Wednesday 15 June: Hand-wringing bishops ignore the economic motives behind migration

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

627 thoughts on “Wednesday 15 June: Hand-wringing bishops ignore the economic motives behind migration”

  1. The Government has responded to the petition you signed – “End the ban on fracking”.
    Government responded:
    The Government does not agree we should lift the pause on hydraulic fracturing at this time given the lack of new, compelling evidence that shale gas extraction can be done safely.

    I’m not sure but has ‘The Government’ responded favourably to ANY petition during the time we’ve had this facility.

    To my mind they regard petitions like an annoying fly to be swatted away or killed stone dead.

    Perhaps it’s time to raise the petition of all petitions and spell it out to ‘The Government’ that failure to act will result in a major uprising, civil disobedience, leading, possibly, to insurrection.

    1. Petitions to the Government are rather like letters to the BBC ‘Points of View’ programme where a BBC spokesperson is interviewed and totally ignores any complaint which has been made.

      1. I want to get ‘The Government’ to recognise that, for every (in)action of theirs, there will be an equal and opposite backlash from the great unwashed.

    2. Is the problem becoming obvious now? The petitions are pointless. Government shouldn’t have the option of telling us what it will do, we tell it what it will do. It raises hue and cry, complains and wastes time – we sack those holding up our demands and eventually government learns it’s place – under our boot.

      1. Petitions were introduced by Tony Blair to get critics off his back and make “the sheeple” think that we now had a chance to have our voices heard. As I have often remarked on this site, if the number of petitioners ever reaches the minimum number a small number of MPs debate the matter in a room away from Parliament, and the published minutes of that “debate” simply conclude “The matter was debated”.

    3. Sadly, Tom, the British people seldom demonstrate or rise up until provoked to the very extremes, with the exception being young hotheads, e.g. students. What forces Brits to action is when events hit them personally, which is what will happen later this year when winter bites. At that point power cuts and unaffordable energy bills might persuade some of them to riot. And then some low-lifes will think “Hey, this is great, we can now burn buildings and loot shops”. I think that this “Summer of our Contentment”, as Shakespeare might have called it, will be looked upon as halcyon period before the winter of total anarchy. Stock up your fridges and larders, buy your winter woolies and petrol-fuelled electricity generators, and maybe put some iron grills over your house’s windows, ready for the Winter Revolution. We live in interesting times.

        1. Thank you, Tom. Batten down your hatches after preparing for The Winter Revolution.

      1. We’d like to know why fracking for oil in Britain is totally acceptable, and been done successfully for many years, whilst fracking

        for gas (which powers our power stations) is totally forbidden.

    1. That was ‘over there’, Anne, meantime a hazy blue sky and bright sunshine here.

      This grumpy old bear managed another six hours hibernation, last night.

      First cup of tea – aaahh!

    3. It strikes me, Annie, that Mummy Bear had more sense than the humans who left their car unlocked.

    4. It strikes me, Annie, that Mummy Bear had more sense than the humans who left their car unlocked.

    1. ‘Morning, Peeps. Another scorchio forecast for today, tomorrow…

      Today’s leading letter:

      SIR – The Church of England deems the Rwanda deportation scheme an “immoral policy that shames Britain”.

      When are these hand-wringing bishops going to get it? The migrants landing in boats on our overcrowded shores have already found safe haven in the EU before electing to try their luck in a dinghy to Britain.

      If asylum, rather than economic gain, is the purpose of their journey, why not claim it in France, Greece, Italy or Spain: countries which many migrants have passed through on their way?

      Ben Giesbrecht
      Llanelli, Carmarthenshire

      Well said, Mr G! Why not, indeed? Because it doesn’t fit the pious, virtue-signalling supporters of ‘let them all in, poor lambs’ ?

  4. First UK deportation flight to Rwanda cancelled after European court intervention – as it happened. 15 June 2022.

    No one will be deported to Rwanda from the UK tonight after the European Court of Human Rights issued last minute injunctions to stop the move, government sources have confirmed to the PA news agency.

    The ECHR issued a series of last minute injunctions as the plane was about to take off from Wiltshire.

    A total of seven individuals were believed to have been due to board the flight before the successful interventions were made.

    Surprise! Surprise!

    There is of course a serious side to this! It demonstrates that the UK Government is no longer in charge!

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2022/jun/14/rwanda-flights-asylum-seekers-priti-patel-liz-truss-conservatives-uk-politics-latest

      1. No, it won’t. As it should have done so on day 1. Same for the race relations act, the hideous equalities act.

    2. As I’ve said many times before – time to leave the ECHR (Graudian, get it right, it’s the European CONVENTION of Human Rights and it ain’t a court).

      Also repeal the Human Rights Act and remove all the wind out of the Shysters sails, backed up by denying legal aid in illegal or asylum cases for non-residents.

    3. Huge sighs of relief from within No 10 and the Home Office. Someone else is now to blame for keeping this unwanted, by many of the electorate that is, expensive and useless dross here. Another Johnson failure, he really is a useless fraud.

    4. It would be easier to stop them coming here than getting rid of them, but everyone bar Priti awful knows that.

    1. ‘Morning, Korky, “Some of the most productive agricultural land on the planet is in East Anglia; there are plans to build solar parks there too.” We are currently fighting no less than 3 proposals for so-called ‘Solar Farms’ which would totally surround our little village in Mid-Suffolk but there is a chink of light, inasmuch that ENSO has more than halvedt its initial proposal.

      On top of that we are also fighting the National Grid (NG) who want the power line from their Norfolk Wind-farm to be carried by ghastly pylons through that same farmland. If they can lay a sub-sea cable from Morroco to UK, they can lay one from the wind-farm to Tilbury.

      1. Bet you £5 the planners get their way. Nice little back hander there, a nice bung to a councillor here, a promise of a few after dinner jobs to the council management team and bingo – the public get screwed over.

        1. Actually, Wibbles, there is on Babergh and Mid-Suffolk Planning, a very helpful woman (I’m sure she comes complete with cervix) who has helped us steer away from pitfalls and identified the most likely objections to win Committee aproval. I’m pretty sure she’s immune to ‘bungs’ and might even whistle-blow if she knew of it.

  6. SIR – In their comments on the Government’s proposals for the Northern Ireland Protocol, the Taoiseach, Sinn Féin and other Brit-hating politicians have revealed their true colours.

    Our Government values our sovereignty and wants to preserve peace. The EU sees Northern Ireland as its colony, and wishes the UK ill.

    Keith Punshon
    Thirsk, North Yorkshire

    Quite so, Keith Punshon. And the gut-wrenching hypocrisy about breaking (allegedly) international law from Sinn Fein/IRA is a new low from these sanctimonious creeps.

    1. Respectfully, the EU sees the entire UK as it’s property. NI is just being used as a weapon for an ‘in’.

  7. SIR – The speed at which the EU has moved to launch lawsuits against Britain following publication of the plans to override the Northern Ireland Protocol is in stark contrast to its dithering over sanctions against Russia and the supply of arms to Ukraine.

    It seems that punishing us for Brexit is more important to Brussels than stopping Vladimir Putin from destroying a European democracy.

    Malcolm Symonds
    Ashtead, Surrey

    T’was ever thus, Mr S!

    1. If the EU continues to talk about Ukrain eventually even the thickest reporter will ask ‘this war started after the EU tried to bring the Ukraine into the EU. They’ve ignored it so far.

  8. I woke up far too early to find someone had half inched my bin.

    Looking out fo the bathroom window I find it’s been pivoted in front of the door. Behind it is a box – the books I’ve ordered.

    I utterly lost my already short temper and couldn’t reconcile the idiocy of deliberately moving a huge bin out of place to ‘hide’ a box. It’s akin to putting a giant sign up saying ‘stuff here!’

    Gah! People are dumb!

  9. Rwanda sounds safe , democratic and secure .. just seen some media clips from Kigali .

    Christianity is the largest religion in the country; the principal language is Kinyarwanda, spoken by most Rwandans, with English and French serving as additional official languages..

    A good place to retire to?

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

  10. Today I’ve a box to send back, a pair of trainers – right, folks: I have size 12 feet. Well, my usual clodhoppers are size 13. But the last pair of trainers were a 13 and too big so I bought 12’s. I bought another pair of 12’s because I pronate but that’s a different issue. These ones feel like 11’s.

    Is it so difficult for a *standard shoe size* to fit that size foot? Later on I need to go shopping for laminate flooring and I want stuff that hooks together. Now, I could design such a mechanism, so what’s the betting that whatever’s out there is rubbish? Laminate because the Warqueen wants to move and when the vinyl tile folk arrived they hadn’t done due diligence and fouled up, so they lost a customer.

    We’ve a room where the floor simply isn’t level. It’s higher at the edges – the beading exposes that by about 3-5mm. It’s been a bloody horror story to get it fixed and I’m sick of it, so will settle for cheap laminate not moving about leaving huge gaps (which is what we currently have).

    If anyone is going to Ascot look out for a tall woman in pale pink silk. You’ll now it’s the Warqueen as her stare could hammer nails home. I think her not being here has made my already poor temper worse. Anyway. Time to walk Junior to breakfast club.

    1. Good morning Wibbling

      Why aren’t you with her, surely Ascot is a place to go with husband , friends etc .

      You could be putting on your top hat as the song goes ..

    2. Good morning, wibbling. Whilst commiserating with you over your current woes, I must congratulate you over your superb phrase: “the Warqueen’s stare could hammer nails home”. A phrase worthy of the great P G Wodehouse!

    1. We’re dooooooooomed.
      Those of us that aren’t fried to a crisp, will be under 30 foot of water.
      Do the planet a favour; nip out with a large cork and creep round the rear end of a nearby cow.

  13. BTL in the Tellygraff:

    From a Norwegian facebook page –

    Those who are excited about electric cars and a green revolution should take a closer look at the batteries.

    A typical electric car battery weighs a thousand pounds, roughly the size of a suitcase. It contains 25 pounds of lithium, sixty pounds of nickel, 44 pounds of manganese, 30 pounds of cobalt, 200 pounds of copper and 400 pounds of aluminum, steel and plastic. There are over 6,000 individual lithium ion cells inside. To make each BEV battery, you’ll need to process 25,000 pounds of salt for lithium, 30,000 pounds of ore for cobalt, 5,000 pounds of resin for nickel, and 25,000 pounds of ore from copper. In total, you have to dig out 500,000 pounds of dirt for a battery.

    Wind turbines are non-plusultra in terms of cost and environmental destruction. Each windmill weighs 1,688 tonnes (the equivalent of the weight of 23 houses) and contains 1300 tonnes of concrete, 295 tonnes of steel, 48 tonnes of iron, 24 tonnes of fiberglass and the hard-to-win rare soils Neodym, Praseodym, and Dysprosium. Each of the three blades weighs 81,000 pounds and has a lifespan of 15 to 20 years, after which they must be replaced. We cannot recycle used rotor blades.

    To produce sufficient clean silicon, it must be treated with hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid, fluoride, trichlorotane and acetone. In addition, gallium, arsenide, copper-indium-gallium diselenide and cadmium telluride are needed, which are also highly toxic. Silicone dust poses a danger to the workers and the tiles cannot be recycled.

    “Going Green” may sound like a utopian ideal, but if you look at the hidden and embedded costs in a realistic and impartial way, you’ll find that “Going Green” does more damage to earth’s environment than it seems.

    As Kermit said, “It’s not easy being green,”

    1. It’s never going to be successful.
      There are many millions of car owners all around the world that will never have enough money or electricity to buy or keep these cars on the road.
      Meanwhile certain people as is the norm are making billions out of this con.

      1. I’ve noticed that one of our neighbours has gone from two electric cars down to one.
        And that appears to be permanently plugged into the charging socket.

      2. Yes Eddy. That’s the ploy.

        Keep the peasants off the roads so that The Elite can drive on uncluttered roads.

        1. I think even the ‘Elite’ will cavil at the holes those things make in their pockets -never mind the charging down-time.

          1. Well then time for the Government to give subsidies to people wealthy enough to buy electric cars.

            …..Or has that already been done?

  14. SIR – Perhaps Nicola Sturgeon is wise to be calling for another Scottish independence referendum now. She must know that, if she delays, her dreadful record will preclude any chance of victory.

    Paul Berry
    Barnstaple, Devon

    SIR – She can’t even launch a ferry. The Union is safe.

    Andrew Siddons
    Walsall, Staffordshire

    Sometimes I wonder why I wanted the Union to remain intact. I suspect I’m not alone in thinking that it’s time for Scotland to sink or swim – and it will probably the former. I have no idea why the Fishwife thinks that prosperity will come from divorcing the English taxpayer, but there we are…

    1. She thinks Scotland will get more subsidies from the EU than from the rest of the UK (i.e. England). Her mentality is that of most Scottish football fans – ABE (Anyone But England).

      1. ‘Morning, A. My first thought was that the EU would not be able to admit Scotland to their little club because its financial position is way outside the rules, so a complete collapse would be on the cards in the interim. And then I remembered that Greece was allowed to join, simply by turning a blind eye to the rules. That went well, didn’t it? Greece still owes the EU billions in bail-outs, none of which is ever likely to be paid. So yes, Scotland’s early entry to the EU is not so unlikely, the main motivation being that the EU can stick two fingers up to the country that dared to leave.

        1. As I have been told before
          An Independent = Greece ………… BUT without the sunshine

          Running a country? The SNP Super Council cannot run NHS, Education, Railways, Ferries, Roads, Police, NHS24, Courts/Prisons …………. the anti-Midas touch is alive & doing well in the SNP

        2. I can give you a cast iron guarantee that if Scotland did join, the EU would let them into Schengen and ship every undesirable there so that they can head south to England.

          1. But, but, We would have to build a wall akin to the Berlin Wall, with a killing ground and watch towers, mines and fast MTBs in both the East and West waterways and anti-aircraft capability for the potential hang-gliders.

            If only to keep the freeloading SNP and its rabid supporters out. The gimmegrunts would provide target practice for those in the watch-towers – between land-mine explosions.

      2. Olga Krankie’s obviously long established tribalism is her most outstanding achievement.

      3. The problem is that she probably would…Brussels would be delighted to see any cracks in our ‘independence’.

        1. If only Boris had delivered independence to us it could have been so different.

  15. Sorry to mention the Bliar creature so early in the morning…

    SIR – Things have come to a sorry pass when Tony Blair, who took Britain into the disastrous war in Iraq, is invested with the Most Noble Order of the Garter – the highest order of chivalry.

    This is in the personal gift of the sovereign, and is usually awarded to those who have contributed in a particular way to public life or served the sovereign personally. It has now been devalued.

    Robert Readman
    Bournemouth, Dorset

    Yes, devalued like everything else in our honours system.

    1. That man Blair is the very Devil ..

      He BELIEVES he has it all now .

      That man should not be forgiven .. he has wrought eternal Muslim hell on earth .

      What has he really done for Britain ..

      Matthew 19:24

    2. Many people would still like to know what he was actually doing as Middle East Envoy !!!?
      And how he and his whole family have become so incredibly wealthy.

        1. Nearly as rich as the Gates Foundation. All these globalists are corrupt as hell.

  17. This sums it up for the Government’s boiler upgrade scheme:

    https://www.express.co.uk/news/science/1625363/energy-crisis-hell-heat-pump-boiler-upgrade-scheme-afford-uk-bills

    Our holiday lodge has average domestic gas heating – a Morco 24kW output condensing gas boiler about five years old
    and is typical of the type many people live in full time. However being so efficient it can’t heat tap water at a constant flow rateand at desired temperature and when the water pressure is low the boiler will not even be triggered to fire up.

    If we lived there full time there would be no way we could afford or even be allowed to make use of the Government’s boiler upgrade scheme by the site owner.

    Instead, I am inslalling one of these:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/098261222c299b0a00631582524ebdc371285089f0cf525986e69e871e71ba28.jpg

    1. Strange as it may seem while we were staying in our apartment in Salcombe, our hot water died a death. And knowing a bit about the settings of combi boilers I could have fixed it in less than 5 minutes. But protocol no longer allows this.I might have been fined or arrested !
      We had to ring the company HQ near the Midlands who couldn’t be bothered to reply. Eventually we managed to get hold of the phone number of the local representative who sent a gas fitter/plumber next day to recharge the pressure on the boiler. 5 minutes, two small levers.

      1. Yes Ready Eddy,

        I guess this would have been the use of the filling loop and should be within the competence of a home owner to recharge the boiler circuit to about 1 bar.

        However, there are certain health and safety issues about cinnecting the drinking water supply to the heating circuit that maybe only qualified plumbers know about – it’s all bit of a grey area.

        1. Call me lucky but I’ve known the plumber/heating engineer Graham for more than 20 years. He and his now retired business colleague use to carry out all the plumbing work on my many jobs.
          But as we have in our hard water area. A watersoftener that all our water goes through except our drinking and garden water.

        2. I have just an ordinary oil fired boiler and I recharge it without any problem – takes less than a minute

  19. This BTL comment has nothing to do with today’s batch of letters, but it does go to show, in shocking detail, that ‘going green’ is anything but…green:

    Edwin Pugh
    30 MIN AGO
    From a Norwegian facebook page –
    Those who are excited about electric cars and a green revolution should take a closer look at the batteries.
    A typical electric car battery weighs a thousand pounds, roughly the size of a suitcase. It contains 25 pounds of lithium, sixty pounds of nickel, 44 pounds of manganese, 30 pounds of cobalt, 200 pounds of copper and 400 pounds of aluminum, steel and plastic. There are over 6,000 individual lithium ion cells inside. To make each BEV battery, you’ll need to process 25,000 pounds of salt for lithium, 30,000 pounds of ore for cobalt, 5,000 pounds of resin for nickel, and 25,000 pounds of ore from copper. In total, you have to dig out 500,000 pounds of dirt for a battery.
    Wind turbines are non-plusultra in terms of cost and environmental destruction. Each windmill weighs 1,688 tonnes (the equivalent of the weight of 23 houses) and contains 1300 tonnes of concrete, 295 tonnes of steel, 48 tonnes of iron, 24 tonnes of fiberglass and the hard-to-win rare soils Neodym, Praseodym, and Dysprosium. Each of the three blades weighs 81,000 pounds and has a lifespan of 15 to 20 years, after which they must be replaced. We cannot recycle used rotor blades.
    To produce sufficient clean silicon, it must be treated with hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid, fluoride, trichlorotane and acetone. In addition, gallium, arsenide, copper-indium-gallium diselenide and cadmium telluride are needed, which are also highly toxic. Silicone dust poses a danger to the workers and the tiles cannot be recycled.
    “Going Green” may sound like a utopian ideal, but if you look at the hidden and embedded costs in a realistic and impartial way, you’ll find that “Going Green” does more damage to earth’s environment than it seems.
    As Kermit said, “It’s not easy being green,”

    1. I learn something new every day, today was the term “non plus ultra” from this article, my Mac word explain brought up a Columbian Bus bus company

      Wiki :- Literally, “nothing further beyond”, nōn (“not”) + plūs (“more”) + ultrā (“beyond”). An ancient post-classical Mediterranean aphorism, fabulously alleged to have been inscribed somewhere upon the Pillars of Hercules as a warning to ships to sail no further. Adopted during the Renaissance as a metaphor for the stifling influence of ancient philosophy on the progress of thought.

      Already this post from https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2022/06/14/the-realities-of-going-green/ is being fact checked and denied or judged incorrect, I await the outcome but am sooooooooo. incline to take it read

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/34f3c78c23005a603c1e3b3edde7bf25992b2adc1c50f818824b74ba8f463963.png

    1. 353231_ up ticks,

      Morning TB,

      Blair getting a knighthood is, the ultimate smack in the face to every family that’s had to bury their loved ones

      granted

      AND ALL peoples of decency.

    2. Everyday some sort of adversity wins through in the UK. It’s clear ‘the hierarchy’ don’t have an ounce of commonsense between any of them. More than 1.5 million people voted against this happening. And I would imagine half a dozen self appointed, self important, members of an obscure committee gave the go-ahead.

    3. I’m sure that the war-mongering spiv would still be waiting if the Duke of Edinburgh was still around.

        1. That’s the real deal. Sadly gone 20 years ago, but she made a huge impact in her time as my owner.

  21. 353231+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Wednesday 15 June: Hand-wringing bishops ignore the economic motives behind migration

    Face facts there was only one party that called for CONTROLLED IMMIGRATION and that was the genuine UKIP NOT todays uKiP (ino) party.

    The real problem lies in the fact that the party is always put first & foremost before Country,NO matter how bad the consequences resulting from the voting pattern last time out & the one before that,that & that.

    The electorate although wrong got away with that voting pattern up until
    mayor introduced shit to fan, it was ALL downhill then with electorate majority support, fools following party’s as in the lab/lib/con close shop
    ( construct via the polling booth tighter than a ducks arse) condoning with every polling booth kiss X mass uncontrolled immigration / paedophilia / assorted felons/ killers / terrorists etc,etc,etc.

    Animal farm, the bishops are being made scapegoats as with the sheep
    or as paddy would say cat melodeon, tis the electorate at fault addicted to THE PARTY FIRST & FOREMOST REGARDLESS OF DECADES OF REPEATED ODIOUS , CONSEQUENCES

    This close shop, no build on fringe parties as opposition is a proven Nation / people killer.

    1. Good morning, ogga

      We all feel betrayed when those we put our faith in let us down. For example I have had to revise downwards my views on Steve Baker and Jacob Rees Mogg both of whom I used to think were better than they turned out to be.

      I know you loathe and despise and will never forgive Nigel Farage – but what would you say and do if you discovered that Anne Marie Waters had feet of clay? Could you ever forgive her?

      1. 353232+ up ticks,
        R,
        I can assure you that if that was to occur R, there would certainly be NO more support for Anne Marie Waters / For Britain.

        It has been continuing support for lab /lib/con coalition party’s that are proving beyond doubt to be a very credible danger to indigenous United Kingdom dwellers.

  22. Boris Johnson tells Cabinet to ‘de-escalate’ Protocol stand-off with Brussels..
    DT Head line

    I can only conclude that Boris Johnson actually wanted the NI Protocol in the first place and is very reluctant to change it or scrap it. And wy are we allowing the ECHR to dictate our government’s immigration policy. He is not, and never has been, a true Brexiteer and those who voted for him in the last general election were diabolically betrayed by a weak, mendacious and spineless charlatan.

    1. 353232+ up ticks,

      Morning R
      The voters were in NO way betrayed they knew full well the capabilities of the fat turk, tory(ino) party first

      .As with treacherous treasa they knew her capabilities
      but once again tory (ino) party first.

      The wretch cameron they knew his capabilities for deceit ,lying & treachery but again party (ino) first.

      In short anybody using this form of voting are in reality only getting returns on what they voted for again,again & again in the party first & foremost before Country.

      1. I’ve said it before, Ogga, and I’ll say it again (rather like your repetitious wiffling about Lib/Lab/Con). There is NO other party to vote for

        Only a few rag-tag vote-splitting self-aggrandising collections of people who may have some good ideas but, until they overcome their inbuilt hubris and join forces, will never make even a credible opposition.

        1. 353232+ up ticks.
          Morning NtN,

          There is, sad to say no cure for ingrained stupidity as you must well know.
          I do assume you to be a supporter of one of the toxic trio that have been persecuting the decent peoples for nigh on 40 years so please refrain from
          “repetitious wiffling” after voting lab/lib/con these past decades.

          The party I was a long term member of gave the peoples the referendum, can the likes of you match that ? in my book if a lab/lib/con supporter / voter quite the reverse.

          As I told you on numerous occasions
          you support and build party’s there
          ARE NO OF THE PEG party’s.

          If I assume to mush an apology is in the post.

          1. Of course you assume to mush (I presume ‘too much’) I have been voting NOTA since I arrived back from Spain, via Tasmania, in May 2017.

            That is the whole point I’m making; THERE ARE NO OFF THE PEG PARTIES. Only vote-splitters, who will facilitate the continuance of Lib/Lab/Con in perpetuity.

            Any thoughts (wiffling or otherwise) other than NOTA.

          2. I shall watch the post for that apology – unless your promise is a terminalogical ineaxactitude.

          3. 353232+ up ticks,

            Afternoon NtN
            What am I to say ? did you enjoy your Spanish holiday & duty frees ?

          5. 253232+ up ticks,

            NtN,
            Folderol, I like it,spec-savers for you . urgent,
            The only glaringly obvious vote splitting treachery was done by farage and the marching boys of the brexit party, up and down hills in a pro johnson manner.

          6. 353232+ up ticks,
            “Mush ” a, to err is human, may I ask in the nicest possible way what did you vote for prior to going to Spain via Tasmania was it nota ?

        1. 353232+ up ticks,
          Morning JN,

          The betrayal started in earnest near four decades ago, I for one would expect when voting for traitors to be betrayed otherwise I would undoubtedly well, feel betrayed.

          Tell me why did charlie lynton AKA the bog man take out the treason laws in 1997 was it ?

          1. I’ve come to the conclusion the voters were always betrayed – my eyes have been opened to this in the last couple of years with the covid scam, the vaccicne scam, the net zero scam, the climate scam, etc etc. The ruling coalition parties all over the world only have their legitimate power via the brainwashing of the masses who vote for them. There is no difference between them but it’s buggins’ turn.

          2. 353232+ up ticks,

            Afternoon N,
            The odious trio politico’s have been at it for decades openly, near four at least.

            Entry into the eu was founded on lies and made it possible for politico’s to sell their country out along with their souls.

            In a semi covert way it is still going on.

            I am really only concerned with England / United Kingdom first & foremost as the misguided continuing voting pattern has led us to once again be fighting for our Nation, this time from within, plus this time against a great many more mosleys in both government & electorate.

  23. Morning all 😊
    Rwanda flight cancelled again as all
    seven? passengers removed due to legal issues. Probably carrying liquids…..
    Only around a million illegal migrants to go eh.
    And typically between them our politicians and civil service still couldn’t run anything as simple as a bath. They can’t find the taps.

    1. 353232+ up ticks,

      Morning RE,
      Flight of the phoenix tory (ino) party version was, from the ashes rose another orchestrated failure.

      Fodder for fools.

      As much as I dislike to I disagree somewhat in regards to the bath, first one should ask WHO the bath is being run for, IMHO that is brussels if that is the case NO taps are needed ( uncontrolled) & certainly NO PLUG,
      DOVER proves that.

      1. G’day Ogga.
        Taps or plugs….It matters not. Which goes to prove that our political classes never get anything right.
        Babies and bath water included.

    2. Ogga is right. No problem with the taps – they are working just fine since they were turned on full. It’s the bath plug that cannot be traced under the soap and the scum.

  24. Rachel Reeves ‘utterly immoral’ for using unpaid student staff
    Labour shadow chancellor accused of ‘utter hypocrisy’ for not paying a full salary, having previously demanded a ban on unpaid internships
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/06/14/rachel-reeves-utterly-immoral-using-unpaid-student-staff/

    The fact of the matter is that for many young people who want to get on in life the experience of the such work would be far more important to them than being paid.

    For example a former student who came on a French course with us was given the chance by the Daily Telegraph to produce two or three articles for which he was not paid. The Daily Telegraph did not actually need his articles – they were trying to give him an opportunity.

    So – make employers have to pay for this sort of ‘work’ and they will stop offering these opportunities and it will be the young people who suffer.

    Blair made the decision in his first year of office to remove the assisted places scheme for children from poor backgrounds to receive education in private schools – of course it was the young people who suffered.

      1. Morning, Phil. This weather seems set for a few days yet. I like it, the Springer not so much.

      1. We must introduce Vlad to Betjeman:
        “Come friendly nukes and fall on Slough…”
        Bradford, Burnley, Leeds, Birmingham, Oxford, Tower Hamlets …. busy, busy, busy.

      1. They did the same right out side the Albert Hall in London after their day time fasting period.

    2. Reminds me of a funny comment and sketch in my childhood autograph book .

      Two in a hammock attempted to kiss ,

      And all of a sudden they ended

      like this ..

      (.imagine a scenario of fumble and bumble)

      1. I must say the idea of doing something like that in a hammock must be rather like trying to do it in a kayak!

        When I saw what the couple was doing
        I said: “Why squirm so when you’re screwing?”
        They replied with a giggle
        A screw without wiggle
        Is only for screwing canoeing!”

  28. Good morning all. A bright and sunny start again this morning with 8½°C outside and fairly low winds.

    2. The msm and the weather people are wetting their collective pants by joyously announcing, that it’s once more going to be the hottest day of the year.
      Happily that’s one thing we can believe.

  30. 353232+ up ticks,

    Does it really matter Gerard afterall they ARE a coalition and it is labours turn.

    Why the electorate feel we need more foreign paedophiles and assorted dangerous villians is beyound me.

    34
    Post
    Gerard Batten
    @gjb2021
    ·
    34m
    And Boris & the Tories are handing Labour victory in the next general election on a plate

    Gerard Batten
    @gjb2021
    ·
    36m
    And Boris & the Tories are handing Labour victory in the next general election on a plate.

    previewImg
    Starmer ally privately admits a Labour government would try to undo Brexit — The Sun

    EXCLUSIVE

    apple.news

  31. The euro and the dollar are almost at parity and the pound is heading rapidly downwards to join them.

    Am I a conspiracy theorist to think that when all currencies are nominally of the same value the globalists will strike and the three currencies will be swiftly unified?

    1. Morning Richard. Blair has collected the Committee for National Safety ready to replace the Government!

  32. The dangerous rise of Elf Bars. 15 June 2022.

    Have you seen the colourful sticks with blue lights hanging out the mouths’ of most teens and many adults? Elf Bars are the colourful and sweet disposable vapes causing a wave of dependence across all age groups.

    While the government is looking to rid the nation of tobacco smokers, electronically delivered nicotine is becoming a new frontier.

    People who have not smoked before are getting addicted to Elf Bars. And ex-smokers are turning back to cigarettes to wean themselves off the potent pens.

    Beyond parody! Lol!

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-dangerous-rise-of-elf-bars

  33. A very pertinent piece in the Daily Sceptic today. Most people have blindly gone along with vaccinations for everything – for themselves, their children and their pets. I’ve had many in my life, especially in the last 25 years, for travel. I don’t think I will be having any more. When my children were little, I didn’t question this – it was part of having babies, that you gave them the best start in life, which meant protecting their health. I’ve had second thoughts on this, too. The only jabs I had as a child, were the smallpox one, and later, diptheria and polio. I had measles, whooping cough and mumps, nasty as they were, but I survived. There are far more vaccines in the childhood schedule now than there were then. What good do they do?

    Ditto prescription meds – I had a little convo on Twitter yesterday with Poppiesmum – I don’t feel the need for any meds, and nor does she – yet most people our age are stuffed full of them – to what avail? Not for our benefit, but a clear killing (pun intended) for the pharma industry. Sebastian Rushworth had a good post on this topic yesterday.

    https://dailysceptic.org/2022/06/14/the-crimes-of-the-pharmaceutical-industry/#comments

    1. I do wonder if the rise in alleged ‘allergies’ is due to babies and small children being treated like pin cushions.
      Can their immature immune systems really cope with all the nasties being pumped into them?

      1. Looking around friends and acquaintances’ families I note that numerous children with mixed race parents/grandparents seem to get more of the “modern” ones. It may merely be coincidence.

      2. I don’t think so.
        I do remember when my younger son had his first DTP vaccination at the age of four months, that he had an adverse reaction that evening, which worried me – he went very pale and silent for a while, then passed an unusual -looking motion in his nappy later that evening. As he seemed perfectly normal after that I stopped worrying and he had the other with no problem. But it stuck in my memory.
        Also he gained no weight but stayed at 16lbs (give or take a couple of ounces) for the next three months, although his development was normal. I still have that record, and I think I should have been more forward and queried it with the doctor – but we just did as we were told, then, didn’t we?

        I see from his record that he had two DTP combined, and two separate
        ones, later. No measles jab recorded, though I remember my elder one
        was chased round the surgery by a terrifying nurse and we went home
        without it. He did have one later.

        I’m much more sceptical now.

      3. I think a lot of the problems are with all these antibacterial wipes. We need bacteria to build our immunity.

        1. When our sons were of primary school age, we had a neighbour with 3 sons around the same age.
          Her house was spotless – a real ‘eat your meal off the floor’ establishment.
          We’ve always had animals and birds; our sons scooted around from the moment they could crawl, no doubt raiding food bowls or ingesting fluff when we weren’t looking. Evening bath, scrub off everything and leave it for another 24 hours apart from a possible wipe to noticeably mucky faces or hands.
          Guess which boys never missed school and which family always seemed to have at least one snotty snivelling sprog at home every day.

          1. We were much the same as you. 7 of us living in a 3 bedroom, 3rd floor flat in the centre of London.
            A toilet, scullery where we all washed, mum dud the cooking and all the washing. How on earth she coped I have no idea. We ate well on what must have been a very limited budget.
            Rare for us to have any illness.

    2. Even when they are made by people with good intent – unlike these jabs – vaccines have always been “a harm to prevent a greater harm”. But these jabs are proving to be the greatest harm done to humans ever peddled, and by corporations that are already convicted felon criminals. 4 out of 5 deaths in Canada so far this year. More proof every day of the toxic character of the jabs and the remorseless rise of the VAIDS it has conferred, with other delights on victims.
      The evidence is there. Now indictments are starting. We must clamor for them here in the UK. Many of our politicians should be before the bar of a court to answer for their massive crimes. Anyone promoting or delivering the jabs is guilty of a serious offence against the person.
      And you are right, of course, about the whole public health system having been skewed for decades at least in favour of pharma product sales. The whole approach to health – as our whole approach to government – needs ground-up reform. Doctors need tp get back to personal responsibility without the tyranny of the evidence based medicine Trojan Horse of the established corruption.

    4. I’m the youngest of 5 and none of us were vaccinated when we were young. My mum had to get a form signed by a JP to confirm she didn’t want us vaccinated. I think she was sceptical then as we are now. The eldest of my siblings was born in 1934 and I was the last in 1946 I am the last of the line. We all survived, no doubt, having all the childhood infections etc.

      1. I was 25 when I had mumps and very nasty it was too. My young children (aged three years and three months) of course had no immunity derived from me, so we all had it more or less at the same time. We survived. It left me with a long-lasting depression, but I survived that as well with no medication or treatment. I think our natural defences are superior to any medication.

    5. Same here – I could have written most of your post!
      I seem to remember seeing that covid is now listed as a childhood jab on the NHS. It’s been a giant wake-up call about jabs generally.

      1. As a young mother, I went along with the belief that it was for the good of the child. This vaccine scam has made me think again about all vaccines.

  34. I wonder how long it will be before our domestic population decide that our way of life will be better preserved by moving to Rwanda.

  38. Are we protecting our borders yet……..thought not!

    Off to find some rays, too hot to sit here getting angry…..!

    1. Good morning, Plum

      Johnson never wanted to quit the ECHR – in fact he wanted a bodged Brexit which is why he voted in favour of May’s appalling WA which he then did not modify it in any significant way in his own ‘oven-ready’ piece of fraud.

      Remember he went to Brussels with Oleaginous Gove just before David Frost made a No Deal or a proper deal with the EU so that they could make absolutely sure that:

      i) The NI Protocol was introduced;

      ii) We stayed in the ECHR;

      iii) We surrendered the right to control our borders and gave away our fishermen’s rights to fishing exclusively in UK waters.

      His Covid parties are one thing – but his total betrayal of all those who voted for him in the last election is completely unforgiveable.

      Your idea that David Davis should be a caretaker prime minister until David Frost can take on the job is a very good one But I fear that like most good ideas it will never be acted upon.

      1. If the mophead idiot lying traitorous BoJo is ever ousted as PM the Cons will make absolutely sure that a “remainer” is elected.

  39. ‘Morning All

    Looks round nervously whilst pricing up new front doors……..

    Man jailed in UK for posting memes of George Floyd in Whatsapp & Facebook group chats

    Ex-police officer James Watt

    appeared in Birmingham’s magistrate’s court for sharing 10 memes about

    George Floyd in a WhatsApp group chat.

    https://www.rebelnews.com/man_jailed_in_uk_for_posting_memes_of_george_floyd_in_whatsapp_facebook_group_chats
    This is under current legislation,after the “online harms bill” passes it would probably be the gulag for life……….

    1. Oh well. At least I’ll get three square meals a day and my heating bills paid.
      Thank you, mugs British taxpayers.

    3. This is setting in law what that Muslim with the loudspeaker in Bradford said about the screening of the ‘Lady of Heaven’ film – “We have a right not to be offended”.

      2. I am going in for another facial slicing on Monday. They keep saying my husband cannot even be in the waiting room. I bet that if I was a muslim woman I would be allowed to have a chaperone with me- even in the operating room. If I was a foreigner of some other sort and couldn’t speak English I bet I would be allowed an interpreter.
        But as white English people we have no such rights. It sickens me and I will not be quiet about it on Monday.

        1. Go it, girl, you kick up as much of a fuss as needed – point out (as if I have to tell you) that ALL Covid restrictions have been lifted and the NHS are acting like Germany in 1933.

          1. Point out that you are likely to be offended and will get in touch with plod about hate-crimes.

      3. So do I. But then I’m white and English, so I might as well ask for the moon on a stick.

      1. Say no more – we have a fcuked up judicial system, it seems that sharia law rules.

      2. Why is he on the bench? He’s not a Christian and therefore cannot understand Christian law.

    5. Someone got jailed for memes?
      The guy’s dead, it’s not as though he’s being slandered.
      Wherever we were heading, it looks as though we have already arrived.

    6. Pardon my ignorance but what exactly is a meme of aforementioned American? (See what I did there, just in case?).

  40. Douglas Murray out-Rodding Liddle:

    Douglas Murray

    From magazine issue: 11 June 2022

    “A win for the film critics of Bradford

    As a general rule, you should never talk about a film you haven’t seen. But The Lady of Heaven is proving a tricky film to catch. Plus whole crowds of people are talking about it without having seen it, so perhaps my joining in won’t do too much harm. Although it sounds like it might be some work of Vatican kitsch, The Lady of Heaven is actually about another religion. A boy in modern-day Iraq loses his mother and through doing so learns the story of Fatima, one of the daughters of Muhammad. And here is where an apparently sweeping historical drama enters tricky terrain.

    For not all cinema audiences have taken the film to heart. The citizens of Bradford, for instance, turn out to include a surprising proportion of film critics. Like me, they have not actually seen the film. Unlike me, they have no desire to do so. They already know what they think – and they don’t like it one bit. So if you were tempted to hotfoot it to Bradford to buy tickets and a vat of popcorn, the trip would be in vain. For although The Lady of Heaven hit some of the nation’s cinemas last week, Cineworld has now cancelled all screenings of the film.

    The cause of the cancellation was the large crowds of bearded film critics in Bradford, Birmingham, Bolton and Sheffield who turned out to protest against the screening of a film they insist is ‘blasphemous’. Again, it is hard to see how anyone can know a film is blasphemous if they have not seen it. Except that word went round these various local communities that the film portrays the aforementioned Muhammad and his family. A petition calling for it to be banned gathered more than 120,000 signatures. No actual actor plays Muhammad. Perhaps aware of Scandinavian controversies surrounding cartoons of the chap, no actor has taken on the role, perhaps wisely. Though I should have liked to suggest a number of actors for the role – Hugh Grant, for instance.

    No, Muhammad’s appearance is apparently conjured by CGI, thus getting around the prohibitions in parts of Islam about portraying the religion’s founder. Yet as so often, this is not enough. Defenders of The Lady of Heaven have pointed out that the film is wildly positive about Muhammad and his many children, not least Fatima. It is fawning, we are told, as though this would placate anyone who likes protesting outside cinemas.

    It brings to mind the Jewel of Medina controversy of 14 years ago. This was when a novel written by an American lady sought to portray the beautiful love affair between the elderly Muhammad and his opposite-age-spectrum final bride, Aisha. A number of people went nuts about the book, which turned out to be a sort of slushy romance. The publisher dropped the novel and it became a free-speech issue.

    I ended up putting myself through reading the work and came close to contracting Type 2 diabetes as a result. To say that it was uncritical is to understate things. The novel was supine as well as saccharine, but this did not placate those critics who like to ban books they have not read. A small-scale London publisher picked up the novel for publication and his home was promptly firebombed by some bearded literary critics.

    Which brings me back to Bradford, where local religious leaders led the original protests outside the local Cineworld. One, dressed for 7th-century Arabia, told a camera crew: ‘My feelings are all over the place. My mind is all over the place.’ That’s for sure. He continued: ‘How can somebody come and attack the beloved wife of the beloved Prophet?’ There followed a lot of ‘peace be upon him’ in Arabic and a lot of confusion about what the film was about, but that’s the way with films you haven’t seen. Other religious leaders in Bradford blamed Shia Muslims (a Shia Muslim helped write the film) and claimed that it was a hate movie inspired by anti-Sunni prejudice. Some protestors aspired to be more up to date in their appeals to self-pity by declaring the film ‘racist’.

    It seems Cineworld was unprepared for this meeting place between the 21st and 7th centuries. Perhaps the cinema employees thought of other people who have annoyed the world’s most peaceful religion. Perhaps they thought of the teacher in nearby Batley who was suspended from his job last year and forced into hiding after being accused of ‘blasphemy’ by some local Muslims.

    It is to be expected in these free-speech battles that the majority of people will decide that the game isn’t worth the candle, or the firebomb. And while some people might be willing to stand their ground for the sake of A la Recherche du Temps Perdu or Die Hard 2, the reality is that very few people want to risk their lives for a piece of cinema schlock.

    Before Cineworld pulled the film, local cinemas were already self-censoring for fear of the mob. A rather scared white guy in charge of the local Cineworld came out days before the official announcement and addressed the mob by megaphone. The blasphemous movie was no longer to be shown in Bradford, he announced. The crowd shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ at this happy news. Some jostled to give him a bigger microphone, the better to broadcast his subjugation. Along with the ‘Allahu Akbar’-ing there was also a number of ‘Takbir’s, which amounts to the same thing. Either way there was much rejoicing. The blasphemous film that no one had watched now cannot be watched. And once again, as with the Batley schoolteacher, the problem will be said to have gone away.

    Long-term readers will know I suspect the situation will be otherwise. The free-speech left likes to imagine that chaps like those in Bradford will come around to British norms someday and we should be patient. My own feeling is a good number of them won’t. Still, I accept that this view constitutes a minority in the public square these days, and that the more proper thing to do is to cross our fingers and look forward to Bradford’s being ‘City of culture’ in 2025. Which may sound like a joke, but isn’t.”

    2. Perhaps the local Sunni Muslims overheard someone who had seen the film describing it as ‘shite’, and got hold of the wrong end of the stick.

    3. Sadly, Britain has adapted to those chaps in Bradford. Muslims will never adapt to British norms because those values are not compatible with islam.

    4. The reference to A la Recherche du Temps Perdu reminds me that I read all seven volumes of In Search of Lost Time. The last two and a half years have completely shattered my concentration levels. Keep telling myself I have to break the social media sound bite addiction. I must. I must.

    5. Well, let’s get the apparently abusive term “Paki” out of the way. These people are hard-working British citizens. The only surprise is that they have time enough to take a break from working to carry out their duties as film critics. “Film critics”, I like the term.

    6. Well done Anne, I like your imitation of P.G. Wodehouse’s style. PGW referred to a young member of the Drones Club as out-Fredding Astaire.

      1. About 20 more waiting to board just going through the kneeling ritual before taking their seats.

    2. And perhaps take from us those human rights that are useful to the indigenous of these islands….. who knows. Is govt trying to muster support for removing the UK from the ECHR?

      1. I would think that highly unlikely. They would be crucified in the MSM for such a move IMO. Plus the fact they don’t actually have the nerve, like so many other things they could do!

        1. I remember that when Cassius Clay (as he was then called) was renowned for his wit and repartee as well as for his boxing he said:

          “If Sonny Liston dreams in the middle of the night that he is going to beat me he should wake up and apologise.”

          You could say that if Boris Johnson thinks for a second there is the slightest parallel between himself and Winston Churchill he should be force fed Churchill’s strongest, fattest and most pungent Havana cigars and force fed them until he has chewed and swallowed every single one in a large box.

          https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3ca5e610ac41d933ac8e9573f00bd92708a1ac12cf6b4473ab92404885216408.jpg

          1. My father loved a good cigar; he also enjoyed his pipe. When he got down to the last ¾ inch of his Havana he put it into the bowl of his pipe so he could go on enjoying it a bit longer.

          2. Cassius Clay is a legend. And he is blik! Why can’t blik people accept that they can succeed without vilifying whitey. All it takes is talent, hard work, application, dedication and determination … oh, I see!
            BJ is an absolute disgrace to the human race.

        2. Well, our HR Act is now up for consideration (or was) as a Bill of Rights where the Rights of society took precedence over the Rights of the individual. I am not sure what has happened to that, perhaps it is still being considered – it was intended to ‘translate’ the WHO takeover of our health sovereignty which has been put on hold because Africa’s and the BRICS refusal to sign away their sovereignty. I do not think the MSM is on our side in all this, there were many distractions at the time, notably the Depp-Heard trial.

          1. Nobody is on the side of the people. The government, TPTB, the MSM, are all “in this together”, as the saying goes. They will get their way in the end and we simply have no way of stopping them.

  42. How helpful…………..

    “Labour and SNP politicians on the Committee currently scrutinising the

    Online Safety Bill laid an amendment to include “health-related

    misinformation and disinformation” as a recognised form of lawful but

    “harmful” speech, ratcheting up the censorship yet further. Mark Johnson

    has written about the illiberal move”

    https://dailysceptic.org/2022/06/15/labour-and-snp-add-health-misinformation-to-the-online-safety-bill/

  46. Heatwave by Friday, thousands of oldies will die. Oh hang on, a washout on the way for Saturday and temperatures to plummet. Thousands to die from (fire/flood/hurricane/cold/monkeypox), whatever is next for an outing. Its getting rather tiring.

    2. And….Don’t go down to the woods today there’s certain to be a surprise……..

  47. British Gas is still promoting gas boilers on grounds of saving money by improving efficiency whilst the Government is trying to encourage the uptake of heat pumps on the grounds of both saving the planet and lack gas availability in addition to soaring costs of fossil fuel derived energy.

    The heat pump industry has a way to go yet before the demand is high enough for it to take off as illustrated in this afticle:
    A heat pump is an expensive upfront investment for homeowners who may know they want to move. But plopping a gas furnace in the basement means locking in emissions for long after they sell their house. Creating a business that reduces upfront costs or entices homeowners to take the plunge? Also huge.
    https://www.protocol.com/newsletters/climate/heat-pump-summer-heatwave?rebelltitem=2#rebelltitem2
    The Government has been successful in promoting the uptake of electric vehicles with its EV discount so it has suddenly decided to withdraw all EV subsidies completely. Even the current boiler ugrade scheme however has been signficantly curtailed since initially introduced and a lot depends on homeowner uptake.
    Uptake could be infuenced by making properties without a boiler upgrade unsaleable and that is a big probkem for Government with the current stress on family finances.

    1. I can imagine younger couples looking at houses to possibly move to and saying “Oh, no heat pump, we want 30 thousand pounds off the asking price”. As well as the usual nonsense they come our with about other previous fixtures and fittings they “need to change”.

      1. The price you see reflects what you get – any future changes are down to you and your budget.

        1. Exactly what I say.
          But I would like to see extra bids not being acceptable after a sale agreement. As I think is the case in Scotland.

  48. British Gas is still promoting gas boilers on grounds of saving money by improving efficiency whilst the Government is trying to encourage the uptake of heat pumps on the grounds of both saving the planet and lack gas of availability in addition to soaring costs of fossil fuel derived energy.

    The heat pump industry has a way to go yet before the demand is high enough for it to take off as illustrated in this afticle:

    A heat pump is an expensive upfront investment for homeowners who may know they want to move. But plopping a gas furnace in the basement means locking in emissions for long after they sell their house. Creating a business that reduces upfront costs or entices homeowners to take the plunge? Also huge.

    https://www.protocol.com/newsletters/climate/heat-pump-summer-heatwave?rebelltitem=2#rebelltitem2

    The Government has been successful in promoting the uptake of electric vehicles with its EV discount so it has suddenly decided to withdraw all EV subsidies completely. Even the current boiler ugrade scheme however has been signficantly curtailed since initially introduced and a lot depends on homeowner uptake.

    Uptake could be infuenced by making properties without a boiler upgrade unsaleable and that is a big probkem for Government with the current stress on family finances.
    but it all depends on level of uptake

  49. Out to lunch shortly – having spent the morning with the sceptics on here, I’m going to be lunching with the covid believers to get a bit of balance….. all jabbed up to the eyeballs and probably masked as well……. especially the two who have been scared to come out since last summer.

    2. You might like to pass on this information Ellie. The only people who had covid in our entire family of probably 25 peopke, age range from 2 years to 86 were the oldest, my sister and her husband. Both had taken every jab available and more precautions than you could poke a stick at. But they are long over it now.

      1. I avoid the topic when I’m with friends who I know have taken the Kool-aid. I know nobody who was seriously ill with covid and nobody who died. The low death toll of the oldies on the Diamond Princess convinced me it was nothing to worry about.

  50. England fans finally have a stick to beat Gareth Southgate with

    Despite tournament success, supporters have not taken to the manager and Hungary rout has given their gripes substance

    Southgate is England’s most successful manager of the modern age. Southgate is a decent, hard working bloke. Southgate has by any measure led England brilliantly. But England’s fans don’t like Southgate, and even without a stick to beat him, Southgate has been beaten. Even without any record of defeat, only success, he has been labelled a failure. Even on a run of almost constant victory, goals, golden moments, England’s manager has been cast as a fraud and a killjoy. Well, the public got what it wanted here. Finally some meat, some substance, an actual crime with which to charge the guilty man.

    https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2022/jun/14/england-fans-finally-have-a-stick-to-beat-gareth-southgate-with

    The writer doesn’t ask himself why the England fans don’t like Southgate…

    1. Southgate is England’s most successful manager of the modern age: Barney Ronay (Grauniad riter) is obviously an idiot and a liar. Sarath Goutgate has lost or drawn 24 of the 70 matches played since he has been in charge. The ones they won were against the likes of Andorra, Switzerland, Ivory Coast and Albania. He needs a kick in the goolies – it would give him a legitimate reason for kneeling like a crippled camel.
      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a2c56cc23f8dc3ab9701cf8f5738bd51957fed473c588414241e1378cfe8ba66.png (Amended)

        1. The really annoying aspect is that England has probably the weakest group in the forthcoming WC and that will probably guarantee an easier knock out route so he will carry on, unless he’s fired now, which I think is highly unlikely.

          1. I’ve discovered that if one must visit IKEA the best day is once every 4 years during the World Cup Final. I guarantee you will have the entire emporium to yourself.

          2. I’ve lived in Sweden for over 10 years and I’ve only walked into an Ick-Ay-A once in all that time. The place reminds me of the old MFI (Made For Idiots) flatpack emporia.

          4. Oh I’m not knocking their produce. All my bookshelves in my upstairs living room are from IKEA. The ceiling (under the roof) slopes on both sides and I only have vertical walls of 1 metre in height. Nothing else would fit.

          6. Never bought anything from IKEA except a coffee in their cafe on my one visit to their store – overpriced tat, wouldn’t have it in the house

      2. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bca631348763e7b8a250d55ce2cd1cb09a9e5c37f96dbd2ce37a80ef64d6ce9c.png Southgate hasn’t ‘lost’ 25 matches but, combined with the draws, he has ‘not won’ 24 from the 70 played under him. My problem with Southgate is that he is the typical FA-type; makes the right noises in the right ears at the right time. Another bland Ron Greenwood, in fact, who was chosen over the more controvertial Brian Clough at a time, in the 1970s, when the England team was beyond deplorable, failing to appear in a World Cup finals between 1970 and 1982.

        1. I’m not a fan of this shiite but it appears strange that the ‘International Select Committee’ has the highest ranking (+87) and the next highest is Alf Ramsey with +52 compared to Southgate’s miserable +36.

          Wendyball at its finest with its business records. Ignore it all and stop taking the knee. That means I no longer watch 6 nations.

          1. Even when Walter Winterbottom was manager for 17 years, there was still a selection committee who chose the team for him. All he did was train them.

          2. Funny old ‘Sport’; seems more like a load of bollux, hence my disrespect for all aspects of Wendyball.

          3. I’m happy not to have watched last night’s debacle. It might have taken the shine off yesterday’s wonderful cricket (my sport).

          4. I was out all day so missed watching it live. Without knowing the result I watched an hour long highlights of the day. All that one could have possibly hoped for.

        2. I’m not a fan of this shiite but it appears strange that the ‘International Select Committee’ has the highest ranking (+87) and the next highest is Alf Ramsey with +52 compared to Southgate’s miserable +36.

          Wendyball at its finest with its business records. Ignore it all and stop taking the knee. That means I no longer watch 6 nations.

    2. Kneeling is generally considered to be a sign of submission, self-abasement and lack of aggression. No wonder Southgate’s football players have had their resolve weakened by their submissiveness. I wonder if Jacinda Adern will make it compulsory for the New Zealand All Blacks rugby team to abandon the warlike haka and do the Star Mar kneel instead?

  51. England fans finally have a stick to beat Gareth Southgate with

    Despite tournament success, supporters have not taken to the manager and Hungary rout has given their gripes substance

    Southgate is England’s most successful manager of the modern age. Southgate is a decent, hard working bloke. Southgate has by any measure led England brilliantly. But England’s fans don’t like Southgate, and even without a stick to beat him, Southgate has been beaten. Even without any record of defeat, only success, he has been labelled a failure. Even on a run of almost constant victory, goals, golden moments, England’s manager has been cast as a fraud and a killjoy. Well, the public got what it wanted here. Finally some meat, some substance, an actual crime with which to charge the guilty man.

    https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2022/jun/14/england-fans-finally-have-a-stick-to-beat-gareth-southgate-with

    The writer doesn’t ask himself why the England fans don’t like him…

  52. ‘It’s time we kicked these bastards into touch’: Tory MPs and ministers vent fury at ‘abominable’ European Court of Human Rights for 11th-hour block on Rwanda migrant plan as Priti Patel vows to try again
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10918485/Tories-vent-fury-abominable-European-court-ruling-Rwanda-flight.html

    The question that I ask myself is who is paying for ECHR lawyers’ fees; the lawyers have found another lucrative gravy train and doubtless are grabbing all they possibly can?

    I would not be at all surprised to find out that Prince Charles is paying them and that Justin Welby is creaming off the church collections to chip in..

    1. But, Richard, who will do the kicking? If either you or I, had the power and wherewithal, doubtless we would kick, hard and fast but that ain’t gonna happen because of the supine Con party.

      1. Kicking, for the purposes of deportation, should be transferred from the Border Farce to a mercenary army of Sikhs ..

    2. We are the source of all funding, I guess. Is it not about time that legal funding (Legal Aid) was unavailable to fund actions by criminals against our laws and our rules and our regulations? Is there any other country on Earth that hands out money to criminals?
      The last time we consulted a lawyer the fee scale was £500 an hour, for office based work. Fees get much higher when court appearances are required, I think.

      1. Our own Bill Thomas apart, my opinion is that they’re all shysters and need something more than the Law Society to crack down on them – very, very hard.

        1. My view is the the Law Society, like many other professional “unions”, exists to protect its members and not to protect the public.

          3. Funnily enough some years ago we were worried that there was a conflict of interest in a case involving my mother as the law firm was working for both my mother and the third party with whom there was a dispute. We told Bill the story and he warned us that it would probably be a waste of time going to the Law Society who would back the solicitor regardless of what the truth was and the facts were. We took Bill’s advice which was undoubtedly sound and did not pursue the matter.

    1. Johnson, the man could be a See You Next Tuesday but they’re useful – he epitomises uselessness.

      1. I see the writer couldn’t tell the difference between laying down white lines (which the picture shows) and cutting the grass!

    2. You’ve got the wrong racecourse. It’s Aintree and the National you’re thinking of. Cheltenham women are tweedy.

  55. OK! Own up! Who’s been feeding the Pope NOTTL Threads….?

    Pope Francis has doubled down on prior controversial statements suggesting the Russia-Ukraine conflict is largely NATO’s fault, asserting also that “war cannot be reduced to distinction between good guys and bad guys” – as the Vatican’s own headline to the interview reads.
    In statements published Tuesday by the Jesuit magazine La Civiltà Cattolica, the Roman Catholic leaders said that the Russian invasion was “perhaps somehow provoked” while again saying there were signs that NATO had been “barking at the gates of Russia” in the run-up.
    The pontiff still condemned what he called the “ferocity and cruelty of the Russian troops” while warning against a pure ‘good vs. evil’ fairytale narrative of the conflict.
    Just like with his initial similar comments made at the start of May, these latest statements have triggered outrage among Western pundits who’ve called for escalating military support to Ukraine at the expense of dialogue with Moscow toward negotiating a settlement to end the war:
    “We need to move away from the usual Little Red Riding Hood pattern, in that Little Red Riding Hood was good and the wolf was the bad one,” Francis said. “Something global is emerging and the elements are very much entwined.”

        1. Hawkins : I’ve got it! I’ve got it! The pellet with the poison’s in the vessel with the pestle; the chalice from the palace has the brew that is true! Right?
          Griselda : Right. But there’s been a change: they broke the chalice from the palace!
          Hawkins : They *broke* the chalice from the palace?
          Griselda : And replaced it with a flagon.
          Hawkins : A flagon…?
          Griselda : With the figure of a dragon.
          Hawkins : Flagon with a dragon.
          Griselda : Right.
          Hawkins : But did you put the pellet with the poison in the vessel with the pestle?
          Griselda : No! The pellet with the poison’s in the flagon with the dragon! The vessel with the pestle has the brew that is true!
          Hawkins : The pellet with the poison’s in the flagon with the dragon; the vessel with the pestle has the brew that is true.

          Griselda : Just remember that.

          1. Isn’t Danny Kaye the best? I will no doubt have that running through my head all night.

        1. In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen. I can remember a lot of the mass in the original Latin before it went ‘modern’.

          1. Well done, I recanted in 1963 but have have little confluence since. I shall copy and keep that.

        2. In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen. I can remember a lot of the mass in the original Latin before it went ‘modern’.

    3. The one thing I think UKIP has got wrong is the defence spokesman saying that we should have intervened in the Ukraine because otherwise Russia would have taken over like Germany in the thirties.

    1. One might reasonably take the view that those slaves sold to plantation owners, American and British, were rescued from a possibly much worse fate.

      1. To become today’s entitled BLM oiks, stabby, stabby nasties in Londonistan and pictorials in every TV adverisment.

        1. I watched a programme about the Queen in Her Own Words. The commentator described the Manchester bombing and the 7/7 bus massacre (HM visited the victims) as “accidents”! What? No, they were muslim terrorist incidents.

      2. Some were prisoners of war, others were surplus family members. The first act of a turkish sultan was to kill all his brothers and half brothers so there were no challengers to the throne, so it could be argued that the west African spares to the heir at least had a chance to live.
        And many of those traded were criminals; any chance we could get our government to actually make a profit from off-loading our misfits?

        1. “Turkish sultan” seems pretty smart to me. Probably did not take orders from “her indoors” in the harem, or from “her indoors” also, or “her indoors” as well…
          Now which harem centred turk do we know…?

    2. Brilliant article , and he is so spot on about the Fulani, Igbo and Yoruba.

      Such complicated relationships like that caused the terrible Biafran war.. and I would side with the Biafrans any day . Alert bright and clever .

      2. Just remember, the state is importing the same people who perpetuated the Rwandan genocide.

      3. Just remember, the state is importing the same people who perpetuated the Rwandan genocide.

      4. I remember the terrible Biafran famine. I don’t know the details, but I assume from what you say that it was the other tribes banding against them.

  57. Wordle in four

    Wordle 361 4/6

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    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  58. Wordle in four

    Wordle 361 4/6

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    ⬜⬜🟨🟨⬜
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    1. Moi aussi.
      Wordle 361 4/6

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      🟩🟨🟩⬜⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟨⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

      1. 5 today.

        Wordle 361 5/6

        🟨⬛⬛⬛⬛
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        ⬛🟩🟩🟩⬛
        🟩🟩🟩🟩⬛
        🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

        What a silly word that is!

        2. I got there by a process of elimination but wondered if it was a real word?
          Wordle 361 3/6

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

    2. #MeToo
      Wordle 361 4/6

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  59. I’ve no regrets about marrying Prince Andrew – he’s a good and kind man, says Fergie as she reveals she would do it all again if she had her time over
    Sarah Ferguson, 62, described her ex-husband Prince Andrew as a ‘good man’
    Duchess of York said she would still marry the disgraced duke if it was 1986
    Despite divorce, she glowingly referred to their wedding as an ‘exceptional day’
    Her comments come after Andrew was ‘banished’ from Garter Day appearances
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10915863/Andrew-good-man-says-Duchess-York.html

    I think that Prince Andrew has been disgracefully treated by his brother, Charles, and his nephew, William.

    Sarah Ferguson is surely answering the wrong question – which is not “Does she regret marrying her husband?” but “Does she regret divorcing him?”

    1. From my recollection, the marriage would have probably worked had it not been for the constant press intrusion into whatever private life they were supposed to be allowed.

      1. Both Caroline’s sisters have been involved in divorce or separation and one of my sisters has. I must say that Caroline and I feel blessed by the fact that not for one moment has either of us ever wished to pack it in. I would certainly be completely lost without her.

    2. Charles and William need to learn how and when to ‘butt out’. They are the models of what is currently wrong with society.

    3. I agree. Prince Andrew has been made a scapegoat for the likes of Clinton and Gates who were far more frequent fliers on the Lolita Express. How many prominent organisations will cover up the multiple crimes of Gates because they want his money. Yet they bitch about 18th century traders whose sins were on a much smaller scale.

      1. Not really though, because his only punishment is to lose the job that he is not fit to have anyway, and only got because of an accident of birth.
        I agree that the truth about the other men involved should come out.

        1. Nobody chooses their birth, but it seems unreasonable and, in fact, downright shabby of his brother and nephew to shit on him in public in this way.
          It definitely shows an unattractive aspect of their personalities.

          1. I don’t like them, but I can see why they want to clean up their brand.
            Andrew is a liability to any company – indeed, no company would even dream of giving him any role above delivering the post if he wasn’t who he is.

          2. The money was forked out so the Jubilee wasn’t spoilt.
            Madam and her minders/lawyers knew exactly when to strike.
            Andrew is a twonk, but I suspect money, not teenage girls, is his weakness.

      2. Why aren’t there any prosecutions of Ghislaine’s & Epstein’s customers? Prince Andrew wasn’t the only taker of her prostitution ring.

    4. Apart from the first 11½ months, my entire life has been coincidental with the reign of Her Majesty. I have always been a staunch Royalist; however, once she dies, my Royalist tendencies will no doubt evaporate.

      1. I could support one meddlesome monarch, it’s the WEF politics and the smug Malthusianism that I can’t forgive.

      3. I think you can support the institution without supporting the characters. As it is, I quite like William and the Kate person. I can get up, let out a monumental fart, throw on old clothes and walk the dog. I can slob about in a t shirt all day long and no one cares. They can’t. Every appearance has a camera pointed at them. They live in a castle and have staff. I have privacy and I do what I want, when I want to.

        1. I like William’s support for wildlife but not his climate agenda rubbish.
          Kate seldom puts a foot wrong and she’s a great asset to him. They don’t have much privacy but she does well bringing up her children. I don’t think Prince Louis should have been forced to endure all the Jubilee stuff – a brief appearance would have been enough.

          2. So do I – It would certainly be too much for me but I had the choice not to watch it. He didn’t. The reports of bad behaviour were simply a bored and tired child playing up in a normal way.

        2. Billy the kid is, indeed, a nice chap (I chatted with him once). Having said that, if he shows that he intends to go the WEF route (like his dad) then the Royalty can jump in the canal for all I care; I shall wash my hands of them. I shall also inform them of the reasons for my decision.

          1. It’s strange that they are attracted to the WEF.

            It appears that there is no room for royalty in The Great Reset.

      2. You have inspired a spoonerism type of riddle:

        If little Jack Horner was a finger sucker what is Elton John’s ‘husband’?

    6. I’m sure I said before, I met him twice in Oman and he was not in the least ‘standoffish’ and one could tell he was happy being around military people, very relaxed.
      He has been caught up in American sleazy politics and for the protection of others ‘hung out to dry’ but politics is a dirty business so he should have been more careful.
      Good that at least Sarah has the decency to stand by him.

  61. I’m going to put up the outside umbrella, pour a glass of cold wine and sit outside with my book; this weather is too lovely to waste.
    See you later amigos.

    2. Excellent plan!
      😀
      About to rain here, so I’ll be thinking of you, chilling outside with a cold glass…
      mumble, mumble

          3. I left Mongo behind in the house as it’s too hot for him outside.

            We were up at 5 walking him – to his credit, Junior was really good and didn’t complain as he knows that’s best for Mongo. Equally walking later at night – although I worry about his pads as the heat rises when the sun goes down.

        2. And getting caught in the rain. I know you’re not into health food; you are into champagne.

  62. Christian factory worker fired on the spot for refusing to take off cross necklace

    Jevgenijs Kovalkovs wins more than £22,000 for religious discrimination after manager said crucifix jewellery was a ‘hazard’

    A Christian factory worker has won more than £22,000 for religious discrimination after being fired for refusing to take off a crucifix necklace. Jevgenijs Kovalkovs said wearing the cross, which was a gift from his mother, signified a “commitment to his belief”. However, he was asked to take it off by his line manager, as she felt it was a “hazard” at the chicken wholesalers where he worked, an employment tribunal heard.

    Mr Kovalkovs, a member of the Russian Orthodox Church, was later seen wearing it again at the factory but refused to take off the jewellery, which had a “deep and profound meaning” to him. He was then fired on the spot for disobeying orders. He sued the company and has now been awarded £22,074.68, after the tribunal found the policy and its application was “indirectly discriminatory”.

    The hearing, held in Dundee, was told Mr Kovalkovs joined 2 Sisters Food Group Limited in Coupar Angus, Scotland in November 2019 and was promoted to the role of quality inspector. He wore the silver necklace, which had 30 small links, every day and that it had been sanctified during a baptism ceremony for his godchild.

    However, the company’s foreign body control policy stated: “Jewellery must not be worn in the production areas on site, with the exception of a single plan band ring.” A further exception was made for religious jewellery, subject to a “risk assessment”, the panel heard.

    On the first day of his promotion in December 2019, his line manager, named in the tribunal judgment only as Ms McColl, noticed the necklace and told him to take it off, which he did. However, she did not carry out a risk assessment as she felt the issue had been dealt with, the panel heard.

    Mr Kovalkovs then made a complaint about being bullied at work and was brought in for a meeting with another manager in January 2020, where he wore the necklace. He was asked to remove it and then questioned whether a risk assessment had been carried out, which he said had not, the tribunal was told.

    His line manager was said to be “embarrassed” that this issue had been raised with her own boss, but completed the risk assessment. Mr Kovalkovs went back to work before he was told to go and speak to Ms McColl, who concluded it must be removed because it contained links and could become tangled or trapped, the hearing was told. She then told him to take it off. However, he refused and was sent to HR. He was told that as he had not obeyed a management instruction and was in his probationary period, his employment was ended “immediately”.

    The panel found his dismissal focused “entirely” on the fact that Mr Kovalkovs had not declared the necklace during his induction course when he joined the firm. Upholding his claims, Employment Judge Louise Cowen concluded that it was clear Mr Kovalkovs “had lost a job as a result of the discrimination towards him”.

    She added: “His religion and the wearing of his necklace were of deep and profound meaning to him.”

    In 2013, a British Airways employee won a landmark legal battle to wear a crucifix at work. Nadia Eweida took her case to the European Court of Human Rights, after BA made her stop wearing her white gold cross “visibly”. The court ruled her rights had been violated under article nine of the European Convention on Human Rights.

    A Coupar Angus spokesman said: “We note today’s judgment and at this stage cannot comment any further.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/06/14/christian-factory-worker-fired-spot-refusing-take-necklace

    This is a difficult case because it demonstrates the danger of discrimination law when applied to ideas. You know what comes next: Muslims cannot practise their ‘religion’ [sic] without wearing the clothes or eating the ‘certified’ food or taking days off work in May or blocking the streets to pray et al.

    Religious discrimination law effectivley allows the adherents of an ideology to demand the majority do as they wish – or else. This is not the case with Mr Kovalkovs. He was not asking the world to change for him although I would quibble as to whether his belief was threatened by not being able to wear a small item of jewellery. I doubt that his necklace was visible at more than a few paces, unlike the wearers of certain items of clothing who visibly, provocatively and aggressively proclaim their identity. How many employers have dared to tell a female Muslim employee to show her face or be sacked?

    1. Should have carried out the risk assement and been given the result as soon as possible. Provided everyone else had been treated the same he would have lost his case.

    2. You really shouldn’t wear necklaces and the like in a factory enviroment. Strangely though, they allow a plain wedding band. There are germs harbouring there.

      1. But how was he wearing it? Inside his clothes or outside? The company admits it didn’t carry out a risk assessment.

          1. In which case it is as I said: it shows what is wrong with religious discrimination law. It should have stopped at H&S.

      2. It seems as if his line manager was being decent but didn’t follow process and that decency got them clobbered.

        He should have realised it wasn’t discrimination, but a practical risk assessment due to the environment.

      3. We had this problem years ago with a temp worker who was Iranian. She insisted on wearing her head scarf, so many hairnets were used to confine it.
        She was actually a good worker, but from a hygiene point of view, thank goodness we only needed her for about a week.

    1. Crutch creases are not a good look. When i’m wearing my Tux i never sit down.

  64. Market day in Dorchester , dashed in , it was heaving with tourists and locals, carparks were full.. Full of plant sellers . fruit and veg and meat and loads of colourful clothes . It was very hot . There were some real character market traders , they know how to yell .

    Despite the price of fuel , I was amazed to see hordes of visitors , and coach loads from the Midlands .

    Have now been into the garden , 27c too hot , quickly dead headed roses .. glanced at flowers , why do geums, rock roses and lupins go over so quickly .

    Moh played golf and was home by 1300hts .. he told me . . It was so nice for me to go out and come back to a house that has some one here , besides the dogs .Usually not the case for me .

    Lenny Henry would have commented … why is everyone white?

    1. So glad that Lenny Henry wasn’t there …. Any sign of (Dorset resident) Billy Bragg?

    2. Would Lenny Henry have commented in Ikeja in Nigeria: “Why is everybody black?”
      No.
      So why say that in the UK, unless he is a racist, bigotted, shoulder-chipped git?

    2. Fine; as long as there’s a label showing a conscious animal being flipped on its back and then choking to death on the blood from its slashed throat.
      Then the non-halal diners have a choice.

    1. If anyone didn’t think the problem came wholly and completely from massive uncontrolled gimmigration, I’ve a bridge to sell them.

      These criminals are not screened, so who knows what disease they carry. But hey, worry about the name, not the problem.

    2. Why is the term ‘Monkey Pox’ discriminatory? Have the monkeys complained? Are the great apes kicking up a stink?
      Is this the same unspoken thought that deems Rwanda unsafe for ‘asylum seekers’?
      Surely these gripes aren’t driven by subconscious ……. racism ?

      1. Because football spectators used to make monkey noises and gestures when a black player touched the ball in a game. They also used to throw bananas onto the pitch.

          1. For a second I thought you’d said, “Now they boo the knee-tremblers.” 😉

      2. It’s because the term ‘monkey pox’ makes us laugh. We don’t take it seriously and this is annoying WHO/WEF, Gates and the rest. Gates said ‘well the next one will certainly make them sit up.’ They can scarcely organise a lockdown when we are sniggering about it.

    3. Why is the term ‘Monkey Pox’ discriminatory? Have the monkeys complained? Are the great apes kicking up a stink?
      Is this the same unspoken thought that deems Rwanda unsafe for ‘asylum seekers’?
      Surely these gripes aren’t driven by subconscious ……. racism ?

    4. Chickenpox is an insult to chickens.
      Cowpox is an insult to cattle.
      Smallpox is an insult to… dwarves.

  68. Observations from sitting at a window table in a town centre bar.
    1. Judging by the acres of flesh on display, more expensive food can’t come quickly enough. I wonder how the pavements take the strain. I’m not convinced it’s wheeled traffic causing potholes.
    2. Following on from that, there will soon be a choice between eating or getting another tattoo. Our summers are now blighted by inked skin lumbering around the shops.
    3. And talking of cosmetics, an appalling amount are made in China. Where ever possible I do not buy goods from China, so I came back empty handed.

    1. I use Clinique, which is owned by the Estee Lauder company and used to be made in the good ole US of A but they now admit their products are “globally made” which predictably appears to mean China. The problem is that they’re still good products.

        1. Ooh, I’ll check mine too. I’m at work so googled rather than looking at the jars etc. Maybe it’s only certain lines.

      2. Must check my skin-care labels – I stopped wearing make-up years ago. My skin-care was disrupted when Yves Rocher stopped selling their products here three years ago – I stocked up but now have only a few shower gels left.

    2. Odd isn’t it 99.9% of Men do not bother with ‘Skin Care’ products (other than perhaps lotions for badly chapped hands)….

    3. We have just got back from a short break, walking in the Lake District. We went by train – the number of land whales travelling was somewhat worrying! Luckily we had our table to ourselves [probably my walking socks fighting for our privacy!?].

    4. Shopping is such an adventure! Nothing with palm oil in it and nothing made in China. Sometimes the source of an item is not given, I’ve contacted various places regarding where their stuff is made. Hand made jigsaw on UK Etsy site, but made in China. Nice kitchen stuff from Lakeland, but made in China.
      I cannot find a an electric kettle that is not made in China. How about a toaster, Dualit, surely? Ah well, components made in China and assembled in UK, so…?

      1. You will have nothing, Horace 🙂 Whether you will be happy or not, is another matter.

    2. Slightly off topic*, but does anyone here really believe that Tony Archer (yes, he’s a prat) would really ask his daughter-in-law Natasha if she was going to find out what her babies’ genders were at her upcoming scan?

      I mean, who ever once asked about gender? It’s their sex that you traditionally ask after, isn’t it?

      This whole thing is a load of carp.

      *ok massively off topic

    1. Those self-same greeniacs will be chanting BLM on bended knee and stopping traffic all over the UK for their green paradise.

      Clearly only the criminal fraternity matter.

    2. Can anyone convert that film into a more friendly format?
      I would love to distribute it.

    3. And lucky to get it. A paid job with a secure future, without having ever had to go to school

    4. They lie to themselves. It’s as simple as that. The least zealot admit it and don’t care. The complete eco psychos just don’t care and twist it to demanding that the entire car industry be shut down and everyone take the train to their new fangled work camps.

  73. As nobody else had pasted this, here is the reply from the Petitions Team.

    Dear Anne Allan,

    The Government has responded to the petition you signed – “End the ban on fracking”.

    Government responded:

    The Government does not agree we should lift the pause on hydraulic fracturing at this time given the lack of new, compelling evidence that shale gas extraction can be done safely.

    In response to Putin’s barbaric acts in Ukraine and against the Ukrainian people, it is important that we keep all energy options open. While shale gas could play a part in the UK’s future energy mix, the government has always been clear that its development must be safe.

    The current pause on hydraulic fracturing for shale gas was implemented in November 2019 on the basis of the difficulty in predicting and managing seismic activity caused by the process.

    This followed hydraulic fracturing activities conducted in Lancashire that caused tremors that were widely felt by residents in surrounding areas, in some cases causing minor property damage.

    Following this event, analysis conducted by the expert regulator, the North Sea Transition Authority (formerly called the Oil and Gas Authority), concluded that further analysis would be needed to confirm whether hydraulic fracturing could be done safely.

    Specifically, the NSTA would need to see improvements in:

    – the prediction of whether a site will be seismogenic;

    – the prediction of the likelihood, magnitude, sequencing and timing of seismic events that could be triggered by hydraulic fracturing operations at a site; and

    – the ability to predict faults and their seismogenic susceptibility from, for example, seismic surveys.

    This is needed so that more effective precautionary and mitigation measures can be considered in future hydraulic fracturing plans.

    For shale gas to become a significant contributor to the UK’s energy supply, a significant number of wells would need to be drilled. This is because shale gas is very different to the UK’s typical offshore gas production, where a small number of wells can be sufficient to drain the gas from an entire field. Shale gas extraction instead relies on a continued series of new wells, each of which produces gas for a relatively short time.

    It remains government policy to minimise disruption and damage to those living and working nearby to shale gas exploration sites. Given the lack of new, compelling evidence confirming that hydraulic fracturing can be done safely, the Government does not feel it is appropriate to lift the pause on hydraulic fracturing at this time.

    Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

    This is a revised response. The Petitions Committee requested a response which more directly addressed the request of the petition. You can find the original response towards the bottom of the petition page (https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/608745)

    Click this link to view the response online:

    https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/608745?reveal_response=yes

    The Petitions Committee will take a look at this petition and its response. They can press the government for action and gather evidence. If this petition reaches 100,000 signatures, the Committee will consider it for a debate.

    The Committee is made up of 11 MPs, from political parties in government and in opposition. It is entirely independent of the Government. Find out more about the Committee: https://petition.parliament.uk/help#petitions-committee

    Thanks,

    The Petitions team

    UK Government and Parliament”

    1. Using that word that struck such terror into a lot of people during the scamdemic – ‘safe’.
      Now compare that to supplying arms to Ukraine. Is that safe.
      Get fracking.

      1. Ahem

        Intel Slava Z
        🇷🇺🇪🇺❗Gazprom announced that tomorrow gas deliveries
        to Europe will be reduced from 100 million cubic meters to 67. The
        official reason is the failure of Siemens to fulfill its obligations to
        repair equipment. Tomorrow the gas market will be hot.

    3. “In response to Putin’s barbaric acts in Ukraine and against the
      Ukrainian people, it is important that we keep all energy options open      “- BS!!

    4. “In response to Putin’s barbaric acts in Ukraine and against the
      Ukrainian people, it is important that we keep all energy options open      “- BS!!

    1. I had one of those 5 days ago, sweetie ! … x
      However, I had a par Four today …
      Wordle 361 4/6

      ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
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      🟨🟨⬜🟨🟨
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

          2. I don’t recall talking to my PC. However, there have been numerous occasions in the past where a large number of profane words have been directed at the screen….

          3. I don’t get it….I thought by the time I reached retirement everything would make sense…. growing old gracefully!
            I’m more confused now than when I was sweet sixteen…..

          6. No, I do not. I have no idea about this BS anymore. I feel that there is nothing left for us white people in this land. Everyone else seems to get preferment over the natives and it distresses me.
            Covid was a bloody great excuse to control us and to intimidate us.
            Take the Great off Britain- it isn’t great anymore- just call it Britain. What a total sham.

          8. Plum, I used to cry with joy and pride at the Last Night of the Proms….no more- now I cry with sorrow as what has happened to this once truly great nation.

          9. I got emotional thinking about “Dad’s Army”. However incompetent they might have been as soldiers, they were all prepared to die for us.

          10. Who do you think you are kidding Mr Blair (Sir?!)
            If you think Old England’s on the run?
            We are the boys who will stop your little game
            We are the boys that will make you think again
            ‘Cause Who Do You Think You Are Kidding Mr Blair (Sir?!)
            If You Think Old England’s Done?

          11. I’ve never been proud to be “British”. I’m English (especially after having spend three years at a Welsh university).

          16. Ah, Tottering-by-Gently. One of my favourites. I can so identify with “it’s cold; put another dog on the bed” 🙂

        1. Wordle 361 4/6

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

    4. It was a silly word, but managed a 4.
      Wordle 361 4/6

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

  77. In the later stages of my career I was subjected against my better judgement to the process invented by HR (Human Remains) called Staff Appraisal. I was always disappointed that I never received the coveted accolade of “Feral’ first propounded by Scott Adams. Which only goes to show what an entire waste of time SA was!

  78. ‘Night All

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/71f6765fe991ee00f856d891c5d6d03d4e3334c17667b066d74194f8537d3f75.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e39516d214380fd8e2ffc107566c31d1a45f024613338b41ac417f5e6b0b8e39.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3b48f3fe07ec79187b991c1c02d9df4e536cd8c63fc606075b2db125b57c57c1.jpg

    I’m not saying I’ve had a bad day but……….

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7cc52ebff029bcdc40e409d4973eaf8fa8ad45ef34bf285355ee6c08ac5814d0.png

  79. What a nice afternoon; sat outside and slurped some Pinot while MH had a siesta. Read my book and it was lovely. MH joined me with some plonk of his own. Then two of our neighbours stopped by….Toby the pooch and his mum. She sat down and only wanted a glass of water, so got her that, some water for Toby and, as I have no doggy treats, got a couple of slices of pork pie for Toby. Boy, did he enjoy it! He’ll be breaking the door down tomorrow;-)
    Then our next door neighbour stopped- her husband was taken into hospital a couple of days ago… he is on life support care. Have only met him once but he seemed nice. She wants him home but is infirm herself and not at all sure she can cope. What a situation.

    2. She needs a guarantee of some sort that an ignorant jobsworth masker upper won’t stop her visiting when the time comes.

      1. She wasn’t allowed in the ambulance with him when he was picked up…I am not allowed to be with MH when he’s been in. I refer you to my earlier post about my facial surgery on Monday.
        The NHS is operating like a totalitarian regime- about time it was stopped.

        1. I’d prefer he was given a crown of thorns! Or better still the crown given to Viserys Targaryen in GoT??

        2. I’d prefer he was given a crown of thorns! Or better still the crown given to Viserys Targaryen in GoT??

      2. If I may;
        It’s a disgrace that Blair is still at large and not rotting in his post execution grave!

    2. Prince Charles thinks it’s wrong to send migrants to Rwanda but it’s ok. for them to paddle across the Channel in a leaky boat…

      1. He should be in Rwanda, welcoming them as the surrogate head of the Commonwealth, Rwanda is getting its turn to host the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting from 20 June to 25 June 2022.

        1. I wonder how he will explain to his Rwandan hosts that he thinks their country is not good enough to house criminals?

    4. They weren’t prepared? Not being prepared would them being beaten unconscious with a bat. Being dragged off the street – suddenly finding that ruining people’s lives wasn’t actually welcome? That’s not surprising, it’s surprising they’re not dead.

    1. I know the feeling, but then I think if she heard me totally sober, she’d think something was wrong.

    2. Well, I’m not a Doc but I’ve been Bashful, frequently Sleepy, often Dopey, sometimes Sneezy and most of the time Grumpy, but I wish I could be more Happy.

      1. Try being Sleazee, then you could cavort with Phizzee

        Sorry Phizzee, a cheap shot but too tempting, me being an absolute swine

        1. …”my being an absolute swine”, if you don’t mind. The “me” being “my”, and being “you”, of course.

      2. Not a lot o’ people know this, but:

        The original Snow White by The Brothers Grimm didn’t give the dwarfs (dwarves?) any names.
        They were first assigned names in the Broadway Play Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1912. Those names (from eldest to youngest) were: Blick, Flick, Glick, Snick, Plick, Whick and Quee. It wasn’t until 1937, when Walt Disney made his film of the story, were the well-known modern names coined.

    4. 1. “The purpose of our lives is to make other people unhappy.” — sosraboc

    5. Preventing the government from making me £200 poorer every month would make me happier.

    1. Don’t stick your knife in your mouth and don’t use it as if if you’re going to write with it.

      1. I eat my peas with honey;
        I’ve done it all my life.
        It makes the peas taste funny,
        But it keeps them on the knife.

        1. Bill’s trombetti grew long and hard
          Nuns queued up for them in his yard,
          ‘Twas their weekly treat…
          They were not to eat…
          I’ll finish here or I’ll get barred…..

        2. I do believe Mola slurps enough Guinness to wash any KFC out of his system ;-))

    3. You just have to hope that your host or hostess isn’t a Yank. The way they keep transferring the fork from hand to hand is imbecilic!

      As for schoolchildren in the UK these days, dining etiquette is no longer taught: pigs at the trough have more decorum and good grace.

      1. I liked the tale of the royal banquet, where the guest of honour, knowing no better, drank the content of his finger bowl and the King, seeing what had happened and observing the sneers of the aristocracy attending, picked up his own bowl and drank so that everyone else had to do so too!

  85. The cancellation of the Rwanda flight must be the start of rights reform in Britain

    Boris Johnson’s administration cannot carry on seeking to muddle through, saying the right things, but never actually taking back control

    PATRICK O’FLYNN

    The farcical grounding of the plane due to fly migrants to Rwanda could be the best thing to have happened in the British border control debate for years – providing your blood pressure can take it.

    Many of us suspected from the off that only a tiny number of the 130 migrants originally slated to be flown to Rwanda would end up being deported, given the legal appeals they lodged individually on various human rights grounds.

    But for none at all to be removed and the plane to stay rooted to the tarmac of a Wiltshire airfield as dusk descended was the starkest negation of British democratic sovereignty it was possible to envisage.

    The manner of this epic policy failure – UK lawyers whittling down the passenger numbers to a mere handful before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg intervened at the last and decided that none must fly – means the issue of Britain’s broken and unsustainable asylum system will have to be confronted properly.

    It is no longer possible for our broadcast media, full as it is of liberal-minded graduates who find the idea of immigration control inherently distasteful, to downplay the issue. Millions of their viewers are now too angry for that and will turn over in droves to GB News – the one station to have covered this crisis in depth.

    The trajectory of the Channel-crossing phenomenon is quite obviously unsustainable. In 2018, there were 299 irregular migrants crossing in small boats, in 2019 there were 1,843, in 2020 there were 8,466, in 2021 there were 28,526 and we are on course for over 60,000 this year. Indeed, yesterday several hundred more were arriving even as none were leaving on the Home Secretary’s doomed debut charter flight.

    Right now, more than 35,000 hotel rooms are booked out by the Home Office at a cost to taxpayers of £5 million per day – or £1.8bn a year – to accommodate the huge influx. In time most arrivals are allocated state-funded housing that is therefore not available for the million UK citizens on social-housing waiting lists.

    Boris Johnson’s administration cannot carry on seeking to just muddle through, taking baby steps and saying the right things, but somehow never actually taking back control.

    Johnson may today flatter himself that he will get a poll bounce from being seen at least to have tried to take on the forces of the unelected liberal establishment, both at home and abroad, while the opposition parties were joining forces with it. And in the short-term he might.

    But he has been exposed for presiding over a Government whose writ does not run, the sine qua non of political uselessness.

    Yesterday he pondered aloud about the possibility of using his parliamentary majority to make the removal of those with no right to be in our country a cast-iron certainty. “Will it be necessary to change some laws to help us as we go along? It may very well be and all these options are under constant review,” he said.

    Under review is not good enough now. The millions of voters who thought British governments no longer needed to bend the knee to European tribunals will no doubt feel deeply disillusioned to learn that while the grip of the EU’s Court of Justice has indeed been largely broken, we still accept the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights.

    Usually that body acts as a strategic and relatively light-touch institution whose final rulings must be “taken note of” by its signatories after years of legal to-and-fro. Yesterday it behaved like an emergency court, effectively issuing on-the-day injunctions to overturn the verdict of the British courts on the overall legality of the proposed Rwanda flight.

    This loss of British sovereignty to unelected Continental power is precisely what the Brexit debate was supposed to have addressed. So a political agenda some are dubbing “Brexit 2.0” is now in plain view.

    If he chooses to do so, Johnson can be the leader who advances it. If he chooses not to then it will advance nonetheless but millions of erstwhile Tory voters will seek out a new Nigel Farage figure to champion it. Perhaps, indeed, the old Nigel Farage will oblige.

    Johnson must now ask Dominic Raab, the Justice Secretary, both to speed up and beef up his proposals to reform the UK human rights regime. Not only do we need a British Bill of Rights that better protects the interests of law-abiding citizens to replace Tony Blair’s Human Rights Act, but we also need to pull out of the jurisdiction of the ECHR and probably to resile from the European Convention it interprets. Various outdated and unsustainable international refugee conventions, drawn up before the era of mass migration, must also be dumped.

    A new law to abolish any means of claiming asylum from inside the UK – with only those lodging claims at designated overseas refugee camps entitled to be considered for resettlement – is also long overdue.

    We have reached one of those “who governs Britain?” moments that come along every few decades. But Boris Johnson must not ask us – as Edward Heath fatally did in 1974 – instead he must show us.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/06/15/cancellation-rwanda-flight-must-start-rights-reform-britain/

    1. But for none at all to be removed and the plane to stay rooted to the tarmac of a Wiltshire airfield as dusk descended was the starkest negation of British democratic sovereignty it was possible to envisage.

      Quite

      1. While a lot of our law does come frominternational bodies, we should have the ability to ignore it. The state has forced us in to corner for it’s own benefit.

  86. Right, back to the weekend!
    On Saturday I woke far too late to catch the sunrise, but it was a lovely start.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6002cb41ff1a8a2a52a8658ba6422fbd177ffcc4367888405249c0837748f870.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2800f787f02966c785e3452a580588bb2c3da3151c9075bb815724bd5cc9351c.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b1a756d02f44a4ea566b2ce825ffb68c44eaf7aa53b096a67fde313d163d53f1.jpg

    Then an early run into Skeggy;
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cdd9f5e1f32c56a56841c4efe7bfbec55c0db1e577616daaa472d1a8369bd8de.jpg

    With a Hello to the Jolly Fisherman;
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/be829f2212859cf5ef2d2cc4256db8024c8424e0217b98aee94f53d99351f58b.jpg

    Rather saddened to see this old place looking to be demolished. Apparently some idiot bit off more than he could chew when he bought it and began to strip the interior out, INCLUDING load bearing walls which destabilised the place.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/af25d1ef794cecb05b14bf249e9a01bfd67054fb034f1fc15bdaa887d6c63f17.jpg

    I wonder what Miss L. Stretton would think of it?
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/29c16c8f9616bd145ee0b6b3673235c20ee91fc64e4f7d8fd2c4154b4bb2231c.jpg

    1. In the top photo – are those half-submerged wrecks out there in the water? What a shame about the old chapel, if that’s what it is.

      2. One of the many redundant Primitive Methodist Chapels that you find scattered round the country.

      3. There are two pairs of wrecks that were used as targets when the range was in use.
        There are also a number of armoured vehicles scattered round the impact area which have sunk into the sands.
        If you do a search on RAF Wainsfleet bombing range, you ought to find them.

  87. I’m watching Spring watch again, and yes I know that most people hate Packham, but the photography is superb.
    Muted it has to be one of the finest shows of camerawork by the TV crews almost anywhere apart from the hugely expensive Attenborough programmes.

    1. I don’t hate Chris Packham – I can’t say I agree with him on everything either, but I have met him a few times and for someone with Aspergers, he masks it pretty well. He did a series of talks, with proceeds of a stall going to Africat – I helped at several of those, and his people skills are lacking, but he manages to overcome that.

      As you say, the photography is wonderful.

      1. I would love to invite him to be here in our Spring; I think he would be absolutely staggered by the variety of wildlife and vegetation that we get in, and flying around, our six acres, which I keep relatively wild.

        Everything from wild boar and deer to foxes, weasels, pine martens and stoats,
        Hares, voles, rats and mice, bats in at least five flavours, owls in similar variety, raptors, corvids, pigeons doves, too many types of tit to name unless you’re Grizzly.
        I am reasonably sure I’ve seen over 100 different bird species, I have at least 20 types of orchid. I could continue, but I suspect you get the drift.

          1. When we first arrived here there were very few orchids obviously visible.
            Every Spring I have marked the position of “possibles” with sticks and avoided cutting near them. Often I’ve been mistaken, but year on year more have appeared.
            It has reached the stage that the locals are doing similarly, following the path of their crazy Englishman; even the verge cutters know to avoid the edge of my plot.
            What fascinates me about them is the relationship with funghi, you can see them following down the “paths” that the funghi grow, it is particularly visible with the ghost orchids, the ones which don’t produce their own chlorophyll.

        2. Hi Sos ,

          Why do I worry about species extinction here in the UK when over there in France you have an abundance of wild life .

          Is it because we are heavily full of agricultural land here ?

          2. When I view the landscape around us in North Essex adjacent the Stour I often tell Carol that it will take some time yet for the bastards to build up England.

            Now I have doubts, new estates going up everywhere. It is all deliberate government policy, not to cater for English folk, but to house illegal migrants.

            Thankfully, for the present, plans to build thousands of houses on the nearby Wethersfield Airfield and MOD establishment site by Braintree District Council (in cahoots with equally corrupt developers) have been rejected and withdrawn.

          4. I was having a discussion with a French friend who lives in a village just a few miles away where there are big wheat/grain fields. He says it is surprising that around him he has a fraction of the insect and birdlife we do, because of the farmer’s actions. and yet we are practically neighbours. It doesn’t take much to upset the balance.

          5. Morning Sos

            See my query / comment this morning , which off course is now answered by your comment and observation .

            It all makes sense now . 😭😥

        3. I can only boast lots of birds and an amnesiac squirrel (he keeps forgetting where he buried my hazelnuts).

          1. Our very aggressive squirrel remembered that he had buried the nuts from a nearby Walnut tree, under the lead flashing to one of the chimneys, buried under Thatch so to speak.

            The squirrel had eaten away part of the lead flashing to access the nuts, causing us more expense in restoring lead flashing and employing Thatcher to repair damage.

            I would that the ‘rat with a punk hairstyle’ dies from lead poisoning. Fat chance I suppose.

  88. Someone I haven’t seen around for a long while:
    Perdita Plews.

    I hope you are keeping well and might join in again on Nottle

    3. Hi Sos, and LotL, thanks for asking. I have been trying to limit my time online as I was driving myself mad obsessing over the state of this country (Covid/response to Covid/Green Agenda and Net Zero/totally useless Parliament – i could go on). I do sometimes look in, will endeavour to do so more often, especially when I need cheering up!

      2. Hi P. I once worked with a Doreen Plews – I don’t suppose she’s a relation?

        1. Not as far as I know, but like most people I probably do have relatives that I don’t know about.

      3. Good news that there was a non-Nottle reason for your absence, I’m sure many feel similarly.

  89. However, just up the road, we have this building, the old Police Station and Magistrates Court now in use as a bar and entertainment venue:-
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/87358e9ca53ea61abd2fe9e2f99ef41022f1a9a4260bc75b785e147a83eb334b.jpg

    Inside looks VERY nice. This was the courtroom where the Bench sat:-
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ae64d03834538e99b45d933bc350b65690dbb578b404e4c4089836cc6048f503.jpg

    The building had been taken over by the DHSS for a period and a false ceiling put in. When the present owner bought it, it had not been seen for over 40y!
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e7a8b8d96cc1b4d15aa197a7da397f59b05de39e833f676fb99eab733d63a560.jpg

    The owner is also building up a collection of British memorabilia and plans having part of the building as a small museum.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5a9dcec7575cff2af919701b2d0f43fa6574e53c95426cc35c74f0d9700d40a5.jpg

    And, of course, there are the cells:-
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2658ec2ea7bb377fb4b3a082d95d7e1c123040ecfc8346dc5eea289b3e846b15.jpg

    And a walk along the High Street to the beach;
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6f6005199765989e79660800620824382ab81e69b2f52d7ca4d079abbb77a116.jpg

    And the lineup for the local Donkey Derby:-
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/66ac5994b12cd651338610747188fbd6a9555413e8e8c1bac6bf3482cd3119a7.jpg

        1. Ah! Just sat down again after dinner, so haven’t seen the earlier ones yet. It’s somewhere i’ve never been.

    3. I have lost count of the number of very fine buildings I have surveyed where raised floors, suspended ceilings and vile partitioning has wrecked formerly glorious volumes and spaces. Major banks are the main culprits.

      Mostly I have been in a position to rectify matters and restore such buildings to their former state.

  90. Whilst still on Skegness beach, I was lucky enough to see the weary explorers returning thankfully back to their base camp from a long and arduous trek to the far reaches of the waste lands of the Lincolnshire coast:-
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a48673e5f6fb5475d105d64e7ac5fcc3a4425dd99766977d2be9abd686138c8a.jpg

    After a quick swim at Sutton on sea, cut short because of the persistent fresh and strong breeze, it was back to my camp site, a bite to eat and a walk to the end of the track that leads into the ranges.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bf2ae1046ea3224b23b9020689278d55fd94561eee72fc7569927e7bfc75ee9c.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7252278e47a5d9739730549b607699f00641a2b9e2a3f68930eef47edf5163b3.jpg

    Passing close enough to the remains of a couple of the targets to get some passable pictures:
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cbc7e2a6e8aca89583311cc11fac3c51cdec1433bbb8f9408dce028bad10acc8.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/945fce8b72afc4245fcda7c5119bf64ddba9ec3999fa7429d91e4c65381385d6.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f7ea8b71b647ca3316f7d518331da90898a8fe44d94e41d6af5599cfc4ae6504.jpg

    Then a mug of tea and into my sleeping bag.

    1. I don’t know what it is about donkeys, but I can’t think of many other creatures that have such a similar appeal to children,

      1. Sos, I love donkeys. My late aunt, when I stayed with her, always took me to feed the donkeys near where she lived. We pulled carrots from her garden and fed them to the sweet fuzzy creatures.
        I had a donkey ride on Margate beach when I was small and it was so nice….donkey’s name was Egbert.

        1. I used to stay quite often in Weston Super Mare with my uncle & aunt – donkey rides were always a popular activity there. Their other niece, Jane, was a bit older than I was and we had a good laugh over the names on the headbands of the donkeys, as they curved round and one appeared to be called “toilet”, although on closer inpection it was Violet.

          1. I spent a couple of very happy years in Muller’s Home and attended the village school in Uphill near Weston Super Mare in the sixties.

            The Home was run by a strict couple with three sons, name of Buttery.

            We occasionally went to the beach and loved the donkey rides.

            Other treats included the Saturday cinema where we got to see popular kids stuff of the time.

          2. It was another world, wasn’t it! My uncle and aunt were childless in the 1950s so Jane and I were like daughters until Susan was born. I’ve only been back to Weston once since their funerals.
            Sadly Susan died a few years ago, aged only 57.

        2. They are so docile, friendly looking (and I know one should not anthropomorphise) that they seem to be on a child’s wavelength.

          1. It is their fuzzy muzzles… and, in my experience, they are so gentle. Love them and wish I had room for one- but then where would I put my husband? 😉

        3. Gosh, this is a bit-of-a “David Copperfield” world you’re describing (although with a different casting brush tp that of the recent Ianoucci film).

          1. You may call me many things but I am no Betsy Trottwood.
            I take it that the movie you are referring to is the one where Dev Patel, although an excellent actor, was cast as Copperfield.
            I really don’t care how talented actors are but cast them as the ethnicity portrayed in the play, novel or period of history. Anne Boleyn, for example, was not black- she was a white female. I don’t give a damn how gifted the actress was- Anne Boleyn was white not black.
            Am sick to death of all this as I suspect many others are. Grrr.

          2. I absolutely agree with you, Ann. However, the woke organisers of the Hollywood annual Academy Awards (Oscars) have given a couple of years’ notice that any films made without a representative of each minority (race, sexual orientation, etc) in the future will not be eligible for for consideration. So, of course, the studios are now “taking the knee” as it were by complying instead of standing up to this wokery.

          3. I absolutely agree with you, Ann. However, the woke organisers of the Hollywood annual Academy Awards (Oscars) have given a couple of years’ notice that any films made without a representative of each minority (race, sexual orientation, etc) in the future will not be eligible for for consideration. So, of course, the studios are now “taking the knee” as it were by complying instead of standing up to this wokery.

    3. Same old same old in the UK, every few years especially during a Conservative government the Union dickheads get together to make some sort of obscure point as this will, bring the country to a stand still.
      And Train drivers ready on 60 grand a year.

    1. Trudeau told Canadians that they don’t have the right to defend themselves with a gun just a couple of hours before he appeared in public surrounded by armed bodyguards.

    1. The Democrats deserve to be out of power for a generation following this pathetic sham of government.
      I read an interesting theory today that the core of the Democrat party came out of the descendants of the Puritans, and the Republicans came from other traditions.

        1. Ah yes, that’s right, so it was! I get lost in my wanderings on the internet sometimes!

      2. Perhaps it is time to hand over the government of the US to the Native Americans. It’s doubtful they could do any worse given their experience with alcohol and running casinos…..

    2. If I were a Latino, having settled in the US legally, I would be opposed to Biden’s policy of letting all and sundry in via the southern border without due process and without the hurdles others were obliged to go through.

      Of course, as ever with pure evil intent, Biden’s policy has already backfired. Hispanic voters have shifted over to the Republican Party. These folk are not stupid despite the fact that Democrats assume they are just that. This is a wake up call for the Democrats whose cosy assumption that all Blacks and Hispanics will vote for them are shot.

  95. Going to bed- pain awful but if I stay up I will be totally pissed.
    Sorry if my rude limerick upset anyone….
    Donkeys rule ;-))

    1. 353232+ up ticks,

      Evening LD,
      They are doing what eu assets do & are highly successful doing it.

  97. 353232+ up ticks,

    May one ask, why knowingly put NOTA on the ballot sheet in regards to the political toxic trio lab/lib/con it really does seem to be such a negative
    ploy knowing the pedigree of these ersatz, in name only party’s, they have proven to be NOT the genuine article, and this has truly been the case for thirty plus years, you can observe the results daily.

    Marking time until the ” right” lab/lib/con leader comes along, the majority of the electorate will be devout islam followers before that is likely to happen.

    Join a fringe party, finance it & build on it even if at the start there is no candidate local, think before joining what these party leaders are fighting
    for and can they be observed doing so, that to my mind is a very POSITIVE move in the right direction.

  98. 353232+ up ticks,

    May one ask, why knowingly put NOTA on the ballot sheet in regards to the political toxic trio lab/lib/con it really does seem to be such a negative
    ploy knowing the pedigree of these ersatz, in name only party’s, they have proven to be NOT the genuine article, and this has truly been the case for thirty plus years, you can observe the results daily.

    Marking time until the ” right” lab/lib/con leader comes along, the majority of the electorate will be devout islam followers before that is likely to happen.

    Join a fringe party, finance it & build on it even if at the start there is no candidate local, think before joining what these party leaders are fighting
    for and can they be observed doing so, that to my mind is a very POSITIVE move in the right direction.

  99. Interesting US BTL Comment:

    You Only Live Twice
    …
    The problems is all the international UST holders are selling. Started with Russia who sold 84% of UST holdings in Q1 2018, and got rid of the rest in 2021. Saudi Arabia started selling in 2020 and is down 36.7% (so they are not only not petrodollar recycling, they are net sellers). All the other GCC countries were net sellers also, and Japan has been selling and China since January when everyone joined, bond prices fell and yields are rising fast.

    The problem is the petrodollar died in 2018-2020 and the Fed wasn’t paying attention. Then they printed 5 trillion in an oil crash and low demand environment in Spring 2020 in the corporate market bailout. But, here is the kicker – the BOE, BOC and ECB all participated in the madness at the same time so the entire western monetary system is systemically in trouble. And, China and Russia are trying to take down the petrodollar. Russia gave it a giant kick in the nuts by forcing the EU to pay for natgaz in rubles. And the Chinese are trying to get the Saudis to accept yuan for oil and include yuan-based futures in Aramco’s pricing list. China is buying from the Russians in yuan and rubles for the next 30 years (well the contract was signed in 2014, so 22 is left) and a whole bunch of infrastructure came online in 2019 (Power of Siberia pipeline and 5 LNG stations). So, you have oil producers selling bonds, not recycling and a bunch of oil and gas being not paid for in USD. The petrodollar system has one function: export inflation. And now it’s in full reverse.

    So there the Fed is in full dznuts mode. The US (and UK) are trying to get the EU off Russian energy not because it’s Russian, but because it’s not paid for in dollars to sources paid for in dollars. And in a bonehead move, the Senate Judiciary approved NOPEC that the Saudis told us would result in them ending the petrodollar. And, going full insanity, Draghi and Yellen want to form an oil buyers cartel with the US/UK/EU to control pricing artificially and put caps on Russian Oil, taking the power away from OPEC+, which is likely to piss them off more than they already are.

    AND, if OPEC ends the petrodollar, then the Fed is screwed – there is no tool to fix that.

    1. The CBDC replacement dollar is scheduled to be launched in the second quarter of 2023, so about a year from now, I heard. Apparently this is one of those things that they have admitted up front.
      But in order to do that, they have to bring things to such a state that people will accept digital slavery, which is why the Fed is completely unconcerned about the inevitable dollar crash.

  100. Evening, all. ITV is at it again with the eco-lunacy; during the coverage of Royal Ascot today, they were wittering on about how carbon neutral Ascot was aiming to be. They trumpeted that Ascot were using a battery-powered lawn mower in the paddocks! And where does the electricity come from to charge it up? What about the batteries and the rare earth minerals used in their manufacture? Dumb and woke in equal measures. Oh, and the other lunacy was pressing for HM to include “celebrities” in the carriage procession. On a happier note, the Connemara did quite a good half pass this afternoon. He’s getting there, slowly.

    1. BBC has just informed us that most of Somerset and Bristol will be under water by 2050. I’ll be underground long before then so will not be able to check if they were right or not.

          3. “The Grave’s a fine and private place but none I think do there embrace”

      2. 363232+ up ticks,

        Evening N,

        Weight of illegals & their accommodation will be the cause.

        2. You ought to see the fossils I find in the stone I’m using for the wall!

      4. I was around a friend’s place yesterday and I had the misfortune to see Channel 5 news. A reporter was in Happisburgh, pronounced as Haze-borough in Norfolk, informing people about the threat of erosion from the rising sea levels. Matter-of-fact declaration of rising sea levels causing erosion although erosion in that area, and other areas of the coast in both Suffolk and Norfolk, has been happening for millennia. Clearly this person hasn’t heard of Dunwich, once a large port in Suffolk that disappeared under the sea in the 13th century. Balanced reporting is long dead where climate is the subject (and many other subjects that fit government narratives).

    2. I can’t stand the way they bring the climate fantasy into everything these days!

  101. And there you have it:

    “Greg Smith MP
    @gregsmith_uk
    There have been multiple occasions this Parliament of legislation passed with great speed. What last night showed is we now need the same speed and urgency to bring in a UK Bill of Rights and remove all power of the European Court of Human Rights over our sovereign decisions.”

    1. Has he got Covid because he has not had any gene therapy or because he has had too much gene therapy?

      2. That Fauci fits the description of a character in a former Poet Laureate’s poem about a horse and its farrier: ‘ferret faced and rat bodied’.

        I see a stark resemblance between Fauci and Goebbels. Both have similar bodies and similar mindsets. Both appear to have hated and despised human beings.

  105. Until now, drivers could claim up to £1,500 from the Government to put towards a plug-in car costing less than £32,000.

    But yesterday the Department for Transport (DfT) announced it has scrapped the scheme, at a time when fuel prices are hitting new records
    https://metro.co.uk/2022/06/14/electric-car-grants-of-1500-scrapped-despite-record-high-fuel-prices-16823855/

    However, now that you can’t afford the fossil fuel to run your internal combustiion engine you can work from home (particularly if you are a train driver) and even get a sick note from your pharmacist if your train isn’t running..
    Your additional heating costs this winter can be met by using the even more generius Government grant of £5,000 for installing an air source heat pump costing half as much as an electric car. What is more, you can even get another £1000 for digging up your garden and installing a ground source version but this doesn’t extend to window boxes.

    If you can’t stand remaining in the UK with all these benefits you can always take an all expenses paid holiday to Rwanda courtesy of HM’s Gov with the return ticket funded from legal assistance funded by the British taxpayer.

    As the Dalia Lama said jokingly:

    “Happiness is having a home you can go to in Tibet’

    😉

    1. “Happiness is having a home you can go to in Tibet’

      Go long on Yak skins and learn who are your real friends before huddling one another tightly.

      1. or…

        Keep your friends close.
        Keep your enemies closer – you may need to shaft them.

  107. Today’s leading letter:

    SIR – The Government’s effort to deport illegal immigrants to Rwanda has turned into a farce, sabotaged by a small yet vociferous minority and aided and abetted by liberal lawyers (report, June 15).

    For many years it has seemed almost impossible to deport anyone from Britain, no matter what their crime or how invalid their claim to remain. The doctrine of human rights seems to trump all other arguments.

    To enter any country without proper documentation or without going through a recognised point of access is illegal. Britain, a sovereign state, has the undeniable right to decide who is allowed to live here, and its government has the executive powers to act on this.

    Britain has a long history of accepting genuine refugees and needs no lectures on its responsibilities, international or otherwise. Most voters are fed up with seeing their wishes thwarted by Left-wing activists.

    Mick Richards
    Worcester

    We also have lazy ministers and incompetent legislators, Mr Richards, which is why lawyers are able to drive a coach and horses through every attempt to fix the problem – and all at our expense via legal aid, too. As usual the bottomless pit of taxpayer funding stumps up to effectively fund this invasion. We must be a laughing stock.

  108. SIR – I am nearly 93 and have voted Conservative all my life, but will withhold my support next time if the awful plan to send migrants to Rwanda eventually goes ahead.

    I am horrified at what is being done to correct a problem that lies mostly with the French, who have shamelessly allowed (or even encouraged) migrants to travel across the country across their country to the Calais area – where they live in appalling conditions – with the sole aim of crossing the Channel, at enormous risk, and seeking refuge with us.

    Kel Prince
    Rothley, Leicestershire

    So what’s your solution, Kel Prince? Once again the word ‘refuge’ is used but the words ‘economic’, ‘illegal’ and ‘migrants’ are missing!

    1. What on earth is horrific about sending migrants to a safe country where there are jobs for them?

  109. SIR – Nicola Sturgeon has had the temerity to launch a work of fiction: “Independence in the Modern World. Wealthier, Happier, Fairer: Why Not Scotland?” (Leading Article, June 15).

    She and her acolytes have ignored advice from the esteemed economist Professor John Kay, that Scotland would be likely to begin independence in debt by£180 billion, with a need to borrow about £20 billion per annum.

    The real question is why, after 15 years of SNP government, Scotland as a nation is not already “wealthier, happier and fairer”, with tax-raising powers and control over education and the NHS. According to Ms Sturgeon, it is all Westminster’s fault.

    I look forward to her answering the real questions – around currency, tax, our borders, Nato and EU membership, nuclear weapons, and the role of the Bank of England in an independent Scotland – with facts and authority. Until she can, independence is a fantasy that will continue to divide our nation and waste our money.

    Richard Allison
    Edinburgh

    Spot on, matey!

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