Wednesday 23 March: Nato’s impotence over Ukraine bodes ill for the future of the free world

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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586 thoughts on “Wednesday 23 March: Nato’s impotence over Ukraine bodes ill for the future of the free world”

  6. SIR – I am a self-employed higher rate taxpayer.

    If I charge a client £100, about £16 immediately goes in VAT. Another £33 goes in income tax – plus another £9 in National Insurance. This leaves me with about £42. If I spend that on fuel to drive to work, about £14.50 goes towards fuel tax and another £7 towards more VAT. So, of the original £100, the Government gets £79 or so.

    And suppose, instead of buying fuel, I spend my money on whisky to drown my sorrows. As tax on spirits is 70 per cent, the Government’s share would go up to about £88. The shop that sold the bottle to me would also be paying tax on its profits, as would the distillery.

    I almost forgot: the client who paid me the £100 would have done so out of their post-tax income.

    If the Chancellor wants us all to work a bit harder, one incentive would be to leave us with a slightly bigger share of the proceeds of our labour.

    Robert Sayer
    Oxted, Surrey

    I wonder where ‘tax freedom day’ is now?

  7. SIR – I wrote a letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury appealing against the decision to retire Dean Robert Willis.

    I received a reply from the Archbishop’s correspondence officer advising me that “the retirement age of clergy is not a decision over which the Archbishop has direct influence or standing”.

    Why not?

    Sharon Wilson
    London NW7

    Good question, Ms Wilson. Does he have nothing at all to say on this matter? If it is genuinely not his problem, who is making the decisions? In business, as I understand it, retirement is a matter for employee and employer, the latter not having been in a position to set down a fixed age for some years now.

  8. The ‘leftover soup’ debate continues…

    SIR – We have YMCA soup: yesterday’s muck cooked again.

    Michael Phillips
    Brighton, East Sussex

      1. Yep, school dinners. Universally served at dinner time (between 12 noon and 1:30 p.m.).

  9. Why Zelensky’s address to the Knesset fell flat. 23 March 2022.

    In Zelensky’s eyes, however, this is not enough. In the Knesset address, he criticised Israel for not being more aggressive in its support. “You can mediate between nations but not between good and bad,” he said. “We can ask why we can’t receive weapons from you, why Israel has not imposed powerful sanctions on Russia or is not putting pressure on Russian business?”

    This is a timely reminder that the World Wide sanctions against Russia are nothing of the kind. Neither Israel nor Turkey have joined in. Africa is a Russia supporter. The Middle East is waiting to profit from them. India doesn’t wish to be involved and China is an ally of sorts. South America hasn’t even heard about them yet! What this means is that the full weight rests on the “West” in the middle of the worst economic crisis since the 1930’s. There is about this business the stink of utter catastrophe. If we somehow avoid a Nuclear Exchange in Europe (a fast approaching probability due to American intransigence), we will instead have Economic and Social collapse.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/03/22/zelenskys-address-knesset-fell-flat/

  10. Good morning all. A chilly & slightly misty start today. A tiny smidgeon above 0°C and the sun is going to clear the mist off fairly quickly by the looks of it.

  11. SIR – Investing heavily in wind generation will not solve our energy crisis (Letters, March 22), but will only lead to expensive, unreliable electricity, with more frequent blackouts. The construction of more wind farms will further damage our landscape and wildlife.

    Having no coal and faced with the oil embargo in the 1970s, France opted to go nuclear. Since then 58 reactors have been built on French soil. The French have also built or are currently building nuclear reactors in Africa, Asia, America and Europe, including one at Hinkley in Somerset. France is the world’s biggest exporter of electricity, which is a huge boost to the country’s economy.

    Nuclear plants are expensive to build due to stringent regulations and drawn-out public inquiries, but they prove to be a very reliable, low-cost source of energy over their lifetime. Nuclear must qualify for the most versatile and reliable form of energy. It has a safety record which is second to none. It is clean, environmentally friendly and occupies less land than other generators. It can operate independently without connection to the grid anywhere on Earth, in the remotest parts of the oceans or in deep space. We in Britain should invest in it before it is too late.

    Fred Catlow
    Thurso, Caithness

    SIR – Charles Blackwell (Letters, March 22) argues that we should meet all of our energy requirements through nuclear power. I agree.

    The effect of individuals making energy sacrifices in the rich world will do nothing to curb the insatiable desire for energy-guzzling consumer goods from the rest of the developing world.

    Although nuclear power is widely feared and fiercely resisted, the number deaths from accidents is tiny compared with those caused by fossil fuels.

    Denis Kearney
    Lostwithiel, Cornwall

    SIR – Tidal power is the way to go.

    I don’t think the moon is planning on going anywhere. The sun hides and the wind rests. The sure things in life are death, taxes and tides.

    Janet Stukins
    Wigton, Cumbria

    I’m no expert, but to me the combination of salt water and complicated machinery is unlikely to result in reliable and cost-effective generation. Other than that, a spiffing idea!

    2. I thought they had thrown millions at trying to make tidal power work, and failed abysmally?
      It would be a good thing – if it worked!

    4. For at least the last fifty years engineers and scientists at the Heriot-Watt University have been working on various ways of obtaining tidal power. Every piece of machinery put into the North Sea was reduced to rusted junk within six months.
      So, Ms Stukins, it is nice dream, yet it may remain a dream for some time.

    5. Quite apart, Hugh, to the problem of silt running through the turbines at both the ebb and the flow tides.

    1. As a non exec she was only paid 500 quid a year to attend four meetings.
      From the point of view of that particular Housing Immigrants Association, it was a bargain.

    2. ‘Morning, BoB, I commented last evening in this vein:

      Typical of these free-loading blacks that think the world owes them a living.

      Have they ever considered their outcome if their forefathers hadn’t been shipped to a semi-literate country that was finding its own way in the world?

      Just suppose they’d ALL been left in the Dark Continent – how much progress would they have made there?

      Certainly not sufficient to rip whitey off for £1.5 million.

  13. SIR – Like many others I am waiting to receive my new three-year, medically approved driving licence, and am struggling to understand why it has been taking so long. I now understand that many DVLA staff are on full pay at home while not working “due to Covid”.

    Yesterday I received my carefully completed application form back with a letter stating that the DVLA could not process it as I had not enclosed a passport-sized photograph. I rang all three telephone numbers at the DVLA. Each stated that they were not able to handle incoming calls. I replied by post, enclosing the photograph and quoting paragraph one of the application form, which stated that a photograph was not required.

    In three weeks I shall not be allowed to drive. It is time for some re-engineering of the process and some good old-fashioned management.

    Ian Wallis
    Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk

    As I understand things, Ian Wallis, you can continue to drive provided you have not been advised by doctor or optician not to. Apart from that, it beggars belief that the DVLA Still hasn’t grasped that those in business and commerce have found ways to operate safely, so why can’t they do so? The pandemic has has created enormous problems for the private sector, but strangely they have found ways of working around them and surviving, instead of not doing them…

    1. If it take three years to approve a licence and they last for three years are you thinking what I’m thinking?

    2. My renewed licence arrived by the skin of its teeth. My insurance broker was uncertain about the situation.
      I kept copies of every scrap of paperwork in case I had to drive after the expiry date to show that I had tackled the matter well ahead of time.
      As I’ve only two and a half years to go before the next renewal, I think I must get the process rolling.

      1. Mine was a straightforward renewal last year, with no special categories and it came by return of post. Some of them must be working.

      2. I’ve just banged my renewal in via the UK Gov website, a fairly painless process but a list of documents you may need to refer to would have been useful.

  16. Biden has yet to show world leadership
    Telegraph Editorial (23/03/22).

    Past visits of US presidents to Europe have been defined by East-west tensions. In 1963, John F Kennedy travelled to West Berlin and declared himself a citizen of a city physically divided by the recently completed wall. “All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words ‘Ich bin ein Berliner!’”

    As most schoolboys know Kennedy’s skewed fervour for statesmanship led to him uttering, to a worldwide audience, an absurdity. If he had wished to declare his camaraderie with the citizens of Berlin he should have simply announced “Ich bin Berliner”. His witless addition of the unnecessary “ein” completely changed the sense of the message, which had him saying (effectively and loudly) “I am a doughnut!”.

    [Just like a “Frankfurter” is a sausage, and a “Hamburger” is a beef patty a “Berliner” is a doughnut.],

  17. Sunak to ‘stand by’ hardworking families amid cost of living crisis when he delivers spring statement. 23 March 2022.

    Rishi Sunak is expected to pledge to “stand by” hardworking families and set out further plans to support people with the rising cost of living when he unveils his spring statement later.

    Well if you are a member of a “Hard Working Family” (assuming that they even exist nowadays) you are screwed!

    https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/sunak-to-stand-by-hardworking-families-amid-cost-of-living-crisis-when-he-delivers-spring-statement/ar-AAVn8IG

    1. Would that be the same Rishi Sunak who recorded a video extolling the wonderful CBDC with which they are about to enslave us?

      1. One of the most wonderfully rich voices ever; both as a soloist and as lead vocalist with The Drifters.

      2. I was never a Soul Music fan, but this one was special. Excellent tune and fantastic orchestral arrangement coupled with a voice FULL of character.

    3. I think he means the ‘hard working families’ are the ones he’s going to tax more ‘cos ‘E can’t get anyfing from those ooo don’t work.

  19. US says Russian troops have been taken out by FROSTBITE, claims Ukraine is ready to take back cities and that Putin’s forces are still stuck outside Kyiv. 23 March 2022.

    A senior official was asked about logistics problems during a briefing on Tuesday.

    ‘We picked up some indications that some of their soldiers are suffering from frostbite because they lacked the appropriate cold weather gear for the environment that they’re in … that they haven’t – in addition to food and fuel – even in terms of personal equipment for some of their troops they are having trouble,’ said the official.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/68428f34404d7993eb8258723a26476139d62802a4778d9ed0abf5148e154b62.png

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10640379/Russian-soldiers-suffering-frostbite-lack-proper-cold-weather-gear-Ukraine.html

    2. Yo minty

      Luckily, we have a Radio Controlled Digital Clock, which tells us the time, date, day of week, room temperature, phase of the moon etc.

      Therefore, I am not reliant on the MSM for any of the above information, as I would not believe it ot them

    3. I find that very hard to believe. It isn’t as if they operate all the time in balmy weather. On the contrary the Russians are used to dealing with horribly cold weather and what you have posted here, the weather, hardly indicates conditions for frost bite. Looking it up it seems that wind chill factor is the most important thing, which I didn’t know. Learn something new every day.
      https://survivalistoutlet.com/2021/02/07/wind-chill-frostbite-chart-quick-guide-risk-assessment-temperatures/

  20. Good morning.
    Someone linked this snip from a Rogan podcast with a man with an English accent recently:
    https://www.bitchute.com/video/nmkGSgMiISlG/
    I just got round to watching it – I can’t remember who linked it, sorry, but it’s a very interesting view on the CBDCs. Who is the man that Rogan’s talking to?

      1. Thanks. I know the name, hadn’t seen him on video before. His view was actually quite reassuring, as he thinks that we, the people, will win after a period of instability and war.
        One thing I picked up on was that the G7 countries have agreed to the CBDC.
        That’s US, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Canada.
        The rest of the EU will have to follow France, Germany and Italy.
        From the pandemic response, it looks clear that Australia and NZ will follow the G7s unless they have rebellions in those countries first.
        China already has a CBDC, and will pull its sphere with it.

        That leaves India and Russia/Russian sphere countries, plus economic minnows in South America and Africa who can be bullied via their debts.
        Russia appears to be moving towards a CBDC as well, though Putin seems to have declared against the WEF and for nation states.

        One thing that puzzles me slightly is, what do the ultra rich expect to use when the rest of us are counting whether we’ve used up our ration of money with permissions to spend on meat or petrol this month?
        What currency will countries pay their debt repayments in?
        These vouchers may work for the peasants, but they won’t work for international finance.
        A new, international gold-based currency?
        The old currencies, with us plebs excluded from getting our hands on them?
        A separate international cryptocurrency like XRP (though they seem to have plumped for XRP as Plebcoin)?

        1. “Russia appears to be moving towards a CBDC as well, though Putin seems to have declared against the WEF and for nation states.” Which is why, as I have said, the West plotted to provoke him into war and hopefully ruin. However I think the West has backfired on this one as the article on Russia’s economy I posted yesterday pointed out. Economically he will survive and we have shot ourselves in the foot via the stupid embargo of things Russian.

          1. Putin is a master of strategy. US has been gagging for war with Russia since pre-Trump. This is not a good combination.

          2. I hope Putin survives, because if he doesn’t, the bloodbath will take down Europe as well. I suppose that is what the globalists were hoping for – a nice crisis that they could exploit to impose their slavery.
            (they will do it anyway unless they are stopped).
            Actually, I was looking at it from the point of view of where to go and what to do. The best bet still looks like a property with land in a country where the people don’t like being told what to do.

          3. It seems in that context a lot of people are going to Poland. You might want to check that out. Nice people it seems and a decent life style for not to much money.

          4. Lots of corruption, so I have heard. Plus they seem to be very pro-Ukraine, what’s that all about?
            Quite a few are going to Hungary.

          5. Well, I would go to Hungary for the food. I was saying to Rose that my favourite cake is Rigo Janci , a torte that consists of 3 layers of chocolate topped with whipped cream. But I like the food in general. Have two Hungarian cookbooks. It is, I think, one of the greatest overlooked cuisines of the world. Especially the pastry department. Rose was saying she had just made a Simnel cake, which I have never tasted or seen, for that matter. As for corruption, not sure what that is like in Hungary, but outside of Western Europe and in much of that, now a days, it seems, corruption is rife and you adapt. It is not necessarily to your disadvantage.

          6. The Swedes devour simnel buns in the run-up to Easter but to me they are bland and tasteless.

            Perhaps that’s why they are only made at that time of year.

          7. I looked at migrating to Hungary but you have to learn the language. Not an easy one to learn. I had some great meals when i was in Buda. Though they did serve me a roasted chicken with mixed fruit !

          8. Hungarian is a devilish language for us! Finno-Ugric group. Only language I ever sang in that I couldn’t relate other words to.

          9. I tried a couple of phrases like please and thank you but they all spoke English anyway. Remind me to tell you the story of Anna (name changed to protect the guilty).

          12. Had a Hungarian friend in California. Her name was Yutka, which seems straightforward enough but it isn’t. I could never get the pronunciation right. There is a sort of invisible ‘a’ between the ‘t’ and the ‘k’. So yes it is a formidable language to try and learn. I could never master the simplest thing I asked her.

          14. Looks nice Pip. What did you think of the food? I got interested in it via a book: “Cooking of Vienna’s Empire.” Referring, of course, to the Austro-Hungarian Empire and all the influences from their far flung domains. I think the book is still available.

          15. I didn’t do fine dining there but everywhere i ate it was nice. I tried the Goulash soup of course. Perfect platter of lamb chops in the Jewish quarter. Some memorable chicken dishes. A dinner cruise on the Danube at night was spectacular with the city lit up. Unlimited wine included in the £70 price was good value. Right in front of my table on the upper deck was a pair of duelling pianos. To the side were a family of 6 Chinese who never once looked up from their phones. …Me and the Palace and Sally Bowles… https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fee2a8dfc968a8f7456597ddc22373095a5302d222dbc8897f92d45bc9d01225.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9cac8f3c2162b0f4a5e9c0065e3f7172836ba1e42b25639e5cf91b4501152e6b.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b81f48eb7e02763360652963cb7916ee99b7a47a4774d2be24bc1db8b3a58920.jpg

  21. Good morning all. Thank you for your kind words. I am still staying quiet.

    Sooooo glad that “Dame” Joan Collins has spoken out against Mr Putin. About time, eh?

    1. Morning, Willum.
      Thank goodness; I missed having a William to insult.
      (MB’s immune to it.)

      1. There’s already a Tom and a Harry on here, Anne and I’m sure you’ll find plenty of Dicks to insult.

      2. Whilom in Chaucerian language means once upon a time. The opening lines of the Knight’s Tale are:

        Whilom, as olde stories tellen us,
        Ther was a duc that highte Theseus;
        Of Atthenes he was lord and governour,
        And in his tyme swich a conquerour,
        That gretter was ther noon under the sonne.
        Ful many a riche contree hadde he wonne,
        What with his wysdom and his chivalrie;
        He conquered al the regne of Femenye,

        As a 14 year old boy unacquainted with The Canterbury Tales at first reading I thought the story was about a chap called William who was a great success with the ladies.

      2. He/She/They/It (Select your pronoun of choice) looks like Christopher Reeve the actor who played Superman on the screen.

        If this person is banned from competitive swimming then perhaps he/she/they/it will be able to cash in on two popular film genres – horror and superheroes?

        This person could appear in a film series set in gloomy Gothic castles in fog and forest filled mountainous terrain in Transylvania. The character could be called Super-Trans.

        1. Meanwhile … from the DT.

          “Exclusive: Commonwealth Games 2022 to allow trans women cyclists to compete for female medals”

      1. Well done DeSantis. Now, there is a potential Republican President. I think he would sail in much to the chagrin of the left.

      2. The boot? Size 11 presumably. I gather foot size is an easy giveaway on these sad psychiatric cases.

      3. The boot? Size 11 presumably. I gather foot size is an easy giveaway on these sad psychiatric cases.

      4. The Gov seems a good chap, generally. I wonder if he’ll have a go at the Presidency.

    3. This photo encapsulates the whole trans political situation. It’s profoundly uncomfortable for many reasons.

      1. I’m just waiting for a trans UFC competitor. When that happens and there’s a death people might take notice.

          2. ‘Ultimate Fighters Championship.’ Where upon adults hit one another to loose ‘rules’. Often called cage fighting.

        2. I’m waiting for the tennis player who walks off with the Wimbledon Ladies’ prize! But even the college swimming is about big money, because those girls are on swimming scholarships, and they have to get a certain number of points to keep them. So someone won’t get the points because Lia Thomas competed, and Lia Thomas has ensured maximum points, which translates, I believe, to fee reductions.

  24. 351573+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Wednesday 23 March: Nato’s impotence over Ukraine bodes ill for the future of the free world.

    As long as it is NEVER tested to the full it is a successful facade protecting many a life style .

    Much like the lab/lib/con coalition party who’s function it is to keep the herd pacified whilst following it’s own treacherous agenda.

    Nothing will ever change for the better ALL the while the majority of the electoral herd has it’s head up the arse of the lab/lib/con political party dons.

    The end of a once decent Nation can be clearly seen
    with the results of the coming May by elections will the
    electorate for a new variant of lab/lib/con political louse on the road to reset, or put Country before party for once.

    .

    1. It only bodes ill for NATO because when it comes to Ukraine it has become the aggressor which is not what its purpose was at all. In fact I think it more than reasonable to question its existence other than as a device for the American war industry and for it to wield a weapon in Europe. A purpose that is not good for us as a continent at all.

  26. Two giraffes were wandering in Watford High Street. They were very upset apparently.. After preliminary enquires the police have now indicated that they are looking for a stolen Mini containing two elephants.

  27. Good Morning, my friends

    Has anyone any experience of cars running on LPG (Liquid Petroleum Gas)?

    I posted this late last night and, as LPG is currently far cheaper than either petrol or diesel, it looks like a possible good option. Of course LPG also has the advantage of having far lower CO2 emissions though of course the politically incorrect do not acknowledge that CO2 has any effect at all on man-made global warming which they think is a myth anyway!

    Craven politicians are too scared to confront the true cost of electric cars
    The Treasury will soon face a £35 billion hole in the nation’s finances that no leader is prepared to fill

    PHILIP JOHNSTON : DT – https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/03/22/craven-politicians-scared-confront-true-cost-electric-cars/

    BTL

    What about LPG (Liquid Petroleum Gas)?

    We are looking into getting a car fuelled by LPG.

    It costs half the cost per mile of petrol – and emits only 20% of the carbon.

    But so determined are the government to make everyone drive impractical and unaffordably expensive electric cars other environmentally friendly options have been abandoned.

    And Shell has just decided to abandon selling LPG in the UK!

    1. Someone I know converted her car to be dual LPG / petrol, and she loves it. She drives on the Continent where LPG is pretty widely available and very cheap.

    2. In 1960 I converted an old Ford Anglia to run on LPG, it was unsuccessful as the valve coming from the cylinder kept freezing up, I never got round to fixing that.. A friend of mine has had a small camper van running on LPG for the last 15 years, sadly the van has succumbed to rust and no longer on the road but it was a very economical vehicle to run

    3. In 1960 I converted an old Ford Anglia to run on LPG, it was unsuccessful as the valve coming from the cylinder kept freezing up, I never got round to fixing that.. A friend of mine has had a small camper van running on LPG for the last 15 years, sadly the van has succumbed to rust and no longer on the road but it was a very economical vehicle to run

    4. Good morning Rastus and all Nottlers.

      Many taxis in Spain used to run on LPG, more specifically they had a removable domestic gas cylinder in the boot. Mixture of butane and propane I suppose.
      Occasionally one would see a taxi driver halt, jump out, and swap over to the full cylinder.
      Repsol supplies these cylinders, and here is a link which you could translate (though presumably Mrs T reads Spanish)
      https://www.repsol.es/particulares/hogar/bombona-butano-propano/bombona-autogas/
      Currently 24,20 euro, but was about 15 not so long ago.
      Only downside is that LPG vehicles are not allowed in the Eurotunnel.

    6. Our heating and hot water is run on LPG. It is very efficient. No gas in the village.

      1. We installed an oil system twenty five years ago because the running costs were cheaper.

        That has come back to bite us in our bottoms.

        1. Much like diesel giving better mpg and thus being preferred to petrol by motorists. Hence the government hiking the cost of diesel to improve the tax take-up.

          1. When was the last time a politician of any political party tried to tell the truth if he or she knew he or she could get away with a lie?

        2. It is swings and roundabouts, Rastus, as with everything in life. I suspect LPG will be going up in price shortly for us, anyway; I heard a whisper that Shell were no longer going to be delivering LPG to the UK.

    1. And unaffected by today’s tax increases, since they are ‘the poor’. Socialism at its finest.

      1. It’s funny. Often times the poor are far better off than ‘the rich’. What sort of moronic tax system exists that actively punishes working? Worse, that punishes success, merit and achievement?

    2. Hmm, latest petition response from the useless gov’t, As usual, ‘Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.’

      The Government has responded to the petition you signed – “Publish daily updates on the number of Channel crossings”.

      Government responded:

      The Government publishes quarterly statistics on small boats and provides data to media on days when there are arrivals. No decision has been made on the approach to daily data going forward.

      We are seeing an unacceptable rise in small boat crossings and we will continue to focus all our efforts on tackling these dangerous Channel journeys.

      The Home Office publishes a whole range of immigration statistics on a regular basis in its migration statistics collection.

      The information in these publications is regularly reviewed in line with the Code of Practice for Statistics. Where it is clearly in the public interest to do so, we will publish new statistics and amend existing statistics to ensure they continue to provide transparency around key government policies and issues.

      The Government fully recognises the importance of publishing comprehensive statistics, which is particularly important in an area such as small boat crossings, which is a ministerial priority and of interest to the wider public.

      Following advice from the independent UK Statistics Authority on making sure statistics on small boat crossings are published in an orderly way, the Home Office published a quarterly statistics release on irregular migration to the UK, to provide a clear picture of the small boats issue to the public. The ‘Irregular migration to the UK’ report, which includes statistics on those arriving across the English Channel in small boats, was published for the first time on 24 February 2022.

      The small boats data will form part of regular quarterly statistics reports going forward throughout 2022 and beyond.

      The release includes statistics on the total number of small boat arrivals as well as additional breakdowns including nationality, gender and age and detections on other methods of irregular entry. This demonstrates the Government’s commitment to improving data transparency and accessibility, and providing important additional context.

      We are fully committed to publishing independent validated and comprehensive statistics in this way which is equally accessible to all and builds confidence in data on an area of great public importance and interest.

      The decision to publish small boats figures in a quarterly report ensures regular statistics are released in an orderly, transparent way that is accessible to everyone, meeting the principles set out in the Code of Practice for Statistics.

      The need for more statistics must be weighed up against other considerations. This includes the practicalities and costs of producing robust, assured data derived from operational systems, and presenting data in a way that enhances the public’s understanding of key issues. This involves putting the data into context and looking at the longer-term picture to ensure short-term fluctuations in the data are not over-emphasised, which can be misleading.

      We must also ensure efforts to release data are proportionate, granting the public servants involved the flexibility to respond to the most important issues as they emerge and reflecting the best use of government resources. In the case of small boats, our immediate priority is the welfare of migrants. This means that data systems may not be immediately updated and are not designed to provide real time information. To do so increases the risk of providing inaccurate information.

      Currently small boats numbers are issued to the media on days when there are crossings. This is operational data, not official statistics, and has not undergone the level of quality assurance of a formal statistics publication, and may therefore be inaccurate.

      The Home Office continues to work with the UK Statistics Authority to ensure our approach to releasing information meets the expected standards for government statistics and continues to respond to the public interest. It recognises the public interest in this area and as yet, no decision has been made in regard to the more frequent release of small boat data. In the meantime, the Home Office continues to provide data upon request to media on days when there are small boat crossings.

      Signed, the useless* Home Office

      *my insertion.

      1. I have a nasty feeling that government petitions exist only so that they can collect the email addresses of the enemy (as they see it), i.e. anyone who opposes them.

        1. Introduced by “Sir” Tony Blair in an attempt to defuse criticism into petitions which the government could then ignore.

          1. Look at that particular recent example; we were allowed to voice our discontent over Blair’s knighthood, purely because it was already decided. The Mail deliberately publicised that petition as a calculated outlet for our rage.

          2. Although it was then “explained” that we had all signed the wrong petition and therefore it did not need to be considered by the government.

      2. Don’t forget that the story is told by an idiot.

        (But I would hesitate to refer to anything to do with Boris Johnson’s overfat government as a walking shadow)

      4. They are seeing a rise in the number of crossing because the first one to try it got a taxi service, not towed back.

      5. The terminology is interesting.
        “…we will continue to focus all our efforts on tackling these dangerous Channel journeys…”
        “The ‘Irregular migration to the UK’ report, was published for the first time on 24 February 2022.”
        “In the case of small boats, our immediate priority is the welfare of migrants.”
        The words “illegal” and “criminal” do not appear. Nor does the word “refugee”. So we have the tacit confirmation that the government, the Home Office” knows and accepts that the invaders are not refugees, yet is making plans to ensure that they arrive safely.
        The general tone would seem to be more pro immigrant, regardless of origin

        1. “In the case of small boats, our immediate priority is the welfare of migrants.”
          That sticks out like a sore thumb and is the problem in a nutshell.

    3. The first photo is an emotive one of a helpless baby, the second a more accurate one of a ship full of adult males with nary a female/child in sight.

    4. Lefties think gimmigration is xenophobia. Everyone else knows it’s purely economic.

  30. Morning to all. Another lovely day but a little chilly at the moment 53f. but it’s early yet. Todays letter is another nonsense so here is another cat video. Prepare for terminal cuteness and ooh’s and ah’s from the ladies.
    I present to you. The Rusty Spotted Cat. Hugely charming in a little bundle.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W86cTIoMv2U

    5. I wish to report that Uncle Bill and I taking things easy for a few days at the same time does not mean that I am alienating his affections for the MR. What a scurrilous rumour some NoTTLers might propagate! Lol.

  32. Tommy Robinson potentially facing jail after failing to attend high court. 23 March 2022.

    Tommy Robinson is potentially facing jail over possible contempt of court after failing to show up for a high court hearing where he was to be questioned about his finances after losing a libel case.

    When reading about Alex Navalny’s trials at the hands of Vladimir Putin it is wise to remember Tommy who has suffered far more with much less cause!

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/mar/22/tommy-robinson-potentially-facing-jail-after-failing-to-attend-high-court

    1. What is her accent, it is vile? Sorry to those with that accent, but it is. It alone would make me not vote for her, let alone her miserable politics.

      1. No idea. It is nearly as disgusting (but not quite) as South-East “Estuary” English.

          1. Can’t totally agree, Tom. Brummy is indeed execrable, but Scouse is great, know warra mean lyke?

          4. I’m not biting, George since, compared to Northern dialects, the Norfolk accent is gentle and softly drawn out..

        4. I had to look that up, Estuary is, apparently the accent of Ricki Gervais. I can’t say by a long shot that it is anywhere near as vile as Angela Rayner’s. At least it doesn’t make you want to stab out your eardrums. Mine is neutral from having grown up abroad and lived abroad most of my life. I like it, not because it is my accent, but because I can’t be pegged down and, as you know, classifying people by their accent is a favourite English pastime. Eventually I always get the inevitable question: “Where are you from?”

          1. Former work colleagues from Lincolnshire (“yellowbellies”) used to rejoice in telling me that the Lincolnshire dialect is the “most neutral in the UK”. It certainly didn’t seem to have many defining or outstanding characteristics.

          4. I do not attempt to use French regional accents but I sometimes use English accents in French for fun when I speak French.

            I speak Overthetop Posh English French and West Country Devon French but would not dare to speak French with Welsh, Scots or North Country accents as I cannot even do them in English.

        5. I like genuine accents but I do not like false ‘vulgar’ accents which sound artificial or contrived. Sarf London and Mockney are not my favourites.!

          Caroline speaks English with no foreign accent at all – indeed people think she is educated English. I think that I have no identifiable regional accent in English but I only have to say Bonjour in France to get the response: Vous êtes anglais!

          Many good linguists never entirely master the accents. Caroline is quite exceptional in that she is thought to be English in England, French in France, Spanish in Spain and Dutch in Holland.

          1. Moi aussi but, since I’ve been a mimic all my life, I think that, had I stayed longer than a year I might have improved my accent.

          2. Aussie is a nice accent but I suppose it is a case of beauty is in the ear of the beholder because my favourite accent is South African which it seems most people dislike. Second is Southern USA.

          3. …and if you want Scots, then Inverness and its immediate area has a gentle and soft burr to it.

          4. I would not dream of saying footsack to you!

            Jeremy Taylor was born in Newbury and read Modern Languages at Oxford but he made his name, and acquired his accent, in South Africa. This song must be known to everyone in South Africa who is over the age of 60. This is a shortened version and he has changed the name of the bullseye type sweets that everyone knew as n*ggerballs. On one occsion he asked his audience to join in the chorus and told them: I can see some of you are worrying about the word n*ggerballs – but don’t worry about it – just sing it!

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Hr75pqA8bo

          7. I had no idea that Caroine was not British, Richard. Exactly which country is she a native of? France? Spain? A. N. Other?

          8. Dutch, I believe, Elsie and, like Swedes, most speak good English, otherwise they couldn’t travel – very few auslanders would understand their native language.

          9. I think you’re right, Tom. For example, Grizzly who lives in Sweden speaks excellent English! Lol.

          10. She was born in Holland to Dutch parents but only lived as a child in Holland for five years in total as her father worked for Philips, a large multinational company. She went to schools in Holland, India, Iran and Madrid where she did her English “A” levels. She did her first degree and PGCE at Bath and her Masters’ in linguistics at Rouen in France. She has lived more years in France than anywhere else; we communicate with each other in English except when we have students with us when we speak exclusively in French as we expect our students to do.

            My father read Classics at Cambridge and wrote poetry in Latin and Greek. When he was offered a job in the foreign office he had to take the Civil Service Arabic exams and passed out top but my mother (who only went to school for one term and left because she didn’t like it, and preferred to run rings round her governesses) was able to communicate far better with in her pigeon Arabic with ordinary people than my father.

          11. A number of my English friends, when they first met my Swedish lady, told her: “We’d rather chat to you because you speak better English than he does!” ☹️

    2. This bitch sounds like a complete retard. I’ve heard far more eloquent bog-cleaners.

        1. I once heard an interview with some fellow who was asked about his voting preferences. A broad northerner, a staunch Labour voter.

          He said ‘Laybuh! Pardy o’ t’werkin maaan.’

          The interviewer then asked him what he was doing now. He had been unemployed. Since Lady T left office.

        2. Your pronouncement is correct but Grizzly would object to your pronunciation!

    3. TBH it sounds a bit more like ‘neutral’ than ‘nuclear’. Just as daft either way, what an obnoxious thing she is.

      1. We have been ‘Trusted Up’, for a few years.

        How do you think the likes of Chatsworth, Buck House, Allan Mansions etc stay in the family

    2. It’s all about planning up front. My sister and I have tried frantically to get my mother to sign her estate to the children but she refuses, persistent that nothing will happen. When she falls ill and needs permanent care, the state will destroy all her property to ‘pay for her care’.

        1. I’ve never wanted my mother’s money. Dad earned it, she got it. I’d have wished that they invested in their home, travelled about, bought a flash car and died many tens of thousands in debt to finally stick one to ‘da man’ after a lifetime of working and saving.

          Instead Mum sits at home, with rusted ceiling fittings, a leaking conservatory – she could fix them but is lazy and wants someone else to do it.

          1. Moh spends eveyrthing on golf .

            The house needs lots of work .. sapele doors are a mess, need new doors , I bought paint to decorate the rooms , Moh just scuttles and runs , and says bad idea.

            So much needs doing , the house will be in the same terrible shape as his mothers . she didn’t like change .. So when we had to sell it for her nursing home care , we got tiddly pop for it .. She had lived in it for over 60 years since it was built post war ..

            Believe me it was terrible .

            Now I feel we are heading the same way, no interest , nothing .
            All terribly controlling . actually .

            I cannot ever say , lets do this , lets do that .. and that includes the hard horrible king sized bed.

          3. After my Mother died suddenly and the insurance paid out i encouraged my father to spend the money. Us six siblings all owned our own houses and had no need of the cash. He invested it anyway and when he passed we all got £30,000. I built a conservatory and a new completely remodeled bathroom. I put a bronze plaque in the conservatory in remembrance.

          4. Now Mother is in a care home, my Father’s forward planning is visible. Despite fees of a bit under £100 a day, the pensions he left pay for it… she has plenty of cash in the bank to carry out much needed repairs and upgrades to her house, so we can sell it. All this after 3 holidays a year and a new car every few years when they were both retired.
            Smart man, my Dad.

          5. Now Mother is in a care home, my Father’s forward planning is visible. Despite fees of a bit under £100 a day, the pensions he left pay for it… she has plenty of cash in the bank to carry out much needed repairs and upgrades to her house, so we can sell it. All this after 3 holidays a year and a new car every few years when they were both retired.
            Smart man, my Dad.

    3. Take out a joint life second death insurance policy and write it into trust for your children.
      Inheritance tax will still be payable but, if the insurance is in the right sum, it will cover the inheritance tax due.
      It’s nothing new but the headline infers, wrongly, that no inheritance tax is payable.

  35. A very belated “Good morning, everyone” to all on this site. And a very early “See you next week” too, since I plan to take a short break until then. Keep well, keep happy, keep posting funny posts (yes that means you, Rik) and see you all when I see you next.

    3. My friend, Jeremy Taylor, wrote a song about the donkeys plied for hire on the beach at Blackpool. The asses had a charter to protect them from being overworked by unscrupulous owners and this charter stipulates that donkeys should be given some time off and this prompts me to ask if Elsie is having her break at home or having it away!

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0A2WHrXQo4

    1. They sent him away immediately without even bothering to keep him hanging around!

    2. Nkechi Amare Diallo, is an American former college instructor and activist known for presenting herself as a black woman despite having been born to white parents. The name “Doležal” is of Czech origin. In addition to falsely claiming black ancestry, she also falsely claimed Native American descent.

      If I had identified as black when I was a young man would it have enabled me to run any faster? I was, after all born, in Africa!

      1. I was born in Kingston so naturally I can run fast.
        Whassat? Bu88er; I forgot to add “-upon-Thames”.

  41. Morning all.
    What on this planet is going on in the Caribbean they wait until the best couple of people in the monarchy arrive and smear them with and rub their faces in stupid allegations regarding slavery.
    They live in a place where people pay thousands of pounds or dollars to arrive and stay for a couple of weeks for holidays and it seems to me their lifestyles are the envy of millions. But all they do is moan, moan and moan again about everything. Why don’t the take a break and really go back to their ‘Roots’ as in west Africa and take a look at the lifestyles of their long lost relatives who didn’t get the chance to live in a civilised society as these Caribbean people do now.
    Most of us have been victims of some sort of slavery in one way or another. We are going through the motions at this moment in time. Forced Slavery happened hundreds of years ago, think yourselves very fortunate and get over FFS it you lot of whingers.

    1. Ah Jamaica,that peaceful island paradise……………

      “For the second year in a row, the Caribbean island nation of Jamaica had the highest murder rate in the region.

      The Constabulary Force recorded 1,463 killings in 2021, giving the country a homicide rate that reached nearly 50 per 100,000 people. Jamaicans were shaken last year by brutal slayings and spiraling violence”
      Never mind the “region” that’s about the 5th highest in the world perhaps they might focus on that!!

    3. If Jamaica sees the UK as oppressors, perhaps all Jamaicans who have emigrated here over the last 70-so years should return home, together with their descendants. After all, who wants to live in a nasty, Imperialist nation?

  43. Just had my 6 month review with the Haematologist. He said the reason for my suspected heart attack and my continuing to fall over is because of very low blood pressure coupled with a pulse rate of 125 bpm. He said to phone my GP…Ha !

    1. Seems to me he is onto a good idea there. Trying to phone your GP will certainly raise your blood pressure….

      Will they give you some sort of drug to raise it, or can it be done naturally?

      1. They need to review the Ramipril and Lercanipidine i am already taking. They appear to be working too well.

        After that is reviewed if i am still not right i am going to stop taking everything but the Statin.

        They make me feel nauseous anyway. Lost my appetite and a stone in weight in the last year.

        1. Reduction in dose sounds good. They need to get on with it though, not leave you hanging around for the service for which you have paid. Good luck with contacting the mythical GP.

          1. I contacted them through E-Consult which works better than the phone for me.

            He also said i was very low in folic acid. This was mentioned by my now retired Doctor from two years ago. She never suggested i take a supplement or do anything about it except to eat more greens. Difficult to eat anything with no appetite !

          4. RxList is owned by WebMD.
            WebMD is owned by KKR, which was founded by three ex bankers.
            https://stockdetect.com/stock/NYSE/KKR/ownership

            I looked up Quercetin, and on these big pharma sites, I discovered that Quercetin can be risky. On an independent site, I found the same information from the same research papers, presented in a different way. Quercetin is a plant extract, available over the counter, and is very low risk.
            My conclusion? I think they deliberately make out that natural solutions not patented by them are dangerous. I’m so disillusioned with big pharma now, that I have come to believe that if their lips are moving they’re lying.

            Folic acid supplements are widely taken by pregnant women.

          6. I’ve been taking Quercetin every day for about twenty years, and my singing has not improved.

          7. Not so. Have a look at Tom Cowan on this. It has been used extensively for years especially in Germany, but of course it’s not a pharma profit centre, and they will hang red flags out on anything for that – look at what happened to ivermectin…. It is not contra-indicated for anything per TC and he has been prescribing it for years. I have been using it for over a year, with NHS prescription meds wiuth no issue at all.

    2. Try my Mirabegron, one of the side effects is raised blood pressure the leaflets claim. I take it for detrusor instability (excessively sensitive bladder!) but it doesn’t seem to change my blood pressure, 135/76 on Monday…

  44. As if 11,091 bird-choppers are not enough…from today’s DT:

    Planning shake-up opens door to hundreds of new wind farms

    Proposals will make it far harder for public to object

    By
    Matt Oliver
    and
    Tony Diver,
    WHITEHALL CORRESPONDENT
    23 March 2022 • 6:00am

    The public will find it more difficult to object to wind farms being built near their homes under rule changes planned by the Prime Minister, as more than a hundred sites are poised to go ahead.

    The move would reverse reforms from 2015, brought in under David Cameron, requiring the buy-in of locals for developments to go ahead.

    Those rules meant that wind farms built in England must be part of a “local plan”, requiring the local authority to explicitly support them. In practice, this has meant there is an “effective moratorium” on their construction, according to frustrated Whitehall insiders.

    There are several developments that were given planning permission before the reforms, but never received a government subsidy to be built because the money was withdrawn under the Cameron government.

    At least 135 sites are currently approved but awaiting construction, with planning applications submitted for a further 50 wind farms.

    Hundreds more across the country which have been rejected by planners could yet be revived if the rules are changed.

    Others have secured planning permission under the painstaking requirements imposed on the industry, but are listed by the Business Department as “awaiting construction” amid concerns about funding.

    Boris Johnson’s government has already reversed the ban on subsidies, which could see new onshore wind farms being built in England in the coming weeks and months.

    They include sites in Bury St Edmunds and Yatton, Somerset, in Conservative constituencies represented by Jo Churchill, a minister, and Liam Fox, former defence secretary, respectively.

    Two more are expected to go ahead in Bristol and Beccles, a small town in Suffolk.

    Onshore wind turbines generate about a tenth of UK electricity, most of which comes from Scotland, with more needed if Britain is to meet its “net zero” commitments by 2050. About 14 gigawatts of capacity is deployed currently.

    When ministers devolved planning powers for onshore wind farms seven years ago, they promised it would ensure local communities had “the final say” over new projects.

    The reforms were pushed through at a time when David Cameron reportedly told aides to “cut the green crap”, as Tory voters complained about wind farms spoiling views and levies on their energy bills.

    However, industry experts say the result has been a ban on onshore wind development in England, owing to almost insurmountable hurdles that must be cleared by companies.

    The rules require a chosen site to be included in a council’s local or neighbourhood plan, while developers must demonstrate that concerns raised by the community are addressed and that the scheme “has their backing”.

    Only 10pc of councils have subsequently set aside areas for wind farms, while the vast majority of neighbourhood plans left them out too.

    Frank Elsworth, head of onshore wind at Vattenfall Wind Power, says he agrees with the need to win community support for projects but warns that the current “blanket approach” has stunted investment in England.

    More accommodating policies in Scotland and Wales have led to a greater number of wind farms being built there.

    “It has put in place too many barriers in England and needs reform,” he said.

    This is borne out by official figures, which show a 98.5pc drop in the number of onshore wind turbine applications since 2015, according to analysis by the University of the West of England.

    In the five years to the end of 2014, applications for 333 sites with almost 1,500 turbines were submitted to English local authorities.

    From 2016 to 2021, however, the figure plummeted to just 14 sites with 23 turbines.

    The number of sites approved has dropped from 157 to 11, meaning that where before 1,614 megawatts of capacity was added to the grid during the previous five years, just 42 megawatts came on during the following period.

    Instead, ministers have largely chosen to focus on offshore wind farms in the intervening years, which are for the most part out of the public view.

    Dr Simon Evans, policy editor at Carbon Brief, says this misses a vital trick as onshore wind is cheaper and faster to build than offshore schemes that tend to require more infrastructure.

    In fact, along with solar panels, it offers pretty much the cheapest form of electricity on the market.

    Whereas a typical gas power plant costs about £359 per megawatt hour just to keep running at the moment, he explains, an onshore wind project might generate electricity for less than £50 per megawatt hour.

    Better yet, onshore wind farms can be built in a matter of months, rather than years.

    Dr Evans adds: “Onshore wind and solar are the cheapest sources of power out there and you can make it happen quite quickly.

    “If the Government is serious about making onshore wind a bigger part of the electricity mix, they will need to ease the planning rules.

    “Engineers realise that the wind does not always blow and the sun does not always shine, but even when you include the costs of strengthening the grid, building storage and backup capability, it is still the cheapest.”

    Mr Elsworth agrees that planning policies in England should be loosened. He says a start would be to allow developers to propose wind farms for sites regardless of whether they are included in a local plan.

    At the same time, the Government could issue policy making clear that onshore wind farms are beneficial and should be looked on favourably – but he stresses this should not be used to steamroll local communities.

    “Clearly you do not want a situation where you just carpet the entire countryside with wind farms,” he says, “and there are areas that are protected and should remain untouched.

    “But there are lots of other places where actually it would be very good for wind, and there are communities where they already exist where it has been very well-received.”

    Data shows public attitudes to onshore wind may also be softening, with 80pc of respondents to a government survey last autumn saying they supported it.

    That may not necessarily prove the case for everyone when asked if they should have one in their own backyard.

    But if ministers can persuade communities to embrace onshore wind, the boost to Britain’s energy security – at a time when the Ukraine war has sent gas and oil prices soaring – could be a big prize indeed.

    * * *

    The possibility of yet more wind farms does not impress the BTL posters:

    Nicholas Hazelton
    2 HRS AGO
    Unbelievable! The idiocy of our politicians is beyond comprehension. The world is in crisis, war a possibility and all they can harp on about is net zero. Their answer to. everything is spend spend spend (on all the wrong things – railway line, windmills, solar panels, cycle paths etc) and print more money by the ton. The economic policy of a five yr old.
    We need to be self sufficient in gas and oil and we sit on over a trillion pounds of gas. Only a grade one idiot would ignore that fact. It would also go a long way to hauling as out of the half trillion debt amassed on scaring the vulnerable population to death for an over hyped flu bug.
    To think we have a put up with another three yrs of this drivel before we can vote them out. Only Reform are talking common sense these days.

    George Herraghty
    2 HRS AGO
    Stupidity on Stilts?
    Once again, this morning, the entire fleet of 11,000 entirely-parasitic, demonstrably-useless, giant, industrial bird-mincers is providing the National Grid with a derisory 3%!!!
    (3.33% to be precise)
    Will we get a refund of the annual £12 Billion subsidy for poor or non-existent service?
    Simple arithmetic gullible politicians haven’t quite grasped:
    £XXX Billion wind farms + No wind = No power = Blackouts.

    Finian Manson
    4 HRS AGO
    Someone needs to take bungling and bewildered BoJo and Carrie Antoinette and Zac Goldsmith, amongst many others, to America to see the graveyards of wind turbines that have been left to rot. Many of them with arms as long as a football pitch. On top of that, their concrete bases still remain embedded in the ground in perpetuity.
    The insanity of windmills and solar power defies belief except when we have a scientifically, financially and economically illiterate government and civil service it is all too easy to give in to lobbying and faux science.

    PS George Herraghty mentions, correctly, the 3.3% contribution by wind power earlier this morning (now down to 3.1%). What he may have failed to notice at the same time was the fact that coal was chuntering on nicely and contributing 5% of demand! (now 5.08%)

    1. There is no such thing as a ‘net zero commitment’, it is an entirely self imposed disaster.

    2. Who cares what we want, what makes sense or what is right, they will do what they want anyway.

    4. We are already paying 25% of every electricity bill to grubby rich parasites, corporate and otherwise, with windfarms that are grotesque monuments to greed. The small embedded generation on the peripheries of the grid that were envisioned by real thinkers at the start of all this are hardly to be seen. The strategy of impoverishing ordinary people is advancing with relish.

  45. Good morning. I make no apology for posting this Thinking Slow analysis – I did put it up late last night too. But it is profoundly well put together and evidenced and gives an overview that most of us, including me, are only just beginning to realise is the nature of events. Russia as the last bastion of real human values is altogether a new concept for me at least!! It’s a picture that opens some very disquieting possibilities.

    https://www.tarableu.com/the-globalist-threat-in-russia/

    1. Agreed. Seeing your post, I went and watched it on my TV’s YouTube channel.

  47. Time for Brunch and something to take my thrice-weekly sprironolactone with. Back later

  49. 351573+ up ticks,

    breitbart,

    Ministry of Remigration’ – Zemmour Promises to Kick Out One Million Migrants from France within Five Years

    We’ll have em screeched priti johnson.

    1. Did she work in a morgue during that time ? I can’t see anyone else voluntarily having sex with her.

          1. I am prolly doing the lady a great disservice, but I don’t imagine personal hygiene comes high on her list of importance.

          3. I am prolly doing the lady a great disservice, but I don’t imagine personal hygiene comes high on her list of importance.

    2. Goodness me. Would anyone want their name up there? And how do we know if it’s true anyway?

  58. According to the Daily Fail:

    “Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu vanishes ‘with heart problems’ as strains appear in his relationship with Putin over Ukraine war and his daughter poses in Ukraine colours”

    No idea if true or not, of course. But General Shoigo was quite recently one of Mr Putin’s very, very bestest friends. So I do hope and pray that his heart problems are being treated…. One would hate it if Mr Putin was friendless.

          6. On a steep down hill with a following wind. But it was a pretty car in its day particularly the convertible.

            Amazing how performance has changed. I can now go faster in my 20 year old diesel minibus (Top speed 108 mph) than I could in my MGA which only just got over the ton.

          7. I suppose I was thinking of when I was married in 1965.

            When I was a boy, it was about 4/- plus 1d per shot for Redex.

  67. A Police investigator just rang my door bell. He said there had been an incident nearby and wanted to review my CCTV footage. I said No.

    I told him the footage doesn’t reach the public footpath in front of my property as is the law. He said that is true but many people don’t obey that law.

    I said..You’re still not viewing it.

    He asked me my name.

    I said what was the incident.

    He said rape at the local station.

    I said unusual for this area. He said is it?

    https://www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/people/fareham-police-dedicating-a-significant-number-of-officers-to-enquiries-over-town-centre-rape-3621697

          1. The Met have been shown to employ people with criminal records in the damning report about Lady Dick. It wouldn’t surprise me if some of those convictions had a sexual nature. That’s Lefties for ya. They think rehabilitation works. Wankers.

      1. I have nothing to hide but why would i let a Police person on my property to look at my computer? How do i know the rape wasn’t being used to collect intelligence for another reason? Besides, i stopped helping the Police with their inquiries after the last time i was arrested. :@(

        1. I stopped helping plod the last time I reported a crime. They weren’t interested and really wanted me to go away.

          They weren’t bothered until i said ‘alright, next time I’ll shoot the thieves with my bow’. Then they perked up as they saw an easy collar.

          1. Does seem to be how they behave now. The rape if in fact it was a rape in question took place between 1am am 2.30am. A single woman after a night in the pub. This is a small sleepy town with very low crime. A perfect place for a chancer predator to strike. Why won’t women wake up to reality?

          4. We have several passages running behind houses in our area.
            Every time there is an incident, it is some daft bint – on her own – trotting or staggering alone along these routes in the small wee hours.
            However much feminists may huff and puff, it is just plain daft to wander along such places at night.

          3. I can’t believe I was arrested for impersonating politicians

            I was literally in my office doing nothing…

          1. I got arrested at Sainsbury’s for stealing a kitchen utensil once.

            It was a whisk I was willing to take.
            Ta boom tish !

    3. I wonder if they would have been as quick with a description if the “perp” had been diverse.

      1. We both know the answer to that. Luckily i live in a high value area and the scum can’t get in any numbers…yet.

          1. Me ! Wealthy ! My spare rooms are full to the ceiling with people who lived in French Chateaux anyway.

  68. PROJECT FEAR LIVES

    Witless: “…there’s a ‘HIGH CHANCE’ that a Covid variant worse than Omicron will emerge in next two years.”

    3. If we manage to avoid a nuclear holocaust, it seems that covid will be ready to fill the void in my worry neurons.

    4. I think it’s just a warning Billnso that we’re all keyed up and ready for the lockdown, etc. just a friendly tip-off! We should be grateful.

    5. Roughly two weeks after Hunter, Joe Biden and Zelensky decide the game is up and accept that all their finances are going to be investigated by the Russians.

      1. Last night we had choir practice. Only two turned up. One – a Churchwarden – had a FFP2 mask clamped to her face. She’s just recovered from a bout of the ‘coof’, so why bother? Today, met another churchwarden outdoors, She’s also recovered, but had an FFP2 mask equally clamped. What happened to natural immunity?

        Meanwhile I just rejected a call from ‘NHS Immunisation Management Service’. Blocked them. And will delete their voicemail.

        1. I’ve given up.
          A friend was explaining that being double masked was essential when travelling.
          When I suggested that sufficient masking to stop the virus would also probably suffocate her she wasn’t impressed.

          1. I’ve only ever submitted to the mask thing in Church, since as ‘staff’ I felt I should comply. Buses, trains, shops, whatever – exempt. And – to be fair – in church the bloody thing was pulled down, otherwise I couldn’t read the music. I believe Mr Covid paid me a fleeting visit in Feb 2020, though I’ll never prove it. Since when I’ve taken Vit D regularly, and got on with life.

      2. Last night we had choir practice. Only two turned up. One – a Churchwarden – had a FFP2 mask clamped to her face. She’s just recovered from a bout of the ‘coof’, so why bother? Today, met another churchwarden outdoors, She’s also recovered, but had an FFP2 mask equally clamped. What happened to natural immunity?

        Meanwhile I just rejected a call from ‘NHS Immunisation Management Service’. Blocked them. And will delete their voicemail.

  69. Just been looking on Booking.com, for a pub/hotel, for a short stay in Zummerzet

    Found this

    5 reasons to choose Bear Inn, Somerset by Marston’s Inns

    1. Prices you can’t beat!
    2. Booking is safe
    3. Manage your bookings online
    4. The staff speak English
    5. Great location and facilities for couples

    1. I can’t work out if it’s sad to have that or good.

      No, it’s good. Jobs in the local area and what.

  70. The warqueen’s hateful Easter ball is coming up. Black tie, with threats of white. I don’t wanna go. Cue petulant huff, cross arms and sulking.

      1. She’s stood on my foot in heels before when I haven’t. No dancing, mostly just slow shuffling. Aside from the cranks eyeing her up (my role is part husband, part bodyguard) mostly everyone there is older than Palpatine.

    2. Not sure I’ve ever been to a ball. If it involves dancing, I’m the guy at the bar.

      1. I was the guy serving you. I have the Bar in front of me to protect me from the drunks guests.

      2. Only ball I’ve been to was the Freshers’ Ball first week at university. Bloody awful.

        1. I expect that sort of event is no longer possible because someone might feel “unsafe”….

        2. Joe, my best friend as a boy (and subsequently my best man) organised the May Ball at Queen’s College Cambridge in 1969. I had a stunningly attractive girlfriend called Susie at UEA at the time whom I took to Cambridge for the party which was fantastic.

          (BUT, in case somebody near to me reads this I must say that my wife was and still is even lovelier!)

      3. I dance badly but was brought up that one should dance with all the ladies sitting at ones table at least once during the evening.
        Because so few men seem to dance, except with their wives/girlfriends and not always even them, we got numerous invitations to dinner dances and balls.
        They were good fun and the women joked that they were always pleased to discover my wife and I were on their table because it meant that they could guarantee at least one dance. My wife often complained that the only dances she had were the opener, the final one and possibly another if it was a table of eight or fewer. Very seldom was she invited to dance by the other men, but was content because it meant we had lots of fun and she enjoys chatting with people, which I don’t.
        I don’t really understand why people go to such things if they aren’t going to dance.

        1. We used to do Scots country dancing at school. Fast forward a few years to a works ‘do’ (in the Sarf), and I’m accused of groping a female colleague because I had a hand around her back.

          1. That’s sad, because the dancing we did at such events was always close joined. I used to joke that one needed to be close together so:
            a) I didn’t put one left foot around my other left foot and we’d both fall over.
            b) It’s genuinely a lot easier to dance “well” if one is very close.
            C) THE WOMEN ACTUALLY THOUGHT IT WAS BETTER.
            Most of the people who attended the dances were well known to each other so it was unlikely one might be slapped!

          2. Wasn’t it at the Ball of Kirriemuir that the glrls all confessed that though they liked the dancing something else was the best!

          3. We did country dancing at primary school- I am the same height now I was then, 5’4″. My partner was shorter and several times when we were twirling, I nearly launched him into outer space.

        2. My parents sent me to the Lymington Community Centre for dancing classes when I was 15 where I met a rather pretty but very shy girl. But since I was just as shy it never came to anything.

    3. Really wibbling, if it’s an annual do you should be used to it by now, so stop the petulance, crossed arms and stop sulking! 😂😂😂

      1. I’ve a dog that will sit down and not move if he doesn’t want to. He has an owner who can out stubborn him.

        It’s funny in a way. I’ve had girlfriends who’ve ranted, shouted, screamed, argued, bartered, manipulated me to do things and it just has me dig my heels in. Somehow I always do precisely what the Warqueen wants and she never cajoles, hassles, fusses, whinges, whines or complains.

        Case in point – I’ve lots of t shirts. Some have big rips and holes in them from wear. A female chum said ‘will you bloody well buy some more!” and the wife looks at her, looks at me and after bursting out laughing hysterically explains that ‘He won’t now, under any circumstances, ever. He’ll just dig his heels in even more. He’ll get more when he wants to, and then nothing will stop him.’

      1. Been done. Urgent business problem, water leak (arranged), car problem (arranged – she got us a taxi), illness – real and feigned. Junior and I even bandaged him up to get out of it – we failed when the daft fellow grabbed a milky bar from her with the ‘broken’ arm.

        We all go up and stay with a friend over night, Mongo, Junior, even mother in law. 4 hours of orange juice, strangulation and not being able to reach for anything as when I do, the jacket and shirt tear in half (that’s happened. It buggered her career up for a year.)

    5. Oh just go, it’ll be fun.
      I was once at one of these things and every man round the table tried the “I don’t dance” routine, and then an American girlfriend took her man off to dance, and mine said “Now we know who would crack first under torture.”
      He was next on the dance floor!
      Oh that was a nice evening, we ended up sitting in Parliament Square as the sun was rising – not sure I’d do that nowadays, even if I was still 25!

  71. Moh and I still have a fever , sniffles , headache , aches and pains , dry throat , cold and shivery/feeling warm no appetite.

    Last night was very uncomfortable , and this morning was a struggle.

    Moh cancelled his Wednesday golf , but played on Monday.. he shouldn’t have because our no 1 son had tested positive on Monday .. He had a hacking cough , and was very feverish. .. Never the less Moh played Monday golf despite me having a pop at him .. His golf mates shared a car to Sherborne .. so I hope they are all okay .

    We didn’t fancy doing the PCR test ourselves , so made an appointment 12 miles away and the Covid testers did a great ob whilst we sat in the car. this afternoon .

    What I thought was a cold felt just like flu.

    I had a long awaited dental appointment this afternoon, had to cancel that . Real nuisance .

    Should receive our results in a da or so , if we are lucky.

    1. Hope you feel better soon, Mags. Our next door neighbours are still home – he was positive, she was negative but she’s coughing well. Both busy out in the garden.

        1. My neighbours too Belle…they were fine until they had booster No. 4

          Hope the dogs are taking care of you….

          1. Had a call from NHS Immunisation Management Service this arvo. I was busy, so I rejected the call. They can take a running jump. I’d enough trouble with AZ jab #2. No mRNA will be accepted here.

        2. “You know what happens when you have a coughing fit…” – a little bit of wee comes out??

    2. Just a couple more days and I’m sure you’ll all feel a bit better. Has your taste and sense of smell become odd or gone?

        1. If you’d been here last night, once the Brussels sprouts in the bubble and squeak struck, you’d have been glad of the lack of the sense of smell;-))

          1. There was a young man from Australia, on whose bottom was painted a dahlia. The drawing was fine, in fact quite divine. But the scent was a bit of a failure.

          2. In the version I know the chap came from Westphalia and the final three lines were: A penny a smell/ Was all very well/ But tuppence a lick was a failure.

        2. Fear not, Mags – it is prolly just good, old-fashioned ‘flu. I suspect that huge numbers of “cases” of covid were, actually, ‘seasonal ‘flu. There were suggestions that covid had dished ‘flu for good. Rubbish!

          Stay warm; take Night Nurse; drink lots of fluids.

        3. It’s not fun, is it? Food becomes uninteresting when it only has tongue-taste – but a great opportunity to eat less and slim a little… ;-))

          1. I lost about ½ a stone in 7 days. Apart from taste and smell going, my/our appetites were also lost. Wine tasted a bit odd but I kept drinking it so I would know when my sense of taste returned.

    3. If you have had the so called vaccine it will make it worse. We had a 3 day cold as we had not, nor never will. You will recover.let nature take its course. avoid the quick fix as it is not.

      2. Caroline and I have both had Covid. Caroline only got tested when I went down with a cold. I admit I had one uncomfortable night and I spent the next day and a half in bed sleeping. I have had far worse colds and flu.

        Vitamin D, Vitamin C and Zinc are the answer and take Ivermectin only if you are ill.

        Yet more funerals for Caroline to play at this week. Twice as many as this time last year in our parish.

        Will they ever tell the truth about the sometimes fatal consequences of being jabbed?

    4. I entirely sympathise. I’ve had a chest infection for over 2 weeks, just got a second dose of antibiotics and steroids.

    5. I’m fascinated Belle.
      When you get the results what will you do with them?
      Will you get to see a doctor?
      What medication will you get on prescription?
      If you don’t get any of the above, why did you have a test?

      Edit. Get well soon.

      1. Hello Alf

        Having my b/day bash with various age groups on Sunday.

        I also visit a few elderly people , I would hate to pass on this horrible virus on to some one who
        is vulnerable .

        1. Hello Belle.
          Before this covid scam wouldn’t you have just cancelled because of the way you felt?
          Did you really need a test to tell you, you felt unwell?
          I’m not having a go at you but if we want to go back to how things used to be would it not be good enough to say to yourself what would I have done 2 years ago.

          1. Moh and I have health issues ..yes and no , we wondered whether we had pneumonia .
            Feel mildly relieved it is Covid .. and no antibiotics required.

      1. At Christmas, I sometimes include the carol “This is the truth sent from above”.

        Trouble is, the latter part of verse 2, followed by the first half of verse 3 can be tricky…

        …The next thing which to you I’ll tell
        Woman was made with man to dwell.

        Thus we were heirs to endless woes,
        Till God the Lord did interpose;…

    3. For what is a man, what has he got
      If not himself then he has not
      To say all the things he truly feels
      And not the words of one who kneels

    4. There was an old man with a beard
      Who said, ” It is just as I feared-
      Two owls and a hen
      Four larks and a wren,
      Have all built their nests in my beard.”

      Edward Lear.

      1. I was hesitant but Rik’s post above changed my mind- I am in limerick mood.

        There was an old man from Leeds
        Who swallowed a packet of seeds,
        Great tufts of grass shot out of his a**e
        And his d**k was all covered in weeds.

        1. His father and his mother were respectively 16 and 15 when he was conceived. But they did get married to each other a few years later.

          2. His Dad, Andy Farrell, has proven to be an effective and popular coach for the Ireland RFU team.

          3. And England missed a golden opportunity to hire him and lose Jones.

            Farrrell and Shaun Edwards, plus the depth of talent in English rugby, would have been an unbeatable combination in my view.

        2. By ‘lager’ I mean generic fizz brewed under licence in factories in the UK e.g. Heineken, Fosters, Bud.

          Muck.

          1. Stayed in a pub near Berkeley (nuclear training course). They had a beer tap labelled “Eurofizz lager”. That stuff is just pi$$ and wind.

    2. So I see. First spotted at the Speccie. Or speccied at the Spotty. Or something. Again, it’s across the Disqus platform. It’s already been flagged up at ‘Discuss Disqus’, so we can confidently expect the children in Silicon Valley to get round to sorting the issue within the next month or two. Best advice is to accept the upvotes – God knows we had an awful lot of them deleted…

  74. 351573+ up ticks,
    Funny I was pondering on peoples going on convalescent tother day & lo & behold it was mentioned today on radio four as if it could come back into play.

    One chap, TB patient remembers sleeping out on the veranda with a waterproof over the bed & a layer of snow ( fresh air) being the aim.

    We seem to have a lab/lib/con coalition TB variant now after it was nigh on eradicated they, via mass uncontrolled immigration have reintroduced it,fresh air is still a prime factor in peoples treatment via reset, as in pavement mattress with TB to follow, convalescent
    has been eradicated.

    1. Effnicks have delivered TB again .

      It really is disgusting to see people gobbing phlegm everywhere /

      That was against the law years ago.

      1. 31573+ up ticks

        Evening TB,

        Mass uncontrolled immigration political party’s
        delivered it , still are, and still finding support.

    2. My father had to do that during his year in Haslar.
      The real macoy; bed on verandah and waterproof cover so the snow could pile up nicely.
      It worked, but it took 12 months which, of course. ‘our’ NHS wouldn’t allow nowadays.
      TB was still treated traditionally in 1943 – 44.

      1. 351573+ up ticks,

        Evening Anne ,

        Uncle George caught it whilst serving in Ceylon, RAF
        navigator, a premature death, fighting a war to protect
        democracy / freedom .

        Todays politico’s, their supporters / voters spit on those types from the past as they continue to create a hell on earth via the polling booth.

        ALL at once there are a multitude of living space for
        refugees who pass through europe to get here whilst Tommy Atkins is stretched on his concrete mattress
        awaiting a visitation from the reintroduced TB plague.

      2. Visited Haslar from school on a work experience course, mid Seventies. Three of us went; two were interested in – and pursued – RN careers, I went along to make up the numbers. Interesting, though. These days, trips to Pompey (pretty painless by train from Guildford) are to Gunwharf Quays…

        1. Please let me know the next time you are boozing at Gunwharf. I’m only a couple of miles away and you can buy me and Dolly a drink !

  76. That’s me for today. Gorgeous mild weather. Sat outside in shirtsleeves. Everything beginning to bloom – which means a deadly frost in due course. Like the one in May last year which did for most of the apples.

    Hope you all have a spiffing evening. I shall be coping with the MR who has – at a whim -,decided to go to the village “keep fit” class. On her bicycle!!

    I hope to see you tomorrow if I am spared.

    A demain.

    1. Caroline goes to her Pontius Sessions – as I call her Pilate’s class.

      I tried it but it was not for me and I was never fully convinced of the hand-washing bit.

    2. Sprayed the north front paths today with Algon to keep the green away. Start on the back tomorrow.

      1. My plan for tomorrow. Everything is nicely dry so that should be it for the summer.

    1. Antoinette was always maligned. Unlike Sunak, she meant ‘reduce the price of brioche so people can afford it instead of bread.

      In our world, Sunak would massively increase the taxes on brioche and then give some people money back, rather than removing the tax altogether. Our tax system is not only idiotic, it is complicated because the state wants to hurt the middle as much as possible to destroy any concept of improvement or affluence. It is simply frantic, abusive socialism.

      1. There is an excellent biography of Marie Antoinette by Antonia Fraser. Really well researched and a good read.

      2. He is quoted as saying that after Brexit he can now take VAT off insulation etc. My first thought was, ‘how long is it since we voted to leave?’ and ‘why are we still collecting VAT anyway. We should have a purchase tax of which ALL goes to the Treasury’.

  78. Did a bit of bramble pulling up the garden this morning and shifted a few rocks about ready for cementing into the current wall.
    Then had a walk to Cromford to post a letter to Derby Council for Stepson, recorded delivery of course, I bought a dozen eggs.

    Grilled some bacon, then served it with cheese on toast, poached egg and tinned tomatoes.

    Now going for a bath as my back is aching!

    A few Tw@ter comments, some suggested by comments made earlier:-
    https://twitter.com/BeardedBob7282/status/1506675552459141129

    https://twitter.com/BeardedBob7282/status/1506538523796676611

    https://twitter.com/BeardedBob7282/status/1506529596912590849

    https://twitter.com/BeardedBob7282/status/1506171901730766852

    1. I’m on my second large Pinot. This bloody government might wonder why drinking at home has increased. I’ll tell them- people are anxious, people have lacked most medical care for two years and we have the biggest group of buffoons “running” the country.
      People are drinking at home because it’s cheaper, just, than going to the pub and people want to relax.
      That mini budget today was an insult to people’s intelligence. Sunak doesn’t care- he and his wife are as rich as Croesus.

      1. Second biggest bunch of buffoons if you don’t mind. My lot cannot buffoon your lot any day!

        1. I suspect you mean out buffoon, Richard. Point taken though. They are all sodding buffoons.

      2. ^^^This^^^.

        I’ll freely admit that the ‘red medicine’ consumption has increased here since lockdown.

        Prefer the pub. I managed a pint of Doom Bar on Saturday afternoon, but only because I had an hour to kill before the next bus arrived.

    3. Ah – forgot to mention:

      Wordle 277 4/6

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

      But I’m not a Labour front bencher…

    3. I always wonder why the people flying in these things assume that they won’t be prime targets in a war. AND why they think they can’t be destroyed easily.

    4. Why are these military aircraft showing their location?

      It looks like they have two or three tankers advertising their presence just west of Ukraine but little else. It makes no sense unless they have a number of fighters / bombers hanging around incognito.

      1. Showing that they are prepared. More worrying when they suddenly disappear from sight. Then, it might well be going to kick off.

  82. Just watched a numan ed advert on Drama channel.
    Reminded me of this joke:

    A mother and her young son were driving in their car when a dildo flies out of nowhere and hits the windscreen. The mother, trying not to ruin the child’s innocence says:
    “It was just a bug sweetie, don’t worry!”

    The kid replies saying:
    “How it even got off the ground with a d**k that big puzzles me!”

  83. The Government’s absurd commitment to Net Zero is impoverishing the nation

    The Climate Change Act has painted the Prime Minister into a corner

    ROSS CLARK • Monday 20th March 2022 • 9:00am

    We can at least thank Vladimir Putin for one thing. He has woken us up to what should have been obvious all along: that we still need to exploit our remaining oil and gas reserves – even as we invest in renewables. Suddenly, the Government is talking of issuing new licences for extraction in the North Sea, an industry which, until just a few weeks ago, it was happy to see run down.

    Hard though it might be to remember now, consumers were already facing whacking increases in their bills even before the invasion of Ukraine, in part because we have allowed the North Sea to go into managed decline. The conceit was that we won’t need oil and gas for much longer as we speed towards a net zero future, so we might as well import what we need for a few years.

    But we do our gas and oil. Notionally, we already have enough wind turbines and solar panels to provide the average 40 GW of power that Britain consumes. But there is a good reason why wind and solar between them were only generating 35 percent of our electricity at midday on Friday. Large parts of Britain were becalmed by an anticyclone. But at least it was sunny. There are times, typically on calm, still winter nights, when the contribution of renewable energy falls well below 10 percent.

    We can only manage renewables because we have gas power plants we can switch on and turn up to make up for gaps in solar and wind energy. We have some electricity storage, mostly in the form of hydroelectric pumped-storage schemes, but only enough to supply us with power for around 38 minutes. There is a boom in battery storage at the moment, but if we try to rely on that it will make today’s electricity bills look a bargain. Large-scale energy storage in lithium batteries currently costs around £250 per MWh, when you take into account capital and lifetime maintenance costs. That is about five times as much as it costs to generate solar or wind energy in the first place.

    It is quite clear, then, that we will continue to need gas, at least as a transition fuel while we await some other technology for managing renewable energy. Yet the Government faces a very big problem in supporting renewed investment in the North Sea – and even more trouble if it revives support for fracking. Last week, writing in the Daily Telegraph about the need to wean ourself off Putin’s gas and oil, the Prime Minister threw in the claim that “our ambition to go for net zero is not the problem”. It is astonishing he was not picked up on this at the time, because the Government doesn’t have an ‘ambition’ to reach net zero. If it were mere ambition, there wouldn’t be a problem. What the Government has is a legally-binding commitment to reach net zero by 2050. This was written into an amendment to the Climate Change Act, which was nodded through the Commons without even a vote in the dying days of Theresa May’s premiership.

    What this legal commitment does is to invite environmental activists to sue the Government for any policy which might be argued to be inconsistent with the net zero target. [Nottlanders had worked this out years ago.] And that is exactly what they are doing. The Government has already lost one such action, in 2018 when the Court of Appeal ruled that a third runway would be inconsistent with the Government’s commitments under the Paris Agreement. That was later overturned in the Supreme Court on the grounds that the commitments made in Paris were not legally-binding and at the time the Heathrow decision was made the Climate Change Act had not been amended to demand net zero. But it was only thanks to the owners of Heathrow Airport that the case got as far as the Supreme Court – the Government had already given up.

    Unsurprisingly, having tasted one victory, activists have come back for more. In January, another group, ClientEarth, filed a lawsuit claiming that the government is not yet doing enough to meet its net zero target. It is not just the Government which is being bombarded with crowd-funded writs. Last week, ClientEarth also sued the directors of Shell, claiming that they are in breach of Company Law for not preparing sufficiently for net zero. It is a copycat action of a successful case in the Dutch courts last year, when Shell was still a partly-Dutch company.

    The moment that the Government starts trying to issue gas and oil extraction licences, it will find itself in court. The closer we approach 2050, the wore intense the legal battles will become. The Government will find it increasingly hard to build any kind of infrastructure or pursue any kind of policy promoting economic growth – unless some affordable and as-yet undiscovered technology emerges to allow us to fly, drive, manufacture things and keep the lights on without emitting carbon dioxide. Without that, it is hard to see how the activists won’t enjoy frequent victories.

    It is madness for the government to place itself under obligation to achieve any target, let alone one which it has no idea how it can achieve. The problem could be eliminated by repealing the Climate Change Act or amending it to make clear that the target to reach net zero by 2050 is merely what Boris Johnson seems to think it is: an ambition rather than the law. Then we could have a sensible policy of encouraging the development of clean technologies without the pressure of a hard and fast date to eliminate all emission. It is that pressure which is forcing us to make some very bad decisions, like that to run down our gas industry and rely on imported gas.

    But is the government brave enough to water down the Climate Change Act? I am not holding my breath. I fear that we face many years of legal attrition yet before it becomes very obvious that net zero by 2050 is very likely an impossible target to achieve without hollowing out our industry and impoverishing the country.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/03/20/governments-absurd-commitment-net-zero-impoverishing-nation/

    1. They have ‘enriched’ the UK. surely they will ‘enrich’ Jamaica by returning to their homeland?

      2. Just think of the benefit to those countries if all of the engineers, and doctors returned to the countries they left.

        I am not being racist towards Jamaicans, I am including all of those African and Asian migrant refuges that now enrich the west.

  86. Accordingto the Daily Mail, I see that yet another Russian general has been killed by the Ukranian forces. The DM really gives propaganda a bad name, one lost general I could believe but their count is up around a dozen now.

    Don’t worry though, dearest Trudeau is speaking to the EU, that will be a master class in obfuscation and downright misrepresentation.

      1. At least it wasn’t a bouncy castle, despised leader has a phobia about people with bouncy castles.

        The vindictive barstewards are still finding excuses to deny bail for one of the truckers protest leaders.

    1. Hopefully he is just using the play pit as an up yours to Trudeau but you are right, combatants should be nowhere near where children might be.

    2. It’s got to the stage where ‘All Russians are Nazi scum’ and anyone killing, or wanting to kill, any Russians are heroes.
      Will we ever have a proper gander at the realities of this stupid war? I don’t support either side.

      1. “Then you’re obviously a Russian troll and foul Putin apologist”. PS – I don’t actually mean this, but it accurately sums up the standard of debate ‘below the line’ at present. Opinion has to be binary. Grey is not allowed.

        PPS – the Nazi scum appears to be on the other side, but what do I know?

        1. The Nazis are perhaps a distraction – I don’t think they have had the chance to do much since Russia invaded – however, Russia is claiming that they were running concentration camps in Ukraine before the current conflict.

          I have slid over to being more pro-Russian since this thing kicked off, as I am so disgusted by everything the West has done. The Chinese and the Western globalists are our enemy, not the Russians.

  88. They f**k you up, your government,
    They might not mean to but they do,
    They fill you with the faults they have
    And add some extra, just for you.

    But they were f**ked up in their turn
    By fools who bleated tripe and wore white coats
    Who half the time were soppy stern
    And half at one another’s throats.

    Man hands on misery to man
    It deepens like a coastal shelf.
    Forget the government if you can
    And never vote for them again.

    With abject apols to Philip Larkin.

    1. First heard Larkin’s poem on Radio 4 as I was circumnavigating the M25, en route to Carlisle, where my old Mum was within days of shuffling off. This was swiftly followed by some stuff by Margaret Forster (also of Carlisle). Funny how these things stick in mind…

      1. I’m not a great fan of Larkin and poetry is not my area of expertise but that one seemed apt and suitable for a small rewrite.

        1. Nor me. I know bugger all about poetry. Though – having been involved in choirs for 57 years – I can rattle off quite a few hymns from memory, which seem to me to be similar to poems…

          1. Well yes, Christina Rosseti’s In the Bleak Midwinter started life as a poem. As did Jerusalem.

          4. Yeah for Spike!!

            I must go down to the sea again,
            To the lonely sea and the sky;
            I left my shoes and socks there,
            I wonder if they’re dry.

          12. How are you on limericks?

            There once was a Hessian from Halle

            whose ‘Water’ could soothe a koala

            But oh what a scandal

            if George Friedrich Handel

            had sung ‘The Messiah’ for Allah.

            George Friedrich Handel (1685-1759)

            Johann made a Fugue of an Art

            He always knew just where to start

            He offered a riddle

            That stopped in the middle

            So Frederick could write the last part.

            Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

    2. I loved this parody of Larkin by Adrian Mitchell:

      They tuck you up, your Mum and Dad.
      They read you Peter Rabbit, too.
      They give you all the treats they had
      And add some extra, just for you.

      They were tucked up when they were small,
      (Pink perfume, blue tobacco-smoke),
      By those whose kiss healed any fall,
      Whose laughter doubled any joke.

      Man hands on happiness to man.
      It deepens like a coastal shelf.
      So love your parents all you can
      And have some cheerful kids yourself.

      1. Much better, Rastus.
        The original dirge is a whinefest by an ungrateful little shit, so I don’t read it. Never liked anything else of his, either. “Darling buds of May” was carp, too.

        1. It has a streak of truth in it though. But I like the Mitchell version better too. Concentrate on the good things and try to pass them on!

  91. It’s early but I am off to sleep. Am always exhausted these days.
    Have fun and no fighting;-))

  92. Evening, all. Lovely day again; rode outside for the first time for months – not, perhaps the most productive training because Coolio was too distracted by what was going on around him. I missed church because I was in such pain with my hip and knees last night I barely got a couple of hours’ sleep. I had to go back to bed. As for the headline – it was NATO’s meddling, along with the EU, which produced this situation.

  93. I am still trying to remove the orange sand from my vehicles and other articles deposited by the Saharan winds of a week or more past.

    I have seen no mention of the fact that these atmospheric deposits will have covered numerous solar panels and in particular those in the massive solar parks which are replacing good agricultural land across our country. I imagine some whizz has installed water cleaning devices for the solar farms but perhaps someone could enlighten me.

    We are accustomed to white chemical deposits from agricultural practices and the petro-chem vapours from constant insecticide spraying of fields around us.

    We moved to the country and a rural village in order to breathe clean air. How mistaken we were. The fuckers have given me asthma as far as I can record the deterioration in my breathing.

  94. It has been a case of ave atque vale, folks. I’m off to bed and haven’t managed to plough through all your witticisms, puns and erudition. A bientôt.

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