Wednesday 19 June: Has the Labour Party really shaken off its hostility to the countryside?

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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576 thoughts on “Wednesday 19 June: Has the Labour Party really shaken off its hostility to the countryside?”

  2. Good morrow, gentlefolk. Todays (recycled) story.

    Engineering at its Finest

    Quality Engineering
    This one is well worth the time to read it…….It made my day; I hope it makes yours too! You don't have to be an engineer to appreciate this story. It is typical in Industry and Government too!

    A toothpaste factory had a problem. They sometimes shipped empty boxes without the tube inside. This challenged their perceived quality with the buyers and distributors. Understanding how important the relationship with them was, the CEO of the company assembled his top people. They decided to hire an external engineering company to solve their empty boxes problem. The project followed the usual process: budget and project sponsor allocated, RFP, and third-parties selected. Six months (and $8 million) later they had a fantastic solution – on time, on budget, and high quality. Everyone in the project was pleased.

    They solved the problem by using a high-tech precision scale that would sound a bell and flash lights whenever a toothpaste box weighed less than it should. The line would stop, someone would walk over, remove the defective box, and then press another button to re-start the line. As a result of the new package monitoring process, no empty boxes were being shipped out of the factory.

    With no more customer complaints, the CEO felt the $8 million was well spent. He then reviewed the line statistics report and discovered the number of empty boxes picked up by the scale in the first week was consistent with projections, however, the next three weeks were zero! The estimated rate should have been at least a dozen boxes a day. He had the engineers check the equipment, they verified the report as accurate.

    Puzzled, the CEO went down to the factory floor, viewed the part of the line where the precision scale was installed, and observed just ahead of the new $8 million dollar solution sat a $20 desk fan blowing the empty boxes off the belt and into a bin. He asked the line supervisor what that was about.

    "Oh, that," the supervisor replied, "Bert, the kid from maintenance, put it there because he was tired of walking over every time the bell rang."

      1. Not if they were told by Management that stopping the sale of empty boxes to gullible and willing customers might affect company profits, thereby pushing up prices and forcing hard decisions over staffing in order to maintain the market-led remuneration packages for hardworking executives.

      2. Simple solutions, Jules, for simple problems. Part of my life when I was an industrial consultant.

        1. But the absence of high-tech, whistles and bells, solution doesn't usually result in a delighted customer. The more complex the better.

  4. Morning, all Y'all.
    Looks like summer! Beautiful, clear, blue sky, and nearly 15C. How energising is that?

      1. Certainly will – from the inside of the office 🙁
        Next viewing of clear skies well after October, so the frost can really bite!

    1. Unfortunately, I can't drink tea first thing as it leaves me feeling nauseous. Coffee for me, the stronger the better.
      Best I ever had was, on arrival at site in Sicily, the coffee machine would sell you for a few Lire the strongest espresso you ever had, loaded with sugar. That really got you going at 07:00!

        1. Tea later in the afternoon works well, not early in the day. No milk… ugh.

      2. My ex-wife used to insist on drinking instant 'coffee' first thing in a morning; the smell of the vile stuff (it is not coffee) made me retch.

        For the life of me I cannot work out why people who would never dream about buying instant tea, routinely drink instant coffee without batting an eyelid. Both are made by an industrial process that removes the essences of the beverages from the leaves/beans before evaporating the water to leave a residual powder. Both bear no resemblance, whatsoever, in either smell or taste, to genuine tea and proper coffee, which are both delicious.

        Proper tea — made in a teapot — for me (milk, no sugar) every morning.

        1. Instant coffee tastes like an old ashtray. Ugh. Filter or espresso-made coffee is the only way. Instant tea tastes of old, stale straw. Ugh. Proper, big, tea-leaves, the kind that unfold like an emerging butterfly, is really good. Takes it forever to stew, as well, so can be kept warm in the teapot for ages without spoiling. And, with the big leaves, a teapot is essential, or you can’t brew it.

          1. When my closest-in-age brother and I were nobbut sprogs, we would love going to a good coffee shop, when on holiday, and ordering a gorgeous frothy coffee made with (though we didn’t know it at the time) an espresso machine. It was a flavour sensation.

            Trouble was, when we got home we tried to replicate it by using boiled milk, instant coffee powder, and a whisk (to froth it up). It looked similar but tasted like shit! We were forever perplexed as to why this was the case!

  7. Has the Labour Party really shaken off its hostility to the countryside?

    It's all open spaces, including your garden that they are coming for.

    1. Is there anyone from North London here, who can comment on the impact HS2 had on the constituency of Holborn & St Pancras?

      I believe the local Labour MP was at election time opposed to the disruption created by this white elephant little earner for executives, but once installed in the safe seat voted enthusiastically for it.

      Since the boundary changes, my mother lives within yards of the other side of the constituency boundary, but she tells me they have no meetings there. It is a safe seat, so they don't approve of electoral scrutiny. You get what the Party decides for you.

    2. I have only seen one vote Labour poster – ironically enough, it was in Cheshire and on the boundary fence of a large detached house with a huge garden. Talk about turkeys voting for Christmas!

  8. Breaking News – Starmer reveals that his family was so poor that he never had any toys.
    Just an old junior carpentry set, made by dad

    1. Bollocks to Starmer, that's a lie.
      When people were really poor, 100 years ago, kids had toys – like a hoop and a stick. In any case, a toolmaker is a skilled trade, so his dad should have been bringing in decent money.
      Man's a liar.

        1. Makes him even more of a liar. Might not have had toys because his parents hated him (seems reasonable to me), but not because of poverty.

          1. Wouldn't it be great if Farage questioned him about it, and the details, based on facts that you could turn up if you had time and a PC. If caught out in such a blatant lie, it would do his standing a lot of harm; many votes would drift to Reform.

          2. The Red Wall in the North and Midlands of England, and perhaps also Wales, has a traditional dislike of Tories. A friend in the village condemned Gobby Rayner for calling Tories "scum", but it didn't bother me. We know what she's like and she was at least being true to character.

            In 2019, following the parliamentary chaos following the mass defection of Remainer Tories and the refusal of the Opposition to put the lame duck Government out of its misery and force an election, the Red Wall lent their votes to the Tories to enable Boris Johnson to "get brexit done". They no doubt held their noses doing so.

            The question now is that it is unlikely they will remain loyal to the Tories, but will they revert to Labour? It has changed from its old socialist roots founded on the interests of the Working Class, and is today just a continuation of New Labour that led to the Great Fraud of 2008 and humiliation at the 2010 election. Its leader today is a backstabber who was personally responsible for the chaos in 2019, as well as implicated in the Rotherham sex trafficking scandal and the criminal persecution of subpostmasters.

            On paper, Farage's Reform Party may be taking votes from the Tories, but he may also be preventing them reverting to Labour and could even rob Starmer of his absolute majority and force him to kowtow to the Liberal Democrats, with their revival of support in the West Country and the Home Counties. That would please the North!

  10. Fun fact: Italian candidate in English town of Dudley appealing to local Pakistani Muslims to prevent an Indian Labour candidate from winning.. by focussing on the local hot topic of Kashmir.

    So progressive. So inclusive. So diverse.

    1. The obsession with foreign country's in UK politics, especially elections is just damaging. Anyone referencing it because their demographic wants it should lead to their, and the demographic's deportation to that area.

      It has no place in this country.

      1. see above..

        you're a bigot & islamophobe and you're fcuking nicked son..
        "The ting is, Sir Keir, your experience as a prosecutor means you'll be thinking about the strategy we can use to make sure we can take action against those who break the law."

    2. And so close to where poor old Mr Powell uttered his prophetic warning 60 years ago.

    3. I'm beginning to think that the concept of 'shame' is a peculiarly, old-fashioned, English thing. Can you imagine moving to another country, taking welfare from them and then imposing your politics in this way? And our politicians see nothing wrong with that.

  11. 388713+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Sod the Alamo, and on route to the polling station remember the
    sixteen plus year cover up of rotherham unless the party name be stained, many of those children bequeathed an ongoing life of suffering purely to keep a paedophile umbrella in place via a
    caring council and police force.

    I really do see it as a vote for the current lab / lib /con mass illegal immigrant invasion / paedophile umbrella coalition party
    on the 4th July ( auxiliary parties inclusive) should warrant a sound thrashing from the children of today after surviving the gauntlet run till adulthood, set in place via the parents and their past "party before family / country voting pattern".

    Wednesday 19 June: Has the Labour Party really shaken off its hostility to the countryside?

    Give it best out of three, it's only your kids future in question.

    1. Tea finished and now for a coffee, enhanced with a generous slug of blended Scotch. What i refer to as 'A Slug in a Mug,' Jules.

        1. There was one passing by my front door this morning…
          I'll get me coat.

  15. A quote from Ronld Reagan. Can anyone help me here, with another quote from Ronald Reagan (which I think someone quoted on this site a couple of weeks ago) along the lines of "At first try to persuade them with logic; if that fails, convince them to change with force/sanctions/punishment".

    3. I don’t know that one, Elsie but it’s true today and will become worserer!

    5. The full text was: "The scariest nine words in the English language: I'm from the government, and I'm here to help!"

      1. He’s long dead.
        But not that long ago the Guardian published one of their ridiculous articles about the scandal blaming the conservatives and writing as if Stonehouse had been a Tory politician.
        Typically no comments were permitted. I sent an email to the newspaper pointing out the error. More emails were necessary including one to the author of the piece.
        The article was eventually corrected but the newspaper insisted that they had known Stonehouse had been a Labour politician and that the misleading information in the article had not been deliberate.

      2. Did they ever auction off the clothes he left on the beach when he did a Reginald Perrin disappearing act?

        Donald Crowhurst's disappearance was also a story the MSM considered newsworthy. And who was told at school about the Marie Celeste, the abandoned ship which was found with nobody aboard in 1872..

        There have always been real or imaginary boojums about!

  18. Good morning all,

    Overcast at Castle McPhee. Wind North-East, 12℃ rising to 19℃ this afternoon. Off to the bracing Devon riviera for a week.

    From Allison Pearson's exposé of Kneeler.

    Starmer invariably boasts about his working-class credentials, based on his dad’s ever so ’umble job as a “toolmaker”. The Labour leader has described the rather remote relationship he had with his father, who died in 2018; a “difficult and complicated” man who “kept himself to himself” and was “utterly committed” to caring for Sir Keir’s chronically ill mother.

    If you delve a bit further into the family history, you find that, in reality, Rodney Starmer ran the Oxted Tool Company, his own independent tool-making business, until the 1990s. By all accounts, Starmer senior was a highly-proficient self-employed tradesman operating from a rented workshop on an industrial estate, rather than the horny-handed, blue-collar victim of the boss class his son prefers to depict.

    (Starmer is also coy about his time at the selective Reigate Grammar School, which became private when he was still a pupil, although he was lucky enough to win a bursary – exactly the kind of top-notch academic education his government plans to deny to children of a similar upwardly mobile background by slapping VAT on school fees. What a hypocrite he is.)

    So Starmer's tool-maker Dad was an independent businessman and he was probably a Tory because of it. And as for his education, it turns out he's just another socialist ladder-kicker. So far so normal then as far as these middle-class Fabian types are concerned – "I know how you should live your life and I'm going to make sure you do".

    Could this be his "Jackie Milburn" moment?

    2. My mother, who stood for Labour in 1960 at an election in Twickenham, was very much a middle-class Fabian then, and was in later life more inclined to the Alliance and the Liberal Democrats.

      Since she is still alive, I will not pass personal comment other than to say that she expected other people to conform to what they should be, rather than what they were, and presumed that everyone in society would comply with directives led by reason and norms set by society.

      I will also say that the Margot Leadbetter character in 'The Good Life', set in Surbiton just across the river, was very familiar to me as a child. My mother was also a member of the Kingston & District Chamber Music Society, to which Mrs Leadbetter also belonged.

      I might suggest that a Labour Party whose roots are in Reigate may be a somewhat different beast to one set amid the dispossessed metal bashers of the North and Midlands. Reigate itself is shaping itself up to become a Lib Dem fortress.
      ,

      1. My late Scottish grandpa, a staunch Labour supporter all his life (died when the liebour party was still more or less the 'old' party), would certainly not recognise the current liebour party. They no longer represent the people they were established for.

        1. The current liebours despise the indigenous working class, much preferring the non-working gimmiegrant class.

          1. Having said that, my late Dad and his parents, who were staunch Conservative supporters, would similarly not recognise the current Con party.
            neither Cons nor Liebour want to reward the hard-working aspirational class.

    3. "I know how you should live your life and I'm going to make sure you do".

      Classic. All my socialist “friends” are like this

    4. BTL Comment:-

      Ironic and more than a bit hypocritical for Starmer to laud his father as "working class" when, in reality, his owning and running a light engineering company, presumably thereby creating employment for others, not only places him firmly in the Middle Class, but is an excellent example of real Capitalism in action.

  19. Good morning.
    Another bright start to the day with 7°C on the thermometer.

  20. Morning all 🙂😊👁
    I'm struggling to see with one eye and my glasses perched over a large plastic patch.
    Thank you all for your good wishes.
    I try and get back later.
    What an absolute scandal about all those shop bought sandwiches. TB posted the link a couple of days ago. Just another thing that emphasis how stupid people are in our country.
    They should be locked up.
    Lovely day again.

    1. Morning Eddy, I hope the eye recovers soon and that you're ok in the meanwhile.

      Yes on the sandwiches, but, sometimes it's quite nice to have something simple you can grab easily.

      I would like to lock up the population. It'd be a vast improvement on the country.

      1. I had a 20p shop-bought egg & cress sandwich yesterday. A clearance discount.

    3. Good to see from you, Eddie.
      Good opportunity to dress as a pirate for the grandkids!
      Arrh!

      1. I sent a photo of my self wearing my eye new patch and my surgical head covering yesterday.
        It was probably a bit scary.
        Taken off the patch now to start the 4 weeks of drops 4 times a day.
        It’s all a bit blurry at the moment Obs. Early days though. 😊

          1. My elder and younger sisters have bith had their eyes repaired as well.
            I’m no youngster Obs but there was a very fail eldery looking lady who went in for her op after mine.
            I went to Pine Hill Hospital Hitchin Herts.
            Instead of getting my good lady to drive me in and possibly sit waiting for 3 hours. I got on the 304 bus from St Albans to Hitchin. Fabulous open country side that cannot be seen from a car seat. But the very narrow country lanes and the speeds the bus driver reach was more than a tad un- nerving. Then I popped into the Premier Inn near the bus stop to ask where I might be able to get a cab. And the lady on reception pointed to a seat, table and phone that went straight through to the local taxi service. Three pounds ninetie for the up hill ride. So I gave him a fiver.
            Wife picked me up about an hour after the op. I had just reach the lobby about to sit and wait and I saw her drive into the car park.
            Perfect timing.

  21. Good Moaning.
    Phew. We can all rest easy.
    St. Tone of MultiBungs has confirmed that there are anatomical differences between men and women.
    And Sir Kneeler agrees with him. No prevarication, none of those niggly percentages.

    1. When I was a civil servant in 2002, I was put on a disciplinary for using that n word.

      Never mind, for me it meant minor annoyance, rather than anything to do with race.

        1. I believe the word spelt with er at the end is considered racist and unpublishable, but if you are black and replace the er with an a it is quite acceptable. Nigga used in such a way means a black chap's soul mate.

          2. Sorry, whoops, didn't scroll down and see yours. But then that's what comes of reading newest first…

          4. If only a black man can use the word, even in that supposedly sanitised form as some warped badge of cultural honour, then that is in itself racism. And an assault on free speech.

            But then rules are made for breaking, which is what I shall be doing every time the wokies shout "THE MESSAGE" at me.

            Say no to racism …

        2. Tell that to anyone that got through the Blair-revised Civil Service exam.

  23. In 5, 10, 15 years time.. this clip will go down in history as one of those chilling seminal gennycider moments.

    Cosy fireside chat Sir Keir & Sadiq Khan (scene: dim lighting, bookshelf backdrop, two British lads chatting)

    SIR KEIR OF ROTHERHAM: "One of things coming up over & over again is Islamophobia. You can see the stats, you can see the numbers rise since Oct 7th. Although we shouldn't fall into the trap of thinking before Oct 7th this was all heading in the right direction. Far too high for far too long. (cut to Imam Khan nodding vigorously). We need to say over & over again Islamophobia is intolerable. It can never be justified. We have to continue with a zero tolerance approach. And I think as a government we can do more. Much more robustly than it is at the moment."

    IMAM: (Cut to Imam Khan in Fred Perry T-Shirt LOL).. "The ting is, Sir Keir, your experience as a prosecutor means you'll be thinking about the strategy we can use to make sure we can take action against those who break the law."

    https://youtu.be/56S8WXkWGO8?t=17

    1. The unfortunate King does need a damned good wigging when it comes to his asinine interference in politics. His facial expression here shows that he has been very well wigged on this occasion!

          2. Gracious, what lack of manners. Money made the Rothschilds but manners maketh man.

    1. Goblins… false teeth?

      I seem to remember a rather off-colour joke about this.

    1. "Fat cats" seems very appropriate – what an attractive couple they are /sarc.

        1. The photo with their young children showed they are neglectful of their offspring by getting them to be severely overweight, especially at such a young age. Beached whales full of blubber.

          2. They won’t be laughing when ill health caused by their obesity strikes. They really are quite ‘gross’ in both meaning of the word. At least they appear to fly first class/business or whatever the airline dubs it, and won’t be spilling over into a normal person’s seat on the plane.

    2. Morning Peta. Gravy oozing out everywhere at times such as these.

      KJ asking after you a couple of days ago btw.

      1. Morning James. Sickening, isn’t it?
        Been a bit quiet recently as I’ve not been very well, and also being loaded up with some rather dramatic problems a nephew is having right now – partly self-inflicted, partly not. I’ve been a sort of surrogate mother to him ever since my older sister died much too young in 2002. Think he is nearly out of the woods now though – fingers crossed! Say Hi to KJ for me and next time I see her I will do it myself – I do really like her :))

        1. Will do, yes. Sorry to hear of your off colour bout. There's always something to occupy us, isn't there, for good or bad. Today the grandchildren will occupy me from about 2pm. Life is messy.

  29. These 2 letters might have already been mentioned, but…

    "SIR – I was going to vote for Reform UK, but changed my mind.

    The ragged appearance of one prospective candidate in his video persuaded me that he was not government material.

    I appreciated his shining honesty and love of the nation, but looking the part is important.

    Angela Kilmartin
    Witham, Essex

    SIR – Conservative voters flirt with Nigel Farage (Letters, June 18) because he so often says what we are thinking. But we will vote Conservative on the day because we know that we must.

    Sandy Lumby
    Winchfield Hook, Hampshire"

    FFS!

    1. Good morning MM,

      South Dorset is currently Tory, Richard Drax. He is okay, but was abit squeaky on the back benches because he is old school landed gentry and not a Tory spiv .

      Labour have had the seat here in previous years . Sir Jim Knight , who was actually a good MP for the area, but sadly should not have been representative of Gordon Brown's cabal at the time ..

      Moh and I are very fearful that the Lumpdumbs will battle it out with Labour here , and and that will be it .

      The Reform leaflet we received yesterday was ghastly .. I mean it . Ham fisted and VERY divisive , too punchy .

      This area was quite blue rinse , much older, people now retire here from other areas , so they bring their political affiliations with them ..

      I guess it wont be long before we all wake up with a shock , because once the Trotsky Labour Cabal get into position , we will all be dead ducks and some of us will never see another Tory party again because of our age .

      1. We haven't had a Reform leaflet yet – the Tory one came yesterday. Labour have been much better organised here and the candidate is a local GP – I see him winning easily. Siobhan Baillie has been a good Tory MP and very active for local causes. I could vote for her – or maybe Reform – the website is now up and reveals our candidate to be an electrical engineer who sees Nut Zero as the nonsense it is.

        I despair for the country over the next five years, with Labour consolidating the Tory failures.

    3. Spoofs cooked up by trainee journalists at the DT?
      No forget that, Conservative voters really are that stupid!

  30. Struggling:
    Wordle 1,096 5/6

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    1. Me too

      Wordle 1,096 5/6

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  31. An email from Matt Goodwin's Substack dropped into my inbox this morning, It was drawing my attention to this:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/194d8a279c6f2700e57d6b4f22deb063f72867b94326619eb46519c0a443122a.png
    A few weeks ago, I asked an anonymous, right-leaning twenty-something member of Gen-Z to write a column on how they see the state of our politics and country. That column went viral and has become one of our most read pieces since we launched. For that reason, I’ve asked Anonymous Zoomer to keep writing for us on a regular basis. Here’s their latest.

    If you believe the usual trope then all young people are inherently left-wing, woke, and about to celebrate the arrival of the incoming Labour government.

    Look at the latest polls.

    Just 7% of 18-24-year-old Zoomers plan to vote Conservative next month.

    But now look a little closer.

    For the first time, Nigel Farage and Reform are more than twice as popular as the Tories among 18-24-year-olds like me.

    While 7% of my generation plan to vote Tory, 15% plan to vote Reform.

    What’s going on?

    https://substack.com/home/p…

    A lot of people see Professor Goodwin as a valuable analyst and commentator on the political situation. They are right. My beef with him is that just about everything he produces is behind his paywall. What is happening in the 2020s is so era-defining, so potentially world-changing that, I feel, he should be doing much more 'pro bono publico' instead of just making money. It makes him look just like any other grasping grifter.

    1. It's not just the young who see the last few years as a terrible failure. It was not just the young who had two years stolen from their lives, either. Never forget, never forgive.

      1. David Turver writes a good column on substack every Sunday. I don't pretend to understand it all but he does explain how all the renewables are subsidised up to the eyeballs.

    1. Just saw that TB and labour have forecast building 2 million more houses. Consecutives 1.5 million Limps around the same. The tories have all ready wrecked our country. I can't imagine what it will look like when these idiots have finished.
      All of the arriving on these small group of islands come from places where the land masses would swallow our islands.
      But they are too damn lazy to make the effort to improve their own environments.

    2. Vietnam is absolutely booming with factories moving in from China and planeloads of Russians, so why risk moving to UK?
      Because there are stacks of Vietnamese websites promising £2k per month working in the nail salon sector.

      And looking at the nails of every single girlie on YT vids you can see why. Chavalistic growth.

      Fun fact: What's up with the two shorter nails on some wimmin's hands? For instance, Ramona Marquez out of Outnumbered.
      Here's a clue: "How do you call a lesbian with long nails?"
      "Single"

  35. Good morning, all. Cloudy and breezy.

    The ultimate conspiracy theory?

    Dr Lee Merritt, the Medical Rebel, is a former USN orthopaedic surgeon and she has started putting together a series of lectures, Think Outside the Box, that will expose much of what she feels is going on and who is behind the actions that are being put in place to control us.

    Her mention of Julian Assange may explain why he he is being treated as he is.

    Her first lecture is here

    Some screen captures from the lecture.

    Soros and Zelensky. Family? Cousins or nephew.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bec92d5d6c4f5335bdaa520ac30e2de448c3dec201ec08c6536c96d092af40a0.png
    Their opinion of us. Have they placed themselves above the human race?
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/65aaec59d7dca2020618dd487f6b3e31dc3b6a551699447fa048963c61020177.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/46a2d5db508287812e13807cc3c8dc0752671a8641a85f5da1b32976a08a8bea.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/53247de4a0b6fdc8edad0206bf5bd1eea7bc0dd80922ddc2688b6183aa7cb867.png
    Was J Edgar Hoover correct?
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1f7c8411cc7c6fbfc6f3bde984ed79fb55de39ece063e6fe2f45f63fcbeee678.png

      1. As soon as energy goes, so does our way of life. It's as simple as that. How do you call for the police f your phone doesn't work? It needs power for the end kit, power for the line, the cables carry electricity.

        The con tax scam of net zero is an abomination. Energy should be massively over capacity. If Lefties don't like it they should live in the world they so desperately want for others. They would soon get fed up.

    3. Morning, Korky.

      It is a popular misconception that humans are the most intelligent species that ever evolved (well, they would say that about themselves, wouldn't they?).

      The clear facts are that although mankind is the most clever, inventive, resourceful and manipulative species this world has ever hosted; it is nowhere near being the most intelligent.

      An intelligent species would never consider:

      Breeding in unfeasibly vast numbers, that are insanely out of control, on a planet of limited size.
      Killing off countless other organisms necessary for the balance of life.
      Invent (and use) nuclear weapons.
      Pollute its own living space.
      Destroy and despoil its environment.
      Poison potable water.
      Create mountains of effluent that cannot be absorbed by the planet.
      Choose any of the available execrable-standard political candidates, currently available worldwide, to place in positions of power.

      Stupidity — not intelligence — has become a defining characteristic of a species in terminal decline.

          3. They lie to you about everything else, so why do you believe that they’re telling the truth about world population?

          4. Because if I were to become routinely cynical about everything, then it would only be a short stepping-stone to the straitjacket.

          5. There’s actually good reason to believe that world population peaked a few years ago. Not just my opinion, Elon Musk and Jordan Peterson voiced the same thing in a discussion.

          8. I’ll tell you what ‘adds up’ for me (I’m quite good at sums). This planet is 4·5 billion years old. Humans have existed for around 4·5 million years. Just a mere 73 years ago, when I was born, there were 2·5 billion humans on this planet. There are now 8·1 billion. That is more than a threefold rise within my short lifetime. Nothing, but nothing, proves more conclusively the imbecility of mankind than that unassailable fact, a fact that adds up very well.

          9. You are making your decisions based on unreliable information. You’re also assuming that more humans = bad, as the media instructs you to believe.

    1. Nobody glories in Israel "slaughter of Palestinians" – except Hamas, as they are getting what they wanted. A shitstorm for Israel.

    1. You certainly started something in the Dower House.
      At 6.40 am, MB was checking on the ospreys.
      Thank goodness he'd made tea first.

      1. Dad has just brought another wriggling fish to the nest , handed it over to Mum and the youngsters are being fed again . 8 fish yesterday , one of which might have been a sea trout or a salmon !

  38. I am sick and tired of this election farce.

    Sunak's blithering on about inflation coming down but he's responsible for it. Net zero, his policies are making energy expensive. They've shut down our fertilizer plants so that's now four times the price it was before. He's continued to borrow and waste vast amounts of money. He has done nothing to undo the statist grip. Inflation is down to his government. Paltry tax hikes now, terror warnings about Labour are his fault.

    He wanted the job stabbing two bosses in the back to get it. Just carrying on with the same old failed big state Left wing policies was not enough.

    As for Labour getting a 'super majority' – at this point we're all resigned to a big state, high tax, Left wing government that robs our earnings, efforts, savings. It'll push wealth creators away, leave the poorest struggling (and those damned stupid poor people who voted Labour will then bleat that it's all 'da wich's' fault (because, passim, they are stupid and don't understand that envy in an era of money mobility is dumb.

    I despair. The big state Left wing Tories or the bigger state Hard Left nutters of Labour. What choices.

    Reform offer an opportunity but the entrenched quangocracy, the sheer edifice of big government would take a decade to unravel and need real commitment which I don't believe Farage has. He's a good figure head and demagogue and I don't doubt his patriotism but the state machine is a granite cliff and poolitical (sic) are a brief drizzle against it. Disantling it and forcing obedience and actually making it serve the public rather than itself will take repeated blasts from an orbital cannon – especially as one fight is being fought the state will do absolutely nothing on another front.

    1. I am sick and tired of this election farce.

      Morning Wibbles. I can barely make myself read, let alone write about it. It is a pantomime. I allow myself some belief in Farage and Reform but even if they were elected (which they are not going to be) how much could they achieve against the forces of Globalism? The West and the UK in particular are lost.

    2. And just this morning the media released another perfect band wagon for Reform. The three major parties have announced the building of millions of new homes. And nearly 900 new scroungers have arrived by boat. Its already costing us 9 million pounds a day to keep them all.

      1. And still the moronic masses will vote for Labour. Quite honestly, they deserve what they are going to get. But we don't deserve to be pulled down with them.

    3. Our Reform candidate is in favour of nationalising the utility companies. Thinks only the government can make it work! I feel disenfranchised.

    1. We have needed revolution for a long time. Labour took away our arms, all mainstream parties have taken away our country. B*stards!

  41. A leaflet. In the letter box from a political footsoldier. Here? In the middle of nowhere.

    I think I'll have to put a note on the postbox: 'Recycle reponsibly. Do not litter. Please place leaflets directly into the green bin.'

  42. Good samaritan killed after intervening in wedding feud, court hears. 19 June 2024.

    A good samaritan who intervened in a wedding feud was killed when the bride’s brother used a car “as a weapon”, a court has heard.

    Chris Marriott, 46, was helping Nafeesa Jhangur when they were driven over by a Seat Ibiza car driven by her brother Hassan Jhangur, 24, Sheffield Crown Court heard on Tuesday.

    Tom Storey KC, prosecuting, told jurors that Jhangur, who denies murder, hit five people when he ploughed into them in College Court, Sheffield, before getting out of the vehicle and attacking another man with a knife, leaving him with serious injuries.

    Ahhh?. Where would we be without all this cultural enrichment? This report hints that Mr Marriott was somehow involved but so far as I can see he was simply calling the Police.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk…

  43. Good samaritan killed after intervening in wedding feud, court hears. 19 June 2024.

    A good samaritan who intervened in a wedding feud was killed when the bride’s brother used a car “as a weapon”, a court has heard.

    Chris Marriott, 46, was helping Nafeesa Jhangur when they were driven over by a Seat Ibiza car driven by her brother Hassan Jhangur, 24, Sheffield Crown Court heard on Tuesday.

    Tom Storey KC, prosecuting, told jurors that Jhangur, who denies murder, hit five people when he ploughed into them in College Court, Sheffield, before getting out of the vehicle and attacking another man with a knife, leaving him with serious injuries.

    Ahhh?. Where would we be without all this cultural enrichment? This report hints that Mr Marriott was somehow involved but so far as I can see he was simply calling the Police.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk…

  44. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/07338b33361c780fa048604e75b888d9065e5f56588b0f59c15a73122a4581cc.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f79d8282c855e42367cb165e0feff86c1641d0e2a1c6d988f3852ff37bfe7557.png Whatever you do, if you are not a PAKI, do not ever think of calling a PAKI a PAKI, especially if the PAKI you call a PAKI plays for a team called PAKI Power and wears a PAKI Power polo shirt. Calling such a PAKI a PAKI may render said PAKI an entitlement to a £200,000 compensation award for being called a PAKI by a non-PAKI. This, indeed, did happen to Azeem Rafiq, a PAKI, who plays for PAKI Power.

    Moral of the story: Only a bona fide PAKI may call a PAKI a PAKI.

    As for NIGGERS …

        1. I think I'll identify as a black man so I can high-five other black men and say "How's it goin' Ni**a?" and see how well that goes down.

    2. Grizzly – you should know better – the correct way to spell the word is NIGGA.

    3. Cue the heavy knock on Geoffs front door as the thought police see Gibsons dog named again.

      With trudeaus mob pushing for legislation that would lead to house arrest if one of the permanently offended believes that you are thinking hurtful thoughts, such actions are not beyond the realms of possibility.

  45. Who shall I vote for tomorrow? 'Tomorrow?', you ask. Oh yes. Probably not featuring in the national news is the by-election for Wellingborough Town Council. No macro-economic theory here. This is street lamp, paving stone, litter bin, grass cutting, hedge trimming territory. There are five candidates standing:
    JAMES, Victor – Labour
    KORIYA, Raz – Conservative
    MANNION, Paul – Green
    ORO, Ashley James Russell – Liberal Democrat
    SHIPHAM, Allan James – Independent (Direct Democracy)

    Two don't give an address (L, LD), two who do don't live in the ward (C, Ind). The Greenie lives around the corner from me (!). Only three have posted any literature (C, LD, Ind). What a choice!

    2. If the LD has not put an imprint on the literature with an address and info about who printed it and for whom, the LD has committed an electoral crime.

      1. I was referring to the council's election notice in respect of addresses. However, the LD leaflet includes the party's e-mail address and also a c/o address but I cannot tell if this an office or a residence. The Con's leaflet includes the party's office address and the independent his home address.

        1. You have the option not to disclose your address when the candidate list is published.

  46. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/06/16/uk-shrinking-towns-despite-record-immigration/

    The article repeatedly raises – from the kids themselves – that there is nothing to do in Grimsby. This isn't true. They could read a book. They could write a book. They could play tennis on the sports grounds. Instead, they sit outside a hotel complaining. Yes, they could leave but they've nothing useful to give anywhere. They want the world handed to them. The fellow refusing to work in a factory is typical of the problem. He can still eat while not working. If he couldn't, he would get one of these low paid jobs and, a it was for me a kick up the bum to get a real job and get your act together.

    The lass and her 'mental illness' I don't really understand. All work is hard. You're around odd, difficult, awkward people and expected to deliver to a deadline. It is, as the man said, a bad way to spend free time but you do it because you have to.

    1. One of the kids interviewed was close to finishing a training course and looking forward to receiving help to enter the job market. Apparently the help is only available to kids receiving benefits, any kid in a dead end job need not apply.

      I agree that a swift kick Up the excessive benefits would help but why would they condemn themselves to a dead end, minimum wage job on the shop floor when it closes down access to schemes that would let them grow.

      1. I'm all for folk having access to training schemes to lift themselves out of work. That should be almost free but night school type larks.

        A small contribution, say £10 per class would go a long way to a proper qualification. That then needs to lead to an actual job, so why not have the folk on the class competing for an apprentice scheme?

        Thing is, big fat state dumps money but never joins it up because while it has the money, it hasn't the ability or links at a local level. Councils just take the cash.

  47. Rishi called the election quickly , because everyone was leaving the sinking ship , and he wanted to leave in a blaze of glory .

    There would have been no one left if he had called an Autumn election .

    Rishi has sold the British to the very devil .

      1. Aren't Ukraine and Russia looking for volunteers to go fight their good causes?

  49. according to the DT inflation is at a 3 year low. Petrol is the only thing that’s come down as far as I can see. Food certainly hasn’t.

    2. On Friday, my nearest Wetherspoon's had a Managers Special of cask ales at just 99p per pint even though the price on the handpump was £2.74. I have no idea what prompted it but had I known sooner I would have arrived earlier.

  50. 388713+ up ticks,

    882 morally illegal illegals introduced to the tax payers wallet yesterday via the border force and the RNLI.

    The lab/lib/con coalition party agreed that for the health & safety of the channel crossers something really must be done.

    A word to the misguided current supporter / vote,r may I emphasize NOT a word was said about the indigenous health & safety when the 882 are unleashed on the remnants of a once decent society.

      3. He is probably one of those realistic muslims from muslim countries who realise that islam has to be kept under control.
        Even the Saudi foreign minister recently criticised Europe for encouraging islamic terrorism!

  52. Guido

    SURVATION POLL PREDICTS “EXTREMELY RARE” SWING AS FARAGE TO WIN CLACTON

    Arron Banks has commissioned Survation to do polling in Clacton. It’s happy news for Nigel…

    Polling conducted from 11-13 June suggests that Farage is set to win the seat, and with the biggest swing in modern political history at that. Survation’s split is 42% Reform, 27% Tory, and 24% Labour. The pollster says “we find that swings as large as the one currently projected in Clacton are extremely rare. The projected swing in Clacton from the Conservative Party to the Reform UK party is 43.5 per cent.” Tory Giles Watling won 72% of the vote in 2019…

    Farage filled a large auditorium last night to announce defections of Tory councillors to Reform, to fanfare and fireworks. He’s got momentum…

    19 June 2024 @ 13:38

    1. It won't be voluntary though. The BBC hierarchy would love to scrap "the hated licence fee" but they'll want it replaced with funding by that greedy b*stard General Taxation. It's much more difficult to escape the general than to cancel your tv licence.

      1. We used to have licence fee in Norway. Replaced by general taxation by the current Labour government… 🙁
        Now there's no choice but to pay.

        1. Same I Canada. The CBC is funded from general taxes and needless to say the government is worshipped by the cbc pundits. Plus there is a $600 million press fund that all media can dip into.

          With such subservient media, Trudeau is allowed to get away with such asinine statements as No I am not unpopular, voters are just not in election mode.

          F'in fool!

      2. I read they want to leech off and roll it into some kind of broadband tax. Bunch of parasites. And it is legal not to pay it. They just make it look like it isn't and send threatening letters. The threatening letters look illegal to me.

        1. Aye, 'digital media' tax. There's no other taxes on such, the state is desperate to tax everything that moves.

      3. I read they want to leech off and roll it into some kind of broadband tax. Bunch of parasites. And it is legal not to pay it. They just make it look like it isn't and send threatening letters. The threatening letters look illegal to me.

    2. Just make it a subscription service. If folk want to pay it, fine. If they don't, they don't.

      Something that'll solve a multitude of probs is for ofcom to be the arbiter of BBC complaints rather than Al Beeb marking it's own homework.

      Then clear ofcom out of Lefties and ex BBC types.

    1. What the gibbering [expletive] do they think they're doing? Damnation, get in there and break their legs in many places. They've got to be brought to heel.

      Then forbid them from ever benefitting from anything made from or using oil. They'll be dead within the year. No loss.

      1. One was an Indian. Wonder what would happen to him, in India, if he did that to an ancient public artefact or religious monument? Can't see a whitey going over to India to do it. Can only imagine the outcry if he or she did. Bit of a one way street this multicultural malarkey.

        1. Fundamentally what they're doing is just disgusting. It's Stone ruddy Henge, not an oil company.

    5. While normal people are banned from the stones. We went there on a school trip, many years ago. Sadly I lost the photos from that day.

  55. Do you know what I am thinking now ?

    Britain is being invaded by barbarians , we are becoming the victims of their stone age blood sport ..

    We are being harried by their demands , and here we are freely speaking when maybe in a couple of months time , a forum like Geoff's could be banned, closed down , discussion will be monitored and Labour will revert to Taliban tactics

    When we start suffering like they are in South Africa , Korea and Venezuala, when our savings , our homes and water bills. rates/ and electricity bills rise steeply because we have to finance the new incomers .. and when we are kicked out of hospital or never even reach hospital when we become feeble ..because others take priority ..

    What are we going to do?

    You can see the state of anxiety I feel , because I have so many examples to tell you , but I don't want to rant , Moh was scammed a few weeks ago .. he is so naive.

    Labour will have learned tricks from the Taliban / Khan and the rest , because they want to punish Brexit supporters / Tory supporters and anyone who hasn't taken the knee, and I daresay every child will be issued with a Koran instead of a school bible .

    If Labour succeed , the BBC will become even far worse than ever.

    We have less than 2 weeks to say and write what we feel ..

    Starmer has anarchic types , unlike the rubbish that Blair had .

    1. Afternoon Belle. Stop worrying. We must endure as others have endured before us. It is not yet played out. it is quite possible other factors may come into play.

    2. I think governments have commited an act of treason letting in all these people. They have allowed our country to be invaded.

    3. This is why most of us use a pseudonym. Farcebook has my real name but I don't post much there, and never anything controversial.

  56. I have just watched the BBC News Headlines. There was a clip from a football match where a young man (black) scored a goal. He was then subjected to mass adoration from his team mates. Much hugging, fondling and cuddling. What I want to know from those better informed than myself (I am not a football fan) is this genuine or is it organised? Does the management demand it of them?

    3. Many football supporters are embarrassed by the post-goal celebrations, whether they be the mass huddles or the absurd, choregraphed dances around the corner-flag. There are also the plain knee-slides. Just wait until a player ends his career with one of those, a cartilage-rupturing dead-stop on a dry pitch.

    4. Let's put it this way. I think it was Bobby Charlton who was asked to comment on this very thing some years ago. He said, "When I was a youngster in my first season at Manchester United, in one particularly difficult match I got a goal late on. The other players waited for me to trot back to my own half for the restart and all I heard along the way was, 'about bloody time lad'".

    5. They probably have hugging practice sessions that are led by drag quee( ns)rs.

    6. The real question is Mintie, do they all shower together and maybe share the soap and the same interest.

  57. Lash up used for straining juice from cooked fruit prior to making jelly.

    This is half of this morning's loganberry crop, total about two and three quarter pounds, happily draining to their hearts' content. The other half will be done overnight. Plenty more fruit to come: then on to the raspberries. A lot of work over the next week or so before a break and then the blackberries will be upon me.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a7b4f281e57caab795e8f573dcee2ef93604902a950e270d3f7af845cf0aa291.jpg

    2. Ooh, very nice. Watch it's secure, your lash up though. My missus did that once with elderberry syrup and it all fell in. Looked like a scene from the X-files.

    2. Tony needs to be careful these days. See the case of Count Dankula and his pug dog.

  60. Teenager who murdered 17-year-old on dancefloor at party named. 19 June 2024.

    A teenage killer who fatally stabbed another boy on a crowded dance floor can be named for the first time today after the order protecting his identity was lifted.

    Yura Varybrus, the son of Ukrainian parents, killed 17-year-old Charlie Cosser after being asked to leave an end-of-term party in the grounds of a £1.5 million country farmhouse.

    Who would ever have guessed?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/06/19/charlie-cosser-killer-named-yura-varybrus/

    2. Why does the venue value have to be quoted? WTF does that have to do with the murder?

  61. Because Toffs Lives don't matter.

    (You have to be a toff to have a £1.5m country farmhouse!)

  62. Bloody Hell! I'm knackered!
    Walk to Cromford & bus to Wirksworth for blood samples, touch test on soles of my feet, circulation check on feet, pulse, blood pressure and weight.
    Good laugh with the Nurse, we get on VERY well together, then cashpoint, a bit of shopping, made a mistake buying a pack of cut-price baking tatties from the Co-op, and a walk to the Stone Centre for a pot of tea and a sticky bun.
    Followed by a walk up the High Peak trail up to Middleton Top, eight minutes from the bottom of Middleton Incline to the top, not bad for an old bugger!
    Then over Middleton Moor, drop into Middleton, sadly the Nelson was not open, and then drop down to the Via Gellia and home!
    Relaxing with a mug of tea and stick of celery then I'll be getting the dinner on for the DT & welder son getting home from work.

    1. Hell I'm knackered just reading about your exploits.

      Just golfing in this 35C heat is going to do me in.

  63. very sad story about the teenager on his first holiday abroad going missing. I suspect he won’t be found alive (but I do so hope he is).

  64. I'm puzzled – but only a little – by a Keep Britain Tidy tv advertising campaign against littering with cigarette butts. Bin Your Butt is the slogan.

    https://youtu.be/OdUe78cuMtM?si=brPNF7izZdmKGihq

    i don't deny that discarded cigarette butts can look a little untidy, but the campaign ignores the bigger picture. We all know that discarded drink bottles and cans as well as confectionery and savoury snack packaging are very much more unsightly than butts.

    I cannot help but conclude that 'selfish' tobacco smokers are being targeted in preference to the greater nuisance of 'sweet, innocent' children, adolescents and young adults leaving trails of rubbish behind them.

      1. So it seems. Partly, though, it's a matter of out of sight, out of mind. With tobacco smokers cast out of indoor public spaces, we see less of those who do smoke. My local social club is still populated by smokers, albeit outdoors on the club patio. Then there are the vapers, but they don't leave butts behind. Cigar and pipe smoking have almost disappeared, however, in my estimation.

        1. Somebody still smokes cigars around where I live. This oik peels the cellophane wrapper off and throws it away in the street. My neighbours and I find these blasted wrappers in our gardens regularly.

          1. Write a polite note asking him to desist. Wrap it around half a housebrick and lob it through his window.

        1. People have been priced out more than anything, I think. That and the ban on smoking in pubs. I was never a smoker so it's an improvement as far as I'm concerned.

          1. I have been a smoker for 50 years. I too was okay about the ban in pubs and restaurants. Much nicer places now. I pay £14.70 per pack of 24. They last a day. Most of that is tax. Which is why there is a flourishing Turkish black market.

    2. Agreed, and maybe it's also a red herring to detract from the snack industry and its unnecessarily extravagant packaging.

      1. Most of the rubbish I see is people eating in their cars and chucking the wrappers out of the window.

          1. I have one idea which will never catch on. If carbonated drinks were dispensed on retail premises, obliging customers to bring their own containers, I'm sure far fewer would be tossed aside once finished.

            We could also go back to weighing sweets and pouring them into paper bags, just as traditional confectioners still do, if you can find one, as paper waste is less of a nuisance than plastic, but it wouldn't be popular either.

          2. We have a deposit charged on all drinks containers except wine & spirits. So, they are worth saving, and recycling is easy – every supermarket has a recycling machine that spits out a ticket of the total depoit returnd, for you to spend in the shop. Same in Denmar, Sweden, Germany. Works a treat – and if you can't be arsed, there's always a rubbish plucker who can.

    3. Aah but when we have global burning we don't want discarded butts setting the place afire.

    4. This morning, I collected a 'bag for life' full of plastic bottles, cans and crisp packets along a couple hundred yard path near a local school.

  66. I was going out to lunch today………………. nearly there and found the road was closed. Only option was turn right, which was actually driving away from my destination. Eventually I came to a familiar road, and then a turning – and went home. I had been driving for an hour and didn't get there. Nice tour of the Cotswolds………

  68. Couple of years ago some of my trees blew down and I planted some shrubs (Olerea macradonta – impressed eh?), they've turned out well and should fill the gap in the next couple of years. Larch and Cypress are closing off the drive and have to be cut back every year
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b2b2048929e20ec67dc53faa1971b7f794cfc44dade9b9083357e9fb66a6e11e.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9904f829665c87a7944fc38ebd7dec156b7a23bf958b4abbca2e78c6a590cb8e.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b82762991bfc49f68cf325071d749627f0af539b8f00b882dc4f8776b7df6b9f.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b6d189a889510bc9766d68730e9e391f848270b2360fdf8a1f150548e68b191e.jpg

  69. How many kinds Labour taxes go
    In an English country garden
    I'll tell you now of some that I know
    And those that I miss you'll surely pardon
    council tax, carbon tax, wealth tax, net zero tax,
    land tax, privilege tax,
    Front garden parking tax and driveway drain off tax.
    Taxes on lawns
    In an English country garden

  70. We were at a funeral this morning – the 48 year old daughter of friends of ours, who died last Monday of a virulent untreatable cancer. Very emotional, as she leaves a son and daughter and 3 little grandchildren.
    Now, I know this may just be us getting old, but some of the attire on show was quite bizarre. Trainers, trackies, jeans, flowery dresses, satin trousers and a fair sprinkling of sequins! There were at least 120 people there and I’m not really complaining, but do you not dress up nowadays?

    1. They were dressing up! 48 is far too young…………Were people told "no black, wear something bright"?

      1. No, I asked her Dad! As I say, it’s not a moan, just a surprise! It looked more like a wedding than a funeral!

    2. I had a similar experience recently. I wore a simple dress and court shoes, no jewelry. Was accused of dressing up. Most dressed smartly but one (middle aged) couple appeared to be making a point of not doing so – jeans and trainers all the way. What are they trying to prove, some kind of left wing superiority?
      My dearly beloved tells a story of an acquaintance who did not wear a suit to his father's funeral…later, this man had his own birthday party…at which he wore a suit…
      I wonder whether the people you saw will dress up for their birthday parties?
      I think it's respectless not to bother to dress smartly for a funeral.

      1. I don't think people wear black any more, especially for a person who has died quite young.

        1. I wore navy blue, so as not to look as though I was overdoing it. The close family wore black.
          My daughter wore a black dress with a dark red design on it, so sombre without being unrelieved black. We both wore tan stockings.
          It did surprise me slightly that of all the funeral parties we saw at the crematorium, there was not one woman wearing a hat. Hats seem to have gone far too fancy. I miss the kind of simple hats that you could wear for any smart occasion.
          But most people had made an effort and were wearing monochrome as far as I could see from the other parties.

        1. I didn#t take it badly, it was from a hippy Christian in her nineties! She probably hasn't worn court shoes for about half a century! She was wearing a rainbow scarf, but I reckon anyone over 90 gets a free pass to wear what they want!

      3. I shouldn’t judge, but yes, I would take a bet that they really dress up!

    3. How very sad for all involved. I too had a friend who went at 35 from cancer.
      I ws surprised at my Dads funeral. Cousins in trackies and untucked shirts but at least they were there. A lot of young people won't have the black suit in the wardrobe. Times are a changing.

        1. True but i think they would not want to spend the money. I do wear a white shirt and black tie but now i wear black jeans and black jacket. Still wear the polished shoes though.

        2. Unless you are family, you shouldn't really wear black anyway. Dark grey or navy items are preferred.

        3. Unless you are family, you shouldn't really wear black anyway. Dark grey or navy items are preferred.

      3. I went to the funeral of Marguerite, one of my wife's best friends, last week. There were 700 people there because she was very well known and much loved in the parish and the granddaughter of an eminent French marine artist, Marin Marie who painted beautiful seascapes. Very few people wore suits – even members of the family – and in my dark suit, quiet pale blue shirt and black tie I felt rather overdressed.

        Marguerite was a painter like her father and grandfather and we have a painting of our house which she did for Caroline. She worked as a nurse and had to have all the Covid jabs against her will or lose her job. It is widely believed that these injections interfered with the chemo therapy she received for her cancer which she developed 18 monts ago.

        Here is one of her grandfather's paintings:

        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b089e8cb0669ccb6f0d3c9a5719b8d00c685549cc84f8ccd7ae9eddcc0b47f0f.png

    4. I hate goodbyes, and won't even say it, it's too final. And you don't get more final than a funeral.

      1. The will, when you discover that you have been cut out, is the most final thing. The absolute last word from the dearly departed.

        1. Hmm…
          Mother has several. For some reason, she's been using two law firms that I have found correspondence with, both have wills of hers… neither have share certificates nd the like.
          On the subject of being cut out, this week I was unfriended by someone who occupied the position of "Bestie". That hurts, I tell you. Don't know what I did to deserve it – most likely I'm too dull. But it felt like losing a parent – and I've only one of those left.

          6. I would say not to worry, but I guess you will! It’s not your problem.

          7. I am just applying for probate after the indeterminable delay by HMRC. They require the original will and ask if there any damage, stains or staple marks (they are looking for any evidence of tampering). Hope you can sort out which you will present when the time comes, or perhaps it doesnt make much difference! Probate seems to be 16 weeks min….. if all is in order (and there are no stray staple holes).

    5. We've been to funerals where track suits, jeans trainers etc…. seem to be de rigueur.
      And plenty where people have more of sense of occasion.

  71. I have been having problems with my feet recently and had uncomfortable heat rashes. None of the usual foot creams work so i am trying a foot peel mask. Just watched the tiktok videos and it comes highly recommended. gets rid of all the hard and dry patches.
    The only draw back is it takes at least two weeks to fully peel off. Like a snake shedding its skin only slower.
    it's called Plantique foot peel mask if anyone wants to try it. Promises baby soft feet.

          1. Not a joke: skin is actually my favourite food.

            I love the skin (the best bit) on cod and haddock, chicken, and lamb shoulder, but my favourite is pork crackling.

            Am I a dermisphile? Or a dermivore?

      1. I was tempted once in Malta but i didn’t want the baby fish to look like me. :@(

  73. Putin gives Kim ride in ‘Russian Rolls Royce’ as defence pact signed. 19 June 2024.

    Earlier, the leaders held two hours of talks at Kim’s residence before signing the military agreement that positions Russia and North Korea at the centre of an anti-West axis.

    The Russian president said the “breakthrough document” raised relations “to a new level”.

    “It provides for the provision of mutual assistance in the event of aggression against one of the parties to this agreement,” he said.

    I don’t suppose that they are going to tell us what is in this document but what if it agrees the presence of North Korean troops in Ukraine? What is NATO going to do then? You can see here the mobilisation of forces. The path to escalation.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/06/19/vladimir-putin-signs-pact-kim-jong-un-north-korea-visit/

    2. I wonder how NK and Russia, which share a border, having a military pact where if one is attacked the other will support them is any different from what NATO has done across Europe.

      Now imagine if all the countries bordering China joined that pact and they called it the Chino-Russian United Nations Treaty as a counterbalance to American aggression.

      What difference is there between a Biden led NATO and a Chinese led …….

      1. A Biden-led NATO has God on its side whereas the other lot doesn't, or so some might say.

      2. How might one refer to signatories of an organisation whose acronym would be CRUNT?

      1. I would leave the cylinder drains open a bit too long when pulling away, to generate huge white photogenic plumes like the above.

      2. Because he is far better looking than either Starmer, Cameron, Davey or Sunak.

  78. Old man goes into a chemist and says "Do you sell Ralgex?"
    Chemist says "Yes we do" and the old man writes it down on a pad.
    Old man then says "Do you sell corn plasters?"
    Chemist says "Yes we do", old man writes it down
    Old man then says "Do you sell surgical stockings?"
    Chemist says "Yes we do" Old man writes it down.
    Chemist says " Why are you writing all these down?"
    Old man says, "Me and my 92 year old girl friend are getting married next month and we are recommending your shop for the wedding list"

  80. I've never seen a story like this in Penarth Times before:
    Man sexually assaulted man in the Vale and snorted cocaine off his penis
    https://www.penarthtimes.co.uk/news/24397270.penarths-guy-watson-guilty-sexually-assaulting-man/

    A MAN has been found guilty of sexually assault another man in the Vale.

    Guy Watson, 33, gave oral sex to his victim, who claimed he was straight, and snorted cocaine off his victim’s penis.

    Watson, of Royal Buildings, Stanwell Road, Penarth, was found guilty after a weeklong trial at Cardiff Crown Court, which ran from June 10 to June 14, on seven charges consisting of sexual assault and causing a male to engage in penetrative sexual activity.

    In December 2022, Watson’s victim had been out for a drive with one of his friends, sitting in the passenger seat drinking wine from a water bottle.

    When he got back home he still wanted to go out so messaged round to see if anyone wanted to join him.

    Watson responded and picked the complainant up.

    After drinking in Wetherspoons in Barry they eventually ended up back at Watson’s flat where they continued drinking and listening to music. It was here the victim’s memory goes hazy.

    He claims he woke up the next morning, not remembering anything, while wearing the defendant’s denim shorts.

    Videos the defendant found on his phone days after the incident gave clues as to what happened in the period of his temporary memory loss.

    They showed Watson giving the complainant oral sex and snorting cocaine off his penis.

    In defence of Watson, his barrister challenged the fact the complainant, who said he was so intoxicated to the point he lost his memory, was still able to record the incident on his phone.

    Despite the complainant saying he liked women and was not gay, Watson’s defence challenged his actions that night to suggest maybe he wasn’t entirely heterosexual.

    “What are you doing if you are openly straight, allowing a man who is openly gay, to give you a massage when you have been out drinking?”

    Watson’s defence went on to claim: “Then you allow him to suck your penis.”

    However, despite this, and after Watson’s victim stated he “was straight” and “liked women”, a jury found Watson guilty of seven charges, five of sexual assault and two of causing a male to engage in penetrative sexual activity.

    Watson was remanded in custody and will be sentenced in July.

      1. Just Penarth Times. Mother's local rag. Worlds dullest paper, so this article is proper racy!

    2. I always found our childhood holidays in Wales very dull.
      If only we'd known about the recreational possibilities beyond our soggy camp site.

    3. When you're completely blotto you can't get it up. Therefore he wasn't blotto and he's a woofter.

    4. What, Spoons, you wouldn't catch any decent people in there… ahem. Apparently Penarth, Pub been taken over by new owners.

  81. A pithy Par Four!

    Wordle 1,096 4/6
    ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜
    ⬜🟩⬜⬜⬜
    ⬜🟩🟩🟨⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Well done. 5 today for me.
      Wordle 1,096 5/6

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

    2. Five here.

      Wordle 1,096 5/6

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

    3. Me too.

      Wordle 1,096 4/6

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

    4. Bit better

      Wordle 1,096 3/6

      🟨⬜⬜🟨🟩
      🟩⬜⬜⬜⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩A

  82. We’ve just received a few photos from our trip to Portugal! Not the wedding, but the next day at a family birthday party for our SiL’s mother who was 85! There were family members from all over the place including Canada, and it’s a tradition for them to have a massive photo! I’d love to post them here but I’d better not! I think you know our SiL is black, and in the photos there are 50 people, 46 of whom are either black, or mixed race! And then there are the Macfarlanes, and another white man who married into the family. We’re going to play ‘Spot the white man’ and ‘Where’s
    Whitey’ at Christmas!

        1. I go and see a very good BH tribute guy most years in Stirling! He’s brilliant!

      2. ‘Jolly’ is certainly one word for them, Belle! They are a lot of fun and we really enjoy the whole getting together celebrations! 4 generations from all over the place, meeting up in Portugal for a fabulous wedding and a big birthday! Quite a few days!😅

        1. I actually envy you , and from previous experiences I have also been overwhelmed by a type of jollity that is missing at Brit do’s .

          Sadly us Brits apart from the Scots and the Irish of course 😉can be rather stiff and awkward .

    3. The entire discussion over racism has been twisted. There are, without question, hard working, law abiding, decent black folks wo just want to live their lives.

      Immigration is purely an economic argument. If a land mass can support 100 people comfortably at 200 it is overwhelmed and at 500 it collapses into conflict. For every job an immigrant – the law abiding, family supporting fellow with two jobs destroys a job a local can't take.

      1. The ‘family’ all work and all do very well, earnings wise. They include a couple of very wealthy footballers, and a couple of accountants/financial specialists. Plus business owners and consultants. My only problem is their collective air of entitlement.

  83. Tory wipeout

    Britain is about to pass the point of no return

    Labour will have free reign to unleash a technocratic, socialist redistribution of wealth, and to install a Brownite constitution from hell

    SHERELLE JACOBS
    19 June 2024 • 4:44pm

    The closer that we get to election day, the more the air becomes oppressed with an impending sense of history. Increasingly, it seems that the Tory Party is about to be not merely pummelled on 4 July, but pounded into the dust.

    In fact, if the latest bombshell Savanta poll commissioned by this newspaper is to be believed, then the “natural party of government” is perilously close to being denied the privilege of main opposition.

    We are entering uncharted territory here. Not only because the Conservatives may never recover – the shock of such a resounding national rejection is just as likely to trigger a fatal stroke in the ancient party’s central nervous system as it is roused back to life. Even those who would welcome such an outcome must confront the fact that the price is, in the short-term at least, a one-party dictatorship under Labour.

    After all, if the polling from Savanta is in the right territory, then Labour could end up with tens times more seats than either the Tories or the Lib Dems. Such an outcome would make a mockery of British democracy.

    Not since 1931 when the Labour government collapsed, ushering in the National Government that claimed 518 out of 615 seats, have we seen such a breakdown in adversarial democratic politics. True one might take comfort in the fact that Ramsay MacDonald’s coalition government in many ways used its untrammelled power benevolently – for example waiting out the Depression, instead of succumbing to pressure to meddle in the economy.

    Today, a one-party dictatorship under Labour is likely to be the worst of both worlds – visionlessly utopian, progressively anti-progress, a harbinger of both existential paralysis and constitutional tyranny. This is for the simple reason that, lacking the answers to pressing challenges but at the same time possessing a free pass in Parliament, the temptation for Labour to instead absorb itself in laying the groundwork for a social democratic “empire of law” will be overwhelming.

    So far the signs that Labour would be able to put its stonking newfound power to productive use are not reassuring. Its plans to overhaul the planning system are strangely timid (they do not, for example remove height restrictions or overhaul its centralised, discretionary framework). Its brittly cautious immigration plan is being plunged into disarray by a shift to the Right in Europe. Having failed to come up with a serious plan for healthcare, it has started nervously rowing back on its previous bolshy yet vague rhetoric about ending the cult of the NHS.

    Unable to address the big issues, yet armed with a super-supermajority, Labour is likely to exploit a lack of opposition in Parliament to bulldoze convention and tradition, not only abolishing the House of Lords but indulging the New Left fantasy of unleashing prosperity through the socialistic redistribution of not only capital but power. Whether devolution is a necessary step to the reinvigoration of the UK’s former manufacturing strongholds or a recipe for cronyism and waste is subject to debate. But without a robust opposition, Labour will be in a position to force through whatever flawed plan copied and pasted from the pamphlets of centre-Left think tanks it wishes.

    More alarming is the Left’s determination to exploit its imminent new power to pass a Brownite constitutional framework that guarantees a right to social welfare. Not only is the technocratic Left’s attempt to reclassify that vital, messy political question of how to balance the welfare state against economic growth into a cut-and-dry legal matter a frightening example of that technocratic urge to eliminate problems by merely reimagining them in simplified legal terms. To pave the way for making welfare cuts essentially illegal at a time when the West is in the grips of stagnation is arguably an act of pure civilisational suicide. Of course without an opposition Labour will be in a position, if it is inclined, to do just that.

    The anger at the Tories is justified. But one must acknowledge that the potential collateral damage of their coming punishment beating sends a chill down the spine.

    ******************************

    Philip Caine
    13 MIN AGO
    An enormous majority for Labour will be wonderful. The joy of watching the Labour party mess things up so badly and with no-one to blame but themselves will be priceless. Best of all, after 5 years of Labour the younger demographic will be so turned off the socialist alternative that all those 16 and 17 year old voters will be queuing up to vote for anyone but Labour.

    1. But it doesn't work that way. They get in and immediately blame the Tories – when most of the debt was run up during Brown's era.

      There are some people who still blame Truss, for goodness sake. Labour would ruin everything then point at the other lot and blame them and, because most people are really not very bright just would not understand the complexities involved (Hell, I only get the surface issues).

      Lefty voters believe what they want to. The feverish support for Reform is worrying as it lacks pragmatic views on what they can really accomplish.

      A Labour govenrment will do what Labour always do: tax, waste, indebt, the poor will get poorer (because investment vanishes and immigration soars), wealth will run off – the Warqueen is already advising a blasted window cleaner on his tax affairs. There will be no effort to simplify the tax code because the state likes big tax. The middle will get hammered ever harder: if you work, save, try to invest, own anything they'll hit you with tax after tax after tax. The tax thresholds will remain suppressed. The green scam will continue to be pushed at incredibly, horrific cost.

      The really sad thing is the Tories will do exactly the same.

    2. Most of the bright 16 and 17-year-old potential voters will emigrate to the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

      Many will simply move to Dublin.

      1. I’ve just checked out today’s Guardian online and no sign of this. Though there’s plenty of rubbish to be had there, this does appear to be a spoof.

        2. Haha , I guessed as much , very naughty but very funny really .

          I also had a look , and did wonder whether the article had been cancelled , well, we are now on the road to nowhere !

  86. Yes, yes.
    I KNOW I'm being un-Christan.
    I KNOW that most Moslems are peaceful and loverly people.
    But:
    At least these 550 pilgrims achieved one item on their bucket list.

    "More than 550 people have now been confirmed dead after this year’s pilgrimage – a religious duty for many Muslims – took place under a blistering Gulf summer sun."

    2. They do have a habit of stampeding at Mecca and trampling each other to death. Was this Helios taking revenge on the worshippers of Hubal, Lord of the Kabah (the moon god of Mecca)?

      1. Always reminds me of the film 'cell', the brain dead in pursuit of eternal damnation.
        With a goodly number succeeding.

    4. The unfortunate casualties were gatecrashers, without Haj visas, so were excluded from official refreshment tents etc.
      The Saudi authorities couldn't cope, partly because no one has 550 ambulances on standby. Sadly, many would-be pilgrims are humble people from impoverished countries, and know little about the perils of hot weather.

    5. Most true muslims are not peaceful and lovely people. They are dedicated to making everyone else submit to their ideology. They are only apparently peaceful until they reach critical mass.

    6. Or they are all in a pub drinks on lower pub table's. All having a chat occasionally taking sips of their beers. One of the ladies standing close to the beers accidentally let one go.
      Daley Thompson shouts across the circle. D'yoo fart in my Whitbread ?
      Oh god no I'm Tessa Sanderson.

    2. I went there when I was at prep school in Bath in the 1950s. The headmaster hired a couple of charabancs and Matron was in charge of one group, Mrs Moore in charge of the other and Mr d'Arcy-Hughes was in charge of the refreshments. We had our sandwiches and cocoa from the urns and the we were set free to scramble over the monoliths before returning to St Christopher's for supper.

      1. I did the same with the children years ago , we were looking for snowy hills ,, and yes it was freezing cold , so I stopped at Stone Henge in the old banger I was driving , Wolseley 1500 ( rumbled along, ) leather seats and a proper steering wheel , and spaniel on the back seat, tomato soup in a flask and bacon sarnies , and as a treat Wagon wheel chocolate biscuits , (remember how huge they were ).. spade and a blanket in the boot in case we saw / ran into snow .. We were living here in Dorset , but no snow then .

        The boys and I were chilled to the bone when we walked around the stones ..We put our arms around the stones to listen to time gone by, you know , the sort of thing one does in cathedrals , well I do anyway.

        We were rewarded with a sleet shower , and when we arrived home we heard on the news that Wiltshire had a blanket of snow , which was spreading to Dorset and elswhere.

        How on earth did they erect those stones.. and what did they use them for .. Sons thought they might have had a roof , a space ship landing spot .. children have amazing imaginations .

        1. I have visited the stones at Stonehenge several times. In terms of their depiction in times past we have the C17 architect Inigo Jones opining in his journals that these are a Roman monument, the English caricaturist Rowlandson illustrating them as rickety fragments of stone built as a folly and finally Henry Moore nailing it by drawing them as subtle highly honed shapes which would have required a high degree of human activity and working of the external surfaces.

          I imply that Moore was likening the finely honed surfaces to the entasis on a Greek or Roman column. Sculptors of renown often have an exceptional understanding of the form and surface of historic artifacts.

          Excuse my long sentence. Relatively recently the archaeologist and writer Alexander Thom has published the results of his measurements of many similar Megalithic structures whic occur not only in England but in Ireland and northern France. Thom established that these structures were set out geometrically and with a standard unit of measurement which Thom defined as the Megalithic Foot.

          Despite these revelations a couple of Soros funded morons, equipped with their canisters of orange paint see fit to desecrate our ancient, partially understood ancient monuments.

          Jail is not enough for these idiots, public flogging would be more appropriate, that or recreating the Stocks of old where the public can be stirred to mete the punishment using rotten cabbages and tomato’s.

        2. I have visited the stones at Stonehenge several times. In terms of their depiction in times past we have the C17 architect Inigo Jones opining in his journals that these are a Roman monument, the English caricaturist Rowlandson illustrating them as rickety fragments of stone built as a folly and finally Henry Moore nailing it by drawing them as subtle highly honed shapes which would have required a high degree of human activity and working of the external surfaces.

          I imply that Moore was likening the finely honed surfaces to the entasis on a Greek or Roman column. Sculptors of renown often have an exceptional understanding of the form and surface of historic artifacts.

          Excuse my long sentence. Relatively recently the archaeologist and writer Alexander Thom has published the results of his measurements of many similar Megalithic structures whic occur not only in England but in Ireland and northern France. Thom established that these structures were set out geometrically and with a standard unit of measurement which Thom defined as the Megalithic Foot.

          Despite these revelations a couple of Soros funded morons, equipped with their canisters of orange paint see fit to desecrate our ancient, partially understood ancient monuments.

          Jail is not enough for these idiots, public flogging would be more appropriate, that or recreating the Stocks of old where the public can be stirred to mete the punishment using rotten cabbages and tomato’s.

  90. A Muslim entrepreneur has donated hundreds of thousands of pounds to Reform UK, saying migrants who came to Britain legally are dismayed that “we have lost control of our borders”.

    Zia Yusuf, who co-founded the luxury concierge app Velocity Black before selling it last year for £233 million, believes Nigel Farage alone has the policies to heal the “broken” country.

    Mr Yusuf’s donation to Reform, the biggest of the election campaign so far, is a major coup for a party which faces regular accusations of racism from its critics. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/06/19/zia-yusuf-muslim-entrepreneur-gives-donation-to-reform/

    It is also a blow to the Conservatives, as the entrepreneur is a former member of the Tory Party but now thinks they are unable to make the “hard decisions”.

    The 37-year-old, whose parents came to Britain from Sri Lanka in the 1980s and forged careers in the NHS, said the “vast majority of Muslims” in the country are patriots who believe net migration is too high.

    He told The Telegraph: “My parents came here legally. When I talk to my friends they are as affronted as anyone by illegal Channel crossings, which are an affront to all hard-working British people but not least the migrants who played by the rules and came legally.

    “I think Britain can be an amazing country, it’s the country of Dyson and DeepMind, but we have completely lost control of our borders, that is just factually correct.”

    Mr Yusuf claimed net migration was at 50,000 when his parents arrived in Britain, which made assimilation easier.

    “Last year it was 650,000 and that’s causing the NHS to buckle under pressure, despite us spending more than we have ever spent on it. We are also not building enough homes to cope with the growing population.”

    Mr Yusuf, who is single and lives in Surrey, is still deciding what he wants to do next in life after selling his business

    Mr Yusuf was born in Scotland and when his parents moved to the south of England he won a 50 per cent scholarship to attend the fee-paying Hampton School in Middlesex.

    After working for the investment bank Goldman Sachs, he took a gamble by quitting his high-paid job to set up a business with old school friend Alex Macdonald.

    He says they worked seven days a week, without holidays, for years to build Velocity Black, an invitation-only travel and events app for the rich and famous.

    With pop stars Rita Ora and Ellie Goulding among clients, the company does everything from booking flights to securing Wimbledon Centre Court tickets.

    Last year Mr Yusuf and Mr Macdonald sold the business to Capital One, the American credit card and banking giant, netting more than £30 million each for their shares in the business.

    Parallels with Sunak
    Mr Yusuf’s life story has distinct parallels with another son of migrants with roots in the Indian subcontinent: Rishi Sunak.

    Both have parents who came to Britain and worked in the health service, both went to top private schools thanks to sacrifices made by their parents, both worked for Goldman Sachs and both left to set up their own businesses.

    It is no wonder that Mr Yusuf became a member of the Conservative Party, but he now feels completely let down by Mr Sunak and his team.

    He believes the Prime Minister has failed to show the sort of leadership that the country needs, and does not think Sir Keir Starmer will be able to do so either.

    “I have paid millions in taxes, created hundreds of jobs,” he said. “I know how important it is to make hard decisions in a timely fashion and that’s not what I see from the Conservatives.

    “These are incredibly challenging times and whether it’s house prices or rental prices or the NHS, we need courageous, bold politicians who are able to confront these problems and look them in the eye, and Nigel Farage and Richard Tice are the only ones prepared to talk about this.”

    ‘I love Britain and I’m a patriot’
    Mr Yusuf, who is single and lives in Surrey, is still deciding what he wants to do next in life after selling his business, but is passionate about the need to defend and promote British values across all parts of society.

    He said: “I love Britain and I’m a patriot, a British Muslim patriot, which I believe the vast majority of Muslims in the UK are.

    “I was profoundly moved by the D-Day commemorations and I’m hugely grateful for the people who laid down their lives – hundreds of thousands of whom were Muslims.

    “British values are worth defending and I find it concerning how few people are prepared to defend them.

    “Equality under the law, freedom of expression, freedom of religion, love of the family, hard work, complaining about the weather – these are British values and they are incredibly important to me and my Muslim friends.”

    Farage ‘wants best for Britain’
    He has no time for people who dismiss Reform’s policies as racist.

    “I am a businessman, an entrepreneur, and I have come across racism and Islamophobia so I know what it looks like,” he said.

    “Having spent time with Nigel Farage it’s clear to me that he wants the best for Britain and its people, no matter their religion or skin colour.

    “No one is more aware than I am of the contribution immigrants can make. My parents came here 40 years ago and they travelled all over the country to find work and advance their careers.”

    Mr Farage said: “I met Zia many years ago and know how devoted to this country he is. Aside from his generosity, he will be a great asset and media performer during this campaign and beyond.”

    GS

    Grant Shapiro
    30 MIN AGO
    And what would he like in return for his large donation? A blind eye to the Islamisation of this country? More mosques? I do not like this, one bit

          1. Shock, horror Sue. Someone in this day and age failed to read what was right in front of them? Didn't check the facts? I don't believe it!

    2. Taqiyya. Muslims have allegiance to the ummah and not to a kuffar country. Their aim is to make non-muslim countries submit. I don't like it either.

    1. A bit like Scotland sending hundreds of extra people to Germany for support. It won't actually increase their teams skill or playing ability.

          2. Aye sac.
            Or driving home from a night in the pub, car broke down.
            Piston broke.

  93. 388713+ up ticks,

    It's like the cafe menu spam,spam,spam or spam tactical voting that is, only a name change will be the outcome, the options are shite,shite,shite, or shite by another name.

    I cannot believe that having suffered these past recent years from an orchestrated campaign that the
    politico / pharmaceutical hierarchy waged against the peoples
    that the peoples are actually selecting from the shite,shite,
    shite or shite menu who should govern the remnants of these Isles into the future.

    https://x.com/oneadds/status/1803116118774784217

      1. Funny that it never hit the headlines in the past, and it isn't just the heart issues, strokes in young people also seem to be increasing.
        And, whilst it may be true that it "has been happening since time", how may of those dying were international standard athletes as opposed to "average" young adults?

      2. 388713 + up ticks,

        Evening DW,
        Do I take it then that you are in denial of excess deaths and serious ongoing lifelong injuries ?

        1. I'm quite prepared to believe that some are exploiting data in a way which is incompatible with the facts. The excess deaths will have complex explanations which some are yearning to blame entirely on Covid-19 vaccines. People are so obsessed with global monsters ruining the world about them that the see everything through that prism.

          1. 388741+ up ticks,

            Morning DW,

            If you think the pakistani paedophilic rape & abuse set up via labour and triggered by
            “miranda” is seen through a distorted prism as in
            “People are obsessed with global monsters ruining the world about them” you must really seriously appraise that statement again.

            https://youtu.be/ejVSTRjVkSs?si=AQ8PL-cH1NkhsAxw

  94. Phew! I'm back!
    Had a stressful hour or so……………
    I must have clicked on something unintentional and it brought up a scam Microsoft window ………….. I couldn't get rid of it. I knew it was a scam as I've never used Microsoft anything. I emailed the Help desk (my two sons) from the old laptop, and they both answered……… so then I had two laptops and two phones in use at once and got more and more confused and stressed out……….. Anyway the one in Basel killed the scam and I've just had to reload the pages I was using.
    The one in Swansea had a look at the photo I took on my phone and it's all gone now but there was a dodgy-looking link in the history……. will delete that. It's been a stressful day one way and another. What with not getting to my lunch.

    1. Oh dear…Tomorrow is another day.
      What a shame about your lunch. Do try again.

        1. There are road searches you can do so not caught out.
          The motorway between Heathrow and Gatwick is closing soon. That will catch a lot of people out.

          2. There have been several closures. Resurfacing i think. Not closed for long but you can imagine what the A roads around there are like. Travelers need to check for themselves.

          4. Excellent, thank you. Will merkmal it.

            “We can confirm that the M25 between junctions 10 and 11 will be closed from 9pm Friday 12 July to 6am Monday 15 July 2024.”

        2. I don't know if it is available in the UK, but WAZE on a phone sat nav is a pretty good route guide.
          It gets updated by users and locals give route suggestions.
          It's rescued us from some unwanted detours.

          1. Yes, I saw Waze but didn't want to suggest any apps given recent issues. I'm nice me.

          3. I haven't tried using sat nav in my car or on my phone. I think I'd probably get even more confused. One of my friends got caught by the road closure as well, but she found a different route.

    3. There's always something out to get you it seems.
      I had a phone call from 'virgin media' always people with Indian accents.
      always trying to get you to log on.

      1. It was a horrible thing with lots of overlapping windows. But the worst part of it was the voice that said your files would be deleted unless you phoned their help desk now! I couldn’t get it to shut up except by shutting the laptop down. Then it was still there when I logged back in. But my son managed to kill it.

        1. It’s dreadful what is happening.
          Someone knows what is going on and how to stop it all.

    2. Muslims are feeling disillusioned and asking themselves if they belong here?

      The answer of course, is no – if you owe allegiance to Islam rather than to the UK (as your religion states you must). Emigrate to an Islamic country where your beliefs are welcome.

      1. And the sooner the better, making sure you take every family member with you. You will no doubt enjoy the rest of your lives in an islamic state, because you obviously hate living in the West.

  98. The BBC: where democrats are far-right-wing extremists and terrorists are employees.

    Emma Barnett has a colourful family background. She has Jewish parents (her grandmother fled Austria to escape the Nazis). Her father was a pimp.

    BBC Radio 4's Today presenter Emma Barnett calls terrorist kidnappers 'men working for Hamas'
    –
    It is the latest in a series of incidents in which the broadcaster has failed to describe the group as a terrorist organisation
    –
    Alex Barton • 19 June 2024 • 12:27pm

    BBC Radio 4's Emma Barnett has called armed terrorists who kidnapped an elderly woman on October 7 "men working for Hamas".

    The Today programme host failed to call Hamas a terrorist organisation during the broadcast. It is the latest in a series of incidents in which the BBC has failed to describe the group as terrorists.

    Barnett was introducing a section of Today about a 75-year-old grandmother of nine who was kidnapped by Hamas at gunpoint. She said: "On October 7 last year Ada Sagi was having a morning coffee at home in Nir Oz kibbutz on the border with Gaza, when suddenly several men armed with Kalashnikovs working for Hamas burst into her home and forced her at gunpoint onto a motorbike and took her hostage."

    Barnett went on to say a total of 116 hostages seized by Hamas that day remain unaccounted for. Ada Sagi spent 53 days imprisoned by the group before she was released. Ms Sagi described the men who kidnapped her as "two Hamas terrorists", and added: "I saw people running away and many, many terrorists shooting them."

    The Campaign Against Antisemitism said the BBC's decision not to call Hamas terrorists was "unfathomable" and that it "only fuels anti-Jewish extremists and apologists for terrorism". A spokesman told The Telegraph: "Ofcom has made it crystal clear that there is no rule stopping the BBC from referring to Hamas as terrorists, so what is the Corporation waiting for?"

    Later on in the programme, when the full interview aired, Ms Barnett again described members of the terrorist group as "men working for Hamas". She said: "Several men working for Hamas burst into her home and forced her barefoot at gunpoint onto a motorbike and took her hostage alongside scores of others."

    The 39-year-old former Woman's Hour presenter did not mention that Hamas is a proscribed terrorist group by the UK Government. Ms Sagi said the group claimed they "were not Hamas" but members of "Jihad" who were taking her hostage so she could be exchanged for those being kept by Israel. The Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine is an Islamist paramilitary organisation seeking to establish a Palestinian state.

    Lord Cameron has previously urged the BBC to call Hamas "terrorists". In May, the Foreign Secretary said the organisation ought to "ask itself again" about how it labelled Hamas following the October 7 attack on Israel in which more than 1,100 people died.

    He was speaking on BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, after Hamas released a video showing Nadav Popplewell, a British-Israeli hostage, who the group claimed had died in Gaza after being wounded in an Israeli air strike a month ago.

    However, a day later the BBC's Nick Robinson ignored the demand while taking part in a discussion on Radio 4's Today programme about Israel's military operations in southern Gaza. "Is there a sense that Benjamin Netanyahu is walking a political tightrope, proceeding with military action against what he says are the remaining targets of the group he calls terrorists, Hamas?" he asked Jo Floto, the BBC's Middle East bureau editor.

    Robinson's wording was criticised by Sir Michael Fabricant, the Tory MP, who said on social media: "Why does Nick Robinson say on BBC Radio 4 'Hamas, a terrorist organisation as Israel would say' when Hamas is a terrorist organisation and is proscribed as such by the United Kingdom and EU?"

    Deborah Turness, the BBC's head of news, has previously defended not describing Hamas as terrorists and the broadcaster has not changed its policy on the matter.

    John Simpson, the BBC's world affairs editor, previously said: "We don't take sides. We don't use loaded words like 'evil' or 'cowardly'. We don't talk about 'terrorists'".

    The BBC was contacted for comment.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/06/19/bbc-today-emma-barnett-israel-hamas-broadcaster/

    1. If the modern beeb had been reporting in ww2:
      Waffen SS
      Men working for the greater good of Germany.

  99. Labour's coming dictatorship destroys the case for first-past-the-post
    –
    Britain is already voting as if it has proportional representation. But the system is delivering Soviet-style majorities
    –
    TIM STANLEY • 19 June 2024 • 5:20pm

    If this poll proves accurate then July 4 might be the doomsday event that finally converts conservatives to proportional representation. Labour – not having cracked 50 per cent of the popular vote – enjoys a Soviet-style majority in the Commons; Tories second in vote share yet almost third in seats; Lib Dems third in vote share yet within a whisker of forming His Majesty's Opposition. Reform on nothing.

    For decades Right-wingers defended First Past the Post (FPTP) on the grounds that it roots MPs in a local polity while providing stable national government. PR was for foreigners, typically Italian, who like being governed by chaotic coalitions collated from lists.

    But what FPTP was never meant to do was create a dictatorship – and a Labour landslide of this size amounts to just that. Under our system, a parliamentary majority can do whatever it wants (see Brexit). [Somebody tell him what really happened!]

    A Left-wing government with barely any opposition means five years of driving the country Left-ward with nary a check nor a balance – even if most of the country will have voted against it or abstained.

    The Lib Dems will say "suck it up: that's what we went through in the 1980s. We got a quarter of the vote; we got a tiny number of seats. When we demanded PR, the Tories laughed at us."

    Ah, but the situation is now very different. The old SDP/Liberal Alliance came third in the popular vote, not second – and thus its number of seats might have been disproportionately low, but it reflected its failure to beat Labour (still the dominant party of the urban working-class).

    By contrast, the present possibility of the Conservatives/Reform together winning almost as many votes as Labour but taking a small/zero number of seats is patently absurd. It's evidence of a constitution no longer capable of expressing the will of the voters – akin to being governed by a council of bishops long after people stopped going to church.

    Here's the fundamental problem: the two-party system is dying, but the constitutional framework props it up. Only five years ago, Labour received historically bad results; now it's the Conservatives' turn. The governing class is incompetent, weird and has zero charisma. Being run by vicars might actually be more compelling.

    Smaller parties are emerging to represent the young, the disenfranchised, the discontented – Reform, Lib Dem, Green, SNP, perhaps even the Workers Party. Britons are thus voting like they live under PR, seeking new ideas and fresh faces that ought to result in a kaleidoscopic Commons. Yet they're getting results as if they were living under the mass-membership party system circa 1945 – a Labour landslide that wildly exaggerates the actual level of support for Sir Keir Starmer in the country (he's no Clement Attlee).

    Curiously, this is the one aspect of our system you can guarantee he won't fix: votes for 16-year-olds, Lords reform, yes. But why would any leader tinker with an electoral system that hands him Napoleonic powers even though the public is utterly cynical about his ability to fix anything?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/06/19/labours-coming-dictatorship-destroys-the-case-for-first-pas/

    1. FPTP only works if everyone votes for the best candidate in their constituency. In times past that was possible, but these days The Party is everything. The herd votes for the party now and not the constituent.

      But then the Conservatives are most guilty of encouraging that. How often have we heard from them, "vote for us or you'll get the nastiest people on earth instead". In other words don't evaluate your local candidate, vote for the least worst alternative.

      When the alternative has finally descended to the level that it's as bad as the nasty bogeyman then we desert the ballot box en masse and the minorities that run 'The Party' come to power.

      FPTP is fine in principle; however, the parties have contrived a position where it's stuffed Parliament with dreadful mediocrities, thus removing whatever benefits the system had.

  100. I've joined the 100 thousand club.
    As you would expect, my up vote total remains at a healthy zero.

      1. You're not far off either.
        I'm not sure what the proper number is, having had to reincarnate over the years.

  101. FPTP has its disadvantages, but PR gives vocal minorities power out of all proportion to their worth.

    1. "… but PR gives vocal minorities power out of all proportion to their worth."

      Not necessarily so, sos! Only if you allow corruption by selected 'lists' (a la SNP) rather than individual candidates.

      A 'Single Transferable Vote' system delivers the goods: Proportional Representation.

      1. Even STV (more like std) allows for anomalous outcomes.
        If there are several candidates and more than one place available, in theory it looks good, but let’s say my choice wins, under STV my vote finishes there.
        My second choice won’t be given my vote. The ones who fell at the first can get up and vote again; I can’t.

    1. The whole match is hideously white and neither side should be given any points.

          1. By the modern convention it will still be credited to McTominay because the shot was on target, even though the keeper might well have saved it.

          4. Since the 'rule' was introduced, a lot of defenders have been spared the embarrassment of 'o.g.' in the results columns.

        4. It looked like the Scottish player was offside when they shot was taken. Obviously played on when it came off the Swiss leg. Should have been VAR.

      1. Democracy in the UK died when the central offices decided who should be the MP, rather than the local party members.
        That applies to all the parties.

    2. Rayner is such a repulsive person of low IQ that I wonder as to why anyone would vote for her. Rayner is steeped in chronic corruption, boasts publicly about driving a Bentley and has defrauded the public purse via her very presence as an MP. She is as corrupt and nasty as the rest of them.

      I predict that many such Labour “heavy hitters” will prove to have been below featherweight in boxing terms and meet a sticky end to their political careers.

  106. When the dust settles in early July, I wonder how many elected, but essentially non-entity MPs will suddenly become members of the House of Lords, so that the big boys can get pushed across and elected in "safe" seats?

      1. The upper house is an irrelevance (until Starmer gives the Judges absolute powers) it will be the loss of good local MPs, to be replaced by placemen on the front bench that will be the issue

    2. There are 827 members of the HoL. There were once only 50. Bring back the Anglo Norman aristocracy and ditch the rest. (Are there still 50 whose estates are in the Doomsday Book?)

        1. Yes, they abolished slavery and introduced serfdom. A bit like swapping between Conservative and Labour. Their thousand year inheritance still bestows a degree of credibility that the new world order lack.

  110. Today, we're diving into the latest People Polling results, which have sent shockwaves through British politics. The poll suggests a historic shift with the Reform Party surging to unprecedented levels, now polling at 24%.

    Historic Stuff..

      1. Interesting. The Lib-Dems at these times you would expect to get up to around 50. They've got traditional strongholds where people switch vote in protest at the Cons. So far so obvious. What's interesting is it seems to show Reform actually converting votes into some seats. Reform need somewhere around 35% of the vote for a real change in landscape I'd say.

        1. A dozen or 15 seats would be a loud voice in the Commons with Nigel Farage leading them.

          1. It’d be a loud voice with just him doing so! Mind you, I really would love a significant number of them to do something like he did at the EU’s pretendy parliament when they all turned their backs on the stuffed shirts. That’d be great.

      2. It's increased from 0 to 5 overnight on some polls. A pivotal point may be achieved quite soon.

  112. Evening, all. I'm afraid I was AWOL yesterday; life got in the way! I hope Eddy's op went well and everyone behaved themselves (as best they could).

    Labour doesn't understand the countryside; it's a totally urban party and countryfolk tend to be small C conservatives, whatever the woke Archers might like to portray.

  113. Who wants to cancel 'Net Zero', Wind farm fiascos, and uncontrolled legal and illegal immigration? Amongst many other ghastly things that the Conservative and Labour parties want to do, these are not in their plans.

  114. Er, well, it's a point of view…

    Labour doesn't deserve this lead

    Traditional Tories thinking of deserting the party need to think long and hard about the consequences of doing so

    TELEGRAPH VIEW • 19 June 2024 • 6:59pm

    Our latest opinion poll makes for grim reading for the Conservatives. The Savanta MRP projections would leave just 53 Tories in the Commons and give Labour 516 seats. The Liberal Democrats would be just behind the Conservatives on 50 and within striking distance of forming the official Opposition.

    To call this possible outcome unprecedented would be an understatement. It would be a shattering blow to the most successful political party the world has known. It took four elections, after Labour's landslide in 1997, for the Conservatives to form another government on their own in 2015. After the calamity of 1906, when they won just 156 seats, it was another 16 years (and a war) before the Tories were back in office.

    But to be reduced to double figures, with much of the current Cabinet losing their seats, would be a catastrophe. The Savanta projections even suggest that Rishi Sunak would lose Richmond in Yorkshire, the first prime minister ever to be ejected from the Commons in a general election.

    This would be a so-called "extinction-level event" from which the Conservatives, as currently structured, may not recover without help from others on the Right, notably Reform UK. Indeed, it is the extent of support drifting to Nigel Farage's party that is one of the main causes of this potential meltdown.

    More than that, it is the Reform leader's expressed purpose to destroy the Tories as a functioning political entity, though the poll projects that his party will fail to win a single seat, not even Clacton where Mr Farage is standing. The poll still shows the Tories well ahead of Reform in share of the vote, though some surveys have put them neck-and-neck.

    We have been critical of many of the things the Conservatives have done, or failed to do, over the past 14 years. But the idea that they have been so uniquely awful that they merit their virtual destruction is absurd, as is the idea that Labour deserves such a huge majority.

    Labour constantly attributes the political turmoil of the past few years to some inherent Tory defect when it was largely the function of unusual circumstances, beginning with the political upheaval of Brexit, and followed by the crises triggered by the Covid pandemic and Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

    It may be argued that the Conservatives should have handled these with greater acumen, but it cannot be denied that they were exceptional events. Brexit accounts for the ructions inside the party, Covid for the country's deepening indebtedness, and Ukraine for the cost of living crisis. No governing party would have withstood even one of these without being shaken to the core.

    The ill-starred administration of Liz Truss and the impact it had on the markets, forcing her resignation, was arguably the worst of all of these occurrences because it has fed a Labour narrative of "chaos". The word was bandied around on the airwaves on Wednesday by Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, to persuade voters that Labour, by contrast, would usher in a period of calm and prudence.

    Yet Labour is perpetuating a myth. When Mr Sunak and Jeremy Hunt took over 18 months ago, they steadied the ship, reassured the markets, and sought to rebuild the Tory party's reputation for competent governance.

    The inflation rate is now back to 2 per cent – the Bank of England target – for the first time since before Russia's invasion; more people are in work than ever; real wages are growing once more; and there is effectively full employment, with nearly one million vacancies to fill. The economy is doing better than that of Germany or France. Indeed, all political incumbents in Western democratic nations are being punished by voters, as attested by the recent election for the European parliament.

    However, under the first-past-the-post system, small percentage shifts in support can lead to dramatic losses. For the Tories, threatened on all sides, this can translate into dozens of seats they would normally have held.

    Labour could conceivably win a majority above 350 yet have a smaller proportion of the vote than Jeremy Corbyn in 2017. On a low turnout, it could only have the support of about 30 per cent of the total electorate. This is hardly a mandate for "change". Traditional Tories thinking of deserting the party on July 4 need to think long and hard about the consequences of doing so.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2024/06/19/labour-doesnt-deserve-this-lead/

    2. Every time i read Ukraine being the cause of our problems i stop reading. Shortage of flour for bread. Increased energy costs…it's all bollocks.

  115. Some comedies do not age well. I'm watching a repeat of The Office and I'm cringing inside. Yes, it's billed as cringe comedy but now not so much funny as disturbingly uncomfortable.

    1. Watched a bit of one and decided it wasn't for me quite a few years ago. It's only recently that I can watch his stand up stuff.

          1. The paedo in the park joke had me pissing myself with laughter. I had to keep pausing the vid because i was so cracked up i couldn't hear what he was saying.

    2. I felt the cringe the first time round and couldn't watch it. Drop the dead donkey is still funny.

  116. Another day is done so, I wish you a goodnight and may God bless you all, Gentlefolk. Bis morgen früh. If we are spared!

    1. ' Morning, Geoff, thank you and cheers for all the sterling work you have done to overcome difficulties. Well done!

      You seem to keep strange hours on the IoW!

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