Wednesday 18 May: The Bank of England is in denial over its role in the inflation crisis

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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603 thoughts on “Wednesday 18 May: The Bank of England is in denial over its role in the inflation crisis”

    1. Here, too. No overnight rain as far as I can tell.
      Good morning, all.

      1. Good morning, Korky. Rain is due overnight tonight, from 9 pm Wednesday to 6 am Thursday.

  3. Tory MP arrested on suspicion of rape and sexual assault. 18 may 2022.

    A Conservative MP has been arrested on suspicion of rape and a string of other sexual offences spanning seven years.

    The sitting politician was being questioned by Metropolitan Police officers on Tuesday after being accused of rape, indecent assault, sexual assault, abuse of a position of trust and misconduct in a public office.

    Police also visited his office on the parliamentary estate in Westminster, although the arrest took place elsewhere, The Telegraph understands.

    I would think it a near certainty that everyone in the MSM and Westminster knows who this is! Only the Great Unwashed are to be left in the dark!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/05/17/tory-mp-arrested-suspicion-rape-sexual-assault/

    1. Maybe they ought to publish a list of all Conservative MPs who are NOT currently being accused of sexual harassment, rape, sodomy or anything else of that nature.

      1. Good morning, Rastus.

        Perhaps if a list of politicians, from all parties, worldwide, was published of those who are not corrupt. We would still be waiting for the first name to be entered.

    2. 352710+ up ticks,

      Morning AS,
      abuse of a position of trust and misconduct in a public office.

      Surely that charge can be shared by many

      To cut out much of the minor sexual abuse actions boxing gloves to be worn inhouse by ALL MPs.

  4. The Bank of England is in denial over its role in the inflation crisis

    Well as this is a self inflicted world crises, every country is facing high inflation, so on the one hand the Bank of England is right it isn’t their fault.
    I suppose they were only obeying the orders of some higher global authority for the greater good of the Great Reset.

    1. There is an Instant Sunshine song called

      Herts is Trumps

      which I hoped to post because I have in on an LP and I also managed to listen to it on line at home but it is unavailable on line in Turkey.

      Anyway please try and listen to this and let me know what you think of it.

      https://gaana.com/song/hert…

      1. They obviously like Tring! There are some nice little villages around there.

      2. I don’t know why my thanks for your wishes and this song ended so far down the page…

      1. Thank you, Elsie. No chance of a rhubarb crumble, I suppose – well one can’t have everything!

    3. Manga kramar och grattis på födelsedagen till min god vän, Dukke. 🪆😘🎂🥂👍🏻

      Från Bamse! 🐻XXX

      1. Thank you – I hope to be indulging in all your emoji’s (well those I haven’t already) tonight at dinner out with D.

  8. Good morning all.
    Another bright & sunny start with 6½°C in the yard.

    1. Good morning, BoB. More work today on the Great Wall of China BoB-land?

      1. Nah! Off to Derby to do a bit of shopping and check for stepson’s mail.
        Uncertain whether I’ll go and try to see him as last time I went he refused to see me and I’m afraid I can not be bothered now.

  10. Here’s how Britain can solve Libya’s woes. 18 May 2022.

    The Libyan Civil War of 2011, culminating in the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi, was the bloodiest of the uprisings across North Africa forming part of the so-called Arab Spring. Western leaders, including David Cameron, backed the rebel forces for a myriad of reasons, not least in response to the brutality shown by Gaddafi in bombing his own people. But there was also an expectation that a Libya free of Gaddafi would be a more prosperous and peaceful country. The reality has been very different.

    To put it mildly. There was of course no Civil War until after western intervention. The Libyan people, who had the highest standard of living in Africa under Gaddhafi, have been devastated by Cameron and Sarkozy’s attack. The MSM were never interested in their complaints and certainly didn’t post anything about, Atrocities, Genocide or War Crimes. There were no offers to take in refugees. They were simply abandoned to their fate. Though he doesn’t garner the same condemnation as Blair Cameron almost certainly qualifies as yet another western war criminal!

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/here-s-how-britain-can-solve-libya-s-woes

    1. Winning wars can be (fairly) easy

      Winning the Peace is so much more difficult

      1. All the more so when absolutely no planning is put in place other than to asset strip the survivors.

        Edit; good morning.

    2. Winning wars can be (fairly) easy

      Winning the Peace is so much more difficult

    3. I was given to understand that the Colonel was deposed (with extreme prejudice) because he was planning to sell oil in currencies other than the US$.

      1. Morning Stephen . Yes! He also wanted to float his own gold based currency.

  11. ‘Morning, Peeps.

    Not the leading letter, but perhaps it should be because in my view it sets out a few home truths…

    SIR – This Government’s policies have contributed directly to the current high rate of inflation.

    They include the pursuit of net-zero targets at all costs; an energy policy that failed to exploit our natural resources; a lack of forethought on the security of energy supply; wasteful unconditional cash injections into the NHS; and the removal of EU constraints across the UK.

    With the crisis in Ukraine, this Government should be urgently stepping up defence spending. Presumably it will blame the Bank of England for not doing that, too?

    Nigel Griffiths
    Wareham, Dorset

  12. As Mrs HJ will testify, I’ve been banging on for the past two years about the prospect of serious inflation, and I’m sure I wasn’t alone. Once again, too little and too late:

    SIR – Andrew Bailey, the Governor of the Bank of England, has said that the Monetary Policy Committee could not have anticipated the shocks he claims have caused such high rates of inflation (report, May 17).

    For the past two years, however, economists have been warning that the massive expansion of the monetary base would lead to a surge in inflation. The oil-price shock and global supply-side constraints are, arguably, not the chief culprits but the effects rather than the cause.

    We are facing the largest rise in inflation since the 1970s, yet neither the Bank of England nor the US Federal Reserve, which in 2020-21 printed money to an even greater extent, are willing to acknowledge their role in causing it.

    Charles Ekins
    Hurstbourne Priors, Hampshire

    1. I have come to the conclusion, that letters published in the DT, are not dependent on content,
      but on the exotically named villages that the writers come from

      1. I still consider that my submitted (and rejected) letter, on the topic of working-from-home snivel serpents, is far superior and harder-hitting than any of the lame ones yet published.

          1. Caroline and I have worked from home for 32 years. Indeed, since we had a mobile phone and a computer on board we were able to do much of our admin and sales stuff as we sailed around the Med home-schooling our boys on Mianda.

        2. What a fine place the world would be if The Daily Telegraph always published all the letters that you and I submit!

          1. You and I should have our own forum, Rastus. Our written thoughts are a cut above those routinely chosen by the DT letters’ editor.

    2. The BoE and HMG have been kicking the inflationary can down the road since Snotty McDoom ended ‘boom and bust’ in 2008…well boom was certainly certainly curtailed. 14 years of artificially low interest rates, coupled with QE and topped off with closing the economy down for two years could hardly end otherwise.

  13. TORY MP ARRESTED FOR HISTORIC RAPE, HAS BEEN TOLD TO STAY AWAY FROM PARLIAMENT DURING INVESTIGATION. 18 may 2022.

    Another appalling story from The Sun tonight as the Pestminster scandal rolls on. A sitting Tory MP has been arrested for for rape and sex assault spanning seven-year period from 2002 to 2009. The police confirm “A man was arrested on suspicion of indecent assault, sexual assault, rape, abuse of position of trust and misconduct in a public office.” A spokesperson for the Whips’ Office says:

    “The Chief Whip has asked that the MP concerned does not attend the Parliamentary Estate while an investigation is ongoing. Until the conclusion of the investigation we will not be commenting further.”

    Why! He’s been arrested. His name is not sub-judice.

    https://order-order.com/2022/05/17/tory-mp-arrested-for-historic-rape-has-been-told-to-stay-away-from-parliament-during-investigation/

    2. Looking at how long ago it was and the time period, am I the only one wondering about his ethnic background?

      1. Morning Bob. I did wonder if it is Nadhim Zahawi who has a history, but none of the reports say a Minister has been charged!

    3. They should have invited the Beeb to send a helicopter to cover the arrest.

  14. SIR – Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Nicola Sturgeon now believes that it is essential that an independent Scotland should join Nato (report, May 17). This is despite her continued support for unilateral nuclear disarmament and insistence that Trident submarines should be removed from Scotland.

    In policy terms, she seems to be demonstrating a remarkable level of incoherence and political naivety by not understanding that nuclear weapons are a core element of Nato deterrence policy, to which the UK makes a significant contribution. Opposition to nuclear deterrence and membership of Nato are incompatible.

    Rear Admiral Philip Mathias (retd)
    Director of Nuclear Policy, 2005-2008
    Southsea, Hampshire

    “,,,Nicola Sturgeon now believes that it is essential that an independent Scotland should join Nato…” With what, precisely?? The woman is barking mad. Perhaps this is her last desparate attempt to stir up some support for independence – according to the latest poll only about one third of Scotland’s population are still in favour of breaking up the Union. Strangely, the proportion may well be greater south of the border!

  15. SIR – My daughter, a civil servant, recently worked from home while visiting us.

    She went into my husband’s study to start at 8.30 am. During the day she attended several meetings online and only emerged for a half-hour break at lunchtime. She finished at 5.30 that afternoon.

    The idea that civil servants are workshy when working from home does not match our experience.

    Catherine Farrington
    Cambridge

    Do ursines defecate in forests, Cathy? What else would we expect from an over-the-top doting mummy-letter about her own daughter, the can-do-no-wrong snivel serpent.

    3. In my experience, probably 90% or more of meetings I had to attend were pointless. Even had to attend many ‘agenda-less’ ones.

        1. Schoolmasters’ common room meetings were most excruciatingly boring and pointless and so I always arranged to give my Upper Sixth English class an extra lesson during this time in order to escape.

    4. Meetings. Where someone takes Minutes and the others waste hours!

      Morning all BTW.

  16. SIR – The memories came flooding back when I read the letter from Chris Yates (May 17) on cadet uniforms.

    More than 25 years ago, I was Mr Yates’s Commanding Officer when he was in the Cadet Corps. Destined for the top, he passed out from Sandhurst a few years later as quite literally the “smartest” cadet of his intake.

    Lindsay Rooms
    Cotterstock, Northamptonshire

    I am proud to say that some of ‘my’ former cadets have gone on to do great things in service careers. It was never difficult to spot those in their teenage years who were destined for success, in whatever they chose to do. Very satisfying (without sounding smug, I hope).

    1. ‘Morning, Hugh.

      I also laid out my uniform trousers overnight under my mattress at police training school, Pannal Ash, in the winter of 1973–74. Not only did I have the sharpest creases, I also had the warmest legs on those frosty mornings.

      1. Yo Mr G

        When we had a Royal Navy, the sailors wore ‘Bell Bottom’ trousers.
        These had horizonal creases, either 5 or 7 depending on your height, which enabled them to be easily folded (concertina fashion) and stored in your kit bag,
        or in your hammock to press them

        1. Yo, Mr Effort.

          As long as you didn’t leave your “housewife” in the pocket! 🤣

          2. Morning OLT

            I still have my shoe brushes , with my number and my maiden name on the back of them.
            Even Naval Nurses had to have kit inspections !
            Moh and I lost our Housewife rolls during various moves sadly.

        2. As a shortarse I aspired to having 7 creases, alas it was not be be!

          (I resembled Zebedee if I tried)

      2. Yo Mr G

        When we had a Royal Navy, the sailors wore ‘Bell Bottom’ trousers.
        These had horizonal creases, either 5 or 7 depending on your height, which enabled them to be easily folded (concertina fashion) and stored in your kit bag,
        or in your hammock to press them

      3. I found that method led to summer creases.
        Summer in the right place, summer not.

  17. UK inflation hits highest for 40 years as energy bills soar. 18 May 2022.

    Prices are rising at their fastest rate for 40 years as higher energy bills hit millions of households.

    UK inflation, the rate at which prices are rising, jumped to 9% in the 12 months to April, up from 7% in March.

    The surge came as millions of people saw an unprecedented £700-a-year rise in energy costs last month.

    You know that story about inflation being 10 or 15% by the end of the year? That’s right. It’s just a story! It will be 20% Minimum!

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-61483175

    1. I can’t help thinking that either this was all planned or Government were certain it was coming.

      Otherwise, why was it absolutely vital to break their election pledge and remove the triple lock for pensioners, the one group of people who would be most vulnerable to and most damaged by what is coming to pass.
      The PTB think they have too many very elderly, useless, eaters.

      If Covid won’t kill them off, let them freeze or starve to death, knowing that the NHS and social services are all but useless. (unless you’re an asylum seeker or illegal immigrant).

    2. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. Our renovation consumed a huge quantity of dosh. Had we delayed it the price of labour and materials would be even higher today. At least the inflation now has a much reduced amount of dosh to work its evil on!

      Morning Minty & Everyone

      1. Someone I know is doing home improvements with some money that she had lying in her bank account for that reason.

    3. Of course Government won’t acknowledge that with the recent doubling of gas prices, whilst the 5% VAT rate remains the same, the VAT take has doubled. Talk about fuelling inflation!!

  18. 352710+ up ticks.

    Morning Each,

    Dt,
    Tory MP arrested on suspicion of rape and sexual assault
    Police question politician over alleged offences said to have taken place during a seven-year period between 2002 and 2009

    These cover-ups seem to have long life spans, take rotherham for instance sixteen plus years,I suppose the reason being to reveal at the outset would / could damage the party names ( my aching frigging sides)
    leaving the supporting / voting punters rightly being accused of aiding / & abetting a
    criminal organisation, could it not ?

  19. SIR – The EU’s stranglehold on Northern Ireland (Letters, May 17) reminds me of France’s efforts in 1982 to protect its VCR manufacturers from Japanese goods. It had just one facility processing the Japanese imports, manned by only two officers.

    The EU is pulling a similar stunt in Northern Ireland, requiring hundreds of pages of paperwork. It’s punishment for Brexit – electronic documentation would solve the delays at a stroke.

    Don Edwards
    Lawford, Essex

    And, Don Edwards, do you know what is really irritating? That we are letting them get away with it, and our idiotic PM STILL describes them as “our friends”!

    1. SIR – Since at least 2014, when David Cameron failed to obtain a few miserable concessions that might have kept Britain in Europe, the EU has consistently shown myopic intransigence.

      That anyone should expect it to change now is beyond belief. The only solution is to invoke Article 16 and let the bloc take the consequences.

      David T Price
      Banbury, Oxfordshire

      Got it in one, David Price!

        1. When we moved to France in 1989 Caroline did translation work while I set to work on making the house inhabitable. She needed to send floppy disc copies of her work to her clients but we discovered that the cost of floppy discs was 10 times as high in France as it was in England so we ordered a carton of 50 FDs from England. Three months later they had still not arrived and we complained to the suppliers who assured us that the had sent the package immediately they received the order. However they kindly sent us a fresh order of floppies. A few days later both the original and the new orders arrived! Our suppliers swore that they would never again work with clients in France again.

          The same year we discovered that a Canon photocopier made in Japan cost £1500 in France but we could buy exactly the same machine in England for £500 so we did so when we next came to England. On the box it told us that Canon’s European distributers were based in Rennes – jut 40 miles away from us but the cost was still three times higher than in Britain.

          The much ridiculed President Bush had a point when he said “The French don’t have a word for entrepreneur!

          1. Back to all video recorder imports being channelled through France’s equivalent of Wivenhoe.

      2. I read that as ‘let the bBC take the consequences’. Having seen their efforts over the past six years, it’s not so far from the truth.

      3. At long last I’ve found the quote.

        It was by Martin Selmayr, then Secretary General of the European Commission. During the Brexit negotiations he stated:

        “Losing Northern Ireland is the price that Britain has to pay for Brexit”

  20. Who suspected that back in the day that John Major’s and Tony Blair’s peace process was really a trap to keep us locked in the EU

  21. No letters today about ‘global warming’ or the ‘climate emergency’ and similar nonsense, but these two BTL posts caught my eye:

    Edwin Pugh
    1 HR AGO
    This review has just been published, a detailed description of our weather last year –
    https://www.thegwpf.org/content/uploads/2022/05/UKWeather2020-21.pdf
    It’s going to upset some as it’s based on real data from sources such as the Met. Office.
    Note that the GWPF invited the Royal Society and the Met Office to review and submit a response to this paper, to be published as an addendum to it. The invitation was not taken up. This amounts to a tacit admission that the review is an accurate reflection of our weather and that claims of climate disaster are without foundation. EDITED

    PH

    Peter Hollander
    17 MIN AGO
    When the real numbers are looked at, the exaggerated predicted numbers used to create fear of some disaster are exposed as fake. Everyone old enough to remember will recall the predicted mini-ice age of the 1970s failed to materialise. Yes it’s got a little warmer, but no one is going to drown because of a few millimetres of sea level rise by 2100, By changing “global warming” to “climate change”, is an admission that predictions were exaggerated, but since funding is based on fear mongering and not challenging the consensus, the nonsense will continue.

    * * *

    Well said, both! If you don’t have the time (or the inclination) to read the whole report, do look at the Executive Summary’ at the beginning, it is well worth reading.

    1. Any GWPF report will be dismissed by most of the MSM as the product of right-wingers paid for by oil companies. “In the bin with it!” they will cry.

      1. It wont suit the narrative. I don’t understand why the media are so desperate to promote the nonsense. Is it the passive scaremongering to sell copies?

    2. Climate change is weather. There’s nothing man can do about it. There are lots of things we could do: recycling, re-use, litter, cutting waste, packaging changes – but those aren’t glamourous and involve lots of government propaganda and, crucially, which is all the green agenda is about, tax.

    2. They should have given the job to a giant anteater (or an amoeba). It would have given a far more intelligent answer on the economy.

    3. The constant ‘you know’ is a desperate ‘please empathise with me, I need you to come on side and stop asking these difficult questions I don’t know the answer to.’

      In truth, the answer is ‘It doesn’t. High taxes drive prices up. The president is wrong but his ideology is that of a socialist who forces companies to pay more tax which is immediately passed on to the customer. That is why inflation is so high and why Biden’s tweet was wrong. However, people are stupid and don’t understand why companies can make so much money and think government must take that wealth and give it to them in the misunderstanding that this is ‘fair’, making the issue one a perfect storm of political pandering to electoral ignorance.’

      That’s the truth, but can you imagine any politician saying that? can you imagine the backlash?

      2. To be fair, if it’s anything like the UK, they don’t care because their pensions won’t be affected.

  24. Headline in today’s DT:

    Black Lives Matter paid $1.8m to companies owned by founder’s relatives

    Well I never, whoda thunkit??

    1. Amir Khan claims ‘curries’ and an ‘appalling diet’ is to blame for Asian fighters not making an impact in boxing – and ex-world champion thinks Asians use their background as an ‘excuse’ for not pursuing dream careers in sport
      Ex-world champion Amir Khan retired from boxing last week at the age of 35

      The Bolton hero lost his final professional fight to Kell Brook back in February
      Yet Khan has sparked outrage with his comments about Asians making it in sport
      Khan said Asian sportspeople use their background as an ‘excuse’ for not pursuing their dreams of a career at the top level of sport

      People used to say: “We are Muslim, we are Asian, we can’t make it in boxing. We’re not going to be picked.”

      ‘It’s an excuse that all Asians use – that we’re never going to be picked. Look at football, for example. There are no Asian footballers but guess what they all say? “We won’t get picked because we’re Asian.”

      ‘I think that’s a f***ing load of b*******, really. It’s a load of b*******. Asians, when we can’t to a certain extent, give up. We don’t have it in us.’

  26. From Going Postal, regarding the MP under suspicion:-

    REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! • an hour ago
    Seems it’s my local mp who’s suspected of the offences. I don’t know the details of it all but he was very anti lockdown and the shining path of WEF overwatch, one of the back benchers who voted against every time. Perhaps THEY are now cleaning house in advance of the next attack on humanity. Typically of the scummedia they have the guy convicted already and are screaming for a lynching.

    1. Can’t say I’m surprised. The media and the Whips’ office have files on every MP, they release them when they want to.

    1. The history and reality of that country isn’t promulgated. Folk are told ‘there’s Ukrainian, and Russian’ and nothing inn between, where as always there are plenty of Russians living in Ukraine and lots of Ukrainian citizens resent it and want to be part of Russia.

      It’s so deceitful. All because people can’t cope with the truth and the media wants to present a narrative. Perhaps people can’t handle the truth? It’s complicated and muddy, after all.

      1. Jacques Baud has a lot to say about the Western media narrative in his latest update. He also thinks the politicians are so in love with this narrative that they are making decisions based on it – and as you point out, it’s flawed.

        1. Hullo blackbox, do you have a link? There’s a lot of his work out there – not sure which might be most pertinent.

          1. I think this is his latest update. I haven’t heard him on the Delingpod yet, but that was recorded only last week, so probably pretty similar.

        1. Son, we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Who’s gonna do it? You? You, Lieutenant Weinberg? I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You weep for Santiago, and you curse the Marines. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know — that Santiago’s death, while tragic, probably saved lives; and my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives.

          You don’t want the truth because deep down in places you don’t talk about at parties, you want me on that wall — you need me on that wall.

          We use words like “honour,” “code,” “loyalty.” We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something. You use them as a punch line.

          I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide and then questions the manner in which I provide it.

          I would rather that you just said “thank you” and went on your way. Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon and stand the post. Either way, I don’t give a DAMN what you think you’re entitled to!

          Or, As Orwell said more succinctly: “We sleep safely in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm.”

          Except that the state is destroying and demonising those men and bringing those who wish us harm into our midst with great alacrity. The systems to defend us from evil are being destroyed, intentionally from within. The state Is the enemy now.

  28. Excellent ConWomen

    Yet ruin is what we all face, after two years’ money-printing

    combined with a sanctions policy that will push the European economies

    off a cliff. This is a strange way to save Sort 1 – and some of Sort 2 –

    of the Ukrainian people.

    This, however, is the price of a failed US initiative to weaken

    Russia, whose rouble is higher now than it was when the war began, and

    whose gas and oil is more valuable than ever. Is it a price we are

    willing to pay? Perhaps it is time to ask who is selling us this future,

    and for what purpose.

    https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/were-fighting-a-ruinous-proxy-war-but-for-which-sort-of-ukrainians/

      1. Checking stepson’s flat for post as he’s still in hospital.
        I’m starting to realise that he’s not likely top be discharged any time soon.

        1. That’s sad, but if you can plan for it, I suppose it makes it easier to deal with.

  31. Pugs lack the basic body functions to be classed as ‘typical dog’

    PUGS can no longer be considered a “typical dog” because extreme breeding has left them with a long list of severe health issues.

    The desire for baby-like dogs with bulging eyes, folds of skin and flat faces has led to life-shortening health problems that mean the animal is subjected to a “lifetime of suffering”, according to a study led by Dr Dan O’neill, senior lecturer in companion animal epidemiology at the Royal Veterinary College.

    “We have dogs that are typical, like labradors, where they have a long nose and a tail and are not that dissimilar to a wild dog,’’ he told The Daily Telegraph.

    “We’ve drafted a list of core body functions any dog should be able to do when it’s born and these are very basic. For example, they should be able to blink. It doesn’t feel like a big ask that a dog can blink, but many pugs can’t fully.

    “A dog should be able to sleep without having to constantly wake up to breathe… a dog should be able to have skin that isn’t folded and not have crevices with infections and smell. These are really basic things. Pugs just don’t have those basic functions.”

    Dr O’neill led a study of 16,000 pugs in Britain and found them to be over 50 times more at risk of narrow nostrils and brachycephalic obstructive airway syndrome – both of which lead to breathing issues – than other dog breeds.

    Of 40 common health conditions, pugs are at an increased risk for 23, including being at 13 times greater risk of eye ulcers and 11 times greater risk of skin-fold dermatitis.

    Pugs are also more likely to be overweight, with one in six obese compared with one in 15 other dogs.

    A recent Royal Veterinary College study found French bulldogs have the shortest life expectancy of any breed, at just four-and-a-half years. Jack Russell terriers are the longest lived at 13 years, on average.

    Other flat-faced breeds – English bulldogs, pugs and American bulldogs – rounded out the bottom four in that study alongside French bulldogs, with none of them expected to live more than eight years.

    The new findings are published in the journal Canine Medicine and Genetics.

    This crassly idiotic obsession that many people have for wanting to ‘engineer’ a dog to look like a deformed human baby is mirrored in the idiotic way that toy manufacturers make teddy bears with flat faces that look nothing like a real bear.

    The gormless twats who crave for such deformed and genetically-warped dogs care not a jot for the suffering they cause as long as it “looks the part”.

    1. Members of the Kennel Club who set “Breed Standards” have caused endless pain and cruelty to dogs and should be taken out and shot

    2. Mongo is apparently ‘overweight’ despite his diet being carefully controlled. Comically, the vet said to reduce the green beans and pasta and just give him more protein.

      I think what breeders have done to pug dogs is horrible. The poor animals.

      1. I met the owner of another wire-haired fox terrier on Sunday. He entered the dog in the “handsomest chap” category and was incensed when the vet judging said Billie (the dog) was overweight! To be fair, the dog didn’t look overweight (and WHFTs are very stocky anyway).

  33. I’m a fisherman not a fisher, says first female to reel in top title.

    Winner rejects ‘woke’ terminology, saying she does not want to detract from industry traditions

    THE first female winner of the Fisherman of the Year award has said she chooses to identify as a “fisherman” in a rejection of “woke” gender-neutral alternatives.

    Ashley Mullenger said she was proud to stick to tradition after her triumph this week at the Fishing News Awards, the recognised industry ceremony.

    The 35-year-old, who has been commercially fishing off the Norfolk coast since 2018, is the first woman to win the award for under-10-metre vessels since versions of the prize were first awarded in 1913. But she dismissed calls from activists to swap the term fishermen for fisherpeople, fisherfolk or fishers, to be inclusive of women and transgender people.

    Last year, BBC Radio 4’s Today programme was ridiculed after it used the word “fisherpeople”.

    Instead, Mrs Mullenger has joined forces with 17-year-old apprentice skipper Isla Gale and Dorset angler Mollie Smart, both of whom made the awards shortlist, to write an open letter to Fishing News defending “fisherman”. “Sometimes you run the risk of this whole woke culture, but I choose to identify as a fisherman,” she told The Daily Telegraph from her trawler.

    “Most of the women I know in this industry would rather identify as a fisherman than fisher or fisherwoman. The word ‘fisher’ is vile.”

    Explaining the choice, she added: “It’s a very traditional job that’s been done for hundreds of years mainly by men and we’re really proud to have that title and also we don’t want to take away from the hard work that men have done to build this industry in the first place.

    “It’s better and healthier to normalise women in this space.”

    The stance is backed by Fishing News, which found in a poll of skippers that the industry wants to keep the term.

    While only a handful of women go out to sea, Mrs Mullenger said she had seen “really positive” growth. She now knows 16 female fishermen, rising from three when she joined the sector four years ago.

    Her Instagram account, the Female Fisherman, has attracted 7,400 followers, while the UK Women in Fisheries network has been established to get more women out at sea.

    “Don’t get me wrong, there are improvements that could be made for women in the industry, it’s very hard to find commercial gear that fit women, but the attitude towards women in the industry is very supportive,” she said.

    The National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations has dismissed “fisherpeople” as a clumsy term.

    What is wrong with the word “Fisherwoman”?

    Last night I watched a YouTube video of Jenny Agutter talking about the film Walkabout. She started by announcing, “Hello, my name is Jenny Agutter and I am an actress.” Good on her for not calling herself an ‘actor’.

    2. I’d bet there are precisely 0 trans people in the industry. It’s hard, nasty and tough. You need character and fortitude to do it. Precisely the characteristics lacking in someone mentally ill to the point of trying to escape the fundamentals of biology.

    3. I understand her point of view completely – I feel the same about being an engineer.

    4. Well done that (fisher)woman. It always makes me laugh when the “Chair” is conducting the meeting. It should be chairman. Such stupid “woke” language makes me cringe. Why be so literal just to prove that a female can do the job?

      1. I enjoyed being addressed as “Madam Chairman”.
        My parents’ predictions were fulfilled; they always thought I was a right little madam.

    6. When I was nobbut a lad, there was a word “fisherfolk” – which seemed to cover things nicely.

  34. Airline pilots express concerns on safety after inoculation.

    More evidence coming to light but the regulatory bodies refuse to act. The tentacles of fear are long and damaging. Unapproved drugs are a big no-no but:

    Many pilots also sought guidance from civil aviation regulators. These regulators are ultimately responsible for the safe and secure transport
    of citizens, yet most if not all actively ignored their own safety recommendations against unproven, unapproved drug use by flight crews. Transport Canada, for instance, simply removed this online guidance the week following numerous pointed, written questions on the same.

    Substack – Airline Pilots’ Concerns Post Jab

  36. Morning all

    Silly question , things I don’t know, re Maggie Thatcher Conservative policies , do we know which EU or any other countries come anywhere near embracing our version of Conservative practises?

  37. The WAGATHONG (sic) gets even better with thick-as-mince Wayne opening his mouth in the witness box and telling some tale about Ron Manager asking him to speak to Mr Vardy about aspects of Mrs Vardy’s behaviour. Mr Vardy says it is all bollox. Mrs Vardy came over all faint.

    No one appears to have taken the very simple route of asking Ron Manager whether he made the request or not.

    (My fee for this advice is 1,000 guineas).

    1. You can imagine how it goes ‘Bring your wife into line, mate. Sort it out, be the man.’

    2. Perhaps they did and his reply was “No chance, I’m not mixing myself up in your nonsense.”

  38. Good morning all, just before I attempt the north face of Tesco Irvine again. I mentioned last week that I was heading south to catch up with a couple of RAF buddies I hadn’t seen for 40 years.

    A few days were spent sitting on sandbags and swinging lamps as a good time was had by all…the regulars in the local bar took us under their wing as we recalled tales of derring-do from our youth and filled in the blanks of the past few decades.

    We all started in the same trade but one had gone airman aircrew before ending up as a Sqn Ldr admin officer, the other had gone straight to admin officer ending up as a Flt Lt whilst I ploughed on to Warrant Officer.

    The visit was topped off with a ‘flight’ in a Spitfire simulator, great fun and no crashes.

    We agreed not to wait 40 years before the next ‘reunion’.

    1. So pleased you had a great reunion and lots of fun .

      Where is the Spitfire simulator , Moh always wanted to either have a flight in one or even a simulator .

      His dad built them , wings bits , during the war , at the RJ Mitchell yard in Woolston, Southampton.

      1. The simulator is at; Wheelers Farm, The Luth, Wisborough Green, West Sussex RH14 0BZ. Jerry, the instructor, is a regular in Nigel’s local and has been flying since 1952. His first flights were in Bristol Freighters, then he commenced to Comets and VC-10s amongst many others. Most of his flying was done in East Africa.

        A fine chap, the only ‘blot’ was when he told us how the Spitfires helped reclaim Malta after the Germans had captured the island. He saw both Ian and I shake our heads with a puzzled look. We then explained that the whole point of Malta being awarded the George Medal by King George VI was because it held out under the terrible pressures of constant bombardment through 1940/42, thereby hampering Rommel’s supply lines. Every day is a skool day.

        1. George Cross, surely? You’re right, Malta was never captured, thanks initially to Faith, Hope and Charity. It was an unsinkable aircraft carrier in the Med.

          1. Yes, my mistake. The George Cross. *goes off to dig out Dunce’s cap*

  39. Neo-Nazi group National Action’s founder faces jail after guilty verdict. 18 may 2022.

    Davies is the 19th member of the group to be convicted, and Tagg said he believed it had now been dismantled. At its peak NA is estimated to have had 100 members. It was discovered by chance when security guards at Aston University in Birmingham spotted stickers with hate messages and called local police, who referred it on to counter-terrorism specialists.

    National Action has never actually killed anyone of course or even done anything more serious than demonstrate. It’s the only group in the government list of the Top Ten of proscribed organisations that is not Islamic in origin. It serves more; as here, as a distraction from Islamic operations and the opportunity to attack “far right” sentiments.

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/may/17/neo-nazi-group-national-action-founder-faces-jail-after-guilty-verdict

      1. Almost as many killed in Liverpool, (by non terrorists of course, ) as there are were in National Action

    2. There was a report of their activities on the telly last night, and a trigger warning was given for the weak hearted. There were some chaps shooting a crossbow at a round target on a tree. Gosh, hardly like the silhouette of a German like we used to shoot at on the range.

      1. I am surprised that all those ‘Kraut’ targets haven’t been gathered in and destroyed, and the squaddies who fired at them arrested and imprisoned for anti-EU activity (and they were black too). I suppose there is time yet.

    1. Given Charles’s close relationship with the WEF/Gates empire, some are taking these words as a threat, i.e if we don’t accept the great reset, more diseases will be released.

      1. We certainly could do with far fewer people in the country. Present company excepted of course.

        1. If famine hits poor countries hard this year, we will only get more migrants.

          1. But that is not a reason for supporting appeals for famine relief, which only encourages more breeding.

          2. We’re going to get a lot, lot more.

            Before you get all hostile-

            If you are a young man in a hungry community, the idea of coming to Britain is very appealing. A nice hotel, money for food,

            free sim cards for your mobile, and free health and dental care.

            The community would have one less mouth to feed, and if the person concerned is a troublemaker

            or criminal they would certainly encourage him to leave.

            Makes sense to them. To the British taxpayer doesn’t make sense at all.

          3. I have no doubt that guilt-tripping the West will be a huge propaganda campaign this winter.

          5. Most commenters seem to think that famine will hit the poorer countries first, and that we will get by with shortages and higher prices, which our countries can afford to pay. People can survive on surprisingly little food at the end of the day.

          6. I’m certain that they will not baulk from creating problems with the water supply if they feel such action necessary.

          7. I am sure ‘our lot’ will gladly ensure that we suffer. I think they will try and bring in food rationing via digital means and will manipulate the shortages accordingly to suit their purpose.

    4. “Prince Charles say…”

      Maybe it wasn’t Brian who said it but several other lesser known princes called Charle

    5. “Prince Charles say…”

      Maybe it wasn’t Brian who said it but several other lesser known princes called Charle

    6. Charlies first school was Hill House. The school was founded in Switzerland in 1949 and in London in 1951 by Lieutenant-Colonel Townend, one time Liberal candidate.
      Townend, son of a clergyman, chose his pupils solely on the basis of his approval of their mothers, and women teachers were preferentially chosen according to the height of their skirt’s hemline. It is known for its distinct uniform, which includes thick mustard cable-knit jumpers (known as “gold jumpers”), rust corduroy knickerbockers, knitted hats, and bags in British racing green. The school was recommended to the queen by Harold Macmillan.
      Townend famously declared that the school’s principles were “back to front”. He explained: “We put safety first – any teacher who leaves a child unsupervised is sacked on the spot – and then the child’s happiness. If a child’s happy and loves coming to school, he or she can do anything. Discipline and good manners come next and, last of all, preparation for the next school. Gay Gordonstoun, where Charlie claims he was bullied, was Hell on Earth compered to Hill House.

      Say’s it all really.

    7. The silly old sod, that’s what comes of being pampered all of ‘ones’ life and getting everything ‘one’ demands and wants.
      If you want to stop the increase in the size of the UK’s carbon footprint matey, you need to call a halt to and stop building properties all over our GREEN BELT. I doubt if he’s ever thought of how this harms our environment.

        1. I’ve been saying this for years Obs the come from large land masses and cant be bothered to put their ‘own houses’ in order too bloody lazy.
          They turn up and as soon as they switch on lighting or other electricity and gas their carbon footprint goes through the roof. It’s the most stupid and contrapositive response to climate change any one could ever imagine. And then houses are being built for them. Which is 100% opposite to what we really need in such a relatively small land mass.

    8. Reciting the WEF’s misinformation. Way past time that he should distance himself from that organisation.

  42. Morning all.
    I keep getting an advert with a link to an article “The top eighteen reasons why your cat follows you into the bathroom”.

    The top eighteen? I wonder how many reasons there are in total.

    1. The Russian economy is apparently in relatively good shape. Self-sufficiency and low debt of course. Old style nationalist stuff with buffers against hard times.

  44. Ukraine refugees homeless in UK after falling out with hosts, say community groups. 18 May 2022.

    Growing numbers of refugees are being made homeless, and in many cases destitute, after relationship breakdowns with their Homes for Ukraine hosts in the UK, community organisations have said.

    Some predict the system could crash entirely after reports of Ukrainian refugees being asked to leave the homes of their sponsors with only one day’s notice, leaving them with no option but to be referred to local authorities as homeless or, if they can afford to, attempt to seek last-minute rented accommodation.

    I simply cannot understand the mentality of taking in someone you know nothing about and have nothing in common with.

    Ukraine refugees homeless in UK after falling out with hosts, say community groups | Immigration and asylum | The Guardian

    1. Sooooo predictable.
      Traumatised people are not the most jolly of guests. Add in vestigial English language, and the conversation can sound abrupt or even rude.
      Even Danish D-in-L, who speaks English fluently and has lived here for over 20 years, can revert to Danish bluntness that jars on the English ear. Ditto Dutch chums.

      1. The ones who were in church the Sunday before last (I wasn’t at my usual church last Sunday) looked extremely miserable and ungrateful, to be honest. It may be that they were traumatised, but everybody went out of their way to be friendly and the chap in whose late mother’s bungalow they were living was there with them to help matters along.

    4. “I simply cannot understand the mentality of taking in someone you know nothing about and have nothing in common with.” Totally misguided, didn’t look further than the full stop at the end of the contract!

          2. I remember our history telling us that.
            My best friend – bless her cotton socks – hadn’t heard of it and requested extra information.
            It was the only time I saw Mr. Green go bright red and mumble.

      2. As you say Bill No of course not, but the former Trump aid will have to watch their step from now on.

      3. Only the British go to jail – will any of Ms Maxwell’s American clients who were in receipt of the services of the girls she trafficked be imprisoned.

        I do feel that Price Andrew has been very unfairly treated and I cannot believe he would have received any justice from an American court. Of course stupidity is the main thing of which he is guilty. I am completely disgusted that his brother Charles and his nephew William have thrown him to the baying mob. If habeas corpus is meaningless to either the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Cambridge then the monarchy needs to be closed down.

  46. Good Moaning.
    Well, never let it be said I’m not hip and happening.
    Some 22 years later, I finally visited the O2. A charmless edifice designed with one thought in mind; to separate you from your money as rapidly as possible.
    Oh, and it has all the technological whizz bangs. So it took twice as long to settle people into their allotted seats as it would under the old paper ticket regime.
    After sitting for over an hour amidst deafening adverts and thousands of Moby Dick’s descendants, the show finally began.
    Jeff Dunham himself is very funny and thank you to Sonny Boy for hanging in there for two years.
    This old fart has decided she prefers the Royal Albert Hall; it has presence and a hefty dose of theatricality. When visiting, you have a real sense of occasion.

    2. Morning! Talking of paper tickets, I was send an archive footage agreement at work yesterday which stated, “all media excluding non-fungible tokens”. It turns out that in this context, a “non-fungible token” is a cinema ticket! So the meaning is what we usually refer to as all media excluding theatrical rights. I live and learn.

    3. Back in the early 2000s I visited Wales’ new rugby stadium in Cardiff, At the time it was called The Millennium Stadium (now changed to Principality Stadium) and was given a guided tour of the place by a former Wales international rugby player. He was beside himself with mirth as he explained how the funding for the place came about:

      “We got a huge donation from The National Lottery so we decided to build this magnificent stadium. The English got a similar donation and what did they do with it? They built the bloody dome!“

      1. Which only became financially successful when government involvement was removed and private enterprise took over.
        I’m not impressed with the place, but at least it now has some sort of function.

    4. Back in the early 2000s I visited Wales’ new rugby stadium in Cardiff, At the time it was called The Millennium Stadium (now changed to Principality Stadium) and was given a guided tour of the pace by a former Wales international rugby player. He was beside himself with mirth as he explained how the funding for the place came about:

      “We got a huge donation from The National Lottery so we decided to build this magnificent stadium. The English got a similar donation and what did they do with it? They built the bloody dome!“

    1. I’d rather say that the civil service is already doing that at a terrific pace. No need for Putin to waste the missiles.

      2. The civil service are the reason nothing improves or changes after we have had a GE, they are and always have been in charge.
        Politicians are too lazy to enact changes.

        1. They’re certainly the reason we’re overrun with gimmigrants. No doubt some expensive and eager sourced bit of legislation has given to Patel to say ‘nothing you can do’ with a great grin of delight.

          1. We are overrun with illegals because their “brothers” run the Home Office. And are in the Cabinet.

          1. I did take a 12 day trip on the Pendennis Castle via the Canaries to Cape Town 😄😃🤩

          2. 10cc described me perfectly in their song, Flying Junk:

            ♬Ooh, he’s a remnant,
            From the swingin’ sixties …♬

      2. I left school at Easter 1962 and between then and now i have never seen a drug in tablet form, all the clubs and music venues i went to i was never offered or involved in the drugs of the 60s. I did share a few puffs of marijuana in Johannesburg, it was every where and very cheap. We sat out on a balcony and giggled. But I preferred a few beers and Cane and Canada dry, ice and a slice. Cane spirit made from distilling sugar Cane.

      3. I started grammar school in 1960! I don’t really want to go back to school 🙂

  49. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/58764f1b037710185c0f1b35affb0edffeece719165695e52221a48e3783a512.jpg Where’s Philip? Just commenced an 18-hour cold-smoking of two bacon joints that I’ve recently cured. I wet-cured a piece of pork belly and pork back three weeks ago: a seven-day curing, followed by a 12-day ‘equalising’ (maturing), then a five-day drying. It is now ready for cold-smoking. I’ll report again, anon, when I’ve sampled it in a sandwich.

    2. Firstborn’s wet-cure bacon was stupendous, and your’s looks as good, Grizz!
      Food with flavour… Yum!

      1. When I bought the belly piece I didn’t realise it had still got rib bones attached. This morning, before I popped it into the smoker, I cut out the bones out in one piece. Rather than waste them I roasted them. They were utterly yummy.

  50. Petrol and diesel prices reach new record highs. 18 may 2022.

    Petrol and diesel prices have reached record highs, according to new figures.

    Statistics from data firm Experian Catalist show the average cost of a litre of petrol at UK forecourts on Tuesday was 167.6p.

    The previous record of 167.3p was set on March 22, the day before a 5p cut in fuel duty was implemented by Chancellor Rishi Sunak.

    Diesel prices continue to climb to new highs, reaching an average of 180.9p per litre on Tuesday.

    Vlad must be laughing his socks off at this!

    https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/kwasi-kwarteng-petrol-statistics-competition-and-markets-authority-b1000724.html

    1. I have attached a recent list of all the good things that have come out of that chamber…………….

    3. My first thought was how would anybody know who was the “culprit” coz it seems few MPs actually attend the HoC.

      1. O/T. Spoke to Hertslass (birthday today) She is very much looking forward to meeting you and Alf.

          4. Have replied to you by email. Sorry about the delay but I really haven’t been able to catch up with everything yet amongst all the chaos here at the moment (workmen, don’tyaknow).

    4. My first thought was how would anybody know who was the “culprit” coz it seems few MPs actually attend the HoC.

    1. Georgie Porgy, Pudding and Plum;
      Kissed the girls and made them … arrive?

    1. Brexiteer etc…..
      Next move, psychiatric hospital and mega drugs with nothing to control the side effects.

    4. Thatcherite, Eurosceptic Brexiteer, anti gay and gender bender marriage, pro wild animals in circuses, supports the re-introduction of the death penalty and the detention of asylum seekers. If the LibLabDems don’t get him the pro EU Tories will. Dead man walking.

    5. You may wish to delete this entry. The MP is NOT to be named. You are putting Geoff and this forum in jeopardy.

      1. Bill, you are so correct .

        I would love to know who snitched and told tales .

        A quick look on the net showed me that many of the Asian newspapers on line have the story .

        I wonder whether it was an Asian copper or MP who snitched and spilled the rumours.?

      2. There are lots of postings naming this man in connection with the allegations and ban from Parliament. I shouldn’t worry unduly.

    1. But, but…the Wuhan Covid variant wasn’t dangerous at all and the Smallpox vaccine that we’ve had for ages – at least since the 1950s – works against Monkey Pox too. Poison eliminates all diseases of course, as would a bullet – but less subtle.

      1. And it’s spreading elsewhere.
        https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10828715/Monkeypox-hits-Europe-Portugal-says-five-men-virus-Spain-probes-eight-suspected-cases.html

        EDIT

        All of the men are gay or bisexual, according to local media, and most were detected at STI clinics in Madrid.

        Five men in Portugal have also tested positive and at least 15 more are cases are being investigated, health officials there said today.
        These cases are all male and mostly ‘young’, but it is not yet clear how they caught the virus.

    2. I read somewhere that your smallpox vaccination gave the necessary immunity.

      1. There was a smallpox scare in south London in the mid 60s and we all went to the health centre and had jabs.

      2. Most routine vaccination against smallpox ceased in the early 1970’s, so the vast majority of the population won’t have been vaccinated.

        1. I’ll be okay then, not only have I been inoculated with the smallpox virus, I’m now celibate!

          1. Not to worry, they’ll find a way to get you; via saddle sores perhaps….

    1. The problem, Jonathan, is you’re assuming half the population is intelligent, motivated and aware of the danger such legislation imposes. You forget that, fundamentally, the public are thick berks who couldn’t tie their shoe laces.

      1. You are not the first person to make that error. Cameron found out the hard way.
        A reluctance to look at uncomfortable facts should not be confused with lack of intelligence. And more importantly perhaps I do believe that about 40% of the people have literally been hypnotised by the tsunami of propaganda and are, for the moment, unreachable. Trauma is likely to change that, quite rapidly and with dramatic effects, and God help Mr Global and his friends when that happens.

      2. From my observation I would estimate that millions of Brits devote 100 times as many brain cells into thinking about their chosen (usually local) football team and its current triumphs/travails as they do to matters such as the surrender of sovereignty to the WHO or WEF. However, they can respond quite readily to rising prices and falling real incomes …

  59. Anti-terror police arrest 13-year-old schoolboy on suspicion of sharing extreme Islamist material online.

    Is this one of the many 45+ year old gimmigrants who claimed they were schoolboys? Wouldn’t surprise me. No comments allowed – How unusual.

        2. Normally when this sort of strident police headline is made – the accused is “far-right” white.

    1. It is pretty much that pointless. Our own government does the same. Fiat currency, if massively expanded ensures the currency is worthless. Same as any supply and demand system.

      It’s annoying – to say the least – that our own governments are so immensely malignant that they choose to debase our incomes for their own benefit.

        1. At the current rate an allotment.

          Gold the state can devalue. It desperately wants to control crypto currency as if that gets into common use it can’t destroy or devalue it, which removes any and all power the state pretends to have.

          1. SIlver? If so, do we buy ingots (or whatever they are called) or do we end up with ownership on a computer (which I don’t trust. Mind you, I’m getting to the stage where I don’t trust anything…but it’s academic unless I win the lottery as I can’t afford to buy any investments.) I don’t want to leave this house particularly, but D and I are definitely going down either the downsize or the equity release route.

          4. Did I see that it’s your birthday today? Hoping you’re celebrating and having a lovely day – despite house probs etc!

          5. I read from top down, so miss half of what’s gone on…

            Thank you – we’re escaping out to dinner tonight. A thoughtful friend gave me a generous voucher for dinner for two at a rather nice Italian restaurnt (which can include wine if we haven’t eaten up all its value!)

          10. If you don’t want to downsize then equity release is the only option. Careful which company you choose though. Needs to be researched thoroughly.

            Equity release is also my ‘end game’.

            Happy Birthday, my dear.

          15. Thank you, Conners – it has been slightly weird, but very nice. Back from lovely meal and going to ZZzzzzz.

          20. I had some jewellery which unfortunately I had to sell a few years ago. Probably wise to hang onto it if you can!

        2. Gerald Celente was saying “GSB” at the start of this year, i.e. a bit of all three.
          If you do go for cryptos, Bitcoin and Ethereum are two relatively safe ones (i.e. they have institutional investors). Don’t leave your crypto in a free online wallet because it can be pinched – get your own offline wallet. Don’t buy Tether, they are rumoured to be not as stable as they claim.

  61. Bluddy ‘ell! Magic, it must be.

    Wordle 333 2/6

    🟩⬜⬜🟨⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

      1. My success rate is only 74%. Took me the first 8 games to figure out how it works and I’ve failed on a few since then too.

    2. I’ve improved on yesterday with a birdie three. No Wordle Gummidge shenanigans today!
      Wordle 333 3/6

      ⬛🟨🟨⬛🟨
      🟨🟨🟨🟨⬛
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    3. Well done, Sue!
      A Birdie Three for me today.
      Wordle 333 3/6

      ⬜⬜🟨⬜🟨
      🟩⬜🟩🟨⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    4. Four today. Oh well…
      Wordle 333 4/6

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

  62. Report from Scotland indicating that neonatal deaths are at double the baseline rate and that a second investigation is under way. Not certain what the first investigation found…
    Naomi Wolf with a report of the impact of the “vaccine” on pregnancy, malformation of the foetus, lactation problems and infant deaths subsequent to women taking the serum.

    Naomi Wolf – Neonatal Deaths & Other Problems Post “Vaccination”

    1. Good grief, we use such terms so lightly but these are children. Children in the 21st century in a so called advanced economy – well, Scotland.

      1. Thalidomide was used between 1953 and 1961 !! before it was banned.
        Estimates range from 10,000 to 20,000 birth defects resulting in abnormalities or death of new born children: worldwide reporting was not as accurate as it possibly is now.
        Trust the big pharmaceutical companies, not a chance.

  63. Lots of young people appear to now suffer from allergies to food, like nuts and sesame seeds, I don’t remember this being much of a problem when I was young as it is today or labelling would have been brought in decades ago.
    I wonder what the medical reason for this could be, I’ve always been suspicions of all the injections they give children and babies nowadays.

    1. It also seems to be a British problem, though that could be genetic. Schools on the Continent don’t forbid nuts or police lunch boxes.

      1. Maybe they did but we didn’t understand it properly and the people just died?

        1. My family has had documented illness back to the nineteenth century that we now know is caused by cows’ milk intolerance. Not the same as the peanut allergies though.

    3. Apparently part of the problem was the use of cheap baby oil, based on peanuts.
      Skin absorbs very easily and the babies had the stuff applied to them several times a day.

    4. We used to eat a much smaller range of foods and ingredients. Expand rthe numbe of different foods and someone is bound to be allergic to something

  64. Lots of young people appear to now suffer from allergies to food, like nuts and sesame seeds, I don’t remember this being much of a problem when I was young as it is today or labelling would have been brought in decades ago.
    I wonder what the medical reason for this could be, I’ve always been suspicions of all the injections they give children and babies nowadays.

  65. They are even using the name ferries now..bigger than ever- Patel will never stop this.

    “Border Force has deployed “ferry-style” vessels to pick up Channel migrants,

    as the new Rwanda policy failed to deter a surge in crossings.

    Two crew transfer vessels (CTVs), which can each carry 92 migrants, are now

    operating in the Channel as the number of migrants reaching the UK

    approaches 9,000 in less than five months – more than double last year’s

    rate.

    Border Force officials said the use of the CTVs was safer,

    because more migrants can be taken onto the vessels mid-Channel. Border

    Force’s cutters can only carry 28 migrants”

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7424a996c1165b75e0512004177ad57da2724b365f215c6f4d1d2d73f17d7441.jpg
    I can’t believe I’ve only just tumbled to this,who runs our Border Farce??
    Serco
    Who benefits from contracts worth billions to house gimmegrants??
    Serco
    Doh!!!!

    2. We should simply drag them back to France. It’s as simple as that. Border farce bring them here out of spite for Brexit. There’s simply no other reason.

      Why are we ferrying more here? Why? Get rid of them. A bloody gunpoint! Send border farce with them. Fill their homes to bursting with the wretched swine.

        1. More likely it’s the senior civil service saying ‘You vile proles voted for Brexit to stop immigration? We’ll force hundreds of thousands on you!’

          It’s sheer spite. They’ve not even people – no identification, nothing. Round them up, push them on to a ferry, kick them out at France. Stop bringing the vermin here. They’re just criminals who’ll instantly sit on welfare, drug running or just revert to trope of rape and murder. Heck, 6 hours one lot were here before they were trying to rape children.

          3. ‘They’ are perfecting their viruses in their multitude of bio Labs. At least one thousand in Africa.

    3. Where is Lord Howard of Effingham & Sir Francis Drake when you need them.

        1. Ha, especially Drake ! slave trading: but at the time he thought it was a good business proposition, as did so many others. Beat trying to knock hell out of the Spanish.

    4. The Home Secretary could command the action to stop – if she wanted to.

      1. You can buy all the ingredients for a tomato, mozzarella and basil salad but it will never taste as good as in the Med or home grown. Try Sicillian tiger tomatoes and tell me i’m wrong.

      2. Last year, the MR made over 60 lb of “tomata” – which keeps and keeps and a great asset in the larder. There is no “work” – just sheer enjoyment and satisfaction.

        1. Does she bottle it or freeze it? I want to try bottling, but haven’t worked up the courage yet.

          1. Please, not the “H” word! Moderator! Pass the smelling salts!

    5. Excellent running legs , just like Moh’s, and of course the shorts are the business, same taste as Moh.

      Tomatoes , lots of them , well done Bill.

    2. Three for me today, sweetie … x
      Wordle 333 3/6

      ⬜⬜🟨⬜🟨
      🟩⬜🟩🟨⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

        1. And me.
          Wordle 333 3/6

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

      3. #metoo.

        Wordle 333 3/6
        🟨⬛⬛⬛🟨
        🟩🟩🟩🟨⬛
        🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  68. Look here , I am speaking the truth.

    As I have said many times , this area is a magnet for Asian tourists .. the Bollywood effect attracts thousands to Durdle Door , they come from all over the countr y . I expect many are well educated , huge salaries , the majority arrive here in hired coaches or luxury cars (by our local standards )

    My neighbour and I were discussing things in general , but one thing we both agreed on was a friendly smile is not reciprocated by visitors , no eye contact , no nothing , no exchange of pleasantries whilst in a queue in the local shop. ice cream/ etc . The adults actually stop their youngsters interacting with white children .

    I get the feeling that wealthy Asians regard the English as rubbish , and this is why Rishy Sunak has an arrogant mindset . Rich Asians are insular , correct and too clever for their own good.

    It is the same when one has an appointment with an NHS consultant .. they snap judgements out and are brisk and brief .. and that is it .

    1. I have to say though, that last time MH was unwell we saw an Asian ( not sure of origin) but from Dundee. He was great, listened, had a sense of humour. Now , he has a white British woman and neither of us likes her as much. She’s OK but we were happier with the Scots Arab or whatever.
      Everyone is different.

      1. I guess I was judging from narrow bitter experience ..

        I shouldn’t do that really, wrong of me .

        My dentist is Afghan/ Iranian and I have been with him for 10 years plus .. a decent clever chap , so I suppose our own experiences rise and fall, depending on circumstances.

    2. I visit a cash and carry with Asian and Chinese staff. The Chinese are always helpful. The Asians just blank you, even if I try and engage. No eye contact, no smile. Generalising, I know, but they keep to their kin as much as possible.

    1. Of course they will condemn it AND invite all the Pakistani Christians/minorities to live in the UK.

      1. Where they’ll find the resident “British” Pakisteen slammers will turn on them – a real home from home.

  70. Sunak warns it could be a tough few months as inflation etc gets worse. Don’t warn us you bloody fool! Do something about it!!!

    1. “…the inflation that I caused by recklessly printing money during the pointless lockdowns will get worse…”

      1. With every day they just prove how out of touch and stupid they are- all of them.

        1. I couldn’t agree more. I tried giving some feedback to Shrewsbury’s MP on Sunday – he couldn’t run away fast enough rather than thinking it might actually be useful information.

    2. Oh I want more left wing politics, more gays, women and ethnic minorities. They’re so underrepresented on TV!

      1. We should make more of an effort to use their scientific, medical and engineering inventions, then we can really go back to the Stone age.

        1. We all need to embrace the new Stone Age in order to head off the existential climate crisis.

      2. We should make more of an effort to use their scientific, medical and engineering inventions, then we can really go back to the Stone age.

      4. Good news then – Doctor They [as Alison Pearson suggests it be called] has a black, gay Doctor with a trans side-kick!

        1. The leak trailer of the first episode shows they’ve given monkey pox to each other having caught it from Derek Chauvin…

    4. Whirlybirds, Cannonball, Sea Hunt, Whiplash, Champion the Wonder Horse. Telly was wonderful in the 1950s. It got progressively worse over time.

          1. One of the best, if not THE best adaptations of Crusoe on TV or Cinema.

        2. Rin Tin Tin was definitely the 1950s, but that other thing you mentioned (from the 1980s) was unwatchable drivel!

          6. I liked Hopalong Cassidy and Gabby Hayes. Later The Lone Ranger.

            For us kids there was Rag Tag and Bobtail and later Tales of the Riverbank narrated by Johnny Morris.

            Thunderbirds, Space Cadet and Gigantor the Space Age Robot were fun to watch with my younger brother.

            Later in life any play by Dennis Potter grabbed my attention as did the documentaries about Elgar and Delius produced by Ken Russell.

            Entertainment wise I have fond memories of The Black and White Minstrel Show and the solo performances of John Hanson.

    5. How many years has the BBC been broadcasting?
      They still don’t know what viewers want to watch.

      2. Yes, they do.
        Well made, informative and funny programmes, such as Dad’s Army.

    6. I want the 6 O’clock BBC News to announce the abolition of the licence fee….

          2. Nope. That would mean defunding the BBC. Here, we went over from TV licence to income tax. Now, if you don’t even have a tv, you gotta pay. Socialism for you.

          3. No no no. That is the way the cbc is funded. We get wall to wall trudeau biased coverage of wokeness.

        1. No Bbc at all. I rarely watch TV anyway and Bbc gave up the racing coverage years ago.

    9. Republic of Ireland TV reception – via BBC transmitters – soared in the spring/ summer of 1953 …

        2. I watched the QEII Coronation at my aunt’s house; we didn’t have a TV in those days. The pictures were dull and grey;

          I felt sorry for Brenda – surrounded by those ghastly old Archbishops …

      1. I enjoy the BBC Shipping forecast at 00.48 on Radio 4 – preceded by ‘Sailing By’ …

        1. Agreed, but imagine how much better it would be with the views at the time.

    12. BBC was good on RADIO …

      ‘Dick Barton, Special Agent’;

      ‘Journey into Space’ – remarkably prescient …

      ‘The Goon Show’ – simply the best …

    13. It’s late but why not bring back the test card? It was much better than today’s dross.

  73. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7153c6d0959738a72503b7c5cc77c15404c4e053839956b89d6e0883d42d5f81.jpg

    From RT:
    “Russia’s lower house of parliament, the State Duma, is planning to discuss the potential withdrawal of the country from the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the World Health Organization (WHO), according to Pyotr Tolstoy, the vice speaker of the parliament.

    “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent a list of such agreements to the State Duma, and together with the Federation Council [upper house of parliament] we are planning to evaluate them and then propose to withdraw from them,” Tolstoy said on Tuesday.

    The vice speaker said that Russia had already canceled its membership in the Council of Europe, and that leaving the WTO and WHO is next.

    “Russia withdrew from the Council of Europe, now the next step is to withdraw from the WTO and the WHO, which have neglected all obligations in relation to our country,” he said.

    US House votes to halt normal trade relations with RussiaREAD MORE: US House votes to halt normal trade relations with Russia
    Tolstoy added that the government is expected to revise Russia’s international obligations and treaties that do not currently bring any benefit but directly damage the country.

    In April, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the “illegal” restrictions placed on Russian companies by Western states run counter to WTO rules, and told the government to update Russia’s strategy in the organization by June 1.

    The decision came amid the sweeping Western sanctions imposed on Moscow over its military operation in Ukraine launched in late February. Since then, Russia has been subjected to around 10,000 targeted restrictions, making it the world’s most sanctioned country.”

    1. In all my worst nightmares during the Cold War, I never once envisaged that we’d be in a conflict with Russia where we were the bad guys…

      1. That was the bit that caught my eye! I watched a talk by an academic who has been researching shadowy power structures for a long time, and he said that Yeltsin went along with them, but Putin cut them off when he came to power.
        They will be even keener to crush Russia now. A lot depends on which way India goes – if they hold out against the pandemic agreement, that will be two big countries that aren’t in it.

      1. Precisely.

        President Trump had the right idea, to cease funding and dump NATO, the WHO and tell the UN and its Migration Pact to get stuffed too. Trump also vetoed the nearly completed northern pipeline which would have given Germany direct access to Russian oil and gas, thus bypassing Ukraine altogether.

        Needless to say, the Obama puppet Biden reversed Trump’s orders on day one of his ‘presidency’.

      2. Precisely.

        President Trump had the right idea, to cease funding and dump NATO, the WHO and tell the UN and its Migration Pact to get stuffed too. Trump also vetoed the nearly completed northern pipeline which would have given Germany direct access to Russian oil and gas, thus bypassing Ukraine altogether.

        Needless to say, the Obama puppet Biden reversed Trump’s orders on day one of his ‘presidency’.

    4. Next move will be the UN. The toothless organization will stop attacking Israel and will soon be issuing meaningless policy statements about Russian aggression.

      1. I predict that if they do this it will backfire, as the rear section turns into a massive networking and dating agency. Plus of course, there would be no danger of sitting next to someone who is shedding after just having had their shot.

    2. Can’t they just herd all the unvaccinated into cattle wagons? If they need any instructions, there is documentation to guide them. If the carriages don’t float – well, problem solved.

    3. Why does the very serviceable word “transport” need a completely unnecessary suffix of “-ation”?

      And why are the Canucks (and Ockers) intent on being Plastic Yanks? with their spellings (“Labor”?).

      2. If you were to move something, would that be transportationalization?

      4. I suppose they do it in the interests of increased word serviceablization.

    4. There is no Canadian Ministry of Transportation, the department is called Transport Canada and the dickhead in charge is the Transport Minister.

      Not that it would surprise me, the vindictive bastards have just revoked bail for one of the truckers protest leaders.

  75. That’s me for this productive day. One can watch the grass growing. A few hours rain expected in the night – which will be handy.

    Have a jolly evening.

    A demain

  76. Evening, all. Am on a high after a really good dressage session with Cools. Not only did we nail half pass again (that’s the third time so I think he’s really got his head around it now), but he did good travers and renvers and did the best collected trot/medium trot/collected trot transitions he’s ever done. He definitely earned his Polos today!

      1. Thank you, but from the moment he stepped into the arena he had his dressage head on (that isn’t always the case!).

    2. I have no idea about the complexities of your achievement but congratulations both.

  77. Meanwhile in a country far, far way….

    “There’s no money to buy petrol, the crisis-hit Sri Lankan government said Wednesday as it urged citizens to “not to wait in line” for fuel, and following violent protests in the streets, which started in early April in the capital of Colombo and quickly spread across the country due to soaring prices amid food and other essential resource shortages like medicine.
    On Tuesday the new prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, declared in a television address that Sri Lanka was down to it’s “last day of petrol” amid the most severe crisis in over seven decades. He said the country would need an immediate bail-out of at least $75 million of foreign currency just to cover the next few days of essential imports.
    Hundreds of petrol stations have seen miles of vehicles backed up, desperate for gas, file image.
    He additionally signalled the central bank would be forced to print money if it hoped to pay government wages. Parliament has further been informed that the government has missed its April 18 deadline to pay $78 million in global bonds payments, as well as another $105 million owed to Chinese banks, according to Bloomberg. Wednesday marked the end of a 30-day grace period.
    Following the development, Reuters wrote “Sri Lanka is expected to be placed into default by rating agencies on Wednesday after the non-payment of coupons on two of its sovereign bonds.”
    It’s predicted to be just the beginning of a historic default on a total $12.6 billion of overseas bonds – the first such since the small country’s independence from Britain in 1948, amid a continued spiral of runaway inflation and foreign exchange squeeze fuelled by lack of dollars.

    More from Rabobank on the crisis…

    Sri Lanka is officially down to its last day of petrol. It was already going hungry – now it will be immobile. Angry people were already burning down politicians’ houses. Now they seem to be attacking anyone looking wealthy. ‘Oh, that’s just Sri Lanka,’ some say. True. But Iran is seeing food protests; so is Tajikistan. Significantly lower bond yields, when oil and food prices are rising and demand is largely inelastic, and “demand destruction” means hunger, is not something that ‘just happens’ like it could when commodity prices were low. Especially not when it also implies a collapse in the stock market and in housing and soaring unemployment to boot. Yes, such a global risk-off phase may be bullish for core bond yields like the US and Germany – but in many places it is a potential disaster. If Wall Street continues to say commodities don’t matter and inflation has peaked, the likelihood is that we will see dozens more African, Middle Eastern, and Asian countries experiencing exactly the same socio-political destabilisation.

    1. I read that politicians with their fingers in the till may have been a cause of the Sri Lanka problems. But that could also be victim-blaming. What is certain is that the central banksters don’t care who they harm with their shennanigans as long as they come out with their boots full.

    2. I had a nasty shock this morning when I passed what is usually the cheapest garage around. Petrol is the same price as diesel and has shot up to 173.9ppl! It’s only 1p cheaper than the Shell garage that is considered to be the dearest around (albeit their diesel is 184.9ppl).

    3. Before you can have a great reset you have to manipulate a global crash.
      QED.

  82. I have to say, did anyone read the “100 years ago today” column today?

    Wow. Just wow.

          3. I saw Kathy Kirby there in early seventies but the club had only been opened five years or so at the time. I went with a room mate from Leeds. Great fun for us students.

        2. I know about the Anatolian issue (other words not allowed); but we never seem to remember it.

      2. No, about the Turks being beastly to the Greeks. Not a period I know much about.

        Seems other people did nasty things in the past, not just the evil evil evil English (SIC)

        1. “W hat was seen and heard in the town is a joint story, based for the most part on personal observation, but to some extent on authoritative communication.

          “In June, 1921, the Kemalists had started deporting Greek males between the ages of 14 and 75 to the interior. While we were in Samsoun there were only three Greek men resident in the town – two priests and one a sort of Greek mayor. We saw other Greek villagers who had been captured and brought in. The American Near East Relief Mission told us that nine Greek villages had been burning ‘in honour’ of Ali Fethi Bey arriving there. Ali Fethi, we were informed, pretended to the Americans to be friendly to the Greeks, and to be trying to modify the Kemalist policy. Our information was that when the deportations began some of the Greeks fled to the hills, and many joined bands of Turkish deserters who were engaged in brigandage. Thereupon Ali Fethi issued an ultimatum to all Greek refugees to come into the town by a certain date. We saw some of them come in, men, women, and boys, starving, and in the most destitute condition. In their repulsive state they were immediately put in gaol.

          “We were not allowed to visit any of the Turkish institutions. The American mission took us to their hospital on the first day we were there, but we were warned by the Kemalists not to go again – but, in fact, Major Anson paid another visit. We saw one man in the hospital, a Turk who had been shot by another Turk in a private feud, and were told that the Kemalist official police had been there, trying to compel him to say that a Greek had shot him. They did not succeed. The man subsequently died. Whenever a Turk was shot he was forced to swear that a Greek had shot him, and when that was done there was trouble for some Greek. That, we learned, happened every day. The Greek part of the town was absolutely gutted, and the furniture of the Greek population was being sold in the bazaar. We heard shooting in the town each night.”

          “The Americans had told the Turkish authorities that they could arrange for 10,000 destitute Greek and Armenian women to go to America as domestic servants, but the Turks would not allow any to leave. There was one particularly obnoxious Turkish doctor, whose brother was a personal officer to Kemal Pasha. He was always pretending to be a friend of the Americans, but there was testimony to his attacking them behind their backs, and getting them into trouble with the Turkish authorities. On one occasion, we were told, several Greeks in the American hospital marked for deportation were unfit to be moved, but this person ordered them to be turned out. They went, and were never seen again.

  85. BBC News Night rolling in a Muslim woman complaining about her fuel bills and and poor status.

    Why couldn’t they have rolled in an elderly veteran and allowed him/her to say a few words , I don’t like the idea of Fatima demanding more Universal Credit ..

    The leftie BBC make me sick.

    3. Fuel bills and poor status from a group, 80% of which are economically inactive? Hardly surprising if they are poor, is it.

  87. How unfortunate that Glasgow Rangers lost the Europa League final tonight. I was looking forward to Wee Krankie sucking lemons if the Unionist side of the city had won…

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