Wednesday 2 August: At last politicians are waking up to the folly of the net-zero crusade

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

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

569 thoughts on “Wednesday 2 August: At last politicians are waking up to the folly of the net-zero crusade

    1. We had to get up early to take a girl to St Malo to catch her ferry. But when we got there we discovered the ferry had been cancelled so we have had to bring her back here again.

        1. We have now got her onto a Brittany Ferries crossing leaving at 1030 with two of the other students so we’re off to St Malo again!. The poor young people are likely to have a pretty rough crossing.

          We have a couple of days until the next group of students arrive at the weekend. I think Caroline will spend some of the time sleeping!

          1. I once travelled on the first ferry after the Channel had been closed due to rough weather. It was a mistake I won’t make again! Worst crossing of my life. I’ve never been a fan of fairground rides that raise you to the height of a three storey house and then plunge you sharply down again. All the idiots who love these things were having a wonderful time, of course!
            These days, I check the weather at the last moment and buy a tunnel ticket if it looks rough.
            Enjoy your well earned peace!

          2. I once crossed from Hook of Holland to Harwich in a force 8 gale. Not the pleasantest of experiences.

        2. We have now got her onto a Brittany Ferries crossing leaving at 1030 with two of the other students so we’re off to St Malo again!. The poor young people are likely to have a pretty rough crossing.

          We have a couple of days until the next group of students arrive at the weekend. I think Caroline will spend some of the time sleeping!

  1. ‘Morning, Peeps. Wet and windy today on yer sarf coast. Better tomorrow, or so they say.

    SIR – As a retired British police officer, I fear that if a future Labour government goes ahead with its decision to directly recruit detectives (report, July 31), it will be the beginning of the end for law enforcement in Britain.

    How does it expect new graduate recruits to parachute in and learn the necessary advanced interview and detection techniques if they have never spent time on the streets interacting with the public?

    The parlous state of law and order in this country is directly attributable to decades of interference by politicians who simply haven’t got a clue.

    Alan G Barstow
    Onslunda, Skåne County, Sweden

    Nice one Grizz!

  2. Good morning, chums. Off to the pictures today to re-watch MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 7 Part i, followed by BARBIE. Will report back later.

    1. Sunak and Shapps, sounds rather like a down-at-the-heel undertaker’s business, to me.
      IMO these two are feeding BS to the people, we know the agenda they are following and that agenda contains Net Zero. IMO the three recent byelection results have prodded them into a temporary change of direction until the next GE. Should the Tories, against the odds and their destructive policies and performance, win the next GE there will be a mighty U-turn: this current Tory cabal has form in this area. Should they lose they will be somewhat comforted by the fact that the Labour cabal will do exactly what they, the Tories, would have done had they won.
      Who, in their right mind would believe anything this shower says?

      1. So don’t vote Uniparty, either red or blue and certainly not yellow or green. NOTA will probably be the favourite, if only we could persuade the sheeple.

  3. At last politicians are waking up to the folly of the net-zero crusade

    Just until after the next election, the whole point of the exercise was that it was an obvious folly, as a part of the great reset doing things differently agenda.

    1. When is the Idiot King going to weigh in prophesising doom and dressed in sack cloth and ashes?

      1. He can afford it.
        The rest of us – not so much.
        He really is becoming a brioche munching numpty. I bet his breakfast cereal doesn’t come in a Tupperware box.

  4. Good morning all,

    Wet at McPhee Towers, all day, thunder this afternoon, wind Sou’-West, 14C going up to 18C. Off to Chichester again today.

    Philip Johnson in the Gatesograph complaining about 20mph speed limits which are spreading like a rash. They are so grossly over done now that they obviously a part of the war on the motorist and simultaneously a revenue opportunity. Firemen are to be empowered to pull us over and councils to impose the fines.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/08/01/britain-punishes-drivers-while-letting-thieves-get-off/

    Do we now live in a kakistocratic kleptocracy?

    1. That’s nothing; there is or was a 20 kilometres per hour speed limit in a park near Battersea, London. Of course, the UK doesn’t do signage in kph, so there are (or were) 12 mph signs.

      1. I’ve seen 5 mph signs in a Waitrose car park. Ever tried driving at 5 mph? Needless to say they are ignored by all.

  5. SIR – If we become reliant on the National Grid for our transport, industry, heating and other services, our energy security will be severely compromised – regardless of the diversity of the electricity supply.

    We only need a serious winter storm or an attack by an unfriendly agent to cause significant damage to the electricity network, with potentially life-threatening consequences.

    The problem will be exacerbated by inability to charge electric vehicles, hampering the supply of aid. It is a fundamental principle that a system is only as strong as its weakest link.

    Alan Hughes
    Thurso, Caithness

    The weakest link in all this is our myopic and ignorant government, despite the puff-piece by Shatts today!

    1. Thank you for reading Michael Green/Corinne Stockheath/Sebastian Fox so we don’t have to.

  6. Good morning.
    It seems that there was a military coup in Niger recently, and the new military government has banned uranium exports to France and gold exports to the US (Niger is not a big gold producer though). The US has a big base there, whose future is now uncertain. They have threatened to withdraw aid, but the new government merely recommended that the US spend its aid on its own homeless people (it does look as though they have customers lined up for their uranium…).
    It is escalating. Not sure if Al-Beeb is covering this, or whether they still want everyone to watch the circuses football.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3f2788afbff4ec3e7b9814ac97645b7dc4b3a15b62b10d256a973a4232ed5eb7.jpg

    1. The evacuation of European Nationals would suggest a military operation by the French to reverse the coup!

      1. The Niger military government have apparently announced that they are rounding up foreign nationals to ensure good behaviour by their governments…

      1. I’m waiting for the Wokes to come for that name. Or was it chosen by the well tanned and therefore above criticism?

    2. Deurschlandfunl has been covering it since it happened but you are correct, i have seen/heard nothing in UK MSM on this.

  7. Moscow skyscraper hit by second drone attack in three days. 2 August 2023.

    A Moscow skyscraper housing government ministries was hit by a second drone attack within three days, according to Russian authorities.

    The strike, which shattered the windows of the 40-storey building, is not thought to have caused any casualties or structural damage.

    This non-event was the lead story on the BBC News yesterday. Just to be clear the building was struck by a commercial drone and four windows were blown out. Oddly enough the most interesting aspect; which is that the drone was almost certainly launched from inside Russian territory isn’t mentioned by either side. This is explained by the Ukies not wishing to inhibit the operation and Russian embarrassment. The Ukies; and the West, are bulling this incident up as a distraction from the “counter-offensive” which is not going well despite all the assertions in the MSM.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/08/01/moscow-skyscraper-ukraine-drones-attack-russia-iq-quarter/

  8. I have just seen Lottie’s pinned note on yesterday’s Nottl. There but for the grace of God…

    Thinking of you Lottie, and I trust that your family and friends will give you much support at such an awful time.

  9. Good morning everyone.
    ITMA. edit, sorry it already had been posted.

    “SIR
    – As a retired British police officer, I fear that if a future Labour
    government goes ahead with its decision to directly recruit detectives (report, July 31), it will be the beginning of the end for law enforcement in Britain.
    How does it expect new graduate recruits to parachute in and learn the
    necessary advanced interview and detection techniques if they have never spent time on the streets interacting with the public?
    The parlous state of law and order in this country is directly attributable
    to decades of interference by politicians who simply haven’t got a clue.
    Alan G Barstow
    Onslunda, Skåne County, Sweden”

    1. “law and order in this country” I do not wish to be pedantic before eating breakfast, but

      1. You may be as pedantic as you wish, Timmy, but please take it out on the DT’s letters’ editors and not the man who submitted the missive. The item published was not in the words of the sender. This was not editing, it was a piss-poor plagiarism by using some of the writer’s words and adding a lot of his own. The actual words submitted were:

        SIR — If a future Labour government goes ahead with its unwise decision to directly recruit detectives (report, July 31), that will be the beginning of the end for law enforcement in the country.

        If it wasn’t bad enough recruiting the top ranks of the police from social studies graduates who, after all this time, still have no clue about interacting with the public; then how do they expect recruits — no doubt from the same source — to learn and assimilate the necessary and vital advanced interview and detection techniques if they have never spent any time on the streets interacting among the public and criminals?

        The parlous state of law and order in the UK is directly attributable to decades of interference by politicians, who simply haven’t got a clue!

          1. ‘Morning, Hugh.

            Clearly not. Christopher Howse could be a bit hit-and-miss at times, but this Orlando Bird is in another league! I have to say that I am surprised since I thought I had been blacklisted.

  10. Good morning all.
    A rather wet start to the day after continual overnight rain. Rather misty and a heavy fine rain with next to no wind and 10°C on the thermometer.

  11. ‘Morning again.

    From the DT:

    Staff at bank which refused Jeremy Hunt an account called Conservatives ‘evil’

    Telegraph can reveal employees at Monzo also said Sir Jacob Rees Mogg ‘could do the human race a favour’ by leaving politics

    By
    Neil Johnston
    and
    Ewan Somerville
    1 August 2023 • 9:00pm

    Staff at the bank which refused to give the Chancellor an account described the Conservatives as “evil” and celebrated Tory election losses, The Telegraph can reveal.

    Employees at Monzo, the challenger bank with more than seven million customers, also said Sir Jacob Rees Mogg, the Tory grandee, “could do the human race a favour” by leaving politics and called Harry Potter author JK Rowling “vile”.

    Amid a backlash over the “debanking scandal”, Jeremy Hunt revealed last month he had his application for an account with the lender rejected before he was appointed Chancellor.

    Monzo was also criticised last week after it emerged that it had told Gina Miller, the anti-Brexit campaigner, that it would close her political party’s account.

    Scrutiny of the wider banking sector comes after Dame Alison Rose was forced to resign as chief executive of Natwest last week after admitting she leaked information about Nigel Farage’s Coutts bank account.

    The Brexiteer has revealed that his account was closed in part because his views “do not align with our values” and dozens of other prominent figures have since claimed their accounts were closed over political views.

    The debanking scandal has spread to other banks and a whistleblower has now revealed how staff at Monzo openly mocked those with views they disagreed with on workplace forums.

    In a message on a Slack forum in October last year, one staff member wrote: “Maybe JRM could do the human race a favour and stay out of politics forever. Doubt you could replace him with anyone who is more of an archetypal Tory”.

    The following day the same member described the Conservatives as “evil” and “ugly”.

    A dossier also reveals that staff celebrated the Conservative local election losses in May with one responding to a meme by saying “What’s great about this gif is that the Tories have lost Maidenhead” and another writing: “Tory losses in the local elections – we love to see ittttt”.

    A third staff member, a financial crime investigator, added: “I’m just gutted that my own local council didn’t have an election”

    In March, an engineer wrote that the Spring budget had distracted the public from “the general state of the country”, while in January another said: “I hope I’m wrong though and we manage to topple the Tories for good. I’m not sure anyone can survive under the Tories for much longer”.

    In April 2022, a senior manager also said that “the Tories are evidently swaying towards arguments put forward by Terfs”.

    “Terf” stands for trans-exclusionary radical feminist and is regarded as a slur by many gender-critical people who defend the reality of biological sex.

    The same employee claimed that the registered gay rights charity LGB Alliance was promoting “hate speech”.

    In another example of apparent intolerance towards those with gender-critical views, one member of senior management in Human Resources told staff to “anticipate responses from Terfs”.

    ‘Left-wing agenda’
    In August last year, another staff member wrote that “JK Rowling is a terf so grim” while in October 2021 another employee described her as “vile”.

    The Telegraph revealed earlier this year that the digital bank was reprimanded by the data watchdog after staff called a gender-critical man a “horrible Terf”.

    Employees had mocked and condemned the man’s opinions on an internal company forum after he publicly criticised their transgender policy.

    The Information Commissioner’s Office issued a rebuke, confirming it has written to the bank to “ask them to review and strengthen their own internal procedures and staff training in relation to this matter”.

    MPs said that the internal discussions at Monzo raised fresh questions about the culture within banks.

    “Banks should not behave like political activists,” Gareth Johnson, the Conservative MP for Dartford, said. “It is time the Treasury took action against those banks who increasingly seem to have a Left-wing agenda. Is it too much to ask banks to just get on with banking and to stop their political activism?”

    ‘Cherry-picked comments’
    Mr Farage said it was not surprising bank staff were criticising the Tories and it was part of the wider culture within the sector.

    “I think the general public would be astonished but I’m afraid I’m not in the least bit surprised,” he said. “Corporate Britain has suffered a complete takeover.

    “It’s all one way, this is a culture, to reverse this it’s going to be a big battle”.

    Sir Jacob said he respected bank staff’s right to free speech and it would only be a problem if these views influenced account closures.

    A spokeswoman for Monzo said: “Our ambition is to make money work for everyone, which means that we’re politically neutral and personal views play no part in our policies or decision making, including eligibility for a Monzo account. Any suggestion otherwise is categorically untrue.

    “These cherry-picked comments are personal views of a handful of employees in informal conversations and it is wrong to portray them as the views of Monzo or our thousands of other employees.”

    * * *

    A total bloody disgrace. I trust that the legislation that must follow will be swift and painful.

    1. That any sane person should even THINK of having anything to do with a “bank” called Monzo – is quite beyond me.

        1. tbh, I am a bit surprised that Jeremy Hunt applied for an account for himself there – IF he did, which I rather doubt! He is more of a Coutts sort of fellow.

      1. Sounds like a cartoon character…’Monzo, the cartoon bank’ could be their strapline.

      2. In the resort of Ca’n Picafort, in north Majorca, there was a car-hire company called “Rent-a-Car Coco”.

        I didn’t ‘Coco’.

        1. There used to be a car rental business near called Pop’s Car Rentals at Athens Airport. It was very convenient as we could drive down to where the Mianda happened to be when we were in Southern Mainland Greece and leave the car there and one of their drivers drove it back to Athens the following day. This was not only the most convenient way of sorting out the logistics – it was also the most economical.

          https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/648cfe4279a206f482a26efe8e278ee69ea146e8981f723550fb3f76f740cb55.png

    2. The comments may be cherry-picked, but I wonder if any of the following comments were also made?
      “What we need is David Kurten as Prime Minister”
      “Illegal immigration must be stopped”
      and
      “There are far too many Common Purpose and WEF graduates in government and banking.”
      Somehow I doubt it.

  12. My condolences to Lottie and to her husband’s relations. A sad and horrible experience, but at least they were together.

  13. Story in the Gatesograph about Americans being bored of the Markle woman.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/0/meghan-markle-suihess-of-sussex-suits-netflix/

    My whinge/rant is not about her, it’s about ‘BORED OF’. When did this construction become acceptable in polite society. One can be ‘bored by’ or ‘bored with’ but NOT ‘bored of’. But that’s what the majority say nowadays. It grates on me as much as ‘for free’ and for it to be in headline of a newspaper like the DT shows how low it has sunk. Are there no copy-eds any more.

    1. In answer to your question – I believe the answer is no.

      There are none on The Times anymore.

    2. I think what you have to remember is American society is made up of people who have been speaking different languages often for years before ‘crossing the border’.
      It’s natural to accept certain aspects of communication.
      This has happened in Australia they have adopted American spelling.
      And unfortunately the same thing has started to happening here. My biggest hate is the word MOM. It’s horrible.

      1. Most of us Brummies Say “Mom”. I always did and always will.It’s not uniquely American.

      1. They consider Maths and English to be racist. The real reason is that it is too difficult for the black boys to learn.

  14. The US wants to issue 1.82 trillion dollars’ worth of bonds (government debt) to fund itself for the second half of 2023.
    But Japan is selling US treasuries in order to prop up its own currency; Bolivia has just switched from using the dollar to using the Chinese yuan, and China has been slowly reducing its holdings of US bonds for some years now, to name three examples of the slow but steady drift away from the dollar.

    I can see the next “crisis” coming over the horizon to cover up the moment when no amount of trickery will conceal the gaping holes. Buy your tombola ticket now for cyber pandemic, covid2, war, climate armageddon, Carrington2, aliens landing etc.
    Or perhaps we’re playing crisis bingo, and we will get all of those things, who knows!

  15. This headline in the DT comes as no surprise to me:

    “Watch: Anger as bin men throw residents’ carefully separated recycling into one container

    Canterbury council tells households they have to separate recycling but footage of its workers suggests that may not always pay off”

    This happened for some time in Wealden – and other council areas for all I know. I gave up challenging the practice because the standard response was to blame it on ‘the quantity of recycling that was too great for the size of vehicle collecting it’.

    Yes, really!

    1. On my local council website they proudly proclaim they manage to recycle and save from land fill 22% of what we put in our bins.
      That leaves 78% that does go to land fill and has done since we started to use separate bins.

      I don’t really see anything to be proud of.

      And i am certainly not going to waste water washing out baked bean tins only for them to be buried anyway.

  16. Good Moaning.
    Still shaken by Lottie’s news. Does anyone know if she has someone with her?

    1. It’s so sad to hear and we can’t actually do anything to help out.
      What a terrible thing to have to deal with alone.

    2. I can’t help worrying about the financial aspects – funerals cost a fortune and she’s said before that they were skint. I dreamt that someone set up a fundraiser for her somehow.
      I hope she had some company last night.

  17. UK foreign aid cuts: Thousands will die as a result, says report. 2 August 2023.

    Thousands of women in Africa will die in pregnancy and childbirth as a result of cuts to the UK’s overseas aid budget, ministers have been warned.

    According to an internal assessment by civil servants, almost 200,000 more women will also face unsafe abortions.

    This is the Civil Service Apparatchiks scaremongering to prevent the loss of their cash conduits to the Third World. The Foreign Aid budget is nothing more than a disguise for the theft of large quantities of taxpayers money!

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-66378364

    1. I’m sorry but tough.
      They need to learn to put their own houses in order. Two countries further south have and are being wrecked by the inability of the people who have taken charge to consider adopting more organised possibly European ways of life. As in 21st century..
      Zimbabwe wrecked by Mugabe and his vile racist murdering greed.
      Now South Africa by the ANC. They can’t even keep their streets clear of their own rubbish.

    2. Population of Nigeria 1960 45 million.
      Population of Nigeria 2023 213 million.
      They don’t seem to be having much trouble.

      The NHS paid out 2.6 billion in negligence claims. Almost half of that for maternity blunders.

    3. It’s a patronising attitude – as though these people are incapable of making their own decisions and taking the consequences.

    4. The West has been sluicing money into Africa for decades (ref R Geldof), and nothing has changed for the better as a result, except the share prices of Gulfstream and Mercedes.

  18. Hmm. She has a point, but what she ignores is the elephant everyone tries to ignore.

    Second homes didn’t cause the housing crisis
    SIR – As a resident of Torbay, which is one of the areas where councils will be allowed to double council tax on holiday properties (Letters, August 1), I believe that the whole matter is far more complex than it may appear.

    Properties are unaffordable for many people, especially young families, because house prices have rocketed in recent years and salaries are below the national average.

    Holiday lets make up a very small percentage of the area’s housing stock. What we actually need are more affordable homes for people, but a recent House of Commons research briefing reveals that there is no definition of what constitutes “affordable”. In Torbay, the average house price is now £303,092 but wages are just over £28,000, whereas nationally the average price is £286,000 with salaries closer to £35,000. It is crucial that the Government makes a definition of what “affordable” is and that figures take local house prices into account.

    I am a former holiday let business owner. Our property was never used by us, and quite rightly we paid significant capital gains tax when it was sold. I employed many local tradesmen, and my guests spent huge amounts of money in the area by eating out every day, visiting local attractions and shopping.

    Politicians should stop looking for scapegoats and take responsibility for the housing crisis. The sale of 2.7 million council homes since the 1980s has proved utterly short-sighted. Successive governments have also refused to levy capital gains tax on primary residences despite massive house-price inflation. Laying the blame for unaffordable housing on holiday properties is wrong, and doubling council tax is a mere money-making exercise.

    Kate Graeme-Cook
    Brixham, Devon

    1. Something that was noticeable when my good lady and I spent a week in Salcombe last year, was the amount of tourists seemed to out weigh the local population. In that a few of the venues were we tried to book for meals were so short staffed they were closed for business.
      We were told that most of the younger population had moved out mainly because in the off season they had no work.
      Also a pint and a medium glass of white wine came to almost 17 quid.
      Despite the fabulous view from the terrace across the estuary it was almost empty.
      We didn’t return !

      1. I was in Salcome a month ago. It was lovely but I had just the same impression that it was full of holiday homes.
        V expensive too.

        1. We were told.
          Michael Parkinson and Mary Berry have homes there as well.
          I don’t know how they cope with the very steep parts.

      2. “We were told that most of the younger population had moved out mainly because in the off season they had no work.”

        Good old seasonal work. The reason, we were told, for the admission of more than 2 million Europeans from 2004 to 2016.

        1. From what I can gather from my recent experiences, most of them are doctors and lovely nurses.
          I was so impressed with the two nurses who took care of me last week at St Barts. One young lady from Northern Greece and one from Nepal.

          1. There seem to be quite a lot of Nepalese nurses here. We noticed that in the two hospitals we spent time in recently.

          2. This young lady spoke excellent English she told me she had a very good teacher at her school.
            But they both have to travel out London for their accommodation. It’s far too expensive in the city.

    2. I agreed with her up to the last but one line where she wants capital gains tax on people’s homes!
      That would effectively prevent anyone from selling their home and buying a new one if prices are rising.

      1. It’s just a paper gain through inflation. This house we live in is worth many times more than we paid for it but it’s still the same house. We couldn’t afford to buy it now.

    3. Correct me if I’m wrong, but the sale of council houses did not change the total housing stock at all.
      In all probability it allowed an increase, as the private sector then built on many of the large gardens which some council houses enjoyed.

      I’m not suggesting that the building was good for the areas where it happened, due to more houses on the same infrastructure, but the sales did not take houses away.

      1. One of the, probably intended, effects of the sell-off was to reduce the amount of corruption within the council housing departments.
        Sadly, it reappeared in the housing associations that took over the role of social housing providers.

    1. Precisely.
      I enjoyed playing hockey, but no amount of wishful thinking, extra training or linguistic tricks would convert me from a Second Eleven back to a First Eleven racing snake in the front row.

    2. Good article! The same arguments can be made with respect to marriage – it is simply not relevant to two men, two women, a human and an animal or inanimate object. The whole campaign for gay marriage was based around the spurious idea of a “ban” that never existed in a contract whose main goal was to secure the next generation and property passing to it.

      1. Behind it all was another intended nail in the coffin of the ideal of the family as a supportive unit, entire in itself – it was dressed up as a ‘ban’ to gain support for a minority group, state support of which assists in the fracturing of the majority.

    3. Good article! The same arguments can be made with respect to marriage – it is simply not relevant to two men, two women, a human and an animal or inanimate object. The whole campaign for gay marriage was based around the spurious idea of a “ban” that never existed in a contract whose main goal was to secure the next generation and property passing to it.

  19. Morning all 🙂😊
    Wet out there today, so our ‘summer’ continues.
    Our Political classes are out of touch with reality and let’s be honest they couldn’t run a bath successfully. Too hot, too cold, not enough water, overflowing. Coming through the ceiling below……..

  20. Nottler letter published.

    Defective detectivesSIR
    – As a retired British police officer, I fear that if a future Labour
    government goes ahead with its decision to directly recruit detectives (report, July 31), it will be the beginning of the end for law enforcement in Britain.

    How does it expect new graduate recruits to parachute in and learn the
    necessary advanced interview and detection techniques if they have never
    spent time on the streets interacting with the public?

    The parlous state of law and order in this country is directly attributable
    to decades of interference by politicians who simply haven’t got a clue.

    Alan G Barstow
    Onslunda, Skåne County, Sweden

      1. Only the anally-retentive still retain the crass belief that to willingly split an infinitive is a crime against grammar. H.W.Fowler believed that to be the case.

          1. OK, try and reword it so that it doesn’t sound clumsy. Fowler couldn’t in his seminal treatise, Modern English Usage.

          2. Indeed it is, John, indeed it is. It was enforced, in less enlightened times, by the permanently constipated.
            Those desperately trying to avoid it usually concoct an artificial and clumsy alternative just so they do not offend the pigheadedness of those who always believe they are correct.
            It makes for stilted prose.

          3. Journalist to Gordon Brown in 1997 “Are you going significantly to increase public spending?
            Going significantly, or increase signifcantly? The adverb is now placed in an ambgiuous position.
            These avoidances of SIs have to be pronounced in an over-affected manner such as to remind the listener that the speaker does not split SIs. A sort of audible Masonic sign.
            There is another argument that the “to” is not part of the infinitive but supporting preposition.

          4. Agreed in full, John. Unfortunately we can never persuade the hidebound of this common sense.

          5. Journalist to Gordon Brown in 1997 “Are you going significantly to increase public spending?
            Going significantly, or increase signifcantly? The adverb is now placed in an ambgiuous position.
            These avoidances of SIs have to be pronounced in an over-affected manner such as to remind the listener that the speaker does not split SIs. A sort of audible Masonic sign.
            There is another argument that the “to” is not part of the infinitive but supporting preposition.

          6. Journalist to Gordon Brown in 1997 “Are you going significantly to increase public spending?
            Going significantly, or increase signifcantly? The adverb is now placed in an ambgiuous position.
            These avoidances of SIs have to be pronounced in an over-affected manner such as to remind the listener that the speaker does not split SIs. A sort of audible Masonic sign.
            There is another argument that the “to” is not part of the infinitive but supporting preposition.

    1. “Beginning of the end for law enforcement”
      I thought it was circling the plug hole already…

    2. That is not the letter submitted. See below for an explanation as to how risible editing trashed it.

      1. I have had the same problem.

        I think the Letters Dept. at the DT are sent on a Bowdlerism course before being let loose on our letters!

      1. Certainly the greatest Milkman in the West, with inflation at 7+% and prize-money average returns of circa 3% if one is very lucky!

    1. Great, enjoy.
      Last night someone in Europe won in excess of 62 million pounds.
      I won £4.10 pence.

  21. Good morning everyone. It rained heavily during the night but the front (or the back) is passing swiftly northwards as there is now a large area of blue sky across the heavens, growing ever larger without a single cloud within this inviting space. ‘Rain before seven, fine before eleven.’

    Thinking of LotL this morning, how could one not. Morning (and mornings) are the worst time as realisation once again floods the mind on waking, and then one slowly comes to grips with the sad and forever changed situation oh so wearily.

    1. Good morning! Exactly, at the moment of waking, blood sugar is low and emotions are high. Breakfast as soon as possible helps. How is your new fur baby settling in?

        1. The teeth will become blunter over time – not sure the toe fetish will disappear, though 🙂

          1. These are baby razor teeth, they are very sharp. He has just been shouted at by poppiesdad (STOP IT!) for attacking me, he is a bit subdued now, the wind has been taken out of his sails. He has a tendency to launch himself at me as I am sitting on the sofa in the evening (he is also on the sofa) with his mouth wide open to bite me. Aiming for my face. It is a bit unnerving. Defending myself makes him angry grrrrrrrrr! and grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! and angrier. It may not be angry, it may be just that he gets puppy-over-excited and winds himself up.

    1. That is the article referred to in this one.

      Lockdown was our generation’s greatest error

      Those who kept children out of school must accept responsibility for the harm they continue to cause

      KAROL SIKORA • 1st August 2023

      A generation of children has been failed by a philosophy that enabled and even encouraged an industrial level of suffering. For what? A virus that posed them almost no threat, certainly no more danger than they faced on a day-to-day basis in normal pre-Covid life.

      It was very early on in the pandemic that we learnt, thankfully, that the virus disproportionately affected the elderly and the vulnerable. Young children in the vast majority of cases had a very mild, if any, reaction to the infection. Yet policymakers still imposed on them the full force of lockdown, including the closure of most classrooms. Now the consequences are becoming clear.

      Lockdown proponents claim that children are resilient and are capable of recovering from the damage inflicted upon them. My response? They shouldn’t have to be. It is criminal how millions of youngsters were used as human shields for the elderly, decimating their life chances.

      Now it is reported that lockdown harmed the emotional development of almost half of all children. But that is only the tip of a vast iceberg.

      They have no voice, so we have to ensure that we speak up for them. I made my objections clear at the time and paid a price for doing so. Can others now bemoaning the lockdowns’ consequences say the same? Don’t forget that, if some of these people had their way, we’d still have restrictions today. Masks and social distancing were recommended to stay “forever” by one senior scientist.

      It’s children from the most deprived backgrounds who have suffered the most. I have six young grandchildren and I feel immensely grateful and privileged that we had the means to shield them from the worst consequences of lockdown. Millions of families were not so lucky.

      Imagine living in a high-rise building in the centre of a city, desperately attempting to work from the kitchen table while simultaneously trying to keep your child’s education on track. Those with no private outdoor space found their favourite parks plastered in police tape “for their own good”. When people talk of “lockdown nostalgia”, let’s put them in that nightmare for a fortnight and then see how much they pine for further restrictions.

      Those devising and implementing the rules had no real understanding of the pain they were imposing on the population. They didn’t suffer and neither did their children – usually having large homes, leafy gardens and the time and technology available to ensure that lockdown education did not lag too far behind the real thing.

      When children were finally allowed to return to the classroom, they were forced to wear uncomfortable and disruptive masks for hours on end. Any politician or commentator supporting that dystopian nightmare should have been forced into a mask for every second they made children wear one.

      I am furious. While suitcases of wine were dragged into No 10, children in the poorest parts of the country had their already-limited life chances snatched away.

      There was a better way. The Swedes kept primary, lower secondary and pre-schools open throughout almost the entire pandemic. Anna Ekstrom, Sweden’s education minister at the time, recently wrote that the downsides of closing schools “were simply too great”. Her approach has been vindicated.

      While our Covid inquiry grapples with the inane question of whether Brexit helped or hindered Britain’s response, this vital subject remains unexplored. Children were not even directly mentioned in the inquiry’s stated aims – education was mentioned just once, but the words “child” and “children” failed to originally make the cut. What message does that send?

      An entire separate investigation should be launched to ask the questions that our nation’s children cannot, as rightly demanded by campaign group Us For Them.

      Claiming that lockdown prevented more harm than it has caused now seems an impossible position to argue with any credibility. The evidence mounts up and will likely continue to do so for many decades to come. It’s time that the lockdown elite accepted that successive lockdowns, and the associated harm inflicted on Britain’s children, were the biggest policy mistake in all of our lifetimes.

      Professor Karol Sikora is a leading cancer specialist

      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/08/01/lockdown-was-our-generations-greatest-error/

      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/08/01/lockdown-harmed-emotional-development-almost-half-children/

      1. The effectively trapped in a high rise building was reality for my son and his family. Incredibly hard on them all. Their lockdowns, school/daycare closures, and other restrictions were longer and harsher than here.
        By the time school reopened, the younger child (still 3) was starting in junior kindergarten. Even children that young (not much more than babies) had to be muzzled inside their classrooms.
        Even a year ago, her speech therapist was wearing a muzzle, albeit with a clear panel. When the poor child clearly couldn’t work out what was required, the daft woman would lower the rag to explain/demonstrate then promptly replace it. No wonder she hasn’t made much progress.

    2. That is the article referred to in this one.

      Lockdown was our generation’s greatest error

      Those who kept children out of school must accept responsibility for the harm they continue to cause

      KAROL SIKORA • 1st August 2023

      A generation of children has been failed by a philosophy that enabled and even encouraged an industrial level of suffering. For what? A virus that posed them almost no threat, certainly no more danger than they faced on a day-to-day basis in normal pre-Covid life.

      It was very early on in the pandemic that we learnt, thankfully, that the virus disproportionately affected the elderly and the vulnerable. Young children in the vast majority of cases had a very mild, if any, reaction to the infection. Yet policymakers still imposed on them the full force of lockdown, including the closure of most classrooms. Now the consequences are becoming clear.

      Lockdown proponents claim that children are resilient and are capable of recovering from the damage inflicted upon them. My response? They shouldn’t have to be. It is criminal how millions of youngsters were used as human shields for the elderly, decimating their life chances.

      Now it is reported that lockdown harmed the emotional development of almost half of all children. But that is only the tip of a vast iceberg.

      They have no voice, so we have to ensure that we speak up for them. I made my objections clear at the time and paid a price for doing so. Can others now bemoaning the lockdowns’ consequences say the same? Don’t forget that, if some of these people had their way, we’d still have restrictions today. Masks and social distancing were recommended to stay “forever” by one senior scientist.

      It’s children from the most deprived backgrounds who have suffered the most. I have six young grandchildren and I feel immensely grateful and privileged that we had the means to shield them from the worst consequences of lockdown. Millions of families were not so lucky.

      Imagine living in a high-rise building in the centre of a city, desperately attempting to work from the kitchen table while simultaneously trying to keep your child’s education on track. Those with no private outdoor space found their favourite parks plastered in police tape “for their own good”. When people talk of “lockdown nostalgia”, let’s put them in that nightmare for a fortnight and then see how much they pine for further restrictions.

      Those devising and implementing the rules had no real understanding of the pain they were imposing on the population. They didn’t suffer and neither did their children – usually having large homes, leafy gardens and the time and technology available to ensure that lockdown education did not lag too far behind the real thing.

      When children were finally allowed to return to the classroom, they were forced to wear uncomfortable and disruptive masks for hours on end. Any politician or commentator supporting that dystopian nightmare should have been forced into a mask for every second they made children wear one.

      I am furious. While suitcases of wine were dragged into No 10, children in the poorest parts of the country had their already-limited life chances snatched away.

      There was a better way. The Swedes kept primary, lower secondary and pre-schools open throughout almost the entire pandemic. Anna Ekstrom, Sweden’s education minister at the time, recently wrote that the downsides of closing schools “were simply too great”. Her approach has been vindicated.

      While our Covid inquiry grapples with the inane question of whether Brexit helped or hindered Britain’s response, this vital subject remains unexplored. Children were not even directly mentioned in the inquiry’s stated aims – education was mentioned just once, but the words “child” and “children” failed to originally make the cut. What message does that send?

      An entire separate investigation should be launched to ask the questions that our nation’s children cannot, as rightly demanded by campaign group Us For Them.

      Claiming that lockdown prevented more harm than it has caused now seems an impossible position to argue with any credibility. The evidence mounts up and will likely continue to do so for many decades to come. It’s time that the lockdown elite accepted that successive lockdowns, and the associated harm inflicted on Britain’s children, were the biggest policy mistake in all of our lifetimes.

      Professor Karol Sikora is a leading cancer specialist

      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/08/01/lockdown-was-our-generations-greatest-error/

      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/08/01/lockdown-harmed-emotional-development-almost-half-children/

    3. Good morning Grizzly

      I enjoyed seeing your letter in today’s DT – well done.

      Yesterday you said that you were not keen on covers.

      However, I know that you are enthusiastic about the late Jim Croce’s songs. Here is a cover of Operator by a group of young Americans led by Josh Turner who call themselves The Other Favourites which to my way of thinking is excellent and well worth a listen.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oP2X0yLfHY

      1. Good morning, Rastus,

        Thanks for that (even though my exact letter was not printed). I am generally not partial to many cover versions of songs but there is the odd honourable exception. The post you have just kindly provided me with comes under that category.

        It was not just delightful listening to an excellent rendition of my personal favourite Jim Croce song, but that marvellous young lady, playing the harmony guitar part, reminded me so much of Maury Muehleisen, Jim’s long-time friend and collaborator who sadly died along with him in the same aeroplane crash.

        On the topic of Croce, have you every listened to Jim’ and Ingrid’s son, A.J. (Adrian) Croce, who is very talented in his own right?
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tunthj57yDU

  22. John Mearsheimer: Ukraine war is a long-term danger. 1 August 2023

    This is a youtube interview with Professor John Mearsheimer, the eminent writer on geopolitics and who has produced the best summary of the War so far. The last ten to fifteen minutes where he talks about the Russians using Nuclear weapons are the most interesting. As always his conclusions are generated by sound reasoning.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2451jFeZp0

  23. Morning, all. Initial thoughts are with Ann this morning.

    Radar showing a small squall over Colchester at the moment: it isn’t wrong!

    Reports of organ harvesting in the Ukraine with children being the main target. Have we now reached the point where in WWII reports of the extermination camps leaked out? People found that hard to believe, thought it was propaganda. What can we believe in this period of political and cultural decay?

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bdefb38f064df0f95cac789adea3df0fb79bdee4572db662b9bbbf0e98d4e6e6.png

    Jim Ferguson’s Twitter feed is here if anyone wants to view the video reports.

    1. I’m not sure what to make of the growing swell of child trafficking rumours. Someone pointed out that the documentary made about covid died, because no cinema showed it, yet the one about child trafficking is making the rounds in alternative cinemas. The suggestion is that it’s leading to children being microchipped – for their own protection of course.

      It is plausible, but at the same time – if it has been going on for years, why is it leaking out now? It’s all very unpleasant, and cannot be ignored.

    1. That’s an ‘African Pygmy Hog’ a hybrid bred for the pet trade. An American craze which spread over here. We only rescue the native European hedgehog. They don’t make suitable pets.

      1. American crazes (or anything else) that spread over here – wokeism, BLM, CRT etc. are usually cr*p. I often wish that that continent had never been discovered by the West.

  24. OK. I’ve done enough nice for one day.
    Back to my usual self.

    “ADHD in children could be eased with electrical currents to the brain”

    Otherwise as electrocuting little shitz. Sound policy.

      1. The ancient Egyptians lobotomised their slaves by ramming sticks up their noses into their brains so some in the modern era may already have been inadvertently(?) damaged via PCR and LF tests?

        1. The modern lobotomies were either done through the eye socket or – as I discovered when washing old schizophrenics’ hair – through two holes in the top of the skull. It may have been a coincidence, but it was about where devils’ horns were always shown in pictures.
          The scientific explanation was that area is the seat of personality, but it did seem rather symbolic.

      2. Frontal lobotomy? I’d rather have a bottle in front of me.
        I’ll get my own coat.

    1. I believe, from the experiences of people who I know well, that ECT causes long term damage and that any improvements at the time were temporary.
      What makes these “experts” believe it would be any different?

      1. From what I remember (!) ECT caused memory loss.
        For a while, the patients would be distracted trying to remember what they had forgotten.
        It certainly wasn’t a long term cure.

        1. It left long term memory damage in the cases I am aware of.
          The problem was that the medical staff were not making the progress they hoped for (if any progress was being made at all) with respect to conventional treatments, and it was a last resort approach which provided temporary respite.
          Like so many medical procedures that are adopted without very long term trials it did not do what was hoped for

  25. Finally got some sleep around 4. Going back up now now to see if I can sleep some more.
    Life’s a bitch.

    1. Life’s certainly a bitch for you.
      We are all so shocked and saddened by your news, so can’t begin to imagine how you feel.
      Take care, Ann

    2. That’s the understatement of the year.
      Or, as any English teacher would say, “litotes”.

  26. Russian troops ‘tortured half of prisoners detained in Kherson’, say war crime investigators. 2 August 2023.

    Early findings indicate that victims, half of whom are believed to be civilians, were suffocated, waterboarded, severely beaten or threatened with rape by Russian soldiers and collaborators. Some 36 people witnessed or were subjected to genital electrocution.

    Others mentioned threats of genital mutilation, and at least one victim was forced to witness the rape of another detainee by a foreign object covered in a condom.

    The actions of the Russian military in the Kherson detention centres “amount to genocide,” said human rights barrister Wayne Jordash KC, who is helping co-ordinate the investigations alongside the OPG.

    I’ve decided that it is the overegging of all this that exposes its falsity. The readiness to resort to Genocide and Atrocity with no real understanding of what is implied in their use. I’ve looked at several Ukie accusations in great detail and to say that I’m not convinced is an understatement. I believe that they are deliberately falsifying events (as with the supposed abduction of children to Russia ploy) purely for their propaganda value.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/terror-and-security/russian-troops-tortured-prisoners-detained-in-kherson/

    1. Yes, but did they find who was behind it and who were the clients or is that politically embarrassing?

  27. 375061+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Heard on the news that there is a cut back on overseas aid
    consequently the children of Africa will suffer starvation.
    Meanwhile Pakistan space program received, from the United Kingdom a booster grant of millions, probably in recognition of services rendered by the actions of the pakistani paedophilia
    rape & abuse department regarding British children.

    The seeds are currently being scattered, as in, fodder for fools,
    the party first brigade whos input will have us known as the
    “Kingdom of perpetually” NCN ( no changes needed.)

    1. Smashing his legs is pointless: his empty head is at the other end.

      Bang! “Next?”

    2. Well thanks to BLM this can happen (the thief thinking he is immune to the rules). But ouch!

    3. Shoot him. Just kill the scum.

      Blinkin’ heck, I’ve have broken the stick on his ribs. Criminal scum.

  28. Anti-protest laws and culture wars weakening UK’s democracy, finds report
    Thinktanks say the check and balances of civil society such as judges and campaigners are under ‘political attack’ by ministers
    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/aug/02/anti-protest-laws-and-culture-wars-weakening-uks-democracy-finds-report

    I wonder if the authors of Defending Our Democratic Spaces [sic] were for remaining in the EU and against anti-lockdown protestors?

    In an assessment about the state of British democracy, the report said there had been attempts to portray judges, lawyers, charities, campaigners and parts of the media as a ‘block to democracy rather than key components of it’.

    Clearly, they did not see the Supreme Court’s actions as political when it interfered in the affairs of Parliament in 2017 and 2019. What do they have to say about judge-made law?

    Elsewhere, the Moonbat speaks:

    Punishment without trial: Britain’s latest weapon in the war against dissent
    Companies are taking out devastating ‘civil injunctions’ against climate activists – and making them pay the costs
    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jun/29/punishment-without-trial-britain-civil-injunctions-climate-activists

    The right to protest must indeed be protected but not at someone else’s financial cost. Moonbat complains about the use of injunctions. He too cannot see that these are the weapons of the new Left, using the Supreme Court not to prevent organisations, public or private, doing something contrary to statute law but to get a judgement on government policies that they don’t like. Democracy’s a bitch, eh, George?

  29. The migrant crisis has to be resolved. 2 August 2023.

    In any case, none of these camps comes even close to addressing the problem. While the numbers are down on last year, possibly because of the persistent bad weather, 11,500 Channel migrants still arrived in the first six months, adding to the many thousands already here.

    Where do those campaigning against the Government’s policy on migration suggest these people go? Labour’s policy is to speed up the asylum process, clear the backlog, do a new deal with France and crack down on gangs, as if that has not also been the Tory ambition. It does not resolve the immediate accommodation issue either.

    Telegraph Editorial? Might have been written by Keir Starmer!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2023/08/01/migrant-crisis-has-to-be-resolved/

    1. A government worth it’s salt would commission a few trawlers to patrol the channel and offer to escort any attempting to enter British waters in a rubber dinghy North East towards Belgium or Holland or back to France from whence they came. After half a dozen successful interceptions potential migrants would give up….

    2. They cannot be allowed to get here – at gunpoint, if necessary. It’s long past time we simply deported them, repealed the legislation tying our hands and got rid.

      People will scream and say this is unfair and evil but it is simple expediency. We cannot sustain a population increase the size of a major city every 6 months. Lefties bleating about how we should concrete over all the green space are the self same ones whinging about net zero. They cannot have both.

      1. It might be ‘unfair and evil’ if these parasites were genuine refugees, but we all know they are nothing but a danger to this country’s safety.

    3. Their arrival needs to be stopped and those here who fail to meet asylum criteria must be deported.

  30. 375061+ up ticks,

    With friends like these we have no need of enemies

    Gerard Batten
    @gjb2021
    ·
    16h
    These rules are the result of spite by the EU – & the fact that the UK Govnt never wanted to leave & did every thing they could to make an unsatisfactory Brexit so that it could later be revoked.

    The UK had millions more EU citizens than living here the EU had UK citizens living there. I outlined in my 2017 UKIP Exit Plan how this fact could be leveraged to get good reciprocal arrangements for our citizens already living & working in Europe.

    All we have seen playing out since 2016 is the plan to Delay, Impede & Reverse.

    Brexit travel rules ‘the most stupid and complicated in world’, says Briton with homes abroad – inews,https://apple.news/Ad-6mIUi6TReUQM3…more

    Brexit travel rules ‘the most stupid and complicated in world’, says Briton with homes abroad —
    Brexit travel rules ‘the most stupid and complicated in world’, says Briton with homes abroad —

    Andrew Taylor, a 58-year-old retiree from Eastbourne, says post-Brexit travel rules are ‘extremely annoying’ and complex to navigate

    https://gettr.com/post/p2n9y6u6808

  31. Is the rollout of EVs to replace ICE cars all at sea?

    A sea going car transporter that caught fire in the North Sea has raised some issues about the safety of EVs.
    Here is Electric Viking’s take on the subject:

    https://youtu.be/4tPsVgv_aiQ

    and here are the views of a mariner and firefighter that reflect on the reduced fire safety standards this ship has whilst carrying a dangerous cargo due to the banning of greenhouse gas halon.

    https://youtu.be/lEsO–Z2d2E

    1. It sparks the question: How long before EV cars are banned from ferries and the Chunnel?

      1. I just tried to uptick your post Stephen but hit the downvote by mistake and can’t untick it. Sorree.

      2. I just tried to uptick your post Stephen but hit the downvote by mistake and can’t untick it. Sorree.

      3. I believe that LPG models are banned from the Chunnel, so banning EVs would make sense – but it isn’t about sensible moves, is it? The ideology comes first.

  32. Is the rollout of EVs to replace ICE cars all at sea?

    A sea going car transporter that caught fire in the North Sea has raised some issues about the safety of EVs.
    Here is Electric Viking’s take on the subject:

    https://youtu.be/4tPsVgv_aiQ

    and here are the views of a mariner and firefighter that reflect on the reduced fire safety standards this ship has whilst carrying a dangerous cargo due to the banning of greenhouse gas halon.

    https://youtu.be/lEsO–Z2d2E

  33. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/51390c3f9c84b1dbe4421af1e78b9e39fe3a2cfa140a340b89137a988744645e.jpg Perusing one of my books on bacon-curing and sausage-making, I came across this interesting page in Maynard Davies’ excellent Manual of a Traditional Bacon Curer.

    This recipe for ‘Prison Sausage’ should be reintroduced in all His Majesty’s gaols. I’m sure that, in particular, the mind-numbed advocates and followers of a certain cult would derive much nourishment from it.

      1. Hey, Dean. Them hominy grits were playing up with my gizzard, Dude, and the slops from the bins at the back of Uncle Sam’s Chuck-Wagon, were playing havoc with my delicate system. So I mosied along to the Bo’s soup kitchen to hog-out on turnip greens and polk salad. Missing them scraps of gristle thrown out by the old pitmasters though, we snaggle-toothed old bums can’t chew no more but hell, we do like to suck, Compadre!

        Er, your clip’s not working, Hombre.

  34. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f7623f7aec922ae2eb8355522b0df9565156c4baa388d51b7e5f9c48866a493f.png

    Influencer who promoted fruit-only diet dies aged 39 of malnutrition.

    ‘I eat simple food, although I have experience as a raw food chef. I love inspiring people to eat healthier’

    A SOCIAL media influencer who promoted the virtues of a diet of tropical fruit has died, reportedly of malnutrition, exhaustion and infections.

    Zhanna Samsonova, 39, a Russian blogger who regularly posted on her extreme diet of raw tropical fruit on platforms such as Instagram, where she had 12,000 followers, and Tiktok, was living and working in south-east Asia. She claimed to have not drunk water for six years, drinking fruit and vegetable juices instead.

    She regularly spoke of taking pride in the fact that people could not believe she was approaching her 40th birthday.

    “I eat simple food, although I have a lot of experience as a raw food chef,” she wrote on social media. “I love inspiring people to eat healthier.”

    She boasted of eating no salt, oil or protein and insisted that she never caught a cold. But her extreme regime began to take its toll and she died on July 21 in Malaysia.

    Her official cause of death has not been revealed. Her mother blamed it on a “cholera-like infection”, but friends say she had died of malnutrition.

    “It was scary to look at her, to be honest. Her hands were thin, like those of my 12-year-old sister,” one told 116.ru, a Russian news website.

    When Ms Samsonova began her diet, she reportedly ate fish and dairy products, but she became increasingly restrictive. Living off fruit, fruit juices and fruit smoothies, she appeared increasingly thin and gaunt in the photographs she posted online.

    She looked like “a walking skeleton”, according to one Russian news outlet, which said she had spent the last 17 years travelling around Asia.

    Another friend said that concern around Ms Samsonova’s health intensified a few months ago when she was travelling in Sri Lanka.

    She was advised to seek medical assistance but reportedly refused. She said dry fasting enabled her to “overcome” Covid-19 during a trip to Russia in 2021.

    As news of her death emerged, social media users were divided between those expressing admiration and those who criticised her extreme diet as an eating disorder.

    Her mother hoped her body could be repatriated soon. “She is no more,” said Vera Samsonova, 63. “She chose this path. I fought for many years [but] she did not listen to her mother.

    As I’ve previously mentioned, veganism (along with socialism and transvestism) should be made a notifiable disease of the brain.

    The only thing this expired airhead got right was to eschew oils. As for the rest of her ‘diet’, well, what more can one say? I hope that all the other vacuum-brains, who devotedly followed her vacuous ‘influencing’, will now take note.

    1. Scrawny. Could have done with a few square meals (other shapes are available)

    2. Mentally ill. At least she wasn’t costing Russia’s version of “Care (?) In The Community”.

        1. They were probably true believers, but in the photos she looks starved to me. Just another victim of today’s obsession with celebrating mental illness.
          In the 80s, at least we knew when we were weird, and had a bit of shame!

      1. They may well have been encouraging her, but she was ‘influencing’ them and getting paid for doing so.

    1. Not sure if this will work aye oop

      https://www.bing.com/ck/a?!&&p=9964e7264606eb09JmltdHM9MTY5MDkzNDQwMCZpZ3VpZD0wNGVlM2M5Ni1kNjkyLTZlZjQtMGM2OC0yZmM5ZDc1MjZmYTQmaW5zaWQ9NTU4OQ&ptn=3&hsh=3&fclid=04ee3c96-d692-6ef4-0c68-2fc9d7526fa4&u=a1L3ZpZGVvcy9zZWFyY2g_cT1IYXJyeStFbmZpZWxkK1lvcmtzaGlyZStBaXJsaW5lcyZGT1JNPVZBUlNRUA&ntb=1

        1. I’ve got problems with my PC it keeps up grading and it’s developed a mind of it’s own. I am beginning to hate using it.

          1. I get the same. Windows 11, constantly updating and restarting – then I have to sign back in to everything again, find passwords etc.

    2. The first and last were certainly true when I was there – I don’t know about the Whitby one because it was shrouded in low cloud and the roads were flooded!

  35. Cows fall off a truck in the middle of the M6. 2 July 2023.

    Two cows had to be helped by lorry drivers after they fell off a truck in the middle of the M6.

    The incident near Walsall forced the closure of one of Britain’s busiest stretches of motorway on Tuesday and caused chaos for motorists for nearly two hours.

    Police said the cows, which fell from a damaged transport truck, were found two miles apart in live lanes of traffic, while lorry drivers had to stop to help contain them.

    I once pulled up behind a Land Rover and towed horsebox that had stopped at a junction. The lady driver; in some distress, was flagging down the traffic. I got out and discovered that the horse had poked its foot through the floor of the box and broken its leg on contact with the road. Fortunately the police arrived at that moment and I made a speedy exit. Nevertheless the memory of it has plagued me ever since.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/08/01/cows-fall-off-truck-m6-herded-lorry-drivers-walsall/

  36. I note that the Telegraph’s map-maker has discovered a place called “Grand Central train station” in New York City.

    1. I suppose – to be fair – that is what the Septics would call it. Were it a map of Paree – would they not mark the “Gare de Lyon”?

        1. That might be its full title, but from my many months spent working in and visiting New York, I can’t recall it ever being referred to as other than Grand Central.

  37. Good morrow, Gentlefolks, today’s short and simple, Yes, I know, I’m late

    Wedded Bliss
    Our last fight was my fault: My wife asked me “What’s on the TV?” I said,
    “Dust!”

    In the beginning, God created the earth and rested. Then God created Man and rested. Then God created Woman. Since then, neither God nor Man has rested.

    Do you know the punishment for bigamy? Two Mothers-in-law.

    Young Son: “Is it true, Dad, I heard that in some parts of Africa a man doesn’t know his wife until he marries her?”
    Dad: That happens in every country, son.

    The most effective way to remember your wife’s birthday is to forget it once.

    Women will never be equal to men until they can walk down the street with a bald head and a beer gut, and still think they are beautiful!!!!!!!!

          1. To be prepared for the daily story. Geoff puts up the daily page any time between 06:00 and 07:00

          2. Yes – but it’s not mandatory for you to make the first post. You need your sleep.

  38. As the builders didn’t come – it stopped raining and has been sunny and warm…..

    Off shopping – Lidl and often.

        1. Ndovu reported back to nttl a week or so ago having contacted her via email or Facebook to say she was under the weather and everything was getting her down, so she was having a break.

    1. No – and she hasn’t replied to my email yesterday to let her know Ann’s bad news.

      She did post some photos on Facebook last week for their wedding anniversary.

    2. Maggie Belle is feeling ground down by the news: like all of us, she feels helpless in the face of the malignant stupidity of our government.
      Also, her elder dog is succumbing to old age. We have all been there with our pets.
      I think she just feels totally drained and not up to making contributions to NOTTL.

      1. Feelings shared by all Nottlers.
        it seems you are in contact, so please pass on my best wishes, and hope for a return in the not so distant future.

      2. I would be ground down by the news if I listened to/watched the MSM! Sorry to hear about her dog. It happens because they live such short lives compared with us. Oscar will be 14 in October if he makes it that far. It’s a good age for a pedigree.

    1. There won’t be a UK motor manufacturing industry so nothing for them to worry about. All manufacturing jobs will be outsourced to China.

        1. I suggest when you can spare some time have a look at the installed generating capacity of solar, hydro, wind and nuclear electrity worldwide.

      1. The whole motor manufacturing industry is in turmoil after private internal combustion engined (ICE) motor cars have been targeted in trying to decarbonise and clean up the planet. The only motor manufacturers left making a profit are currently Tesla and BYD (Beyond Your Dreams).

        Elon Musk’s Tesla success is based on a business model that doesn’t include dealerships Furthermore production lines that use gigapresses to turn out cars in volume like dinky toys makes them very cheap to make. BYD in China just makes them so cheaply that their wheels tend to fall off.

        The Chinese owned MG group hijacked a load of UK dealerships to provide showrooms for the historic MG marque and its EV is a contender for the UK market. There are however plenty of cheaper Chinese vehicles lining up to compete.in the marketplace.

        I’m quite satisfied with my South Korean Hyundai Kona Electric the design of which is based on the chassis of their ICE vehicles.
        It’s performance and range is comparable to the Tesla Model 3 and is backed by a warranty that more or less extends to the end of my driving days. It uses the same wheels and suspension as the ICE version so they are less likely to fall off than EVs specifically designed to run off batteries.

    2. “A manufacturer will be fined £15,000 for every polluting car sold over the limit, unless it can buy in extra allowances from another company.”

      The utter insanity of target-based legislation. Some of this will have been in the original Climate Change Act, some of it introduced by Johnson, encouraged by his eco-trollop. All of it is staggeringly stupid.

  39. Rough-sleeping migrants stranded outside New York’s Roosevelt Hotel. 2 August 2023.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/854234bc1d2c642d89733b89e85832cd5006ed64a0739b9dc5873db31c339eb1.jpg

    New York’s Roosevelt Hotel has been surrounded by rough-sleeping migrants who were unable to get a space inside the repurposed processing centre.

    Newly-arrived migrants were filmed sleeping shoulder-to-shoulder across three city blocks while waiting to be processed at the Roosevelt.

    Coming to a town near you shortly!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/08/01/migrant-crisis-sleeping-streets-roosevelt-hotel-new-york/

    1. That wouldn’t happen here. In this country they would already have been esconced inside the hotel.

      1. Half the hotel rooms in New York are already full with migrants. They are looking at schools and arenas now.

        How to destroy the tourist trade in one virtue signalling lesson.

        1. The economy is no longer of any importance now that money can be conjured up electronically*. It is all about the ideology now.

          * This will catch up with TPTB further down the line but it will be of no concern to the present incumbents as they won’t be dealing with the mess.

    2. I’m guessing that lot didn’t travel across the Atlantic by dinghy, so they must have paid thousands to get to Mexico and then across the southern border.

    3. As they use to shout in the TV Series Rawhide………….Round ’em up and head ’em out.

    4. It is known as the Quasimodo effect: “Sanctuary, Sanctuary…!!”

      The Governors of the Southern States are only too pleased to distribute some of the burden of the hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants, to those hypocritical, Democrat controlled, ‘Sanctuary Cities” of the East and West Coasts…..

    5. Entitled parasites who offer nothing to any civilised country, other than danger for women and children, and endless demands and complaints..

  40. Been up and down all night and day. Going back to bed as cannot cope. Just left a message to rebook my face appointment.
    Flowers delivered today from sister in law and niece and nephew.
    Later.

          1. Yes. the office staff have been round and I have cards and flowers from nearest neighbours. Lovely bouquet from sister in law today.

          2. That’s a help. But DO keep in touch with real people, dear heart. Whatever your feelings, this isn’t a good time to be entirely alone.

    1. I’m sure we’re all thinking of you at this sad time. Don’t expect to be able to cope in the short term (but you’re a strong woman and you will in time). Coming to terms with it won’t happen over night.

      1. In view of the actors strike in Hollywood I expect some enterprising Film maker to sign them up and create a film based on their true story. ‘Rudder Hull and Me & You”

    1. I find it very odd that the only President in decades that didn’t take the US into a new war, and is apparently prepared to come to some sort of non-belligerent accommodation with the Russian Federation is treated with such disdain by the Leftwaffer and the US & UK media

  41. Par Four today.

    Wordle 774 4/6
    ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩
    ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩
    ⬜🟩⬜⬜🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Crappy five for me.

      Wordle 774 5/6

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

      1. Found it tricky today, Is this an american way of spelling a french roll?

        Wordle 774 5/6

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

        1. No – but it is how the ladies of Morningside (Edinburgh) pronounce that word for a French roll 🙂

    2. Par four as well.

      Wordle 774 4/6

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

      We saved birdies and eagles for the golf course!

    3. Par four as well.

      Wordle 774 4/6

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

      We saved birdies and eagles for the golf course!

    4. Par four as well.

      Wordle 774 4/6

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

      We saved birdies and eagles for the golf course!

    5. Par four as well.

      Wordle 774 4/6

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

      We saved birdies and eagles for the golf course!

    6. I don’t read the Bible as much as I should, obviously.
      Double bogey.

      Wordle 774 6/6

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

  42. From The (F?) Off Guardian:

    This piece in The New Republic about the horror a new Trump term would bring. It’s basically a “Return of the Revenge of the Curse of the Bride of the Son of Hitler”-type piece…you know, like one of those 1970s Hammer horror films with Christopher Lee.

    That’s right, he’s back … Trumpenstein, the monster! It’s the Second Coming of Literal Hitler! Vladimir Putin’s personal cock holster! The pussy-grabbing Destroyer of Worlds! According to Brynn Tannehill and The New Republic, it is “goodbye NATO … goodbye democracy!” Hello to the new-and-improved Trumpian Reich!

    To folks who know their 20th-Century history, the story-line will be eerily familiar. Like Hitler returning from Landsberg prison, where he wrote Mein Kampf after the “Beer Hall Putsch”…
    [Trump] is coming back with the entire conservative apparatus at his back, having spent four years in the wilderness methodically planning how to permanently alter the political and legal landscape of the country to favour an anti-democratic minority.”

    Apparently, Trump’s evil master plan this time revolves around reinstituting “Schedule F” for federal employees, which would allow him to fire anyone with “policy-making authority” and replace them with hate-crazed Nazi fanatics. Brynn explains the utter horror this will lead to.

    …a Trump administration would replace vast swathes of the federal government bureaucracy with sycophants and ideological fellow travelers bent on implementing pro-corporate, pro-religious, and anti-minority agendas. This weaponizes the entire federal bureaucracy against women and LGBTQ people.”

    Shortly thereafter, the genocide will begin.

    The right intends to use every power of the government to eradicate anything it considers woke, particularly transgender people.”

    According to Brynn, once Trump has mass-murdered all the transgender people, and the gay people, and women, and presumably the Jews, and African-Americans, and whoever else he’s planning to mass-murder, he will fire and replace all the generals and admirals, arrest all his political and personal enemies, and declare himself American Führer for life!

    1. So essentially carrying on the Democrat’s destruction of America but in favour of white rather than hued people? /sarc

    2. Surprisingly Stephenroi, Brynn Tannehill is a US Naval Academy graduate, former naval aviator, author, and senior defense analyst. She currently lives in Northern Virginia with her …

        1. Yes indeed, Bill.

          She currently lives in Northern Virginia with her …

          “with her wife and three children.”

  43. Well we were promised deluge after deluge and biblical thunderstorms. Instead it rained a little for a short while.

      1. What about the daffodils, hearts-ease, phlox; meadowsweet and lilies, stocks; gentle lupins; roses, foxgloves, snowdrops, forget-me-nots?

          1. Or littoral:

            Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow! You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout Till you have drench’d our steeples, drown’d the cocks!

            W.S. King Lear, Act III, Scene II

    1. BBC Weather, brought to you by the Drama department.
      The meteorologists are standing in for Mystic Meg…

        1. Latest Mystic BBC weather forecast “and someone with a green door or number 21 will see some sun during the day”.

    2. We have had rain in varying degrees since about 12.30. Hammering down a few minutes ago but lighter now.

    3. They were just geographically incorrect; we had that just after midnight last night 🙂

        1. Word is that we are paying for his mothers accomodation, some little cottage not far from ottawa according to rumours.

          Nothing smells of entitlement like a Quebec liberal.

    1. There was a hushed up scandal a few years ago about an affair he had with an underage girl. Maybe he’s now moved on to underaged boys and trans victims?

    2. It has been obvious for years that Trudeau and Macron prefer their friends to arrive via cloaca. It is everyone else that pays for their sweaty embraces via la quinta de la rosa.

      1. I did wonder if Macron and Trudeau would become an item when they’re both kicked out of orifice.

    3. Now if only the rest of Canada could separate from the village idiot as well.

      There has only ever been one other canadian PM separate from his partner while they were in office. That honour goes to Trudeau Senior.

  44. TikTok tearaway Mizzy fails to appear before magistrates for breaching court order with videos at Wireless Festival – despite being banned from online stunts

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12365195/TikTok-tearaway-Mizzy-fails-appear-magistrates-breaching-court-order-videos-Wireless-Festival-despite-banned-online-stunts.html

    This little twat needs to be sent down to a hard prison, where at the end of his first day he can’t sit down, nor sleep on his back, after being the subject of “pranks” from his bigger room mates.

    And let him enjoy that experience as much as those he “pranked” enjoyed theirs.

        1. It will be a fairly major contretemps, he’s got a herd of minders supporting him.

  45. That’s me for this day of three halves. Rain – then very warm and sunny – now about to rain again. Bonfire tomorrow – I hope. I hope, too, that the builders come and finish off the roofing job. Ironically, after the early rain – today would have been a perfect day for it.

    Have a jolly evening.

    A demain

  46. Raining again after a bright interval. We might get washed away if it’s like this at the weekend.

    1. I’m going racing on Friday – assuming the course isn’t under water, of course (it’s right next to the River Dee).

      1. You’re racing up to Aberdeen – or nearby. Can’t remember the racecourse name.

        1. Wrong country, Tom! It’s Bangor in Wales, not Aberdeen!🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

          1. Aberdeen in Gaelic as in Welsh means mouth of the Dee but I accept what you say. I know and want to know nothing of N Wales – miserable Bar Stewards

          2. Bangor is nowhere near the mouth of the Dee, though. A quiz question trivium – which two racecourses are beside the same river, but in different countries? Answer Chester and Bangor on Dee.

          3. I posted to Sue Edison:

            Aberdeen in Gaelic as in Welsh means mouth of the Dee but I accept what you say. I know and want to know nothing of N Wales – miserable Bar Stewards

          1. Ah, OK, there are at least Ricer Dees in the UK. Having lived in Banff, I was only aware of the Northern Dee.

        1. I’ve been to Gatcombe, but not for a long time. Hope you sell lots of prickly goodies 🙂

          1. So do I – it’s a very select little row of animal charities – The BHS, the Brooke, Cats Protection, Greyhound rescue and us.

          2. La creme de la creme – as befits the Princess Royal’s pad 🙂 Is she patron of all those?

          3. I don’t think so, maybe the horse ones, but our entry came a few years ago when we collected and later released a hog that had fallen into a drain in the stable yard, and later ones as well. I didn’t see the PR last year, but in other years she’s come by for a chat and is very down to earth.

            Many years ago I used to work for a local catering company and we did lunches for her staff, and various events, and right from the start of the main event, we were the caterers for the evening party and corporate hospitality units.

  47. It’s quite a simple calculation:

    How much petrol and diesel in gallons is needed at UK motorway service stations over a given period to give fuel needed per period.

    Assume an average mpg for ICE cars as 40 mpg and the average EV miles per kW as 4.0

    Muliply average mpg by fuel.needed per period to give service station mileage per period
    Divide service station mileage per period by 4.0 miles/kW to find total kW needed over given period.

    Supply that amount of electrical power to motorway service stations for EV charging over the given period to take all diesel and petrol engined cars off the motorways.

    Simples!

    https://uk.news.yahoo.com/electric-car-owners-issued-dire-warning-by-motorway-services-boss-091522987.html

    1. Take the cube root of next to nothing, multiply by the square root of zero, add the date of your birth and divide by the angle of the moon.

      Now you have the arithmetic proof that EV’s work for every person on the planet.

      Apart from you, of course…

      1. I asked Bing AI what the problem was by replacing ICE cars with EVs – no need to do the maths!

        The overwhelming majority of service areas have fitted electric vehicle charging points. The problem now is that the original charging points, which were rolled out in 2007, are too few and not powerful enough. The most common motorway charging point brand is the Electric Highway, which was acquired by GRIDSERVE, who led a refurbishment scheme.

        Electric Vehicles – Motorway Services, Electric Car | service station …
        motorwayservices.uk/Electric_Car

        1. If world government really was pro EVs, they would have standardised charge points, plugs, download capacity and accessibility to ensure every EV could rock up at any charge point, anywhere, and get a refill in an acceptable time.

          They haven’t even tried and that’s one of many reasons that I think the whole thing is a scam

          OK, I accept that the the free market is the best arbiter, but even the free market needs parameters to work within.
          Let the geniuses find something better, but in the meantime, at least have a given set of requirements that suit 90% of the users.

          1. VHS vs Betamax all over again?

            I don’t have a dog in this fight, having moved to a retirement hungakow within 3 – 4 minutes’ walk from a rail station. Notwithstanding the small matter of prising a current driving licence from DVLA, I could have a Motability car in exchange for part of my Personal Independence Payment, prolly plus an initial payment. But the layout of the estate is such that a charging point would be impossible. So I’m sticking to the large electric vehicles operated by South Western Railway, thanks…

          2. Good analogy, but EVs are on on multiple levels. If it was only two life might be different

    2. Take the cube root of next to nothing, multiply by the square root of zero, add the date of your birth and divide by the angle of the moon.

      Now you have the arithmetic proof that EV’s work for every person on the planet.

      Apart from you, of course…

    3. Sorry, not simple, Angie, the first calculation requires mileage per period. no period identified.

      Go on, you work it out for us thickos.

      1. Women can work it out, sir, because they can establish the duration of periods. 🤔

        1. You will need to explain it in words of one syllable, step by step, to penetrate that skull.

        2. But I’m only a man, you work it out for me, if it’s only Women who can do it.

  48. A cynic writes:
    Justin a thought.
    I wonder if it’s possible that the Trudeau’s have made their announcement to take the Press focus off Biden corruption.

    Hell’s teeth, Sophie can be thrown under the bus, Justin will reappear at the UN or similar.

    1. I don’t think thatthe average american gives a toss about Trudeau.
      He has had a pretty tough couple of weeks, it may just be a self serving adistraction until they bugger off on another taxpayer funded holiday.

      1. Pressed before finishing, the point is not about the average American, it’s the removal of headlines in the papers and on TV.
        The average “anyone” tends to have a short attention span, so removal of Hunter et al, even temporarily, allows other distractions to be published by the MSM, most of which lean towards destroying Trump and protecting Biden.

    1. They now have more equipment than anyone could ever try to poke a stick at. But it all started to go wrong with Michael Fish, whoops.
      I can remember my grandfather telling me that if you nailed a piece of seaweed to the shed door, If it was wet it was or had been raining. And it would still have the same effect today.

      1. My dad was a Met officer on the aircraft carrier Illustrious and he had seaweed! In fact he threw it out of his office one day and shouted ‘Get out there and look at the bluddy weather!’

    2. The BBC’s outlook forecasts have changed recently. They still give a fairly full forecast for the first five days but where previously there would then be a good minute or more on the trends for the following five days, that bit is now rather vague and hurried. Have they lost confidence in their modelling?

    3. Weather forecasts are now more unreliable than ever before. far too many computers and not enough real weather forecasters. Boys trying to do a mans job.

  49. Evening, all. I went to a plant hunters’ fair this afternoon. Thankfully, it stayed dry and there was even a strange yellow thing in the sky for a short while!

    As for the headline. I suspect it’s not so much that the politicians are waking up to the folly of the net zero rubbish, as it’s slowly dawning on them how unpopular it is with those of us who live in the real world and have a vote. Once they’ve got back in, it will be full speed ahead to cripple the country, no doubt.

  50. I think I’ll buzz orff for the rest of the evening.
    Alan Titchmarsh is in Dorset on Channel 5 TV.
    It’s such a lovely country. Weymouth beach sand sculptures. Marvellous.
    Back in the morning 🤞

    1. We’ve had pest control here weekly for the last 3 weeks for a mouse I saw. There were loads of droppings behind the plinths of the kitchen units so it wasn’t a one-off visit, unfortunately, Hopefully it (and its friends and relations) have now gone. I must say that would like to be able to achieve a similar outcome with other unwanted guests in the UK, but never mind.

      Apparently they get in most often through air brick vents (the mice, you understand) – you can buy some very dense mesh netting to stick over the air vents called mouse mesh.

        1. I understand that that kind of poison actually is starting to result in mice developing a certain immunity (the stuff that professionals use is much stronger and can’t be bought online). Best to try and stop them coming in, for the future.

          1. It worked for me. I would put the bait outside where they come in.and in the general area. When we lived on our Norfolk farm we used it all the time and it became rat and mouse free.

      1. We’ve got a cat! She’s useless as a mouser – in fact she’s an old cat now but when she was younger she used to bring them into the house, play with them a bit and then lose interest… so I’m sure they disappeared into the mouse black-economy and then bred!

    2. Since I introduced bird feeders in the garden, rats followed. At least they stayed in the garden, and a combination of bait and traps seems to have worked. I had occasional mice at Hindhead. Usually at Christmas (which was also when the church organ devveloped serious issues) I don’t think they were related…)

  51. The once proud United States of America – longly riveted together by the US Constitution – is falling apart.

    Senior officials and NGOs are being contaminated by a plethora of cash-call lawyers and an increasingly corrupt Judiciary.

    Biden is a dangerous, incoherent and incompetent: he should be put out to grass – sine mora.

    1. The trouble is that the PTB behind Biden are even more dangerous, and they will remain.

  52. I was contemplating a few days away in the van from Friday, but that idea is losing it’s attraction with the weather we’re having.

    However, I’m off to bed.
    Goodnight all.

    1. It’s quite unpredictable at the moment. I’ve noticed that some newspapers have been predicting Mediterranean whether before long. Given the 14 day forecast I’ve seen, that looks like wishful thinking, but any prediction beyond five days is subject to chaotic factors.

    1. Sleeping fitfully, she went back to bed midmorning. She reappeared early afternoon but returned to bed. Family members have sent her flowers.

    2. I was just going to post. Have been back to bed a few times as all I want to do is sleep. Went back at 7 and now up again. Does anyone know if this is normal or do we all have different levels of normal?
      It’s only 2 days but I can’t get used to him not being here.

        1. Thanks Bill, that’s the only time I’ve been called “quite normal”.
          I’ll get there. Been through loss before but not like this…

      1. That is one awful big loss on top of your health problems and there is no way that a normal, caring person could just shrug their shoulders and just get on with life.

        Aren’t the Macmillan people supposed to visit early next week? That would ge a good time to think about other people’s normal.

        1. Yes, on Monday. If the facial pain wasn’t so bad, I guess I would handle it all better,

          1. If you handled it all better, it would be a disservice to hubbys memory. Go ahead and grieve.

      2. There’s no such thing as normal in times like this. Everyone reacts differently. Good to hear you have good neighbours which should help.

        1. I should have added it’s the Tom Jones Syndrome -It’s Not Unusual.

          Coat, door…

      3. It’ll take time Ann, and don’t try to rush it.

        Time will always tell. We want you to get there, Love and hugs.

      4. That sounds perfectly normal to me. It takes time to adjust and to assimilate the changes.

      5. Don’t waste time, worrying about what’s normal, Ann. Just do what works for you. What was his name? I’d like to include him in my prayers (though one might argue that it’s too late – it isn’t)

        1. I haven’t named him here but as he’s gone- his name is Steve.
          He wasn’t religious and neither am I but prayers and thoughts are welcome.

          1. Thanks, Big Sis. I’m rubbish at prayer, but each Sunday for several weeks, you’ve been included, quietly, during the prayers. I’m sorry I missed Steve out. You’re still there, for what it’s worth…

      6. You do what you have to do to get through this time, you deal with it in your own way as best you can. Normal doesn’t matter. It’s not relevant at these times in our lives. xx

      7. There is no normal for what you’re going through, Ann. There is no template to which you should adhere.

      8. Sorry, only just seen your reply. We all deal with this differently Ann but you will get through it – just ride the waves and do what you think is right for you and what Steve would have wanted

  53. I re-watched Mission Impossible 7 part i today and, having read the IMDb plot explanation, enjoyed it much much more. Then I moved to another screen to watch BARBIE. Some funny moments but I was falling asleep for most of it. Could have been the film or it could just have been me feeling sleepy. The cinema was packed with mothers and children, which is good news for cinemas. So now I’m off to bed. Good night, chums. Sleep well and see you all tomorrow.

    1. I have nodded off in a cinema before now: briefly, I think.

      I was a little surprised you chose to see Barbie. Were you just curious to see whether it would be more meritorious than a cynic like me would expect?

      1. It was mainly curiosity as a film enthusiast, but I had also read a review saying that it discussed the feminist movement versus the patrimony of men in a witty way. My conclusion was that it was a pure Mattell/Warner Brothers cash-in which, surprisingly, allowed itself to be sent up in many ways. At the beginning, over the credits, Helen Mirren says that little girls could only play with dolls which were their “babies” but that it was liberating to have Barbie dolls which were now dust feminine role models. During this exposition we heard the soundtrack from “2001 – A Space Odyssey” as the children smashed their baby dolls and threw the Barbies up in the air in triumph, aping (pun intended) the behaviour of the apes in the opening scene of the original film. A promising, witty, start, I thought. Then, later on, Barbie makes some remark at which point Helen Mirren interrupts to say “That remark shows why Margot Robbie was such a bad choice for playing Barbie”. So it might be a good idea to re-watch this film when I am less tired, but I have NO desire to do so – I have better things to do with my time!

  54. I re-watched Mission Impossible 7 part i today and, having read the IMDb plot explanation, enjoyed it much much more. Then I moved to another screen to watch BARBIE. Some funny moments but I was falling asleep for most of it. Could have been the film or it could just have been me feeling sleepy. The cinema was packed with mothers and children, which is good news for cinemas. So now I’m off to bed. Good night, chums. Sleep well and see you all tomorrow.

  55. Rishi’s fossil fuel bonanza heralds the start of a new era of home heating using the existing Rolls Viper ASV8 turbojet.
    The exhaust port is ideally suited for connection to warm air home heating systems as it sucks cold air from outside and blows it into internal.ductwork. As such no complicated internal copper piping is needed and the use of poisonous glycol antifreze is eliminated. It takes hardly any extra space outside than a heat pump and its marginally extra noise is compensatied by a Government allowance for neighbours’ ear defenders. The enormous heat energy output is offset by the low duty cycle needed for homes that are well insulated. The heating system is ideally suited to a fast home warm up time after the home has been vacated for a period. The starting procedure is no more complicated than the familiar classic cars with a starting handle. The basic kit comes with two bricks to stop the turbojet flying off and two litres of aviation fuel. It comes with a Rolls Royce lifetime warranty subject to the usual airfame servicing periods. A pilots licence is unnecessary.

    https://youtu.be/7kvkpbdehH8

      1. Have a happy one anyway. Saying it now as I am all over the place these days. Have a pint to celebrate.

        1. If you’re utterly disorientated, that’s quite understandable. The loss of a spouse is not something which we can truly prepare for. Events overtake you. I expect you’re feeling steered by others and out of control. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. There are professionals by your side who know what to do, although that’s easy for me to say from this distance. Just don’t be hard on yourself, Ann. x

          1. Thank you. Heading back to bed soon as sleep is one thing I can do. Must make an effort tomorrow though.
            I am normally a strong person but seem to have lost it right now.
            My son has been in regular contact which helps.

        2. Thanks, Ann. I don’t drive, but I’ll come over to see you if you need a hand. Bus, train or boat (if I owned one).

  56. Back up at 5 and can’t settle Just taken another painkiller- hope it kicks in soon.

    1. Argh! That’s no time to be awake, Ann. Hope you can catch a decent number of zeds shortly.

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