what is difficult.

      2. 371077+ up ticks.

        Morning M,

        You would be lucky to find half of one.

        currently you would not be in the tory (ino) party hierarchy unless you could call a corkscrew brother.

  45. Wings over Scotland think her resignation has more to do with a police investigation pending, than politics! Here’s hoping that Swinney goes too!

      1. Much better with the sound turned off … and I don’t mean the sound of the aircraft!

        Listening to Yanks speaking is bad enough: that is like having you skull impaled with an ice-pick. But when they start ‘singing’ and ‘yee-haaing’, then the volume knob goes down to OFF.

  46. Wings over Scotland think her resignation has more to do with a police investigation pending, than politics! Here’s hoping that Swinney goes too!

  47. Would anyone know how (or be able to approximate) much the total carbon footprint of a solar energy ‘farm’ of around 31 hectares would be ? Including the total destruction of the existing farmland woodland green belt and the manufacture of the solar new panels.
    Because of recent concentrated and over mass development in Welwyn Garden City. The second garden City by Ebenezer Howard. They have shoved far too many people into the smallish area to increase the council and developers income.
    Basically in short, they have wrecked the place. Increased the carbon footprint by god only knows how much and now they are trying to build a massive ‘solar Farm’ to try and compensate for the massive increases in energy consumption.

    3. 371077 + up ticks,

      O2O,

      Go round again Og I’m sure I can see a crack in the dam of political shite.

    1. “Perhaps now she can devote her time to finding out what a woman is!”

      Not much point in looking in the mirror.

  51. Before we all get too euphoric, remember that the MacPaki is high in the list of contenders to replace Mrs Murrell….

  53. Morning, all!

    A rare moment, this: I, the quintessential sun worshipper, am grateful to the depths of my being for cool air! I have moved into a room with air conditioning, and could actually sleep last night. Bliss.

    From which you will deduce that I am still in Buenos Aires,. Going to tango classes every day, feeling way out of my depth in many of them, but learning, learning.

    Sending sunshine and smiles to you all. 🙂

      1. 🤣🤣 But of course you did – what else could you possibly have meant? 😉 *puts on innocent face*

          1. How can she even walk in such shoes, let alone dance? Me, I couldn’t even climb the ladder to get on those heels!

      2. But of course you did – what else could you possibly have meant? *flutters eyelashes innocently*

    2. By now I would have thought you would have fallen in love .. I mean there is so much passion in thetango.. that you would have fallen madly badly and deeply ? ☺

      1. Oh, I have; I have! So far, with tango itself – open to other possibilities. 🙂🤣🤣

        1. Good looking lady like you who can sing the birds down from the trees ! You aint trying hard enough !

  57. Does anyone think it kind of weird how all the totalitarians that put their people through hell during lockdown pandemic while wanting to even further are all quitting, Ardern was another one.
    Hope Trudeau is next, then Rutte.
    Which makes one wonder what is coming next?

    1. Sorry Korky, but what the hell does ‘weaponised’ mean (in the video, not your comment)? Is it a real word? It’s certainly not any English that I know!

    2. It takes just over three hours to drive from ontario to east Palestine. You wouldthink that there would be some reference to it in our media,

      Oh look another unidentified flying balloon.

  61. Medley Time

    Liverpool

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5681bb75e55a0533320ccc50639cae8762d10d6c7d850edb1c092d9913f613b8.jpg

    https://twitter.com/MrSugden2/status/1625185890527068165?t=YJF_MEjGibvtFuc8xiv9vQ&s=19

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/61d1ddafe04df5239030ff79c3c1210bbc76572e096dd0d89a6dd9270e78e387.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/97cfc4058fcf419bb63555ee2498cd1e686d00bf637d1b3ff975008708172a09.jpg

    https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9b47BtbD49vwWfmJVzVOlCIzOAVtr9kNrUUelfsE2tvULZm8oQjylflCWbshYWjNBBbsZe3mfqITdHxnr8gaRhORf8bYSYcIJHeurtVk5IDzcTuvEwjvAnVmaSI-OZCZK5CQ_T1Tf-Hl03cSqQOLFIt-iy_jDHDC-bdaZS5wV3GRmZTU2Lgt30RSiDw/s424/ninetymilesypwBjx1rwn2euo1_500.jpg

      1. An easy mistake to make. I’m reminded of a project in Norwich (a new Sainsbury store) when in the final push for completion – with two days before the grand opening – the white lining contractor completed his work in the car park. Our regional director, who – to his credit – had joined the site team for the weekend and was wielding a broom, spotted the problem. In front of the cycle racks, was the word B I C Y C Y L E S…

          1. On the bus announcements are made as to the next stop. One makes me chuckle; Next stop is the library. Please alight here for the crematorium.

  62. Medley 2

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/dc128dbe840ff665241089ff28862bd040cad6644b40a619e30195ee8969320b.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d516e9f36e56a2e62a4f1b19a2079b7a49d436b97075deebd7473147d0442daa.jpg

    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1986754cbece5bb6f21242c4a5faa9473b35c1bf6bbfbaf02fcc6e6181e25be9.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/130d3e4efef583c61bf89e7b26c87cfbb09a9ce6e2ce53bed1443855149f64b5.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9e27b8ef8c5f622387aa17ed6a9fd9a6f48269d69ca94eadc1211dd79a07586e.png

    1. With but one exception, my cousins in Scotland will be dancing in the streets. Ding, doing, the witch has gone.

    3. 371077+ up ticks,

      O2O,
      Why was this “normal courtesy material” not extended to Gerard Batten by the English party nec instead of mass back knifing ?

  66. That’s all the larger bits of elm and sycamore I’ve dropped recently cleared away and the largest logs cut and stacked to await splitting when I’ve emptied the woodstack that is currently in use.
    The last of the smaller bits have also been cleared and stacked for either chop sawing for the mushroom trays, maybe 10 or so trays worth, or breaking for kindling.

    It’s been a lovely day so far, but suddenly come over rather dark and cloudy and I see rain is forecast for later this afternoon.

    I see Sturgeon is having a VERY well attended leaving drinks do:-
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fa833bfb4bab3e71a8aeb4cb0ce2dbd1d193923a6c276c5fa9a7585a7bdf1efc.jpg?w=600&h=476

    2. For goodness sake. These scum need castrating, flogging and beating and then be denied treatment.

      3. Then promptly deported back to whichever filthy savage-land they came from. Even those BORN here refer their ‘homeland’. No appeals. Send their families away too. Think of the savings on benefits.

    3. For goodness sake. These scum need castrating, flogging and beating and then be denied treatment.

  68. Not saying that they are a corrupt bunch of barstewards but:

    The Canadian government Ethics Commissioner has recommended mandatory ethics training for all senior liberal MPs and staff.

    I suppose that he is becoming tired of the never ending round of ministers just saying sorry before carrying on as before.

    1. Is that “Baron” or “barren”?
      The first I criticize her for, the second I sympathize.

      1. During the reign of Charles II when Clarendon was his chief minister, he arranged the marriage of the King to Catherine of Braganza. There were other deals also.
        A rhyme did the rounds….”Three sights to be seen, Bombay, Tangier and a barren Queen.”
        Sad fact that Charles II had numerous illegitimate children and, despite several pregnancies, no heir to the throne. Charles, for all his faults, refused to divorce her and when she begged his forgiveness on his death bed, he replied that it was he who should beg hers and said he did so with all his heart.

          1. We did too, and my sister. One of my mothers friends lost 5, all boys, and had 3 daughters. It’s much more common than people think. Dreadful, all the same.

    1. What can be said? The only rational option is to just refuse to pay, but it is backed by force.

      No product, no stock, no risk, a guaranteed, fixed income and they can’t even get the basics done properly.

  72. Wee Nicola krankie, the best leader in terms of results since Adolf Hitler, except Hitler took only 6 years to level his country, Krankie took 8.

  73. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f62f37cf4aa00cbf7a760534ca8e96f4726a9f3779eff08b4e58c3d70a2ff30c.jpg What to do with a 1·2kg pack of top-quality, 21% fat, pork mince?

    Mix it with 450g of Cireo passata, 190g breadcrumbs, 45g of seasoning mix (salt, white pepper, nutmeg, mace, ground coriander, parsley) and 3·75g bicarbonate of soda to make a Midlands-style pork-and-tomato sausage meat. Mix well and chill. It made me two Scotch eggs and 24 sausage rolls (the other 12 are still in the oven).

    Yum!

          3. I noticed some virtue-signalling tosspot on t’telly last night began talking about “KEEV” but soon reverted to the correct Kiev!!

    4. If there was smellovision they’d all be gone now, or bashed on to the floor where a large hairy dog would eat them all.

  75. SNP news. Likely successor to Mrs Murrell:

    Kate Forbes. A comment about her:

    What is impressive about Forbes? The years she spent at Woodstock, a private boarding school in India so celebrated the Indian post office issued stamp commemorating it’s 100th anniversary? Her 2nd class Cambridge history degree or the MA year she spent at Edinburgh on diaspora studies? Her incomplete professional qualifications as an accountant ? He utter self confidence and rapid promotion after Derek McKay’s fall from grace? Her lack of any management /decision taking experience in a central bank like the BoE or a major investment bank? Her admiration for the likes of Yanis Varoufakis?

    Who knows. After all, she has said that Mark Logan, who she appointed to the job of Scotland’s Chief Entrepreneur, ‘is a great guy’. We deserve better than this.

  76. SNP news. Likely successor to Mrs Murrell:

    Kate Forbes. A comment about her:

    What is impressive about Forbes? The years she spent at Woodstock, a private boarding school in India so celebrated the Indian post office issued stamp commemorating it’s 100th anniversary? Her 2nd class Cambridge history degree or the MA year she spent at Edinburgh on diaspora studies? Her incomplete professional qualifications as an accountant ? He utter self confidence and rapid promotion after Derek McKay’s fall from grace? Her lack of any management /decision taking experience in a central bank like the BoE or a major investment bank? Her admiration for the likes of Yanis Varoufakis?

    Who knows. After all, she has said that Mark Logan, who she appointed to the job of Scotland’s Chief Entrepreneur, ‘is a great guy’. We deserve better than this.

  82. Runners and riders for Krankie’s replacement

    Skate Forbes
    AnGuppy Robertson
    John Swimmey?
    Keith Prawn?
    Humza Whitebait?

  84. A bogus psychiatrist has been convicted of a ‘deliberate and wicked deception’ after faking a medical degree certificate and working for a number of health trusts.

    Zholia Alemi, 60, worked as a psychiatrist across the UK after falsely claiming to have qualified at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, Manchester Crown Court was told.

    Alemi earned over £1million from the NHS in her 22 years as a psychiatrist despite having ‘no qualifications’ that would allow her to be called a doctor.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11754079/Bogus-psychiatrist-paid-1million-NHS-faking-qualifications.html

    So how has that nut job avoided being checked out .. and how many nutcases have escaped into society?

    2. Shocking, of course. And no possible excuse.

      But I repeat what I have said from time to time. Although I was admitted as a solicitor on 11 January 1965 – and continued to work until 2009 – NO ONE who employed me or hired m as a contractor, or as a broadcaster and journalist EVER asked me for any proof of my qualification (which sits, to this day, in the bottom drawer of a chest of drawers I bought (for £2.50) in 1967 at the last house clearance auction sale in London!)

      1. Hello Bill

        I watched a TV repeat of this film recently. and it is always so suprising to hear how many people get away with stuff.

        “Catch Me If You Can is a 2002 American biographical crime comedy-drama[3] film directed and produced by Steven Spielberg and starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks with Christopher Walken, Martin Sheen, Nathalie Baye, Amy Adams and James Brolin in supporting roles. The screenplay by Jeff Nathanson is based on the “autobiography” of Frank Abagnale, who claims that before his 19th birthday, he successfully performed cons worth millions of dollars by posing as a Pan American World Airways pilot, a Georgia doctor, and a Louisiana parish prosecutor. The truth of his story is questionable.[4][5][6]

        A movie version of Abagnale’s book of the same name was contemplated soon after it was published in 1980 but began in earnest in 1997 when Spielberg’s DreamWorks bought the film rights. David Fincher, Gore Verbinski, Lasse Hallström, Miloš Forman, and Cameron Crowe were all considered to direct the film before Spielberg decided to direct it himself. Filming took place from February to May 2002.

        The film opened on December 25, 2002, to critical and commercial success. At the 75th Academy Awards, Christopher Walken and John Williams were nominated for Best Supporting Actor and Best Original Score,[7] respectively.”

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catch_Me_If_You_Can

        I often wonder how many politicians have blagged themselves into power.

        Boris and Lammy spring to mind , oh yes and Hunt , and many more

        1. I have qualifications but I can’t prove them…after a trip to UK, when I checked the drawer of my bedside chest on return, everything was gone. O and A levels certificates, diplomas and even my 50 yard swimming certificate from primary school. I asked soon to be ex and he claimed to know nothing. Am damned certain he shredded them; even if my son was living at home he wouldn’t have done that.
          I contacted the colleges to see if I could get replacements but the reply was that all records were removed after 25 years.

          2. I expect copies were made but it’s of no matter now. I am not physically fit to teach or run a library now although I would like to do a story time for little guys in the library.
            I do have my CV with all details and my Enhanced DBS.
            Right now, my husband and I come first.

          3. Interestingly those of us who work in senior positions in Financial Services are vetted to death (and rightly so).

          4. The only time that I was asked for proof of qualifications was just a month or two before I retired for the first time. Our company had been taken over by that big bad computer company and their HR department was demanding transcripts of all degrees.

            I ignored their demands, they countered that a masters was mandatory if I was to retain my position so I told them that I had already sent copies of transcripts for all of my degrees

            It was only when I finally left that I told them that I didn’t have any degrees, they really did have all available transcripts.

          10. By then, he knew I was going to leave and he was doing all he could to make life hard.
            I left some info for my son and told him where to find it- the only place I knew my ex would never look- inside The Complete Works of Shakespeare.
            It wasn’t a fun time but I have no regrets.

          13. I have an English O level certificate that you can have,

            There again, the grade would not help you with your librarianing.

          14. I don’t have copies of my O Level certs either, but the one I miss most is from Birmingham Scout and Cub division(South East District)
            for winning the egg and spoon race in about 1965, on the BSA sports ground.

    3. I wonder what the difference is between her acting as a psychiatrist and so many of the climate change “scientists” who are telling us that climate change is man-made with no genuinely relevant scientific qualifications, or experts who told us that the Covid vaccinations would prevent people catching Covid?

      Perhaps this case could be used as a precedent to prosecute those bogus people too.

    4. A long long time ago it was discovered that a GP in Conisbrough, S.Yorks didn’t have the necessary RCGP qualification because he had trained to be a Vet. He ended up in Lincoln prison. I suspect he was only rumbled because when he examined patients they probably had to stand on all fours….

    5. Same thing happens with politicians.
      They have no recognised qualifications. They are all chancers.
      And make even more money.
      Notice……not earn.

    7. In my industry (corrosion engineering) we had a old adage: As trustworthy as an Indian* engineering diploma.

      *Or Arab.

    2. Rain here in Dorset, Tom .

      It has been a fine day, walked the younger dog on heathland .. and he did what he usually does , made a dash for fox poo and rolled in it .

      Moh came back from his golf match after 3 pm , so I rang him up to ask him to get the dog towels ready and shampoo ( anti Fox poo shampoo)

      The car stank and so did the dog , his ears and neck and collar were caked …

      All I wanted was a cup of tea , and all Moh wanted was a quick snooze and something to eat to restore his glucose levels.

      Deed now done .. an odour lingers .

    3. Been a nice day here and it’s still quite light but has gone cloudy now. Not too cold either.
      Going to assemble a hot pot soon.

        1. Did you notice the other day a sly report in the paper that freezers use up the most domestic energy? They are softening us up to having to do without them. We will be shopping daily and cooking daily in our 15 minute cities and this will save the world apparently. I am going back to being my poor grandmother.

          1. But in those days , house had large northfacing pantries , where all food stayed nice and chilled .

            Many large homes even had undergtound ice houses.

          2. Not my grandma i’m afraid in her tiny two-up two down terrace.

            Still, white privilege and all that.

    2. Well done! Bogey 5 for me.

      Wordle 606 5/6

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

      1. Dismal Double Bogey for me.

        Wordle 606 6/6
        ⬜⬜⬜🟨🟨
        🟨🟨⬜⬜⬜
        🟩⬜🟨🟨⬜
        🟩🟩🟩⬜⬜
        🟩🟩🟩⬜⬜
        🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    4. A bogie for me today.
      Wordle 606 5/6

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

  87. Ordnance Survey maps are a thing of beauty – it would be nice if they could stay that way
    With the national mapping agency revamping the symbols on walking maps, put your rambling knowledge to the test with our interactive quiz

    An OS Explorer map is a thing of beauty for three main reasons. One, it takes us away from the ephemeral and the stressful and takes us into – indeed, leads us by the hand through – a world of natural contours and ancient ruins, craggy tors and roadside inns.

    Two, it binds us with our fellow walkers. The flash of orange (or, for antiquarian walkers, yellow or blue) peeking from a cagoule pocket or a waterproof neck-pouch is an ID card that confirms someone is a member of the tribe of responsible, careful, curious ramblers.

    Three, notwithstanding waterproofing and occasional rebrands, the actual maps always look the same – so you know where you are, even when you don’t.

    It would be nice, perhaps, if things could always stay that way. But the Ordnance Survey, the UK’s national mapping agency and one of the world’s oldest map-makers, is planning an overhaul of the symbols employed by its maps – some of which have been in use for more than 200 years. Later this year, the organisation will consult members of the public to help it devise new symbols to bring the maps into the modern world.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/walking-holidays/britains-maps-getting-overhaul-do-know-campsites-castles/

    3. OS is an amazing organisation. Every map is a mass of data. Terabytes of it. Hundreds and hundreds of data layers of all sorts of different things down to the square metre.

      The chaps working there are some of the brightest, most dedicated and professional I’ve ever worked with.

      1. My brother-in-law runs a company in Athens, which has the contract for digitising the Greek Ordnance Survey. In recent years it’s sustained their business!

      2. But, is Belle talking about the hard copy maps you put in your pocket, or online shite that pinpoints your position to a couple of yards and tells you what’s on the menu at the pub 2 miles away?

    5. I find the old 25,000 maps in the 10x10km or 10x20km format much more attractive and better to handle than the new OS Hang Gliders.

      I have a Derby 10x10km from the ’50s framed and also 5,000 map showing this house.

  89. I’ve just watched the News headlines.

    £3 million spent on gene therapy for a child.
    I am torn by three thoughts:
    How many people could that money have saved.
    You cannot put a price on a child’s life (even though we do all the time)
    That child is a guinea pig.

      1. It makes me stop and think about what the benefits might be, but I have to admit my first thought was how the money could be used for more lives, but then again, looking longer term it might save or improve the lives of millions.

      1. Who knows?
        If it works, and the cost drops like organ replacement surgery, it could be a game changer

    3. Our local cats & dogs home charity raises around £2.1million a year and takes in around 350 cats and a similar number of dogs. My calculator tells me that that is around £3000 per animal (although a significant proportion is spent on salaries and vets’ bills…….. down in the deep recesses there’s a phrase about the velocity of circulation of money V=PQ/M…..)

  90. So the leader of a region with roughly half the voting population of London has stepped down.
    Not sure why that is news.

    1. The MARVAC team identified 28 experimental vaccine candidates that could be effective against the virus – most of which were developed to combat Ebola. Five were highlighted in particular as vaccines to be explored.
      The shots were developed by non-profits such as the Sabin Vaccine Institute, the International Aids Vaccine Initiative, and Public Health Vaccines – along with pharma giants like Emergent Biosolutions and Janssen.
      Trialing these vaccines may be impossible, though.
      Because viruses such as Marburg rarely result in high case figures, it may take multiple outbreaks for enough cases to properly analyze the virus’s effectiveness.
      The panel of experts said a trial should include at least 150 cases. For context, before this outbreak, there had been 30 cases recorded globally from 2007 to 2022.
      This makes it unlikely a vaccine will be made available to combat this outbreak – and it could be years until a shot is determined to be effective against it.

      And the real joke here is how it was possible to produce a Covid vaccine in months.
      Of course the bastards will claim it was because of the number of Covid cases.

      1. You can be sure that Big Pharma will come out with another untested vaccine to fight this, and every man, woman and child on the planet MUST be vaccinated to boost their profits even more.

    2. Oh that is a change.

      Our health panics are normally lock step with UK scares but our discredited health experts are still banging on about bird flu and the dangers of new covid variants.

    3. Masquerades as a cold. Yeah, right. Tried that one before. As for bleeding from multiple orifices – is that like talking from multiple orifices?

    5. I woke up with a cold this morning, it must have been all those balloons at the children’s parties last weekend.
      Or just all the breathing.

  92. That’s me gone for a tedious day. Constant pain. Really boring – stops one doing anything. It’ll pass, I know but while it is there….grrr.

    Anyway, have a nice evening plotting the overthrow of the SNP.

    A demain – for a bit. Market – then a trip to take the MR to the dentist.

    1. KBO!

      To market to market to buy a fat fig*
      Home again home again jiggety jig

      * (Islam friendly version)

  96. Interesting BTL Comment about the recent protests in France about the prospective rise in State Retirement age from 62-64.

    The Link at the bottom is also interesting:

    Hermy
    6 hours ago
    remove
    link
    Just returned, a few days ago, from several months in Paris …

    The protests are ostensibly about retirement. That’s their surface-only excuse. The deeper reason has to do with the loss of both identity and culture.

    More than anything, the French are frustrated at the destruction of their culture by immigration, an out-of-touch bureaucracy and a generic feeling that the country isn’t what it used to be. They’re pining for the past, for a time when they sat in cafes, sipped strong coffee and said few words while people watching. They remember — not necessarily accurately — a time when the frnech language was the lingua franca, not just another small European language few speak. They’re quietly upset about the loss of their colonial power in Africa. They wish they had the long lunches of the past. No one goes to Catholic church anymore … or has kids … or knows what it means to be “French.”

    In short, they’re protesting the changes in their way of life caused from above (the horrible EU) and below (the horrible immigrants).

    I agree with people down-thread who noted that the french vote in politicians and then hate them. The political situation is stacked against them, though. They’re powerless. Macron has a five-year term which he started a few months ago. The French have fallen for the environmental religion, too, which is destroying their country (though not as much as in Germany, Netherlands, etc.) Without Catholicism, the French are vulnerable to secular religions like environmentalism as well as potent “real” religions such as Islam.

    France feels poor. I lived in the wealthiest district of Paris and still felt that strange heaviness of a glorious past that’s done and over … their past will never be a part of their future. Parisian museums feel like period-pieces. They point to the past, not the present or the future. The modern art sold in galleries is really bad, to be honest: that of the past is infinitely better than that of the present. French citizens walk among gorgeous, stone buildings built in the 19th century with lovely carved “mascarons” above each door … as the present stuff is showboaty and shallow, like IM Pei’s glass pyramid or entirely mirrored buildings.

    The present is insipid compared to the past. I’m sure they feel this. That’s why they’re protesting.

    I’m writing too much. Sorry. Oh, I found a cool website about mascarons which is done by district. If you don’t know Paris, I’d look at the ones in the 1st and 3rd to start — http://mascaronsdeparis.fr/

  98. Just now on GB News.

    Nigel Farage (paraphrased):

    “I’ve been around for a long time and met a lot of people (politicians, presidents and Popes etc) in many countries.

    I can safely say that I have never met anyone as deeply unpleasant as Nicola Sturgeon.”

    2. Multiple killers come close. But with DNA evidence they are more likely to be locked up, at least for a while.

    3. As I have said before- my loved and late Scots Uncle was a gent. The only time I heard him say anything nasty about anyone was about Wee Krankie.

        1. I wonder what events that might have changed the world happened around that time?
          Ice melt creating the North Sea perhaps.

    2. He just told me, “This image was taken through a Takahashi 5 inch refractor and Starlight ccd camera. 4 minutes of exposure through LRGB filters.
      Cheers.”

  100. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5cb296bd83efefc59dabdce98705dd000b6c733108100ebf7ed5120fb6143a95.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fb12a6c73087d202b307989aa76a1a341aa5fe3f0cac1f5a2aef7a751e61c8c4.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7e327eb80b16454c210d0b5afda8d5be9714b4da5301b4d82e5bb4ce793e8e25.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f5792b0988cf880be29a950b5d255df9ab79a16c629ec9e282aa9083340f53f1.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/311bfdba649e6b2df594d0fc43a663e11370eebd8aaa07674710b4ec3d6cea99.jpg Good evening, is it the chicken or the egg that the global homos are after?

    1. That’s sad.
      As a lad, I had a huge poster of her bulging out of her “One Million Years BC” fur bikini, mounted on the wall at the end of my bed.
      She was cute back then, when she was in her 30s.
      RIP Raquel.

          3. And therein lies the fun for everyone else, so long as they aren’t unpleasant.
            Pedantry over what was an obvious typo is one of my bêtes noir.

          6. Peddy used to come down wolf-like on my typos in the manner the Assyrian with cohorts gleaming in scarlet and gold.

          9. Never proof read your own work because you will read when you think you have written, not what you actually wrote.

      2. I remember her in the first Musketeers movie when she was “married ” to Spike Milligan’s character- Constance I think her name was. She showed she also had a knack for comedy and physical comedy too.
        Good film that was.

          3. Well, I agree but I prefer a real man. Bought my husband a belated Valentine today after his lovely gifts to me.

      1. Are you suggesting you would have offered her your prick?
        Disgusting.
        Oberstleutnant’s in front of you in the queue.

    3. A much under-rated actress in my view: she was drop dead gorgeous to lechers like m,e but Myra Breckinridge for example was years ahead of its time.

    2. Back in the 60’s, there used to be ‘adverts’ on Daily Orders in RN shore establishments, for volunteers to go to Porton Down, to help in the testing of Flu Vaccines etc

      Flu spelt LSD, Nerve Gas, etc

      1. One of the volunteers in the 50s died and the real cause of his death (which was chemical) was kept secret for about 50 years.
        Similar to happenings today.

      2. I am still working my way through The Real Anthony Fauci by Robert F Kennedy Jr, and what he has to say about pharma test shennanigans from the US would make your hair stand on end!
        Standards are nowhere in the rush for taxpayer dollars (research funding, Medicare etc).

  104. As a by-the-way

    Ms Raquel Welch was 1,002,023 years old, when she died

    She should have been interviewed about climate change

  105. ‘Night All

    Edge of Darkness on BBC4 at ten fab drama

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/27237c521c8898113e4799506405b86f715c9184b2b2f604a21ea9259f363545.jpg

    https://twitter.com/FreedomInc5/status/1625181296363204609?s=20&t=pfW50M1ARx2fs7JfwnXrwg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9c208a49d4eb7814d80935b18eb29fdf8b230d40986f9fee1c2da1e98943503b.jpg

    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/19e3bca14ccc0d89c8f1242baf29ff616658e59df55e5de879832fba1095ebb5.jpg

    3. Edge of Darkness is certainly my favourite television drama. The cast, the script and the acting are impeccable. I shall record it and watch it more than once. Joe Don Baker as Darius Jedburgh was a tour de force.

    5. I enjoyed all the above, Rik, especially the Peekaboo one, and BoB’s comments about what the cat was thinking.

  106. That’s me for today.
    Took a visit to the flat that Second Son will be renting from next month – our baby is moving out! :-((
    It’s a nice place, in town centre close to shops. Great apartment, great location, reasonable rent – beats the shiteholes SWMBO and I lived in when we were the same age – the last was a flat on the Isle of Dogs that was due for demolition, was a bit rough. I’m glad for him, everybody needs to move out & sort themselves out.
    Just, we’ll miss him being at home, even if his new flat is only 10 minutes drive away. The cats will miss him, too.

      1. We have one who has been back for years

        He has his motor bike and his hobbies .. and staff!!!!!!!!!!!

        He will be 54 in a couple of days , Moh and I have run around after him since birth ..

        We are powerless.

  108. I have heard, on the underweb grapevine, that the Mayor of London is going to replace Lady Nichola

    He will spend half his time in each place and being green, cycle between the two

    1. What a great idea. After his initial visit he could be persuade to stay. And maybe never be heard of again.
      I’m sure there are dungeons at Edinburgh Castle.

  109. Goodnight and God bless, Gentlenottlers. No replies to my pleas for a gentle lady who seeks companionship.

    2. You could try putting an advert in The Lady magazine, Tom – I think it’s still going strong. Is there a U3A (University of the Third Age) in your area? You do sound rather as though you are living in the back of beyond.

      2. I have found a lot of good companionship, though no romance as yet, at my local U3A, Tom. Do give it a go.

      3. Thank you, Mum, I’ve done ‘online’ dating and been scammed so that’s out. I’ll see if I can find a copy of ‘The Lady’ in these backwoods.

        1. There may be an online version, Tom. I’ll see what else I can think of. I’ll ask my daughter in law when I see her next – she is a social worker and comes up with all sorts of organisations to assist people. This may take a few days, she’s in Harrogate visiting her parents with the grandchildren this week.

    4. There seem to be lots of lonely young Russian girls, according to my inbox, Tom. KBO, mate!

  110. The bathtub test

    During a visit to the mental asylum, a visitor asked the Director what the criterion was which defined whether or not a patient should be institutionalized.
    “Well,” said the Director, “we fill up a bathtub, then we offer a teaspoon, a teacup and a bucket to the patient and ask him or her to empty the bathtub.”
    “Oh, I understand,” said the visitor. “A normal person would use the bucket because it’s bigger than the spoon or the teacup.
    “No.” said the Director, “A normal person would pull the plug. Do you want a bed near the window?

  111. Still reading The Lost World’, and enjoyed this self description;
    “I had not gone a hundred yards before I deeply repented my rashness. I may have said somewhere in this chronicle that I am too imaginative to be a really courageous man, but that I have an overpowering fear of seeming afraid. This was the power which now carried me onwards. I simply could not slink back with nothing done. Even if my comrades should not have missed me, and should never know of my weakness, there would still remain some intolerable self-shame in my own soul. And yet I shuddered at the position in which I found myself, and would have given all I possessed at that moment to have been honorably free of the whole business.“

  113. Evening, all. Apologies for being AWOL again yesterday. Another late night, I’m afraid. ULEZ advocates ignore the realities of life everywhere, never mind on the outskirts of the Great Wen.

    1. Seat belts didn’t become compulsory in the UK until the mid- to late-1970s, Maggie, and few in those days had “expandable” belts, so that they were very constricting if (for example) you tried to turn to look over your shoulder for any traffic in your blind spots.

  115. We had a nice evening. The lamb hot pot was yummy and there’s enough for tomorrow. I will use the bone with attached bits of meat to make stock and then soup.
    Our wonderful cab company were as great as ever today.
    I am glad that Sturgeon has resigned, she was not good for Scotland, and as a half Scot, I feel I can say that. And before anyone asks, yes, my legs are tartan;-)
    Things are improving here and that’s good. Long may it continue.
    Sleep well Y’all and be as good as you can…

  116. Tweet
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    LittleBoats 🇬🇧NI🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿En
    @LittleBoats2020
    With 13 days to go the record for illegals crossing the Channel in Jan & Feb (1,482) has been smashed! 2,517

    last Aug 1,295 men without IDs crossed in 1 day, 2k will be the norm

    We’re headed for “hell” in 2023 as 80-100k Muslim men are dumped on us👇

  119. It is not a little disturbing to find that Biden instructed the destruction of Nordstream 2 on his own admission, it seems, and on the evidence of Victoria Nuland, an Obama hack now a retread in the Biden administration.

    Since WWII the Germans had, I thought, sought an accommodation with Russia, and forged an effective and workable or constructive relationship with modern Russia after the incorporation of East Germany following the demise of the USSR.

    As I understand matters NATO was a bulwark to separate the western powers from Russia with the aim of protecting Europe and preventing Russian expansion. It is evident that Germany had become more aligned with Russia than with the US. With the destruction of Nordstream 2, I would expect Germany to question their alliance with the US.

    Biden and his administration seem to be utterly incompetent, not only in their domestic policy but in their foreign policy objectives which remain undefined and presently confused..

    Those who believe the removal of Putin is a cure to the conflict in Ukraine are stupid. Putin is the most calm and considered Russian leader and supported by his own public who believe him to be soft on Ukraine. Any replacement would be more harsh and deliberate and likely take the whole of Ukraine with no prospect of ending the war by negotiation.

    2. It was ever thus, Corim: Democrats increae stress, tension and wars, Republicans reduce them. At all levels – look both nationally and locally – the worst cities for murder and crime are Democrat, for example.
      Why the Dems like to do that, I don’t know.

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