Wednesday 21 May: Sir Keir joins a long list of British politicians who’ve been humiliated by the European Union

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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639 thoughts on “Wednesday 21 May: Sir Keir joins a long list of British politicians who’ve been humiliated by the European Union”

  4. Good morning, chums. And thanks, Geoff, for today's new NoTTLe page.

    Wordle 1,432 4/6

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  6. ‘Barking mad’: Taxpayers funding dog which crossed Channel with migrant. 21 May 2025.

    Taxpayers are funding a dog which crossed the English Channel with a migrant.

    A German Shepherd was taken ashore after Border Force officials discovered it in Dover, Kent.

    It accompanied one of the 1,183 migrants who have arrived on small boats since Saturday last week.

    I would rather support the dog.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/05/21/taxpayers-funding-dog-crossed-channel-migrant/

      1. Dunno. Was hoping that you would help me out. You went to a posh preachy-preachy university didn't you?

        1. When I went it wasn't nearly as preachy preachy as it has become.

          I don't recognise the characters, although the blue "f" or the single red rose or the bird might be some kind of hint

          1. It's an invitation to get into bed with Labour so together they can fuck the populous ridged!

          13. It's an invitation to get into bed with Labour so together they can fuck the populous ridged!

          14. It's an invitation to get into bed with Labour so together they can fuck the populous ridged!

      2. I think one of them is the lib/dum leader, and the f is a Facebook sign. But as to what it means, no idea.

        2. Could be that although they are on public display they are trapped in their own small area.

  12. Morning all. And we are off. I hate this country. I am on public transport today. missed the Tube so am on the slow train to Waterloo, in the quiet carriage. And so at Mortlake two men got in, chatting. I told them it was a quiet zone and the they got abusive. So i wasn’t polite back. What a way to start the day.

    1. Hope you can relax a bit with a coffee, LiR. Too much stress early in the morning.

    2. It is far more agreeable sailing in the sunshine in the waters around Helford, Salcombe, Fowey, Newton Ferrers and St Mawes!

    3. It is far more agreeable sailing in the sunshine in the waters around Helford, Salcombe, Fowey, Newton Ferrers and St Mawes!

    1. The Idiots Companion
      Puncknowler
      9h
      Yes indeedy, Keith will be unveiling the new colour plan for the UK map next week. It will of course be rebranded as the EUUK. Pronounced Yuk.
      Lots of glum faces in the house today from the Labour backbenchers when Richard Tice stood up and asked the quisling how he felt about making them all redundant at the next general election. It was a joyous moment, you could see the fear in their eyes🤣
      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/092f371906a15e2616fb5e529ce7ce99eaf33d694e0ae7fa691397dc7a56fe4f.png

          2. The CS is our real, permanent and unelected government. Who will rid us of these turbulent priests?

  14. Morning, all Y'all.
    Beautiful sunny day yesterday. Sat outside pub, in the heat, drinking cold stout. Today, overcast and effin' freezing, about 20 degree drop in temperature…

  15. 405937+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Wednesday 21 May: Sir Keir joins a long list of British politicians who’ve been humiliated by the European Union

    Should read,

    Wednesday 21 May: Sir Keir joins a long list of British politicians who’ve been humiliated by consent / choice by the European Union they the politico's CAN stand the rhetorical pain in view of the financial GAIN.

    In point of fact in many ways we, lets face it honestly, have got the political overseers we truly deserve.

    2. 2Tier seems to like taking it up the arse. Well, now the whole UK gets to take it up the arse.

      1. 495937+ up ticks,

        Morning O,
        In the case of the TOOL it is speculation, in the case of the United Kingdom it is well proven fact these past 30 + years, ALL in support of a trio of (INO) political party names.

    3. It's easy to understand once you realise he has his next job lined up. UK GE not due for a couple of years, population should call for an early one, backed by Reform.

      1. UK GE not due for 4 and bit years, KJ200, and "the population" can call for an early one for as long as they like – they won't get it.

        1. Hear you, Elsie. We’ll see how Starmer & Co deal with the summer ahead, Kate 🙂

        2. All we can do right now is damage limitation. Slowing Parliament up for as long as they are determined to continue to act against the public is one of the few weapons we still have.

          Thinking caps on!

      2. 405937+ up ticks,

        Morning KJ,

        As I try to point out on a regular basis counting on Reform alone could very well be adding to our problems, we need a patriotic back up, anti treachery, fall back party also.

        The only one I can see knowing they have
        generations of loyal input already invested is the Farmers Food and Freedom party.

    1. The only constraint on Israeli public opinion against a 'Final Solution' approach to Palestinians is the threat to hostages. Remove the hostages and there is nothing stopping a genocide, and one financed and armed by America.

      Britain had to make this decision back in 1939. Do they sue for peace, and spare the mass destruction of their cities as a punishment for impudence, or do they "fight on the beaches"?

      1. Slight difference between Gaza now and Britain then.
        Britain, had not been carrying out a terrorist war against Germany whilst simultaneously using the British People as human shields and propaganda fodder.

      2. Don't be absurd. There is no such thing as a "genocide" when the population has tripled. It's a population explosion.

  17. 405937+ up ticks,

    Somewhat of a sweeping statement is it not"nige", seemingly you lot in the HOC have but in the real world I would find your comment to be highly debatable.

    Nigel Farage
    We have just surrendered to the EU
    This is a naked and unashamed U-turn on the Prime Minister’s pre-election promises

    1. What's new?

      Thanks to this horrible scroll down system to retrieve comments made even as recently as yesterday, it was the Regents Park hedgehogs that exposed the true nature of "Sir" (for services to criminals) Keir Starmer.

      Earnest promises made to his voters to safeguard the animal sanctuary only for him to vote for HS2 contractors to bulldoze the place as soon as he was duly chosen as their champion, and confident that people would have forgotten by the time of the next election.

  18. Morning all 🙂😊
    We've had some rain but not even enough to leave puddles.
    Our political classes are idiots most of them are so overwhelmed and obsessed by their own adgenda they never seem to notice what is actually going on around them. This mob is no different from what we have had to put up with for several decades.

    1. I think many will know, Eddy, from meeting with/hearing from their constituents. Ostriches..heads in sand, thinking if they ignore it, will go away. Tommy R due for release today, I think.

      1. Morning K, the trouble is that they are put in their place by public opinion on a regular basis. But when meeting later with their colleagues they work on ways to submerge criticism usually by telling more lies.

        1. Exactly, Eddy…the old two state dance..often includes the ‘gizza job’ step…

    2. No winners last night, celebration on hold…..again. 🤔
      Friday 156 million jackpot get your tickets Nottlers for your chance of winning.

    3. Political advisers for decades have regarded the word "CHANGE" to be an abracadabra, an open sesame to the door of 10 Downing Street. Like "hardworking" and "tough decisions", it is a cliché.

      I said all along that both the short-lived ChangeUK party of a few years ago, and Starmer's 2024 General Election campaign actually meant "More of the Same" and was profoundly Orwellian in both intent and reality. If Labour truly wanted change, it would have rallied behind Jeremy Corbyn, rather than stabbing him in the back, exhausting him with false accusation from the Blairite contingent that delivered Starmer to the nation.

      Had they done so, then either we'd have full-blooded Socialism now, or more likely, the Conservative Party would have got their act together before the Liberal Democrats did. Or would emerge a populist from the Right who could inspire the nation and promote the benefits of free enterprise over public control.

      1. The whole of Wastemonster and Whitehall needs flushing out. It’s so badly stained with years of disgusting people.

  19. Hasn't any one dared to blame HAMAS for their disgraceful part in their murderous contempt for their OWN people ?

    Starving their own , and attracting the ire of Israel who have been the victims of HAMAS raids for many years.

    How is it that Palestine is regarded as a pariah state by other Arab countries .

    Why hasn't this feeble Labour government committed itself to hammering HAMAS hard , or is it because they are scared of upsetting the millions of rioting flag waving Arabs in the UK .

    I reckon that this government would have sided with Hitler , especially now so with the current idiots who purport to wear the badge of Government .

    1. With all the will in the world, it is palpably obvious that the overwhelming threat to 2 million citizens of Gaza comes from Israel, not from Hamas, a tinpot clique of thugs not even capable of sustaining a serious assault on its foe for more than a few days.

      If there is any intention to restore democracy to Gaza, then the best way to defeat Hamas is to offer the electorate a proper alternative – a Government that recognises its first priority is to defend its people against a foe, and then to govern. It was Israeli extremists that bombed out Fatah, and it was Israeli extremists that assassinated Yitzhak Rabin. Maybe it is they who should be hammered hard?

      Those that are supporting the Knesset's "Final Solution" approach to the Palestinian problem, using Hamas as a convenient scapegoat, are effectively siding with Hitler. It is shameful to the extreme that so many of these are Jews, who understand all too well the results.

      1. If Hamas releases the remaining hostages (who seem to be forgotten in this debate) the war will end. The war started because Hamas slaughtered men, women and babies (also seems to be forgotten). The reason the remaining hostages are still held by Hamas is probably because most of them are dead.

        1. They would be mad to release the hostages now.

          All that would happen would be the last objection within Israel would be removed, and there would be nothing then stopping a comprehensive massacre of civilians, whilst Hamas leaders scarper to Arabia to fight another day.

          1. “They would be mad to release the hostages now.” If that is your view I cannot discuss it further with you.

          2. I gave up discussing this subject with jM a while ago. His mind is like concrete – thoroughly mixed and permanently set.

      2. If Hamas is as small and ineffective as you suggest, why didn't the Palestinians just kill them all?

        Why?

        Because they approve of Hamas's objective, the total eradication of the state of Israel and extermination of the Jews.

        1. Ever tried to mount a coup d'etat while under fire from a powerful and well-supplied enemy?

          1. The coup d'état should have happened years ago, long before Israel starting retaliating for Hamas attacks.

            All the tunnels, all the weaponry, all the Hamas leaders could have been exposed by the Palestinians. They didn't and having sown the wind, they are now reaping the whirlwind.

          2. Considering the destruction wreaked on Gaza by Israel in 2014, I would thought a Civil Defence programme a priority from any responsible government there. Digging tunnels may be an old idea, but they have their place even today.

            Since when has defending your people from a serious military threat only applied to one side and not the other?

            Hamas's main lapse in military judgement comes with lobbing rockets willy-nilly into Israel with no clear military objective other than to provoke the enemy. Self expression may be fashionable, but is it wise? That said, it defies belief that Israel, which has the capacity to smash a province to rubble, could not round up those paramilitaries leaping the fence and wiping out Israeli villages, and shoot the lot of them on the spot.

          3. You don't have a clue.

            The problems in Gaza started far, far longer ago.
            The Palestinians have always supported organisations that attacked Israel.

            If Israel actually had rounded them all up and shot them on the spot creatures like you would have screamed war crime.

          4. Not in those circumstances. It was an invasion, and Israel has as much right as Gaza to protect its citizens from direct attack.

            You are right about Gaza being a problem for the Israelites far longer ago. Were not the Philistines, whom Samson defeated, from Gaza? Inter-tribal warfare has accompanied human civilisation throughout history, leading to retribution and counter-retribution to eternity. It was Christ who claimed Messiah status by endeavouring to break this cycle.

          5. Jeremy, you are not actually saying that Hamas built those tunnels to protect the people of Gaza from the airstrikes engendered by their own terrorist activities?

          6. Well, to be fair, I've never tried to mount a coup d'etat at all, but I take your point.

          7. Perhaps we all need to start studying how to mount a coup d’etat in order to save the country from more destruction by Starmer.

      3. So the use of the Gazan People as Human Shields and Propaganda Fodder whilst they carry out rocket and other terrorist attacks, not forgetting the October the 7th atrocities, is Israel's fault?

      4. I support Israel in its attack on Hamas who are the total cause of it all.Israel must finish the job.

          1. I think this post shows how badly you have "lost the plot".

            ps. Palestinians = victims of so many "genocides" that their numbers have increased 8-10 fold since 1948.

          2. Some are the result of relocations to make way in their former homelands for Jewish settlers establishing their brave new Fatherland.

            Perhaps they are breeding like rabbits because they have nothing better to do? I remember one old propaganda film where the human vermin were pictured as fast breeding rats. That was before 'genocide' became a word, and that exterminating such vermin was doing the world a favour.

            Everyone visiting Auschwitz comes away with their own haunting memories of what they have seen. For me, it was the smiling guards happy in their work that truly believed they were doing the world a favour, and that extermination was just a "hard decision" we'd soon get over.

          3. They have a homeland established in 1946, it is called Jordan. Read some history.

      5. If your solution is to work, Jeremy, some heavy-duty negotiation and discussion with Israel will be required, to prevent them from their usual knee-jerk response when hit by Hamas, of blowing up Gaza. Then, negotiations with Israel to see what kind of solution they could live with to the extent that they stop blowing up Gaza and work with, not against Gaza. Then, lay some heavy words on Hamas and others in Gaza to accept a democratic solution. Build up a basis for democracy (not a common fashion in the Middle East, except for, err… Israel). Have elections, and hopefully receive a body of representatives who are not just Hamas in suits.
        Somebody will have to lay some serious cash on the line, as well.
        And this all assumes that this would solve the issue. It would only take a Son-of-Hamas to derail the whole thing, and there would be plenty of those, since everybody is outraged that they, personally, are not in charge and beating the Great Satan.
        I don't think it would work.

        1. I have made comparisons with WW2 elsewhere today. Hitler could not be appeased, and I doubt Netanyahu would either, now he's got the bit between his teeth. It ended badly in the short term for Germany, but Germany did emerge from it a prosperous and stable democracy, albeit at huge cost to the victors.

          1. Hamas are directly inspired by the NAZIS. They were friends with them and even sent volunteers to Germany. The Muslim Brotherhood was founded by the Grand Mufti who was a pal of Hitlers. It is really tedious arguing with people like you. Ignorant to the core and ignorant of history or the intention of Islam with regard to Israel. Your ignorance is based on a slobbering sentimentality devoid of fact or reality. It is utterly shameful and so typical of Palestine supporters, Useful idiots knowing nothing.

          2. I must admit, Jonathan, that I tend to give both jeremy Morfey and kowloonbhoy a wide berth these days.

          4. The current regime in the Knesset are replicating, unnervingly accurately, the intentions, attitudes and methods of the Nazis. I do not defend Hamas, but then I am surprised you are defending those you argue are like, because they have powerful backers in the USA. I could go on about others who were “pals of Hitler”, including a British king and a delegation of 1930s Zionists (considered terrorists by the British Mandate) eager to take up Hitler’s offer of repatriation from Germany to a new Homeland, but this was long ago now. I am more concerned with now. I also take exception with you lumping in Christians, such as myself, as ignorant of or sympathetic to the intention of Islam.

            I presume your last statement is pure projection. All I am hearing from you is propaganda and bluster and is quite indefensible.

          5. I really wonder about the moral depravity of people who liken Jews, Knesset or not, to Nazis. It is the perversity of very sick minds that have never met a holocaust survivor, heard or understood their story. It is, quite frankly, obscene. As Christopher Hitchens used to say. It is an inevitable symptom of madness.

          6. Not mad; politically incorrect perhaps. I am very disappointed with what is coming out of Jerusalem right now, and suggest that moral depravity is not limited to those with humanitarian sensibilities.

            It is well known in psychological circles that very often the bullied themselves turn into bullies because they know no other way if there is a pathological streak about them, or they have become fanatic. Moses knew this very well and commanded his people not to indulge in tyranny once they became masters of their own land. “Always remember that you were once exiled, and be merciful”.

            I did meet a Ukrainian lady who was experimented on by Mengele. She settled in Britain, and while she did not forget her trauma, she did not allow it to turn her psychotic.

      9. What an absurd post. Written by someone who obviously has no clue about Hamas, its history or its intentions with regard to Israel. And please remember that those fake "poor Palestinians" voted for Hamas and continued to support them. 57% of those animals approved of the massacre on October 7. and they are still indoctrinating their kids to murder Israelis. Israel gave them Gaza for peace and all they have received in return is murder. The fake Palestinians who, by the way, are not natives of the land but recent immigrants should be shipped to Jordan, the true Palestinian homeland and, while that is being done, they should be cleared out of the West bank too.

        1. A mob whipped up and out for vengeance. There is too much of that sort of thing both sides of the border.

          I once met a Palestinian Christian from Bethlehem, in the West Bank. He was an olive grower, but was constantly plagued by Israeli settlers from the hills, escorted by the IDF, descending on his farm and cutting down his trees, many of them ancient. He would plant up replacements, only to find that as soon as they started to bear fruit, back would come the settlers and cut them down too. His capacity to defend his trees was restricted by Israeli roadblocks, which has strict rules as to when and who could attend to his farm. His main boast was that Palestinian olive oil was the best in the world, and far superior to that stuff coming out of Italy.

          I challenged him on your very point, suggesting that he was descended from Arab interlopers, and that the Israelis had prior claim to the land. He replied, suggesting that it was the settlers who were impostors, claiming false Jewish heritage in order to get favoured status, and that he himself was a “Son of Jacob” (the exact words he used) and could trace his ancestry right back to biblical times.

          1. I would get my violin out but it is so small I can't find it. The Jews have every right to their homeland so sorry, I have zero sympathy. I doubt that you know that even the Turks who ruled the place recognized that the Jews were the native inhabitants. And, by the way, Arabs are fantasists who will lie at the drop of a hat.

          2. Are you a human or a bot sampling statements out of propaganda, shuffling them and presenting them in a way that might convince the casual reader? Like most AI these days, logic flies out of the window. I expect it will improve soon, but perhaps an update is in order?

          4. No not a Bot. Simply someone who lived with Arabs for most of my childhood. But you, like most Westerners haven't a clue about them or what motivates them. You are like most "liberals" intellectually lazy. You have never bothered to study the subject in depth you have just swallowed all the propaganda hook, line and sinker. It is people like you that hinder a solution not help find one.

          5. I’m sure Tom Armstrong would welcome an article about your experiences living with Arabs.

    2. As Roger would have said: “precisely”.

      Nb. Not many people knew Roger. But he used to say it, a lot.

    3. 'morning Maggie, hope you are well today 🙂 Everyone focused on Russia/Ukraine. Meantime, eyes off the ball of Iran/Israel, bouncing along. Off to do some weeding, see you later, Kate

  20. 405937+up ticks,

    Dt,

    Starmer and EU to arm West with new global defence bank
    New institution modelled on World Bank would provide lending to restock European arsenals

    Should read

    Starmer and EU to arm West with new global defence bank
    New institution modelled on World Bank would provide lending to restock European elite arseholes.

    Anything appertaining to benefit the peoples on life saving, instead of the life thieving, agenda ?

    1. So that reads as if he's using the Brussels mafia to pass on messages to him so that he can assume credit.
      Because basically he hasn't a clue what he and his mob are doing.
      Any chance of getting rid of them all soon ? Oh….. not now with the protection of fond of lying.

  21. Good morning all.
    I'm back again from my travels and what a bloody mixed bag the weather was.
    Arrived at Horse Shoe Point on Friday afternoon in a near gale and, whilst the air temperature was not that cold, the wind chill effect was bloody horrendous! As I did not put gloves on when I went for a walk, my hands turned purple!
    I did not make that mistake on Saturday!
    However, more of that anon.
    It's a bright sunny morning here in Derbyshire with a tad over 12°C on the thermometer.

  22. Not quite true. The British mounted an expeditionary force against Germany on the continent that was pushed to Dunkirk by the Germans. The Luftwaffe bombing of British cities and infrastructure could well have been interpreted by German propaganda as using the British as human shields, rather than doing what was required and surrendering.

    1. Have your sugar levels dropped off the scale Jeremy ?

      I am not very happy with your current mindset .

      Hamas are rich men , sheer infidels who are hiding somewhere luxurious , maybe even safe old London ,perhaps even dining with Starmer and the Black twerp posing as foreign minister .

      People similar to you are the reason why Hamas are twisting and turning the truth around .

      1. On the contrary, you may well be right about Hamas skulking abroad. Why then is Israel moving in hard on 2 million civilians claiming to be after Hamas, when their actual target is far away from where they are shooting? It suggests to me that "fighting Hamas" is not their real intention, but just a way of presenting it to the world, and that their true intention is genocide and site clearance.

        1. The ex leader of Hamas living in the UK.
          Muhammad Sawalha. Mohammad Kathem Rashid Maruf Sawalha (born 21 July 1961), also known by the name Abu Obada, is a former leader of Hamas in the West Bank. He is the president of British Muslim Initiative (BMI) and currently resides in London.

          In social housing paid for by the taxpayer.

  23. I agree totally.
    Generally speaking the problems that our country has and is now enduring were all caused by the last Conservative government.
    And the disguised influences of B liar himself. Probably behind the scenes with people like Hesiltine Clark etc. All comfortably out of the picture but still pulling the strings.
    Collectively our political idiots have effed up everything they come into contact with. And are now seemingly thoroughly enjoying wrecking our country, its culture and social structure. And of course the economy.

  25. Same letter in wrong place four times. Got it in the end.
    Grey skies and light rain. Power cut coming this afternoon.
    Wordle 1,432 4/6

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    ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜
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      1. Leaving a gaping, bleeding infected hole with no prospect of further treatment?

    1. A metaphor for how wind power generation works.

      I bet that that tanker is still being powered by its engines and that the wind assistance is merely an add-on.

      If wind only it won't be able to move without wind, steering will be haphazard at best, stopping it will be a nightmare and the additional costs will outweigh any gains.

      1. If a cattle farm produces beef and milk.
        If a sheep farm produces mutton and wool.
        If a pig farm produces pork and bacon.
        If an arable farm produces wheat, barley, rye, oats, spuds and a hundred other crops.
        How does a 'wind farm' produce wind?

        2. They are power stations. The planners try to sneak them in under the guise of "solar farm" or "wind farm."

  29. Hallo kind hearts and gentlefolk. It is raining but not on the plains of Spain, I checked 😊

    A video. some of you may not know who Charlie Kirk is but he is probably the most influential conservative not in the USA government . At least on a par with Musk. He is in England at the mo and in this video he talks about us and how aware the US government is aware of our problems. So it is worth listening to him. The interview is divided into two parts. In the middle you have to listen to Esther McVeigh rattling on with some gay leftist telling us what a good thing it is that Lucy Connally is in jail. But bare with it or skip the prattle and listen to the rest of Charlie's interview. It is worth it.
    'The UK is Becoming Totalitarian!' | Charlie Kirk on Starmer's Jail Sentences for 'Hurty Words'
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmy0RuxehD4&list=TLPQMjEwNTIwMjXPxwhzj0xXRQ&index=2

        1. I wonder if schools' careers departments advise young people on how to become an influencer!

          2. Actually Rastas, what I have noticed is that most of them, on the conservative side anyway, are exceptionally intelligent and quite eloquent. Thus they have something to say. That goes for both the American and British influencers. On the English side the Lotus Eaters spring to mind. On the American side Tim Poole, very eloquent and Candace Owens who, speaking extemporaneously, often sound like she is reading from an amazing script. I have in mind her response to Rep. Ted Lieu whom she slaps up, down, and sideways as well as anyone else who crosses her. The quality that makes them influencers can’t be taught because it is most definitely an ability to project ones personality and really have something to say.

  30. I’ve just had an email from Eric the bee. He’s in hospital in Dumfries.
    Hi Sue

    I am currently in DGRI. I had severe abdominal pains on Saturday and was eventually admitted at 2am on Sunday. CT scan shows an inflamed gall bladder. Temperature and infection markers in the blood are high so I am on an IV for antibiotics. If they can get these down, I should be out later in the week.

    Kind regards

    Eric xx
    He’s presumably on line if you like to send him good wishes!

    1. Poor Eric ,

      Please get better , and do as they tell you , I wonder whether they will remove your gall bladder ?

      Good wishes for a healthy outcome Eric, and don't forget to drink plenty , keep those kidneys and bowels flushed through properly .

      Toodle ooh for now , enjoy your bedrest xx

      1. Our thoughts are with you Eric.

        Problems with gall bladders run in families.

        I went yellow with jaundice and had my gall bladder removed; 12 moths later Caroline had hers removed by the same surgeon and ten years after that our son, Henry, had his removed at the age of 16 – and again by the same surgeon.

        1. Not something to do with a diet issue for you all? As you and Caroline are not blood relatives.

          1. Caroline's mother had her gall bladder removed. Our doctor warned us that with two parents having had such problems our children could be susceptible – and this proved correct with Henry.

            The surgeon said it was extremely rare for a child as young as 16 to need to have his gall bladder removed and he was surprised when the tests proved the case.

          3. Christo's internal bits and pieces seem to be functioning.

            Although many members of the Tracey family were doctors (4 of the children of Doctor Henry Tracey, my grandfather, were doctors) I was not good enough at physics and chemistry to do "A" levels in these subjects and studied Arts subjects instead.

          4. I had my gall bladder removed in 1975, and have paid the price ever since .. I am certain some one left a swab or forceps inside me .. hence my current problems 🤔🙄

        2. Does the surgeon have a mounted trophy case labelled "The Tracey Gallbladders". Glad you all came through it happily.

          1. The man who tod me as a 14 yo that my intestinal problems were quite normal for pubescent boys was the same man who removed my appendix 17 years later.

          2. Reminds me of the philosopher's bicycle.

            If you replace a bicycle's handlebars with new ones but put the original handlebars to one side and then systematically do the same with each piece of the bicycle until every part has been replaced and then reassemble all the discarded bits then which of the two is the actual bicycle?

          3. Can never happen – a philosopher would never have the necessary skills to fix a bicycle.

          4. Reminds me of the philosopher's bicycle.

            If you replace a bicycle's handlebars with new ones but put the original handlebars to one side and then systematically do the same with each piece of the bicycle until every part has been replaced and then reassemble all the discarded bits then which of the two is the actual bicycle?

      2. Our thoughts are with you Eric.

        Problems with gall bladders run in families.

        I went yellow with jaundice and had my gall bladder removed; 12 moths later Caroline had hers removed by the same surgeon and ten years after that our son, Henry, had his removed at the age of 16 – and again by the same surgeon.

    3. Get well soon, Eric! Our daughter-in-law had your problem a year ago and she is fine now. Go with the flow.

      1. Hope you're well soon, Eric – I had a gall bladder inflammation in 2016 – it's never recurred so far.

    5. Thanks, Sue. I had similar, GP diagnosed h-pylori and antibiotics..pain so bad, my tongue turned orange, really scary. Went to a different doctor who questioned/examined me, only took a few minutes for him to declare 'diverticulitis, low fat diet'. Been ok ever since. (NB this is not to say that's Eric's problem, don't know him but wish him well x ).

    7. Hope you buzz out of hospital, fully recovered, very soon Eric.

      Very best wishes!

    10. Oh heck.
      Apparently gall bladder pain is especially excruciating.
      Best of luck, Eric.

    2. How does a proud nation, responsible for the overwhelming majority of the world's technological inventions, manage to end up with a crowd of imbecilic, educationally sub-normal traitors as their leaders?

      Answers on the back of a charm quark, please!

    3. Does she have "Vast and trunkless legs of stone" – she certainly has a heart of stone and Medusa could improve her looks.

      1. Does she have "Vast and trunkless legs of stone"?

        She lived up to her nickname by giving us a flash of them in the HoC a while back.

        1. They say a barking dog seldom bites, but does a ginger growler do so?

  33. Eric apparently isn’t online, so he can’t reply directly at the moment!
    He will when he gets home!

  34. Good morning, all. Raining at the moment and so I'm indoors having a coffee. I was hoping finish my last gravel bed but rain is a better choice. Plenty of housework to do instead.

    Dog lovers, is this natural behaviour in a pack of dogs? It looks natural but in the right hands modern tech can achieve a great deal.

    https://x.com/crazyclipsonly/status/1924993012578353614

    2. I would say it is, Korky…have had a dozen or so dogs in my lifetime, many of them rescues, always the same one in charge. Eventually had to be euthanised as he could no longer stand up or feed, chaos reigned for a short while until a new leader came forward. Currently have two terriers, one is top dog but ill with liver problem – other dog tries to push in when he's feeding but that doesn't go the way she wants it to….gravel bed sounds good btw, are you planning glazed pots or similar for bulbs/perennials?

    3. Looks kosher. I walk past a dog park most days, where the packs of dogs who get walked around the city (by dog walkers, who collect then from and return then to disparate owners).

      It is very obvious who is top dog, and where all the others fit in. They are pack animals, and really do seem happier knowing their place.

    4. Yep. Top dog in the hierarchy just disciplined a subordinate. I use dog behaviour to maintain my position as pack leader. I have been known to do that to Winston when he gets above himself. Kadi did it to Oscar.

  36. Neither, Rastus. What you need to do is glue the two together and call it a tandem. Lol.

  37. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/83f5c6095ebad9e4739941924fa4031a30c88d0755f063b415c3065d177ed96a.png My letter to the Telegraph, yesterday, was expectedly not published. Here is what I sent:

    SIR — We police were far less gung-ho 43 years ago when I was a serving constable ("Amputee, 93, dies of Covid after 'assault' by police officers", report May 20). I attended a report of a severely distressed young woman who had locked herself in her house, armed with a carving knife, threatening suicide. I spent a good half hour calmly pleading with her, through the letterbox, to open the door so that I could discuss the situation with her. At one point I turned away to soundly rebuke my inspector, over the radio, who was offering all manner of inappropriate advice.

    After a while the girl opened the door for me, still holding the knife, so I offered to make a pot of tea so that I could listen to her dilemma in a calm atmosphere. It took another half an hour before she put the knife down and collapsed into my arms in tears. I arranged for her to be visited by Social Services and later kept a watch on her by liaising with friends, relatives and neighbours as well as making infrequent visits. She listened to my advice and, in time, recovered her trauma. I performed my duties without the necessity of being armed with extending batons, tear gas or a taser. A standard staff, handcuffs and whistle were all I required (and on this occasion none of them were needed). The public on my beat knew me and trusted me.

    A. G. Grizzly

    To clarify a few points on this: Not long after I had been dispatched to attend this matter (I was a residential foot beat officer) I was joined outside the address by my acting sergeant, a detective sergeant, and a constable in a panda car. I advised them all to stand a good way back from the house as it was my intention to speak to this woman through her letter box in an attempt to calm her down. After a good 20–30 minutes of coaxing she opened the door but only wanted me inside.

    I'd not been inside her house more than a few minutes when my inspector shouted up over the radio offering all manner of idiotic 'advice'. This annoyed me (the man was a complete twat anyway, he'd spent the majority of his career in training school so was more of a theory man rather than a practical man). I hissed down the radio (everyone could hear me in any case): "Please tell Inspector ••••••• to fuck off and stop interfering: I'm in a delicate situation here but the matter is under control!"

    I was livid but as soon as I'd made that radio transmission I knew I was for the high jump. I didn't care, I would have stood my ground with him, whatever the outcome, and even gone as high as the Chief Constable to state my case.

    My fears were unsubstantiated. After I had managed to successfully resolve the situation, that same inspector approached me, with a sheepish grin, and said, "Well done!"

    I later received a commendation from my divisional commander.

    I loved my job in those days but I could never have worked under the current pathetic world of the British police. I wouldn't have lasted more than a day or two with my old-fashioned dinosaur ways.

      1. Thanks, but resolving situations, such as this, were the very reason I joined the profession.

      1. 🤣 I could see any movement in the entrance porch through the net curtain-covered door window.

  38. Pouring with rain here .

    I watered the garden last night , lots of pots of hydrangeas plus flower beds and azaleas etc , as I have every evening .

    Strange isn't it how blossoms on our trees are over and done with in about ten days . Seeds and blossom scattered .. The worst seeds are the elm seeds , they float down like snow, carpet the grass and stick to the soles of shoes, paws etc

    Moh sucks them up with one of his mowers, which ever machine starts up first !!!

    Talking of whom, although it is pouring with a heavy drizzle , Moh is playing golf this morning , another competition ..

    You would have been amused to hear him crackling and crinkling in his wet weather gear , doesn't keep him completely dry , and sadly his spectacles also mist up in the rain ..

    If he spat on them , like divers do to their diving masks , would that help keep his glasses clear?

    1. We had a light rainfall during the night – all dried up now. Must have a look in the rainwater butts to see if there was any useful water. Sun breaking through the cloud now.

      I don't think spitting on the specs would do much good!

  39. Just read. Peter Tatchell was arrested this weekend for Criticising Hamas Dictatorship In Gaza?

    1. Why does Khunt do nothing? More importantly, why is he not punished when he does nothing?

  41. Ukrainian becomes third man charged over Starmer firebombs. 21 May 2025.

    A Ukrainian national has become the third man to be charged in relation to the series of fires that damaged properties and a car linked to Sir Keir Starmer, the Metropolitan Police said.

    Petro Pochynok, 34, was arrested in the Chelsea area on suspicion of conspiracy to commit arson with intent to endanger life.

    Needless to say no comments are allowed on this article. Not simply the one above, but if you try and sneak one in on another thread, it will be REMOVED. The piece itself; though it tells us about Mr Pochynok, does not question his involvement with Mr Starmer. We do not even know if they have ever actually met. It is not alone in this. You might be forgiven for assuming that a vast conspiracy of silence has been imposed (it has). There are no questions in Parliament, the newspapers. The electronic media. It is forbidden to mention it.

    The Zulu people used to have an honour system called hlonipi where the names of dead kings could not be spoken. We have surpassed them again.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/05/21/third-man-charged-over-starmer-firebombs/

      1. I suspect that when incarcerated for a safe period of 30 years any evidence connected to the three Ukrainian “models” will remain secret.

        Blackmail is a possibility motivating the three but they did not reckon on British justice.

        1. We will see, Corim there are always Blair's favourites the 'D' notices. 50 years cover I believe.

  42. From the Telegraph

    Labour’s attack on Israel is completely unjustified
    We are betraying a good friend to appease people who hate everything we stand for

    Jake Wallis Simons20 May 2025 5:27pm BST
    “The world is judging,” David Lammy said in the Commons today, with all the pique of an imperial overlord rebuking a former colony. “History will judge them. Blocking aid. Expanding the war. Dismissing the concerns of your friends and partners. This is indefensible and it must stop.”

    The speech surely won him loud applause throughout the progressive world, not to mention among Labour’s diminishing Muslim base. Next stop: endorsing false claims that Israel is conducting a “genocide” and unilaterally recognising a Palestinian state. It’s coming. Mark my words.

    Hamas is already licking its lips. Yesterday, when Sir Keir Starmer joined Emmanuel Macron and Mark Carney to issue a statement rebuking Israel and vowing “concrete action” against it, the jihadis issued a delighted official response, calling it a “principled stance”. Which rather suggests that we’re now on the wrong side of history, doesn’t it? Or at least on the wrong side of morality.

    The volte face on support for Jerusalem was only a matter of time. In fact, it was something of a surprise that it hadn’t come sooner. During the months it has been in power, the Starmer government has been maintaining a degree of superficial support for the Jewish state while pursuing a policy agenda that told a different story.

    Suspending 30 arms export licences. Voting against Israel at the United Nations. Supporting the pernicious International Criminal Court case against Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, then suggesting that Britain would uphold the arrest warrant and take them into custody were they to set foot on our soil. Plotting with Emmanuel Macron to recognise a State of Palestine.

    Step by step, the government has been edging the country towards a position that is hostile towards Jerusalem, while trying to keep Jewish voters happy with platitudes and not giving Reform any gratuitous targets.

    The same strategy has been pursued in other policy areas, from Brexit to immigration. Throw the public some rhetoric to shut them up, then press the button on decisions that take the country in precisely the opposite direction. It looks like flip-flopping until you realise you’ve been had.

    Well, now the move has come. Say goodbye, Britain, to the long-awaited free trade agreement with Israel, which would have provided a much-needed boon to the economy. Our trade is currently worth £5.8 billion; this with the nation that produced the cybersecurity startup Wiz, which in March was snapped up by Alphabet, Google’s parent company, for a record-breaking $32 billion. This with a nation that actually knows how to fight a war. Lammy has suspended it.

    If this continues, we can also likely bid farewell to our security cooperation. Hundreds of millions of UK-Israel trade is military spending, which over the years has been of vital importance to Britain.

    British troops were supplied with the Spike NLOS missile – to start with, directly from IDF stocks for the sake of speed – saving many British lives. In British service Spike was known as “Exactor”, and it was used to defend bases in Iraq and Afghanistan against enemies firing rockets at them or planting bombs nearby. It prevented attacks and saved British lives.

    Our servicemen have also trained on Salisbury Plain with Israel’s high-tech Rhino mobile command and control centre. The RAF has conducted numerous exercises with the Israelis, which has been of huge benefit; Israeli forces are unique in actually putting their kit and training to the test in high-stress, real world environments. We need the benefit of such hands-on experience.

    The cooperation goes both ways. When I met him in Israel, Ram Ben-Barak, the former deputy director of Mossad, told me that a 2007 Israeli strike on a secret nuclear reactor in Syria came about after a tip-off from MI6.

    All this has been placed in jeopardy. For what? Of course, we crave an end to the fighting in Gaza. But the Israeli hostages are not an afterthought, as they so often seem in government speeches. They are a casus belli, and Israel is entitled to do all it can to get them home.

    For another, Hamas is not yet destroyed. If Lammy has an alternative idea for getting Israel’s civilians home and obliterating the jihadis, let’s hear it. Right now, however, the two original provocations to war remain intact; diminished, but intact.

    Britain may have the luxury of suggesting that Israel downs weapons before it finishes the job, but that’s only because our people aren’t the ones who will be raped, kidnapped, butchered and mutilated – again – if Hamas is able to regroup. Likewise, the two-state solution.

    In Israel, support for that plan is at rock bottom, across the political spectrum. Why? Because their children are the ones who will suffer the results of a terrorist state, endorsed by the international community, just across the border. From the point of view of Westminster, however, the feelgood factor is more important.

    It all reminds me of the hullaballoo over Rafah. Remember? Israeli forces were held up for four months by the Biden administration, backed by the international community, who all insisted that a “humanitarian catastrophe” would occur if the invasion went ahead.

    The propaganda campaign was intense. Footage of suffering children was everywhere. Every single public figure was talking about the campaign. A social media meme called “all eyes on Rafah” went viral, viewed by almost 50 million people.

    Eventually, however, Israel gave up listening. It evacuated the million civilians to safety within ten days and took the fight to Hamas. As a result, very few innocents were killed but the redoubt of the jihadis was razed. The smuggling tunnels into Egypt, the lifeline of Hamas, were captured and blown up, and Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of October 7, was killed.

    Israel, it seems, was on the right side of history that time. The war is messy, the loss of life agonising and the Netanyahu government deeply compromised by the hardline elements within it. Take a step back, however, and this is a fight against jihadism. Our foreign secretary should take heed: There’s only one way that history is going to judge that struggle.

    1. Labour have always been antisemitic. They hate Jews. I don't really know why. I suppose being entrepreneurial, industrious types who like to be left alone to earn their living they're never going to be Labour voters.

      muslim, on the other hand, never working, always on the make and take is a natural Lefty voter.

      1. Have you seen Emily Thornberry spiting contempt at a Jewish lawyer in a House of Commons committee hearing? It's so obvious she hates Jews.

      2. The jews are what Labour are not. They work hard, never give up and always bounce back. They of course make money that Labour never does.

      3. The jews are what Labour are not. They work hard, never give up and always bounce back. They of course make money that Labour never does.

      1. Annual visitors and often two or three in close proximity. We have metal surrounds to the windows and they will land there to rest.
        I’ve often been within touching distance, but for the glass.
        They are lovely looking things, particularly when they raise the crest.

        2. I've never seen one in this country – but have been fortunate to usually see one or two when in Africa.

          1. A friend who lived in Staffordshire described this extraordinary bird she had seen in her garden – it turned out to be a hoopoe.

      1. Orioles.
        I’ve not seen the other two here, or if I have will have mistaken them for something else.

    4. Where do you live sos? I haven't seen a hoopoe ever in West Sussex. In Libya they are common. Love the sound they make, its quite peaceful.

          1. He rents out a gite. I was going to go but when i saw the Abigail's Party decor i had second thoughts.

    1. What could possibly go wrong …….
      Anyway, they need the cells for the political prisoners.

    1. The goat is wearing it back to front. The bit that arouses the mussies is the other end.

    1. Load of bowlocks. They came to get a better paid job and a chance of settling in the UK.

      1. It looks as though Lucy's counsel did not explain to her the options she had available to her in relation to mitigating circumstaces which themselves could have been the subject of a Newton hearing without prejucing the outcome of the primary charge.

        A mother's sense of protection towards her offspring knows no bounds and Lucy may well have been feeling the vulnerability of her own daughter following the Southport murders.

  49. It's time Starmer realised he is a public servant and as we are tax payers he technically works for us and not the other way around.

    1. He doesn't care. He hates the indigenous people of these islands. And while he has power he will do anything he can to crush us.

    1. I see someone is campaigning for round ended kitchen knives! FFS! Forgive my expletive, but it isn’t the knives that are the problem.

  51. I remember when the local paper referred to a murder in my home town as 'the second one since 1956'.

    After the diversity were poured on us it's a daily event, barely getting a headline.

  52. You know what's coming..
    Your OverLord Masters will deal with this by making the law abiding populace cut their food with spoons.

  53. You know what's coming..
    Your OverLord Masters will deal with this by making the law abiding populace cut their food with spoons.

  54. From the DTL comments

    Martin Selves
    2 hrs ago
    "The EU is the biggest Market on the Planet". That is how Steve Reed described the EU just a few minutes ago. He is the Environmental Secretary.

    Excuse me, but how does he define "Market". I think the USA, China and India might disagree by any definition of "Market", and whether they are a smaller market than the EU. The fact is every house in the UK is stacked with items form China, or maybe its just me… and the Chinese population is 1.3 bn, with India close behind.

    Eh???edited

    1. Steve Reed is an uneducated moron! Trying to defend this vile and evil bunch in ‘power’ was unedifying to say the least!

  55. 405937+ up ticks,

    Three is the basic required number to form a daisy chain.

    The largest "daisy chain" ever recorded in the world is the English tribal voters in tactical self punishing mode.

    Dt,

    Ukrainian becomes third man charged over Starmer firebombs
    Petro Pochynok arrested in Chelsea on suspicion of conspiracy to commit arson with intent to endanger

    1. Enlighten me. Do rent boys normally firebomb their clients? I remember Paul Pelosi, husband of Nancy, was attacked by a male prostitute. Snopes say that isn't true of course but Snopes themselves have been fact checked and they've never employed a researcher. Their claims can be taken with a pinch of salt.

      1. 405937+ up ticks,

        Afternoon SE,
        Snopes.com | The definitive fact-checking site and reference …

        Snopes
        https://www.snopes.com
        NewsGuard has given Snopes a perfect 100/100 credibility rating, a score given to only a handful of news outlets with the highest of editorial standards. IFCN …

        Heard tell a rent boy scorned is a sight of wonderment.

  56. I have turned PMQs off ..

    I cannot cope with the front bench and the PM's grimacing me mo ing insincerities ..

    It is horrible, and the clowns are performing gleefully , knowing they are robbing us all of our National dignity ..

    1. I never turned them on! I can't stand telly at the best of times and never in the daytime. If OH is watching footie I just tolerate it in the background and zone it out.

      1. My telly is nothing more than a conduit for watching a good film, a decent quiz (Only Connect, University Challenge, Mastermind), or the odd reasonably good drama. Most of which I access from the internet on my computer and then use my connected telly as a secondary screen.

        I refuse to watch news or political shows: life is too precious.

        2. Monday night has all those three excellent quizzes running consecutively on BBC2, although they have all finished recently – Mastermind finished on Monday with an absolute cliff-hanging final round – so bugger all to watch on telly (apart from the sport) for a few months…….

    3. Never watch it. It is just a pointless pantomime. Have you noticed how they sit there smiling, even when the subject is serious. A sort of Tom thumb and his plum smirk of self satisfaction.

      1. I gave up my TV when Starmer took away my WFA. Unlike the government when my income drops I have to make savings.

    4. Never watch it. It is just a pointless pantomime. Have you noticed how they sit there smiling, even when the subject is serious. A sort of Tom thumb and his plum smirk of self satisfaction.

    1. Is that the right to stay in a UK gaol or the right to walk free and abuse at will?

    2. They will be faced with fatwas here before not too long. It's on its way. Then what will they do?

    3. What nonsense he wouldn't be attacked in Pakistan for that. His victims were Christen and that is quite acceptable within the context of Pakistani Islam.

    5. Anything he can do to be annoying to the indigenous British public, he'll find it.

      1. His death will have a lot of people waiting around quietly for a long time. My preference is to begin with a pool of leeches and piranhas. Just lower him in slowly over a few weeks.

    1. That's very sad. Poor Scott. There are other possible reasons of course and maybe the devil just came to collect but I wonder if Biden was given the mRNA injectables. I'd have expected saline solution.

    3. No! Scott Adams isn't allowed to die!
      That is very bad news, let us pray for a miracle.

      1. One of the more valuable people in humanity.
        Poor Scott. Here's hoping for a miracle.

  62. The charts that show Badenoch’s days as Tory leader are numbered
    Neither bookmakers, the public or party members are confident she will be in charge by the next general election
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/05/21/charts-show-kemi-badenoch-days-tory-leader-are-numbered-uk/

    The irony is that the latest poll shows that the Lib Dems who call themselves Lib Dems are now ahead of the Lib Dems who call themselves Conservatives!

    When the Conservative Party decided to move to left it lost its raison d'être. This started with Major, accelerated beyond control with Cameron and May and even though Boris Johnson fooled people into thinking he was right of centre he was and is a leftist at heart.

    Then Truss was sacked for trying to be right of centre and she was succeeded by Sunak and now Badenoch and look where they are!

  63. The charts that show Badenoch’s days as Tory leader are numbered
    Neither bookmakers, the public or party members are confident she will be in charge by the next general election
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/05/21/charts-show-kemi-badenoch-days-tory-leader-are-numbered-uk/

    The irony is that the latest poll shows that the Lib Dems who call themselves Lib Dems are now ahead of the Lib Dems who call themselves Conservatives!

    When the Conservative Party decided to move to left it lost its raison d'être. This started with Major, accelerated beyond control with Cameron and May and even though Boris Johnson fooled people into thinking he was right of centre he was and is a leftist at heart.

    Then Truss was sacked for trying to be right of centre and she was succeeded by Sunak and now Badenoch and look where they are!

  65. What utter BS.
    Starmer has U-turned on winter fuel allowances after a revolt by Labour MPs who mysteriously discovered their consciences down the back of the sofa.
    He probably took it away purely in order to dramatically restore it when he had just betrayed his country to the EU. Yes, that is how politicians think.
    I'm fed up with all the deceit and lies.

    2. I think it will still be means tested, just at a slightly higher threshold, but at least those just above the current threshold will be honoured with what should never have been removed in the first place.

  66. Migrant boat forces Dunkirk flotilla to divert
    Fleet of 66 ‘Little Ships’ commemorating the 85th anniversary of evacuation told to avoid boat being escorted by UK Border Force
     https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/05/21/migrant-boat-forces-dunkirk-flotilla-to-divert/

    A flotilla of “Little Ships” crossing the English Channel to commemorate the Dunkirk evacuation was forced to divert so Border Force could escort a migrant boat.

    The fleet of 66 boats set sail from Ramsgate, Kent, to Dunkirk at 6am on Wednesday to commemorate the 85th anniversary of Operation Dynamo.

    It was intended as a “poignant tribute to the bravery and sacrifice” of the Dunkirk evacuations, where 1,000 British pleasure boats were used in the rescue of more than 300,000 Allied soldiers from the Nazi advance.

    But the commemorations were disrupted when Border Force and the French navy demanded that the flotilla be diverted to provide a one-nautical mile exclusion zone for a migrant boat.

    The small boat, which had been launched from northern France earlier on Wednesday, was being escorted across the Channel by the French navy and UK Border Force.

    In 1940 the Navy rescued our troops from France. Now Border Force is ferrying invaders to Britain from France. I despair.

    2. What an effing joke.
      Froglès way to remind us how we rescued them all from nazi occupation.

      1. Macron is too busy dreaming of occupying Odessa having helped secure a tame EU loving Romanian leader and with that success the future of its NATO Airbase.

        Hopefully Vlad will disabuse the little shit.

      1. Indeed. The commemoration is kind of pointless when they're not allowed to do that!

    3. It's all very entertaining, but I don't really believe any of the rumours. I think the whole thing is just a giant diversion created by someone with a sense of humour, to distract from the collapsing fiat currency system.

          2. Me neither, but i hear crusty pants are the order of the day. Not that i visit that menu.

    2. "It is the second most common bacterial sexually transmitted infection (STI) in the UK"

      STI? It was called STD before – D for disease. Is that a hurty word nowadays?

      1. It was called venereal disease and people who'd been to school understood that.

        1. In the 1960s at school, we knew it as V.D. – and whispered, of course, that certain boys might have it, and a 'select' few girls.
          Then (1990s/2000s?) 'STD' became the p.c. term.

        3. The Earl of Sandwich:

          'Pon my soul, Wilkes, I don't know whether you'll die upon the gallows or of the pox.

          John Wilkes:

          'That depends, my Lord, whether I first embrace your Lordship's principles, or your Lordship's mistresses.

          [Charles Petrie The Four Georges (1935)]

          probably apocryphal

      3. Well, they are allegedly prioritising "men who have sex with men" for these jabs, as such people have been identified as the most likely to contract turbo gonorrhoea (however that is spelt) which is apparently becoming far more prevalent with the influx of foreign men. Who could have predicted this? Baffling.

    3. Clap for the NHS
      I studied Microbiology from 1960-1962. We students did our practicals in Bristol's Public Health Laboratory at the foot of Whiteladies Road, which led up to Blackboy Hill. There are strong pressures nowadays from the woke Colston-haters to re-name both these traditional Bristol thoroughfares.

      But I digress. There was a constant supply of Gonorrhoea and Syphilis organisms to work with, handle (with gloves, of course) and study by staining and microscopy. The Gonorrhoea and Anthrax bacteria have very characteristic appearances, colonies of Anthrax looking like a "Judge's Wig". We discovered that the richest source of Pathogenic bacteria in the whole (Victorian) building proved to be the lift shaft.

      One of our young lecturers, Dr Alan Hedges, developed during his PhD the first successful method for culturing the Gonorrhoea bacteria in Petri dishes. Until then they had proved to be very difficult and sensitive organisms, except of course in the places where they grew in profusion. Say no more.

      P.S. just noticed that the spell-corrector has changed my spelling of Gonorrhoea to remove the letter "o". I've just replaced it. This is Britain, not the USA.

      1. I know Whiteladies Road well as the old location of BBC Bristol. Clifton is so much nicer than Redcliffe, where BBC Studios are now based. NO NO NO to renaming any of the streets in Clifton and the houses along the river front (shurely slave owner mansions?) must stay. NO to the Philistines.

        1. Sue, I wish I could give you a dozen up-ticks.
          I lived in Bristol for 19 years, but on a recent visit I needed to use my SatNav to find my way around. One used to be able to navigate by reference to the spire of St Mary Redcliffe Church (the fairest Parish Church in all England, according to Elizabeth I). But now there is so much high-rise in the Centre that you can't see Redcliffe Church any more. Sad.

          EDIT:           The SatNav was really useful because of all the re-routing of the familiar roads that I used when walking the last mile to school, 'cos it was usually quicker than traffic-slowed buses.

          2. Several of my relatives lived in or near Bristol, maternal grandmother in Henleaze originally, aunt in Knowle and uncle in Hanham.

            My grandmother was moved to the Ashton Gate area in her dotage and cared for by another aunt.

            Even as a Bathonian I loved Bristol for its architecture and would spend days exploring its parts. I would take a bus from the centre to Sea Mills and walk through fields from Kings Weston (Vanbrugh designed house of circa 1725) to Blaise Hamlet and Blaise Castle.

            Sea Mills was the site of a Roman port although Bristol was not a Roman city, and the remains of a villa was found in Kings Weston Park just after the war.

            Few can now imagine the devastation wreaked on Bristol by the Germans. The main shopping street, Castle Street, was lost completely along with several mediaeval churches which were often close together.

            I often took the Christmas Steps route from the centre to reach Whiteladies Road and then up Blackboy Hill to The Downs.

            Regrettably The Downs are now plagued by a preponderance of caravan encampments and static motor homes. Nobody seems able to clean up what were once serene parks.

            St Mary Redcliffe is the finest Parish church in England still. Local to us the church at Long Melford runs it a close second. The cathedral is wonderful and its Chapter House very fine.

            As with modern architectural developments in Bath I am afraid to say similar horrors have been visited on Bristol.

          5. I see from the church website that they are removing stained glass panels commemorating Edward Colston.

      2. Doesn't the Blackboy Hill lead down to the Whiteladies Road, much like TV adverts these days?

      3. Microbiologists have their own Anthem:

        "Show me a motion, tra la la la lah…."

  69. Afternoon all. What a difference a day makes! Yesterday I was sweltering, today I am wearing a fleece and there has been a torrential downpour with rumbling thunder in the background. English weather, eh?

    UK politicians are so focused on what they personally might get out of the EU that they are blind to its nature. It is a continental club designed for continentals. Dwellers of offshore islands are held in particular contempt because they lack the continental mindset to fit in.

    2. The whole point of the EU is that member states ignore the rules which do not suit them.

      From Heath onwards nobody in power in the UK has fully understood this except for Mrs Thatcher and once she did understand it her fellow Conservatives kicked her out.

      The EU does not suit the UK's rule abiding mentality which is why the UK has always been at a disadvantage and always will be.

    3. We had about a millimeter of rain during the night and it's been dry all day.

  70. For goodness sake child, don't ask questions like that. You'll get us all arrested!
    https://scontent-cdg4-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/499956226_1095294832408836_4536026465939981279_n.jpg?stp=dst-jpg_s600x600_tt6&_nc_cat=105&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=127cfc&_nc_ohc=genFDGH9g28Q7kNvwFJjt07&_nc_oc=AdnMPOE6k41oBtSaPdPucLoknIH1RA3lk_PDd2vALrrPFhetxpEP1AQoBo9spFm3tf5Hl74oRA1aqLhTh5mwGkLP&_nc_zt=23&_nc_ht=scontent-cdg4-1.xx&_nc_gid=Lo1Ow8pBxdFCJMxwBKbNxQ&oh=00_AfI8SMZ0pceIPNuQPny0zi_wPj5s9eA4dEdx83Q7GNESjA&oe=6833C452

        2. My 60 years old schoolboy French translates that as "will be when Starmer has had his chips". Am I close?

          1. Future tense of avoir -' when Starmer will have his chips'.

            When we have students with us Caroline finds my humorous attempts to put English idioms into French rather less humorous than I find them!

  72. Meanwhile in SA….
    "One might wonder why the government hasn’t swiped all the farm land from the Afrikaners already? The conundrum for progressive authoritarians is that they want to, but the vast majority of their domestic food production relies on the expertise of white farmers. They remember the starvation crisis that happened when Zimbabwe ethnically cleansed white farmers. They have to get rid of the Afrikaners slowly and replace them with black farmers over a period of years.

    Utility and political optics require that the SA government keep Afrikaner farmers trapped within the country so they can continue to produce until the government sees fit to eliminate them completely.

    I believe the “treason” narrative is part of this agenda, along with the general smear campaign. If even a handful of Afrikaners are able to come to the US and succeed this will encourage thousands more to leave SA. The country will then lose a large portion of its most productive citizens. The last vestiges of civil stability will disappear. South Africa will collapse.

    This is why some officials are begging Afrikaners to stay. This why the government is talking about national security concerns over a mere 59 immigrants leaving for America. Secretly, they know that an eventual mass exodus of white farmers is coming and it will crush their fraudulent system."

    1. Russia has welcomed white South African farmers too. They should all leave as soon as they can.

  74. The Ghetto Laws: Welfare-Driven Discrimination in Practice
    In 2018, Denmark introduced the “Ghettoplanen” (Ghetto Laws), later rebranded as the Parallel Society Laws. These policies target neighborhoods where more than half the residents are of “non-Western” background—a term that includes people from countries outside the EU and North America, even if they were born in Denmark or are second- or third-generation citizens. Children whose grandparents immigrated from places like Turkey, Lebanon, or Somalia are still counted as “non-Western” under the law.

    If a neighborhood meets enough criteria—low income, high unemployment, and a “non-Western” majority—it faces state intervention. This can include:
    Mandatory preschool from age one for all children of “non-Western” descent to instill Danish values,
    Harsher criminal penalties for offenses committed within these zones,
    Demolition of public housing and forced relocation of residents to “de-concentrate” immigrant populations, and
    Restrictions on who can move in, effectively capping the number of “non-Western” residents.

    The government claims these measures promote integration, but they operate more like demographic engineering. The message is clear: too much cultural difference in one place is unacceptable.

    1. When the Danes rode in to York (Eoforwic as it was) in 866 AD, they took over without a fight but adopted Christianity almost on arrival. They gave gifts to the churches, buried their dead in the churchyards and minted silver coins with the inscription, "Sanctus Petri".

    1. Soros & Son have made no secret of their wish to destroy the West. Pretty Polly (Spectator) would write about this almost every week in the comments, roundly abused for her pains. Not so much today, perhaps. I guess Soros has his reasons, probably not given a position of some importance in some organisation. Think he made quite a profit betting against the pound, Black Wednesday wasn't it?

      1. Pretty Polly is an occasional visitor to our Nottlers' Forum but she can regularly be found in the comments sections of The Conservative Woman.

      2. She did get a rough time, mostly because few people here could could comprehend the magnitude of the undemocratic power involved.

        2. I don’t think it was ever said where she got her(?) info, perhaps an insider Civil Service…I’ve had a few responses in the past purporting to come from there.

  76. "And around her waist
    In impeccable taste
    Was a python
    Devouring a rabbit"

    The Tattooed Lady sung by Paddy Roberts.

    1. 'And underneath her fanny, was Al Jolson singing 'Mammee'….(one night in Gay Paree)

      1. I'd put the full song on here but it's very crude! (we used to sing it at the Rugby Club).


  77. Wordle No. 1,432 3/6

    ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜
    ⬜⬜🟩⬜⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    Wordle 21 May 2025

    A startled Birdie Three?

    1. Or par, even.

      Wordle 1,432 4/6

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

    2. Well done – I got the final letter in guess 2 which led to a fairly straightforward birdie!

      Wordle 1,432 3/6

      ⬜🟨⬜⬜🟨
      ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

      2. Why can I upvote corimmobile and GGGGaspar for their Wordle results, but not Sue Edison nor lacoste? Anyhow, you three two, consider yourselves upvoted.

      3. Why can I upvote corimmobile and GGGGaspar for their Wordle results, but not Sue Edison nor lacoste? Anyhow, you three, consider yourselves upvoted.

    4. Very good, same here.

      Wordle 1,432 3/6

      🟩🟨⬜⬜⬜
      🟩⬜⬜⬜🟨
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  78. I have lunched and dined with at least a dozen Nottler ladies. None have tattoos that i know of. If they were to have them it would be something personal and private as opposed to 'look at me ain't i trendy brigade'.

    1. A lot of the tatted girls and ladies also have plastic nails in garish colours/designs.

      1. I feel we are venturing into an area that the young people would tell us it is their decision and to mind our own business.

        My worry is as any old fogie (Like Sosraboc) wouldn't understand.

        I do look forward though to how they expect to pay their Bills.

    2. After a quick whip-round amongst my friends, I was offered a DNR tattoo for my chest.

      1. That's awful, my friends got me to have 'champ' in Russian tattooed on my forehead. I thought, ok, I could do that.

        ЯИᗡ

  80. Just been treated to a fly past by a pair of Spitfires. Not sure where from. Ah the sound of Merlins in the afternoon!

      1. Thanks for that. Looks like they were from Goodwood. I have flown from Headcorn and Biggin Hill. I didn’t realise they flew from Howarden which is just the other side of Chester. That must have been the Spitfire I used to see over Wrexham.

    4. Is it as good as the smell of napalm in the morning? (Apocalypse Now)…..

      1. No idea. Never smelled napalm. Have heard lots of Merlins though and sat behind a couple.

    1. I believe David Betz's viral vid has spooked the Elite. Particularly as Betz is a Leftie academic, and he's been warning them for years that a civil war is baked in. However, it won't be pitched battles.. more the rurals vs. unprotected national power infrastructure serving the big metro-Leftie cities.

      1. I think they finally realise that there are insufficient numbers of Police and Troops to contain large scale rioting of the sort that might kick off if the Native Brits decide to assert their rights and large scale deportations begin…

        1. They've brought in an army of fit, military age young men with no families or possessions in the UK.

          1. And a religiously inspired hatred of the culture. What could possibly go wrong?

          2. And barely a brain cell between them. Great capacity for violence and no empathy.

    2. I believe David Betz's viral vid has spooked the Elite. Particularly as Betz is a Leftie academic, and he's been warning them for years that a civil war is baked in. However, it won't be pitched battles.. more the rurals vs. unprotected national power infrastructure serving the big metro-Leftie cities.

    4. This is a most sinister plan. You can bet it will be nothing to do with defending decent Brits (including those of other 'origins' who have fully assimilated, and who present no problem to law-abiding people) from TPO (The Protected Ones).

      1. Anyone who signs up will be first to be shipped off to the meat-grinder when they manage to get the next war going.

  82. The 42-year-old from Luton will appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court on 5 June 2025.

    For goodness sake plead with Trump for asylum.

    1. Now what’s he accused of? He hasn’t been let out uet!

  83. That's me for today. A slightly anxious one as the dear old Yeti was in the garage for service and MOT. You know the feeling… Just back from t'garage. All OK – just £700 lighter!! (They discovered that one of the front tyres was illegal….so I had them replace both front tyres.)

    Have a jolly evening – polishing your brasses (at you own expense, of course).

    A demain.

  84. Stasi leans on Leanne Lucas to promote yet another Noble Lie® to keep the project going..

    A dance teacher who survived a knife attack in Southport last summer has started a campaign calling for pointed kitchen knives to be replaced by ones with blunt tips.

    1. I suspect an awful lot of folk can readily give the Government very pointed blunt tips!

    2. After MOH dropped the kitchen knife on the floor I couldn't see the point.

      1. Presumably full instructions included. Likely a few pensioners injured (me included).

        1. Yes. I have succeeded in putting the pointy end of a knife through the palm of my hand. The culprit (the knife) joined forces with the stone of an avocado. A stream of blood arced across the kitchen to hit the draining board. They didn't waste any time in A&E I can tell you.

          3. Crikey ‘mum…sounds like you were fortunate that day, are you OK now – any arthritis or similar? I tend to do similarly, must watch out!

      2. I think that is how people craft deadly weapons from eg toothbrushes in prisons, isn't it? What a perversion of innate ingenuity.

  85. Nice noisy rumbles , just rumbles at the moment, no down pours , as we had earlier in the day .

    We need rain, more of it . Moh didn't end up soaking wet during his golf match.

    He is very tired now , and has had a few sleepy moments!

  86. I watched a video last night about five things you need to do to avoid dying before you are 82.

    The thing is to not kick the bucket before making the list.

  87. Wild camping on Dartmoor is legal, rules the Supreme Court.
    EXCELLENT.
    Put every single illegal gimmegrant in a tent on Dartmoor and supply them with bread and water and a free ticket home if they wish.

      1. Can’t have them claiming starvation genocide like Hamas do about Israel now, can we?

    2. Or a free ticket home.
      We have uninhabited islands where that could happen. Easier to keep tidy.

  88. Call me Mister Cynical if you want, but how come the winter fuel allowance row has suddenly kicked off again just after the Brexit Great Reset deal has been announced, taking all the news and scrutiny of the detail away from any political analysis
    It all seems a bit strange that what looks like a great betrayal over what has been the biggest issue of the last ten years all seems done and dusted and forgotten about.
    Almost as if all the mainstream media and political parties are colluding in it.
    Only one vague question asked about it at PMQs today that was completely ignored by the PM who later went on to suggest that the nation state soul selling to the E Gates of hell was already in operation.

    1. Reeves wasn't present so that probably helped him slide over it. Rayner mia too.

  91. She may have had a traumatic experience but she’s targeting the wrong solution.

  94. From Coffee House the Spectator

    Just when you thought Israel couldn’t be any more evil, yesterday we learned that thousands of babies are set to perish under its ruthless writ in Gaza. Fourteen thousand to be precise. All in the next 48 hours. Thousands of innocent lives snuffed out as the Jewish State, that most wicked of states, looks the other way. Now we know, the cry went up, just how barbarous the State of Israel can be.

    Israelophobia is out of control. It is the most dangerous bigotry of our times

    This story spread like a pox through the internet yesterday. It infected influencers everywhere. Everywhere you looked you’d see those cruel numbers – ‘14,000 babies’ and ‘48 hours’. ‘Nazi scum Israel’, the mob wailed. No one can deny it now, the virtuous cried: Israel slays babies for sport.

    Politicians cited the coming grim death toll. Israel must let in humanitarian aid right now, they said, in order that those 14,000 souls might be saved. It’s all over the papers today. ‘This must end now’, says the front page of the Daily Mirror. If not, ‘thousands of babies’ will shortly die. It drove the point home with a tragic photo of an emaciated Gazan kid.

    There is only one problem with this claim that 14,000 babies in Gaza are at risk of death by starvation in the next 48 hours: it isn’t true. At best, it’s a misunderstanding. Armies of activists and hacks falsely accusing the world’s only Jewish nation of overseeing the largest mass death of babies of our century so far? Tell me that isn’t the blood libel reborn, I dare you.

    The story originated in comments made by a UN official on the Today programme. ‘There are 14,000 babies that will die in the next 48 hours unless we reach them,’ listeners were told. The UN’s man was pressed – gently, one should note – about how he arrived at this figure. He said something about how the UN’s ‘strong teams on the ground’ are feeding back such chilling predictions.

    It went viral. It ignited some of the worst Israelophobia – and outright anti-Semitism – I’ve seen since 7 October 2023. Social media’s cesspit of bigotry bubbled even more furiously than usual. ‘Evil’, cried leftists whose entire personality is hating Israel. ‘Satanic demons’, said hard-right cranks who hate the Jewish nation because they hate Jews.

    And then the claim unravelled. Belatedly the BBC offered some clarification. The UN has now said, it reported, that it’s possible there will be 14,100 ‘severe cases of malnutrition’ among Gazan kids ‘aged six to 59 months’ over the next year if more aid does not get through. We need to get aid in ASAP, the UN said – ‘ideally within the next 48 hours’.

    In short, there is no calamitous prospect of 14,000 babies starving in the next two days – thank God. Rather, the UN is concerned that there might be that number of acute cases of hunger among very young kids if nothing changes, aid wise, over the next year. This is a wholly different claim to the one that whipped up such a storm of frothing anti-Israel animus.

    It’s good the BBC has offered clarification. Now we await the UN’s explanation for why one of its officials made such a thin and incendiary claim on live radio. The Spectator has contacted the UN to ask. Perhaps it was an honest mistake. But whatever their answer, I feel it’s too late. The damage is done.

    Israel has once again been libelled across Christendom. And Hamas will be rubbing its hands in glee at the spread of the vile calumny online that says the Jewish State is blasé, if not actively keen, on the mass death of children. It is unforgivable to so gravely undermine Israel while giving a propaganda boost to the army of anti-Semites it is at war with. The UN has some serious explaining to do. Maybe BBC Verify can get on the case.

    Those numbers – 14,000 and 48 hours – should live in infamy. For me they’re up there with the ‘45 minutes’ claim made in the dodgy dossier on Iraq. Both are figures that fanned the flames of war. One led to the destruction of Iraq, the other threatens to inject momentum into Hamas’s racist crusade against the Jewish State. Shame on those who have so completely suspended their critical faculties, and drunk so deeply from the cup of Israelophobia, that they accepted these numbers without question.

    That’s the most unsettling thing in this affair: the voracious online appetite for horror stories about Israel. Every claim about Israel, regardless of its veracity, is lapped up by radical activists and digital mobs who have convinced themselves that this is the cruellest nation to ever exist. Israelophobia is out of control. It is the most dangerous bigotry of our times. It has now even breathed life backed into the medieval libel that said Jews long for the blood of innocents. The importance of confronting this sickness in our societies cannot be overstated.

    Brendan O’Neill
    WRITTEN BY
    Brendan O’Neill
    Brendan O’Neill is Spiked's chief politics writer. His new book, After the Pogrom: 7 October, Israel and the Crisis of Civilisation, is out now.

    1. And people wonder why our good friend jeremy Morfey writes the crap he does.

      Well folks, now you know.

      2. Tsk Tsk – he's not anti-Semitic, he's anti-Zionist. A bit like good ol' Adolf and all today's lefties….

        PS He infested the Speccie website with those views for years, when he wasnt droning on about his wife leaving him (!)..

        2. Off topic
          Try todays challenges.
          Hint the first two in both tri peaks are doable, which makes the answer straightforward.
          Took ages!!

    2. Never a word about how Hamas could release the hostages and achieve a cease fire

    3. Every single one of those babies would be brought up to murder and hate the West. there is a reason Arab states won't have these barbaric creatures.

  95. No idea. The Act relating to Dartmoor was under judicial scrutiny. Depends whether other NPs have similar Acts governing them.

    3. Very likely similar numbers following days, Channel reportedly calmer with spell of good weather.

      1. As I am down that way at its more southerly aspect (next stop Western Approaches) I can confirm that the Channel is indeed very calm. Flat as a pancake in fact.

        1. Should we start taking bets how many over the next say, three months? ‘mum….say 100 days 500 per day…minimum…

    4. Flaming Nora. If that became the average daily invasion for just 1 month, that is almost 25,000 savages, including goodness knows how many violent criminals and rapists.
      I know we are not yet fully back in the eussr (only a matter of time, and Starlin has another 4 years to fulfil his wish), but this has been effectively agreed to by the controllers in Brussels: "First, the EU has to accept at least a million asylum-seekers annually for the foreseeable future." (For full details, see David Wainwright's reply to my X link below) And many of those will be heading for soft-touch Britain.

      1. If the 'incomers' ever have a memorial crossing of the Channel, like what was tried today for the Dunkirk evacuation, 200,000 inflatable boats will be needed

    6. Bloody great sign on White Cliffs of Dover: "No Vacancies"….In all languages!

  98. 'Night All
    Now about the massacre of Christians all over the world.
    Oh wait only Gazan mudslimes are allowed in the headlines
    I note the rows down below
    I hold no brief for the genocidal Gazans
    I hold no brief for Israel who have deeply unpleasant elements in their society
    Frankly a pox on all their houses
    Not my problem
    My concerns are closer to home

  99. Off to watch Spurs v United in the Europa League final – 16th and 17th in the Premier League, just above the relegation places! – the winner gets entry to the Champions League and a guaranteed >£100M revenues……. it's a funny ol' game……

          1. Yes, I was pleased – but more because I dont particularly like United rather than any support for Spurs – plus the fact that my Grandson is a big City supporter!!

    2. Tried to get it on tv but apparently have to subscribe to Prime at about 40 quid a month….no thanks.
      As boy I'm an old Spurs fan back in the days of proper football.
      Led out by Danny Blanchflower managed by Bill Nicholson.
      I use to go to most of the home games at WHL. I've just lost interest in all the diving, fake injuries, head holding, rolling around and back passing that goes on now.
      And I was very disappointed we had very little rain
      I'll be popping orff within the next hour.
      Goodnight all Nottlers. 😴

      1. Not that I watch or indeed pay to watch football it seems to me that the 'the diving, fake injuries, head holding, rolling around' i.e cheating, would be solved in one weekend by the production of red cards….

        1. I've been saying for years if a player goes down and rolls around. Off for ten minutes to ensure full and safe 'recovery'.

      2. It’s actually on TNT Sports (used to be BT) – you should be watching, Spurs are 1-0 up at half-time!

    1. Here's another from that rag……… If I hadn't read your post I might have missed this one!

      'Dead' man twitches and moves in coffin as he 'comes back to life' at his own wake
      Mourners were left in shock after a man who was thought to be dead started moving in his coffin. The bizarre incident was caught on camera and sparked wild scenes at the individual's home

        1. For those of a Religious bent – no offence – It's just the strange way my brain works I can't help it and am beyond help!

      2. I think that'll have happened more than once, Ndovu…and yet again there are reports of strange white worm like yuk being found in autopsies, thinking is vaccine-related?

        1. They only became apparent from 2021 onwards……. Dr John Campbell did quite a few talks on those.

          2. I’m sure the vaccine did more harm than good. Of course we won’t know what they’ll find in our arteries!

      3. That’s why people held a wake; to be sure the corpse was really dead before it was buried.

      4. That is one of the reasons I have opted out of organ donation – I simply don't trust that the 'donor' is fully dead. Not that my organs are especially healthy, so I probably wouldn't be suitable in the first place.
        I would not accept an organ either.

          1. Especially given the risk that our old organs are probably 'far-right' with waycist tendencies.

  103. Good evening from Auld Reekie.
    Hereditary is a marvel to behold. the genes have it.
    Both granddaughter and I drive Noddy cars. Their heating/cooling systems are not the most sophisticated.
    MB and Sonny Boy Snr cannot resist fiddling with the darn controls while we are waiting for them to kick in.
    Granddaughter and I get absolutely homicidal when father and son display the same aggravating behaviour.

    Historical note:
    If an Essex girl working as a cook in North Berwick and a local boy hadn't been delivering groceries to the pictured big house c.1930, the tall young lady to my right wouldn't have been born.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d59bbe053487590bcf41ae3945d58849b3f34e19afeb21709f4f7ccf0e4c4824.png

      1. Blenheim House. It is now divided into flats.
        Used to be owned by De Zoetes the city bankers as their Scottish residence.
        My mother-in-law was cook to the Round family (big landowners around Colchester – provided several MPs). Father-in-Law was a local lad.
        Until her marriage, Mrs. Round had been a de Zoete.
        Every summer, the whole family decamped to North Berwick; there was such a contingent with all the family, servants and luggage, that the London to Edinburgh train stopped at Drem station especially to allow them to alight.

        1. Wonderful story! My mother removed all her clothes, aged 4, in the back of her godmothers chauffeured limo, outside Jenners in Princess Street! I know it’s nearly a century ago but it’s part of my family folklore, history and memories, just like yours!

        2. My sister worked for Barclays De Zoete Wedd, or BZW as they were universally known – big in the City!

          Edit: PS Great piccy with your Granddaughter!

    3. Anne ,
      Ah , luverly pic .. yes, it is strange how things work out .

      Re car, Moh can't stop fiddling with radio stations and statistics , I don't have GPS or whatever it is called , I know my way around , but so many questions re miles until the next refuel or cruise control etc , so annoying because my cruise control is mostly 50mph to 20mph or less on rural roads anyway.

      I am not a speed merchant hereabouts , but can kick the throttle into life on the bypass if necessary .

      How did that conversation get started , talking to myself again .

      1. Come and talk to the rest of us at Phil's party, we are all real and will put names to faces (or avatars)!

      1. Annoyingly. I do tend to look like her.
        Very different politics and sexuality.

  104. 405937+ up ticks,

    SHITE, there goes another bite out of the frozen arses pensioners winter pittence payments

    Dt,

    Starmer to hand Mauritius billions in Chagos deal
    Prime Minister will attend a ‘virtual signing ceremony’ with representatives from the Mauritian government on Thursday

    3. I'm sure the Chagos Islands are very warm, offer all UK pensioners a free return ticket plus board and lodging for the winter.

      It would be a lot cheaper tha what we are currently proposing.

  107. You'll need a lot of time.
    I enjoyed it until the second freecell. Over an hour, but should have been under 5 minutes
    GGGGrrr

  108. https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/may/21/peppa-pigs-new-baby-sister-could-evie-pig-become-a-billion-dollar-brand

    Peppa Pig’s new baby sister: could Evie Pig become a billion dollar brand?

    Her birth has been welcomed by everyone from fashion magazines to the TV show Good Morning Britain. Here’s why everyone is making such a big deal of it …

    Wed 21 May 2025 16.58 BST
    Share
    Name: Evie.

    Age: Brand new.

    Appearance: Tiny, porcine.

    That’s not very nice. It’s OK, Evie is a Pig.

    A Pig with a capital P? Pig is her surname – Evie is Peppa Pig’s sister.

    Peppa Pig has a sister? She does now. Evie was born at 5.34am on Monday.

    That’s a bit specific. Any idea where? Daddy and Mummy Pig welcomed Evie into the world at the Lindo Wing of St Mary’s hospital in London, where the Duchess of Cambridge, now the Princess of Wales, had her children.

    This is the cartoon Peppa Pig, right? And not some weird family who have changed their name by deed poll? That’s right. A town crier made the announcement outside the hospital.

    I didn’t realise the Pigs lived in London. Don’t be silly, they live in Peppatown.

    And why Evie? She was named after an aunt of Mummy Pig’s, after a period of agonising indecision. “We’ve got SO many ideas for names. Too many, frankly!” Mummy Pig told Grazia last month.

    Sorry, did you say Grazia? Yes, don’t you follow celebrity news, or are you too high-minded for that sort of thing?

    It’s just that I had no idea Mummy Pig was even pregnant. That was first announced in February, although it wasn’t revealed on the show until 30 March, Mother’s Day in the UK.

    How is Peppa taking the news? Peppa and her brother, George, are said to be “thrilled”, but we’ll see how long that lasts.

    Remind me how old Peppa is again? Peppa is four, but the show has been on the air for 21 years, so you could say 21, or possibly 25.

    I don’t know how to react to that. Just rejoice in the happy news like everyone else.

    Everyone else? Congratulations have been rolling in from nursery brands, Boots and others since the announcement was made live on Good Morning Britain.

    People are certainly making a big deal out of this. That’s hardly surprising, given that Peppa Pig is broadcast in more than 180 territories worldwide, in more than 40 languages. The official YouTube channel has almost 40 million subscribers. A new character presents, if nothing else, a huge marketing opportunity.

    Who owns Peppa Pig? In 2019, the company that owned the franchise was acquired by Hasbro for £3.3bn.

    That’s a lot of money. Peppa makes a lot of money. In addition to programmes, books and merchandise, there are theme parks all over the world, including Peppa Pig World in Hampshire.

    Ah, yes. Boris Johnson’s favourite place, according to a confused and rambling speech he made to the Confederation of British Industry in 2021. I’ll bet he hasn’t been back.

    Do say: “Welcome, little Evie.”

    Don’t say: “I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house down!”

    1. People are being brainwashed so that they barely know the difference between fact and fiction any more.
      Possible psyops that people think are real: the Ukrainian rentboys, Lucy Connelly. Lucy Letby, any story involving actors

    2. How long before Evie Pig becomes a trans-pig, lesbian-pig or some other such nonsense? Maybe that is why a new baby pig has been invented – to brainwash little humans from babyhood into thinking the Alphabet brigade are perfectly normal.

  110. Typical Guardian !

    Donald Trump ambushed the South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa, by playing him a video that he falsely claimed proved genocide was being committed against white people under “the opposite of apartheid”.

    The hectoring stunt on Wednesday set up the most tense Oval Office encounter since Trump’s bullying of Volodymyr Zelenskyy in February. But Ramaphosa – who earlier said that he had come to Washington to “reset” the relationship between the two countries – refused to take the bait and suggested that they “talk about it very calmly”.

    Trump has long maintained that Afrikaners, a minority descended from mainly Dutch colonists who ruled South Africa during its decades of racial apartheid, are being persecuted. South Africa rejects the allegation. Murder rates are high in the country and the overwhelming majority of victims are Black.

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/21/trump-south-africa-president-meeting

    1. The white farmers should leave. Both the US and Russia will welcome them. Leave the Bantu to their own devices. It’s what they deserve.

      1. But on the other hand, why should they be bullied out when they have been there longer than the Bantu/Zulu?

        1. They will have the choice between leaving or being butchered (as we will here if we continue on the present trajectory). Being brave will not help them much if they are killed anyway..

        2. Because the world won't let them defend themselves. The narrative is that they are evil and should die – classic grooming for a genocide.

    2. Did your sisters talk much about life in South Africa during their stay with you?

      1. They have a nice life over there despite power outages and water shortages etc .. They are in denial , and although several members of the family have already left to work in Australia or the UK , South Africa is their home .

        1. From what I have read, there appear to be enclaves where life is safe and normal?
          Britain is heading the same way. People who live in nice areas just close their eyes to the existence of the city slums where there is hardly a white face to be seen and second and third generation migrants are being preyed upon by recent arrivals. Then they come out with stuff like "Britain's not in such a bad way as you think."

        2. I can understand that. If they are well away from danger spots etc. It’s a beautiful country. But I don’t want to go back there.

    3. I love the way Trump is just so brazen and will say and do things that more timid and polite people wouldn't go near………

    4. "Murder rates are high in the country and the overwhelming majority of victims are Black."

      The murder rates here aren't as high, but;

      "The homicide rate over the three-year period to the year ending March 2023 was 39.8 victims per million population for the Black ethnic group, more than four times higher than for the White ethnic group (8.7 victims per million population)."

      I just can't work out why.

      https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/articles/homicideinenglandandwales/yearendingmarch2023

      1. The homicide perpetrator differential is even substantially more skewed than the homicide victim stats.

        Moral: tube carriages full of blacks are far more dangerous ….

  112. Goodnight, all. Going to settle down for the night now. The dogs are snuggled down as well.

    1. Good night Conners – and the other two lower down in the pack! Lol.

  113. Evening thoughts:

    1. Great to see Trump confronting the South African President re. the mass murdering of White South African farmers. Evil, and a warning of what might happen when whites are way outnumbered by uncivilised 3rd worlders, as is developing in parts of the UK's cities.

    2. Remember the early response by the BBC and other MSM to the firebombing of Starmer's property, cars, etc = "terrorism". .Now they no longer hold that opinion but havn't developed any real alternative narrative.

  114. Well, chums, my bedtime approaches. So I'll now wish you all a Good Night. Sleep well, and I hope to see you all early tomorrow morning.

  115. Well, chums, my bedtime approaches. So I'll now wish you all a Good Night. Sleep well, and I hope to see you all early tomorrow morning.

  116. Two migrants died as more than 800 crossed the Channel in small boats on Wednesday in a record daily high for this year. https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/two-die-cross-channel-busiest-day-5s6b8wmnx

    Official figures published on Thursday are set to show that overall immigration levels in the UK have fallen but net migration is still expected to stand at more than half a million in the year to December 2024.

    Border Force sources said that about 820 migrants had crossed the Channel in small boats by 7am on Wednesday, although the final figure will not be confirmed until later. It is higher than the previous daily record of 705 on April 15.

    • Illegal immigration to hit record high despite ‘smash the gangs’ vow

    It takes the total number of migrants to have arrived in the UK on small boats so far this year to at least 13,500, the highest on record and 30 per cent more than had arrived at this point last year.

      1. Disgusting Industrial Litigation In Great African Forests, BoB? It's not like you to talk in riddles. (Good morning, btw.)

    3. Any emotion I had for these people ran out a long time ago.
      How many young British girls were raped by Pakistanis last night. Perhaps the papers could issue those figures but no they don’t want to know.
      I go along with BoB – DILLIGAF.

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