Wednesday 16 February: Heat pump advocates ignore the realities of Britain’s energy supply

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

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

788 thoughts on “Wednesday 16 February: Heat pump advocates ignore the realities of Britain’s energy supply”

  3. From yesterdays page:
    According to NRK (https://www.nrk.no/nyheter/… the EU has a Plan for gas supply in case Russia stops sending the stuff. They have been talking to the USA, Egypt, Qatar…
    Right.
    So, there are masses of LNG carriers just sitting around waiting to be used, are there? Hundreds of LNG liquefaction plants just idling away? Loads of receiving & regasification terminals, yes? Fucking idiots the lot of them. They have actively got themselves into this position by relying one one monopolistic supplier, now their nuts are in a vice. And Vlad can turn the screw whenever he wants to.

    1. Morning Oberst. This has been calculated. If Vlad should turn off the gas (which he is not going to do) the capacity does not exist to replace it!

      1. Indeed.
        One wonders where these people come from that get into this position. You don’t have to be a gold-medal supply chain manager to understand how it works. Even a Greats graduate should be able to get it.

        1. Of course if the Americans were planning to bomb the Russian pipelines this would be a sensible measure!

    2. At least if Putin does then being in cold and dark homes and thinking of increased bills (anyone remember the 1970s?) may give his cheerleaders here something to think about.

      1. Vlad is not going to turn off the gas! It would be the death of the Russian Oil and Gas industry. No one would ever trust them again and they need the money!

        1. Who trusts Putin now? Why would it be the death when Russia has built up financial reserves and a long cut-off would unite everyone against Putin, leading to terrible consequences for him?

          1. Who trusts Putin now?

            Well me for a start and all reserves eventually run out. As to your final sentence, though confused, it simply supports my own view!

          2. I’m confused am I? Ha ha.

            Due to your constant pro-Putin/Russia and anti-U.K. stance that you repeat countless times every day, I doubt anyone is confused about you.

          3. Well I hope that they are not confused, if they are it’s not due to any reticence on my part. I try to make my comments as clear as possible. I support both Putin and the UK. They are natural allies especially between ordinary people. You on the other hand support a corrupt system that hates both. Look around you at the people you support. Liars, Traitors, Pederasts and Thieves. I am 75 years old and in the normal course of events have only a very few years left to me. I don’t know what age you are but I hope you live a very long time so that you can see what you are helping to bring into the World! It will be a tyranny like no other!

          4. You don’t support the U.K. You are anti-western throughout. You are indistinguishable from a Russian propagandist.

          5. You are indistinguishable from a Russian propagandist.

            Really? Oddly enough I came by my views on Putin and Russia by way of the Western MSM. This partly because I don’t speak or read Russian but more importantly there is no Russian Propaganda, English or otherwise, of any significance to read. Everything you see or think you know about the Russian Federation comes via slanted articles in the western media. These are usually by a small group of journalist shills and think tanks who make a living from it. Any quotes are segmented and in reported speech so that they can be parcelled out for disinformation purposes. There is literally no one reporting Russia’s views. I didn’t really notice this until I was retired and had time to indulge my interests in politics. Up till then my views were pretty well those of everyone else. The turning point came with the Skripal Affair. I was able to sit at my keyboard and watch as an entire event was manufactured and manipulated by Politicians and the UK Security Services in collusion with the MSM. This was a seminal moment for me. Truth has strange effects. Once you have seen it, it works away regardless of your personal circumstances and can no longer be ignored.

          8. Antagonism doesn’t help either, Dale. Russia has problems of it’s own.

            Honestly Araminta, I think the suggestion of truth from Russian media is equally as scarce as it is from domestic stuff. As always, your side, their side and the truth.

          9. That polarises the discussion though. There are good and bad from both sides – albeit I tend to agree that utin is presenting a more financially rational and practical approach to his nation and he is if anything, clearly a patriot where our bunch are liars and fools, but Putin also has downsides in his viciousness.

          10. Being respectfully admiring of Putin is not anti-UK. It is realistic, perhaps wistful. A statesman who works for his people and country is what we in the UK have lacked these last few decades.

          11. I agree. I, too, admire Putin in many ways. But Smade’s posts go on and on eulogising Putin and denigrating the West and it’s leaders. He/she is indistinguishable from a paid Russian propagandist.

          12. Good morning Dale, and everyone.
            Problem with propaganda is that some of it may contain a kernel of truth, though I have to ignore her defence of the Putinies vis a vis the Salisbury poisonings. Whilst the Russian people may be natural allies of the West, the regime is not. There is no independent judiciary in Russia, and that has consequences for human rights, the economy and any aspiring politicians. Mr Putin is unable to see that he is living in the past.

          13. I’ve always assumed that’s where his posts emanate from. I had him blocked because of this for a long time.

          14. That doesn’t help the debate though. Blocking someone is simply petty. If someone refuses to listen to reason then ignore that, but cutting off the voice doesn’t stop the screaming. Only engaging does.

          15. Have you ever tried to ‘engage’ with Ogga, Wibbles?

            The comeback is always the same UKIP type rhetoric.

            I too have blocked his tedious posts.

          16. Who trusts Putin now?

            Well me for a start and all reserves eventually run out. As to your final sentence, though confused, it simply supports my own view!

          17. To extrapolate

            Who trusts

            Johnson
            Micron
            Biden
            (un)Trudeau
            The EU
            WEF
            UN
            IMF
            infact anyone or any organisation, except Fellow Nottlers pf course

          21. I would trust Putin, I would love him to protect our borders .

            He wouldn’t put up with the nonsense we are currently financing .

            There is so much secrecy now, we haven’t a clue how many invaders are coming ashore off the South coast .

      2. It would be a unique idea if our government did something of the benefit for the citizens of the U.K. Get rid of the 5% VAT on domestic fuel, open up the North Sea to harvest natural gas and oil sitting on our doorstep rather than importing from far flung countries. If all this ‘green’ stuff is so great let private enterprise develop it without government interference and the imposition of tax on all households.

    4. No, this isn’t an accident. It isn’t by chance that energy is now scarce. It’s deliberate. Big fat state wanted to force our economy into stagnation by making the thing that sets us apart from the third world so expensive we couldn’t afford it.

      Thus our energy is expensive by intent. The EU, the greens, the Left *wanted* this situation. It’s all some insane socialist plan. Why, I don’t know, as categorically high energy prices hurt the poorest most. The green nonsense is idiotic farce. Everyone knows this, yet trillions is poured into the lie that the axial tilt of the earth and sun can be controlled by paying the blob more tax.

  4. Queen to help pay for £12m Prince Andrew settlement. 16 February 2022.

    The Duke of York will pay his accuser more than £12 million using money from the Queen, The Telegraph can disclose.

    It was announced on Tuesday that Prince Andrew, 61, had reached an out of court settlement with Virginia Roberts Giuffre, meaning he will no longer face a jury trial on claims that he sexually abused and raped her on three separate occasions when she was 17.

    Yes I thought that the Bank of Mum and Dad would come in somewhere. I note that my guess as to the amount was not far astray!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2022/02/15/queen-help-pay-12m-prince-andrew-settlement/

  6. ‘Morning, Peeps.

    A good rebuttal of yesterday’s promo letter wherein heat pumps were made to sound as if they are the answer to all our problems:

    SIR – The heat pump experts (Letters, February 15) paint a rosy picture of our gas-free future.

    However, they fail to acknowledge that heat pumps use electricity, of which about 40 per cent is still being generated by gas.

    They say electricity bills are higher due to the cost of gas. This is not true: they are higher because of the green levies used to pay for excessive wind turbine and solar panel construction.

    They say that nuclear and wind power can compensate when we have gas-price spikes, but the truth is that we have almost reduced our nuclear capacity to zero, and we can never rely on wind power.

    A final point: if heat pumps are so good, would it not be reasonable to ask suppliers to provide a refund if they do not keep our houses at an appropriate temperature when it is sub-zero outside?

    Professor R G Faulkner
    Loughborough, Leicestershire

    1. Nice idea Prof but they know these heat pumps are incapable of providing the heat levels needed so would end refunding virtually all the victims.

      1. It’s the state enforce that bugs me most. If heat pumps were more efficient, cheaper and better than boilers people would be biting legs off to get them, but they’re clearly not, or else the technology would*already* be available.

        Folk make arguments that only once it’s used will it get better – this is a nonsense, as if they were better initially they’d now be growing. It’s simply forcing something on people by diktat. When ever big fat state does that, we end up with rampaging problems.

        1. Similar with the Convid jabs. If they really were effective long-term, and had been properly tested and approved, then we wouldn’t need to be ‘persuaded’ to get them.

    2. Nice idea Prof but they know these heat pumps are incapable of providing the heat levels needed so would end refunding virtually all the victims.

  7. SIR – At low temperatures, my heat pump is only effective with increased electricity usage. I am glad I retained my oil boiler so that I can turn the heat pump off in cold weather. The boiler was also much cheaper to replace.

    The authors of Tuesday’s letter in support of heat pumps – including representatives of electricity suppliers and heat pump associations – would naturally say that they are efficient. But to my mind efficiency involves reducing costs, not increasing them, and I would like to know how these pumps can achieve that in very cold conditions.

    David Germain
    Salisbury, Wiltshire

    The absurdity contained within David Germain’s second sentence will not be lost on those with half a brain!

  8. You’re going to feel this, Biden tells Americans, as Ukraine war looms. 16 February 2022.

    Joe Biden’s speech sounded like a closing argument, one that had been honed for some time and one that suggested expectations are still high in the White House that Russia will take military action.

    Biden briefly nodded to Moscow’s claims to be withdrawing before abruptly contradicting them, raising the US estimate of the number of troops surrounding Ukraine to 150,000 in a “threatening position”.

    It was the sort of speech normally delivered on the eve of momentous action, usually military action, to prepare expectations of the population. Biden addressed the American people directly, telling them he was not going to “pretend this will be painless” and that they would feel it at the petrol pump. He promised his administration would do what it could to alleviate that.

    Of course he’s doolally but he might still be going ahead with the False Flag scenario out of frustration or perhaps an attack on the Nordstream 2 pipeline out of pure spite.

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/feb/16/youre-going-to-feel-this-biden-tells-americans-as-ukraine-war-looms

    1. Does he have the foggiest idea what petrol costs? It’s necessity and use in the economy? The effect high prices have on fuel?

      I doubt it. He has someone else fill his car up and yet more people to pay for it – tax payers. He’s a parasite, having never contributed a penny of his own money to anything. Economically illiterate, arrogant and backward.

    2. As ever, Basement Joe is late to the party. The US has been able to ‘feel it at the petrol pump’ from the minute he closed pipelines from Canada and vastly reduced domestic production. Sounds like he read last year’s speech by mistake.

  11. SIR – Like many others who fought for years to prevent the destruction of our countryside by fracking, I have been appalled by the calls for the Government to reverse its decision to stop it.

    It is worth remembering why drilling was suspended: there were earth tremors. Meanwhile, in the United States, fracking has resulted in massive pollution and desertification.

    Finally, this destruction would disproportionately affect the North, where the main coalfields were, and where Britain’s fracking operations were due to take place.

    Cdr Alan York RN (retd)
    Sheffield, South Yorkshire

    I fear that poor old Yorkie is losing it. The kind of earth tremors associated with fracking were mostly extremely minor, and rarely any worse than those that occur naturally. Drilling was suspended because the limits were set absurdly low, thus strangling the life out of fracking before it was allowed to get going.

    As for the “destruction of the countryside” just take a look at the longstanding method of extraction on Furzey Island in Poole Harbour – a more sensitive site would be hard to find for the largest onshore oil farm in western Europe. And yet there has been no such destruction. Indeed, people who are unfamiliar with it do not even realise it exists. Fortunately it is not in a place where the soap-dodgers and their chums can force its ckosure, as they did at Balcombe.

  14. SIR – I have no problem with a generous pension for a distinguished public servant, such as the retiring head of the Metropolitan Police, Cressida Dick.

    However, the actuarial value of the pension pot required to service an annual pension of £160,000 is so much greater than the limit placed upon the value of a pension set aside through saving by private individuals that it raises serious questions about how the public sector has been treating itself to pensions which private individuals could not possibly afford.

    Charles Pugh
    London SW10

    Quite so, Charles Pugh. And let us not forget that public sector pensions come from the wealth and prosperity generated by the graft of the private sector. Oh the irony!

  15. SIR – You report (February 15) that the charity Educate and Celebrate supports a move towards gender neutrality in schools.

    How will French be taught in future? Presumably pupils will learn that it is OK for an inanimate object to be male or female, but not a person.

    Maggie Rayner
    Neston, Wiltshire

    1. It was with total astonishment that I learned that the number of pupils sitting Higher French exams in Scotland is lower now than it was in the 60s. So much for successive Scottish governments supporting EU membership, and education.

      1. Morning Horace. Scotland once had an education system to rival any other. Now destroyed!

        1. MB’s Scottish cousin went to Edinburgh university.
          I couldn’t see he was any more intelligent or academic than MB – but he was educated in 1940’s and 50’s Scotland; MB in 1940’s and 50’s Essex.

      2. Same in England, I think, they dropped the idea that all kids should take a foreign language exam some years ago. Too difficult!

        1. Children should be taught foreign languages at primary school. The mind of a child is like a sponge. They can cope.

          1. The problem there is that primary school teachers generally are not fluent in modern languages. Secondary school teachers usually don’t want to teach primary school children – I know I didn’t.

      3. I think Spanish is reckoned to be easier. Especially for those descendants of the Armada fleet who were blown ashore up there and settled locally.

  16. SIR – While it is appalling that our rivers are so polluted (Letters, February 15), our coastal waters are also suffering.

    We moved to Hayling Island – a jewel on the south coast – a year ago. We get Southern Water sewage outfalls into Chichester and Langstone harbours, so we are often surrounded by foul water.

    The island is a popular seaside resort, which attracts many water-sports enthusiasts who contribute to the local economy. It is unacceptable – to residents, visitors and wildlife – that Southern Water continues to contaminate our coastlines.

    Christine Hartridge
    Hayling Island, Hampshire

    And all the while paying ridiculous bonuses to its senior people. One of yesterday’s letters advocated that bonuses should be linked to the absence of pollution. I like that idea, but it will never happen!

    1. There is another sewage outfall at Eastney. just about a mile from Hayling. Discharges twice a day with the tides. You really don’t want to swim or take a dog there.

  17. SIR – British water companies release untreated sewage into inland water courses and off the coast because our sewerage systems – which still use drainage networks that combine sewage effluent with rainfall drainage – become overwhelmed, mainly at times of heavy rainfall. Such discharges continue after the rain has stopped, until the excess drainage returns to normal, but also sometimes simply for convenience.

    In Britain, this system was largely designed and installed in the 19th century, but even modern developmentss use such a combined system instead of using separate runoff and sewage drainage.

    A primary reason why this Victorian system is no longer fit for purpose is that much of the rural land into which rain could once soak has been covered with houses and roads, becoming effectively impermeable and causing runoff to go down the drain. Insisting that future developments install dual drainage would lay the foundation for pollution-free systems.

    This will cost a lot. However, the longer we delay, the greater the risk of a sewage-borne pandemic – and the more expensive it will be.

    Dr Bruce Denness
    Niton, Isle of Wight

    Sounds like over-population, perhaps??

    1. Exactly.
      In many ways the Water Companies are picking up the tab for the influx of migrants necessitating the massive building programmes we are seeing.

      2. So, the gimmegrunts produce massive amounts of crap?

        You’ve got that right, shits from shitholes.

    2. Sounds like? We have over 50 million too many people in this country, most of whom are unproductive.

  19. Good morning from a windy Alveston in Gloucestershire.
    T’Lad & I had a very smooth run down here yesterday with no delays.
    After a stop as Gloucester Services for a very nice sausage & chips, we got here at 6ish and had a walk into Thornbury for a couple of pints.

    1. You’re about half an hour away from us here Bob – Thornbury is a nice little town but the residents are still angry at the way the council has pedestrianised the main shopping street.

      1. A pity you’re outward bound for Kenya today. We could have easily popped over on the way back home!

        1. Yes! Hopefully another time! We’ll be visiting family in Derbyshire sometime this year.
          We set off at lunchtime today for Thiefrow.

  20. SIR – Regarding the Post Office IT scandal (report, February 15), my father was a sub-postmaster during and after the Second World War. Accuracy was paramount. Discrepancies such as foreign coins in the stamp machine had to be made up. There were regular inspections.

    While scrutinising the books of individual post offices is essential, it must have been obvious at the time that the high number of discrepancies might have been caused by a fault in the new Horizon computer system that was implemented in 1999. Why has it taken 20 years to investigate this? Many innocent lives have been ruined.

    No amount of compensation will make up for lost years of family life, but it must be swift and generous.

    Duncan Rayner
    Sunningdale, Berkshire

    But it was extensively investigated some years ago by Private Eye. The evidence was there, but many postmasters and mistresses, and their families, had to go through hell before the scandal was finally addressed. I would like to think that those in the Post Office who did their best to hide the truth could still be charged with conspiracy as a result of their lengthty and determined cover-up.

    1. My post from yesterday.

      33 of
      them died before seeing their names cleared. Others ruined financially
      and their families destroyed. Others committed suicide. Others
      still… served time in prison.

      Paula Vennels oversaw all this and SHE was an Anglican priest. I expect she will be made the new Commissioner of the Met.

    2. It’s about psychology.
      Managers believe that because they are in charge, that they and their decisions are correct.
      If the workers complain, they perceive such criticism as a form of revolt.

    3. From my own experience of when projects go wrong, the desperation and fear people have of consequence drives the response.

      A measured, calm and considered approach that is utterly dispassionate solves the problem far more efficiently than the headless chicken blame game. Sadly such an approach is only usually taken when the organisation is small and efficient.

    4. Nah. Those responsible have already run away to eff up the National Trust, the NHS, the universities and any other public institution that will guarantee them an humungous pension.

    5. And don’t forget:

      Ex-Post Office CEO Paula Vennells walked away from IT …https://www.computerweekly.com › news › Ex-Post-Offic…
      Mar 24, 2021 — Former Post Office CEO Paula Vennells was awarded bonuses worth hundreds of thousands of pounds in her final year at an organisation that ruined so many innocent lives….

  21. What a remarkable career. We often marvel at the skill and courage of service pilots, sometimes forgetting the huge contribution made by engineers:

    Derwent Turnbull, naval air engineer who served in the Pacific before becoming a pilot instructor – obituary
    He helped to provide vital support for the British fleet in the last year of the war in Asia

    By
    Telegraph Obituaries
    15 February 2022 • 6:00am

    Instructor Commander Derwent Turnbull, who has died aged 99, was a naval officer who specialised in air engineering; he served with the British Pacific Fleet during the Second Word War before becoming an instructor for Navy pilots.

    Turnbull spent VJ-Day in the aircraft maintenance carrier Unicorn anchored off Manus in the Admiralty Islands, just south of the equator. In sweltering tropical heat, the ship’s company celebrated the Japanese surrender on August 15 1945 with a dinner that had been stored in the freezer for Christmas – cream of tomato soup, turkey with roast potatoes and peas, followed by rich plum pudding. It was agreed to be the finest dinner served on board.

    Derwent Greville Turnbull was born on January 4 1922 in Ipswich, the son of Herbert Turnbull, Regius Professor of Mathematics at St Andrews University, and Ella (née Williamson). He was educated at Lathallan School in Aberdeenshire, at Rugby and as a scholar at St John’s College, Cambridge, where he took a shortened wartime degree in Engineering.

    In 1942 he joined the RNVR as a Sub Lieutenant (A) concentrating on air engineering and undergoing training at Chelsea Aeronautical College. In May 1943 he spent time at RN Air Station (RNAS) St Merryn before being appointed to RNAS Crail, where he worked on Fairey Swordfish, and particularly recalled the aircraft’s idiosyncratic hand-cranked starting system.

    In 1944 he was promoted to lieutenant and joined Unicorn, serving in the Pacific. Her role was to provide replacement aircraft, aero-engines and workshop assistance for the operational carriers. During his time on board Unicorn provided 686 aircraft and 283 engines.

    After VJ-Day she made three trips from RNAS Ponam in the Admiralty Islands to Brisbane, Australia, withdrawing men, aircraft and equipment that were no longer required. In November 1945 she arrived in Sydney, where Turnbull met his future wife, and then returned to the UK, arriving in Devonport in January 1946.

    Turnbull was demobilised in 1946 and climbed the Matterhorn with his father before joining the RN with a permanent commission as an instructor officer. He spent several years on the staff of RN Engineering College Manadon, Plymouth, but renewed his association with the Fleet Air Arm in 1950, when he was promoted to Lieutenant Commander, and became the senior instructor at the pre-flight training school for RN pilots at RNAS Donibristle near Dunfermline.

    In 1954 he joined the aircraft carrier Triumph, which was being used as a cadet training ship, as the young officers’ instructor officer, before returning to Manadon.

    In 1959 he qualified as a meteorological officer and joined 700Y Naval Air Squadron (NAS), which was bringing the new de Havilland Sea Vixen naval fighter into service as the first British all-weather fighter armed with missiles.

    He remained with the unit when it was re-commissioned as 892 NAS and played an important role briefing the aircrew on how weather would affect their flights. In October 1959 he joined the new aircraft carrier Hermes and was with her when she joined the fleet, but left her on promotion to Instructor Commander in 1960.

    His next appointment was as Senior Instructor Officer at the Air Engineering School, RNAS Arbroath. He returned to Manadon for two years in 1964, and his last appointment was as senior meteorological officer to RNAS Lossiemouth. He retired in 1968 to teach engineering at Dundee University.

    Turnbull was a member of the Scottish and Swiss Alpine Mountaineering Clubs and played the organ and bassoon to a very high standard; six months before he died he was still playing Bach preludes. He kept in touch with old comrades through the Fleet Air Arm Officers’ Association.

    Derwent Turnbull married, in 1947, Morna (née Gauld), who he had first met in Sydney. She died in 1972, and in 1973 he married Gennifer Vogan. She died in 1999, and he is survived by a son and daughter from his first marriage and two daughters from his second.

    Derwent Turnbull, born January 4 1922, died December 27 2021

    * * *

    Just eight days short of his 100th birthday…

    1. He must have been at HMS Condor, RNAS Arbroath, when I was there in the early 60’s

      Us lowly Apprentices did not mix with the hoypoloi, so he never met me!

      1. Hi OLT

        Just wondering whether you might have been in the same team as Moh’s late brother , Bob was based up there , and everywhere else and carriers , same branch as you 😊

        1. I was one of those, up there who could mumble their rank in any state of inebriation

          AAA Aircraft Artiicer Apprentice

    1. What an absolute twat and W⚓ he is, there’s no way someone as useless could have been elected fairly to run such a great country like Canada.

    2. The creature is an utter oaf. He refuses to engage and discuss the fundamental problems he is causing and because he’s terrified of that discussion is hellbent on retaining control.

      A typical Lefty fascist.

    1. Looked out the window. Sun is shining. Birdies are singing. Squirrels digging up my bulbs. All normal here.

      Good morning.

      1. Yay! Hi Phizzpops. How’s it going? We’re off swimming at about 11am at a brand new local swimming pool, council run, £22 a month each, which I reckon is very good value when compared with Lloyds or places like that. About 10 minutes drive from us. Got to get fit for the bowls season.

        How’s the haematoma?

    1. I have had much to do with heat pumps in retail premises. I would never consider them ever for home use.

      1. I have a friend who lives in a large Scandie kit home, we use to have meetings for a share club in his loft room, no radiators, mid winter the roof lights had to be opened because it was too hot with six chaps sitting and talking. Shame we gave it it up, we could have rented our selves out 😄
        Perhaps this is the answer, a nice well insulated shed in the garden filled with chatty chaps and a couple of beers each and there you go a heat source.

    2. As I keep saying,…………. but this time politicians are effing it up before they have even started.
      No matter how much money we put into it,………. it aint gonna work and no matter how much money they throw at it, you can’t fix stoopid.

      1. 335080+ up ticks,

        Afternoon N,
        As well as can be expected when one has two log burners to feed, couple of days
        logging, that is logging & NOT doing a
        b liar.

  25. Wordle players left puzzled as ‘insensitive’ terms censored

    WORDLE is facing a censorship row after The New York Times removed a series of words in an attempt to avoid causing offence.

    The word-guessing game, played by millions, was bought by the US media firm in January and players have noticed changes, with some five-letter terms no longer accepted.

    Revisions to Wordle’s database have resulted in the sudden omission of many words, some seemingly falling victim because of their British spelling such as “fibre”. Without explanation, some obscure words have also been cut, such as “agora” – used to describe a gathering place in Ancient Greece – and “pupal”, a stage of development for post-larval insects.

    Words associated with racism such as “slave” and “lynch” will no longer feature in the game. The word “wench”, used by some to describe sexual promiscuity, has also been removed.

    The New York Times says while the game itself has remained the same, it has updated its database to root out some “insensitive” words, along with sexist, racist and homophobic terms and obscenities.

    Potentially objectionable words, several of which can be used in a derogatory sense towards women, have also been removed.

    Jill Sutcliffe, an administrator on the 41,000-strong Facebook group Wordle for Fun, was puzzled by the removal of “agora”, though she was sympathetic to some level of censorship.

    “There are clearly some words that might cause distress to some,” she said, “and it’s right they should go.”

    Jordan Cohen, The New York Times executive director of communications, said: “We are updating the word list over time to remove obscure words to keep the puzzle accessible to more people, as well as insensitive or offensive words. No changes have been made to the game play itself.”

    This was a disaster just waiting to happen as soon as the word game had been appropriated and hijacked by the Left-wing (and very American) idiot-sheet, The New York Times. Not only would “insensitive” words be removed, as we have just seen, but the proper and correct English spelling of words would be removed (‘fibre’ is cited as an example). Next will be the proliferation of absurd Yank misspellings, such as the idiotic and puerile ‘honor’, ‘color’ and ‘favor’, among others.

    1. No-one should be surprised, though. Any US company, let alone the woke NYT, was always going to use US spellings and avoid certain words in order to avoid being picked on by woke fascists.

      1. Last time the fascist Left tried to take over the world we shot them until they stopped. When that didn’t work we used nuclear weapons.

        It’d be nice to have an adult say no to them before we get to that point again. They are a tiny, irrelevant minority of petulant, spoiled toddlers. All it needs is for the parents to apply some discipline and not indulge them.

        But then, the wokers are being used to further the aims of the state machine.

    3. “and it’s right they should go.”

      No, it isn’t. It’s a word. There’s no intent behind it. Once you start censoring you end up censoring everything.

    5. I don’t take the lying NYT and never shall, therefore I shall not have to put up with their bowdlerised and mangled English.

    7. Bring it on! Someone can create a special version suitable for N*zis, with trigger words such as trump, tramp, death, bitch, woman, pervy, trans, chink, gypsy, chimp, caste, kraut, trash, spade, swamp, paddy, harry, whore. Etc.

      PS I have never played Wordle.

      1. You would be good at it. :@)

        There is a game called ‘Cards against Humanity’. Quite ghastly and very funny. Especially if everyone has had a drink. It sells well.

        I think your version of Wordle would sell too. Get your copyright in.

  26. Breezy day here . 12c.. patches of blue .
    Birds are busy on the feeders .
    Moh was up early and off to play golf .

    I slept badly , a distant dog barked all night , I fretted abit, why was it barking , and why wasn’t the owner aware , was it trapped outside , all sorts of things .

    1. Likely the owner was aware and had put it outside because it barked.

      Dogs bark for a variety of reasons but it’s like us shouting all the time. I’d imagine it’s because he was alone, frightened, cold and scared.

      Wiggy used to bark a bit, mostly when he was overexcited. Mongo almost never does. He huffs a bit. Maybe it’s because we weren’t around as much as we are for Mongers. After all, he’s had 2 of the three years of his life with us all at home.

      1. Reminds me of the Irish couple who were troubled by their neighbours dog barking throughout the night. One night Paddy came to the end of his tether and said to his wife he was going to sort it out, got dressed and went downstairs. He came back up 10 min later, his wife said the dog was still barking. Paddy replied ” Yes but I’ve brought the dog into our garden – see how our neighbour likes it”

      2. Oscar barks (actually “huffs”) a lot and for no good reason. He’ll stand in the kitchen and stare at the ceiling and bark his head off!

  28. Police request to arrest Cristiano Ronaldo for sexual assault was rejected by District Attorney

    Lawyers for Ronaldo’s accuser claimed Las Vegas police believed that they had grounds to prosecute the Manchester United forward

    Although, I am not a fan of Manure United, I wonder why they are included in the headlines

    The ‘offence’ took place in Las Vegas in 2009

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/02/15/police-request-arrest-cristiano-ronaldo-sexual-assault-rejected/

    Price Andrew comes to mind,: she is after 56,000,000.00 Pounds

    1. The mind boggles at what service you might get for £56m or just £12m. Mrs Pea is game on for a bunch of roses and half of lager.

    2. “A former model”. Yeah, right. Time was when they called themselves actresses. Will men finally learn and stop paying for sex or has the oldest profession just become a hell of a lot more lucrative.

    3. Peraps Andrew’s response should have been “I already paid her the £2 000 she asked for. With a tip added in.”

  29. Police request to arrest Cristiano Ronaldo for sexual assault was rejected by District Attorney

    Lawyers for Ronaldo’s accuser claimed Las Vegas police believed that they had grounds to prosecute the Manchester United forward

    Although, I am not a fan of Manure United, I wonder why they are included in the headlines

    The ‘offence’ took place in Las Vegas in 2009

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/02/15/police-request-arrest-cristiano-ronaldo-sexual-assault-rejected/

    Price Andrew comes to mind,: she is after 56,000,000.00 Pounds

    1. Yu Wibble

      If a FIGHT happens and Micron and Co are involved, worldwide the cost of White Flags will hit record levels

    2. I can’t read it all either. From the first few words I can see I suspect that it agrees with my own.

      IMO Ukraine is a nightmare for East-West relations. It has a long history of horrible things such as the Holodomor being done to it (by the USSR, widely synonymous with Russia despite Stalin’s being Georgian) and doing them to others in return, for example Ukrainians were arguably the keenest and cruelest supporters of Hitler’s Holocaust. Its population is diverse, not least because of the large number of ethnic Russians left over from the USSR’s policy of having them run everything. The attitudes of its people are as incompatible with Western democracies as Russia’s. Russian leaders will be sensitive to the West taking over a country that they see as theirs by history.

      As they did in the Balkans, the EU has been grossly insensitive and precipitated a dangerous situation, overturning the stable situation resulting from US/NATO ambivalence to Russia’s de facto control. Even Russian leaders less brutal than Putin would have reacted in the same way to having their control usurped. The EU should have kept out and let time take its course.

      Edit: Now seeing the article posted, I see it covers more of the EU’s current actions. It matches my views on that too. The EU is a monstrosity that causes havoc with a ruling clique that always blames others who they leave to sort the mess created and members that fight like rats in a sack to avoid shouldering responsibility and getting their hands dirty.

      2. Dictators do seem to arise from related but distanced cultures to the one they control: Napoleon was Corsican, Hilter was Austrian, Stalin was Georgian, Alexander the Great was Macedonian.
        I wonder how much their drive to succeed is due to conflicting urges; to be accepted by but also to express their contempt for those they conquer.

        1. Continuing your list of Dictators, there may be truth in the notion that Trudeau is Cuban.

    3. Madeline Grant

      15 February 2022 • 9:30pm

      Crisis doesn’t shape character; it reveals it. And so it has been
      with the European Union and its handling of events in Ukraine. Vladimir Putin’s motivations
      may remain unclear, but regardless of whether the ongoing military
      escalations on the Ukrainian border are the preamble to a full-scale
      invasion, or merely some stress test of Western resolve, there is no
      doubt that the EU’s reaction has been found wanting.

      The bloc emerges as fractured; unable to agree on military support or
      economic sanctions, divided between bilateral and multilateral modes of
      engagement. While Poland and the Baltic states offer Ukraine military
      equipment and France makes its own overtures to Vladimir Putin,
      Germany’s response has been a mixture of vacillation – in its “strategic
      ambiguity” on sanctions and the future of Nord Stream 2 – and outright
      conciliation, as exemplified by its embarrassing, and tellingly
      symbolic, offer to send Ukraine just 5,000 helmets instead of weapons
      last month.

      Ukraine has highlighted other historic Achilles’ heels too; a
      deplorable lack of investment by EU members in their own defence
      capabilities; the distinct reluctance of Germany and other member states
      to end their reliance on Russia
      for energy; Italy’s cosy commercial ties with Moscow, and much more. As
      it turns out, there is nothing like a crisis on its external border to
      expose the EU’s internal dysfunctions.

      Some will doubtless point to the crisis in Ukraine as an argument for
      some kind of EU army – but the question must be: would it even be
      possible to organise one given the evident lack of unity displayed by
      member states? And if such an army existed, whose side would it be on
      anyway?

      At best, despite their pretence at being a “global power”, the EU
      institutions themselves can be said to be an irrelevance. European
      leaders, reportedly impressed by Westminster’s handling of recent
      events, are said to be planning to invite Britain to lead a new security
      committee to discuss geopolitical challenges. The move seems as much of
      an admission of EU failure as a recognition of British diplomatic
      success – in an emergency taking place in a country that borders on a
      number of EU member-states, which itself aspires to EU membership, why
      shouldn’t Brussels itself have been the convenor?

      The greatest irony of the EU’s craven response to Ukraine is that the
      country that most wanted to be European has been failed by Europe. When
      Ukrainian activists flocked to Kyiv’s Independence Square back in 2013
      for the protests that would lead to its democratic revolution, they
      carried EU flags and appealed to “European” virtues – modernity, the
      rule of law, democracy, freedom. Brussels loved waxing lyrical about
      these values too, yet it is the people of Ukraine, in neither Nato nor
      the EU, who now stand ready to pay the ultimate price defending them.

      Of course, establishing a cogent foreign policy among 27 members with
      conflicting aims and priorities was never going to be an easy task, but
      this was always Europe’s much-vaunted dream – using a muscular EU and
      the solidarity of its supposedly close-knit member-states to maintain
      stability. Indeed, this heart-warming fiction secured it the Nobel Peace
      Prize a decade ago. Yet when the chips are down, it’s clear that
      national self-interest and the individual weaknesses of member states
      will always trump everything else – and it’s not the first time the EU
      has been so exposed.

      During the financial crisis, it became obvious that the euro was not a
      sensible step on the path to economic convergence, but an ideological
      project that would sacrifice notions of solidarity and humanity on the
      altar of economic dogma. To this day, Greece bears the scars of the
      misuse of the EU’s institutions to enforce the will of the stronger
      powers, and the quest to push wildly differing national economies into
      the straitjacket of monetary union. Greece’s accession to the single
      currency may have required industrial levels of creative accounting
      about the scale of its debts, but Eurostat merrily rubber-stamped it,
      and Greek GDP has never recovered from the experience.

      Then came the pandemic. Slow to start and overly-centralised, the
      continent’s vaccine rollout showcased the very worst aspects of the EU
      project – the deficiencies of the technocracy and its sluggishness in
      responding quickly to new events. Self-interest prevailed; as when
      Berlin put in orders for extra doses of the Pfizer vaccine even as it
      trumpeted the virtues of a common purchasing strategy while serving as
      rotating president of the European Union.

      But perhaps most damaging of all was the bloc’s toxic row with
      AstraZeneca, which exposed a vicious nationalism that should have
      destroyed the EU’s reputation as a force for good on the world stage.

      European leaders like Macron and Merkel openly disparaged the safety
      and reliability of the one vaccine which the developing world can
      afford. Nearly a dozen countries curtailed the vaccine’s use across
      Europe, after a single study revealed the vanishingly small possibility
      that its recipients could develop blood clots.

      With breathtaking hypocrisy, EU leaders then complained they had not
      received enough doses of the vaccine whose distribution they themselves
      had delayed, and imposed export bans on AstraZeneca factories. It is
      hard to measure the global reputational damage to the EU of all this,
      but Sir John Bell, the vaccine tsar who helped broker the deal between
      Oxford and AstraZeneca, recently said that the European leaders’
      rhetoric was probably responsible for “hundreds of thousands of deaths”.

      Bullying yet toothless, simultaneously impulsive and sluggish – the
      imperial EU has failed on its own terms. Yet instead of sticking to
      narrower and more achievable geopolitical aims, such as free trade and
      cooperation, Eurocrats seem to specialise in over-reacting to petty
      infringements; just compare their relaxed attitude to Ukrainian border
      tensions with their policing of the Northern Irish border. When
      desperate to save face, they react like lightning. But when it’s time to
      defend their own lofty principles, they respond with a deafening
      silence.

        1. Ah but it was a stepping stone to the Kalergi Plan from its inception, Johnny. Boiling frog and all that. It was never going to be halted at the point where it more or less worked.

        2. That is what many of us voted for in the 1975 referendum – ‘an economic club with no political aspects to it and no threat to our national sovereignty’ was what the odious mendacious Heath said it was.

          1. There’s a YouTube video of the traitor Heath giving a speech on 2 Jan 1973. It reveals he knew exactly what he was signing us up to…much like Major and Maastricht.

            Robert Adam – BrookBayPirate on Twitter – has written The Charlemagne trilogy, which tells the tale of a fictional character, with the story wrapped around the factual skullduggery of the Brussels/Strasbourg gravy train.

            HMG and the CS and of course the supine meeja of the 60s/70s were fully aware of what we were in for and I have no doubt their successors were equally aware.

    4. Here you go – 974 BTL comments but I’m not going to take up yards of NTTL room:

      I see Phizzee has already published it so I shall delete.

    5. The gist, I would say of the article, Wibbling, is this paragraph:

      “The greatest irony of the EU’s craven response to Ukraine is that the country that most wanted to be European has been failed by Europe. When Ukrainian activists flocked to Kyiv’s Independence Square back in 2013 for the protests that would lead to its democratic revolution, they carried EU flags and appealed to “European” virtues – modernity, the rule of law, democracy, freedom. Brussels loved waxing lyrical about these values too, yet it is the people of Ukraine, in neither Nato nor the EU, who now stand ready to pay the ultimate price defending them.”

      Since I have always maintained that Russia had no intention of invading Ukraine, the statement that: “…people of Ukraine, in neither Nato nor the EU, who now stand ready to pay the ultimate price defending them.” Is drivel. Smoke and mirrors by a bombastic and belligerent EU caused this. A EU that had no teeth in the first place to back up its interference in Ukraine. As for Ukraine wanting to be European, so what, Russia wanted to be too, but was rebuffed from that by the West, they even asked to join NATO.

      My personal take on all this disingenuous nonsense on the part of the West is that they simply could not get their head around the fact that Russia is not and was not the USSR. People tend to forget that Russia actually had a putative democratic government that was overthrown by the Communists and that, as a result, Russia never willingly became a Communist country, any more than any other did. At root of all these problems is that. The lack of will and the lack of understanding of the history of Russia’s imprisonment by Communism has always been the problem. In short, the ignorance of the West concerning Russian history. There is no comparison between the USSR and Russia. The likelihood of another ‘Soviet Empire’ being created from there is far less likely than the West becoming Communist. Having had the poison fruit dished out to them and force fed the poison fruit of Marxism, never again will Russia contemplate that possibility. It is the EU and the USA we have to worry about on that score. Our wisest course of action would be to make common cause with Russia in order to save the West.

  31. Sorry to rattle on about this , but….

    Cost around £5 million
    The second-hand wind farm was bought for around £5 million from Belgium. The tower sections will be stored on site while the blades, gearbox and generator undergo repairs.

    Construction will start in the spring, and the wind farm should be operational by the end of summer 2022.

    Controversial Purbeck wind farm to become reality after 20 year battle

    The final sections of a massive wind farm are arriving at a Purbeck quarry, which along with a 30 acre solar farm, will provide enough electricity to power all homes on the Isle of Purbeck.

    The controversial project, at Masters Quarry in East Stoke, between Wareham and Wool – which was the subject of an extended legal battle – is finally taking shape.

    Most of the tower sections – weighing more than 50 tons each – have already been delivered and are ready for assembly, with the last two sections arriving on Tuesday 14th December 2021.

    https://www.swanage.news/controversial-purbeck-windfarm-to-become-reality-after-10-year-battle/

        1. Chocolate. But can’t think of any earth shaking technology from that place. I believe the countries main industry is creating bureaucracy in order to make European citizens lives miserable.

      2. Probably metal fatigue on the towers. I was amused by the local councillor quote about that tower that’s just collapsed in Wales. ” Yes, it’s very well looked after, they are up there day and night doing maintenance all the time” Sounds to me as though they’re worried…

      1. Um. “The UK is open for business” The Koreans get a subsidised factory, tax breaks, subsidised cheap labour, guaranteed market, and get to take the profits back to Korea.

        PS Does anyone consider our fishermen when sticking up huge wind turbines in the sea?

    3. “…will provide enough electricity to power all homes on the Isle of Purbeck.”

      Worthy of the BBC. And utterly meaningless.

      1. Yes, the question is, will it? And I think we all know the answer to that is a resounding, no!

    5. …and how big was the production ‘Carbon Footprint’ that the grrennies get so anxious about?

  32. Good morning to all, 😊 nice sunny day here 55f. quite warm, lets see how long it lasts.

    Are you allowed to reproduce letters, in full, from the Telegraph? Because the one today was so good I thought people here who don’t have access, should see it. I have altered it slightly which, if I’m correct, means I haven’t violated copyright, what are the rules on that, anyone know and what constitutes fair usage?

    SIR – The heat pump experts paint a rosy picture of our gas-free future.

    However, they fail to acknowledge that heat pumps use electricity, of which about 40 per cent is still being generated by gas.

    They say electricity bills are higher due to the cost of gas. This is not true: they are higher because of the green levies used to pay for excessive wind turbine and solar panel construction.

    They say that nuclear and wind power can compensate when we have gas-price spikes, but the truth is that we have almost reduced our nuclear capacity to zero, and we can never rely on wind power.

    A final point: if heat pumps are so good, would it not be reasonable to ask suppliers to provide a refund if they do not keep our houses at an appropriate temperature when it is sub-zero outside?

    1. Usually Hugh Janus or Epidermoid post most of the letters for discussion by the early shift – so if you go to ‘oldest first’ you will be able to see them and the comments thereon.

  33. ‘Morning All

    Convoy!!

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1ca653afc963058eeffd931ba72affd0213e7d06c64a00299a4fb28b44116c4d.png
    Edit
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6e5f8323ac212fe94dbca4ad3fc561972da6fcd768692cbab9afb20c8172af4c.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/97fd4a0da83bbdd9d1373bbe2dba495168beabb454611c8699f06ed53a62b53d.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a55337e2f2bcf7eca2f712ac1b295c52e75b534b0deda59fa847c2d923a08ac4.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/47a704c76fd15edb6a7c4b20c6dce1a126d96bd88d36a1fe7b1087a81db8a6cc.jpg

    https://twitter.com/greg_price11/status/1493638393019908098?s=21

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0d4f4e957ac2516c0d21211956661a11eb6dfda4ef02600c13dc84f667f1ecf6.jpg

    1. Apparently Kelly Curtis is as black as Meghan Sussex. 25%. Yet, if I wanted to be Israeli (which with their manic jabbing, I don’t of course), 48% wouldn’t count.

      1. Funny how they try to strain out the obvious and usually fail ending up looking very silly indeed.
        I use to like and respect Lewis Hamilton, but I hate him now for maligning his white mother as he now insists he is black.
        There are several other sporting people who do this sort of thing as well.

  38. Why the French right prefer Putin to progressives. 16 February 2022.

    TOP COMMENT BELOW THE LINE.

    Old Fox • 3 hours ago.

    It’s not so much that people “prefer” Putin. In normal circumstances we might well oppose him. But these circumstances are far from normal. How can we rally round a society in an advanced state of madness and decay? How can we support leaders who hate us? Why should we endorse a war for their interests? How can we fight a war in any case, given the parlous state of our under-manned and under-funded forces? What sort of unity in adversity can you expect from resettled, demoralised shadow-nations such as those of the modern west? There’s a Times article today bewailing the low birth-rate. What its author will not admit or confront is that a denigrated people, whose family life is deliberately disrupted by “feminist” legislation, whose homeland is resettled and whose culture is melting away will of course avoid having kids. Why bring them into such an abominable world?

    Putin is an authoritarian with a nasty record of rubbing out opponents, like a gangster. But the west is led by neo-Marxist goons busily wrapping us up in a spider’s web of oppressive regulations in the name of gnostic totalitarian malice. He is a danger. But they are a mortal, immediate threat.

    Foxy is pretty much on the ball here though I would disagree with him about Putin’s character.

    https://disqus.com/home/discussion/www-spectator-co-uk/why_the_french_right_prefer_putin_to_progressives/

    1. Arguably true. However the critical omission is the massive explosion in gimmigrant births. We are literally being out bred. How? Because they get everything paid for by the white workers.

  39. Have you ever wondered why idiots like Prince Andrew allow themselves to be photographed in such compromising circumstances and also who took the pictures and why?
    It reminds me of those photographs one sees of A.N.Other pictured with A.Big-Banana at some function or other, where neither party actually knows the other socially, merely that they attended the same event and A.N.Other wants to be able to pretend they move in exalted circles.

    1. I don’t think that some of them have got to grips with the instant camera that cellphones have. So quick and easy now, and hardly noticeable…

      1. So quick and easy now, and hardly noticeable…

        Especially now with certain cycling enthusiasts on our streets. Helmet and chest cameras recording every move made by others.

        1. I think the Lycra would be quite noticeable at most parties. I saw that the Vine fellow has fallen off his bike again. I hope someone took a snap.

      2. Agreed.
        I’m sure there is an element of that, but even allowing for it, so many of these pictures appear to be posed that it suggests that they were aware they were being photographed.
        If, for example, you asked even the POTUS, or The Queen or almost any major celebrity to look at every picture taken of them with A.N.Other, I doubt they could name even 1% of them.
        I suspect Andrew and his lawyers missed a trick. (if you’ll excuse the expression)

        1. I understood that the girl in question couldn’t actually produce the original image for the court, thus any notion of photoshopping was hard to prove/dismiss.

          I should add that I could care less. If a 50 year old Prince has to stoop to 17 year olds for his fun, he deserves all he gets.

        2. I understood that the girl in question couldn’t actually produce the original image for the court, thus any notion of photoshopping was hard to prove/dismiss.

          I should add that I could care less. If a 50 year old Prince has to stoop to 17 year olds for his fun, he deserves all he gets.

  40. Wests propaganda bolloxed up
    ttps://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10515451/Babushka-battalion-training-Ukraine-organised-neo-NAZIS.html

    1. Much obliged.

      It is the continued confusion that the EU was based on trade that concerns me. It was always designed, from the outset as a means to control member nations for the absolute power of an unelected ruling cabal. That was the intent, all the way back to the Coal and Steel days.

    2. Lord Dannatt said in a TV interview this morning that if any country has a dispute with a neighbour they cannot join Nato until the dispute is settled.
      It seems Vlad knows what he’s doing.

  42. I suppose that the Prince Andrew case has not had a good effect on sex workers’ trade. Only poor people who are not worth suing will use prostitutes because anyone who has anything to lose will be skinned alive by the likes of the young whore who has made such a financial killing.

    Of course prostitution attracts prurient interest and sells films and newspapers but few people would admit to ever having used a prostitute’s services. I cannot imagine that any Nottlers would admit to having done so.

    1. Hi Ogga, hope you’re well. This is precisely why anyone who actually paid a fine imposed for disobeying covid rules was such a fool. All non-payment cases that went to court were thrown out?

    2. 3435080+ up ticks,

      O2O,

      Tis my belief that a multitude of lab/lib/con voters will be willing to give 1689 the elbow for the good
      name / integrity of their party.

    3. Batten: “Fixed Penalty Notices are illegal under the Bill of Rights (1689).”

      Oh yeah? Not only had fixed penalty notices not been invented in 1689, neither had the police.

      1. 335080+ up ticks,
        G,
        A bill of rights when established would, is my belief cover a multitude of future issues.
        As for the police and their take on rotherham over a 16 year plus cover up period for instance ……

    2. The WEF won’t string Turdeau up on a lamp-post with piano wire.
      The Canadians might well.
      That should focus his mind somewhat. Whisper “Ceaucescu” in his ear a few times…

    3. Trudeau is a dictatorial fascist with no regard for the Canadian people. The likes of Schwab, the New World Order, are not an elite but parasites like Mistletoe sapping life out of a healthy tree to enrich themselves and enslave the rest of us. These people are the embodiment of evil who have utter contempt for the freedom of the individual.

    1. Shall we ever be told the full truth – or is it now too late and too many people are too smeared in excrement ever to be able to come clean or get clean?

      1. That is an interesting question.
        So many people bear responsibility and would be in the firing line when blame starts flying around. Not just SAGE, ministers, civil servants and the media, but also doctors and nurses who have administered the jabs or proselytised for them. What about the teachers who have spent the last two years scaring children witless with stories about how deadly covid is, or who have lobbied for restrictions to stay in schools?
        Employees of private companies who have busily been enforcing mask and social distance rules, or excluding the non-vaccinated?
        What about covid marshalls? People who have shunned colleagues, friends or relatives because they’re not vaccinated?

        Like all good authoritarian takeovers, they’ve made so many people guilty that it’s hard to see what the exit route will be.

    2. Worthless unless we have numbers and a comparison with the number without the Covid vaccinations.

      After all, the advert shouldn’t come as a surprise – we know that the vaccines have adverse reactions and would expect the government to have a management scheme for claims.

  48. Apparently the denizens of York are very unhappy about the Duke of York’s nominal connection with that fair city. They don’t want the good name of York tarnished by association – however nebulous – with a man who enjoys sex with underage girls. Calls for Andrew to be stripped of his title are mounting.

    I believe I have a solution, which I may submit to the Palace for consideration. Strip Andrew of the Dukedom of York and make him Duke of Rotherham instead. He should fit right in.

      1. Indeed, but the legal age in New York – where he did the dirty deed – is 18.

        Perhaps he’d have been wiser to get Epstein to fly Virginia Giuffre to his house in London, where it would’ve been legal.
        ;¬)

        1. Would have been cheaper if he’d bought a plane to fly her over, but I dare say that didn’t occur to him at the time….

          1. Prince Andrew was well used to other people paying for his pleasures. It wouldn’t have crossed his freeloading mind.

          2. Oh yeah, sorry I should have said, would be cheaper for the Queen if he’d called her and asked her to buy a plane to fly his 17 year old shagee to London.

        2. I thought the story was that she was flown over to an island in the Bahamas or thereabouts where the legal age was 16 and not to New York. Can anyone clarify this? (If so, don’t bother, I am tired of reading about the case.)

          1. No idea Elsie, I thought it happened in London, and they were going for being an accessory or something like that.
            I think we can live with not knowing!

    1. I wonder long it will be before the men she has libelled over sex claims will sue her for a slice of the £12m of the Queen’s money?

  50. Good afternoon, everyone. After M’Lady late last night called me Stanley (she must have imagined that I lived in Holloway), I went to sleep dreaming of that famous seaside place called Blackpool, that’s noted for fresh air and fun. And where Mr and Mrs Ramsbottom went with young Albert (their son).

    When the alarm clock went off this morning, I decided to self-identify as young Albert, so I had a lion lie-in. Hence my late appearance on this site. Lol.

    1. I used to declaim some of Stanley Holloway’s monologues. As I was not very good at North Country accents I used to recite The Lion and Albert in a very posh, plummy voice.

    1. “Temporary suspension” – so in other words, they will yank the leash again when they feel like it.
      We aren’t in a better situation – we are still governed by authoritarian dictators.

  53. https://www.rt.com/news/549549-eu-top-court-poland-hungary/

    “The EU’s top court has dismissed a complaint filed by Poland and Hungary against a mechanism allowing Brussels to punish member states it deems ‘rule-of-law violators.’ The so-called “conditionality mechanism” gives the bloc the right and power to withhold aid funding from a member that is found to be failing to adhere to the union’s democratic principles.”

    Democratic principles!
    The EU gets more and more like an abusive spouse all the time. Thank goodness Britain left.

    1. Surreal – states can be punished for being a democracy, which “fails to adhere to the union’s democratic principles”

    2. We wouldn’t have voted for Brexit if people like Major, Blair and Cameron had stood up to the EU whilst members instead of bending over, taking it up the bum, asking “Please, sir, can I have more” then gold-plating the results.

  54. Good morning,

    This hit my inbox this morning forwarded by a correspondent:

    Vivian Evans
    on 16/02/2022 at 9:41 am

    On behalf of our NZ Correspondent, I’m publishing this email I
    received early this morning:

    “Hi Viv

    I’ll let you have another article when I get my head around
    what is going on and it is going on, it’s unreal.

    Not only have the protests gotten bigger but the Maori Iwi
    (tribe) that own the parliamentary grounds have issued a trespass notice
    against the government in the courts and given the right of occupancy to the
    protesters. The police are now not allowed on parliamentary
    grounds and the Iwi have forbidden them to tow away the protesters cars or
    harass them in any way.

    Again, this is a fast moving situation, but the government is
    losing its grip completely, you can tell by the colour of their faces that
    they’re scared shitless.

    You can understand why I need a bit of time to get my head
    around what is going on before I write an article but you can publish this
    update if you want to.”

    NZ Correspondent

    Time will tell what the situation is as it develops, but I thought this worth sharing.

    1. Evicting Ardern’s government from the parliamentary grounds – and after all the effort she’s put into sucking up to them too!
      You can’t hide the smell of manure that easily! Good for them.
      Thanks for the update.

    2. These protests are starting everywhere. It’s odd that the state refuses to acknowledge them.

          4. Jacinda retaliated later by playing Barry Manilow over loudspeakers to disperse the crowds (I jest not) and apologies if this has already been mentioned. It didn’t work…. the crowd started to dance…!

            However, Australia has been more sophisticated in its use of weaponry, evidence is coming in to suggest that DEW (Direct Energy Weapons) have been used by the government against its own people.

      1. Stuff Media in NZ is owned by Sinead Boucher. A quick look at her Twitter account reveals a full-on establishment shill I’m afraid. Roll up for your booster! Omicron is deadly!

    1. Don’t underestimate the willingness of younger generations to feel happier and safer dealing with people remotely via their devices rather than face-to-face. Albeit for different reasons, my 3 adult kits prefer dealing with others at a distance rather than face-to-face.

    1. Furthermore, the vast majority of deaths with Covid but no serious co-morbidities for people of working age or below is far lower than that 6,183, with far more dying on the roads in that period.

      Lots of interesting information on https://twitter.com/COVID19actuary?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

      The calculated excess deaths at https://www.actuaries.org.uk/system/files/field/document/Mortality%20summary%20pandemic%20monitor%20Week%205%202022%20v01%202022-02-15.pdf suggest that throughout the number of excess deaths has been very close to the official number of Covid deaths. This should be seen as the excess deaths due to Covid restrictions being roughly equal to the number of deaths classified as Covid but due to other causes, not that the Covid death numbers are supported by excess deaths.

      1. BBC1 was at it on the lunchtime news:
        “Jab the children!”
        “Here’s a young woman who’s still suffering a year later!”
        “It’s still out there, you know!”

        1. Interestingly, a recent investigation on long Covid showed that the majority of the sample had never had covid, suggesting that there is a large psychosomatic component. Whilst the psychosomatic cases are still due to Covid, the government and MSM’s fear-mongering may be the primary cause, yet another weight on the other side of the lockdown cost-benefit balance.

          1. As far as I can tell, the symptoms of “long Covid” are the same as you would get if you sat on your butt doing nowt but watch TV for some weeks – just like the effects of lockdown.

      2. Fewer than 3,000 were road fatalities in the U.K. for 2020 and half of 2021.

        There were 1,460 fatal casualties on Britain’s roads in 2020, down 17% from 2019. There were 20,102 serious casualties, down 21% from 2019. The chart below shows longer-term trends for deaths, including a 49% fall between 1995 and 2010.

        Figures for the year ending June 2021 show: there were 1,390 reported road deaths, a decrease of 11% compared to the year ending June 2020. there were 119,850 casualties of all severities, a decrease of 9% compared to the year ending June 2020.

  59. Storms Dudley and Eunice to impact the UK. 16 February 2022.

    Two deep low-pressure systems have been named by the Met Office and will bring very strong winds and potentially snow to the UK this week.

    Storm Dudley will impact on the northern half of the UK from Wednesday afternoon through to early Thursday, while Storm Eunice will bring strong winds and potentially some snow for parts of the country on Friday.

    The first of these (Dudley) will cross Northern England and Southern Scotland today causing some slight damage. The other ( Eunice) will come on Friday and according to the BBC Weatherman be one of the strongest storms to strike England in Decades. So a Windfarm Killer or another “Hurricane? We shall have to wait to see!

    https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/press-office/news/weather-and-climate/2022/storms-dudley-and-eunice-to-impact-the-uk

    1. Unfortunately, the MO’s day-to-day forecasts are now very reliable. Friday’s has worsened over the last 24 hours. This is one of those times when you want it to be wrong.

      Of course, some warmists will be wetting themselves in their perverted excitement.

      1. Dry gale blowing , sunshine feels warm , 13c ..

        Have been out for a walk with spaniels near Arne … the wind was whiffling their ears in to flight mode … I felt quite warm .. if I had been flying a kite, that would have been great fun .. I daresay the kite surfers will be in seventh heaven in the safety of Poole harbour.

        There are so many trees on either side of the road to Wareham , some with enormous overhanging branches . Storms are not nice to trees.

        Moh has just arrived home from golf , I had made a couple of grilled bacon rolls before he arrived home , and wrapped them in tin foil and left them under the warm grill.

        1. Spartie and I had a lovely walk this morning; warm and sunny, if a bit blowy.
          It’s very unusual to have warm wind in East Anglia.

          1. It has been a strange few days , warm and unseasonal .. it looks as if the daffodils came out before the snowdrops. I have seen Camelia , Blackthorn blossom and Pussy willow , Hazel and everything in the hedgerows is colouring up.

            Glad you had a good walk, I hobble along these days , hip issues etc.

          2. Coolio had his mind on things (bangs and crashes and the wind howling) other than dressage this afternoon!

        1. I developed a bad case of mildew on Monday…blew a hooley and poured all day. Windy now but dry. Last thing I need is webbed feet;-)

  60. I’m having some problems (delays) accessing Nottl. It’s probably a Fake Cyber Attack like the one on Ukraine this morning.

    1. I’m guessing the Wednesday 1 pm invasion predicted by US “intelligence” didn’t happen? The Bolsonaro visit went ahead. No long table for this meeting.

    2. Takimag is good for that stuff. But there are a lot of bleks out there, so from an evolutionary point of view they are all doing well. I expect the Federal Reserve will survive the imposition of yet another hopeless economist.

      1. Are they?
        If idiots had not kept pouring aid money all over them, the population of Africa would be a fraction of what it is now.
        Without affirmative action and government handouts around the world do you think they would have risen to so many positions of influence?
        Yes there are numerous highly intelligent people amongst them, but they are a tiny, tiny minority

  64. “No one has ever had a fantasy about being tied to a bed and sexually ravished by someone dressed as a liberal.”
    I knew the quote, couldn’t tell you the author.
    Michael Deacon in the DT.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/columnists/2022/02/16/genius-pj-orourkes-comedy-never-worried-direction-jokes-punched/

    RIP PJ O’Rourke – the funniest conservative writer ever

    The satirist always said what he really thought about any subject and didn’t fret about causing offence – even to people on his own side

    16 February 2022 • 12:02pm

    Writing a tribute to PJ O’Rourke – the great American journalist, who died on Tuesday – is a breeze, for one very simple reason. He does all the work for you. You don’t need to bother racking your brains, trying to think of clever ways to show how brilliant and funny he was. All you need to do is quote him. It does the job much more quickly. And, frankly, much better.

    Here he is on military interventionism: “Wherever there’s injustice, oppression and suffering, America will show up six months late and bomb the country next to where it’s happening.” On big government: “Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.” On books: “Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.”

    This is the first thing that made his articles so distinctive: the sheer volume of one-liners they contained. He was the stand-up comic of journalism.

    But it wasn’t just the quality of his jokes that made them catch the eye. It was their subject matter. His jokes were Right-wing. This makes his work feel increasingly unusual. These days, most political humour is Left-wing. Indeed, it’s sometimes argued that political humour has to be Left-wing. In a 2013 essay for the New Statesman, the comedian Stewart Lee – who is, of course, Left-wing – wrote that comedy should only “punch up”, whereas Right-wingers had an unseemly habit of “punching down”. And “punching down” wasn’t funny. It was just cruel.

    Like so many Left-wing ideas, this sounds fine in theory, but doesn’t work in practice. If anything, being Left-wing restricts a comedian. Progressiveness is a straitjacket. The terror of causing offence, and of being seen to “punch down”, imposes severe limits on what a comedian dares to joke about. Which means Left-wing comedians all end up making the same jokes about the same rigidly narrow set of targets. Tories are bad, Brexiteers are bad, capitalism is bad…

    PJ O’Rourke, by contrast, never worried about causing offence – even to people on his own side. He was a Republican who mocked Republicans. “The Republicans are the party that says government doesn’t work,” he wrote, “and then they get elected and prove it.”

    Similarly, he was a conservative who shocked conservatives. For his 1983 book Modern Manners, he wrote an entire chapter about the correct etiquette for taking cocaine, and argued that traditionalists should encourage the young to do drugs because drugs had “taught an entire generation of English kids the metric system”.

    This is the wonderful thing about his writing: it was so bracingly free. And, for that matter, freeing. Because he always said what he really thought, about even the most sensitive and contentious subjects, he gave you, the reader, permission to do the same. He never lectured or scolded you. On the contrary, his writing absolved you of guilt. In a strange sort of way, reading him felt almost like going to a journalistic equivalent of confession. It made you feel as if you’d been forgiven for your sins – the sins of not agreeing with the type of trendy Left-wing opinions that seemed to prevail everywhere else.

    He hated trendy Left-wing opinions, not just because he thought they were wrong but because they were so drearily earnest. In his view, these two failings were linked: the more earnestly an opinion was expressed, the more wrong it was liable to be. Earnestness was just “stupidity sent to college”. In Holidays in Hell, a volume of his foreign reporting, he promised that there would be “no earnest messages in this book. Half the world’s suffering is caused by earnest messages contained in grand theories bearing no relation to reality – Marxism and no-fault auto insurance, to name two.”

    For all his flippancy, though, he was capable of being serious. And because this was so rare, it had all the more impact.

    “We are fools when we fail to defend civilisation,” he wrote, in 1988. “So-called Western civilisation, as practised in half of Europe, some of Asia and a few parts of North America, is better than anything else available. Western civilisation not only provides a bit of life, a pinch of liberty and the occasional pursuance of happiness, it’s also the only thing that’s ever tried to. Our civilisation is the first in history to show even the slightest concern for average, undistinguished, none-too-commendable people like us.”

    These days, to proclaim the superiority of Western civilisation is even more unfashionable than it was then. It might even be considered racist. Not that this would have troubled PJ O’Rourke. Liberals, he once wrote, had often called him “a Nazi” – but “I don’t let it bother me, for one simple reason. No one has ever had a fantasy about being tied to a bed and sexually ravished by someone dressed as a liberal.”

  65. Prince Charles’s Charity is being investigated by the police. The Independent .Apologies if it has already been in the comments.

      2. Good evening Bob3 – Apparently someone gave money to the Charity and got an honour. Charles is said not to have known about the deal.

    1. Did he give you one?………………………. Or two crabs.
      If you are going to serve chilli sauce with crab use it as a bloody dipping sauce ! Coconut milk !!! You really hate crab don’t you…Mad woman.

    2. Plum

      I expect your fishmonger was dishy , and capable . Strong and brave with with those huge tough horny crabs .

      Did he have a nice deep Cornish voice , kind strong face , and did he say ” Awright’n aree e?” .

      OMG , I feel faint with jealousy, we don’t have anyone fanciable around here .. they arrive with their partners .. who tend to be rather possessive ..

      Although I did buy a couple of fillets of smoked haddock ( un coloured ) a chap brings his van locally and sets up a stall.

      We love fish , and I am partial to a ready prepared crab .

      The wind is screeching loudly here , salty drizzle … not safe to be on the roads around here really .

      We thought twice about going out to watch the waves at work.

        1. In these parts they land huge spider crabs .. they are horny looking , but very few real Brits eat them so they are exported or sent to London or elsewhere .

          ( I haven’t got a suitable cheeky rebuttal to your question)

      4. Good afternoon, Maggiebelle

        To be honest Caroline is a better cook than my mother was. However, nobody dressed a crab as well as my mother did. I think I must have told you before that I used to take my dear old mum sailing before I got married and we often sailed into Weymouth Harbour and tied up along the quay for the night. There were always fisherfolk around with their fresh catch for sale and the crab suppers we had in Weymouth which my mum prepared were the best.

        1. I second that. My Grandmother had a house in Great George St, Weymouth. We holidayed there every year when i was a child.

          Crab salad was a revelation. I had never eaten something so wondrous.

          I large crystal bowl filled with hand picked crab all done by her skilled and dextrous hands.

          A memory that has stayed with me. And i love her for it.

          2. Your hunky fishmonger would be happy to crack shells for you. Just ask. :@)

            Seriously. It is quite laborious but once you have all the meat out you spread it on a tray and carefully pick through it to get the last of the shell out.

            I used to have to do it but now i just buy tubs of fresh crabmeat already done. Life’s too short.

          3. Kill it first, Belle. Follow Grandmother-in-Law and drown it… that way, you don’t damage the meat!

    3. Sounds great Plum.

      I use to go to Ardrossan South Australia with a couple of mates and stay over night Saturday, have a few jars and go crabbing Sunday morning on the flat beach Picture attached. You need a long pole with a metal ring on the end and chicken wire on it like a tennis racket. I piece of rope tied to yer belt and a plastic box that floats behind you. The crabs disturb the sand and leave dark patches so you dabble around and the come to the surface scoop them up and place them in the floating bin. They are large very aggressive blue crabs.
      On the way back to south of Adelaide Trevor would ring his mother and she would light the fire under the cauldron in their garden. the crabs were packed in the boxes with wet hessian and stayed calm. Until they were tipped in the boiling water. Then served up on a long table covered in newspaper and lots of beer.
      Another delicacy were Yabbies
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_yabby
      https://www.ardrossan.sa.au/tiddy-widdy-beach/

      1. Yabbies could be caught with simple equipment a strong length of string a few flexible sticks and a kitchen cullender.
        You find what the farmers cal a ‘dam’ it’s a large hole in the ground filled with water a cross between a small lake and a large pond.
        you need a small piece of meat, tie the meat to the string and about a foot above tie a loop the string, the bait needs to be well below the surface. as does the loop. The other end you tie to a stick and shove it in the bank get out a coldie and sip it until the stick starts to bend you grab the cullender and gently pull the string out of the water when you reach the loop shove the cullender in the water about a foot down and lift hey presto. Mind the claws they are very sharp. of course several sticks and pieces of string can be used at once. Boil them all up and you have a fine plate of bush tucker.

        1. You wouldn’t like killing pigs, then.
          Neither did I. One of the worst experiences in my life.

  68. I’ve looked and I’ve looked but I can’t find any reports in the MSM. Can anyone tell me how the Russian lunchtime invasion of Ukraine went.
    Sleepy Joe promised it would happen, is it all over already?

    1. The Ruskies won.
      France and Italy surrendered, Belgium gave them a free passage through and the Swiss opened thousands of private bank accounts to launder the money.
      That’s why you can’t find any reports.

  69. Russia are really taking the piss now…
    The Russian Foreign Ministry has asked Western media outlets to publish a full list of dates on which Russia will invade Ukraine for the year ahead, so Russian diplomats can book their holidays accordingly.

    Not a spoof..they actually did this !!

    1. Lord Dannatt said this morning in a TV interview that if a country has a dispute with a neighbour they cannot join Nato until the dispute is settled.
      Vlad probably had no intention of invading, he’s just up for ‘settling’ the dispute.

        1. Lots of well trained, educated and dedicated advisers. Unlike our mob of here today gone tomorrow ‘experts’ and expenses fiddling political divots.

      2. I have always said that Putin had no intention of invading. I think this has far more to do with Biden and distracting his country from the enormous mess that he has made and the coming impeachment of many Democrats. Now it has been made clear by the special prosecutor that the plot by the Democrats to bring down a sitting president was not a fantasy of Trumps. For that you will have to go over to Fox. The MSM refuses to carry it even though it has been described as a scandal worse than Watergate.

    5. Have a selection of nibbles and drinks in front of you and bury your head in a book. Graze away until you wish to have a nap. Maskless.

      Have a most wonderful time.

    13. Have a wonderful time – and PLEASE report on all the admin buggerment. Leaving; arriving; leaving; coming back to Blighty.

  73. “Care leavers in Wales will be offered the chance to take part in a universal basic income pilot that will see them receive £1,600 per month for up to two years.
    The trial announced by the Welsh government will launch in the summer
    and will be open to all care leavers who turn 18 over the following 12
    months”
    Can i be the first to ask if I can trade in my old age pension for this offer??
    No,thought not……

    2. Does this include migrant youngsters who are in care … I heard somewhere that the state was going to be responsible for them untill they were 25years old .

      2. It’s part of the great reset agenda – I think they tried it in Switzerland too, or it was mooted there at one point.
        One thing we have learned about the WEF, when they fail, they go away and refine the strategy and come back with a new version.

        On what grounds was it deemed to be a failure in Finland? and what were the reasons given for trying it?

        I would guess that the attempt to implement it in Britain is related to the CBDC that nobody asked for, which we have been told is ready. Somehow, when enough idiots sign up to the UBI, it will suddenly be delivered in fairy gold, aka the government’s new CBDC.

      2. I think it’s someone who decides that they have grown up enough to make their way in the outside world.
        Theoretically it is much, much cheaper to pay them £1,600 a month than to keep them in care.

      3. I struggled with that as well. Just read a bit more about this insane idea on GB news, and apparently it is only open to young people leaving the care system.
        So, in the vast majority of cases, it will be children whose parents messed up their lives so badly that their children were taken into care. Hard work not wanted, go to the back of the queue and open your wallet to donate to the poorest in society.
        These kids, and ONLY these kids, will be rewarded for two years with an income that is higher than most pensioners have.
        How many of them will save for a house whilst working full time, and how many will spend it on drink and drugs?

  75. HAPPY HOUR – I just don’r get it…….how about you NoTTlers.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/37512fa7694fbf62a96285bcf01fb8032bca1f2e4818fb7ed3a563a62e42f7e0.jpg

    People who begin to answer a question with ‘So’. (BBC take note).
    Hot tubs.
    Fat women wearing leggings.
    Fat women.
    Ripped jeans.
    Mobile phones….
    Shoppers queuing……finally get to pay and fumble for their cards! Yeah, it’s not free! (Men take note).
    OLD people…my self included.
    Other people..
    Friends who invite you to coffee/lunch, when their mobile rings they continue a conversation
    with caller. Turn the bloody thing off!

        1. I was thinking more of my village idiot, but I guess that this comment applies to most countries nowadays.

    3. Companies that advertise their great service but then hide behind
      Your call is important to us, please hold.

  76. Good evening, all. Just passing through. Monday trip to Glos – shite weather and traffic; Tuesday – elder son drove us to Torquay – BLISS. Shite weather on way down; OK on return. Today – lovely drive back to Narfurk – 16.5ºC and sunshine.

    Funeral = excellent. My brother’s daughters put on a splendid send off – aided by a “celebrant” (at the sight of which we cringed) who was very good indeed. AND we had “Eternal Father…” !!

    Good do afterwards. Lots of exchanges of memories and I repeated my brother’s customary remark at a funeral: “Who’s next?”…

    I gather from the papers that I haven’t missed any news.

    I am signing off – but will join you in the morning.

        2. Physically yes. As for the rest of it……….who can say?

          There has been noticeable improvement in a short time. I walked Dolly today around the Park. Only had a minor cramp.

          Hope you and yours are coping well enough.

    2. As should be Mr T

      A Celebration of life, well lived, with good memories of all his years and of his Final Sendoff

      1. So, what does a celebrant do? Not heard of that before, Alf. Planning Mother’s send-off: coffin (wickerwork) and location decided and paid for, just no idea about the actual send-off ceremony.

        1. We’re not a religious family but always lived by Christian values.
          He was recommended by the funeral director. Came to our home and spent about 2 hours with us getting to ‘know her’. Put together a celebration of her life with amusing anecdotes.
          Our family thought he was brilliant.
          Almost like a religious ceremony but without the religious stuff.
          If you’re using a funeral director they should be able to put you in touch with one.
          My sister’s coffin was wicker. Both her daughters and husband had pre deceased her and I ordered a silk spray, instead of flowers, for her coffin and put them on the family grave where her youngest daughter and her husband’s ashes were

          1. We had one for my father. Excellent.
            The whole speech was taken from what I wrote, but being a softie I could not have stood up and said it without breaking down in tears.

          3. I read Death is Nothing At All * at my brother’s funeral. It was difficult and several people said to me afterwards that they couldn’t have done it. Maybe my years of standing at the front of a class or library gave me the calm to do it.
            * By Henry Scott-Holland.

          4. It’s really weird, the older I get, the more I am inclined to “well up”.
            Certain life events seem to have done it for me.
            I used to be a comforter, now I am one who needs to be comforted. No Idea why.

          5. I know what you mean; my brother’s funeral was in 2015- not at all sure I could do it now.

          6. Goodness…
            What would I tell a Celebrant… that’s actually really difficult to answer, and brought me up short.
            I actually know bugger-all about my Mother. Since a bit before 8 years old, I never lived at home except for holidays, and so never got to know her – hardly my Father, either.
            Um… bugger. Not sure how to deal with that.

          7. Paul – there are celebrants and celebrants. At my brother’s wife’s funeral eight years ago – there was an excruciating, wimpish, soppy girly- voiced woman who implied that she had been a lifelong pal of Janet. It was embarrassing and humiliating.

            The bloke yesterday was a retired CoE priest who mugged up what the girls told him abut my bro and delivered a ten minute review of his life in a very professional and interesting way. But didn’t bring any religion in to it.

            You do need to CHECK in advance what sort of person the “celebrant” will be. And, if arranged through the undertaker, they will say that he/she/it are “brilliant”….

          9. He/she hopefully could guid you through that.
            For most of us it’s only once, for them they will have come across all sorts.
            The alternative is have a word with the crematorium and don’t have a service.
            Alternatively have a word with this company. https://simplyfunerals.co.uk/

          10. Plan is a burial in a field on the edge of a wood. All paid for. Can still have a simple interment.

          12. I didn’t have a celebrant for MOH (who was a proselytising atheist). I wrote the eulogy and read it myself. A few anecdotes, a joke or two – it went down well.

      2. Poor lady- I really feel for her. We all have family members who let the side down but those two oiks now should have known better, given their privilege and position.

  79. Thought for the day.
    If you were a New World Order fanatic, working for Common Purpose and determined to destroy all the Institutions that have lasted for years, how would you set about discrediting and destroying the British royal family?
    Yep, that’s a good start.

    1. I am convinced there is something going on to do just that- have thought it for a couple of years.

      1. I look at so much nowadays and think of it as a chess game.
        How do I move to achieve such and such an objective?
        Often the conclusion is that I would do what the bastards in charge are actually doing.

      2. 100%. That is why I get rather annoyed when people attack and try to denigrate the royal family. Bringing down the monarchy would be the greatest feather in the cap of the left. To me, that event, would represent the fall of Britain and all that we are.

    4. Define “offered”. Offered as free choice or offered as a condition to school attendance etc etc

  82. Russia’s Foreign Office taking the piss out of NATO General Secretary Jens Stoltenberg (He was Labour leader in Norway before, and is now appointed with no competition to Central Wanker Banker on the basis he’s mates and ruling class…
    “We don’t know if he’s NATO GS or a banker… either way, we don’t take him seriously in Moskva” said Maria Zakharova.
    Too right – we don’t take him seriously in NOrway, either.

    2. As his mother said when he was born.

      “I’m afraid you were an accident waiting to happen”

      1. If he had concentrated on cycling rather than looking for people to trash he may have done better. Perhaps he should be made to take a course with the IAM.

    6. Should have took the f*****r to A&E at full speed on a kid’s tricycle the long way round, filming it all of course with his helmet cam.

  85. This was featured on the lunchtime news on BBC1 today.

    It is the untold story of the winter storms. More than eight million trees have been brought down and many are now threatened by another two named storms bearing down on Britain. Forest managers warn that already “catastrophic” damage will be made worse by Storms Dudley and Eunice. There are warnings that the heating climate is making our weather more severe and unpredictable, and that management and planting strategies must adapt more quickly.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-60348947

    Of course it’s sad that so many trees have been lost but even in this short article is that little piece of moralising considered necessary in any BBC report: “We’ve got to sink carbon” says Kelvin Archer, the apparently 20-something National Trust forestry manager in the north of England.

    If Friday’s weather is as bad as forecast there will be deaths. Sooner or later a major calamity will occur during bad weather and you just know that someone in public life will stand up and make a little speech on the evils of fossil fuels, telling us how we should honour the dead by renouncing our cars and denouncing the deniers.

    1. The wind here is 15 mph, though it sounds stronger. On a work zoom this afternoon, one of my colleagues in Scotland said the storm was already gathering force up there.

      1. To be an adult in 1987 would mean you are roughly 52 years old or older.
        How many of the twerps are over 35?

      2. The one that reduced Sevenoaks to One Oak? I slept through it (happy times) and dreamt that the neighbours were throwing their furniture around!

          4. A cousin lived in Netley at the time. They were surrounded by many fallen trees. Meanwhile, I was safely ensconced in Cumbria, with nary a gentle breeze. But I attended a job interview in Bury St Edmunds in December ’87, and the effect on the landscape of Michael Fish’s ‘non-hurricane’ was obvious, the further South one drove.

            Oh – and I got the job…Which means I’ve lived longer in the Southern half of England longer than in the North. No regrets, but I need to head back to Cumbria from time to time, to re-charge my Northern batteries Maybe this year….

        4. We lived in Royal TW and I slept through it.
          I got up as usual, and had to cut through several trees just to get to the road.
          Once there it was VERY clear that I wasn’t going to work that day. I recall it was about three days before we could even get to London.
          Then we had the “crash”. I survived the first round of redundancies but not the second.
          Not great times.

        5. SWMBO flew back from Bergen. Plane almost didn’t leave the ground.
          SE England was dark, no transport, Mother collected her from Gatwick. Trees horizontal every place. Scary, it was.
          It was the zombies that were the scariest…

        6. I took a party of pupils to France just after the Tornado that Wasn’t. We were weaving in and out of trees that had been chopped up to allow a narrow passage along the road and the sight of all those trees lying on the ground in the park on the way to Newhaven was shocking.

    3. They reckon we have about £100 million in trees lying down in Norway just now as a result of excess wind. Problem is, to collect them and pre-process them before they rot, since it’s not planned and there’s limited manpower and logging equipment available.

      1. The same happened in SW France.
        Far too many trees fell, the price collapsed and the wood was left to rot.
        Then they eventually had to clear to replant. A financial catastrophe for the industry in every direction.

        1. I guess Foresters must live in constant treepidation of high winds (especially in Jamaica)

          [The literary reference is especially for LotL}

          6. Here we go… I’ll have you know that I only allow my bottom to be blacked once every two years. It certainly puts a smile on my face!

          14. I’ve discovered it’s the ducks (London side of Hungerford ) that go in for bottom feeding. I call it ‘gribbling’. They use their bills like rasps to release and then eat the algae from off the sides of the boat below the waterline. At 4:00 am on a still summer’s morning it sounds as if they are using electric drills on the side of the hull…..

          21. Do you remember the gale which sank Edward Heath’s Morning Cloud in 1974 in which his godson was killed?

            As luck would have it I was sailing my 22 foot boat, Inca, (photo of sistership) from St Mawes to Poole and we were hit by this same force 10 Easterly gale ten miles south of Portland Bill. We managed to to get to Anvil Point under just the storm jib and then edged north under the shelter of Studland and succeeded in getting safely into Poole Harbour where we tied up alongside the Town Quay. Nigel, one of my crew, had spent much of the exciting day lying in his bunk reading “Gone With The Wind.” The next trip he made with me he brought A High Wind in Jamaica with him for reading matter.

            https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/581a2f5595fa2f87da4aaf61a723e0c6a4ab6b1b4d022eac1a7264315f02c7b0.jpg

          22. Great story. We spent around 8 hours on a Ferry in a force 10 gale, the captain attempted to dock in Dover but couldn’t so the ship was sent back out into the channel to wait for conditions to ease!

          23. Do you remember the gale which sank Edward Heath’s Morning Cloud in 1974 in which his godson was killed?

            As luck would have it I was sailing my 22 foot boat, Inca, (photo of sistership) from St Mawes to Poole and we were hit by this same force 10 Easterly gale ten miles south of Portland Bill. We managed to to get to Anvil Point under just the storm jib and then edged north under the shelter of Studland and succeeded in getting safely into Poole Harbour where we tied up alongside the Town Quay. Nigel, one of my crew, had spent much of the exciting day lying in his bunk reading “Gone With The Wind.” The next trip he made with me he brought A High Wind in Jamaica with him for reading matter.

            https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/581a2f5595fa2f87da4aaf61a723e0c6a4ab6b1b4d022eac1a7264315f02c7b0.jpg

      2. Woods and forests are just not managed properly anymore.Old trees are taken out before the blow over etc.

    4. I think all the staff at the bbc the Liberal Democrats the greens selected other politicians and the upper echelons of the civil service should find a tree in danger and hug it for 24 hours with all their mite. Just to prove they are as closely connected as they often intimate and freely express.

  89. Tate Britain’s Rex Whistler restaurant will SHUT to diners after gallery’s ethics committee ruled the artist’s 1926 mural featuring two black slaves is ‘offensive’… but vows to reopen with new display to ‘critically engage with its racist imagery’
    Venue had been closed since March 2020 due to the coronavirus outbreak
    It emerged at the end of 2020 that its future was uncertain after being criticised
    Review by ethics committee found that imagery in the artwork ‘is offensive’
    Institution today confirmed that venue will not re-open but mural will remain
    Room will be repurposed by a ‘contemporary artist’ who will create new display

    The Expedition in Pursuit of Rare Meats was painted by Rex Whistler in 1927
    It was commissioned by the Tate for its restaurant named in the artist’s honour

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10519491/Tate-Britains-Rex-Whistler-restaurant-shut-offensive-mural-featuring-black-slaves.html

    Please read this article .

    This is Britain… .. why are black foreigners to this country always so damned offended.

    2. I wish I had saved the pithy BTL Comment which went a long the lines of those who are offended might care to visit his war grave as Rex Whistler died in defending their liberties….

    4. That will go down well in Rotherham etc

      Cafe closed, ‘cus nearly 100 years ago someone painted something

      Now, all over the country, WHITE children being groomed and raped, but nowt will be done, in case it upsets incomers.

      You could not make it up

      1. Every convicted paedophile child rapist, as well as a death sentence should also be subjected to a red-hot poker shoved up their ar5e.

        Vlad the Impaler I’m not but the thought of the sentence should make these BAME scum quake in their boots before they even think about carrying out their nasty ways.

  90. Heyup All!
    Got back home just after 18:00 after quite a bit of queueing on the M42/A42.
    Called into the Farm Shop at Gloucester services and spent FAR too much money.

    Gusty outside with a continual roar from the trees up the top of the valley.

    2. Don’t know Gloucester Services, but I have a soft spot for the Westmorland ones. And yes – the farm shops are pricey, but the quality is good. Now that friend Dianne has moved to Topsham, I visit from time to time, and there’s a farm shop there – Darts Farm – which is superb. But don’t go without a credit card…

    1. There was a similar game recently in the US also called Let’s find Joe. They did eventually but it didn’t do them any good…..

    1. I read that! I cannot believe these people go along with this shit…especially women.
      Enjoy your solitary night ;-)) A rare steak is said to be good for a black eye.

          1. I’m Islamophobic – they scare the sh1ts out of me – to think that they might eventually rule here with their hate-filled ideology and their despising women and treating them as chattels.

            Time we cleared out these cankers on our country’s soul.

          2. There are rather a lot of Muslims in positions of political power so it is probably too late to change it without bloodshed.

  93. Evening, all. The computer has been playing up today, despite having been CC Cleaned, so if I disappear, you’ll know why! I saw a Fiat 500 today proudly proclaiming on the door panel “100% electric”. Hmm, that’ll be going nowhere soon, I thought, once the power lines are down (Storm Dudley has arrived early and it’s blowing more than a gale at the moment – I put my very full green bin out for collection and the wind promptly blew it over!) and then we run out of electric due to excessive demand. An Oscar update – I managed to get him into the bath this afternoon. He was muzzled, but he didn’t growl or try to bite – he just stood there, cried and shook like a leaf! He didn’t want to have his feet touched, either. He got lots of praise plus treats afterwards so hopefully next time (he’s only a slightly lighter shade of grey, rather than the white he’s supposed to be!) he’ll feel a bit better about it.

    3. Oh poor Oscar! Still on the bright side, he must trust you to allow you to subject him to such a fearful ordeal!

      1. I think the treats I kept shoving through the letterbox (the gaps in his basket muzzle) helped a lot 🙂 I tried Phizzee’s suggestion of singing to him, soft and low, but he must be a music lover and wasn’t impressed 🙂

          1. I contemplated it, but I thought he might think he was going to be sold off 🙂 Swing low, sweet chariot was what I chose.

          9. Back in the days when I was in E. Anglia, the organ at Brandon had a tremulant. I could do a reasonable ‘theatre organ’ rendition of the above… 🙂

    4. Do you use warm or cold water, Conners? Our old cat couldn’t stand warm water, but straight cold was fine.

  96. Late Groaner

    Instead of “the John,” I call my toilet “the Jim.”

    That way it sounds better when I say I go to the Jim first thing every morning.

    1. Shakespeare called it the Jakes – and Jack(Jake) is a form of the name John.

      The belligerent Kent, in King Lear, strongly objects to the odious character Oswald whom he would like to smear on the wall of a lavatory.

      My lord, if you will give me leave, I will tread this unbolted villain into mortar and daub the wall of a jakes with him.

  98. If you like Clue…go on You Tube- there is an interview with Barry Cryer, Graeme Garden, Tim BT and Colin Sell. It is called 47 Years of No Clue. Very good indeed.

    1. The above named, if they are confident of their innocence should without any strong arm or police protection,
      go and talk to the truckers in Canada, US, New Zealand etc and explain to them, that the vaccines were to save the world
      and they, personally did not make any money out of Convid at all

  100. Lord Sugar left ‘extremely scared’ from hate mail over Labour anti-Semitism

    Court hears how The Apprentice star was left ‘looking over his shoulder’ as Patrick Gomes jailed for sending him abusive messages

    Patrick Gomes denied sending three letters to The Apprentice star’s business address, but was found guilty at an earlier trial of religiously aggravated harassment., however a Brit does not have those rights in his own land.

    Topple the statue of Mandela etc and see what happens: Uproar, but the lives of Brits going back
    1000 years are being ripped apart by a sector of our population

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/02/16/lord-sugar-left-extremely-scared-hate-mail-labour-anti-semitism/

  102. Sir Nick Clegg promoted to tackle Facebook’s mounting problems
    The former deputy prime minister will become president of global affairs at Meta
    Hannah Boland : https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/02/16/sir-nick-clegg-promoted-tackle-facebooks-mounting-problems/

    I always enjoy the BTL comments rather more than the articles under which they appear. Here is my pick of today’s comments about Nick Clegg’s promotion:

    A brief scan of these comments does not reveal a single commentator who is prepared to say a good word on Sir Nick Clegg’s behalf so I thought it would be up to me to write some kind words in his defence. Unfortunately I have wracked my brains and can think of absolutely nothing to say.

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