Wednesday 18 September: Does Wes Streeting think that throwing money at doctors counts as reform?

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

597 thoughts on “Wednesday 18 September: Does Wes Streeting think that throwing money at doctors counts as reform?”

      1. Thanks. I have developed a terrible cough !

        Got back yesterday. While i was there it rained for 10 minutes while i was having breakfast. After i left the heavens opened with torrential rain. I felt sorry for all the people that got on the plane for the return journey after i had landed.

          1. Thanks. Kept me awake all night. But i do have reason to be cheerful. The doggies come home today !

          2. Oh pet! They’re either going to be thrilled to see you, or they’ll treat you with utter disdain! 🐶

          1. Bournemouth to Luqa is normally full of oldies but this time there were quite a few small children.

    2. And maybe his wife should mount the podium dressed only in her underwear and then do a reverse strip-tease putting on her donor donated garments one by one!

  4. Same old Labour

    SIR – Once again Labour shows its penchant for other people’s money (“Starmer defiant over peer’s freebies”, report, September 17).

    It didn’t take long.

    Max Ingram
    Emneth, Norfolk

    Nottler published !

    2. There is a serious message in all this clowning.

      Last night after morris practice, someone told me they were getting a grant from Worcester University to research ways of improving productivity in the workplace, reducing the amount of time taken off sick. I suggested the one big thing to do was to improve morale. Most people are thoroughly fed up, and no more than in the workplace.

      Now Sir Ed Potatoface, bless him, may not be the world's funniest clown, but he tries. He may be laying the gauntlet down to his political opponents – can anyone honestly say that Rachel Reeves brings more cheer to the nation? Surely someone can do better to cheer us up?

      2. Yes but his puerile exhibitionism makes him appear like a buffoon or an unhappy clown who is trying to appeal to children.

        Maybe he is hoping that Labour's plan to extend the vote to 16 year olds will play well with his party? Mind you, since the general election the new PM has remained completely silent on this matter.

  8. Good moaning.

    "Hezbollah’s terrible blunder that ended with audacious pager attack
    Terror group thought switching to old-fashioned devices would keep it safe – but they appear to have been rigged with explosives……

    Instead, communications would be confined to more old-fashioned means: couriers delivering messages by word of mouth.

    Telecoms would be limited to 1980s-style pagers, with none of the vulnerabilities of smartphones, Hezbollah sources told Reuters in July.

    Thousands of the latest and most secure models were duly procured and distributed to top fighters, officials and allies.

    On Tuesday afternoon, that was revealed as a terrible blunder.

    At 3.45pm local time, thousands of pagers in thousands of pockets simultaneously exploded" ……….

    Oh dear.
    Warning to Hezbollah; bargain packs of notelets ordered from Amazon will also be 'primed".

    2. Doesn't this act as a warning to us about the wisdom of outsourcing essential national infrastructure beyond where we can keep an eye for sleeper booby traps?

    3. Now Hezbollah's communications are greatly hampered; nobody will trust a mobile phone in case it blows their head off; many have been injured or killed, including the Iranian ambassador; and perhaps best of all, the Hizbollashites will be afraid of their own shadows in case the Israelis pull off a similar action again. Cars, phones, AK47s…
      Result! Especially the ambassador! Way to go, Israel – imagine how many high fives there have been in Israel this last 24 hours!

      1. And when we are not permitted to fly when carrying mobile phones etc?

        As tim5165 observed, this could easily backfire as terrorists adopt similar tactics.

      3. A wag in today's DT BTL commented that Isreal took out Hezbollah from the liver to the knee. 🙂

  9. Good morning all. A somewhat less cold start to the day, 8°C on the Yard Thermometer, but dry with a heavy overcast and little wind.

    A BTL Comment:-

    R. Spowart
    3 min ago
    Message Actions
    Wes Streeting is doing EXACTLY what Harold Wilson did in 1974 after he won Heath's disastrous "Who Rules Britain" Election following Joe Gormley's Miners' Strike the previous year.
    He is rewarding the junior doctors for their actions in helping make the Tories (In Name Only) unelectable as Labour has already done with the train drivers/

    3. Morning Bob – cloudless sky up here – hope it lasts so I can complete my logging and perhaps cut the grass

  10. Good morning, all. Grey and dreary – weather similar. Now you can see why I don't have a pager or smart phone!!

  12. Huw Edwards being freed

    What message does it send to others with similar inclinations?

    Come here little boy….

  13. WE DON'T DO COD.

    SIR – It’s clear from recent letters (September 16) that most British people only eat two types of fish: haddock and cod.
    My father always said that cod surpassed all understanding. I agree: it’s bland and woolly. Monkfish, red mullet and sea bass for me.
    Neil Mackwood
    Heathfield, East Sussex

    SIR – If Stan Kirby (Letters, September 17) from East Malling visits the Milk House in nearby Sissinghurst, he will be able to get the best fish and chips in this area.
    Jeanette Brown
    Tunbridge Wells, Kent

    Clearly you and your father, Neil, are ignorant clowns. If you buy your cod from supermarkets (as most muppets do) it will have been long-time frozen and exactly as you describe in texture and flavour. Switched-on people buy their cod freshly-caught from a good fishmonger; then its flavour and texture is sublime.

    As for you, Jeany, I will take your claim of "best fish and chips" in Kent with a wry smile. The worst fish and chips I ever wasted good money on were from a chip shop run by a clueless female in the county of Kent (the dreadful backwater of Lydd, to be precise).

    1. Fresh is best but frozen cod can work too. Defrost thoroughly then salt it. Salting it for 20 minutes improves the texture of fish previously frozen. Wash salt off before cooking.

      1. Depends on how long its been in deep-frozen storage.

        I once bought the last fillet of haddock on the block at Morrison's in Fakenham. I needed another so I drove to The Fish Shed at Brancaster Staithe where I bought another similar fillet. The difference was palpable. The Morrison's fillet was utterly devoid of flavour and had a woolly texture. the Fish Shed fillet was delightfully fully-flavoured and firm-flaked.

    2. Oo-er, Grizzly! Are you saying that I am a clueless clown? (I buy my breaded cod from Aldi.) (Good morning, btw.)

    3. Never grew up with fish; in Nigeria, a bloke would occasionally bring a massive freshwater fish (Gibon Roa) to the house on the handlebars of his bike, but it tasted of mud and consisted of hairy bones (like eating a cat without peeling it first). Consequently, I'm not interested.

      1. A very early memory of mine is my father forcing me to eat steamed fish. Ever since, I have never been able to eat fish – even the smell puts me off (I have tried eating it several times, but don't enjoy it at all). The only exception is smoked salmon, which to me doesn't taste of fish.

        1. If you haven't, try a fresh tuna steak. It's much more like a very tender steak, meaty rather than fishy.
          It shouldn't be overcooked.

      2. An angler friend once brought me a freshly-caught pike. It was still alive when he delivered it. After despatching it with a carving knife (he got a broken pike tooth in his thumb for his trouble) he told me to place it into a bath of cold salty water (to 'season' it). I did as asked.

        Despite that 'seasoning', it still tasted of mud. The most dreadful thing (after hare) I have ever tasted.

        Even now, I love all manner of sea fish but I will never touch anything from a river or lake.

          1. The French love eating rabbit and many keep rabbit hutches in their gardens in order to have a ready supply of meat. You can buy rabbit in most supermarkets and rabbit also features on the workers' lunch menu in some of our excellent local restaurants. I don't dislike the taste of rabbit but I find it too full of bones.

        3. My parents used to have a splendid woman, Mrs Lane, who came in to to cook lunch for them twice a week. She was a brilliant cook who only cooked traditional English fare. Mrs Lane's jugged hare had a very strong taste – but once one got used to its forceful personality it was delicious.

          My mother was an excellent cook herself but when I was based at my parent's home my friends were very keen to come to lunch when Mrs Lane was doing the cooking.

        4. One of the tastiest fish that I have eaten was a lake trout from Lough Corrib, cooked about two hours after it was caught.

      1. Either way, D-cup, she was clueless.

        The second worst fish and chip shop of my experience (at Salthouse in North Norfolk) was run by a clueless male/man/he.

  14. Good morning, chums, and thank you, Geoff, for today's NoTTLE page. Wordle had too many options today, and I chose the wrong ones!

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    1. Meh.
      Wordle 1,187 X/6

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  15. And I think Mr Mackwood meant to say that the piece of cod, which surpasses all understanding….

  17. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/09/17/liberal-democrats-ed-davey-brighton-conference/

    For those who dislike politics, Lib Dems are least likeable party of all

    ‘Take a chance on me’, Ed Davey sang at his party’s annual conference in Brighton, but outside, the seaside town carried on oblivious

    Tim Stanley17 September 2024 6:16pm

    "Of all the things I have to do in my job, my saddest duty is to report from the Lib Dem conference. This year, it’s in the sexy seaside town of Brighton – appropriate for a party of geriatric swingers – and whatever they get up to in their hotel rooms, we can be sure they take a vote on it first.

    The sandal-slapping delegates have voted on Gaza, prisons and voting itself, for they retain their fetish for proportional representation, even though first past the post has been kind to them. On 12 per cent of the vote, they got 72 MPs and a guide dog, who rehearsed taking their seats before the leader’s speech like kids in a nativity. “Try to remember who you were sitting next to,” said the emcee.

    They are so strange. For those who dislike politics, this is the least likeable party of all because it exists purely to get elected – minus any discernible philosophy.

    Once the hall had filled up with a vast number of Tom and Barbara Goods, the Treasurer gave a little speech in which she said she “wanted to cry” on election night thinking of the dead Liberals who couldn’t see it. “I so wanted to tell dad,” she said, which was sweet. I was less keen to talk to my “Reece-Mogg-loving, Brexit-voting mother”, she added, which was weird. As we meditated upon this Freudian nightmare, a dozen old crocks shuffled around us with buckets collecting change – like a church service! – and the Treasurer read inspiring quotes from new MPs on their hopes and dreams, including: “It was essential we win mid-Dunbartonshire.”

    Steve Darling, Lib Dem MP for Torbay, takes to the stage with his guide dog Jennie
    Steve Darling, Lib Dem MP for Torbay, takes to the stage with his guide dog Jennie DINENDRA HARIA/LNP
    A video: Ed Davey bouncing, jumping, paddling. Music: Take a Chance on Me. Ed entered singing. He said: “Do you know, they wanted me to wear a wetsuit today?!” I would’ve voted for a ball-gag purchased from a local sex shop. Developing the idea that a Lib Dem’s party is their truest love, he said that he met his wife at a “housing policy working group” and they flirted over “community land auctions.” One could sense the conference growing tumescent. “If you want to find love, don’t join Tinder, join the Liberal Democrats!”

    But does one swipe Left or Right, Ed? He suggested he wants Labour votes and Tory votes, that he’ll rebuild the NHS and do something nice about care. Racism, we learnt, is bad. The Lib Dems stand for diversity (behind him, his almost entirely white MPs nodded sagely). We’ve got to stop divisive politics, he said, then proclaimed that the Tories “don’t care” and are unethical. He delivered all this in a whisper with a permanent smile, his self-satisfaction so self-intoxicating that I wondered if he might be drunk.

    “We will never stop applauding these patriots in our country,” he said, a line of such cynicism and schmaltz that he might as well have kissed the guide dog. Though he’d have to add that he loves kittens too, lest the sign of making a clear choice cost him any votes.

    Ed climaxed on the theme of “winning”. Glitter fell to Sweet Caroline. Outside the conference centre, Brighton carried on oblivious – lost in its eternal dirty weekend."

    2. Sweet Caroline, eh? If nothing else, the Lib Dems know their crowd anthems. They were probably itching to play Queen's We Are The Champions, were it not for its overtly triumphalist message. As for Smokie's Living Next Door To Alice, I suppose they couldn't find the version with a crowd response of Who The Heck Is Alice?

    3. ‘Glitter fell to Sweet Caroline”

      Who would have thought that Gary (real name Paul Gadd) would be a Lib Dem?

    1. To call someone un merguez moronic is a pretty strong insult in the Arab quarter of Rennes.

    2. I lived there for two years. It can snow, too. From October to March I had the CH going full blast every day.

      (Where exactly are you?)

    1. The human species is becoming more imbecilic, and at a much more rapid rate, than I ever imagined.

      Mene mene tekel upharsin …

  22. Re Wardrobegate. Again. I think the pages and pages of stuff about Cur Ikea and his bint and their greed for expensive clothes reveals one thing.
    It gives the lie to the frequently proffered statement BEFORE DURING the election campaign that Slammer's missus is "an intensely private person who has always shunned the publicity that goes with her husband's job…."

    1. The job was to be leader of a second rate ship of fools, now it is PM of a government.

      Still a ship of fools, but much more prestigious.

    2. I am soooo tempted to bundle up the bag of clothes destined for the charity shop and send them to Downing Street.
      But I'm too mean to pay the postage.

    2. 393054+ up ticks,

      O2O,

      Has PIE got a recognition tie ? if so the producers would have made mega bucks from the overseeing elite alone.

  24. Morning all 🙂😊
    Not very nice day, after the lovely sunset last evening I was rather expecting better.
    Eye hospital appointment this morning, It seems okay now, i just hope they agree. Wes Streeting introducing another black hole in our economy. Robbing the poor to pay the aleady rich.

    1. From a seaside village in Valencia

      Rainfall Warning State Meteorological Agency 19°C
      Wednesday 09:45 Mostly cloudy
      Poured with rain all night.

        1. Not raining now, sun’s coming out, but everything is very wet. There were terrible storms during the night and tropical rain. When it rains in these places it’s something really impressive.
          Google says it won’t rain again until late tonight.

        2. The underwater eruption of Hunga Tonga last year has been estimated to have increased the water vapour content of the earth's atmosphere by 10%. What goes up must come down, in this case as increased rainfall, which is now happening. I expect the manipulative climate catastrophists will blame fossil fuel use.

          1. Oh yes their glowball warming BS now altered to climate change no longer holds much truth.
            I don’t believe many people believe in all the sudden fires that break out around the world either.

          2. It's Global Warming!/Climate Change!!/A CLIMATE EMERGENCY!!!/A CLIMATE CATASTROPHE!!!!/CLIMATE ARMAGEDDON!!!!!/GLOBAL BOILING!!!!!!{insert latest panic & scare mongering catch phrase here}

          3. When you look at other countries and their many cities on our planet Bob, there doesn’t appear to be the same set in panic. There is with out any doubt what so-ever many damaged minsets and brain cells missing in the confines of Wastemonster and Whitehall.
            If we went back to a horse drawn way of life. The political idiots would be moaning about farting and dung.
            It wouldn’t be much different to what we have to cope with now from the so misnamed hierarchy.

  25. Good morrow, Gentlefolk. Today’s (recycled) story

    Reward for April 1st

    Defense Attorney: Will you please state your age?
    Old Lady: I am 94 years old.
    Defense Attorney: Will you tell us, in your own words, what happened the night of April 1st?
    Old Lady: There I was, sitting there in my swing on my front porch on a warm spring evening,
    When a young man comes creeping up on the porch and sat down beside me.
    Defense Attorney: Did you know him?
    Old Lady: No, but he sure was friendly.
    Defense Attorney: What happened after he sat down?
    Old Lady: He started to rub my thigh.
    Defence Attorney: Did you stop him?
    Old Lady: No, I didn't stop him.
    Defense Attorney: Why not?
    Old Lady: It felt good. Nobody had done that since my Albert died some 30 years ago.
    Defense Attorney: What happened next?
    Old Lady: He began to rub all over my body.
    Defense Attorney: Did you stop him then?
    Old Lady: No, I did not stop him.
    Defense Attorney: Why not?
    Old Lady: His rubbing made me feel all alive and excited. I haven't felt that good in years!
    Defense Attorney: What happened next?
    Old Lady: Well, by then, I was feeling so spicy that I just laid down and told him
    'Take me, young man. Take me now!'
    Defense Attorney: Did he take you?
    Old Lady: Hell, no! He just yelled, 'April Fool!' And that's when I shot him, the little bastard.

  26. Morning. An improvement on recent attempts:
    Wordle 1,187 3/6

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  27. Morning all.

    At Free Speech today we have an article by Xandra H on the woke universities' cancellation of the Anglo-Saxons and the establishment's obvious dislike of all things English.

    freespeechbacklash.com

  28. Tired players may go on strike

    Rodri issues warning over football’s punishing schedule Citytalisman speaks out amid fears of 85-match seasons

    The Daily Telegraph, 18 Sep 2024. By James Ducker, NORTHERN FOOTBALL CORRESPONDENT

    Rodri has warned that leading players are close to taking strike action amid growing concerns about the increasingly punishing schedule.

    Manchester City could play 75 games this season as a result of the expansion of the Champions League and the new Club World Cup next summer. With international matches on top, some players could face up to 85 matches.

    Rodri – who is in contention to win the Ballon d’or – made 63 appearances for club and country last season, when he followed a fourth Premier League title success with European Championship victory with Spain.

    He believes the optimum number of games should be 40 to 50 and that the quality of matches is suffering because players are overworked to extreme levels. According to the latest research, the average number of matches for a Champions League club last season was 50·8.

    Rodri has urged football’s governing bodies to start thinking about the welfare of players and the quality of the product over money.
    He warned that players may be left with no choice but to strike if pleas continue to go unanswered.

    Asked if players could strike or refuse to play over complaints about the unrelenting calendar, Rodri echoed concerns raised by Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson and said: “Yeah, I think we are close to that. I think it’s the general opinion of the players. And if it keeps this way, there will be a moment where we have no other option. But let’s see. It’s something that worries us because we are the guys that suffer.
    “It is not the same for all the players, but all of us think the same. It’s about time for a break.”

    80 matches a season equates to 120 hours of football … in a year. And for that they get paid half a million pounds a week!

    Joe Soap works 120 hours every three weeks … and gets paid thirty thousand pounds a year!

    Go on strike? This clown needs a damn good thrashing!

    1. Hey Beatnik, what's with this work lark, Dude? Work rhymes with shirk, and half-a-million Big Ones a week ain't no deterrence to shirk, Hombre!

      1. Hey Dean. Way to go, Compadre.

        That old wizard, Stanley Matthews played — worked — until he was in his 50s. He would destroy a couple of full backs and the odd centre half by mesmerising them and then score a few goals before nonchalantly picking up the ball and shaking hands with team mates before taking the ball back to the centre spot. After the match he would catch the bus home and split his weekly 3s-6d pay packet with his old missus.

        Times have changed, Man.

        1. Hey Beatnik, back when there was a sense of proportion on Planet Earth, Hombre. He didn't suffer from PTSD like that LibDum, dingbat, Dude.

          1. Hey Dean. Even I get PTSD, Dude, every time I open up The Torygraph! I guess I don't really fit in on this moribund planet, Hombre.

          2. Beatnik, this planet is now hostile to intelligent life forms, Dude. In the not too distant future Planet Earth will be populated by Homo Miliband and Homo Lammy type clones, Hombre.

          1. True story. My dad used to get on the same bus on a Saturday to the Molyneux in the 50s as Billy Wright. From the same bus stop!

    2. Come on, Grizz. We both know that a great amount of time and effort is devoted to practise, training and fitness between matches as well as making public appearances and engaging in publicity. Yes, the elite are very well remunerated over a playing career of perhaps 20 years or so, but I think that the expansion of UEFA's three club competitions as well as of the UEFA Nations League is making them bloated and complex. You need a super-computer to work out how they operate. There's also a consequent deterioration in the domestic season. Cup replays have largely been eliminated and penalty shoot-outs dominate as even extra-time is being gradually dispensed with. Plucky lower league clubs would once have been rewarded with a replay if they held a mighty club to a draw. Now there are few, denying them either a visit to an impressive arena or that of a big club to their humble ground. Nonetheless, I doubt wealthy footballers will get much sympathy for their plight, although the financial burden of maintaining large squads to cope with all the competitions as well as manning a subs bench with as many players as on the pitch must be quite onerous for the clubs.

      1. A few decades ago, “Match of the Day” and the ITV equivalent was mandatory viewing for me and, I suspect, many others. Even though I had never even been to Liverpool or Manchester, it somehow seemed that they were “local” teams in that almost all the players were from the UK or the Irish Republic and undeniably from and of “us”. Now, one might as well watch an African or South American league as one of the home teams.

      2. Strewth, Stig. You’ll next be telling me that all teachers work desperately hard throughout all their 14 weeks’ annual leave each year.

  31. Rugby’s plan to crack US is dividing the game

    The Daily Telegraph,18 Sep 2024. By Gavin Mairs, CHIEF RUGBY CORRESPONDENT

    The election of the next chair of World Rugby in November has brought into sharp focus the question that is set to dominate the global game’s agenda for much of the next decade – how do you crack the United States?

    We have been here before. There have already been a number of unsuccessful attempts to tap into the vast riches of the US sports market, yet nothing has stuck so far.

    Premiership Rugby’s last foray ended with the humiliating spectacle of just 6,271 fans turning up to watch Newcastle Falcons play Saracens in Philadelphia in 2017. It came just a year after the Premiership had heralded a “landmark” agreement with NBC for coverage of the league in America and launched its new US strategy, with the first Premiership game to be played on foreign soil when London Irish hosted Saracens at the Red Bull Arena in New Jersey. Clubs have not been back since.

    The international game has fared slightly better, at least in terms of profile and attendances, most notably when Ireland beat New Zealand for the first time in Chicago in 2016, while the All Blacks played Fiji at the Snapdragon Stadium in San Diego two months ago.

    Why bother? The Yanks don't play (or watch) proper sports — like rugby, cricket and football —because they don't possess the necessary attention span. They prefer to play sub-standard 'sports' like: rounders, American throwball, ice-skating-with-a-stick; and basket-case ball. All those pastimes have five minutes of play every hour with 55 minutes of 'time-out' so the spectators can top up their fat levels.

    1. You will probably remember Andy Ripley, the England No 8 when rugby was still amateur. He was a very good friend of mine at UEA and we first met when we went to the same Open Day before actually going to the university.

      I went to his first International at Twickenham. In those days you just turned up to the ground and paid at the gate. Before the match started Andy, still in ordinary clothes, came to walk around the pitch and he spotted me and my friends in the terraces and came up to have a chat while we wished him Good Luck. I am not sure that Rugby going professional was necessarily a good thing!

      Andy remained a good friend after UEA and we spent a couple of summer holidays together – he sailed on the little boat I had then from Lymington to St Mawes. Tragically he died of prostate cancer in his 60s – his memorial service in Southwark Cathedral was full to the brim and there was a very good contingent of UEA people there as he was much loved.

      Here he is with Henry and Christo at our home in France:

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5e1376fcc874c3f2b908a4c81bd976f08393916bb7fbfb636c4e2579d969739f.png

      1. Once money, and particularly big money, gets a foothold on any sport, it is just a matter of time before corruption accompanies it.

  33. Good morning all

    Hint of blue sky, mostly cloud , slight breeze 13c

    I had another meeting to attend yesterday evening ..people felt uneasy about the the exploding pager news .

    Someone mentioned that would give terrorists ideas ..

    We needed new batteries for our phones a few months ago , we dropped the phones off at a local phone shop , these shops are managed by people of another colour .. actually we wondered whether we had paid too much for nothing done , because mine loses it's charge so quickly.

    Looking around the house , the dryer has a gizmo, so has my washing machine and dishwasher, they can be switched on and off by phone .. no I don't like that.

    My vacuum is a Gtech, foot massager , battery , golf trolley , battery , toothbrushes , son's drones , whisks ..

    Our cars are now so complicated , but ours isn't electric .. but electric cars .. do you remember the electric car that blew up in a carpark and caused a fire ? I try to avoid parking next to electric cars .

    Mossad are so clever, but I hope terrorists don't retaliate and cause damage in the air , rail, hospitals etc.

    1. If Mossad did more of these comedic turns far more people would by pro-Israeli. Humor is a wonderful weapon. No one seems to mention, by the way, that as this was going on Israel attacked Hezbollah targets with jets in all the chaos.

    2. Phone batteries tend to lose power quickly when there is a lot of background activity. Best to switch off roaming data when you can and put them in airplane (sic) mode at night or any other time that you don't need to have the phone active.

      1. Mine is over four years old now and does run down quicker than it used to. I don't think I use roaming data but I might try the aeroplane mode at night.

        1. A tech adviser at EE recommended that and I do find it helpful. My battery is now down to 91% capacity but it only tends to go down 2-3% overnight now whereas at one time it was draining away.

    3. I don't think we have so many gizmos that work remotely. I don't use an electric toothbrush though every time I go to the dentist she tries to persuade me.

    4. Well, it has caused me to greatly fear using the vacuum cleaner, iron and washing machine. Fortunately, I understand that, for some technical reason, it is only men that can trigger such devices if they have been booby-trapped so household chores can continue.

    5. Thankfully I don't have gizmos that can be turned on and off by phone. I do have a smart phone, but rarely use it and normally forget to take it with me. In fact, I have relatively few gadgets.

  34. Stop whingeing, get off your backsides and vote!
    Kim Rye : https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/stop-whingeing-get-off-your-backsides-and-vote/

    Farage needs to grow up and accept that both Douglas Murray and Tommy Robinson have a far more realistic understanding of the very real dangers of Islam and how it is totally incompatible with British values and laws.

    Farage's objections to Tommy Robinson are snobbish but he should understand that it is not his appearance, background and speech which is important – what is important is what he says, thinks and understands.

    It is high time for Farage to have a serious conversation with both Murray and Robinson. Jordan Peterson can see the genuine, thoughtful and intelligent man behind Tommy's rough exterior. Why does Farage refuse to see it?

      1. How can he. What power does he have to do the changes. All he can do like the rest of us is complain. I am sure he is as keen to have the power.to do something but the state will do all it can to stop him.

        1. That seems to suggest that anyone who regards multiple changes as necessary in our constitution has little chance of success.
          Probably because over the decades any real opposition to this dug in Westminster horror show is pushed aside. So in reality nobody stands the slightest chance of being able to make the alterations that the British public want to see.

    2. Morning Rastus! I could not agree with you more. I think that if Farage does not get on board, he will be left in the dust, overtaken by events.

    3. Morning Rastus! I could not agree with you more. I think that if Farage does not get on board, he will be left in the dust, overtaken by events.

    4. It will be up to five years before the next general election, and with that majority, I cannot see Starmer ending up like his immediate predecessors however much he upsets his core vote or the disgruntled 80%.

      The Right can huff and puff, but they can be ignored. That is the nature of parliamentary democracy. The real challenge must come this time from the Left.

      Starmer is vulnerable to charges of gross unfairness. This does not bother the Right, which regards unfairness as Life. It really irritates the Left though, which believes that if their utopian society is to function as it should, it must above all be fair.

      We have already seen how 10 million pensioners are spun as "just a few of the richer ones that can shoulder the burden of losing their heating allowance". This is just the hors d'oeuvre. The main course is being prepared for 30th October.

      It was act of utter and negligent stupidity to pledge not to raise Income Tax, VAT, NI and Corporation Tax at a time when it was bleeding obvious the Treasury did not have the money to pay for public services voted for by the electorate. They should not have bound their hands, forcing them to put it on stealth taxation, much of it far more grossly unfair than the big four, and its imposition quite disproportionate as a consequence.

      The pound has halved in value since 2010, and yet any corresponding increase in the paper value of assets is to expect to be punitively taxed. That is not a tax on capital gain; it is a tax on inflation, and it's people's nest eggs and life savings that are being raided by this piece of stealth taxation.

      Yes, they can allow the councils to put up Council Tax and take away concessions for those having to bear the cost of this on their own, often the poorest facing the biggest bills proportionally. That is not fair to start with, but then to burden the councils with statutory expenses no councillor had a say over, just so that the Treasury can wash their hands of a tax burden, that is not only deceitful and unfair, it also betrays a basic principle that there should be no taxation without proper representation.

      1. I disagree on just one point, jeremy. The left do not believe in fairness. They believe in equity, which is not at all the same thing.

        1. Equity is all about possessing wealth, isn’t it?

          Some political twister has been confusing it with the similar word ‘Equality’. Some (but not all) on the Left actually believe in fairness. It could split the Labour vote.

          1. Everybody is equal but some people are more equal than others.

            (George Orwell: Animal Farm)

            When everyone is somebody, then no one’s anybody.”

            W.S. Gilbert: The Gondoliers

  35. Anyone that goes in & out of China will know they scan you in 3D and sometimes take your DNA sample along with the rest of your "homing" data like email, address & mobile No.

    No doubt the CCP will have taken note from the Israeli pager attack..

    The World Economic Forum.
    Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2024
    The World Economic Forum will convene the 15th Annual Meeting of the New Champions in Dalian, People's Republic of China, on 25-27 June 2024.

    The summer Davos netted intimate data on 1,500 New Champions.. for future use.

  36. Good Morning to all.
    I have no doubt that you have all enjoyed the magical exploding Hezbollah's, that is apart from the usual outraged Liberals. By far the bast reporting on it is from Mahyer Tousi who does his best to contain his laughter and doesn't do it very well. So here you are in all its glory, detonating dementia drama! I hope it hasn't been censored since last night.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GU2wPzpGUgU&t=737s

      1. Hi Ober! You do know that all you have to do is click on it, where it says, 'Watch on You Tube' and it will automatically take you to the video.

    2. I found it very alarming. Are mobile phones going to leave us all exposed? It was like a plot from a James Bond film.

      1. No, of course not, these pagers were obviously intercepted and doctored in the full knowledge that they were going to Hezbollah. almost anything can be doctored. Look up devices used in WWII, all sorts of things were used to make mischief.

          3. I’ve just seen it on a plane journey and recommended to the other half. It is like watching a hybrid of Reacher and Where Eagles Dare – marvellous!

        2. This was nasty. If the article is to be believed some 500 people were blinded.
          The message, I know, has always been the same since the end of World War II. Don’t mess with the Israelis. 2000 years of historical resentment behind them and prepared to defend their territory to the death, preferably that of the enemy.
          I can’t say I rejoiced in these booby trapped devices. Human beings are after all just that and life changing damage inflicted on people is always lamentable.

    3. Mahyer Tousi is one of the best commentators on Islam and the Middle East.

      He is Iranian by birth but he escaped with his parents to the UK when the Ayatollahs seized power in Iran and destroyed the country and he understandably loathes what Islam has done to Iran and the other countries like Lebanon which it has destroyed and replaced with barbarism.

      Tousi is well-informed, but he has a very dark sense of humour.

      Here is a BTL comment under the YouTube video:

      I remember when Beirut WAS the Paris of the Middle East. It was Christian, prosperous and peaceful – until the Muslims got involved. Now look.

      As more and more Islamists invade Britain, just as they invaded Lebanon until they had a majority, the UK will become just like the Middle East when they do. Projection statistics suggest that Muslims will be in a majority in the UK in our children's and grandchildren's lifetimes. Isn't it high time our politicians woke up to the facts?

    4. His laughter is infectious. Hezbollah apparently thought pagers would be safer that smart phones.

      2. From Coffee House, the Spectator

        The Hezbollah pager bomb plot has Israel’s fingerprints all over it
        Comments Share 18 September 2024, 7:47am
        At the end of the 2014 film Kingsman: the Secret Service, the plucky spy hero is in trouble deep in an enemy base. Suddenly his tech wizard figures out that he can hack into the microchips inside the enemies’ heads and make them all explode. The bad guys all go boom.

        Hezbollah fighters must be asking themselves what other tricks Israel might have up its sleeves
        On Tuesday night, the spy thriller trope became real. Across Lebanon, Hezbollah operatives’ secure pagers exploded. Security camera footage showed the small explosions in supermarkets and shops, leaving Hezbollah terror operatives bleeding or worse. More than 3,000 people were injured in the hundreds of blasts, and at least nine were killed, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. Not all the victims were Hezbollah members: in one case, the young daughter of a Hezbollah operative was playing with his pager when it blew up, killing her. But it seems that the vast majority of injuries hit the intended targets.

        According to Saudi TV channel Al-Hadath, some 500 Hezbollah members lost their eyesight as a result of the explosions; the pagers rang before they blew up, so many of the owners were holding and looking at them.

        Experts speculated that the explosions were too powerful to be caused by overloading the pager batteries. Morelikely was that there were explosives hidden inside the hundreds of pagers that Hezbollah had only recently acquired. These encrypted pagers were supposed to be a security measure, to prevent Israel from tracking the organisation’s communications. Somehow, someone – and Israel and its spy agency Mossad is the only realistic suspect here – managed an audacious supply chain attack, sneaking the explosives inside the pagers before Hezbollah took delivery.

        Syria, too, reported pager explosions as Hezbollah operatives near Damascus were hit in the same way. One surprise injury was Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon.
        To Israelis, the takedown of Hezbollah’s communications and so many of its operatives seemed like just the first move before a broader Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) operation into Lebanon. However, no incursion followed. Instead, the ball appears to be back again in Hezbollah’s court as they threaten retaliation. Airlines are already cancelling their flights to the region again.

        So why did Israel reveal and trigger these pager-bombs now? Immediate speculation focused on a just-foiled Hezbollah plot to assassinate a ‘former military figure’ inside Israel. Perhaps this was a response? But later reporting by Al-Monitor suggested that Hezbollah members were getting suspicious of the rigged pagers, and so Israel triggered them before the sabotage could be discovered, a ‘use it or lose it’ scenario.

        The pager bombings were just the latest and most dramatic move in the mostly-neglected war between Hezbollah and Israel that began with rocket barrages into Israel on 8 October. More than a hundred thousand Israelis have been evacuated from the border region, living in hotels for months while their homes are damaged by constant RPG and rocket fire. A similar number of Lebanese have fled northwards, worried about Israeli retaliation.

        Neither Israel nor Hezbollah wants a full-scale confrontation. Hezbollah has pounded northern Israel with thousands of rockets and drones, but hasn’t used its huge long-range arsenal to target Tel Aviv. Israel has conducted hundreds of surgical strikes against Hezbollah terrorists but has kept collateral damage and civilian casualties very low.

        A year into this limited war, options are running out. Hezbollah had indicated it will stop its attacks if there is a ceasefire in Gaza, and Israel was reluctant to widen the war to Lebanon as long as it could be avoided.

        Now, though, the hostage-ceasefire talks with Hamas have effectively collapsed. Without a ceasefire, Israel’s Gaza operations might continue for years. Israeli leaders can’t accept (or afford) an indefinite evacuation of a part of the country. Political pressure has been building for a military operation that would force Hezbollah away from the border.

        Partly to that end, Israeli newspapers were filled with speculation on Tuesday that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was about to fire defence minister Yoav Gallant, a political rival who’s been publicly critical of Netanyahu’s handling of the war. Gallant would be replaced by Gidon Saar, a centre-right opposition politician with limited military experience. The media was briefed that Saar would lead this new campaign to return the residents of northern Israel to their homes. But polling showed that most Israelis saw the switch as a nakedly political move that would harm the war effort. Following the pager blasts, Gallant’s job is safe for a few days longer.

        In 1996, Hamas’s chief bombmaker, Yahya ‘the Engineer’ Ayyash, answered a mobile phone and was killed when the explosives hidden inside it were detonated by Israel’s Shin Bet security service. The assassination remained one of Israel’s more celebrated operations, but ultimately it relied on a traditional tactic: forcing an informant to plant the booby-trapped phone. The complexity, scale and scope of the pager-bombs make the Ayyash hit look like child’s play.

        Killing Ayyash didn’t stop Hamas, which carried on sending suicide bombers to continue his bloody legacy. And the pager bombs won’t stop Hezbollah, though they’ve damaged and set back the terror group. Hezbollah will continue to escalate and after a year of trying to avoid it, Israel may well find itself fighting in Lebanon again. But Hezbollah fighters, still wounded or partially blinded from their exploding pagers, must be asking themselves what other tricks Israel might have up its sleeves.

      4. Makes one think, was it the doing of the CIA and then shifted the blame, surreptitiously, to Israel.
        ,

    5. The Heading is "Hezbollah Wrecked"

      The auto-translation that is my brain keeps on insisting…

      His Bollox Wrecked……

    2. What alwasy strikes me is that people didn't go out in public showing their tits and ass and/or looking as if they'd just crawled out of a dustbin. Or wearing a tent, for that matter. The first time I saw a burqa was on Oxford Street in the 80s and I innocently assumed that it was to hide some hideous deformity.

      2. Always a mystery. In the 60s, 70s and 80s there were lots of Muslims in Britain. Normal people, my next door neighbour married a very pretty girl who was Muslim, no strange clothes on her. My mother worked for a Muslim dentist for some years. Normal family. My sister married a Turkish Muslim, his mother stayed at our house for two weeks. No suggestion of religious garments.
        We had a copy of the Koran in our house, as did my Spanish mother in law in her bookcase in Spain.
        At some point everything got very nasty. But it wasn’t always like that.

        1. When I was serving in Malaya in the early 60’s, it was rare to see Malay (Muslim) women wear strict religious dress. In fact, the traditional Malay dress was a sarong kebaya, the top half being a tight-fitting blouse in light-weight often sheer fabric that didn’t leave much doubt about the wearer’s shape. When I next visited Malaya in 2006, strict religious dress was everywhere – I am unconvinced that it reflected a long-standing cultural norm.

    3. We were always the wrong side of that bloody bridge.
      Especially when laden with cases and seconds before the train left.

  38. #BeKind

    Wasn't it that nice John McDonnell that called certain MPs a 'stain of inhumanity'
    and..
    'I want to be in a situation where no Tory MP, no Tory MP, no coalition minister, can travel anywhere in the country, or show their face anywhere in public, without being challenged, without direct action.'
    .
    Here the MP for Aldershot, Alex Baker coming face to face with.. er normal people. They don't like her.
    https://youtu.be/Idsi7Y0p4Ac?t=38

    1. The Commentator got it absolutely wrong. These folk weren't booing the MP over the Winter fuel allowance cessation but the fact that a block of flats in Rush Moor is to be used entirely for 'asylum' seekers.

  41. Tom Tugendhat’s criminal blunder. 18 September 2024.

    It’s fair to say that the punishment handed out to Huw Edwards has not gone down well. The disgraced BBC newsman was only given a suspended six-month sentence for child abuse image offences, meaning he avoids jail. He will also be placed on the sex offenders’ register for seven years, and undergo rehabilitation. There has been a fierce backlash at the perceived leniency of the sentence.

    Is Mr Edwards punishment really so lenient? His life has been destroyed. Not only in the present but the future as well. Less prominent offenders can fade into obscurity. He can go nowhere; meet no one, who will not realise who and what he is. The normal casual relationships that we all take for granted are now closed off to him. He can try to flee of course but wherever he goes, modern communications will ensure that it will follow him like the Black Spot. He’s like some medieval leper with a bell tied around his neck. Death would probably be better.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/tom-tugendhats-criminal-blunder/

    5. Where society has given someone extra-ordinary benefits in terms of status, salary, influence and leadership, shouldn’t their offences against that society attract extra-ordinary punishments? A senior officer in the police or armed forces, for example, who commits a serious and abhorrent crime should receive greater punishment than a rookie police constable or private soldier committing the same crime. The same should apply to Members of Parliament, those at the top of religions, CEOs and so on.

        1. Thank you – yours is pretty good as well. If I could further mangle the Hemingway quote – it trolls for thee!

    6. Wearing a pair of dark glasses and living in a holiday house somewhere far away is scarcely comparable to having to regularly avoid the showers because the Nigerians are having a scrub.

  42. The Left like to pass themselves off as being anti corruption in opposition, until their lot get in power, then they are like the three wise Lefty monkeys.
    See no two tier, hear no two tier, speak no two tier.

  43. Grrr Seece pwang

    Wordle 1,187 6/6

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

    1. A very lucky guess to follow a poor start
      Wordle 1,187 4/6

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

      1. The full moon was last night, John; Tuesday–Wednesday. You only get a lunar eclipse at a full moon; and a solar eclipse at a new moon.

          1. But that means the morning of 18 Sept, not the evening.

            Last night saw the lunar eclipse. As I said, you can only get the eclipse at the precise time of the full moon.

            The lunar cycle is 15 days old. * The exact date and time of this Full Moon phase is on 18 September 2024 at 02:34 UTC.

            https://lunaf.com/lunar-calendar/2024/09/18/

          2. Of course it does Grtiz. Do not go on any more holidays, you come back our of the knife box.

  46. The West has finally declared war on Russian disinformation. 18 September 2024.

    Toxic partisanship has triggered a cultish devotion to conspiracy theories like QAnon and eroded trust in democratic institutions. This helps Russia discredit liberal democracy at home and abroad, which is a much more important goal than backing a particular candidate. RT chief Margarita Simonyan’s claim that the US government fears its own people is a dog-whistle to Americans who fear their opposing party more than their external adversaries. Even without Russia’s propaganda bullhorns, the Kremlin’s narratives are being organically furthered by hyper-partisan Americans.

    Liberal Democracy has destroyed itself. It has needed no assistance from Russia. It has poisoned the well of political discourse in the West and destroyed its Democratic Institutions while abolishing the traditional freedoms that our forefathers bequeathed to us.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/09/18/the-west-has-finally-declared-war-on-russian-disinformation/

    1. I agree Araminta. The West is poisoning itself and the Russians know that. So they can simply sit back and watch as we take foolish action after foolish action in destroying ourselves. In fact the Russians derived no joy from our self destructive behaviour. From the time of Peter the Great they have looked to Europe to reform and improve their culture and thus, they see us and our hostility to Russia with a measure of disappointment and sadness. We consistently fail to understand them. Reading some of the nonsense in the MSM, it seems that many of us still think of them as the USSR when nothing could be further from the truth. Hence their bewilderment in why we would want the EU a blatantly Marxist institution. And, as people who have learnt their lesson under the USSR, have a strong aversion to such politics and cannot understand our foolishness. And with regard to England, they have always admired our traditional culture and, again, watch us trash it with a measure of bewilderment in asking the question. 'Why do we want to trash a good thing?' So no, they have no desire to undermine us. We are doing that to ourselves and need no help from Russia. We are the fools, not them and with regards to Russia, we are the masters of disinformation about Russia. Very little that is said is truthful and most of it is for malevolent purposes.

    1. They're on his case.. of course.

      Case file: Tom Rowsell (AKA Survive the Jive)

      HOPE not hate
      https://hopenothate.org.uk › case-files-survive-the-jive
      6 Mar 2024 — A former freelance journalist, Rowsell has been active in far-right circles in the UK since the early 2010s and spoke at the Generation Identity

      1. Yes, but they can hardly get at him. He uses science and history to back up what he says. And he is quite thorough about it, using the most up to date information there is.
        But the operative word in Hope not Hate, as you well know, is hatred of anything that does not follow their communistic internationalist agenda. They are allied to Antifa, you could not get worse than that. Besides that I detect nothing hateful in what Rowsell says, do you?
        https://survivethejive.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html

      2. Yes, but they can hardly get at him. He uses science and history to back up what he says. And he is quite thorough about it, using the most up to date information there is.
        But the operative word in Hope not Hate, as you well know, is hatred of anything that does not follow their communistic internationalist agenda. They are allied to Antifa, you could not get worse than that. Besides that I detect nothing hateful in what Rowsell says, do you?
        https://survivethejive.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html

  51. FSB has two new articles up today, the first by Xandra H on cancel culture and the campaign against the Anglo-Saxons, the second on the crazy but true case of pagers exploding in Hezbollah faces.
    And don't forget, we are always looking for new writers, so if you fancy a go, please get in touch.
    freespeechbacklash.com

    1. Nonsense. Teachers need to be there to speak to students. You can't teach remotely. This is why teachers who over their faces should not be allowed.

        1. Yes, sorry Rastus, that's what I meant. I'd replied to the wrong thread. Meant to reply to the one above your post.

  55. John Major: Rwanda scheme is un-Conservative and un-British
    Former PM says policy not ‘suitable for 21st century’ and he dislikes ‘the way society has come to regard immigration as an ill’
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/09/18/john-major-rwanda-scheme-un-conservative-un-british/

    We got rid of John Major in the "20th century. His comments are not relevant in the 21st!

    However, every word he utters enables us to see that the Conservative Party embarked on its drawn out descent into oblivion with his leadership.

    BTL

    The poor misguided grey little man is still meddling where he should not meddle. He should go and cry on Edwina Currie's shoulder and keep off the subject of morality and Conservative values altogether.

    3. A retired plumber was talking to a working plumber recently.
      The retired plumber discovered that the younger man's salary was the same in 2023 as his own salary was around 2008 (and possibly earlier). Since 2008, Members of the Westminster Parliament have seen their salaries increase from £60,675 to about £91,000. And of course most of the elitists such as retired PMs and Ministers have index linked pensions.

      1. As a matter of interest, Mr Sapola does some private medical practice and his net earnings from it are now less than they were 20 years ago to an extent that is disproportionate to any change in what he does because it reflects a market in which there are many more hospital consultants.
        There is no market for MPs.

  56. What sensible parent would saddle their child with such a name?

    Soldier's seven-year-old son is refused a passport because of his name
    Serving soldier Christian Mowbray, 48, was denied a passport for his young son
    Home Office officials threw out the application because of the boy's name
    The huge Star Wars enthusiast had named his son Loki Skywalker Mowbray

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13863793/Soldiers-seven-year-old-son-refused-passport-putting-dream-holiday-risk-surprising-reason.html

      2. Even Zowie Bowie realised that his dad was a nutter so he changed his name to plain Duncan Jones and is now a successful film producer/director.

          2. My second Christian name is Charles after my maternal grandfather.

            We chose family names for our two boys: Christopher (after my father) and Lourens* (after Caroline's father); and
            Henry (after my paternal grandfather) and Pieter* (after Caroline's maternal grandfather)

            (* The Dutch spellings of Laurence and Peter.)

            Had we had had a daughter she would have been named Emily Alice after my paternal grandmother and the name Alice, was that of a favourite great aunt of Caroline's.

            My father lost his father when he was 14 and my mother lost her father when she was 16 so I never knew either of my grandfathers.

            My father died two years before I met Caroline; I am sad that neither my wife nor my children ever knew my father who was a very splendid, talented, warm and wise man with a marvellous sense of fun.

          3. My second Christian name is Charles after my maternal grandfather.

            We chose family names for our two boys: Christopher (after my father) and Lourens* (after Caroline's father); and
            Henry (after my paternal grandfather) and Pieter* (after Caroline's maternal grandfather)

            (* The Dutch spellings of Laurence and Peter.)

            Had we had had a daughter she would have been named Emily Alice after my paternal grandmother and the name Alice, was that of a favourite great aunt of Caroline's.

            My father lost his father when he was 14 and my mother lost her father when she was 16 so I never knew either of my grandfathers.

            My father died two years before I met Caroline; I am sad that neither my wife nor my children ever knew my father who was a very splendid, talented, warm and wise man with a marvellous sense of fun.

  59. Well, it probably seemed a good idea at the time. More importantly is why these officious functionaries have refused this little boy a passport.
    And if they really are not able to issue him a passport with that name (and I don’t believe that for a moment) why can’t they furnish him with an emergency passport with another name? More influential families would have been furnished with a solution.

    1. Either a passport is the official document, and let’s face it, it isn’t merely used for travel, or you can choose any nom de plume for travel.
      No need for a Day of the Jackal subterfuge just apply.

      1. Hmmm. You have to produce your birth certificate – which contain the name which will be on your passport. If you have changed your name (by deed poll or by statutory declaration) you would need to produce that document and you birth cert – to show continuity. That's why the "Jackal" idea still works…!!

        1. I'm not disputing that. It's the concept that the PPO should

          furnish him with an emergency passport with another name? More influential families would have been furnished with a solution.

          that I disagree with.

    2. Presumably the registrar accepted the name for his birth certificate so how can the HO refuse a passport?
      What is the cutting off point for ridiculous names?

      1. Good afternoon, Stig. I commented yesterday that I never believe a word that any Markel utters. But I never believed that she was pregnant.

    3. Wouldn't DNA testing all round for the Sussex children and the surviving Sussex parents spread a bit of light on things?

      At least it could kill the rumours!

        1. Is that because the DNA tests would expose the truth or because the Sussexes and the Idiot King are happy with the rumours continuing to circulate as they feel it makes them more interesting!

        1. For both Lilibet and Archie? And was it the same baby carrier both times

          And did he use a syringe or some such tool or did he use his own?

        1. He looked rather better when he had his Afro hair style! But I agree with more of what he says than any imams who appear on TV or on line.

    3. A couple of limp-wristed Libtards giggle giggle then sneer at evil faaaar right man informing them that Mo & his gang are in fact a death cult.

      "What he said is almost worse than the Islamophobe David Wood (David Wood is an American evangelical apologist).."
      "Yeah giggle giggle even David is getting giggle uncomfortable with this.."
      "Man dial it back.. have some nuance."

  62. For Hamas, the greatest problem with the exploding pagers is that they did not get there first

  63. GROSS! I'VE HIT A SNAG!
     https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/89c9e7789df668d8a5340d5742ef88cc4ee8b3faa2a11b44a93eeaf593923ac1.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/894acc5508581211473f47aae70c5073ee25854c741bea5b0d3395a5474dfa63.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/250174446acd9dfeeda5c00083429e3b5eeeca35a72ef84371bda568900fc9dd.jpg Geoff Graham and Johnny Norfolk, will this do?👍🏻
    I've made one batch of Cumberland (style) sausages and another batch of Yorkshire breakfast sausages. They are now all in the freezer, bagged up in portions (links) of three. This made me 144 sausages in total. I have sampled a bit of both and they are delicious.

      1. Thanks. although I doubt a vegan could have a nightmare (best or würst). Shirley you need to have an active and intelligent mind to conjure up the thoughts necessary for a nightmare. Malnourished vegans are brain-dead quarter-wits. Zombies have more brainwaves.

  64. I recommend this super-interesting article on St Kilda and the importance of culture on the Daily Sceptic. https://dailysceptic.org/2024/09/18/the-fate-of-st-kilda-doomed-by-a-joyless-ideologue-is-a-lesson-to-us-all/

    The concluding paragraphs here:

    “We are constantly being told how our culture doesn’t matter. Some more radical voices, several of whom are sadly occupying some of our most important academic seats across the West, go so far as to tell us that we have no culture at all and what we have was stolen from others. This cultural vandalism is now mainstream to the point that radically revisionist views of our history are being taught in our primary schools and fed to tourists at National Trusts sites. The utterly absurd recent instructions to Welsh Librarians to avoid booking venues which may have the remotest possible link to the African Slave trade is a good example of this flagellant nonsense.

    It’s easy to laugh at this stuff but if you challenge it, expect to be slandered and attacked. It’s also extremely serious because a nation without a history is not a nation, for it is the history, culture, traditions and customs of a nation that provide the foundations of the nation state. Without it the nation becomes a place where people happen to live. Professor Frank Furedi explores this in his latest book The War Against the Past, why the West Must Fight for its History.

    As the full tyranny of the woke religion proves itself to be every bit as intolerant, oppressive and miserable as the worst excesses of the Kirk or the Roman Church, St. Kilda is a warning about what can happen to a society if we allow the bullies to win.”

    1. This is why the Eu wants to basically remove every native and replace them with aliens. If you are just living somewhere and don't have to bother fitting in to norms and cultures – because a supra national entity has forced local law to accept that – then your loyalty is to the politic, not the culture.

  65. Would you try a beef dripping cocktail?

    From ‘chips bravas’ to drinks, restaurants are getting creative with animal fats, says Tomé Morrissy-Swan

    The Daily Telegraph, 18 Sep 2024.

    Beef dripping is as British as milky tea. Present in many of our traditional dishes, including a proper fish and chip supper, it’s the reason Yorkshire puddings exist.

    Most of us, however, won’t have a jar at home – cooking with animal fats might extend to goose fat roast potatoes or some grated suet in the mincemeat at Christmas. And lard has fallen out of favour these days. Plant oils, particularly olive, have long been considered healthier and more sophisticated.

    But top chefs are returning to beef fat, and the reasons are manifold: its rich flavour, mouthcoating texture and high smoke point make it a great option for deep frying and roasting. For some, it’s a cheaper option than olive oil, while others cite minimising waste as a draw. Even Jamie Oliver’s new range of frozen foods includes beef dripping chips.

    At one of London’s buzziest new restaurants, Tollington’s, there are lengthy queues for Iberian-influenced dishes including “chips bravas” in which the potatoes are fried in beef fat and served with a spicy sauce and aioli. They’re rich, delicious, and, according to one critic, “hands down the greatest chips I’ve eaten”.

    Tollington’s isn’t the only London spot turning to dripping. Camille in Borough Market butchers whole animals and the fat is too valuable to bin. It’s used in surprising dishes such as a chocolate, star anise and beef-fat caramel pudding. Rogue Sarnies, a trendy sandwich spot in Hackney, is equally motivated by using up large cuts of beef like topside, which it uses to make sandwiches like a wagyu beef dip. Chicken for its Cluck Parm Delight is fried in rendered beef fat. “We’re no-waste where possible for environmental reasons, but cost is a big factor,” says co-founder Zac Whittle. In a tough economic environment, using fat means businesses buy less oil.

    Chefs also praise beef fat’s versatility. At Uisce in Cardiff, Tommy Heaney uses it in everything from scallops to hollandaise. He even makes a beef-fat and miso-fudge old fashioned. “It’s such a wellrounded cocktail with all the flavour elements: salty, sweet, savoury and a touch of umami,” says Heaney. In Manchester, beef fat is smeared on the now legendary flatbreads at Erst.

    At the Black Bull in Cumbria, chef-owner Nina Matsunaga has gone further than most by almost entirely replacing vegetable oils, save for a few vegetarian dishes. She uses it for frying lamb bonbons, to emulsify a red wine jus, even in a hollandaise. Beef fat has long been popular in the North, and northern chefs are at the forefront of the resurgence. Bread and dripping is served at Restaurant Story, a two-Michelinstarred restaurant in London, a nod to one of chef patron Tom Sellers’s favourite childhood dishes.

    In Sheffield, Luke French, who runs Jöro, uses beef fat across his tasting menus from snacks to desserts, including a sticky toffee pudding with miso and roasted beef-fat toffee sauce. French sources large cuts, and there is always an abundance of fat. “It is a very cost-effective way of getting lots of flavour into dishes, vegetables especially,” he explains. French is also resurrecting long-standing British traditions by preserving meat in beef fat. “We coat entire sides of beef in aged, roasted beef fat and then age them again in our salt chamber to enhance the deep, rich flavours and textures.”

    In London it is rare to find a chippy frying with beef fat – the Fryer’s Delight in Holborn is a notable outlier. It is still common in parts of the North, including Yorkshire – especially in former mining areas, says Andrew Crook, president of the National Federation of Fish Friers. Crook recently opened a branch of his fish shop, Oh My Cod, in Coppull, Lancashire, five miles away from the original site in Chorley. Despite using vegetable oil at the latter, Crook opted for dripping at the new shop and has noted a general move back to animal fats. “I have a separate pan with vegetable oil but very few ask for it. They seem to love the dripping.” Animal fats were long vilified, but if Britain’s chippies and restaurants are anything to go by, they’re firmly back in vogue.

    Would you try a beef dripping cocktail? You can bet your arse I would!

    1. Not sure, to be honest. Not one for drinking generally. We don't tend to much in this house. I've never got 'beer' of any sort. A friend gave us some and it ended up watered down for the dogs.

      The Warqueen likes Long Island Iced Tea, and I make that up for her.

    2. When I was training in the GPO Factories Department in 1962 you could buy beef drippimg on toast for two pence from the canteen.

      1. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e9ceb3c2d8ab0d139a8add61b212ce3660a758916fa9a530b5ff0cd45e2b0e8e.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c4c51a052cfcda26d126167953371623747a8a26b1271c2669dd780f93c4778c.jpg I've never been a fan of beef dripping on either bread or toast. I adore pork dripping though.

        My deep-fat fryer is fully-charged with beef tallow (beef equivalent of pork lard) and I have nine more packets awaiting use in my chest freezer.

        There will never be a single drop of any "vegetable" (i.e. seed) oil pass over my threshold.

      2. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e9ceb3c2d8ab0d139a8add61b212ce3660a758916fa9a530b5ff0cd45e2b0e8e.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c4c51a052cfcda26d126167953371623747a8a26b1271c2669dd780f93c4778c.jpg I've never been a fan of beef dripping on either bread or toast. I adore pork dripping though.

        My deep-fat fryer is fully-charged with beef tallow (beef equivalent of pork lard) and I have nine more packets awaiting use in my chest freezer.

        There will never be a single drop of any "vegetable" (i.e. seed) oil pass over my threshold.

        1. Pork dripping with the jellied meat juices ..

          My father 's twin sister who lived in North Yorks , not far from Northallerton. She had an wonderful old fashioned walk in larder with a marble work top and a large meat safe cupboard with a mesh door so the air could circulate , and the larder window was also mesh and glass, and always open .. it really was a cool room , a small side of bacon used to hang in there , cheeses, jars of pickled eggs and onions , plate of brawn … and a couple of dishes of pork dripping with the jelly underneath ..

          When we used to visit her , it was a real treat a tea time to smear a little jelly dripping on toasted pikelets, then sprinkle with salt .. not a lot .. and accompanied by sticks of celery and fresh green watercress ..

          She also used to make potted beef , and the jars of beef had jelly and beef dripping .. a little on chunky toast was also so tasty ..

          Dad used to save the marrow from the joint of beef bone , and that was also so delicate and tasty ..

          Times change now and so do tastes .

          I love reminiscing about food .. oh yes and those coconut macaroons shaped like cones on rice paper .. another aunt was so adept and clever producing things like that including Yorkshire custard cheese and currant tarts .

          I could weep with nostalgia ..

          1. Oh, indeed, Maggie.

            When I buy a joint of pork loin or pork belly I get the one with the most fat and the rind still on. I carefully cut off the rind and place it in the fridge for two–three days until it is bone dry. I then score or puncture it and rub with a little dripping and salt before placing it into my air-fryer for 20 minutes at 200ºc. The cracking it produces is mesmerisingly crunchy and tasty.

            I parboil my peeled spuds for five minutes, drain the pan, then add a tablespoonful of beef tallow and let it melt to coat the spuds. I then place them into a preheated air-fryer at 200ºC for 17 minutes to make the most moreish roasted spuds.

            When I roast the pork I first put a little lard in the pan before adding the joint upon which I've deeply scored the fat layer. The rendered pork dripping —replete with black jellied meat extract — is to die live for.

            I cure and smoke my own bacon in my home-made cold-smoking cabinet. Today (see earlier on this forum) I made a batch of two types of pork sausage (my own seasoning recipe). I make my own crumpets, pikelets and bread; as well as pickled onions and eggs.

            Two months ago I made some potted beef. I use beef marrowbone to enhance my gravies and oxtail to improve my stews. I roast pork bones and boil them with pig's trotters to make my pork-pie jelly.

            I make curds from boiled milk with the juice of a lime added for my Yorkshire Curd tarts.

            Quite simply, the food from my childhood was simply the best and I shall continue to make and eat it until I'm on my last legs, which I intend to be a long time away yet.

          2. Curd tarts , yes I remember , not cheese tarts , curd tarts with currants?

            Sadly can't have things like that in the house .. Moh and his type 2 diabetes .

          4. I get these tins of small potatoes from Lid or Tesco (38p) Drain them, dry them in a tea towel and agitate them in a bowl of a tablespoon of olive oil (sorry!), dried parsley and garlic salt. The stick them in the air fryer for 20 min at 200. They are delicious. (They are crap from the tin though).
            I'm about to have some tonight

          5. I bet they are delicious.

            Olive oil is not a seed oil, Spikey. It is OK to use (and enjoy) without it poisoning you. I use it it salad dressings, even though I seldom eat a salad these days.

        2. Pork dripping with the jellied meat juices ..

          My father 's twin sister who lived in North Yorks , not far from Northallerton. She had an wonderful old fashioned walk in larder with a marble work top and a large meat safe cupboard with a mesh door so the air could circulate , and the larder window was also mesh and glass, and always open .. it really was a cool room , a small side of bacon used to hang in there , cheeses, jars of pickled eggs and onions , plate of brawn … and a couple of dishes of pork dripping with the jelly underneath ..

          When we used to visit her , it was a real treat a tea time to smear a little jelly dripping on toasted pikelets, then sprinkle with salt .. not a lot .. and accompanied by sticks of celery and fresh green watercress ..

          She also used to make potted beef , and the jars of beef had jelly and beef dripping .. a little on chunky toast was also so tasty ..

          Dad used to save the marrow from the joint of beef bone , and that was also so delicate and tasty ..

          Times change now and so do tastes .

          I love reminiscing about food .. oh yes and those coconut macaroons shaped like cones on rice paper .. another aunt was so adept and clever producing things like that including Yorkshire custard cheese and currant tarts .

          I could weep with nostalgia ..

      2. You're Peddy the pedantic , I claim my 5 shilling postal order.

        ©

        Damn that was hard to type, even the spell checker corrected that one.

    4. My parents ran a fish and chip shop in Acomb, York from 1959 to 1975 and though my mother tried ver hard to persuade my father to cook in vegetable oil, he point-blank refused and said that their customers would not tolerate the loss of flavour.

      1. MuckDonald's in the US of A cooked their skinny chips in beef tallow until 1980 before, incongruously, swapping it for industrial lubricant. Many old-time Yanks still lament this change.

    7. "We’re no-waste where possible for environmental reasons, but cost is a big factor,” What a tw*t. One to avoid.

  66. Afternoon all,

    Have been watching Yesterday programmes on the role of factories during WWII showing how the aims of the Nazis were aided by GM's German investment in the development of the Opel Blitz and eventually thwarted by overwhelming Russian forces on the Eastern Front.

    The motives for such adventurous expedttions may give clues to what Putins motives are in annexing Ukraine:

    https://youtu.be/diBkosaizxA?si=B5GFEuuv-e_1A1wR

    1. May have been the reasons Putin decided to invade. Bitter irony is that today interest in Climate Change/EVs seems to be falling off a cliff.

  67. 393054+ up ticks,

    Nutters raving nutters, ALL who have over the last three decades, been serving on the black mass lab/lib/con coalition altar and allowed these dangerous foreign aliens to cross europe, then the English Channel and virtually into our homes.

    I can understand the aliens they are on a replacement campaign no way can I understand the indigenous folk.

    https://x.com/Mitsuhaa00/status/1835034083673731368

    2. You say it as if we had/were given any choice.

      Those who've refused it, publicised the problems, raised the issues have been jailed, demonised, unpersoned and attacked by the state.

      It wasn't our choice, ogga. It simply underpins the complete lack of democratic accountability in this country. We voted to leave the EU to give our government the power to refuse these characters and they abjectly, completely refused to do so.

      1. 393054+ up ticks,

        Afternoon W,

        Post referendum victory I had it said to me in answer to my ending of each comment, continue to support UKIP as a fall back party.

        I was told “no need of UKIP now , job done”

        The day tripping voters then went straight back to supporting the lab/lib/con mass uncontrolled immigration, paedophile umbrella pro eu coalition party.They did this with eyes WIDE OPEN.

  68. 393054+ up ticks,

    Nutters raving nutters, ALL who have over the last three decades, been serving on the black mass lab/lib/con coalition altar and allowed these dangerous foreign aliens to cross europe, then the English Channel and virtually into our homes.

    I can understand the aliens they are on a replacement campaign no way can I understand the indigenous folk.

    https://x.com/Mitsuhaa00/status/1835034083673731368

        1. <pedant hat on> Actually, it's 'straitjacket', from 'strait' – narrow or restricted (in this context, restriction of movement) <hat off>

  70. Phew! it's bleedin' roasting up here, too hot to work even in the shade so the chainsaw can have a rest while I have a cold Guinness

    1. Absolutely glorious here too, Spikey! Been to visit a friend in Alloa whose husband has Alzheimer’s, and is in a home and drove back along the Hillfoots. The views were stunning, and the colours were amazing! It’s 22c outside and Alan is painting the walls!😘

      3. Finished now, all split and stored. I'm waiting for it to cool down a bit and I'll cut the grass . The cat has taken off its coat and is sitting outside in her bones😘

      4. Finished now, all split and stored. I'm waiting for it to cool down a bit and I'll cut the grass . The cat has taken off its coat and is sitting outside in her bones😘

    2. Absolutely glorious here too, Spikey! Been to visit a friend in Alloa whose husband has Alzheimer’s, and is in a home and drove back along the Hillfoots. The views were stunning, and the colours were amazing! It’s 22c outside and Alan is painting the walls!😘

      1. Il pleut chats et chiens sur La Cote.

        That'll teach me for gloating.
        San Ferry Anne – driving home demain

          1. Sunshine nearly all day here after the cloud cleared. I finished tidying up the border bed and got some plants planted in it.
            Earlier on was out to lunch with the old codgers. Good lunch at a local pub – I had a very big omelette and didn't need any food this evening.

          2. I’m off to watch my horses on the gallops tomorrow morning. If it’s fine, I may crack on with the garden. Knowing my luck, it will be howling a gale and the rain will be horizontal.

  71. OT – I have just finished reading "SBS Silent Warriors" by Saul David. Fascinating. Although (being of the generation to whom WW2 is just the nother day (!!)…) I knew a lot about the activities of special forces – ther was a great deal that was new to me.

    I just wish that those f*ckwits who complain of PTSD – and other "pressures" (like the new liebour woman MP who says that she "gets very tired quickly" – could be forced to read about the servicemen who volunteered for such dangerous duty. Said f*ckwits" should try sitting in a midget submarine on the bottom of the sea for 24 hours – or rowing a canoe on to an enemy-occupied beach…….

    Rant over…

    2. Also worth reading is Dusty Warriors, about troops during the Gulf war. Oddly, Redcoats is also very good.

  72. Apologies if it has already been mentioned but Madeline Grant's article in today's DT is a corker! After highlighting the way Two Tier made himself out to be "a byword for moral probity" while in opposition, she confesses to "a perverse delight" that he is now "caught out as a wide snouted little grubster". The article claims that Two Tier/Free Gear accepted more gifts as leader of the opposition than all other Labour leaders since 1997!?

  74. Yeeeess ! At last I've been given the clear on the June cataract removal.
    I'm now looking forward to getting the left eye sorted out. And some new reading glasses. And then even back to some reading.
    After I've made processed the apple's and the cider is ticking over.

    1. Good news. So the cataract removal has finally been successful and the new lens is functioning as it should?

      1. Yes it’s been good for a few weeks and i can stop the eye drops now.
        And I met a lady from Zim and we had a nice chat.

  75. Lebanon is hit by MORE explosions as 'Hezbollah walkie talkies' detonate across the country a day after pager bomb carnage
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13864883/Lebanon-explosions-Hezbollah-communications-devices-detonate-country-pager-bomb.html

    Lebanon used to be a Christian country and then it was civilised and a good place to live – but now it is a hell hole.

    Islam has discovered that armed invasions are not the best way to take over a country. Sheer weight of numbers is all they need and when those numbers become a majority they strike and overthrow the existing regime as it happened in many other places beside Lebanon and you would have to be wilfully blind not to see that the process has already begun in the UK.

    How long before Sharia Law trumps British law in the Britain?

    I know that Hamish de Bretton-Gordon is not much liked by Nottlers but you can understand him saying;

    "Those of us who have fought Al Qaeda and ISIS in Afghanistan and Iraq are all too familiar with the jihadists’ use of mobile phones and pagers to detonate bombs, which have claimed the lives of many British soldiers. It brings a measure of satisfaction to see the terrorists receive a taste of their own medicine."

  76. Cooks' Corner – One for Phizzee.

    I've just collected 1LB of beans from overgrown green runner bean pods. Is it worth cooking them? If so please can you recommend a sauce / method Thanks.

    2. Love runner beans, me.
      Slice them into narrow parallelograms, boil, and eat. With good gravy, food of the Gods.

  77. Cooks' Corner – One for Phizzee.

    I've just collected 1LB of beans from overgrown green runner bean pods. Is it worth cooking them? If so please can you recommend a sauce / method Thanks.

  78. We are off to Weymouth later to listen to the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra

    Dvořák Eight
    Fauré, Mozart, Mendelssohn, Dvořák
    Wednesday 18 September, 7.30pm
    Weymouth Pavilion, Weymouth.

    I hope my cough behaves itself.

  79. A friggin' Bogey Five!

    Wordle 1,187 5/6
    ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
    ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜
    ⬜🟩🟩⬜🟩
    ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Five for me too.

      Wordle 1,187 5/6

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

    3. As Wordle itself said today – Phew!

      Wordle 1,187 6/6

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

  80. Just spotted this BTL Comment:

    "72 Virgins and nothing to do in the afterlife, thanks to Israeli creativity."….

    3. Mary had a little lamb,
      She also had a duck.
      She put them on the mantelpiece
      To see if they would fall off.

      1. Mary had a little lamb
        She also has a bear
        I've often see her little lamb
        I've never seen her bare.

        1. Mary had a little lamb
          She kept it in a bucket
          Every time the lamb jumped out
          The bulldog tried to put it back in

          1. Mohammed had a little lamb
            Its fleece was white a snow
            Its mother was a mountain goat
            In-breeding don'tcha know?

          5. Wandering on the Heath minding its own business?

            Mary had a little sheep that walked on Bexley Heath
            Up popped MO,
            The rest you know
            He "took it" like a thief

        2. Mary had a little lamb
          She kept it in a bucket
          Every time the lamb jumped out
          The bulldog tried to put it back in

    4. Mary had a little lamb,
      She also had a duck.
      She put them on the mantelpiece
      To see if they would fall off.

    5. Mary had a little lamb,
      She also had a duck.
      She put them on the mantelpiece
      To see if they would fall off.

    6. Mary had a little aid
      When powered up it was fun
      And everywhere that Mary went
      She was bound to come!

    7. Mary had a little lamb
      And it was always gruntin'
      She tied it to a five-bar gate
      And kicked it's little head in

    8. Mary had a little lamb
      And it was always gruntin'
      She tied it to a five-bar gate
      And kicked it's little head in

    1. According to an experienced naturist expurt, 'undesirable' newcomers to nudist events can be identified because they 'stand out obviously very quickly'.

      "Sir, could you please tell me the way to the Turner Room.?"
      [He points without moving his hands].

    3. Got any pictures? – I'm doing a Doctorate in Carnal Studies at the University of the North Circular Road (formerly British School of Motoring) – subtitled 'Get your kit off for the lads' – so it's purely for academic purposes…

  86. That's me for today. It stayed grey, dreary and distinctly chilly all day. I read a book!

    I must say that I am very taken with the sobriquet for Cur Ikea's missus = Victoria Sponge! Her antics since the election make Cherie Blair seem modest and unobtrusive. But that's Socialism for you.

    Have a jolly evening.

    A demain.

  87. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAgn5R3EUnU No matter how many times people are told, or advised, that the food they are eating is pure shit, they will continue to listen to the abject lies told by 'food' manufacturers and blindly continue to buy and eat the crap that is poisoning them, making them obese, increasing their stupidity, and killing them with a pletora of modern diseases.

    Lemmings do not throw themselves off cliffs (Walt Disney started that fallacy to sell a film). Humans, though, are committing mass suicide every day, in their billions!

    Eating unfood causes stupidity. This is why the world is as it is in these benighted times.

    2. Early hominids were essentially composed of primitive hunter gatherers who principally ate meat with a few nuts, berries, honey etc.
      The real leaps in human intellectual development happened after mankind discovered how to grow, harvest and cook vegetables, seeds and produce breads and similar as well as keep animals for foodstuffs and milk/cheese.

      The problem isn't carbohydrates, etc, the REAL problem is stupid consumption of artificial/enhanced foods.

        2. That is not an attractive advocacy for dietary moderation. Obesity is preferable to cruel starvation.

      2. In common with most people, you are believing what they want you to believe. Carbohydrates ARE the problem. All the other ultra-processed foods of modernity have just accelerated the process. I continue to do extensive research on this subject and am finding out more and more about human ancestry. For over 4·5 million years [i.e. 99·6% of human existence] hominids ate a carnivorous diet. They only supplemented this with a few berries in winter when hunting was not practical. Around 10,000 years ago [i.e. just a paltry 0·4% of human existence] the ancient Babylonians and Egyptians started eating and harvesting vegetation and grains. This coincides with the evolution of human obesity and diabetes. Stable isotope testing (Nitrogen-15) on archaeological fossilised human remains within that time scale prove this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLaljz_Rw8k&list=WL&index=45

        1. In common with one-eyed zealots you are ignoring the facts of the technological evolution that was allowed by the development of relatively static agrarian cultures.
          Without that development you would still be living a hunter gatherer existence.

          On the plus side, the world might have been a better place, certainly with far far fewer people.

    3. At least the Americans have Amish farmers and people like Robert Barnes and Bobby Kennedy prepared to fight for farm freedom. We have no one comparable in the UK.

      1. Have you seen “Clarkson’s Farm” – I know that he is rather a Marmite character but he has certainly raised awareness of the demands facing British farmers?

          1. My wife and I (well, my wife) shared your view and watched Series 1 Episode 1 only because of very strong recommendations. We were totally surprised to find that the programme was interesting, informative and often very amusing. We have now watched every series and episode. He is very “gung ho” with sometimes disastrous results but I think that he is also playing to an audience at times – his farm seems to be very reliant on the income from the programme so he needs to maintain its popularity.

          1. See my reply to David Wainwright. Yes, I like Marmite as well – delicious on heavily buttered toast.

  89. The Clown Show begins in earnest..

    In his maiden speech, 100 days after taking office, David Lammy said Climate crisis is a more fundamental threat than terror, Putin, Isis or China.

    Labour Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds declares war on presentism.. He talked up the benefits of working from home. “It does contribute to productivity, it does contribute to [staff] resilience, their ability to stay working for an employer,”

    Ed Miliband, the new energy secretary, "The central lesson of the crisis for Britain is that we paid a heavy price because of our exposure to fossil fuels. The government’s view is we cannot go on like this,"

    But what about the pledge to provide £11.6bn to developing countries to respond and recover from climate change.
    "To avoid perpetuating existing injustice and inequality, countries least responsible for causing the climate crisis and most vulnerable to its impacts must be supported with extra public finance from developed countries,"

    1. The most senior climataloons in the UN and Davos admit that it's really only an excuse to transfer wealth from the developed countries to the undeveloped.
      What that does is to enrich lots of corrupt politicians who can then attend Davos etc and demand even more money.

    2. WFH really does contribute to our ability to stay working for an employer..

      HUNDREDS of council staff 'working from the beach' as town hall bosses allow more than one thousand requests to work from overseas over past three years
      Town hall bosses have granted more than 1,350 requests to work overseas
      Workers are in countries such as Spain, Australia, Dubai, Brazil, India and more

      1. Paid in the UK but doubtless taxed at their place of residence.

        We should tax at source and let them claim where they live and if there's no double taxation arrangement, tough titties.

    3. The only real crisis we are facing in our country is the increasingly moronic political classes. Not just the present mob either.

      1. The only real crisis we are facing in our country is the increasingly moronic political classes voters who continue to vote for the same failed politicians.

        1. That, too, but voters are beginning to abstain in ever increasing numbers. Hence we have the loons in charge on a minority percentage.

          1. It is no good abstaining, people need to vote for positive change.
            What we have had is either the blue or red cheeks of the WEF arse and we are offered in addition to that the Liberal Democrats which are neither liberal or democratic or the Greens who seem happy for us to live in caves achieving Net Zero.
            People need to recognise there is an alternative and vote for it!

          2. I know. In my time I have campaigned for and assisted UKIP candidates. People are tribal. They might believe everything the candidate stands for and still not vote for him or her.

          3. I've been persuaded by a friend that abstention is the best means of expressing discontent. Before May, I had been submitting spoiled ballot papers following the 2019 General Election, but I chose to not vote at all in May. The lower the turnout, the less legitimacy the winning party has. The only winner of elections is civil servants and bureaucrats, and they win every time.

          4. 2Tier had only 20% odd of the vote but the fact that that is in no way a true mandate to run the country is of no concern at all to him at all. All politicians do not care in the slightest if people abstain or spoil their papers, they only care about winning the vote..
            Change for the better will only come about when people vote for change.
            I think your friend is wrong, however the good thing is we are still allowed to disagree on issues, I’m not sure that privilege will be with us much longer.

          6. I've been persuaded by a friend that abstention is the best means of expressing discontent. Before May, I had been submitting spoiled ballot papers following the 2019 General Election, but I chose to not vote at all in May. The lower the turnout, the less legitimacy the winning party has. The only winner of elections is civil servants and bureaucrats, and they win every time.

        2. But although I agree, we don’t have a lot of choice. The system seems rigged for the continuity of public disillusionment and ongoing disasters.
          They have a well recognised ability to eff up everything they come into contact with. They should be repairing pot holes.

    4. For which of course the UK will have to borrow from the financial markets! FFS you really couldn't make this up!

    6. Isnt that (£11.6bn) at least half of the £22bn 'black hole' these buffoons keep banging on about? A plague on all their houses…..

      1. The real black hole in Britain’s finances is the billions given and promised to Ukraine in both materiel and bank loan guarantees. That money is effectively lost along with the proxy war.

    1. If homosexuals cannot help being homosexual because they cannot control their sexuality then they should not be punished for something beyond their control. But not very long ago homosexuality was a crime and people were sent to prison for it.

      Not a big step to say that paedophiles cannot help being paedophiles because they cannot control their sexuality and they should not be punished.

      The line has to be drawn somewhere! But is the line being blurred – Huw Edwards has not been sent to prison!

      1. Bear in mind that he has not been convicted of any physical sexual activity with anybody, other than possibly himself. His curiosity did lead him, however, to fuel demand for illegal sexual activities conducted by others. You might say he's a voyeur of a particularly distasteful kind. Whether other voyeurs with his predeliction have been more heavily punished is beyond my knowledge.

  91. Hello. Here we are in sunny Sidmouth by the sea. I thought some of you might be interested in this, the upcoming euthanasia private members' bill. I feel this is so important it should go through the due parliamentary process for debate, it is being rushed through in a manner reminiscent of the termination of pregnancy bill back in the late 1960s.

    https://righttolife.org.uk/ASthreat?utm_source=righttolife.org.uk&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=euthansia-commons_pmb&utm_content=share_whatsapp

    3. When I was at boarding school in Tiverton a couple of my friends and I used to take a packed lunch and cycle down to Sidmouth on some Sundays in the summer term. We left at 11.15 after chapel, cycled to the coast 27 miles away, had lunch on the beach having descended Jacob's Ladder. After a swim we went and had tea with the aunt of one of the group. We then cycled back to school and had to be back in time for school tea at 6 o'clock and got punished if we were late!

      We must have been pretty fit in those days as Devon is a notoriously hilly county as we thought nothing of cycling 55 miles or so between chapel and School tea.

  92. Evening, all. Here is the news you've all been waiting for – the bed is finished! Well, apart from the missing castors for one of the drawers, but it won't be disastrous to leave those off. I do, however, have a few bits left over, none of which was mentioned in the list of parts so I assume that I haven't left out anything vital. I've certainly followed all the instructions as laid down on the tatty pieces of paper. I shall, however, have to put stops to prevent the drawers being pushed right back (and out of reach) and will have to secure the framework for the drawers that sit one above the other for the same reason. I am never buying another new piece of furniture! Antiques for me all the way from now on – like the rest of my furniture, in fact.

    As for the headline, of course Streeting thinks throwing money at things will fix them. He's a socialist. It's only taxpayers' money so no problem with the largesse.

    1. Bravo Conway! Excellent work, and you deserve a glass of something nice to reward your patience and perseverance!⭐️

      2. Yes, I thought so, too. I sloshed some brandy in my coffee (purely for medicinal purposes, you understand) and I'm deciding which wine to open.

  94. "Married police chief had sex on duty with officer 17 years his junior, tribunal hears"

    BTL
    Edward Grundy
    16 MIN AGO
    Absolutely disgusting that they are doing things like this on duty when they should be out there monitoring social media posts and arresting pensioners for criticising Herr Starmer.

  95. I have to say I do enjoy the camaraderie of the discourse with Nottler chaps, but what I find even more delightful is the intercourse with Nottler ladies….

          2. You’re too kind – my Bank Details are BARP BARP BARP!!!

            Sorry, it appears my antivirus software is kicking in, I’ll forward you a postal order…..

          6. (Whenever I get one of those annoying Cold callers on the phone I usually respond: "Accident Helpline! How can I help you?…… Silence followed by white noise….)

          7. I respond – ‘Your call is important to us – you are currently 94th in the queue….. Click brrrrrrrrrr’

          8. Sad to hear. I, on the other hand, am shortly to receive several million pounds from a Nigerian Prince. He has my bank details and will be transferring it shortly. These are generous chaps

          9. Yes, apparently there were internet problems that prevented the transfer of a million Buttcoins to my account. Bloody technology, eh???

          10. Folk demanding bitcoin addresses to send you bit coins are blithering idiots. You only need the 'address'. If folk fall for that gawd help them.

          2. Indeed! I loved Captain (long) Johns! That’s what my Dad called him! He read me The Just-So stories and we moved on to Gimlet! My Dad liked random books!

          1. Ty!

            I fought a duel no so long back with the owner of the local Gin Bar….chosen weapons drinking straws!

  97. It's been a few very, very stressful days with a monumental workload forced into a short timeframe due to a third party error.

    Yesterday we were working until nearly 2am and started again at 6. Folk are tired but still good humoured. I don't think that would last much longer as it's converting into hysteria.

    Bless her, our secretary/front lady/booker keeper fell asleep around 10 – on the conf call.

    1. I saw this video some days ago. I find it truly shocking that this ghastly finger puppet is being put forward as a Presidential candidate. Kamala Harris is seriously stupid and a narcissistic Marxist to boot.

      I am equally worried that we have another dangerous fool as our Prime Minister. As with Sunak and before him Boris Johnson we have yet another idiot infatuated with Ukraine.

      Starmer is travelling to France, Italy and Germany to attempt to persuade those EU countries into promoting the use of French manufactured Storm Shadow long range missiles to target inside Russia. The missiles cannot be fired without French agreement to their use and American mapping guidance and satellite tracking.

      The fact remains that Starmer represents a past power, a country no longer classified as a world power. It shows how reckless this Starmer fool has become, seeking to draw America directly into the conflict and just how far we are heavily invested in the failed Ukrainian project. Our investments in Ukraine are lost and our banks exposed to loan guarantees that are worthless. That is the actual financial black hole.

      No worries. Starmer will continue to persecute the indigenous British people and punish dissenters. He is a fucking lawyer afterall. It is what his type do.

    2. I saw this video some days ago. I find it truly shocking that this ghastly finger puppet is being put forward as a Presidential candidate. Kamala Harris is seriously stupid and a narcissistic Marxist to boot.

      I am equally worried that we have another dangerous fool as our Prime Minister. As with Sunak and before him Boris Johnson we have yet another idiot infatuated with Ukraine.

      Starmer is travelling to France, Italy and Germany to attempt to persuade those EU countries into promoting the use of French manufactured Storm Shadow long range missiles to target inside Russia. The missiles cannot be fired without French agreement to their use and American mapping guidance and satellite tracking.

      The fact remains that Starmer represents a past power, a country no longer classified as a world power. It shows how reckless this Starmer fool has become, seeking to draw America directly into the conflict and just how far we are heavily invested in the failed Ukrainian project. Our investments in Ukraine are lost and our banks exposed to loan guarantees that are worthless. That is the actual financial black hole.

      No worries. Starmer will continue to persecute the indigenous British people and punish dissenters. He is a fucking lawyer afterall. It is what his type do.

        1. I thought as much. I'm a big fan of Laurel & Hardy – my Dad ensured that! – and I've been a number of times to their museum in Ulverston, Cumbria (where Stan was born) – if you ever get up that way it is well worth a visit.

  104. Been fishing, late back.

    Wordle 1,187 4/6

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

  106. Stayed up rather late tonight, chums, so I may have a lie-in tomorrow. Either way, Good Night, sleep well and see you all tomorrow.

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