Wednesday 16 November: Voters brace for an Autumn Statement that abandons Tory values

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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667 thoughts on “Wednesday 16 November: Voters brace for an Autumn Statement that abandons Tory values”

  1. Good morning all.
    It’s a dark and cool 4°C outside and at the moment NOT raining! Looks like it might be cloudy though.

    So, it appears that the missile that killed two people in Poland was actually an air defence missile fired by the Ukraine.

    2. According to the DT that cretin Zelensky is saying it’s an attack on NATO, and therefore “an attack on us all” – seems he considers himself as part of NATO?

  3. Good morrow, Gentlefolk. A little homily on making tea.

    Recipe for the Perfect Cuppa…

    Experts tell us that the best way to make a perfect cup of tea is to agitate the bag.
    So, every morning I shout,

    ‘Two sugars, fat arse!’

          3. Sod the crunchy Peanut – just lashings of real dairy butter and a wee covering of black pepper.

    3. Made a large pot of this espresso powder stuff the ohter day. It’s smoother than my usual nescafe lark. Yes yes, I know coffee purists, I’m doing it wrong. I like instant, ok?

      Anyway, after the third mug of this stuff the Warqueen starts doing laps of the table and starts reorganising the keys, then picks up all the discarded coats, loading the dishwasher, cleaning the worktops, even refilling the water bottles for the fridge.

      Today I’m going to leave the hoover out in the hope she’ll run it about!

      2. “I like instant, ok?”

        Hey, chill, man! Don’t you know that the best things come to those who wait? 🤣

  4. ‘Morning, Peeps.  It seems that the monsoon season is back again, but the hosepipe ban remains in place and Southern Water discharged untreated water and sewage into the sea for 75 hrs last week…lovely.

    Today’s leading letter:

    SIR – I am appalled that the Autumn Statement will give councils leave to increase council tax above the current limit of 2.99 per cent without a referendum (report, November 15).

    This will seriously penalise those who work and pay taxes. Furthermore, it is yet another reversal of the Conservatives’ 2019 manifesto, and will cause fury among their traditional supporters – especially given how much money councils waste.

    The Conservatives are rapidly becoming an unelectable party – one that no one will ever trust again. They face a bleak future if they fail to rein in their present “tax and cut” agenda.

    Ian McNicholas
    Ebbw Vale, Monmouthshire

    The Tory lemmings have reached the top of the cliff and seem determined to keep going…

    1. The welfare state and big government can do nothing other than deliver a slap in the face to hard work and saving. It’s inherent.

    2. “Becoming unelectable”. Ha! the cons will be lucky to maintain their deposits in many places .

      1. I fear you underestimate the propensity of the sheeple to keep voting for the same thing (despite complaining vociferously about the party they are voting for).

        1. Ultimately, it depends upon whether there is a credible alternative with conservative policies or your vote just pushing the country into the arms of Labour. Being in South Wales the donkey with the red rosette gets voted in every time.

          1. Bit off topic but you might be amused.
            An elderly gent and keen aviator recently had to have a check up on his bionic knee. A bit stiff but OK, and the Doctor casually asked if he was driving; the answer was no.
            When we were chatting later, my friend laughed triumphantly and said ‘But he forgot to ask if I was still flying!”

      1. Good morning, Elsie, if I wish you a Happy Wednesday, do you think you could have such luck two days in a row?

      1. ‘Moaning, Annie. Looks like a draw? Anyway, the cartoon is sufficiently amusing to survive two airings!

    1. It’s going to be truly hideous. A collection of utterly the wrong decisions all deliberately aimed at ensuring we are rammed in to the EU.

      No cuts to state spending, in fact, I expect significant more waste. Inflation will hit 20-25% due to contracts for difference market rigging, compound that with a 7% hike in corporation tax and a hike to the min wage will mean a collapse in employment, sales and revenue.

      Our boss (who I hired as an assistant) is calling a meeting to discuss closing the company. 8 years we’ve worked together the six of us. All nuked by a moronic remoaner.

  8. Russian missile hits Nato member Poland, leaving two dead. 16 november 2022.

    Poland stepped up its military readiness on Tuesday night and Nato prepared to hold emergency talks after Russia was blamed for a missile landing within an alliance member’s territory.

    Two people were killed in the explosion at a farm near the Polish village of Przewodow, about four miles inside the country’s border with Ukraine.

    Poland’s foreign ministry confirmed that the missile was Russian-made, and summoned the Russian ambassador to give “immediate detailed explanations”.

    This has already been dissed by Biden of all people. There are a number of anomalies in the reports but unless you believe that the Russians are in the business of knocking off Polish farmhouses the “strike” was probably two anti-aircraft missiles fired by Ukraine.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/11/15/two-russian-rockets-hit-poland-killing-two/

    1. Not another incident close to the Polish border causing fear of escalation? Repeating 1939, albeit with the Poles on the receiving end this time, is not an original idea.

  9. SIR – I’m a retired consultant, and I know that so-called managers have multiplied dramatically over the past quarter of a century.

    Hospitals used to be run by the consultants, who are the only people with the knowledge to appreciate what is necessary in healthcare. The medical executive committee consisted of one consultant from each specialty, and it discussed what was necessary for the proper functioning of the hospital. Its decisions were communicated to the hospital secretary, who implemented them.

    Now, the hospital secretary has been replaced with a CEO, who is in charge of countless other managers. This grotesque experiment in managerialism has resulted in huge increases in expenditure without any improvement in patient care, as these managers are not medically qualified. They are appointed in order to prevent doctors spending too much money.

    Unless this is reversed, with consultants put in charge of all medical decisions, the NHS will collapse. The health service exists to diagnose and treat. Doctors do this with the help of nurses, physiotherapists and others. They do not need managers, whatever politicians might imagine.

    Dr William T Easson
    Buxton, Derbyshire

    Parts of the NHS are already in a state of collapse, but the government shows no sign of understanding this, never mind doing anything about it.

    1. My impression over the past few days, is one of chaos.
      For a start, all day visiting should be banned; back to a couple of well defined hours.
      It is impossible to run a ward smoothly or with any dignity for the patients with visitors present for 8 – 9 hours daily.

      1. Problem is, that we don’t trust the hospitals to care for our relatives any more. Sometimes, we need to be there to make sure they get nutritious food, enough to drink etc. Also if everyone arrives at the same time, think of the parking chaos. Some people can’t get time off work during restricted hours.

      2. My elder son was born at Charing Cross Hospital – the old one, opposite the station – in 1966.

        Because of the overnight activity of Covent Garden Market – the Hospital was open to visitors 24 hours a day, seven days a week. One could drop in several times a day just for a few minutes to see that a patient was OK.

        Seemed to work OK.

    2. Parts of the NHS are already in a state of collapse, but the government shows no sign of understanding this, never mind doing anything about it.

      Morning Hugh. This would apply to almost every other part of the Public Domain. It’s head in the sand time!

      1. The government spends your money wisely and achieves great results. Here’s the statistics to prove it. If you don’t believe them we have others, all saying the same thing – that government is good. 150,000 civil servants all working to confirm our statements.

    3. Morning, all. Calm with a blue, grey and pink sky here at the moment. The patio evidence indicates recent rainfall.

      Experts who know what they’re doing put in charge? Whatever next: a genuine Conservative leading an equally genuine Conservative party?

      2. The problem with technocracy is that often the people doing the job are, if they were honest, the wrong people. I am not a rpoject manager. I can do it, but I’m not good at it. Nor am I good at budgets (unless it’s our own) so I just trundle on doing the work without a sense that I’ve spent too long on it (I’ve got better at this).

        A medical fellow managing a hospital doesn’t sound right. What you want is a board of medical fellows telling a non medical fellow what they need and why. Then having the non medical fellow make the decision and set the timeline.

        Sadly, the non medical fellow is never one man, but becomes a leviathan bureaucracy where none is needed, simply because where there’s dung there’s maggots.

    4. The government has many many civil servants dedicated to telling it what a wonderful job it is doing of healthcare provision and that everything you see, hear and say are lies spread by an uninformed, ignorant public.

      You will obey the messaging, more money will be spent on the NHS and not a penny will get to the front line because more people are needed to tell the government how well it is spending the money it is given.

    5. Good morning

      The NHS has to cope with many more thouusands of patients with inherited diseases and afflictions than it did say, 60 years ago . That is the cruel reality .

      I read about this the other day, shocking .. unbelievable. Adults should know better.

      Sexually transmitted infections on the rise among over-65s in England
      Increase in sexual activity among older people and popularity of chemsex are driving trend, say researchers

      https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/nov/15/demand-sexual-health-advice-record-levels-england#:~:text=It%20highlights%20that%20the%20number,were%20in%20gonorrhoea%20and%20chlamydia.

          1. You will have to read the article Tom .

            I wish I hadn’t read it .. My life has been fairly sheltered .

            Some things I would rather not know about .

          2. I have read it, Maggie, and being purely heterosexual, there is nothing to alarm me.

            The only chemsex I might indulge in, is for impotence (on the rare occasions) and then I find a Caverject needle (20ug) into the old boy gives joy for at least 4 hours. To both of us!

          3. Just googled it – sexual activity engaged in while under the influence of stimulant drugs such as methamphetamine or mephedrone, typically involving several participants.

      1. 367844+ up ricks,

        Morning Anne,

        Bedding comes into it but “I don’t see it as” primarily the contact lenses.

    2. It passes belief that these two are representatives of what was once the pre-eminent civilisation on the planet!

    4. Two spoiled Lefties, both unpopular at home for the same reasons. They like the camera, but not the duty.

  13. SIR – When my wife was seriously ill in hospital (Letters, November 15), I spent a lot of time at her bedside. I saw, and pointed out, that her condition deteriorated overnight, when she was less closely monitored, and more so during the weekend, when there were fewer decision-makers present.

    I voiced my concern as we neared a four-day weekend at Easter. I watched as my wife’s health worsened during those days. Approaching midnight on the third day, Easter Sunday, she died. A single nurse was caring for nine patients that night, two of whom were in a critical condition.

    Robert Marston
    Newark, Nottinghamshire

    I hope and pray that I never find myself in the same position as Mr Marston, poor chap.

  14. 367844+ up ticks,

    Wednesday 16 November: Voters brace for an Autumn Statement that abandons Tory values

    Gettaway, you don’t say,

    Wednesday 16 November: Voters brace for an Autumn Statement that abandons remaining Tory values, the bulk being abandoned 40 years ago,since when it took to running on tory (ino) coalition member party.

  15. Russian and Iranian spies face tougher sentences for harassing British nationals. 16 november 2022.

    Writing in The Telegraph, Tom Tugendhat reveals how the National Security Bill will sharpen Britain’s fight against foreign agents.

    Iranian and Russian spies will face tougher sentences for threatening British nationals, the security minister has pledged.

    Writing for The Telegraph, Tom Tugendhat said that new laws would allow any harassment or assault by an agent of a foreign power to be treated as an “aggravating factor” by judges.

    This would mean courts would be able to impose higher sentences if a crime such as assault or harassment was committed at the behest of a foreign power.

    There will be another new law next year where murderers dropping litter at the scene of their crime will be punished more severely!

    The passing of laws has become an end in itself in the UK. It is classic displacement activity. It boosts the egos of the MP’s and validates their existence. It also helps to fend off their general sense of helplessness as the end approaches!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/11/15/russian-iranian-spies-face-tougher-sentences-harassing-british/

    1. It is what the late Harold Bridger* of the Tavistock Institute called: “Working as if working”, by which he meant avoiding all the difficult decisions.

      * Harold recommended Volvo adopt a seven man team to make each new car. A recommendation Volvo adopted with some success.

      Morning Minty and everyone.

    2. We already have harrassment laws. Of course, this isn’t about foreign agents, it’s about adding even more law – from the EU, of course.

    3. Good morning, perhaps they should include the WEF as a ‘foreign power’. After all Herr Schwab and his minions are doing far more damage than the Russians (other bogeyman are available) will ever cause.

    4. It doesn’t matter how many laws there are, if the Government is unwilling to apply them it is useless.

      They don’t even bother to keep the King’s Highway clear [Sec. 137 Highways Act 1980]

  16. Russian and Iranian spies face tougher sentences for harassing British nationals. 16 november 2022.

    Writing in The Telegraph, Tom Tugendhat reveals how the National Security Bill will sharpen Britain’s fight against foreign agents.

    Iranian and Russian spies will face tougher sentences for threatening British nationals, the security minister has pledged.

    Writing for The Telegraph, Tom Tugendhat said that new laws would allow any harassment or assault by an agent of a foreign power to be treated as an “aggravating factor” by judges.

    This would mean courts would be able to impose higher sentences if a crime such as assault or harassment was committed at the behest of a foreign power.

    There will be another new law next year where murderers dropping litter at the scene of their crime will be punished more severely!

    The passing of laws has become an end in itself in the UK. It is classic displacement activity. It boosts the egos of the MP’s and validates their existence. It also helps to fend off their general sense of helplessness as the end approaches!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/11/15/russian-iranian-spies-face-tougher-sentences-harassing-british/

  17. SIR – The agreement with France on illegal migration across the Channel (Letters, November 15) may be palliative, but it is no cure.

    The simple and obvious way to address the situation would be to mandate that no one arriving illegally in Britain could apply for political asylum or permanent residence.

    They would need instead to apply to one of our 100 or so consulates overseas.

    Lord Renwick of Clifton
    London W1

    Hmm…not sure about that, although absolutely anything would be better than the present embarrassing shambles!

    1. We must repeal the equalities, human rights, migration pact acts immediately.Lleave the ECHR as well and end legal aid for these criminals. An easier way is to demand they produce identification and as soon as they do, return them to their country. When they don’t, deport them to wherever we like.

      Only through brutality will we reclaim this country. It’s right and proper that we do. They could apply legally. They choose not to.

      Of course, the home office is frantically trying to hide them all and get them houses and welfare so they ‘disappear’ into the population permanently.

      1. It is quite simple when you grasp the reality which is that the WEF wants open borders and so do our politicians and so they make make noises but actually don’t want to do anything to resolve the problem so the problem will never be solved.

    2. Simple rule: No papers – No admission.

      If I arrived in any country without the necessary papers of identification I would not be allowed entry. I don’t know how many different countries I have sailed into but each time I had to clear customs and do the paperwork even though I was only going to stay for a short time.

  18. SIR – One dark night my security camera picked up a man with a torch and a bag looking around the front of my house.

    I reported this to the police (Letters, November 15) and offered the recording. However, they weren’t interested as there had been no crime. I suggested that, if there was a burglary in the area, it might prove useful. The police officer replied that the footage simply showed how burglars operated.

    He did reluctantly accept the recording in the end, but I heard nothing more. So much for proactive policing.

    John Hewett
    Ponteland, Northumberland

    Well that’s a novel response, taken presumably from the Little Book of Fob-Offs for the Public.   The stripey T-shirt and the bag marked ‘Swag’ over the shoulder makes no difference now?

    Obviously the good old days when the police farce was charged with the protection of people and property disappeared long ago.  I trust that Grizz will shortly be firing up his keyboard for another broadside to the DT!

    2. The only obvious contact with the public our local police has, is from their website. Which basically means that they publish the details of the crimes that have recently been committed. Now at least twice weekly.
      How on this planet are they going to cope with their (sarc) website broadcasts when the doors are finally opened at the ‘refugee’ hotel’s around the country?
      I think I will be keeping a garden fork somewhere handy. Accidents do happen.

  19. SIR – The BBC’s pop, jazz, class and youth-obsessed ideology has indeed ruined Radio 3.

    I was an avid Radio 3 listener as a child growing up in a working-class South Yorkshire home in the 1960s and 1970s. Not only did I revel in 900 years of music, but I also delighted in the beautifully modulated RP of announcers such as Cormac Rigby, Tom Crowe and Patricia Hughes, whose concise, well-informed and opinion-free introductions were almost as musical as the works they preceded.

    Fifty years ago the BBC gave me access to the products of the finest minds of every era. Today the only mind the BBC wants me to access is its own.

    John Sheridan Smith
    Southampton

    And please don’t forget the lovely voice of ‘Petshop’ Trelawny! Some years ago now I went to a performance of Elgar’s The Music Makers* at the Fairfield Halls, Croydon, when he introduced it.  The only problem now is the fact that his programme content isn’t what it was, and consequently I rarely hear him now.

    Incidentally, the BBC was recording the performance and he helpfully included the date of its subsequent broadcast.  I still have a recording of that performance and occasionally it is played at considerable volume when Mrs HJ is out!

    *A much underrated piece in my opinion.

    1. Petshop does have a good and instantly recognisable voice. I only listen to R3 in the car these days and I don’t drive far.

  20. A good article on central bank digital currencies.
    https://www.takimag.com/article/buddy-can-you-simulate-a-dime/

    Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) is being sold as a universal panacea for all Europe’s—and the world’s—financial woes. CBDC is similar to cryptocurrency and has grafted on technologies such as blockchain accordingly, but there are two crucial differences: CBDC is index-linked to a country’s currency, and, more important, it is centralized and so not a free-market concern, and it’s the latter that needs watching. This month’s British prime minister, Rishi Sunak, had all the persuasive oil of a time-share salesman as he informed a grateful public of the latest technocratic boon: “Unlike most of the digital money people use daily today, it would be issued directly by a central bank like the Bank of England.”

    1. “…it would be issued directly by a central bank like the Bank of England.”

      And that’s what worrys us.

    1. But… but… but that’d be unfair….

      Stop the boats and you stop the boats. Get out there, turn them back at gunpoint. Enforce our borders.

  22. Rishi Sunak’s meeting with China’s Xi Jinping called off after G7 meeting clash as missiles fired into Poland.

    Rishi Sunak’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping has been called off, Downing Street has said.

    The prime minister was set to hold a meeting with Mr Xi at the G20 summit in Bali on Wednesday morning, UK time, in what would have been the first time a British leader had faced him in almost five years.

    However, the much-anticipated meeting was scrapped moments before it was set to take place due to scheduling issues, a Downing Street spokesman told Sky News
    .
    It is almost certainly the Chinese that have called off this meeting. Xi is probably sick of being harangued and then misrepresented after one to one discussions. Macron for one emerging and claiming that he had said that he disapproved of Russia.

    https://news.sky.com/story/rishi-sunaks-meeting-with-chinas-xi-jinping-called-off-after-missiles-fired-into-poland-12748575

    1. Biden saying they weren’t Russian missiles.

      I know he’s ill, but does the man have no common sense? Chances are they were american ones, or even more likely, Russian ones captured by Ukraine and used to try to force NATOs hand.

      1. It did cross my mind it might be another False Flag Wibbles but there’s very little to go on!

      2. It did cross my mind it might be another False Flag Wibbles but there’s very little to go on!

      3. Reading between the lines of the news, it is being hinted that this was a Russian missile engaged by a Ukrainian interceptor, but not blown up. It then drifted off course and ended up in Poland.

        If this is the mostly likely explanation we are likely to hear, then the correct NATO response is to install adequate anti-aircraft systems on the Polish border to take down all incoming, Russian or Ukrainian. Meanwhile, call in the Russian Ambassador to remind him that any hostile action on NATO guarded territory will be dealt with swiftly and ruthlessly.

        1. “…will be dealt with swiftly and ruthlessly.”

          Ha ha ha. NATO is useless. When were they last engaged?

  23. Rishi Sunak’s meeting with China’s Xi Jinping called off after G7 meeting clash as missiles fired into Poland.

    Rishi Sunak’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping has been called off, Downing Street has said.

    The prime minister was set to hold a meeting with Mr Xi at the G20 summit in Bali on Wednesday morning, UK time, in what would have been the first time a British leader had faced him in almost five years.

    However, the much-anticipated meeting was scrapped moments before it was set to take place due to scheduling issues, a Downing Street spokesman told Sky News
    .
    It is almost certainly the Chinese that have called off this meeting. Xi is probably sick of being harangued and then misrepresented after one to one discussions. Macron for one emerging and claiming that he had said that he disapproved of Russia.

    https://news.sky.com/story/rishi-sunaks-meeting-with-chinas-xi-jinping-called-off-after-missiles-fired-into-poland-12748575

  24. Morning all 😊
    Some broken cloud but still raining.
    And matching our broken economy, now 6.8 million pounds each day going to house and feed the invaders. Let alone all the sexual offences taking place at these venues.
    I have to say it. WTF is this stupid useless government doing to our country?

        1. It’s certainly been warm. Autumn colours have been glorious but the leaves are falling now as it’s been windy.

    1. The felow doesn’t seem to get it. The government is exercising it’s will. It wants massive, uncontrolled, criminal invasion.

      It is plain, tedious revenge for Brexit.

    2. 367844+ up ticks,

      IT really does sound like some of the indigenous still are willing to support / vote for them OGGA
      Gettaway, really,really.

        1. Given the state today, Delboy don’t you mean a Sunni Good Morning – with an oh so peaceful, knife in your ribs.

      1. Similar here. The forest paths are ponding and walking the dog yesterday required the first outing for wellies.

        1. Moh is playing golf this morning , he rattled out of the house in his golf waterproofs .

          The game will be horrible as the ball won’t travel/ roll to far if the course is too wet .

  27. 367844+ up ticks,

    Will peoples still cast a vote for a party that condones these actions,

    TO MANY BENNY,

    Gerard Batten
    @gjb2021
    ·
    15h
    Exclusive Newsflash.

    This is the delightful looking Abbey Sands Hotel in Torquay, Devon. It is billed as ‘Torquay’s Hidden Treasure’. Not well hidden enough.

    A local person went to use the fscilities this afternoon & was barred from entry because yesterday ot was taken over by the Home Office for the exclusive use of illegal migrants.

    The illegal invaders are being housed in luxury & fed at taxpayers’ expense. Meanwhile locals are excluded, & at least one wedding party for 2023 has been cancelled.

    This is what the Tory Govnt, & their fellow treacherous Labour MP colleagues, are doing to our country….more

    https://gettr.com/post/p1ydi2l6ff7

  28. It would appear that to people living in the far North of England “the South” begins at the River Humber; yet to people living in the far South of England “the North” begins at Watford.

    If that is the case, what do those people consider that large lump of England lying between the Humber and Watford to be? It can’t be both ‘the North’ and ‘the South’ simultaneously! Have Midlanders been consulted?

    Moreover, is this just an English conundrum? Does Scotland have its own ‘North’, ‘Midlands’ and ‘South’ and, if so, where are the boundaries?

    3. It will be raining in the North. They forget to add England or Scotland. They want to end the use of the counties when in fact that gives the best location. I always ensure the county is on my address. My locations have been Lancashire,Northapmtonshire, Hertfordshire,Cambridgeshire,Hampshire,West Sussex. West Yorkshire, Essex. Germany. France, Norfolk and East Sussex. North, South, East and West.

      1. I’m not as well-travelled as you, John. I’ve just lived in Derbyshire, ‘South Yorkshire’ (West Riding), Nottinghamshire, Norfolk and Skåne.

          1. My paternal grandmother lived in Great Walsingham, Norfolk during her teenage years. Her father was a farm bailiff and ostler.

          4. He lost his parents and lived with close relations at the farm and was very happy. He remebered in particular going each week to Ashbourn market on a horse and cart. I thoink it was mostly sheep at the farm. To get him to talk about those days was like drawing teeth.

        2. There was alwas a real thrill when I was a child , when we were here in the UK on leave , with dad driving us up the Great North Road to visit relatives , now sadly long gone aunts and uncles .. he was brilliant with history and old English battle fields .. as we passed through England from Surrey in his Morris Minor traveller, we had a running commentary.

          He even explained the different styles of building in each county, brick, flint , stone , cob etc . We used to stop off in Rugby for lunch , then later on plead with him to find a field so that we could spend a penny.

          Roads didn’t seem so busy then .. We had ISpy books .. remember those? and of course look out for the AA man on his motor bike who was meant to salute when he saw our large AA badge on the car .

          That Morris Minor rattled along and groaned up the hills as we travelled along . Memories eh?

          1. Just as well to be well travelled, Maggie. Apart from my list of counties/countrys, I have also lived and worked in Norway, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, Singapore and visited Yugoslavia (as was) Cyprus, Israel, Italy, Taiwan, USA, Mexico, and Ireland (Eire).

            It all helps to understand different cultures, how they may affect you and the cultural differences you have to understand, so as not to give offence, unwittingly.

          2. The bit of culture I learned , and Dad drummed into us , was to be respectful of Muslim laws , cover up , not be familiar, smile and nod .
            I learnt some Arabic language basics , so that was useful.

          5. Can anyone else beat your record, NtN?

            I’ve lived in a mere Berkshire, Devon, Dorset, Oxfordshire, Merseyside, London, Germany and France!

          6. Wonderful days, Maggie. I do remember the I—Spy books as well as the equally useful series called The Observers’ Book of (whatever subject.) One class in my junior school had a full set of both sets of books that were well-thumbed.

      2. I’m not as well-travelled as you, John. I’ve just lived in Derbyshire, ‘South Yorkshire’ (West Riding), Nottinghamshire, Norfolk and Skåne.

      3. …and mine have been, Norfolk, Suffolk, Stafford, Norfolk, Wiltshire, Yorkshire, Neiderhein Westphalia, Middlesex, Cambridgeshire, Hampshire, Middlesex, Mid-Glamorgan, Banffshire, Ayrshire, Wiltshire, Stockholm, Wiltshire, Bristol, Hampshire, Mid-Glamorgan, Suffolk, Essex, Livingston, Edinburgh, Buckinghamshire, Victoria Australia, Ile de France, Saint Hilarion, Andalucia. And that just the first 42 addresses. Yep, he gets around in his tea half-hour!

        1. With all your tooing and froing I bet you didn’t know whether you were coming or going most of the time. 😂

          1. Oh, but I did, Alf. It’s all recorded in my Autobiography Not a Bad Lifee (1944 – 2014) and Passing Three Score Years and Ten (2014 to date).

          2. As you know it was said in jest.
            Interesting the passing three score years and ten, turning 70 had the greatest effect on me as all the other decades I had been working. The effect was not lasting as I am enjoying retirement.

        2. You have a country called ‘Victoria’ in your list, Tom. I’ve never heard of it. It sits between Buckinghamshire and Australia.

          1. If you’d travelled or paid attention in geography classes, you would know that Victoria is an Australian State. That’s why it has no comma in between but just says “Victoria Australia”.

          2. Problem is, Tom, you’ve just cheated, by removing the comma that you had initially placed after ‘Victoria’, in wake of my comment. The recent appearance of the word ‘edited’ in the top line of your comment gives your game away.

            You had initially made a list of places all separated by a comma that made Victoria appear as another country in the list. Try that trick in court and you’d be sent down for attempting to pervert the course of justice.

            As for ‘paying attention’ in geography (or indeed any class), I’ll take you on in a general knowledge quiz any time you choose and beat you hands down on every occasion.

          3. Oh, full marks for spotting ‘Edited’ but I don’t suppose it occurred to you that I thought I’d put a comma between Neiderhein and Westphalia and had removed that

            Some people are just full of themselves, safe in the knowledge that by hiding in a faraway rump known as Skåne, they are free of challenge because even the majority of Swedes find the dialect difficult.

            Grow up and stop trying to score ‘brownie’ points.

          4. Er, excuse me, Colonel Blimp, but it is you who starts nitpicking on my posts every day. You simply don’t like I when I retaliate. If anyone on here is so far ‘up’ themselves then it is you. Get a life. As for Skåne, there are more second homes here than anywhere else in the country. If Stockholmers (and other Swedes) don’t like the place, then why do they spend so much time here?

    4. Easy. North begins at the Humber, and it’s immaterial what anyone unaccountably choosing to live elsewhere calls their bit of the country! 🤣🤣

    5. Easy. North begins at the Humber, and it’s immaterial what anyone unaccountably choosing to live elsewhere calls their bit of the country! 🤣🤣

    6. North and South? Elizabeth Gaskell and Tommy Steele

      ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BE4tu2tUSME

  29. It would appear that to people living in the far North of England “the South” begins at the River Humber; yet to people living in the far South of England “the North” begins at Watford.

    If that is the case, what do those people consider that large lump of England lying between the Humber and Watford to be? It can’t be both ‘the North’ and ‘the South’ simultaneously! Have Midlanders been consulted?

    Moreover, is this just an English conundrum? Does Scotland have its own ‘North’, ‘Midlands’ and ‘South’ and, if so, where are the boundaries?

      1. I prefer to name Hunt under the name of the card game, “Chase the Bitch” other names for that game are available…

    3. Rejects – at least you used to get tuppence back when you returned empty corona bottles.

  32. YAWN! Here we go again. Every four years the halfwits of Wendyball in England come out and start ranting about “how great a chance we have this time of winning the World Cup“. Yet every time they come home empty-handed, beaten by a better team with more skilful players and tactics. And so it goes … on and on … ad infinitum … ad nauseam … Déjà Vu … Groundhog Day …YAWN! …

    2. The tournament should never have been set up in that slave market.
      But hang on…..we have enough spare bodies to fill Wembley now, can’t we send them to support England. Great savings could be made.

    3. They can’t play football so resort to virtue-signalling instead – i.e. kneeling for BLM and wearing stupid LGBTQWERTYUIOP armbands.

    4. Computer says “no”.

      Brazil haven’t won the World Cup since 2002 but there is a strong chance Qatar 2022 could be their year.

      Using Stats Perform’s artificial intelligence World Cup prediction model, the South Americans have emerged as the favourites to lift the trophy for a record extending sixth time. But how well are England and Wales going to perform?

      To achieve a more well-rounded picture of who will win the 2022 World Cup, the prediction model estimates the probability of each match outcome – win, draw or loss – by using betting market odds and Stats Perform’s team rankings.

      The odds and rankings are based on historical and recent team performances. The model then considers opponent strength and the difficulty of their path to the final by using match outcome probabilities, taking into account the composition of the groups and seedings into the knockout stages.

      https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/63489985

        1. Nor I. Although when I was at Liverpool University in 1966, I landed a job based at Lym Hotel ferrying Brasil team members around as and when required. (True story.)

          2. You’re correct, Alec. At the time it was summer and I was staying with my brother & his wife who lived in nearby Altrincham. I can’t blame Spellchecker for the error, just my memory.

    5. If they replaced the ball with a shrunken head or a coconut the England team would be in their element – it’s what their ancestors have being practicing for hundreds of years.

  33. NI deal will be sorted by Good Friday anniversary, Sunak promises Biden. 16 November 2022.

    Rishi Sunak has promised Joe Biden that a deal will be reached with the EU over the Northern Ireland protocol by the time of the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday agreement next year.

    It is understood Sunak has doubts about whether a deal over the protocol, which regulates trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, can be reached by Christmas but is confident it will be achievable by April.

    When did the Northern Ireland protocol become the business of the United States or the EU for that matter?

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/nov/16/ni-deal-will-be-sorted-by-good-friday-anniversary-sunak-promises-biden

    1. It will be complete capitulation to what the EU wants. I’d put money on it. And given the current economy, that’s saying something.

    3. The EU realised some time ago that the UK was the whipping boy who would always surrender. And even Biden is not so senile that he cannot see that UK is finished and the likes of Sunak, Hunt and most of the government will always give in.

  34. NI deal will be sorted by Good Friday anniversary, Sunak promises Biden. 16 November 2022.

    Rishi Sunak has promised Joe Biden that a deal will be reached with the EU over the Northern Ireland protocol by the time of the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday agreement next year.

    It is understood Sunak has doubts about whether a deal over the protocol, which regulates trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, can be reached by Christmas but is confident it will be achievable by April.

    When did the Northern Ireland protocol become the business of the United States or the EU for that matter?

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/nov/16/ni-deal-will-be-sorted-by-good-friday-anniversary-sunak-promises-biden

  36. Universities told to teach about colonialism and white supremacy – even in computing courses
    The body that advises on degree content has introduced advice for the first time on decolonising courses
    Universities told to teach about colonialism and white supremacy – even in computing courses
    DT: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/11/15/universities-told-teach-colonialism-white-supremacy-even-computing/

    BTL

    In fact the teaching of both slavery and colonisation could be usefully taught if the teaching of such things were both objective and impartial and if important questions were answered.

    For example: Where did and do slaves come from over history? Were all ethnic groups victims and traders at some time? Who put their own people on the slave market? Who sold people conquered in war into slavery? When did Western states abolish slavery: e.g.s Britain, Portugal, Spain, France, Germany, Poland, Italy, the Netherlands, Russia, USA? Who put slaves on the market in the first place? Which country did the most to stamp out the international slave trade? Is slavery still practised in the Arab World and the Far East? etc. etc. etc.

    If the whole truth about slavery were told I have a feeling that many left-leaning academics would find that they have opened a very uncomfortable can of worms that they would rather have left unopened.

    And as far as colonisation is concerned which countries have actually benefited from having been colonised?

    2. The Left don’t want to teach. They want to indoctrinate. They’d also find that i’s their side who wanted to continue slavery and the Right minded who wanted to end it. I wonder how that’ll go down…

      1. I have emailed the sender for the link as soon as I can I’ll post it here.
        I tried to save it but that’s all that came out.
        There is no other way i can find to do this.

          1. It is an email i was sent it doesn’t have a link I can find, but I have tried everything that seems available, but to no avail.
            I have now sent the email to Rastus and hopefully he or Caroline have the knowledge to do this.

          3. “Take a test, a degree in something like politics, or economics.”

            Clearly he doesn’t realise how riddled we are with PPE people and how utterly useless they are.

          4. I believe that he’s actually referring directly to the US.
            I just thought it’s absolutely appropriate in reference to all politicians. Especially public liability insurance.
            I also think that if our politicians behaved as they do here, in so many other countries, most of them would be in jail by now.

          6. Yeah but we know what a bunch of king are soles our mob in Parliament are. The establishment is broken and needs a new set up. As far as the UK is concerned Its clearly not working in the publics favour. Which basically is why it was set up originally.

          7. “Take a test, a degree in something like politics, or economics.”

            Clearly he doesn’t realise how riddled we are with PPE people and how utterly useless they are.

  38. “After this war Germany will blossom within a few years as never before. Her ravaged countryside and provinces will be built with new, more beautiful cities and villages in which happy people live. All of Europe will be involved in this revival. We will be friends once more with all people of goodwill. Together with them we will heal the grave wounds that disfigure the noble face of our continent. In rich fields of grain the daily bread will grow to assuage the hunger of the millions now starving and suffering. There will be work in abundance, and fro it, as from the deepest spring of human happiness, blessings and strength for all will flow. Chaos will be tamed! This continent will be ruled not by the Underworld, but by order, peace and affluence. That was always our goal! It still is, even today.,”

    A prize of one pfennig for anyone will can identify the writer and the date.

    9. Some gobshyte, if they were trying to persuade the people that this utopia would ever happen!

    1. He raises some really good points – problem is we have a lot of politicians with PPE degrees. Utterly unqualified, 90% useless but they sit there infesting and ruining our nation regardless.

      Much obliged for sharing though!

      1. I think the problem occurs a few years after the become and MP as said in the original House of Cards a few years ago. “Every man/ everyone has his/their Price, no one is immune to bribery and corruption”. Sir Robert Walpole 1734. Nothing changes.
        But as someone said recently, they should all have their expenses capped to under the salary level. No wonder the got rid of Ellizabeth Filkin.

  40. https://12ft.io/proxy?ref=&q=https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/is-there-anything-we-dont-know-about-hunts-autumn-statement/

    Hunt also insisted that ‘we will approach the difficult situation that we face progressively’ and ‘will ask those who have more to give more’.

    Why don’t you instead look at those who cot more to take less, such as scrapping child benefit and getting 70% of muslims into work? Why not reduce civil service head count by 20%? Scrap HS2. It’s a tent project, so the EU wants it, but we don’t need it. Instead of lumping ever more on a shrinking pool of already over taxed workers, look to cut wase- such as the QAA, for example. Any quango the wretched harridan Charkabalti sits on.

    The state is awash with waste. Ge rid of the criminal gimmigrants. Cut taxes, shred the state.

  41. Just been on a telecon with our Irish office one of whom apparently went to a talk yesterday with an FT journalist called somebody Ganesh (?) who said that UK would be back in the single market by 2024.

    I think we are all aware of the “elites’” plan for us but it is extremely dispiriting to have it rubbed so blatantly in our noses.

    1. The British people voted for Brexit; they voted for Hunt to be the first out of the leadership race and they voted for Sunak’s rival to be prime minister.

      So we’ll be back in the EU with Sunak as PM and Hunt as chancellor.

      Who says that democracy is dead? But we need to understand that in this new democracy what the people want, what they say and what they vote for are totally irrelevant.

          2. He’s still grumpy! Denying that he feels ropey, but forgets I’ve known him 44 years! He refuses to tell the girls!
            Thank you for asking, pet! It’s really much appreciated! 😘

          4. Haha! Depends what you mean by normal! We are still deciding on the type of oak beam we’d like for a mantel, plus matching the black slate for the rear of the hearth! So basically….no! We’ve painted the room and revarnished the window sills, and the curtains are back up! Ready for visitors!!

  43. ‘Morning again,

    For all Nottlrs who are keen on dogs – this is Poppy in one of her quieter moments (post-lunch when taken on Sunday) and who will be nine weeks old tomorrow. By comparison with our three previous Labs she is proving very quick to learn when it comes to relieving herself outside, and will chase a ball indoors and bring it back on most occasions. She has slept through the last three nights and was dry as well:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/801da4d5cabbb54ecfe9d4b66061584a45eb25e8f8e8da51a0f8ab0eb3e7bf88.jpg

      1. Her Mum is certainly larger than our previous Lab, so you are probably right Bill. Although only 2 and a bit years old she is the most gentle young Lab we have met in all the 30+ years we have owned them.

          1. I suppose you could say that I have the same sort of equipment as the odd beauty show contestant and swimmer.

    7. Thank you. I am in great need of puppy pictures; a welcome relief from the sheer bloody mindedness of the current world.

          1. They have both been out to inspect it. I am expecting them to return and say – “The greenhouse needs repairing…”

    9. Lovely animals. We have one a little over 12 years old. One of the nicest and honest people I have ever known.
      Although she’s a bit grumpy now and barks at almost any little sound.

  44. I’ve just returned from visiting the Supermarket and called in on my Computer Man to pay a bill. He has a small shop on the High Street and is exceptionally well informed so I usually have a natter while I’m there. Needless to say the present difficulties arose and he showed me his new energy bills. His electric Standing Charge has tripled and the Unit Cost has doubled. Such increases cannot be shrugged off!

    The Middle Class are the last survivors of a once viable and independent UK. Once they are gone we will be one with Albania and Bolivia.

    1. I have read that Napoleon said this .

      Your meddling in continental affairs, and trying to make yourselves a great military power, instead of attending to the sea and commerce, will yet be your ruin as a nation. You were greatly offended with me for having called you a nation of shopkeepers. Had I meant by this, that you were a nation of cowards, you would have had reason to be displeased; even though it were ridiculous and contrary to historical facts; but no such thing was ever intended. I meant that you were a nation of merchants, and that all your great riches, and your grand resources arose from commerce, which is true. What else constitutes the riches of England. It is not extent of territory, or a numerous population. It is not mines of gold, silver, or diamonds. Moreover, no man of sense ought to be ashamed of being called a shopkeeper. But your prince and your ministers appear to wish to change altogether l’esprit of the English, and to render you another nation; to make you ashamed of your shops and your trade, which have made you what you are, and to sigh after nobility, titles and crosses; in fact to assimilate you with the French… You are all nobility now, instead of the plain old Englishmen.

      Well, make of that what you will.. I see that as a compliment, bur sadly now every decent business , small or large in the UK , run by hardworking people , are being crippled by energy costs and general financial insecurity .

      As are the rest of us .. in time .

      1. Interesting. Of course, the Napoleonic wars marked the end of the French holding the reserve currency, and the start of the era of the British sovereign.

        1. I am not sure that President Bush understood the full irony of what he had said when he observed that the French have no word for entrepreneur.

      2. For several years before Covid all our courses were fully booked. The combined efforts of the French and British governments have done their best to bring us to our knees but we are still in business but it is more of a struggle.

        The Conservative Party loathes and despises people who run their own small businesses and this, coupled with the desire to maintain a steady flow of invading illegal immigrants, must surely have made the Conservative Party completely unelectable at the next election.

    2. I come from the Working Class, Araminta. Do we not matter too? After all we are also paying the same hyper-inflated bills.

      1. The toffs and the oiks have always rubbed along pretty well – it is the people in between who are socially ill at ease.

        Hilaire Belloc made this observation in the Garden Party:

        The rich arrived in pairs
        And also in Rolls Royces
        They talked of their affairs
        In loud and strident voices.

        The poor arrived in Fords
        Whose features they resembled
        And laughed to see so many lords
        And ladies all assembled.

        The people in between
        Looked underdone and harassed
        And out of place and mean
        And horribly embarrassed.

        2. Well said, Richard. Some are so proud of being down-trodden serfs that they wish for a return to the feudal system.

        3. Did I ever tell you about my favourite Uncle Jim (I painted his portrait around the time he died). He was the youngest child of a coal-mining family. All his brothers went on to work in the mines and his sisters married colliers. Jim wanted more from life. He initially trained as a carpenter then studied just before his call-up for National Service. When he first arrived at his RAF squadron he was embarrassed by his local dialect. He then and there resolved to alter it. He enlisted for elocution lessons and, whilst not going for the full southern RP, he adopted an educated form of his northern accent. Just before he was due to finish his two years he was called upon by higher command who tried to get him to stay on, since they had long considered him to be ‘POM (Possible Officer Material). They liked his attitude, his accent, his work ethic and his bearing (he was slim but 6’-3″ tall). They tried so hard to get him to sign up to attend RAF Cranwell as an officer cadet, but he had other designs on his career. He went on to secure a post as Head of housing at Newark & Sherwood District Council and continued to develop his carpentry and building business. Every house he lived in was designed and built by himself. He mixed in circles whereby he as often ‘touched on the shoulder’ to become a Freemason, but always declined, stating that he had made so many effective contacts in his business life that he didn’t need any extra assistance from the “funny handshake mob”. He did very well in both his business and personal life, but he never lost the ‘common touch’. I miss him, very much.

      2. The point about the middle class is that they have time on their hands to make trouble for the toffs, and also they are financially independent as they often gain their income from businesses or investments.
        Autocratic rulers hate that!
        That’s why the communists did away with the middle classes in Russia.
        I think that’s the main point about the annihilation of the middle class, rather than any idea about them mattering more, which is clearly not valid. “They” want people they can control and farm via digital ids and currencies.

        1. In Sweden, where I live, they did away with ALL classes decades ago. Everyone treats everyone else as an equal. I can talk to royalty and road sweepers at the same time and we’d all use our first names. No “sir”. “madam” or hat-tipping to anyone.
          No ‘toff’ class.
          No pretentious class.
          No grafting class.
          Just equals.
          It’s not much different in Australia.

          1. Oh come off it, nobody calls anyone else “sir” or “madam” in the UK now, except the police who do it to wind you up. I’ll bet there is a hierarchy there, it’s just that the dominant culture is middle class, as it is in Germany.
            Just have a child who fails all their exams, and you’ll pretty soon get well acquainted with the working class that allegedly doesn’t exist!

  45. I’ve just returned from visiting the Supermarket and called in on my Computer Man to pay a bill. He has a small shop on the High Street and is exceptionally well informed so I usually have a natter while I’m there. Needless to say the present difficulties arose and he showed me his new energy bills. His electric Standing Charge has tripled and the Unit Cost has doubled. Such increases cannot be shrugged off!

    The Middle Class are the last survivors of a once viable and independent UK. Once they are gone we will be one with Albania and Bolivia.

  46. I’ve just returned from visiting the Supermarket and called in on my Computer Man to pay a bill. He has a small shop on the High Street and is exceptionally well informed so I usually have a natter while I’m there. Needless to say the present difficulties arose and he showed me his new energy bills. His electric Standing Charge has tripled and the Unit Cost has doubled. Such increases cannot be shrugged off!

    The Middle Class are the last survivors of a once viable and independent UK. Once they are gone we will be one with Albania and Bolivia.

  47. Early comments today re NHS (over)management and now this.
    Picked it up from a 5 hours old USA GETTR comment.
    Express report a week old so apologies if it has been already reported.

    NHS England investigates ‘potential serious incident’ as wrong flu jab given to over 65s
    Although the incorrect jab is still safe, it is less effective than the one they were supposed to receive, it has been reported.

    Incorrect Flu Jab Administered to Over 65s

    1. You can just hear them now – wear a mask and all will be well!

      We are getting very close to mask mandates over here, there are increasingly noisy demands from doctors to protect the health system by mandating masks and most provinces are recommending masks.

      It doesn’t help that the supply system is so screwed up that there is no childrens . Tylenol available here and they will not allow imports from the US unless the packaging is bilingual.

      1. I visited the doctor’s surgery today. The receptionist never even hinted at my wearing a mask (although everybody else was). She’s obviously got the message.

  48. Rishi Sunak opens door for 3,000 more Indian graduates to work in UK as PM paves the way for trade deal in G20 talks with Narendra Modi

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11434319/Rishi-Sunak-opens-door-3-000-Indian-graduates-work-UK.html

    This is good news, what with the postmen, firemen, nurses, railway staff, et al all going on strike, we are going to need them. I wonder what time I will get my post when Ishaan or Kabir finds his way here?

        1. Captain Keene:
          [news of the native revolt arrives] What do you intend to do, sir?

          Sir Sidney Ruff-Diamond:
          Do? Do? We’re British. We won’t do anything…

          Major Shorthouse:
          …until it’s too late.

          Sir Sidney Ruff-Diamond:
          Exactly. That’s the first sensible thing you’ve said all day.

    2. Indian graduates won’t feed a helpless elderly , some one who succumbed to a stroke , or who had a toilet accident .

      They are after real money , big money. They love top of the range cars and expensive things.

          1. I had my only prostate examination when I was in my 70s but I can assure you I had already rejected the practice as not for me.

            Maybe all young men should be compelled to have a prostate examination – whether they need it or not – in order to put them off sodomy? But doubtless there would be howls of protest if such a proposal gained any traction.

        2. When I had my examination, my then GP said “I hope you’re not going to enjoy this”.
          I instantly replied “I hope you’re not”.

  50. With my usual well known level of modesty, I am pasting wot I writ in the DT.

    “I learnt an interesting Health Service factoid today. My husband and I were married in 1964. We have been registered with the same GP surgery throughout that time.

    My husband was rushed into hospital last week but still needs his repeat prescription ready for when he is discharged.

    The receptionist was not allowed to discuss anything with me because he hadn’t signed a form consenting to giving me any information. Fortunately, my husband is now well enough to sign forms, which gave us something to talk about when I visited him yesterday.

    Today, forms are being dropped off at the surgery giving each other permission to discuss our health needs. I will also be doing the same for our sons in case they should need information appertaining to their parents’ survival during the next few years. These are the sons who were delivered by a (now retired) GP from that very self same practice.”

  54. I tried entering the Great British Bake Off but failed the minimum
    entrance test. I never knew it would be so tough – I scored 0 out of 4.
    Here’s my answers:

    1) British
    2) White
    3) Straight
    4) Male

    1. Funny you should say that Phiz, when it all kick off a few years back. We have a friend, an attractive grand mother, who applied to join the program.
      She even had a cookery book out.
      But white middle class from an area middle to upper class area in Hertfordshire.
      And do remember how nadia came to win ? Her cake that was supposed to be a peacock was made with shop bought icing, with smarties stuck on. It looked like a Dodo. And one of the excellent white guys who came top nearly each session. Had made out of chocolate, a superb working wishing well with a handle. And Hollywood deliberately snapped the handle off.

      1. The cake that Nadia made for the Queen’s Jubilee (? – not the platinum one) was hilarious. It was like the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

        Edited -typo

        1. I remember it Her Maj gave it a swerve.
          She’s got her own progs on TV now.
          One of our friends was a teacher at the school in Luton were nadia was, I believe her form teacher.

      1. I was taking his words literally and I am sure he would not deny his role in the creation of his progeny!

  58. Iain Duncan Smith ‘astonished’ as man accused of ‘slamming’ cone on his head cleared over ‘weak’ evidence. 16 November 2022.

    Sir Iain Duncan Smith has been left “astonished” by a decision to clear a man accused of assaulting him by “slamming” a traffic cone on his head because of “weak” evidence.

    Welcome to the World that the rest of us inhabit Mr Smith!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/11/16/iain-duncan-smith-astonished-man-accused-slamming-cone-head/

    2. Why is he astonished? You can tear down a statue and get away with it. You can stop motorways and other highways and the police bring you refreshments and hope you are comfortable. All under YOUR government, Mr Smith. Why on earth would you think you would get justice? The law is NOT on your side, let alone the workers’ side.

    3. About time one of the politicos got a taste of what the rest of us have to put up with – because of them.

  59. Afternoon All

    “The National Crime Agency (NCA) has said a “significant number” of
    the Albanians in the UK had entered illegally to work in the “grey”
    market or for organised criminal drug gangs and were sending back
    “hundreds of millions of pounds” a year to Albania, and there was
    evidence that migrants were told before they left for the UK that if
    they chose to join crime gangs and were caught, they should claim to be
    victims of modern slavery in order to avoid deportation and remain in
    the UK. Police forces around the country had found Albanians arrested
    for drug offences had used a “standard letter” to be referred to the
    national mechanism under the Modern Slavery Act, buying them at least
    another year in the UK as their claims are processed.
    A record 3,467 Albanians have claimed to be modern slavery victims so far this year.”

    Ministers and MPs sit there doing nothing effective about it at all,
    while foreign criminals get a free ride into the country and take the
    piss when caught

    1. I should hope that the claims of a well-nourished young man with a pistol tattooed on his hand to be a slave would be taken with a large pinch of salt…

      2. Should? would?

        Nothing conditional about it – if they want to stay Sunak will be very happy to accommodate them.

      4. Talking of which, I see that the staff nurse on MB’s ward is so badly paid she can afford a whole sleeve tattoo.

      1. Of course – he has no real affinity with this country or its people at all. Don’t tell me that if he was born here that would make him an Englishman – oh no it wouldn’t.

        1. I was born in the Sudan but I am certainly not Sudanese. I live in France but I am not French. I am an Englishman.

          On the other hand after the First World War one of my uncles, Leonard, went to live in Rhodesia and another, Hugh, went to live in South Africa and there are now four generations of their descendants in both countries. You could say that these descendants are white Africans but the term is less acceptable to the MSM than the term black Britishers.

        2. I was born in the Sudan but I am certainly not Sudanese. I live in France but I am not French. I am an Englishman.

          On the other hand after the First World War one of my uncles, Leonard, went to live in Rhodesia and another, Hugh, went to live in South Africa and there are now four generations of their descendants in both countries. You could say that these descendants are white Africans but the term is less acceptable to the MSM than the term black Britishers.

    3. Every single person involved in this mass invasion is taking the p eye ss.
      But anyone who would have the audacity to make a formal complaint would probably find themselves in front of a judge. Which basically would explain how stupid this country now is.

    4. Goodness me. There IS a surprise. I am so shocked, I have had to sit down. I thought they were all brain surgeons and architects and GPs…..

  60. Modern Life………

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/04eae76c111a2850e853f1544306ec28b6b072a1b5fdac9aacfd403df4e882b1.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/61705e11b20126b434c3451c2de93091924e05f01fe061db8a34015055ac913d.jpg

    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ed9241c155edfcbf32092e4bd4382456511425d8a82692f40aa1edbfaae899c8.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7ecd9206045308201228f94e7f194639c735e0dc1d42bf8cc72e8df4f81de218.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c39cf9505f21ce6d60fe780bb55fb772321af165b462176bc972aab14f568daf.jpg

    1. Adolf missed a trick by thinking he’d use barges; if he’d sent the troops over in RIBs the RNLI would have picked them up and brought them to the beaches.

    1. David DePape, 42, faces federal charges of assaulting an immediate family member of a federal official and attempted kidnapping of a federal officer for the alleged home invasion attack that sent Paul Pelosi, 82, to the hospital for emergency surgery on a skull fracture.
      The charges carry 30- and 20-year prison terms, respectively, if he is convicted.

      I wonder what the prison terms are if is done to “Joe Blow”

  63. Gosh – the things that happen unexpectedly. The MR went out to the greenhouse to cut some lettuce – only to find that one of the panes of glass in the vent had shattered. Little bits of glass everywhere. With great difficulty, I managed to get the rest of the glass out of the slots – and clean it up. Then cut a bit of chipboard to fill in – with the cold snap on its way….

    Rang the suppliers asking or a quote for glass. And any tips on fitting it. They were back within half an hour with quote (£45 inc P & P) AND with name of “approved” installer. Rang him – he’s coming on Wednesday to supply and fit the glass. His price all in = £60. Trebles all round.

  64. The answer to my cryptic quotation was:

    Joseph Goebbels – 20 April 1945 (Hilter’s last birthday).

    Funny how his prognostication came true….yer Chermans DID win the war....

    3. The mono-testicular maniac leader’s gonad-free propagandist who sang counter tenor!

      (Thank you, Ped. I have augmented my post to include his zero status)

    4. “Happy Genocide to you …
      Happy Genocide to you …..
      Happy Genocide, dear Aydolf …..
      Happy Genocide to you ….”

      Now just blow out the flames above that crematorium ….

  65. 367844+ up ticks,

    Calais Fisherman Claims He Witnessed Smugglers Pushing Migrants Into English Channel

    So ?

    The whole “invasion” program from cast off to hotel is transporting morally illegal immigrants , potential criminals,active criminals using mafia tactics so a UK,
    murder inc. office in calais / dover would be called for,
    is there one in evidence ?

    2. When the White Ship sailed from Barfleur, it hit a rock known as Quilleboeuf just on the edge of the harbour.
      Any handy rocks a bit further up the coast?

    1. Richard ..

      Are we disadvantaged by having an Indian Hindu PM, so is Britain compromised internationally by having a face that doesn’t fit the model .. especially so with the Chinese ?

      The Chinese don’t like the Indian PM Modri. Loads of issues like this ..

      The Sino-Indian border dispute is an ongoing territorial dispute over the sovereignty of two relatively large, and several smaller, separated pieces of territory between China and India. The first of the territories, Aksai Chin, is administered by China as part of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and Tibet Autonomous Region and claimed by India as part of the union territory of Ladakh; it is the most uninhabited high-altitude wasteland in the larger regions of Kashmir and Tibet and is crossed by the Xinjiang-Tibet Highway, but with some significant pasture lands at the margins.[1] The other disputed territory is south of the McMahon Line, formerly known as the North-East Frontier Agency and now called Arunachal Pradesh. The McMahon Line was part of the 1914 Simla Convention signed between British India and Tibet, without China’s agreement.[2] China disowns the agreement, stating that Tibet was never independent when it signed the Simla Convention.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-Indian_border_dispute

      1. I think it doesn’t matter. Whoever is the elected official holds the warrant of the British public to represent them internationally.

        However, that person was Truss. Not Sunak. The globalists wanted Sunak, not the nation. We had him imposed on us.

  67. 10.688 signatures so far:

    Petition

    Withdraw the UK from the European Convention on Human Rights
    We ask the UK Government to withdraw the UK from the European Convention on Human Rights and the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights. We believe this is necessary for the UK to fully take control of our borders, as promised during the Brexit referendum.

    https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/618456

    2. With the very greatest of respect, they will ignore it. The state doesn’t want to leave the ECHR as it’s a condition of membership of the hated EU.

      The state will ignore this, as they ignore everything. We do not live in a democracy. We shouldn’t be asking, we should simply command.

    1. Friend of mine is having a terrible time with Ovo, she cannot speak to anyone , and the online complaints forum isn’t working .

      They owe her money, but they insist she owes them money .. the situation has been on going for 9 months about the time she changed to another supplier.

      1. They have probably the worst record of customer relations and a terrible reputation for trying to get people to pay humungous amounts when actually the customer is in credit. Avoid at all costs!

    1. Good evening, Joss.

      “… we waste our time considering the vapourings of the government who are the killers.”

      And thus it ever was. From the dawn of civilisation, wars have been started by those in charge (ergo politicians) and those who suffer are the population — the minions — who are ordered (on pain of death) to fight on their behalf. This preposterous situation will only cease when those bellicose, sabre-rattling politicians adopt a rôle similar to that of some mediæval kings, and lead from the front.

      Don’t hold your breath on that.

      2. A good point. I would observe however that some of the kings you refer to were good, occasionally great, human beings. Whether the globalsts are human at all is for some of us debateable. I am inclined to think that psychopathy does not disqualify humanity, but is likely to result in eons of reincarnation in suffering. Should one pity Gates? Probably, but it would take a better man than me.

    1. Oh the utter shame that idiot brings to Canada.

      Xi was probably telling him to forget about receiving help from China in the next election.

      To think that earlier this week, some government nobody was telling the Emergency Act inquiry that the government were worried that the sight of all of those protesters waving Canadian flags would bring the country into disrepute.

  72. That’s me gone – early. Lecture from Rome in ten minutes – then the MR goes to Keep Fit and I shall indulge myself by watching part 3 of the execrable SAS dross! It is so bad, it’s good!!

    Have a jolly evening. HOUSE OF CARDS is on BBC4 tonight – remember when BBC drama was good???

    A demain.

    1. Good night, Bill – and the MR and the terrible twosome. Tonight I join the Aberdeen Dickens Fellowship by ZOOM to hear a speaker on “Bleak Health|, a discussion of The Inimitable’s health issues throughout his life. So an early “Good night” to all NoTTLers.

    2. HoC, whoops almost recognisable as today.
      As we have now…..”Every one has their price Mattie”.

  73. Cornflour disappears from supermarket shelves – and it could soon be gone forever
    Low customer demand prompts Tesco to ‘discontinue’ the British cooking staple

    By
    Will Bolton
    15 November 2022 • 6:54pm
    Tucked away in the back of almost every larder in the country lies a crucial, often underappreciated ingredient long seen as a staple of traditional British cooking.

    Used to do everything from thickening Sunday roast gravies to making shortbread biscuits light and crumbly, cornflour was, and is, a necessity for most home cooks.

    But now there are fears it could disappear from supermarket shelves forever after Tesco announced it was no longer selling the product as a result of “low customer demand”.

    The revelation came after one unhappy customer posted on Twitter asking the company why it was no longer stocking cornflour.

    A spokesman for Tesco responded by saying: “Cornflour has been discontinued because of low customer demand I’m afraid.”

    This prompted outrage on the internet forum for parents, Mumsnet, with users saying that although they often didn’t buy the product more than once every six months, it was still an essential part of their food cupboard.

    Tesco vows to ‘improve availability’ in stores
    When asked to clarify whether this remark was true, Tesco claimed they had not completely delisted cornflour and would attempt to improve availability across its stores.

    Cornflour is primarily used as a thickening agent in liquid based foods such as soups, gravies, casseroles, stews and custards.

    Its fine texture means it is less likely to form in lumps compared to ordinary flour and it has the added benefit of being gluten free.

    Another advantage cornflour has over plain flour as a thickening agent is that it is flavourless so can be used to thicken delicately flavoured dishes.

    It can also be used when baking sweet treats, such as shortbread. It helps give it a light texture and a “melt in the mouth” type quality.

    In stir-fries, cornflour can also help thinly sliced protein like beef or pork brown evenly without overcooking, while simultaneously turning the liquidy soy, rice wine vinegar, and mirin into a vegetable-coating sauce.

    It can also be used to provide added crispiness to other meat dishes, such as fried chicken.

    Cornflour is made by removing the skin and germ from the corn, then extracting the starchy liquid.

    This is then dried and finely ground to make cornflour.

    Until 1851 cornflour, or cornstarch as it is known in the U.S, was primarily used for industrial processes, rather than cooking.

    Thomas Kingsford, an American baker, first invented “cornstarch” in 1842 when he discovered a way to isolate tissue from corn kernels while working in a wheat starch factory in New Jersey.

    Cornstarch was not originally used in food
    However, Kingsford didn’t have food in mind—for the first few years of its existence, cornstarch was used to starch laundry.

    And then, in Paisley, in 1854, in the lowlands of Scotland, John Polson made a transformative discovery.

    His company, which previously manufactured muslin, worked out how to produce pure culinary starch from maize.

    Brown & Polson began producing starch and cornflour on a large scale in the 1860s.

    They became the largest manufacturer of starch products in Britain and were granted the Royal Warrant.

    Outside of the kitchen, cornflour is found in a range of other everyday items such as baby powder, medical gloves, airbags and adhesives.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/11/15/cornflour-disappears-supermarket-shelves-could-soon-gone-forever/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr

    2. The cornflour/cornstarch conundrum once led to my culinary downfall. I was following an American chilli recipe called Tamale Pie which required a lot of ‘cornflour’.

      I shan’t go into the minutiae but, suffice to say, a bucketful of Polycell-like gloop didn’t make for a nice pie!

    3. I meant to post this earlier.

      I have NEVER used cornflour to make shortbread even though the article mentioned it about 3 times.

      At school we were taught to use rice flour for shortbread. Cornflour is used in Viennese biscuits/whirls.

    4. Buy your cornflower somewhere else – and do the rest of your grocery shop there, too. Tesco will soon get the hint.

    7. They should sell it if only for parents to demonstrate to children the ‘cornflour concept’ – liquid and solid at the same time.

      If you mix it with just the right amount of water you dan make it into a ball as long as you keep it moving in your hands. As soon as you stop moving it it immediately runs everywhere.

      Something to do with non-Newtionian fluids IIRC – maybe one of our more scientific Nottlers can enlighten me

  75. Possibly the worst joke ever posted on NOTTL…
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6398901bf7de3df4beb4fcd87f44d09fc04f37b741ed9f2c6d8b7cdff7c86b3c.jpg
    .
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f456f18b5f2012c985a28f6fe7d7699f725b90a3690cd333523ae0c361b5d664.jpg

    Germany is clearly preparing for Weimar II:
    Video in German, sorry, but the gist of it is that from January 2023 Germans won’t be allowed to buy property with gold, silver or crypto. In the Weimar hyperinflation time, people bought houses for a few ounces of gold.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOVjkCY1TFU

    1. Bloody hell! No cash allowed, either. All in the name of “combatting fraud”. I think he’s right – it’s only the start of the slide into CBDCs.

      I’m starting to see where ‘organised crime’ is actually organised from!

      1. I think I remember seeing in passing another thing about all cash transactions over 10K being banned. Not sure if that was Germany or something from Ursula von der Leyen.
        Also, apparently they are going to restrict the amount of cash people can withdraw this winter — because of power cuts – so it’s clearly all Putin’s fault, and nothing to do with running down cash…

      3. I took a largish sum out in cash today and had to undergo the third degree from the bank to get my money. What bit of “it’s MY money” don’t you understand? What I buy with it (and where from) really is none of your business.

  76. Are other town dwellers noticing the gangs of ZZOOMM workers supplying fibre internet to households well below BT offers.
    BT is losing a lot of customers in Northallerton.

  77. If Rishi Sunak does go private, he should be unapologetic – just like Thatcher
    The Prime Minister’s dodging of NHS questions only shows that no modern Tory PM would have the guts to be as frank as the Iron Lady

    Michael Deacon: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/columnists/2022/11/16/rishi-sunak-does-go-private-should-unapologetic-just-like/

    BTL

    The most astounding hypocrisy was that of Eton-educated David Cameron not sending his children to independent private schools when he was PM because he wanted to appear as ‘Dave, the Man of the People.’ And of course as soon as he was no longer PM his children went to private schools!

    Private independent schools are enterprises run by private individuals – just the sort of institutions and people that the Conservative Party ought to be supporting.

    That of course is indicative of how the Conservative Party has lost its way – it almost wants to wash its hands of the sort people who support it and whom it supported.

    And by the same token the Winchester educated Mr Sunak ought to support private medicine and the idea of doing one’s best for one’s family.

    1. He can afford to pay many times over for any treatment or education needed for his family – and get out of the queue for hospital treatment so that others can be treated.

  78. If Rishi Sunak does go private, he should be unapologetic – just like Thatcher
    The Prime Minister’s dodging of NHS questions only shows that no modern Tory PM would have the guts to be as frank as the Iron Lady

    Michael Deacon: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/columnists/2022/11/16/rishi-sunak-does-go-private-should-unapologetic-just-like/

    BTL

    The most astounding hypocrisy was that of Eton-educated David Cameron not sending his children to independent private schools when he was PM because he wanted to appear as ‘Dave, the Man of the People.’ And of course as soon as he was no longer PM his children went to private schools!

    Private independent schools are enterprises run by private individuals – just the sort of institutions and people that the Conservative Party ought to be supporting.

    That of course is indicative of how the Conservative Party has lost its way – it almost wants to wash its hands of the sort people who support it and whom it supported.

    And by the same token the Winchester educated Mr Sunak ought to support private medicine and the idea of doing one’s best for one’s family.

    1. Moss killer spray ?

      I remember the old monty python sketch……and only a lizard 🦎 in the bidet.

  80. Can anyone explain why it is perfectly acceptable to have been a communist but never acceptable to have been a fascist?

    1. I’m guessing that it might have something to do with how the Left, having hijacked every corner of society, are busily putting it about that:
      Communism = good; Fascism = bad. Even though they are the same bloody thing.
      Their sheep-like followers believe everything they are told.

  81. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/583515ca3229f92bd6ce2944e802a8f2cfc446d762a32fbf2db77b4283fb5016.png

    The big story: Clues left behind at Polish missile site.

    When a missile landed in the sleepy village of Przewodow on a foggy afternoon, locals feared that the Russians were attacking Poland. After the authorities blocked off the site of the explosion that killed two men at a grain facility, residents four miles from the border with Ukraine endured a night’s anxious wait – fearing they were at the centre of an unlikely flashpoint for a Third World War between Nato and Vladimir Putin. Now it appears the blast may have been caused by a Ukrainian anti-missile weapon landing in the farming village after going astray during massive Russian bombing, the heaviest since the war began. Western intelligence suggested the rocket was most likely fired by Kyiv’s forces in an attempt to intercept incoming Russian missiles. Reporting from Ukraine, Joe Barnes explains what pictures of fragments from the blast site tell us about where it could have been launched from.

    Regardless of who fired it, Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg today insisted that Russia bears “ultimate responsibility” for the missile – echoing an earlier statement made by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. Both men said attention must be paid to why Ukraine is being forced to defend itself. Political editor Ben Riley-Smith has our report from Bali, where western world leaders gathered for the G20 summit today met to discuss the missile strike and condemn Moscow’s latest barrage against Ukraine’s infrastructure, which they said was the ultimate cause.

    What a difference a day makes. This morning the front page of the DT screamed a headline blaming Russia for dropping a missile on Poland, with all the possible ramifications for an “attack on NATO”

    This evening, it appears that the missile was probably an errant one launched from Ukraine.

    Come on, DT. Get your house in order.

    1. And the DM and the rest of them. Throwing mud in the expectation that some of it will stick.

  82. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/583515ca3229f92bd6ce2944e802a8f2cfc446d762a32fbf2db77b4283fb5016.png

    The big story: Clues left behind at Polish missile site.

    When a missile landed in the sleepy village of Przewodow on a foggy afternoon, locals feared that the Russians were attacking Poland. After the authorities blocked off the site of the explosion that killed two men at a grain facility, residents four miles from the border with Ukraine endured a night’s anxious wait – fearing they were at the centre of an unlikely flashpoint for a Third World War between Nato and Vladimir Putin. Now it appears the blast may have been caused by a Ukrainian anti-missile weapon landing in the farming village after going astray during massive Russian bombing, the heaviest since the war began. Western intelligence suggested the rocket was most likely fired by Kyiv’s forces in an attempt to intercept incoming Russian missiles. Reporting from Ukraine, Joe Barnes explains what pictures of fragments from the blast site tell us about where it could have been launched from.

    Regardless of who fired it, Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg today insisted that Russia bears “ultimate responsibility” for the missile – echoing an earlier statement made by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. Both men said attention must be paid to why Ukraine is being forced to defend itself. Political editor Ben Riley-Smith has our report from Bali, where western world leaders gathered for the G20 summit today met to discuss the missile strike and condemn Moscow’s latest barrage against Ukraine’s infrastructure, which they said was the ultimate cause.

    What a difference a day makes. This morning the front page of the DT screamed a headline blaming Russia for dropping a missile on Poland, with all the possible ramifications for an “attack on NATO”

    This evening, it appears that the missile was probably an errant one launched from Ukraine.

    Come on, DT. Get your house in order.

  83. i got a pleasant surprise from NatWest yesterday. It appears that they have no record of my report to the Fraud squad about fraudulent use of my contactless debit card in October 2021 which I mentioned in a comment earlier this week. The Fraud and chargeback operations in Edinburgh eventually got in touch with me by e-mail yesterday to say they were sorting the problem out and for a start put £150 into my account. I had some long phone calls this morning and the fraud agents will look into the matter. All very welcome.
    My afternoon was spent in the local hospital to discuss a knee replacement. I have decided to have it done but it will be well into next year.

      1. Thank you. The young lady told me the only warning post op is not to run so I don’t think I shall need too much mollycoddling, On the x-ray the bonny young lady showed me the bones on the knee were rubbing together.

        2. A good friend of mine got both done in Muscat (I did tell him that chasing a little ball around big fields with a stick, wasn’t good, but he wouldn’t listen) said it was the best thing he’d done.
          18 months later, he won the Oman Open Golf Championship.

          1. I had a slipped disc about twenty years ago – L5S1 – three weeks in bed at home followed by two weeks in bed in hospital waiting for a theatre slot then an operation to remove the prolapsed section.
            It’s been OK since.

          2. I had a slipped disc about twenty years ago – L5S1 – three weeks in bed at home followed by two weeks in bed in hospital waiting for a theatre slot then an operation to remove the prolapsed section.
            It’s been OK since.

        4. I’ve got a knee problem that’s been going on for about 20 years. Are you getting a replacement Clydie?

          1. I started with the knee problem walking in the Lake District when I worked in Cumberland in the70s and continued more severely when my boys were at the senior school in Northallerton. The parents organised day trips to the Lakes by bus to spend the day walking on the tops of the hills. The damage to the knees was on the descent of the steep slopes. I am on the list for a replacement. NHS this time.

          2. Have they given you a date yet ?
            I’ve been thinking about my problem and the NHS have known about it for over 35 years. They gave me shoe implants in the mid to late 80s.

    2. Our elderly neighbour had a new knee a few years ago. Rushing about like a loon, so she is.

    3. A word to the wise:
      Ask your physio, if you have one, for exercises for pre-op.
      Do those exercises assiduously.
      You will be repaid ten times over after the op, both in terms of recovery time and long term benefit.

      1. Thanks sos I am busy doing exercises prescribed for me by a Hospital Physiotherapist to avoid a back pain I was getting during the night after my hip replacement. I couldn’t sleep in the bed and slept in an electric chair for a while. I got a good night’s sleep in the chair but the exercises have allowed me to sleep in the bed now.

    4. Excellent news , so pleased things are looking positive for you ..I expect you are really relieved and happy

      You have had a strange old year haven’t you.

      How is the N/ Yorks weather ..

      I must contact my folks up there, but I have a thing about my mobile phone , with wots app and the rest ..

      Earlier in the year I rang my sister in Cape Town on my mobile .. not wots app, and incurred a £200 bill …

      2. We use the Planet Talk app to talk to Cape Town but the rates have gone up a bit recently. We regularly got BT bills of £700 a quarter in the old days.

      3. Aaagghh…. I hate using my phone for calls and I don’t answer them either. But wots app is good.

      4. Aaagghh…. I hate using my phone for calls and I don’t answer them either. But wots app is good.

      5. Evening T-B. It has been a good day for me apart from losing my way in the Hospital car park and didn’t recognise the road into the town from the A19 until I saw Quick Fit tyre site. I am back at the Hospital tomorrow for the 3rd eye screening this year. The second screening should have been on more sophisticated equipment but wasn’t done. I don’t think there will be a problem as I had my right eye lasered up to the optic nerve more than 20 years ago. The left eye was OK when I did the graph test. The lines were all joined up nicely when I looked at the dot in the middle of the graph. I will need to take the bus tomorrow.
        There has been an overcast sky for several days with rain and wind. Tomorrow looks as if heavy rain will be coming. I think the worst of the weather has missed us up here.
        bed time now

        1. Good night from here ,
          I am glad you are still being attended to re your eyes ..
          I can imagine there are lots of probs that still need sorting .

          Make the most of your weather , it has been very wet and windy in these Dorsetty parts … wet dog weather .. thank goodness I have a pile of old towels to rub them down .

    6. Unasked for advice: when the op has been done you MUST follow the instructions about exercise, physiotherapy etc.

      1. Thanks Tim. I asked about putting on socks, shoes and boots. She said I should be able to do that. The only thing she told me not to do was to run. No doubt there will be other things to be careful about.

      1. Surely it was the corrupt Brooklyn who led these noble savages astray (old style lefty answer).

          1. I did wonder about his origins: it’s the sort of first name ‘non-reflectives’ would use.

          2. Apparently they go back to the days of the slave owners and overseers who were from the Scottish lowlands! According to the Scottish devolved administration.

          6. Innocent, other than that is what my Great Grandmother called them. She was (so she told me) Clann Dòmhnaill.

    4. What Absolute shiite.
      Replacements arrived last week.
      Strange how our always seemingly on the ball media have never bothered to bring this to our attention.

    6. Meanwhile their pals in Whitehall & Westminster have been targeting the whole country for serious moolah.

  85. Off topic.

    An acquaintance has just gone down with Covid for the fourth time.

    She has been vaccinated four times!

    2. How often you test might be the clue. Tell her to stop testing. We’ve had a long term cold-like problem.

        1. And then what you get is ‘just a cold’. We’ve never tested, nor vaxxed. We have refused to play the Great Government Game.

      2. I haven’t tested for any of my colds, because they were obviously just colds. The one time I did test was completely different to a cold – at first I thought I was having a bad reaction to antibiotics, but after 4 days I worked out it wasn’t that and thought it might just be covid, so cadged a test off my d-i-l who gets them free working at Porton Down, and sure enough tested positive. The whole experience bore little resemblance to a cold and was more like a combination of feeling poisoned combined with flu/seasickness/hangover, which merely convinces me more than ever that it’s a bio-weapon. (Fortunately none of the people I met with during those 4 days have reported going down with covid.)

        1. I still think the ‘something’ I had in January 2020 was covid – though I wasn’t too ill, but the dry cough lasted for several weeks. I had nothing at all after that until August this year when I had a very sore throat, which didn’t develop into anything more than that, but it was painful. According to Tim Spectre the Zoe app man, that could be Omicron. I’ve never had a positive test but had to have one before flying to Kenya in February.

        2. The taste/smell disappearance used to be a telling symptom. Now, I’ve no idea and don’t care.

          2. Perhaps, but certainly not like I experienced.
            Edit; 3 of us at the same time same household. Literally no smell, no taste, for several weeks after the cold symptoms had been long gone.

          4. I found it wasn’t just a disappearance of smell/taste, but a strangely altered sense of taste for some things.

  87. Going downhill fast, so will be hitting the sack shortly. Aches all over… and shivers too.

    6. There’s a lot of it about.
      Practically everyone I speak to cannot talk clearly; others merely email “Sod it. It may be only 7.0 pm but I’m off to bed. I’ve had enough.”
      Sleep well and get the darn thing out of your system.

  88. Evening, all. The Cons have been TINO for some considerable time. Coolio did some nice lateral work today – he even ended up doing half-pass although I didn’t actually ask for it! They were short-staffed so I ended up tacking him up and untacking him at the end of the session and rugging him up. As the stable owner’s wife observed, “he [Coolio] really likes you.” Actually, I think he really only likes the Polos I give him 🙂 Mind you, he does like to be made to think, so doing dressage movements engages his brain as well as his hind legs.

    2. You’ve got a good partnership there. Does he just do ordinary rides the rest of the time when you’re not there to challenge him?

      1. Yes. he just plods around the school. Sometimes he gets to jump (not with me, though) and he loves that.

      1. Coolio is the Connemara I ride every week. I used just to call him “the Connemara” but people wanted him to be named. You can’t please all of the people 🙂

    1. “I can do that. All you have to do is walk straight. I can walk straight. Come on, Giz it!”

    1. The Metropole Hotel has been in the same family’s hands since 1897. Sold yesterday to Crest Group, directors Gurjinder and Parminder Singh. Just waiting for old staff to be sacked and the new “guests” to arrive.

  91. Hunt for on-the-run asylum seeker, 39, who is suspected of raping teenage boy at hotel in north London ‘after he fled while being transferred to hotel in Buckinghamshire’
    Asylum seeker suspected of the rape of a teenager is now on the run in the UK
    He was arrested in Waltham Forest on October 25 over the alleged sex attack
    The 39-year-old was bailed and then taken to Buckinghamshire to reside
    But this morning it emerged he has fled the hotel in Buckingham
    By DAN SALES FOR MAILONLINE

    PUBLISHED: 16:54, 16 November 2022 | UPDATED: 17:57, 16 November 2022 https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11435497/Asylum-seeker-investigation-offence-run-fleeing-police.html

    1. When are these inherent divot politicians going to understand the absolute eff up they have made again.

      1. It’s not a msitake! They want this. They have the power to change the law to properly allow the removal of these creatures. They choose not to do so.

        1. There is no gain in any of this.
          It’s just the ruination of our once safe and treasured Islands.
          I hope most of the tories lose their seats.

    3. Why was he bailed if he is an asylum-seeker, and therefore has no fixed place of abode in the UK?

      1. If he was an unknown , and no papers , and a dirty scrote , he should have become one of the vanished ones and taken back to the sea from whence he appeared from .

    4. “But this morning it emerged he has fled the hotel in Buckingham”

      They must start locking the fire escape doors in these hotels.

  92. And another … in Teesside

    A 21-year-old man has been found guilty of repeatedly raping and forcing a young boy to perform sex acts, over a three and a half year period.

    Daniyal Hussain, showed no reaction as he stood at the back of the courtroom listening to the verdicts, in a white open-necked shirt and a black coat. The jury’s unanimous decision was made after five hours of deliberation at Teesside Crown Court on Tuesday.

    The trial, which lasted just over a week, heard Hussain and his social worker mother claim texts and notes that Hussain had made admitting he had carried out the abuse – were false confessions to stop the little boy’s mother confronting them again with her allegations.

    A packed courtroom listened in silence as Hussain’s mother Shabana Hussain gave evidence. She told the court that she made her son admit to rape, to stop the boy’s mother “harassing” them.

    The social worker said that the little boy’s mother turned up at her home saying that her son had broken down and told her what Hussain had been doing to him. Under cross-questioning Mrs Hussain admitted: “It’s not my finest hour.

    “The boy’s mother came to our house. She wasn’t going to believe anything else. She kept saying ‘just admit it for my sanity’ so that’s what I told Daniyal to do.”

    The court previously heard that Hussain had sent his mother a message claiming he had “demons” and that he would get help. “I’m so sorry. I’ve failed everyone” his message read.

    Another note written by Hussain, and found by the police on his phone, read: “There is nothing that I can say ever that will make everything better. Not in a million years. I have failed my family.”

    Hussain himself took to the witness stand to face cross-questioning. He repeated his mother’s claims that he had admitted to raping the boy in text messages to stop the boy’s mother from harassing his family.

    But prosecutor Aisha Wadoodi accused Hussain of confessing to the rapes because he was guilty of them, and of pretending to be mentally ill – by saying he was hearing voices in his head. It was the prosecution’s case that Hussain’s family put pressure on the little boy’s mother not to report it to the police, when she confronted them and accused Hussain of raping her son.

    Hussain was granted bail but warned he would be jailed when he is sentenced next year.

    The public gallery in the courtroom has been full throughout the trial, as the relatives of the victim broke down in tears as details of the sexual abuse were heard. Hussain, of Thackeray Grove in Linthorpe, Middlesbrough, will be sentenced for four counts of the rape of a boy under 13, and four counts of causing a child to engage in sexual activity, on January 12, 2023. https://www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/teesside-news/man-found-guilty-repeatedly-raping-25518499

    1. Hussain was granted bail but warned he would be jailed when he is sentenced next year.

      WTF? It’ll be a bit difficult to find him in Pakistan or wherever his family come from to pass sentence .

      3. If he flees the country send all his relatives with him. You never know that could solve the housing problem.

    2. Two points
      1 What cretin granted bail so he can flee to whatever Shitholestan he comes from, or is that the idea??
      2 whate date has been set for his mother’s trial for attempting to pervert the course of

      justice??

    2. I hear that Hotels.com is going out of business as no-one can find a hotel to book – they’re all full of ‘refugees’.

    3. Politicians have let loose the devil on us .. devils of another colour , primitives just out of their mud huts causing havoc .

      Nearly 80 years ago the very devil was in the shape of the Nazis, who wrought havoc and hell on millions ..

  95. Goodnight, all. Off to sort out my washing; a kind neighbour has offered to do it for me until I can get my own machine fixed or replaced.

  98. Suella Braverman MP
    @SuellaBraverman
    ·
    5h
    Our police forces should be open to the widest possible talent. That’s why I’ve decided that a non-degree entry route is vital.

    To those who neither have nor want a degree: if you have the skills, the courage & are committed to high standards of public service, you are welcome

    2. Is it a ‘Police Degree’ they currently take, or is it a variety of degrees that can be used to gain access to the ha ha ‘Force’?
      I’m just thinking of the ‘Nursing degree’ that is currently in vogue.

  100. Sir Cold957
    @cold957
    ·
    16m
    The
    @BBCNews
    and
    @UKLabour
    have spent more time focusing on Rochdale blaming The Tories for the sad death of a muslim child because of mould (labour council) than they have over years/decades of muslim rape gangs committing unspeakable atrocities against non muslim girls.

    2. Good morning Belle
      The child didn’t die because of mould it died because of neglect by its parents and they should be charged with manslaughter at the very least.

  102. Our PM and Chancellor have been inflicted upon us; we had no say in their appointments.

    I expect that tomorrow will be very bad for TINO …

  104. Talking with our Rayburn engineer today, he mentioned that his father lives in Saffron Walden, formerly the constituency of Sir Alan Hazelhurst. When we moved here in North Essex about 30 years ago he was also our MP.

    Subsequently redistricting moved us from Saffron Walden to Braintree. Initially our MP was some corrupt American poseur Brooks Newmark (?) who resigned after being exposed for er…exposure. He was replaced by the inaptly named James Cleverly who it transpires appears to be as thick as two short planks bolted together.

    Now the MP for Saffron Walden is Kimi Badenoch. My engineer friend and his father say that Badenoch lives in London and has never been seen in Saffron Walden. In addition a further complaints is that she knows nothing whatever about farming.

    We concluded that Badenoch is just another Globalist plant just as the Indian Sunak was planted on a small area up North to which he has no ties but which always votes Tory.

    We are having to confront extremely nasty Globalist/Marxist operators in the UK and people had better wise up to the perils that await us otherwise.

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