Wednesday 23 October: The Martyn Blake case shows how little the CPS understands policing

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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592 thoughts on “Wednesday 23 October: The Martyn Blake case shows how little the CPS understands policing”

  2. Good morning, chums, and thank you, Geoff, for today's NoTTLe page. Only just made Wordle in 6 today.

    Wordle 1,222 6/6

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    1. Lots of possibilities – I might have got it in three if I hadn't made a silly mistake on the third line!
      Wordle 1,222 4/6

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  3. Good morning Geoff and Everyone
    Today's Tale
    The lonely traveller pulled into a motel and asked the reception clerk for a single room. As the traveller filled out his registration form, he saw a beautiful redhead walking across the lobby. He went over and talked to her. A few minutes later, he came back to the desk with the girl on his arm and said, “Fancy meeting my wife here! Looks like I’ll need a double room now.”
    Next morning he came to the desk to pay his bill but was confronted with an account for $3,000.
    “What’s this for?” he yelled at the clerk, “I’ve only been here one night.”
    “Yes,” said the clerk, “but your wife’s been here for three weeks.”

  7. 295194+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Alzheimer’s wonder drug faces NHS block over cost
    Donanemab, the most effective treatment yet for the disease, will be banned on the health service despite regulators declaring it safe

    Think on it, you cannot have a wonder drug and a culling campaign running at the same time, if anything
    the wonder drug denial gives weight to the culling campaigns very existence to the non believers.

    The daily crack of dawning on peoples our true, in many cases self inflicted plight, is getting noticeably louder.

    That we have been , the decent elements of the English nation that is, via the political / pharmaceutical
    top ranking elite encapsulated into one large
    welfare / criminality teat, that is the guaranteed magnet attraction the majority voter elects every General Election and that is the biggest asset the
    WEF / NWO / ROAD TO RESET HAS.

  8. Putin’s grotesque summit has exposed the West’s pretence of isolating Russia. 23 October 2024.

    What happened to the “isolation” of Russia over its illegal invasion of Ukraine? Britain, along with our Western allies, has spent billions supplying Kyiv with weapons to halt the attack, taken in thousands of refugees and imposed sanctions on Russia intended to damage its economy, not least a ban on importing its oil and gas.

    There is nothing “grotesque” about this summit and it doesn’t belong to Putin. It is a perfectly legitimate meeting between polities with shared geopolitical interests. There was never a real possibility of isolating Russia completely. The Global South has now woken up to the ambitions of the United States and though they are not willing to oppose the world’s most powerful state openly, they are not going to help it either if they can manage it.

    For all this the Ukraine War has not gone too badly for America. They have cut Russia out of the European Energy Market and taken it over themselves at a vast increase in costs to the Europeans. This has also increased their stranglehold over the individual European nations as they no longer dare to offend, as witness Germany. NATO has been extended and re-energised as an arm of the US hegemony and Russia has suffered grievous losses, both in men and to its reputation as a military power.

    Are there any downsides? Very few. And mostly to a Europe which has become simply a lackey of US interests. They will pay the costs.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/10/22/weak-un-handed-putin-grotesque-propaganda-coup-russia/

    1. The revival of NATO interest in Eastern Europe may well be down to a serious miscalculation from Putin when he made the decision to invade Ukraine.

      His hand was much stronger when he continued to bluff the West, and America in particular, which has bigger fish to fry. It is tragic that Putin has trashed his reputation for the sake of an ill-advised military adventure.

      What Putin, in his bluster, failed to appreciate is that moving the EU eastwards cuts both ways. Yes, it increases the influence of the West in the former Warsaw Pact, but it also increases the capacity of Russia to take advantage of such proximity and render the EU dependent on Russian largesse.

      There are several issues springing to mind. One is over energy. Does the West really think it can abandon King Coal and still sustain its material aspirations? Before long, the only way to square this circle is with Russian oil and gas.

      Then there is the Middle East. The dreadful rise of ISIS in Iraq and Syria that was destroying the Cradle of Civilisation was ultimately halted by the Kurds. Yet it was Russia they turned to when the capricious Donald Trump doublecrossed them by letting loose Erdogan's neo-ottomans on the exhausted and stretched Peshmerga.

      Finally, those in the West far from Russia, are all too susceptible to the cultural infiltration of Woke, which has infested pretty well all the West's institutions and is systematically ruining them and the nations they purport to serve. Where do you think salvation would come from? Vienna and Budapest are listening.

  9. Putin’s grotesque summit has exposed the West’s pretence of isolating Russia. 23 October 2024.

    What happened to the “isolation” of Russia over its illegal invasion of Ukraine? Britain, along with our Western allies, has spent billions supplying Kyiv with weapons to halt the attack, taken in thousands of refugees and imposed sanctions on Russia intended to damage its economy, not least a ban on importing its oil and gas.

    There is nothing “grotesque” about this summit and it doesn’t belong to Putin. It is a perfectly legitimate meeting between polities with shared geopolitical interests. There was never a real possibility of isolating Russia completely. The Global South has now woken up to the ambitions of the United States and though they are not willing to oppose the world’s most powerful state openly, they are not going to help it either if they can manage it.

    For all this the Ukraine War has not gone too badly for America. They have cut Russia out of the European Energy Market and taken it over themselves at a vast increase in costs to the Europeans. This has also increased their stranglehold over the individual European nations as they no longer dare to offend, as witness Germany. NATO has been extended and re-energised as an arm of the US hegemony and Russia has suffered grievous losses, both in men and to its reputation as a military power.

    Are there any downsides? Very few. And mostly to a Europe which has become simply a lackey of US interests. They will pay the costs.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/10/22/weak-un-handed-putin-grotesque-propaganda-coup-russia/

  11. 395194+ up ticks,

    TCW,

    When did Daft Ed go wrong in the head?

    I believe it coincided, as with many of the top ranking political elites, with accepting the first brown envelope.

  12. Good morning all,

    A little misty at McPhee Towers but another nice day beckons. Wind South, 10℃ rising to 15 or 16℃.

    I'm not sure how SStarmer and his woodentop Foreign Secretary can recover from this.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5f8202e24f00346628ce1bebde1c7f9faae97b01c1732e34c9adeb7136d00077.png
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/politics/2024/10/22/trump-campaign-files-legal-labour-party-campaign-harris/

    If Trump wins, the Labour Party has rather pissed in its own chips.

    1. Good morning FP

      Did I imagine that the Russians and Chinese have also interfered in our General Elections , and of course we have had the perennial worry that Muslims might have quadrupled votes by fraudulent means .

      Personally speaking , I am shocked at the bare faced effrontery of Labour , and the media .

      1. I remember O'Barmy telling us we'd be at the back of the "queue" (sic) if we voted the "wrong" way. If that wasn't interference, I don't know what was.

    3. I've never been a fan of DT, but I wish him every and long lasting success.
      The NWO needs a hefty and long lasting stiff Kick up it's useless backside.

  13. Good morning all,

    A little misty at McPhee Towers but another nice day beckons. Wind South, 10℃ rising to 15 or 16℃.

    I'm not sure how SStarmer and his woodentop Foreign Secretary can recover from this.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5f8202e24f00346628ce1bebde1c7f9faae97b01c1732e34c9adeb7136d00077.png
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/politics/2024/10/22/trump-campaign-files-legal-labour-party-campaign-harris/

    If Trump wins, the Labour Party has rather pissed in its own chips.

  14. The Martyn Blake case shows how little the CPS understands policing

    Letters to the Editor
    SIR – The ill-judged prosecution of police sergeant Martyn Blake on a charge of murder shows an unacceptable lack of understanding of the incredibly difficult decisions faced by armed police officers, and a lack of awareness of the harm prosecution would do to community relations.

    Having commanded both the firearms branch and the flying squad, and witnessed the professionalism that is demonstrated by armed officers in life-threatening confrontations, I am not surprised that it took a jury just three hours to arrive at the conclusion that the Independent Office for Police Conduct and the Crown Prosecution Service should have determined from the outset (report, October 22).

    As Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said, the armed officers of the Metropolitan Police respond to more than 4,000 incidents each year, but there are only “one or two” incidents where shots are fired by police.

    If we want this kind of quality policing to continue, we must ensure that officers who bear arms on our behalf feel confident that they will be supported, and not face prosecution unless the evidence of misconduct is overwhelming.

    Roy Ramm
    Great Dunmow, Essex

    1. There is an overlap between civil policing and the military. In France, there is a distinction between the Police and the Gendarmerie, to represent to civil militia which goes beyond the bobby on the beat.

      Whilst the ordinary police are trained primarily to keep order and to solve crime, there comes a point where a foe becomes more threatening than your average burglar, and ventures into a hostile threat every bit as potent as an enemy of the state.

      In the case of the latter, the army is brought in, and they have a licence to kill, if necessary. Any abuse of this privilege is dealt with by court martial, which understands the dilemmas faced when confronting an enemy out to kill you, and judges accordingly.

      Would not the same system apply to a civil militia?

      Perhaps then it is up to society how they would wish to be policed, which is largely governed by decisions made by all members of this society, including the underworld. Burglars try not to carry lethal weapons because they know that if they did, the police would turn into a civil militia matching their weaponry and reducing considerably their life expectancy.

      1. Similar situation in Spain, where the Guardia Civil deals with much of the more deadly type of criminal activity, eg narcotics.

  15. SIR – Since discovering duvets (Letters, October 22), I have been smitten by their combination of lightness and warmth and would certainly never go back to traditional bedding.

    How I would have killed for one when growing up in our 1930s semi and my grandparents’ 15th-century farmhouse, which during winter had frost on the inside of the windows. The half hundredweight of blankets necessary to keep the cold at bay were stifling.

    Adrian Waller
    Woodsetts, South Yorkshire

    Spot on, Ade. In fact I nearly wrote the same letter (but I am now persona non grata under the new letters' bully, Orlando Bird).

    Our thinking alike must be something to do with the Woodsetts water. I don't think we ever met but I too lived in that lovely village, just over its border with Nottinghamshire, between 1987 and 1991.

    2. Good morning Grizzly,

      When Moh was posted to an area in Yorkshire , flat cold shivering countryside , to commence his first layer of flying training , we hired a farm cottage .. We were under 25 rs of age so didn't qualify for a married quarter .

      The cottage was so cold , it had an old fashioned cooking range and fire which we had to keep topped up with coal and logs … flagged floor through out, windows that let a howling draught through , downstairs bathroom , freezing , and a nitheringly cold bedroom up the creaky stairs .

      Blankets, winceyette sheets , hot water bottles, bed socks , etc did nothing to keep the chill away.. So we insulated the layers of blankets with the Times newspaper and Telegraph, Times was a broadsheet in those days , bed time felt more comfortable .

      During our few months there , we were amazed and delighted to chat with Jack Charlton who used to come over to the farm with his gun to meet his pal the farmer for a few hours shooting pigeons or what ever else for the pot .

      1. Good afternoon, Maggie.

        Growing up in a house that had a coal fire in just one room, the bedroom was a refrigerator in winter. A layer of ice on the single-paned windows, and so many sheets and blankets on the bed it felt like a ton weight on top of you.

        For me, duvets were a wonderful creation.

        1. Talking of ice on bedroom windows, I was the fourth child born just after WWII ended. The eldest child, my brother was born in 1932 and so was around 13 when I was born. Despite a gas fire being kept alight all day and night in my bedroom I caught double pneumonia in the bitter cold winter of 1945/46 and my brother was advised by our father that he should be prepared for my dying.

    3. The worst part of my younger winters was waking up to find the bedroom curtains were stuck, as in frozen to the window panes.
      Still possibly more of that to come in our old age. While our government exercises it's rights to be nasty to the elderly.

      1. On the plus side, we will know how to deal with it.
        Later generations will be totally flumoxed.

        1. Was saying that to someone at church on Sunday. We know how to light fires, deal with candles, keep warm in unheated houses and if there's a power cut we can cope without smartphones.

    4. We used to throw everything on top of the counterpane. Overcoats. Dressing gowns. Whatever was available. It was still cold.

    5. How tastes differ!
      I can't stand duvets. They're always either too hot or too cold, rarely just right. I've tried all kinds, including expensive ones, but they just don't cut it. Thin covers can easily be adjusted in the night, and are far more comfortable.

      1. When I bought my first duvet, back in the 1970s, I thought I’d been reborn. I would never go back to sheets and blankets.

          2. I can’t stand the heated house and fluffy duvets that my ex and daughter require for their wellbeing. It’s not preference – I physically can’t stand the heat. I’d die if left under the covers that they require to feel warm enough.

          3. My bedroom isn't heated, but I love my goose down duvet. Light and warm enough, but not too stifling.

          4. I have three (seasonal) duvets. A very thin one for summer; a medium one for spring/autumn; and a fluffy duck-down one for winter. I enjoy maximum comfort all year round.
            My house is heated in colder weather (luft/luft varmepumpe, but supplemented — when needed — by oil-filled electrical radiators). It is well ventilated; Swedes enjoy open-plan access, internal doors are never shut. The walls are 15″ thick insulated and the windows are triple-glazed.
            I’ve never felt so healthy; having said that, my carnivorous diet goes a long way to assist that.

    6. I didn't grow up in a 15th century farmhouse, but my bedroom windows were always frosted on the inside when I was growing up. It was just part of life.

  16. Good morning all.
    A very misty and slightly chillier tad under 3°C this morning. At least it's not raining.
    A trip to Clay Cross to pick up the knackered traction motor of an old battery powered mining loco that the rewind company has deemed too complex for their abilities, then to t'Lad's to drop it off and do a tip run and a couple of other things for him.

  18. 395194+ up ticks,

    The back peddling by lab this morning would have won any major cycling event.

    The lammy chap had better start considering "going on the lam" as his next career move in about three weeks time.

    Dt,
    Trump makes legal complaint over Labour’s ‘blatant foreign interference’ in US election
    Republicans claim activists sent to US is ‘foreign interference’ but Sir Keir Starmer denies the row will damage relations with Trump

    1. On the assumption that Trump wins, I'd say that relations with the UK will be, at best, very lukewarm.

      1. Because of our stupid politicians, not because of the general public. Mind you, the general public voted Labour into office – because the Tories were almost as stupid.

  19. Answers are still required on the handling of Sgt Blake’s case
    Why did the Crown Prosecution Service proceed with the charges?
    We still have not been told the full story
    Telegraph View 23 October 2024 6:00am BST

    The photograph of Chris Kaba used throughout the trial of the police officer who shot him showed a smiling and seemingly good-natured individual. It lent itself to the notion that an unarmed black man had been gunned down in the streets by the forces of law and order.

    Efforts were made to turn this case into a British equivalent of the “Black Lives Matter” movement that followed the death of George Floyd in America. This was even alluded to on the BBC’s main news on Monday night shortly after Sgt Martyn Blake was acquitted of his murder.

    Yet Kaba was far from an innocent victim. He was a ruthless and violent gangster who shot a rival in a packed nightclub just days before his death in September 2022. His injured victim ran from the club only to be followed by Kaba who shot him again as he lay on the ground.

    Sgt Blake was part of a unit sent to intercept a car linked to a shooting the previous evening. Kaba was driving and, although unarmed, the police were not to know this. He tried to use the vehicle to evade a roadblock, posing a threat to officers. His family and supporters say his death showed indifference to the life of a black person, yet all he had to do was turn off the engine and get out of the car.

    These facts were known to the Crown Prosecution Service, which makes its decision to prosecute Sgt Blake even more outlandish. Although the jury did not know of Kaba’s background they assuredly guessed that he was a criminal, otherwise why was an armed response team called up to intercept him?

    No one looking at this case objectively, as the CPS must, could have concluded that a conviction was likely. So why did they proceed with the charges? We still have not been told the full story.

    1. Traditional Britain in action.

      The woods and fields around here are hoatching with deer. With the coming food shortages, is it time to get a shotgun certificate again and firearms licence?

      3. We’ve just eaten a casserole of venison shank that I slow-cooked with haricot beans. It was delicious if I say so myself. Yet many people are apparently appalled by eating ‘Bambi’.

    1. Ahhhh; that was the opening scene (as it were) in one of those son-et-lumière shows I thought about after Stephenroi posted some beautiful photos.

      One entered the huge space (disused factory in Paris, as I remember).to be surrounded by those beautiful birches, leaves dropping slowly all.around, Mahler thrumming in the air.

      Thanks for reminding me how lucky I am to have experienced such things!

  22. I'd like to think the CPS were Machiavellian enough to realise that a murder charge wouldn't stick.
    But since the CPS seems to attract tenth rate lawyers who couldn't cut it elsewhere, I'm probably being charitable.

    1. The old CPS (County Prosecuting Solicitor) which worked well for over a century would never have countenanced this charge. It all started to go tits up when the new CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) was initiated in place of the old.

    2. Agreed. They probably thought a bit of BLM sentiment waved around would ensure the jury wouldn't dare not to convict the officer.

      Someone should start a fund for a thank you present.

  23. Officer who shot Kaba may lose his job despite verdict.

    THE police officer found not guilty of murdering Chris Kaba, the violent gangster, could still face the sack for gross misconduct.

    Jurors at the Old Bailey took just three hours to clear Sgt Martyn Blake on Monday following a three-week trial over the shooting. But despite being immediately reinstated by Scotland Yard, the highly experienced firearms specialist could still be charged with gross misconduct by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) and lose his job.

    Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, faces calls to intervene and stop any further investigations of Sgt Blake. Yesterday, chilling details of Kaba’s violent past were finally revealed, including how he gunned down a rival in a packed nightclub just days before he was shot dead by police.
    Robert Jenrick, who is vying to be Tory leader, has urged the police watchdog to end Sgt Blake’s ordeal and called on Ms Cooper to intervene urgently. He said: “Martyn Blake was hauled through the courts for doing his job in incredibly difficult circumstances. He was acquitted by a jury in hours – the case is closed. “The IOPC must now stop pursuing Sgt Blake and end this saga by dropping any further investigations immediately – especially given what we now know about Chris Kaba. The IOPC ultimately reports to Yvette Cooper. She must end this farce, if necessary by replacing the director general, so firearms officers have the confidence they need to protect the public.”

    Last night it was reported that Sir Mark Rowley, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, is lobbying ministers to change the law to exempt some police firearms officers involved in shootings from prosecution. Despite efforts by Kaba’s family to keep his criminality secret, it can now be revealed that he was a core member of the notorious 67 gang, one of London’s most feared organised crime groups. He was shot dead by Sgt Blake after driving his powerful Audi Q8 at police officers who were investigating the vehicle’s links to two previous firearms incidents.

    Sgt Blake walked free from court on Monday after the jury accepted he opened fire because he genuinely believed the lives of his colleagues were in danger. But under the current rules, police officers can still face gross misconduct proceedings even if they are cleared of all wrongdoing by the criminal courts. This is because disciplinary offences are based on the civil test which states that an honest but mistaken belief must also be “reasonable”. The IOPC has said that despite Sgt Blake’s acquittal, it will now carry out a review to decide whether disciplinary proceedings remain appropriate, taking into account evidence at the trial and any representations made by the Metropolitan Police.

    The watchdog’s director general is Rachel Watson, a career civil servant. After Sgt Blake’s acquittal, Amanda Row, an IOPC director, said the decisions to criminally investigate Sgt Blake, and then to refer the case to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), “followed careful consideration of a significant amount of evidence gathered during our independent investigation”. Last year, the IOPC ordered gross misconduct proceedings against an officer known only as W80, over the shooting of armed gangster Jermaine Baker, even though the officer had never been charged with a criminal offence.

    Scotland Yard fought the decision, taking the case to the Supreme Court, but lost and a hearing is expected to take place in the coming months.
    Sources at the Met have said they would robustly challenge any attempt to haul Sgt Blake over the coals and believe the case for gross misconduct is weak. Mr Philp called for an overhaul of the way police officers were held to account. He said: “Investigations should take place speedily. It should also be a defence to misconduct proceedings or a prosecution if the officer can show that they followed the substance of their training and operating procedures."

    The Prime Minister’s official spokesman backed the idea for “more legal certainty” for police officers. The spokesman said: “It is obviously crucial that the police have the ability to use their powers with legal certainty and clarity, all with balance with the public’s need to see accountability.
    “The Government is committed to working with policing to ensure they have the confidence needed for them to continue to do their incredibly difficult job.”

    Meanwhile, Lord Hogan-Howe, the former Met Commissioner and crossbench peer, called for changes in the law to give firearms officers who take fatal shots “the benefit of the doubt”. An accountability review on police use of force, which was launched by Suella Braverman when she was home secretary, is still ongoing.

    What most members of the public don't understand is that police officers, when accused of committing a crime, are subject to double jeopardy, a situation the general public are legally immune from.

    I know of this from personal experience when I was accused of criminal acts, by a criminal whose tissue of lies were easily exposed in court. Nevertheless, following my acquittal I was kept on suspension while disciplinary proceeding were considered. Thankfully they were thrown out promptly and I was quickly reinstated.

    1. Financially suported of course, his best bet is to get out of the country even for a few years until all this dies down.
      It's terrible how the Kaba family are reacting to this, its almost as if he was some sort of celebrity or film star and not an violent crook. They must have known what he had been upto for a long while.
      And i don't think it's the first time this has happened.

      1. Reading about gunshots in night clubs and mob violence , is this really the UK that our parents fought for and protected from foreign usurpers over eighty years ago?

        1. Absolutely right TB. The established culture and social structure of our whole country has been wrecked by all of these political idiots. The type of people who wouldn’t have lifted a finger to have saved us from the the then nazi invasion. But since seemed to have used a different method to bring the aforementioned culture and social structure its knees.

      2. There’s a picture of three women relatives in the Terriblegraph. This picture speaks a thousand words.

      3. Has Starmer or Rayner taken the knee yet? We ought to know where the government stands on … or kneels … over victimisation of freedom fighters who only wish to resist oppression.

    2. It seems that the PTB do not wish to employ and retain good police officers.

      If Sgt Blake is sacked there should be a well supported legal action for him to receive massive compensation – and this should be paid for out of the pockets of those responsible for his treatment rather than by the taxpayer.

    3. Looks like systemic persecution on the face of it. Where on earth can be the case for gross misconduct? He's not a white officer, is he? Just asking.

    4. Are we still immune from double jeopardy? I thought it was one of the things that went when we were signed up to EU law.

        1. According to wiki (I know!) "Part of English law for over 800 years, [double jeopardy] was partially abolished in England, Wales and Northern Ireland by the Criminal Justice Act 2003 where, following demand for change, serious offences may be re-tried following an acquittal if new and compelling evidence is found, and if the trial is found to be in the public's interest". As EU law supersedes Common Law after Maastricht, I presumed that means that we lost it.

    5. Doctors are also subject to double jeopardy with the GMC using the civil standard and any doctor sent for criminal trial is liable to be pulled down the rabbit hole of the regulator as well as that of the judiciary. Some of the ‘investigations’ (a misnomer as the regulator has no powers of forensic investigation but just asks a professional expert witness what he thinks) take years.

    2. The loco is Ladywash No.6, a Greenwood and Batley product, built in Leeds for the mineral mine that is up in the Eyam area. If it ever gets restored to operating condition, it will be used at Steeple Grange Light Railway, an enthusiast run 18″ gauge with a mile or so of track. However, at the moment it looks as if it might just be stuffed and mounted on display sans batteries and motors.

      1. When I worked at Markham's in Chesterfield, back in the late 60s–early 70s, they had a small diesel shunter. This was used to haul long bogies, containing large manufactured items, up an incline on to the shunting yard of the local Midland station, for later transportation by rail.

        The engine driver, a real old-fashioned character, was in the habit of arriving at work at 0430 every morning, three whole hours before the factory commenced its working day. When asked why, his mate explained, "He used to drive a small steam shunter and he needed to arrive early to 'get up steam'. When they swapped that old steam loco for a new diesel unit, he couldn't get out of the habit of an early start."

  25. Morning all 🙂😊
    Lovely start to the day.
    I'd not heard of this until a few minutes ago and it's made me very angry to think that people who have illegally arrived on our shores in a rubber boat, are being financed so significantly. More so than thousands of British people who have worked for more than 50 years. Pensioners.
    It's, called the Aspen card. Look it up.
    A renewable amount of 175 pounds per week indefinitely op top of this free accommodation etc etc. WTF is happening to our country ???
    And our stupid repulsive government's have been pumping millions into this for decades.
    And the current idiots say, they still have no idea why there is a black hole in the economy.
    And increase taxes.

    1. 395194+ up ticks,

      Morning RE,

      Our governments ? we have not had a
      pro United Kingdom Government since the demise of Mrs Thatcher(RIP)

      The political overseers are WEF / NWO/ RESET employees, and rightfully so, the WEF / NWO / RESET
      political orchestrators are well satisfied.

      .

  27. To remove doubts regarding an X-Tw@ter comment I posted last night regarding the Black Lies Matter activist Sasha Johnson, I've never cared for her, viewing her as part of the movement that is trying to tear Britain apart and I seriously doubt she was the collateral "innocent bystander" victim she is portrayed as.
    However as a measure of how BLM obviously views SOME black lives as being worth more than others, she is a perfect example of their hypocrisy. https://x.com/BeardedBob7282/status/1848831767781744664

  29. ‘Big up Starmer’ says early release prisoner.

    More than 1,200 offenders are back on the streets in second mass jail exodus to ease overcrowding.

    ‘It’s not going to make the problem go away as the demand for prison places is going up’.

    A CONVICTED armed kidnapper released early from jail yesterday shouted “big up Keir Starmer” as he posed on a new £150,000 Bentley.
    Daniel Dowling-brooks, 29, was freed seven weeks earlier than he had expected from a seven-year sentence for kidnap and grievous bodily harm which he had been serving at HMP Swaleside on the Isle of Sheppey, in Kent. He was among the first of more than 1,200 prisoners serving sentences of five years or more to be released yesterday morning under a scheme where they are freed just 40 per cent through their jail terms rather than halfway.

    It is the second mass release under the emergency plan announced by ministers days after the general election, as men’s prisons in England and Wales almost ran out of spaces. Another released from HMP Swaleside thanked Sir Keir Starmer “from the bottom of my heart” and said he had been freed a year earlier than he expected from a four-year jail sentence. A third was picked up in a Rolls-royce by a group of men in matching hoodies. Surrounded by a group of 10 friends outside the jail, with the strong smell of cannabis in the air, Dowling-brooks, a father of two, said “I love my life” as he also posed next to a £100,000 Mercedes G Wagon. He said: “I’m a dad of two so I’m out now and I’m very happy. I’m going to be good. I kidnapped someone who owed my friend money. I tied him up and had him at gunpoint. I beat him up. It was bad but not as bad as they made out.

    “I’m so sorry for it though. I’m changed. Big up Keir Starmer, I am delighted to be released early.”

    A number of men could be seen walking down the road with bin bags slung over their shoulders, one also shaking hands with a security guard, leaving the prison estates on the Isle of Sheppey, which is home to HMP Swaleside, HMP Standford Hill and HMP Elmley.
    James Sharp, 32, was jailed for five-and-a-half years after leading police on a high-speed chase in February 2022 but was released from prison three-and-a-half months earlier than scheduled, despite racking up 60 convictions for drug dealing, burglary and dangerous driving.
    Sharp was met at the prison gates by his mother, Amanda, who was described in court as being “at the centre of a little family drug-dealing business, which includes her son and grandson, and possibly others”. The pair hugged outside Holme House jail, in Stockton-on-tees, where about 20 prisoners had been released by 10am. Posing with his thumb up, Sharp, from Stockton, said: “I want to try and go the Christian route and help other people. I converted about 10 years ago inside,” he said. “I’m happy to be out. Drugs are rife in the prison. I’ve been flat out on spice for two-and-a-half years. I’ve come out skinnier than when I went in.”

    His mother was released in July having served half of a five-year sentence for drugs offences.
    Martin Jones, chief inspector of probation, warned that the early release of prisoners will be undermined by the “high level of recalls” of offenders to jail. He said that for every 100 prisoners released in the first quarter of this year, 56 had been recalled to jail because they reoffended or breached their licence.

    “My assessment is that there is a significant risk that the amount of space created by the SDS40 [early release] changes will be reduced as a result of the high level of recalls that we have been seeing historically over a number of years,” he said.
    Shabana Mahmood, the Justice Secretary, said emergency measures such as releasing prisoners early “only buys us some time” on prison overcrowding.

    “It’s not going to make the problem, the underlying problem, go away, and that is because the demand for prison places is going up by around 4,500 every single year,” she told the BBC. “It’s why we need to think more long term about how we bring that down.”
    She has announced a sentencing review, headed by her Tory predecessor David Gauke, which aims to ensure there will be enough space to lock up the most dangerous criminals, encourage offenders to turn their back on crime and expand punishments to outside prisons.
    Ms Mahmood is drawing up plans for a major expansion of community punishments instead of jail.

    Under the plans, courts would have powers to enforce virtual prisons by using technology – such as GPS tags, smart phones and special watches that remind offenders to attend meetings with probation officers, drug treatment courses and work placements.
    They are likely to be modelled on the current home detention curfews, where prisoners can be freed six months before their scheduled release date to serve the rest of their sentences tagged and barred from leaving their home effectively under “house arrest” between, for example, 7pm and 7am.

    They should release every convicted murderer, maimer, gangster, rapist, child-molester, thief, burglar and robber, without haste. Much more prison room is needed for those guilty of thought crime, and writing hurty words on the internet.

  31. Two new articles today on Free Speech folk, one by James Gatehouse on the vices of the virtue signalling Left , and the other by me, abusing my editorial privilge to muscle in on the Gripe of the Day column to get my gripe about a hybrid car we bought off my chest.

    I hope you'll read and comment on both – and if you have some gripes of your own, and want us to publish them, please use the 'write an article' tab. There are a million gripes out there, just waiting to be written about, from plastic packaging that cuts your fingers to the 'your call is important to us lie.

    https://www.freespeechbacklash.com/

      1. "The only way mankind is going to survive is to get 'out there'."

        Did you really think about that statement before you posted it?

      1. Aha, the nub of the matter. Big Bang theory says there is no perpetual motion, because everything devolves eventually to entropy in the universe. But as molamola mentions, Fred Hoyle says otherwise that the universe is in a Steady State situation. It's an either / or and not a both.

        So no, I don't know the answer, but it is a good question.

      2. Aha, the nub of the matter. Big Bang theory says there is no perpetual motion, because everything devolves eventually to entropy in the universe. But as molamola mentions, Fred Hoyle says otherwise that the universe is in a Steady State situation. It's an either / or and not a both.

        So no, I don't know the answer, but it is a good question.

      3. Not silly, Maggie. We've been orbiting the sun for billions of years in an elliptical fashion. Comets are just doing the same thing but on a much larger scale with orbits that can be hundreds of thousands of years (or more) to complete. I think it's the next best thing to perpetual motion.

    5. Fantastic. How low to the horizon is it? We have rather too many trees in the immediate neighbourhood.

  33. Good morning.

    Oh dear. I really really really shouldn't write Tripadvisor reviews after a hard day of drinking. I think i may have called the restaurant a navvy brothel.

    1. I've never seen the point of reviewing somewhere/thing. If I don't like it, I don't go back. Someone set up a review of our company and despite being overall favourable I ignored it. There was no context or background for the issues the fellow raised.

      I do review things that set me off. A book series was blatantly racist (Rivers of London) and I said so in a review. I also pointed out that this black officer constantly had to be saved by the more experienced white senior, that his parents both lived in a council provided house and that neither earned enough to pay their own way and the main character was also a public servant who seemed to hate the country and the Tories.

      It wasn't an especially well written series, either with weak plots and eventually having the reader side with the villain as he was more interesting and likeable.

        1. But you might enjoy it. That I didn't is entirely down to me. I could recommend the Harry Dresden series and you find it immature and childish whereas I find it jolly good fun.

      2. I’ve read this series as Mr Sapola downloaded them on Kindle. It’s quite enjoyable in a light hearted way but the relentless wokery and cultural appropriation of our heritage drives one nuts. Almost every character has to be from some minority or other, even the spirits of the ancient rivers of our capital all seem to be ‘strong black women’ . The only omission is that as far as I know there aren’t any Jewish characters which is curious as the author is Ben Aaronovich.
        We have wondered if he got his inspiration from Jim Butcher’s far superior creation, Harry Dresden.

    2. I am visiting my son at the weekend in Cardiff. The hotel is not cheap; the room does not come with a bath (shower only).

      I hope they don’t ask for a review – they will get 0/10 from me, no matter how “good” the rest of the service is.

      2. I might be around the city myself in one of the four 'Spoons in the city centre. Give us a shout! Just watch out for all the dark UberEats bikers careering about the pedestrian areas.

  34. Morning all,

    A bill is now going through Parliament regarding the storage, use and disposal of lithium batteries:

    https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3742

    This has no doubt been prompted by the televised cases of lithium powered bikes exploding.
    However the increased energy stored in EVs presents an even greater hazard for first responders and fire fighting personnel.
    This EV fire extinguishing expert compares the relative hazards between dealing with an ICE car fire annd an EV fire;

    https://youtu.be/D2Vjn0Z-DGs?si=oOdfbpG3ov3QMrKI

      1. Interesting- calls to scrap the taxbreaks on buying EVs inc. salary sacrifice on these schemes

        1. I’ve just had a letter saying that my EV will charged road tax from April 1st 2025 at the rate charged for the least polluting petrol and diesel engined cars – even though I don’t have an exhaust pipe up which an MOT tester can stick a probe up!

      1. Especially after the Luton airport fire which definitely did NOT involve a lithium battery. Apparently.

      2. You become so manic trying to safely park an EV that you’ll find yourself driving around on lithium.

  35. Morning all, a grey start despite an encouraging red sky last evening.

    Thank heavens for Guido:

    "New data just released by HMRC shows Capital Gains Tax receipts have shot up by 16.3% in the third quarter ahead of the budget. Coming in at £572 million from July to September – compared to £492 million in 2023."

    Quelle surprise.

  36. Half of parents of pre-school children not reading to them every day since pandemic, survey finds
    Results show need for ‘urgent action’ to support vital home learning, says National Literacy Trust

    Half of parents of children under five do not read to them every day, a survey has found.

    The report from the National Literacy Trust found the number had slumped to 50.5 per cent this year, down from 66.1 per cent in the year before the pandemic.

    The survey of around 2,000 parents of under-fives, which was carried out in June and July for the charity by polling company Survation, also found fewer of them were talking to and playing with their child than in 2019.

    Just 56 per cent of them said they played with their child daily while 78 per cent said they had chatted to their child at least once a day in the past week.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/10/23/half-parents-pre-school-children-not-reading-daily-survey/

    How can parents chat to their young children when pushchairs are purchased .. so that the child isn't looking at it's mother but facing the wrong way, conversations are dead from the start !

    1. I was really upset when each of the lads decided they were too old for a bedtime story. I used to love the time spent reading to them.

      1. I can still recite some of the sentences from the stories even now.
        "From her little cottage window Mrs Downey duck looked out, said oh what a frosty morning what a lot of ice about…………

        1. I can still remember the look on both my parents' faces when I helpfully pointed out that they'd missed a bit… 🤣🤣

      2. I was still reading at night to No 1 son when he was 10. The last book we read together was Oliver Twist but it was heavy going because of the digressions into the Rose Maylie subplot (no wonder they expunged that from the classic David Lean film). I was also very disappointed to find that the 39 steps didn’t convert well to bed-time reading because much of the language was rather archaic by the mid 90s whereas I had not noticed anything amiss with it when I read Buchan in the 60s. It was a sobering thought that my childhood was closer to WWI than my children’s was to WWII.

    1. Blimey.
      Not quite the conversation I had yesterday with our neighbour when we offered to take stuff to the tip for her.

    2. I might put up a 'Vote Trump' sign on the garden gate and see what reaction there is. Not much footfall down here and I know virtually everyone who walks past.

    3. The bottom section loosely attached, blew away in the wind…… Westminster half a mile.

  38. A BTL from Carpe Jugulum

    I was born in 1956. In the following decades we had armed forces ready to take on the entire Soviet Union alongside America.

    We had a health service that actually was the envy of the world.

    We were a manufacturing and exporting country.

    We had FAR lower taxation than now and actually had services that worked.

    We had an education system that produced academics and skilled tradespeople.

    We had affordable housing and transport infrastructure that wasn't constantly clogged.

    And now?

    Now we have a National Health Service run by Buggins Turn incompetents like Pritchard whose answer to the catastrophic NHS performance during Covid was ….. menopause leave for NHS staff.

    Now we have a population far, far greater than this country can sustain and less than half the families contribute to the state.

    We have groaning infrastructure and unaffordable houses.

    This country has been crippled by unskilled and uncontrolled immigration and a system of working age benefits that rewards the spongers and the feckless. We can no longer afford them. It really is time the focus on 'Rights' ended and the focus on 'Responsibilities' brought back.

    Far too many of 'the most vulnerable' aren't. They are workshy spongers living off the state.

    At least with ‘our’ NHS we are far more likely to die and escape the misery created by the utter dross of our political classes.

    1. "We have groaning infrastructure and unaffordable houses." – becaus nothing has changes since 1956 except for unskilled and uncontrolled immigration and a system of working age benefits that rewards the spongers and the feckless

    2. I never thought that the phrase "the poorest in society" would evoke such a lack of sympathy from me. aka the spongers whose existence is subsidised from cradle to school to university to adulthood to care home, in sickness and in health, by the miserable workers who are chained to "the poorest in society" their whole lives long.

      1. Being poor is relative. Compared to Elon Musk I'm poor. Compared to Starmer I'm poor. The issue is not being poor, it's absolute poverty and that simply does not exist in this country.

        When someone is given a dingy flat in some council block and it's full of mold and crap that's not good, but it's not costing them anything. If they can't afford two holidays a year they are not poor, they simply can't have something they might want. I'd bet they have a big telly though.

        Working for a living is good for you. If you want something then you should see the value in working to earn it. However, that raises a huge number of issues: it's your money, so why can't you keep it? Why is two thirds stolen by the state to fund other people's lifestyles? Why are the jobs destroyed by those taxes? Why does the IMF say that massive gimmigration has added to our GDP when GDP per capita and taxation has never been so low and so high? Why can the state not grasp that public sector jobs are not a good thing. They are simply someone else's money.

        Why must those earning more, pay more? They're taking out less. They should be allowed ot keep that same percentage of their income as everyone else. Yet the state thinks it 'unfair' that if you work hard, you should keep the same as someone who doesn't.

        This doublethink concept of 'fairness' is simply redistribution, which is inherently unfair – on the person being robbed. Massive gimmigration is unfair as jobs are taken by gimmigrants. Taxes are unfair. They stop the worker aiming for more. Welfare is unfair as it traps people in a cycle, a cycle enforced by gimmigration and statism.

        The entire concept of 'fairness' is designed to apply control and limitation. It destroys aspiration, merit, effort and achievement. It rewards failure, punishes success.

        It keeps the poor, poor and encourages the rich to not contribute and crushes the middle who buy most things with disposable income. Socialism does not, never has, and never will work.

    3. The diversity, massive uncontrolled gimmigration, an obese, corrupt, lazy state, the cult of the individual over society (the BLTGG&T attack helicopter wasters, 'sustainability' , the enforced communism of the green blob) and a state machine that thinks it matters more than the service it provides.

  39. A BTL from Carpe Jugulum

    I was born in 1956. In the following decades we had armed forces ready to take on the entire Soviet Union alongside America.

    We had a health service that actually was the envy of the world.

    We were a manufacturing and exporting country.

    We had FAR lower taxation than now and actually had services that worked.

    We had an education system that produced academics and skilled tradespeople.

    We had affordable housing and transport infrastructure that wasn't constantly clogged.

    And now?

    Now we have a National Health Service run by Buggins Turn incompetents like Pritchard whose answer to the catastrophic NHS performance during Covid was ….. menopause leave for NHS staff.

    Now we have a population far, far greater than this country can sustain and less than half the families contribute to the state.

    We have groaning infrastructure and unaffordable houses.

    This country has been crippled by unskilled and uncontrolled immigration and a system of working age benefits that rewards the spongers and the feckless. We can no longer afford them. It really is time the focus on 'Rights' ended and the focus on 'Responsibilities' brought back.

    Far too many of 'the most vulnerable' aren't. They are workshy spongers living off the state.

    At least with ‘our’ NHS we are far more likely to die and escape the misery created by the utter dross of our political classes.

  40. "The prime minister said on Tuesday he had "established a good relationship" with Mr Trump despite the Trump campaign filing a legal complaint against Labour officials travelling to the US to volunteer for Kamala Harris in the tightly fought presidential race."

    Does the hypocrisy of this government know no limit? How often were we treated to the mantra that Russia has interfered in British democracy since they got into power? And yet here he is interfering in American democracy.

    2. He was. Criminal is a career choice and judging by the Lambos, Ferraris and Rollers being used to pick up early releasers the other day a very successful one, too.

      1. The whole point of that "show" is to rub the noses of the law-abiding into their criminal career choices and to raise two fingers to the police and criminal justice system.

        1. It is yes, but people should not lose sight of the overall lefty ideal: a world with no jails, regulated so tightly by local party apparatchiks that crime is unthinkable. All built upon the monolithic belief that the world got that way in the first place due to the unstoppable correctness of their moral system.

          Releasing prisoners plays so very neatly into their overall ideology, too.

    3. Miss Diane speaks from experience. Her nepo baby with all the privileges garnered from her worthless existence carried on the family tradition.
      Private school…
      Waltzed into a Whitehall non job.
      Took lots and lots of drugs.
      Chased dear Miss Diane around the house threatening to kill her with the kitchen scissors.
      Goes about HER daily life being photographed wearing two mismatched shoes.
      I can understand someone getting up after a trying night and putting odd socks on but Shoes !!!

      The sooner the deranged racist bitch is sectioned the better.

      I haven't had my morning coffee yet but i think i got away with it…………….

      1. How do you like your coffee?
        Black or white?

        Oooops …. there seems to be someone knocking very hard on the front door.

    4. Terrible fate? He was a career criminal who should have been shot far earlier. He and everyone within 6 degrees of him.

    5. Whenever I see her I just imagine her waking up in the morning in the days when she had her beloved Jeremy by her side, have a good scratch before snuggling up to him again…. Just imagine and then throw up

  43. Peter Lynch was the victim of a vengeful, out-of-touch Prime Minister. 23 October 2024.

    The 61-year-old grandfather, who has died in prison, was given an extremely harsh sentence for daring to question multiculturalism.

    Allison has been allowed to write about Mr Lynch but only in a minor position and as a second article. I can only suppose that it has also been subjected to approval i.e. censorship since the only other article looked as though it was written by the editor. No comments were allowed. I myself had two removed for daring to bring it up on another thread and an admonishment from one of the House Trolls. If nothing else this illustrates the control that is exerted over the MSM. We are here in the totalitarian state.

    JUST POSTED ON COMMENTS .

    Allison Pearson 1 min ago

    Good morning, All. The death of Peter Lynch, by his own hand we presume, has really upset me. What was Peter even doing in prison when so many total scumbags walk away with a suspended sentence?

    And why is Lucy Connolly jailed for 31 months for an admittedly horrible tweet? Shockingly disproportionate.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/10/23/peter-lynch-was-victim-of-vengeful-prime-minister/

    1. Fakeage has been blathering on about the copper who nailed the gangster in the head saying he shouldn't have been tried

      No word from Fakeage on the ludicrous sentence handed down to Peter Lynch.

          2. #MeToo. I still haven't got around to apologising to everyone after yesterday's lunch.

            I think i owe Sue some money !

          6. Yes, but i'm a little low on funds after being robbed blind yesterday. The post dated cheque 2099 in an unstamped envelope is in the post.

          7. Aw! That’s nice thanks! I’ll let you know when it arrives! I’m sending big Frank and mad Jimmy round!

      1. Morning Wibbles. They are deliberately obscuring this. My understanding is that he hanged himself.

        1. I bet there were people in that prison making his life hell and the prison authorities did nothing to stop it.

          1. I imagine they dumped Mr Lynch in the general population as soon as possible and given that prisons are overrun with muslim they problem ensured it.

            That said, it is a miserable place for a decent person. A prison officer told me of a kid who'd been bullied had broken some brats nose and got a year for it and killed himself by ripping his sheets apart. The sheets were covered in blood from the teeth and nails he'd torn out to do so.

      2. Morning Wibbles. They are deliberately obscuring this. My understanding is that he hanged himself.

    4. 'A prison service spokeswoman said on Monday: “HMP Moorland prisoner Peter Lynch died on October 19, 2024.

      As with all deaths in custody, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman will investigate.”'

      'During his sentencing, the court heard that Lynch suffered from diabetes, thyroid issues, angina and had recently had a heart attack.'

      Incredible how he could be jailed for 2 years and 8 months for a bit of protesting.

      https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/rotherham-rioter-dies-jail-peter-lynch-b2632839.html

    5. 'A prison service spokeswoman said on Monday: “HMP Moorland prisoner Peter Lynch died on October 19, 2024.

      As with all deaths in custody, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman will investigate.”'

      'During his sentencing, the court heard that Lynch suffered from diabetes, thyroid issues, angina and had recently had a heart attack.'

      Incredible how he could be jailed for 2 years and 8 months for a bit of protesting.

      https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/rotherham-rioter-dies-jail-peter-lynch-b2632839.html

    6. 395194+ up ticks,

      Morning AS, & AP via AS,

      Once you acknowledge the true character of these politico kapos tis easier to understand, they just ain't gunna incarcerate one of their own ilk.

  44. Haven't you heard? Coffee is racist. All to do with our disgusting colonial history.

    Now you might say…'just a cotton pickin' minute!…'

    I'll get me hair shirt…

    1. A sadly typical misogynist who is treating every woman the same way. It's an odd take, as he's clearly attracted to these sort of women but rather than acknowledge their rejection of him and looking for a decent woman for who she is he sets about denigrating them to make himself feel better. He is projecting his failings on them.

      He's a weak, petty man who has no self respect nor respect for others.

  46. Just playing with ChatGPT. Asked it for a graph of total private nett wealth in the UK for the decade to 2020. The result was nearly a straight line from £7.5 trillion in 2010 to £11,5 trillion in 2020, with a slightly increasing gradient with time.
    Makes one wonder why the whole country seems poor. Where's all the dosh?
    It does warn: The total private net worth of the UK has seen significant growth over the last decade, largely driven by increases in property values, pensions, and financial assets. For example, by 2020, the household sector's net worth reached £11.4 trillion, a substantial increase from prior years, due to rising property prices, defined benefit pension schemes, and household savings. The value of land played a critical role in this growth, contributing nearly £1 trillion in 2020 alone.

    To further illustrate this trend, the UK's net wealth grew at varying rates before and after the 2008 financial crisis. Recent periods have seen above-inflation growth in both median and mean wealth, showing how inequality has slightly widened, with mean wealth substantially higher than median values.
    Fascinating what it can do in just a few moments!
    Take a look: chatgpt.com

    1. "…The value of land played a critical role in this growth…"

      Massive, uncontrolled gimmigration.

      There's also a huge issue of that wealth being cycled and destroyed through the state. Note how little has come from industry, job creation, exports. 10 years and only 2% growth is embarrassing. Singapore has 5 or 6% growth. Why? Because of low taxes, no diversity and real job creation.

    2. According to Google AI, "The price of gold increased significantly from 2010 to 2020, rising from around $566 per troy ounce in 2010 to $1,769.64 per troy ounce in 2020". So if you adjust for purchasing power parity, net wealth fell substantially. IMHO if you allow for minor fluctuations, the value of gold stays constant. The PTB cannot print gold, only money.

  47. Not easy:
    Wordle 1,222 6/6

    ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩
    ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩
    ⬜🟩🟩⬜🟩
    ⬜🟩🟩⬜🟩
    ⬜🟩🟩⬜🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. No, I looked for a clue but that gave me guess four.

      Wordle 1,222 6/6

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

    2. Just a question of luck when they're like that.

      Wordle 1,222 5/6

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

    3. I was a bit luckier. I tried a letter D in preference to the letter F third line.

      Wordle 1,222 4/6

      ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
      🟩⬜🟩⬜⬜
      🟩🟩🟩⬜🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

      1. And every one of them has been handed an Aspen (credit) card with a renewable amount per week of 175 pounds to spend as they wish. Plus of course free accommodation electricity water and heating. and free and open access to the NHS. Which means they are getting more financial entitlement than the average UK pensioner. And the DHs in parliament wonder why there is a Black hole in public finances.

        1. Rather less than £175 according to this.

          How much money will I get on my Aspen card?

          Money will be added to your Aspen card every Monday. The amount you receive depends on what kind of accommodation you are staying in:

          If you are in full-board initial accommodation (IA) or contingency accommodation you will receive £8.86 for each person in your household. This is so that you can buy clothes and footwear, non-prescription medicines and travel.

          If you are in self-catered initial accommodation or contingency accommodation you will receive £49.18 for each person in your household. This is so that you can buy clothes and footwear, non-prescription medicines, travel, food and non-alcoholic drinks.

          If you are in self-catered dispersal accommodation you will receive £49.18 for each person in your household. This is so that you can buy clothes and footwear, non-prescription medicines, travel, food, non-alcoholic drinks, toiletries, laundry, toilet paper and communications.

          If you are pregnant or have a child aged 1 to 3 you will receive an extra £5.25 each week. If you have a baby under 1 you will receive an extra £9.50 each week. This extra support is to buy health food.

          https://www.migranthelpuk.org/pages/faqs/category/aspen

    2. Wonder where survivors were taken to. Logically it should have been France as it occurred closer to their coast, but who knows?

  49. Although the details were so awful that I couldn't bear to read them every morning, it occurred to me today that things have gone very quiet on the trial of the three family members accused of the death of little Sara Khan. (The 10 year old dolled up as gaol bait.)
    Have they gone back to finish their interrupted holiday in Pakistan?

    1. I wonder if Robot Starmer has ever watched Ronnie Barker in the series Porridge. I doubt it.

    2. I don’t believe him. He doesn’t share our anger at all. I bet he doesn’t even understand our anger.

  51. Good moaning all.

    The Saga saga continues. Alf answered my phone to a call from Sarah from Saga who then asked to speak to … my name. Duly handed phone to me. (I had sent in a complaint via their website about increasing our home insurance from £225 to £438.51 – no claims made, house hasn’t moved!).

    Sarah then proceeded to carry out checks to prove who I said I was, as in, can you give me the post code and first line of your address. Which I did, with my temper rising. Then she wanted my date of birth. At which I said, this is ridiculous, I don’t wish to speak to you, and was about to put the phone down when she said she has to carry out these checks for data protection’. I just lost it completely, unfortunately, and just put the phone down. I didn’t swear, btw!

    I mean, how stupid can it get. She calls me and then wants me to prove who I am. I’m so sick of all this rubbish. They are idiots.

    Pleased to say Alf found Allianz at £255. We’re very happy with that figure and I’ve calmed down now. Besides the sun’s out. Have a good day one and all.

    1. The poor lass is just doing as her employer has instructed but i do think you would have been justified in telling her to fuck off.
      They do need telling.

    2. She just wanted to know if you are a pensioner so they could justify the rises in costs.

    3. I once answered the phone to someone who immediately began demanding personal information, without introducing herself. I asked if she would tell me who she was, please. In a broad Lancastrian accent she said, “Carrnnt. Daturr prutek-shuurrn”. I pointed out that I was protecting my personal data by not handing it out to complete strangers on the phone. After she’d slurred her favourite phrase a few more times I finally found out that she was from a private company who do ultrasound scans for the NHS and she was calling to offer an appointment.

      1. I would have said, "I can't tell you anything about me, or my affairs …. data protection … now piss off, bitch, and don't bother me again … or I'll find out where you live!"

      2. I had someone ring me up and ask how I spelled my surname "so we can check our records". I asked how they had spelled it – err. I put the phone down.

    4. Quite, I get known companies who phone me up and then start asking me to prove who I am. The conversation doesn't last long.

      1. My favourite is when you are asked to input some info (such as account number) on your keypad before a human being answers and says 'can I take your account number'?

  52. Earlier there was much discussion regarding the Sgt Martyn Blake trial.
    I wonder if the jurors were being intimidated as well. I hope they are kept safe.
    About 15 years ago I was on jury duty and a gang of local thugs had been intimidating and stealing from other boys in Harpenden park.
    Their buddies and older brothers were at the trial and stared hard and constantly at the Jury from the gallery. And the jury had to escorted from the court room through the rear exit. Guilty was the verdict.

    1. Classic over-reach by the Leftie establishment particularly Sir Mark Rowley. (He even looks a wrong 'un).. gleefully threw Sgt Martyn Blake under the proverbial bus then back-peddled furiously when..
      1/ was told up to 300 armed officers had turned in permits allowing them to carry weapons in September 2023.
      2/ when 300 soldiers were put on standby.
      3/ realised a potential complete breakdown in law & order inside the mini-states of Croydon, Tottenham & Lewisham.

      However, the damage has been done. The savages within the mini-states of Croydon, Tottenham & Lewisham know they are above the law, and will be cheered on by the Lefties, Labour, Stormzy & BBC.

    2. Classic over-reach by the Leftie establishment particularly Sir Mark Rowley. (He even looks a wrong 'un).. gleefully threw Sgt Martyn Blake under the proverbial bus then back-peddled furiously when..
      1/ was told up to 300 armed officers had turned in permits allowing them to carry weapons in September 2023.
      2/ when 300 soldiers were put on standby.
      3/ realised a potential complete breakdown in law & order inside the mini-states of Croydon, Tottenham & Lewisham.

      However, the damage has been done. The savages within the mini-states of Croydon, Tottenham & Lewisham know they are above the law, and will be cheered on by the Lefties, Labour, Stormzy & BBC.

    2. "fiance"..?
      Why do they call Lefties.. The pill-popping spiteful denigrate sanctimonious frauds?

  55. The Allison Pearson article on Peter Lynch started with a paragraph about another victim of Max's lawfare:

    Before he sentenced Lucy Connolly to 31 months in jail for distributing material with the intention of stirring up racial hatred, Judge Melbourne Inman said, "It is a strength (sic) of our society that it is both diverse and inclusive. There is always a very small minority of people who will seek an excuse to use violence and disorder causing injury, damage, loss and fear to wholly innocent members of the public, and sentences for those who incite racial hatred and disharmony in our society are intended to both punish and deter."

    I'm surprised no one's commented on this. We already knew from Brexit and ECHR cases that some of our judges had novel and personal interpretations of certain laws but they were constitutional and generalistic. Criminal law should be much more precise with a higher burden of proof. Distributing material? Really?

    AP goes on:

    I don't know about you, but I don't feel at all happy that a judge thinks it's his business to parrot Left-wing platitudes. Do all Britons really agree that it is a strength of our society that it is diverse and inclusive?

    And then:

    Her words were extremely nasty, to say the least, but is there any proof that they inspired, as the judge implies, the "serious disorder in a number of areas of the country, where mindless violence was used to cause injury and damage to wholly innocent members of the public"? I don't believe any such evidence exists. In fact, it is the thin end of the wedge when a judge thinks that it is his role to censor online speech in a free society.

    I doubt that any of this will change through the democratic process…

    1. They're treating social media as purely a written medium, when it has more in common with speech.

    2. Intention should be irrelevant. Only proven action should be judged. We have a system where murder can be excused because the perpetrator had a minority background therefore his intentions were driven by societal ill will not any innate wickedness on his part and someone from a majority background who wrote something negative online is the true cause of the violence so they get the punishment. Should we thank Foucault, Derrida, or both?

    3. Beg to differ Allison and William. The Recorder of Birmingham wrote "It is strength of our society that it is both diverse and inclusive"
      No article, definite or indefinite. I downloaded the official text, in which the good judge also wrote "remined" instead of (presumably) 'remained'. Sloppy to publish a legal document online without checking the text, similar to the behaviour of Mrs Connelly-Connolly.
      But best of all, both versions of the Sentencing Remarks include Mrs Connolly's thoughts verbatim, including the f word. Someone must have a wicked sense of humour.
      As for the imm igrant ho tels, don't they have fire escapes?

      1. I, too, noted the sloppy proofreading. There were also other errors, not becoming of an official record of account.

    4. The judge's sentencing remarks throw some light on the severity of Lucy Connolly's punishment.

      Connolly pleaded guilty to intent.

      Lucy Connolly you have pleaded guilty to the offence of distributing
      material with the intention of stirring up racial hatred.

      Intention has a material influence on a sentence's severity, regardless of whether it had the desired effect. It might be argued that Connolly fully expected – or was persuaded – that a guilty verdict was very likely and only pleaded guilty in the hope of securing mitigation of the sentence.

      As everyone is aware some people used that tragedy [Southport] as an opportunity to
      sow division and hatred, often using social media , leading to a number of
      towns and cities being disfigured by mindless and racist violence,
      intimidation and damage which has been summarised by the prosecution
      today.

      Whether or not Connolly's tweet incited some of that violence, intimidation and damage is conjecture, but an attempt was made to set fire to a hotel accommodating immigrants.

      In light of that, the actual tweet does appear to be inflammatory.

      “Mass deportation now, set fire to all the fucking hotels full of the
      bastards for all I care, while you’re at it take the treacherous government
      and politicians with them. I feel physically sick knowing what these
      families will now have to endure. If that makes me racist so be it”

      Connolly had little control over how many would see her tweet, but it was widely disseminated.

      Your message was widely read – it was viewed 310,000 times with 940
      reposts, 58 quotes and 113 bookmarks.

      Although, Connolly deleted her Twitter account, there is little evidence of feeling regret in the early aftermath.

      On the 5th August, the day before you were arrested you sent a WhatsApp
      message which included “..raging tweet about burning down hotels has
      bit me on the arse lol “ which is commonly understood to mean laugh out
      loud.

      You also messaged that if enquiries of you were made, you would deny
      you were responsible for the message and if you were arrested you would
      “ play the mental health card “.

      There are guidelines which constrain – to some extent – a judge's scope for individual leniency/harshness when handing out sentences.

      I have to apply the Sentencing Council Guidelines for this offence.

      Connolly's own counsel accepted that the case was a serious one and that some aggravating factors applied.

      In relation to your culpability this is clearly a category A case – as both
      prosecution and your counsel agree, because you intended to incite
      serious violence.

      In relation to harm it is again agreed, correctly, that what you did
      encouraged activity which threatened or endangered life and therefore
      falls within category 1. There is also further relevant factor in relation to
      harm in that you sought, and achieved, widespread dissemination of your
      statement by posting it on social media.

      Before taking another aggravating and then mitigating factors into account, the sentence would have been 36 months.

      The starting point after a trial is therefore one of 3 years imprisonment.

      Then the judge added a further aggravation before turning to mitigation

      There is a further significant aggravating factor namely, the timing of the
      publication when there was obviously a particularly sensitive social
      climate. It would be difficult to think of a more sensitive such time than
      during the evening of the 29th July of this year.

      All of those factors would require a significant increase in the sentence
      beyond the starting point.

      As to mitigating factors, the judge dismissed some of them

      As to mitigation. You are now 41 years of age. It is clearly a mitigating
      factor that you have no previous convictions. I have also read the
      character references on your behalf from those who know you. They
      speak of a caring person including those for whom you acted as a child
      minder for their children. You have a good family and a young daughter
      who is undoubtedly missing you terribly. I also take into account that this
      will be the first time you have been in prison and present circumstances.

      In relation to the offence I have regard to the fact that although it was
      widely read, you did not repeat any such statement and in due course
      deleted it and you sent some messages to the effect that violence was not
      the answer.

      You have had tragedy in your own life with the loss of your very young
      child some years ago. I have read the psychiatric report from some twelve
      years ago as to the psychiatric difficulties you then suffered.

      I accept that you still very keenly feel that loss.

      There is no recent psychiatric evidence and whilst you may well have
      understood the grief of those who suffered their own tragic losses in
      Southport you did not send a message of understanding and comfort but
      rather an incitement to hatred. There is no evidence of any mental
      disorder having any material affect on you committing this offence.

      Similarly whilst I accept you regret your actions and I have been referred
      to messages in which you say that you disagree with racism and violence,
      it is clear from the evidence of your own words in the days following
      your actions, what you said to the police and what you said to the
      probation officer that you have little insight into, or acceptance of, your
      actions.

      The overall effect was to increase the sentence beyond the starting point to 42 months.

      I have to balance all of those factors.

      The minimum sentence after a trial would have been three and a half
      years imprisonment.

      However, a trial was unnecessary because of Connolly's guilty plea, so a reduction to that minimum sentence was applied.

      You pleaded guilty at the Plea and Case Management hearing and you
      are therefore entitled to a reduction in that sentence of twenty five
      percent.

      The sentence on count 1 therefore is one of 31 months imprisonment.
      You will serve forty percent of that sentence. When you are released you
      will remain on license for the balance of the sentence and if you fail to
      accord with the terms of the license or commit any further offence you
      can be returned to serve the balance of the sentence.

      By my reckoning, Connolly will need to serve about 12½ months of that sentence.

      https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/R-v-Lucy-Connolly.pdf

      1. "Whether or not Connolly's tweet incited some of that violence, intimidation and damage is conjecture…"

        Exactly.

  56. The steak i ordered yesterday for lunch was unrested and i had difficulty chewing the damn thing so i gave up.
    Dolly and Harry enjoyed it though they said i could leave off the Cafe de Paris butter next time.

    1. I thought you knew about meat. Resting cooked meat makes no difference, whatsoever, to its tenderness/toughness. All it does is stop it leaching out more juices. Test have recently been conducted, by chefs, and they have found no discernible difference to a meat's tenderness by resting it.

      In your case, they just gave you a crap piece of steak.

      1. It very hard to make top quality meat tough.
        We have been buying our meet from a butcher in Scotland.
        It is the best meat we have ever had. Delivered today lamb fillets and pork tenderloins.
        We cook and then freeze.

        1. All Swedish beef is grass-fed. It is utterly delicious. It's a nightmare trying to find lamb though. When I do find some it costs a fortune.

          2. I bought a lovely Angus steak from my Swedish supermarket yesterday. When I looked at the label, it was from Australia!🙄

        2. All Swedish beef is grass-fed. It is utterly delicious. It's a nightmare trying to find lamb though. When I do find some it costs a fortune.

          1. I used Donald Russell for quite a long time. Especially the seasonal sales. Have you seen the prices recently? I now use a local butcher. The meat comes from a farm just up the road from me and they are fourth generation farmers. All grass fed.

          4. Yes. I am aware. However i don't want a steak put in front of me straight from the pan. It's still cooking.

    2. Have you tried Waygu beef?
      I believe they are very lazy cows so should be well rested.

    3. When they only have one bull for the whole herd, are you not surprised the poor creature was knackered…

    1. "Without urgent action, the scientists warn that AMOC could fail completely within the next few decades."

      We'll be long dead…

      1. One of the BTL's said ….so…Winter temperatures will drop 10 to 15 degrees. So just like Scotland then…

      2. It gets to a certain point and then it folds underneath itself…… I have this on good authority…..

          1. Sadly I don’t Grizzly, sorry. It was when I was working in the dept of fluid dynamics at the university of Cambridge it was explained to me. It was years ago, just before I retired. The melting freshwater that has been tied up in glaciers and other ice blocks eventually makes it to the saltwater seas where it forms a ‘barrier’ (the two do not mingle, I suppose, one is denser than the other) and the gulf stream or whatever it is called now, cannot pass through this. It is forced to take a dive and is curled underneath itself back in the direction from which it came. What happens then I do not know. It was just a theory, and how they loved testing these theories in the laboratories with their channels, bubble tubes and giant sinks with water whirling round the plug holes. The occasional yellow rubber duck would be involved, I kid you not!

            Anyway the Professor to whom I was talking said rather drily that I didn’t have to worry about it as it wasn’t going to happen in my lifetime, nor that of my children. It should be remembered that ‘climate change’ in the title of any research application would almost certainly guarantee funding for two, three, four years of research work in these amazing laboratories….

            It is interesting that after all these years this has come to light.

          2. No need to be sorry, whatsoever, PM. I enjoyed reading your very detailed explanation very much. I have always had a great interest in our planet, how it evolved and became what it is today. My current reading actually reflects that and it explains, in great detail, how our planet evolved and how the forces within it are constantly changing its dynamics. That book is Origins: How the Earth Shaped Human History by Professor Lewis Dartnell. I would suggest it as recommended reading for anyone interested in the subject.

          3. Thank you Grizzly – I shall get a copy – my degree subject was geography with emphasis on the human aspect, it was a subject that covered just about everything: great breadth but not much depth. A long time ago now.

    4. Ahhh, so we're back to having an ice age. Ice Age, Acid Rain, Holes in Ozone layer, Global warming, Climate change and back to good old Ice Age again….

      C*nts

      2. Shhh! That fell apart when the marketing didn't match reality, so they've changed the marketing!

  58. Local BBC on overdrive..

    When should a person of colour be arrested.. if ever?
    Never.     Of course. The police are institutionally racist.
    We should have community Officiers like the Muslims.

    1. Shurely under sharia law he would have been given the chop when he killed one of his own?

    2. Same here in Canada. Only whitey receives maximum sentences. There are recent examples of middle eastern murderers being given non sensible light sentences because they had Muslim upbringing.

    2. Illegal immigration is much more organised and profitable since the government took control. Dingy sellers and hotels are rolling in it and more than a million migrants are living a life of luxury.

    1. Don't forget this has the EU behind it. The entire Left wing edifice is desperate to destroy the truth because it can't cope with it. What's really at question is if in going for Twitter they can attack his other companies.

      The entire farce is in it's death throes. A failed, useless edifice of pointless, spiteful, bitter communists. I'd point out to the eurocracy that Elon has rockets. And satellites. Be funny if one geostationed above eu wankquarters were to fall out of the sky, wouldn't it?

    1. Don't want to be shot? Don't be an armed criminal & try to take on the police.
      Khan is an arse.

    2. Well, Khunt, you don’t speak for me. Kaba’s death hasn’t impacted me one iota in the way you mean. But I’m glad he is dead. One less murderer on the street.

        1. Not a chance. He travels in armour plated convoy with armed security. That's how popular the little shit is.

          1. Civilian armour plate isn't enough to stop a decent rifle round. As it is, drive a truck in front of the convoy, neutralise the comedy thugs, drag the screaming scrote out and do what you like. It's simply a matter of organisation.

            Given how slow plod are to respond, if you're already operating at that level you'll grab him before they can do anything.

    3. One wonders where Khunt’s moral compass is. But I suppose it’s with the 65% of Londoners who are not indigenous.

      1. He hasn't one. He doens't understand right and wrong. Judging by photography it's closer to 80% foreigner.

    4. What Khan didn't mean.

      "My thoughts are with Chris Kaba's loved ones today."

      For having inflicted him upon the world.

      "His death has had a huge impact on Londoners…"

      They feel so much safer.

    1. You need to be careful choosing fully authentic Waygu and there shouldn’t be much fat on it. There are so many different types that you stand a fat chance of gettiing what you really need – you well find yourself on the horns of a dilemma!

      1. I know the Jap Waygu cows were bred with some of our own herds. They were really nipped off about that.

          2. Does that mean that they produce no climate warming gases -or would that be just milking it!

  64. My nice next door neighbour is moving out. Sad but I do understand. Her boyfriend has become her live in partner and they now have a baby. The flat was ideal for her when she was single but way too small for a family. Still a shame. They’re nice people.

      1. As Bridgerton (or was it Sanditon?) was all about anachronistic blacks and they don't allow dogs, I would have to decline any invitation. Not that I am likely to be asked 🙂

  65. Punishments outside prison could involve using wristwatches or apps that “nudge” offenders to ask if they have complied with licence conditions..

    https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/starmer-shares-public-s-anger-as-prisoners-pictured-leaving-prison-early/ar-AA1sIfjT?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=ee709f45e7a749e998b0c2217cd79c71&ei=31

    Would these be the same wristwatches that the NHS is buying for patients to make them conform to a healthy lifestyle and avoid them having to be readmitted?

      1. But it does still allow the CPS to pursue a criminal prosecution after they’ve been awristed.

  66. This is my review of Rules. I didn't mention the sex going on in the gents because i suppose it is the new normal. Especially for London. I ignored it and used the lock up…

    Staff and service 10 out of 10……………..Now run away.
    This is a little difficult.

    Having lived in London and the burbs for five years a decade ago i make the assumption that when taking a Cab door to door in one of the greatest cities in the world it would not cost me so much money in having to avoid pot plants.
    That said…

    All of the staff at Rules were professional and welcoming. Except for those that couldn't understand an instruction to separate the alcohol part of the bill from the food.

    There also seemed to be some work and scaffolding going on near by. Which wasn't a problem at all. The guys seemed quite nice. Though their bosses in the Bar got quite rowdy.

    Now to the nitty gritty.
    The restaurant had not been cleaned.
    I arrived not long after noon mid day. None of the brass push plates had been wiped or cleaned. Greasy fingerprints in abundance and i am really really sorry to say i saw similar greasy paw prints on my plate.

    I would also suggest Rules if you ever wish to have any future rep is to monitor your toilets. They on my second visit stank of urine.

    At this point i was still enjoying my experience because let us face it food isn't everything. Though why you are selling sirloin steak which can't actually be chewed is beyond me.

    My friends enjoyed their pies but again……at the end of the day that is stew food and anyone can do that.

    Just another thing. Your website talks about dress code. ?

    Should i go on or would management like to respond?

    I would also add i know how difficult it is for hospitality

    1. I used to be a regular at Rules in the 80's as it was a good venue to take overseas clients. Mr Ruddock was an excellent sommelier and the food was great but, into the 90s, it changed into a money grabbing place – even Mr Ruddock started hold his hand out for a tip after his recommendations although he knew me well. Then the tables all got pushed closer together so it became like an american diner. The pies were the stars of the show. Sorry it's now still not up to scratch. Only thing I remeber about the Gents was spotting Derek Nimmo there

      1. A shame really. Trading on past glories. It was a bit worn and shabby. On the plus side Jeremy King is updating Simpson's and what was Le Caprice.

    2. You were being a great optimist, not only risking a visit to Khanistan, but hoping to eat well.
      In any case you missed your vocation, should have worked on big luxury cabin cruisers, they have top of the range catering.

      1. Yes. You are probably right. Too old and drunk now. I also notice that experienced Butlers are in high demand and travel 1st class everywhere.

    3. We go there once a year as a regular arrangement with a couple of old friends. The Ladies loo has always been impeccable with no sign of any nefarious activity.

      1. I am sure.
        None of the ladies i was with ventured.
        I think you might notice at least the smell from what is laughingly called the ‘Gentleman’s cloakroom’.

        And i am saying this for a laugh given our new ways…………Would a six foot five hairy muscular man insisting on being in that impeccable space be acceptable to you and your friends? Really?
        This is happening

      1. One of the other vindictive items on the labour party list is get older people off the British roads.
        The insurance companies are in on the act as well.

    2. It isn't a question of choice. The state may present two choices but one is always impossible and it will ensure those choosing it are punished.

      There is no freedom because big fat state does what it likes. It sequesters as much money as it wants with impunity, simply slapping one side with the bill for the other.

    3. The British people are far too passive and acquiescent for their own good. We are treated as slaves by the establishment but we seems quite happy to accept our fate whenever another freedom slips away, another industry is offshored, another few thousand 3rd world scumbags arrive or another tax is levied to further our disenfranchisement.

      This really needs to stop.

      The other worrying thing about the British is the misplaced notion we have that some politician like Fakeage or Tice is going to appear over the horizon on a white stallion and fix everything. It's not going to happen. Reform UK is just another establishment franchise designed to split the right wing vote.

      So I foresee only 2 options:

      1. Mass civil disobedience

      2. Emigrate.

      I've more or less made up my mind that we aren't going to put up a fight. It's too easy for people to just sit back and accept their fate. So I'm just waiting for the result of the presidential election before I make some big decisions about leaving the UK…..probably forever.

      There is ZERO possibility of a peaceful political solution, in my opinion.

        2. I miss Stilton cheese.

          We asked some friends who were visiting us to bring some with them but as one of them is a policeman he was reluctant to break the EU rules on bringing meat or dairy products into France from the UK.

          1. Tell me about missing Stilton!!

            Ar least you have a plethora of excellent cheeses to assuage the longing somewhat. I love Argentina but a cheese country it aint…

      2. Parts of Spain etc have thousands of Brits living there now.
        I'm not keen on the culture that has been created, but the problem is a lot of people are stuck in the middle now. As our own culture is being slowly but surely destroyed.
        We lived in Australia for four years late 70s. Almost every day I wish we had stayed. But they have their own problems with some strange immigrants and the looney left Dopey Wokies.

        1. One of the ladies I went out for a meal with last night lives in Spain and was over here for a visit.

        2. I live in a medium sized city in the north of Spain and spend many months a year in a seaside town in Valencia.
          Although in both places it's not unusual to hear many different foreign languages spoken English is not one of them. Sometimes I hear foreign people using English as a second language when they come from different countries. American tourists and sometimes exchange college kids can be seen around the city centre. But here in the interior and in the coastal village I frequent it is rare to meet British people.
          This wasn't the case ten years ago and I can only surmise that this is something which has happened a result of Brexit.

          1. I hear lots of foreign languages being spoken here (and they have nothing to do with Welsh). That probably has a lot to do with the fact we haven't had Brexit. This used not to happen ten years ago.

      3. As you say "…It's too easy for people to just sit back and accept their fate."

        “But what more oft in Nations grown corrupt,
        And by their vices brought to servitude,
        Than to love Bondage more than Liberty,
        Bondage with ease than strenuous liberty;”

        ― John Milton, Samson Agonistes

        The PTB bank on the fact that we are too slothful and lazy to object to things to which we should object.

        John Milton was a marvellous poet but he requires some effort and is not immediately accessible. I used to enjoy teaching my "A" level classes his works when they were on the syllabus and many of my pupils derived a great deal from their studies of his poetry. But many teachers are too lazy and apathetic to make the effort to teach Milton and the examiners are reluctant to set his works.

        1. I remember reading Samson when I was at school – not sure if it was on the A level syllabus or we just had a keen teacher.

  69. Everywhere around the world the Left are being rejected. They're fighting, desperately to stay in power but the public are sick of big state, high tax, uncontrolled gimmigration policy. Yet here's Labour, forcing an IMF intervention almost as if it were planned with a colossal state, poverty enforcing tax and importing as many vermin as possible.

    1. IMF intervention?
      Aaaaargh.
      Only a socialist would be that stoooopid.

      They do love imposing their Dynamic Uncertainty Modeling aka financial recipes for disaster on nations particularly African states. Garbage In, Garbage Out. The bad pilots that love to crash airplanes. Turn a skid into an accident. What do they always do? Ramp up interest rates, peg a currency to the US$, then lend lots in US$.. then wonder why inflation goes through roof.
      The IMF never answer the questions being answered. It's on its last legs, and should have been disbanded when Bretton Woods collapsed.

    2. IMF intervention?
      Aaaaargh.
      Only a socialist would be that stoooopid.

      They do love imposing their Dynamic Uncertainty Modeling aka financial recipes for disaster on nations particularly African states. Garbage In, Garbage Out. The bad pilots that love to crash airplanes. Turn a skid into an accident. What do they always do? Ramp up interest rates, peg a currency to the US$, then lend lots in US$.. then wonder why inflation goes through roof.
      The IMF never answer the questions being answered. It's on its last legs, and should have been disbanded when Bretton Woods collapsed.

  70. 395194+up ticks,

    Being that the illegal is an untouchable, the woman must be in troubled straights right away, she should have been like dad kept mum if more than one guardian for the political top rankers is in persecution
    mode.

    The common denominator of the guardians of the guilty has to be their actions over the 16 year
    cover-up in rotherham, that should read inactions.

    https://x.com/RadioGenoa/status/1849005855485677654

    1. The woman deserves a medal and an apology. Three moronic cops objecting to her language when she has been spat on.

      1. 395194+ up ticks,

        Afternoon Ped,

        They, in the main. are not the old coppers as we knew them, now they are seemingly soldiers protecting the latest political Capo Dei Capi.

    3. College of Policing Rules.
      All ushered in under a "conservative" govt.
      A conservative party that still to this day fails to acknowledge there is a problem.

    1. I suspect that in the not too distant future a large number of these currently inactive individuals will be recruited into some sort of security force which with then be used to quell any native dissent. I believe the romans, in the past, used a similar tactic to god effect….

  72. Just back from a pleasant stroll around parts of Westonbirt Arboretum. A few snaps…

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5927744e95658606cef035069ae5308de799b444614a88dc69b5101e5a6153e1.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/05cc9084a06a7b1d3abacf05f030bb7bb0f66fba340bbdabc03ce315cd7b481a.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/dcfe16a290bffe88e437f1ca44e1e806dcfacaab557dee080db4b706505ed9b9.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ef22dbd713fb9e3ebdc94dce1e32966cfb2be39b1097fdbfb1ca8af0150ee8ce.jpg

      1. Leaf drop varies a great deal depending on species. Some here are virtually denuded, others have barely changed colour and still retain most of their leaves.

    1. Corbyn's wrong about everything. The creature beside him needs to be deported. From about 10,000 feet.

    3. The lines in the earlobes denote heart disease.

      I am looking forward to King Charles attending Corbyn's state funeral.

      I need a good laugh.

      1. Interesting question. IMO i don't think so. Post again tomorrow and see what the morning folks think.

      2. Funnily enough, I think the Krays were, in their rather odd way, for Queen and country.
        Despite being her last guests in the Tower of London.

        1. If you look deeper into them. Not Wiki bollox but old interviews and documentaries if they haven't been deleted you will see something from the past we would wish to be back.

          The ordinary folk going about Diane Abbots version of normal business had no concerns about being raped and stabbed and murdered each and every day in our now shithole cities.

    1. A dodgy 5 for me.

      Wordle 1,222 5/6

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

    2. Reasonably happy with a bogey today – thought it was tricky!

      Wordle 1,222 5/6

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

      The following joke has a Spoiler Alert!!

      Mickey Mouse's lawyer: I'm sorry Micky but saying that Minnie is buck-toothed does not constitute grounds for divorce!
      Mickey Mouse: I didnt say she was buck-toothed, I said she was f*cking Goofy!!

    3. Well done. I got there.

      Wordle 1,222 6/6

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

    4. Par for me but so nearly a Birdie. I should have ignored the alphabetical order.

      Wordle 1,222 4/6

      ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
      🟩⬜🟩⬜⬜
      🟩🟩🟩⬜🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  76. North Korean troops deployed to Russia in ‘very serious’ potential escalation, US confirms. 23 October 2024.

    The US has for the first time confirmed the deployment of North Korean troops to Russia, with the US defence secretary calling it a “very serious” potential escalation in the war in Ukraine.

    Lloyd Austin told reporters in Rome: “There is evidence of DPRK troops in Russia,” and warned the move could have ramifications in Europe and Asia.

    “If they’re co-belligerents, [and] their intention is to participate in this war on Russia’s behalf, that is a very, very serious issue,” he added.

    They are ramping up the WWIII propaganda in the Telegraph. Around five articles today. We know the Ukies are practically on their knees. Could be they are thinking of going in. After the election of course.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/10/23/ukraine-war-north-korea-troops-deployed-russia-us-serious/

    1. So, it's OK for NATO to supply the missiles to fire into Russia, but not OK for NK troops to support them.

      I don't think NK troops is a good idea and agree it's dangerous but the dual standards are sickening.

    2. If the Deep State steals the election (my prediction), we're going to be in a hot war with Russia very soon.

      If Trump wins and keeps the presidency without being assassinated, Russia is going to be a safe haven for people like us. The UK is in desperate trouble.

      1. Don't get too excited; the New World Order will simply up the ante and make sure that next time their sniper does not miss.

    2. Jacob de Rothschild died in February 2024. I guess his son Nathaniel Rothschild is heir to the Rothschild money trust. The empire is in new hands. Soros is still their main foot soldier though, still causing mayhem. He's just taken control of 200 local TV and radio stations across America unopposed and just before the election.

    3. If 52% is representative of those who voted for the UK to leave the European Union, I have some observations to make. That percentage was of those who voted, not of the entire electorate, and was of the UK (and Gibraltar) as a whole, not just of England. More than eight years have passed since the vote was held. The electorate has gained those who were too young to vote in 2016 and lost those who have died or lost eligibility due to having migrated abroad more than 15 years ago – if 15 years is still the maximum period an emigrant retains voting rights. Furthermore, of those eligible to vote in 2016, some will have since changed sides, wish they had voted or wished they hadn't. Then there's the presumed correlation between opinions about the European Union and the New World Order, as if being in favour of or opposed to one will correspond to opinions about the other. I'd not be in the least surprised if many of the present electorate have little to no idea of what the New World Order is.

      1. Many of the potential voters will never have lived without being under the EU. So, no experience of difference.

        1. That's what they're banking on when they try to shove us back in. The new voters won't know what it's like to live under freedom and Common Law.

      2. "… if 15 years is still the maximum period an emigrant retains voting rights."

        It used to be but it was rescinded under the previous government.

    4. He won't – he works for them. I do believe that he is a patriotic American, but he won't end the Fed or challenge the bankers in any way. Maybe he just wants to try and get through the country through financial reset as well as possible – Worst case scenario is that he is the judas goat that will lead Americans into slavery (possibly via civil war?) – as he led them into covid.

    1. Boring Northerner Rugby League player/fan here! – this is better than it looks as Brian Noble was a renowned hooker for Wigan Warriors and Great Britain (and latterly Great Britain coach) – he didnt look like that though……
      Oh, alright, I'll get me coat……

      1. You don't have to apologise on this forum for knowing obscure facts about Wigan Warriors – NOTTL is a goldmine(field?) of experts in all kinds of things!

        1. My speciality is insulting the French.

          Here is an exemplee….

          I unclog my nose in your direction, sons of a window-dresser! So, you think you could out-clever us French folk with your silly, knees-bent, running about, advancing behavior!

          "Is there anyone else we could talk to?"

          That'll do it.

        2. My speciality is insulting the French.

          Here is an exemplee….

          I unclog my nose in your direction, sons of a window-dresser! So, you think you could out-clever us French folk with your silly, knees-bent, running about, advancing behavior!

          "Is there anyone else we could talk to?"

          That'll do it.

      2. Being a Northerner, what do you need a coat for?

        Asking for a Southern friend………….. :@)

        1. To place over any puddles so that a lady may cross unsullied – a la Walter Raleigh (but he was a Devonian!)…..

  80. From Coffee House, the Spectator

    The British are coming! Labour’s comedy of errors in the US election
    Freddy Gray23 October 2024, 9:40am
    Our hapless Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, can’t even fly to Samoa without another international British embarrassment breaking out. The latest is an angry accusation from Donald Trump’s campaign that Labour is committing the crime of ‘election interference’ in the United States.

    ‘The British are coming!’ screamed a typically camp Trump-Vance official press release last night. The campaign denounced Britain’s ‘far-left’ governing party for attempting to subvert democracy by sending almost 100 of its activists across the pond to sway American voters.

    ‘The flailing Harris-Walz campaign is seeking foreign influence to boost its radical message – because they know they can’t win the American people,’ said Trump’s campaign manager Susie Wiles. ‘The Harris campaign’s acceptance and use of this illegal foreign assistance is just another feeble attempt in a long line of anti-American election interference.’

    The story comes off the back of another revelation yesterday that the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), founded by No. 10’s chief of staff Morgan McSweeney, had as one of its ‘annual priorities’ a plan to ‘kill Musk’s Twitter’. Elon Musk is Trump’s richest backer, of course, and everybody knows that ‘countering digital hate’ tends to mean shutting down speech on platforms that don’t already censor right-wing political views.

    The Trump campaign has now filed a federal complaint about Labour sending its activists to canvas for Kamala, and Starmer and his party are firmly on the back foot.

    On his flight to Samoa, the PM said that the Labour ‘volunteers’ in question would be doing their overseas work ‘in their spare time… they’re staying I think with other volunteers.’ Starmer also rejected suggestions from Nigel Farage and others that the initiative risked harming the Special Relationship should Donald Trump win back the White House on November 5.

    Most popular
    Katy Balls
    Keir Starmer’s Trump problem is getting worse

    ‘I spent time in New York with President Trump, had dinner with him,’ said Starmer.

    ‘And my purpose in doing that was to make sure that between the two of us we established a good relationship, which we did.’

    It’s funny to watch Starmer and co. furiously scrambling to get back in Trump’s good graces. Earlier in the year, when Labour needed to win an election and Trump was beating Joe Biden in the polls, Starmer and Foreign Secretary David Lammy sought to make friends in Trumpworld. That was awkward, especially since Lammy had called Trump a ‘racist KKK and Nazi sympathiser.’ Then came Kamala Harris’s sudden elevation, which brought with it fresh hopes that Trump might be stopped, and Labour tried to butter up the Democrats. Now, Trump is surging ahead again, and it’s back to Operation Orange.

    But it’s also easy to understand Starmer’s frustrations. The Trump campaign’s fulminations about a transatlantic ‘far-left’ plot to overturn the election are mostly hot air. The Labour-US ‘election interference’ story only broke because Sofia Patel, Labour’s head of operations, foolishly posted about the volunteer scheme on her LinkedIn page – a post she has since deleted.

    As a grumpy Labour staffer told Politico: ‘It says a lot about the current level of political discourse on both sides of the Atlantic that an innocuous LinkedIn post from a party staffer has turned into a diplomatic event.’

    It does indeed. The Trump campaign isn’t seriously upset about a bunch of young right-on activists having a jolly time in America lecturing the locals on the perils of right-wing populism. If anything, Labour’s amateur efforts will backfire – similar to the way the Guardian newspaper’s obnoxious ‘pen pal’ campaign to swing voters in Ohio helped George W. Bush win re-election in 2004.

    The Trump campaign’s official complaint is really more a stunt to stir that very American spirit of contempt towards foreign elites telling them want to do.

    ‘When representatives of the British government previously sought to go door-to-door in America, it did not end well for them,’ said the Trump-Vance memo, referring to the revolution of 1776.

    The idea that today a bunch of Labour kids larping as agents for progress overseas might change the course of American history is laughable. It’s about as credible as the theory that Vladimir Putin secretly controlled the Donald Trump campaign in 2016. And that is the real point. Even if she wins, ‘Labourgate’ allegations against Harris would not dominate the news for two years, as the Trump Russiagate story did. When the international liberal left tries to influence elections, it sees itself as acting righteously. When their political opponents do the same, it cries foul play. The Trump campaign is just highlighting the hypocrisy.

      1. Perhaps this has been overplayed a bit but it was good to hear Alistair Campbell and Nick Bryant getting worked up on 'The World At One'. They were very defensive.

        Of course, the obvious comparison was made with Farage visiting Trump in 2016. Sarah Montague came out on the right side for once, pointing out that Farage had nothing to do with the governing party in the UK.

  81. Evening, all. I'm here because I've decided to give the second meeting of the day a miss. I attended the one I am a Trustee of, but decided I could send my apologies for the one of which I'm a shareholder. So many meetings, so little time!

    2. There is some rule in Spain that you should not publicly insult the monarch, so although his antics stayed out of the news, it was well known that the King was a rumpy-pumpy enthusiast. The fact that Barbara Rey received payment for her services edges her into another job category rather older than that of TV presenter.

  84. So now the WEF intermediary Blair wants the government to introduce pay per mile in the budget.
    One would have to ask how could they introduce that with the budget so close.
    Unless it was already in the budget and this is some sort of softening up for the big day.

          4. Now you've done it…

            I lost myself on a cool damp night
            Gave myself in that misty light
            Was hypnotized by a strange delight
            Under a lilac tree
            I made wine from the lilac tree
            Put my heart in its recipe
            It makes me see what I want to see
            And be what I want to be
            When I think more than I want to think
            Do things I never should do
            I drink much more than I ought to drink
            Because It brings me back to you
            Lilac wine is sweet and heady, like my love
            Lilac wine, I feel unsteady, like my love
            Listen to me, I cannot see clearly
            Isn't that she coming to me nearly here?
            Lilac wine is sweet and heady where's my love?
            Lilac wine, I feel I'm steady, where's my love?
            Listen to me, why is everything so hazy?
            Isn't that he, or am I just going crazy, dear?
            Lilac Wine, I feel I'm ready for my love
            Feel I'm ready for my love.

          5. Exactly so, Phiz, Elkie Brooks version? I like the Jeff Buckley version but then I like everything he sings :-)) I also recognise that situation, unfortunately 😀

          7. How very dare you

            I have had such bottles. Unfortunately i have the pleasure of living right next door to a Chief Petty and his wife who is now his boss. looking like becoming an Admiral.

            I did have a 1976 Calvados. They have friends.

    2. I met him a couple of times in the 70s and he was an absolute gem! Very huge and very funny! He gave me a pat on the bottom and I almost flew across the room! Wouldn’t get away with that now!

      1. Times have changed sadly.

        If we ever do get to do lunch you now know what the first thing to happen is.

        No ! not that !

        It's you buying me a Vodka Martini !

        Stupid girl !

          1. Just so we know where the unconscious bias is.

            You're still getting a slapped bottom though………

            Once i have drank me drinkie. :@)

          3. Ooh goody. I get the slapped bottom. Don't stint yourself.

            Asking for a friend…do you have one of those card reader machines where i can pay per slap?

            I blooming promised myself i wouldn't post on this site after 7pm. I get into all sorts of trouble from er….er… er. Vodkatini's.

            Goodness gracious. Glad i'm not Catholic. I would never get away.

          2. Nope, I saw him do it once. He could do 200M in just 23 secs. As he said to me at the time, it’s due to the enormous pushing power he had in massive thighs. His breakfast back in the day used to consist of four eggs, several rashers of bacon, two sausages and all the extras, in order to build muscle through protein. He’d be completely incapable of staying the course at longer distances naturally, for all the reasons you imply. He was a world class Olympian at the time of course, too.

        1. I was working in the bar at the Five Bridges hotel in Gateshead and the athletes were staying there. Also Brendan Foster and a host of others! Wonderful days!

    4. Does anybody remember him in that great show of the Eighties 'Superstars' – where sports stars of all disciplines took part in a number of sporting challenges – I seem to recall that Brian Jacks, the judo man, won it most of the time but I think Geoff acquitted himself really well!

        1. Yes, another Lancashire lad, brilliant Rugby player and, as you say, did exceptionally well in Superstars with his fantastic ground-eating stride – died far too early….. RIP

          1. Oh indeed! Flying down the pitch like a cart horse with his streaming hair! I believe he was godfather to one of Rastus sons!

      2. At one time Jacks was my Judo coach.
        Apart from some of the gym exercises, I could have beaten him at most of the challenges on superstars. The standard really wasn't as high as the publicity would have you believe.

          1. Extraordinary.

            He claimed that when he was being taught, his Japanese instructor strangled him to unconsciousness several times, to demonstrate just how far he could go when under extreme pressure. He also claimed that after that experience he never submitted to a stranglehold.

  86. 395194+up ticks,

    The next RESET step will be to air brush 39/45 out of memory banks, the usual idiots will go for it for the good of the party, the red flag will be parked up and the Horse -Wessel – Iies will take its place.

    This starmer type has kim philby beat hands down,

    Gerard Batten
    @gjb2021

    ·
    51m

    Here we go, another step along the path of the British armed forces being absorbed into a ‘European Army’ – the army we were told was a ‘conspiracy theory’.

    We were never really going to leave the EU, we haven’t, & we never will under this political establishment.

    Nothing fundamental has changed re Britain & the EU except that we no longer have UKIP in the European Parliament.

    Keir Starmer scores first major Brexit reset success with landmark defence deal – The Independent,
    https://apple.news/A5AdzpREDSd-4j …
    German air force to operate from base in Britain as part of new pact

    1. "German air force to operate from base in Britain as part of new pact"

      Yes well, it is a good way back from the front line so I'd think they'll be quite pleased about that.😁

    2. Very appropriate when considering that tomorrow the 24th is the anniversary of Quisling's death.

    2. The plot thickens. There must be more to come out, relating to missing funds. As for Alex Salmond, too late for public redemption, but he (and others) know he was innocent of all charges. RIP, Alex. Thank you for posting, Grizzly.

    3. Salmond must have known that the justice system would deliver the truth in the end to vindicate him – I hope he did anyway. I don't have much time for him, but that's appalling spite.

      1. No. It's been called suicide, but I am not confident to trust in any official detail when/if it finally emerges.

      2. Take a look a the picture the media has been presenting. He was murdered. Just like Epstein,

    2. Sensibly biding his time. He was careless in the first 24 hours or so of the Southport business.

      1. The prison service has said apparently that, according to the Daily Mail, "he took his own life". I rather thought that that was a matter for the coroner.

        Apparently he was suffering from a range of health issues, again according to the Mail. If the medics were unable to sign off on cause of death, i.e. not related to his condition, then I'd say yes there must be one. Plus I think it very unwise for the authorities to prejudge the matter, if indeed the Mail's report was accurate.

          1. True, but it nevertheless is. The trouble is that it’s also possible to carry out all sorts of crimes there too. And believe it or not those places seem to have a fairly high concentration of people in them liable to commit said crimes.

            As I say, call me cautious but if I were running a prison I’d be quick to say something anodyne like they usually do outside prison, e.g. ‘police are not looking for anyone else in relation to this death’. Instead we’ve got “sources” willing to state cause of death before the investigation even begins apparently.

      2. Bullied relentlessly by imports I suspect. But they will never officially admit that.

      3. Bullied relentlessly by imports I suspect. But they will never officially admit that.

      2. Farage is a seasoned political operative who understands how to realistically get Reform into a real position of strength.

    5. Nigel will not speak until he can be sure of what he says. Many would like to be rid of him so he minds his step.

  90. from Coffee House, the SpectatorAn old codger’s guide to ageing
    Friendship is what keeps you going

    G.V. Chappell23 October 2024, 4:59am
    When I was in London recently, I arranged to meet some old university friends at the pub. Now in our late 50s, we’re getting quite decrepit. Hair – if we have any left – is grey or greying; waistlines are expanding. We talked about our deteriorating vision and hearing, high blood pressure, dodgy knees. None of us is retired yet, but it’s a topic that comes up more frequently. Can we afford it? What will we do with all that extra time?

    Almost no one reaches middle age without life delivering a few sucker punches
    Once we’d exhausted the gloomy prospects of impending old age, we returned to our favourite topic of conversation – our youth, particularly our university years. Like any group of college friends, we have a vast store of anecdotes, which mainly revolve around drinking and romantic pursuits. It doesn’t matter how often they’re repeated; they still have us laughing.

    There’s something unique about friends you’ve known for decades. You share a history. There’s no pretence and self-deprecation is mandatory. Any pomposity or one-upmanship is ruthlessly squashed. We know each other too well. If you’ve seen someone enveloped in a plume of dope smoke with slits where their eyes should be – or wearing a bandage around their head because a monumental hangover is causing a vein to noticeably throb – they’re unable to grandstand. It would be laughable. Besides, we’re well past that stage now, and any success is downplayed: ‘Don’t know how I’ve managed to wing it for so long,’ etc.

    No matter how golden someone’s early years are, almost no one reaches middle age without life delivering a few sucker punches. If you haven’t developed humility as a result, you clearly weren’t paying attention.

    Most popular
    Freddy Gray
    The British are coming! Labour’s comedy of errors in the US election

    When I’m with my old schoolmates, the humour is still puerile – men of advancing years crying tears of laughter at jokes that were funny in the 1980s but would be beyond the pale today. You’ve shared major life events with old friends. Not only did you have the same education, but you’ve also been to each other’s weddings, the christenings of one another’s children – you may even be a godparent – and celebrated birthdays together. Sadly, inevitably, you will also attend funerals together.

    There’s undeniably something bittersweet about old friendships. The passage of time and seeing people you’re so fond of grow old can lead to melancholy. One university friend I met that day hadn’t been seen in seven years. We’ll be in our mid-60s if the same time elapses before meeting again, and who knows what may have happened by then. One of us has already had a triple heart bypass, another suffers from debilitating Crohn’s, and the rest have ailments typical of advancing age.

    But on the lighter side, there’s still petrol in the tank. We drank, flirted mildly (and unsuccessfully) with the young women behind the bar. As we near our seventh decade, there’s still plenty to look forward to. None of us has yet had a grandchild, and there could be late flourishes at work – or even career changes. I intend to devote as much time as possible to my writing, drawing inspiration from authors who experienced success later in life (Frank McCourt was 66 when Angela’s Ashes was published). And there are all the places in the world we’ve yet to see.

    I have several nights out with long-standing friends to look forward to in the coming weeks. There will be belly laughs, mickey-taking, and wildly un-PC language. There will also be great affection, and even – a word rarely used between men – love. I can’t wait.

    1. Being a great grand-father I wonder how much time I have left. Trying to get affairs in order – that'll pass the time!

  92. Jeremy Corbyn, Diane Abbot and Black Lives Matter have been urged to apologise after criticising the police over the shooting of violent gangster Chris Kaba. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/10/23/chris-kaba-jeremy-corbyn-diane-abbott-stormzy-blm-jenrick/

    The liberal Left has been accused of treating Kaba as an innocent victim of police violence despite his extensive criminal past.

    A jury at the Old Bailey took just three hours to clear Sgt Martyn Blake of murdering Kaba following a three-week trial after the 23-year-old was stopped by armed police and shot in South London in 2022.

    Details of Kaba’s violent past were released on Tuesday and showed he was a leading member of a gang connected to gun crime and drug dealing. His family, who insisted Kaba had turned his life around and wanted to be an architect, tried to gag the press from reporting such details.

    Lord Stevens, the former Metropolitan Police commissioner, said some politicians were too quick to jump on a bandwagon comparing Kaba’s death to that of George Floyd, the African American man murdered by a US police officer in Minneapolis in 2020.

    Robert Jenrick, the Tory leadership contender, criticised numerous charities, non-governmental organisations and far-Left politicians for “jumping” on the shooting “to justify their pre-existing prejudices”.

    Sir Jacob Rees Mogg, the former Tory MP, also rounded on Sadiq Khan for “boasting” of being in contact with the Independent Office for Police Conduct, which was investigating the Kaba shooting, despite the London mayor probably knowing of Kaba’s criminal past.

    Lord Stevens, the crossbench peer who served as Met commissioner from 2000 to 2005, said many people simply assumed that Kaba was an entirely innocent man.

    “People need to stop and think. I believe the liberal Left should apologise now it has come out that his background included him having been involved in a shooting and chasing a man outside a night just days before his death,” he told The Telegraph.

    “Let’s have an acceptance of what he was and what he did.”

    1. "…who insisted Kaba had turned his life around and wanted to be an architect…"

      When I heard Isabel Oakeshott say this yesterday, I thought she was taking a clumsy, cock-eyed dig. "Steady on there!", I thought. But it was true (even if it wasn't, if you see what I mean).

    2. The court and jury should have been told about Kaba's criminal history. His previous use of firearms etc was surely a factor in the police actions and therefore relevant to the case.

    3. This pile of gangster shit has been coming our way for years. Every American trend under the Democrats arrives on our shores just like the remnants of the hurricanes that devastate their idiotic ideas how to build a house.
      Walmart destroyed..Chicken shops close. NO US government can survive this.

    5. Come on, surely the Telegraph didn't print "wanted to be an architect?"
      That is taking the p royally!

  94. Good grief, chums, for a horrible minute or two I was unable to post on here. Now it seems that things are back to normal.

    1. My tv tried to scare me earlier. No signal at all on freeview channels for a few minutes but then it all came back.

  95. Race activists aren't saving minority communities, they're destroying them

    Those who demanded the prosecution of Sgt Martyn Blake did nothing for those they claim to champion

    Douglas Murray • 23 October 2024 • 7:07 pm

    The saying goes that if all you have is a hammer every problem looks like a nail. For the so-called "anti-racism" industry a similar law applies. Everything in the world must be about race. And if it is not about race then it must be made to be about race. The desperation of the people involved in this toxic movement was on full display this week after the exoneration of firearms officer Martyn Blake at the Old Bailey.

    Blake was on trial for shooting a man called Chris Kaba in the head during an armed vehicle stop in Streatham, south London in September 2022. Because Kaba happened to be black, from the moment of his death public figures and various protesters attempted to frame the incident as an issue of race.

    No less a figure than the Mayor of London insisted on doing so. Describing Kaba's as a "young life cut short", Sadiq Khan went on to risk prejudicing any trial by saying that he understood "the grave concerns and impact of Chris's death on black Londoners across our city and the anger, pain and fear it has caused – as well as the desire for justice and change".

    There is much to be said about that appalling statement. One small detail is Khan's use of Kaba's first name, as though "Chris" was known to, and mourned by, one and all. But for a man who actually has some responsibility for policing in the capital, the statement was an abomination. The mayor, like many others, presumed that if a young black man is shot it cannot be anything to do with the young black man in question. It must, instead, be to do with "institutional racism" or some other preoccupation of the "anti-racism" industry.

    Kaba would not have been shot if he had not tried to ram his way out of a police roadblock. We have learnt since the trial that only a couple of days before his own death, Kaba shot a man in both legs at a nightclub in Hackney. The fact that the policeman who shot him was even put on trial is something that should now be seriously investigated. Did the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and others push for a murder prosecution because of the political pressure that Khan and others brought to bear on the case?

    The Labour MP for Clapham and Brixton Hill, Bell Ribeiro-Addy, was one of a number of other public figures who made inflammatory comments about the case. Last September she said that in Kaba's name "campaigners march for justice and an end to racism in policing". She also said, "The CPS must deliver a decision without further delay."

    It seems likely that such political pressure was indeed behind the decision to bring a case, and it is greatly to the jury's credit that they did not buckle to similar pressure. And that was without them even being made aware of the vicious nature of the man who had been shot.

    Still, the desire to look at such an interaction through the most racial lens possible persists in familiar quarters and in a familiar tone.

    Kaba's family responded to the verdict by saying that it was "painful proof that our lives are not valued by the system". I wonder whether Kaba's family wouldn't be better employed reflecting on how little value the young thug himself put on other people's lives.

    But I suppose it is inevitable that the man's family will grasp at whatever straws they can to console themselves. How, though, to explain the protesters in central London this week who chanted slogans and waved Black Lives Matter (BLM) banners, among others?

    It was noticeable that one of the London protests in particular was dominated by white people – especially white women. Their chants were the usual ones. "What do we want", "Justice", "When do we want it?" "Now". But as well as the BLM banners there was something else that gave this movement away as a straight out cultural import from the United States. One of the chants was "Say his name – Chris Kaba".

    This is one of the tropes that BLM in America has played for years. It got a special boost after the killing of George Floyd in 2020. Behind it is the presumption that any black male who ever gets into a deadly encounter with the police is de facto an innocent victim of an institutionally racist police force and indeed society.

    This was the case with the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014. As with the Kaba case, the presumption of innocence applied to the victim but not to the police officer who shot him. As with Kaba, this interpretation turned out to have absolutely everything exactly the wrong way round.

    But riots ensued and when I last went to Ferguson, almost a decade afterwards, it was impossible not to notice that what had burnt down had stayed burnt down. So all that those "anti-racism" activists who took to the streets managed to achieve was to further impoverish an already impoverished neighbourhood.

    It is the same with these white women for Chris Kaba. Who exactly do they think they are protecting when they stand up for – and shout the name of – a career criminal and violent thug? Do they think that this helps the situation of anyone in the UK? Do they imagine that it "empowers" black British people if they make not just a victim but a martyr and even a hero out of such a man?

    They are wildly misguided if so. But one gets the sense that as with opportunist politicians like Sadiq Khan, it isn't really about what they pretend it is about. For many of the people who did take to the streets this week, the details of the Kaba case are unimportant. What matters to them is being seen to be on the "right" side.

    And for these people the "right" side is the one that interprets everything as being about race – based on the idea that Britain is a racist society in which the lives of black people can be dispensed with at any moment.

    These wild claims originated in America. And they have done untold damage to the fabric of American society. But what doesn't work in the United States works even less well here in the United Kingdom. The black British writer Tomiwa Owolade recently made this point in his book This is not America. But there are some people you cannot tell. Because they do not want to be told. They pretend to believe in justice, but they have shown that they can ignore that. What they actually want is power, and lying about this country and our police is just one part of their way to get it.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/10/23/race-activists-chris-kaba-crime-black-lives-matter-american

  96. Jobs done for t'Lad but not been on here much since I got home.
    Hope everyone is safe & well.
    And I'm off to bed, so good night all.

  97. Well, chums, it's bed time for me. So Good Night all, sleep well and I hope to see you all bright eyed and bushy tailed tomorrow morning.

  98. Woman arrested after fatal incident at Swanage care home https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13993917/woman-arrested-suspicion-manslaughter-dorset-care-home.html

    Detectives investigating the deaths of three people at a care home in Swanage have arrested a 60-year-old woman on suspicion of manslaughter, Dorset Police have said.

    Three people were found dead at Gainsborough Care Home in Dorset and seven were taken to hospital earlier today after a 'major incident' was declared following the call to the police at 7.16am.

    The suspect was arrested just hours after police said the deaths were being treated as 'unexplained' and possible carbon monoxide poisonings is the 'primary line of inquiry.'

    1. vw here btw. They are absolute idiots. What motorist is going to be able to afford a pay per mile at their annual MOT test? You can bet your bottom dollar it wouldn't be just 1p per mile. Much easier just to put the price of fuel up. That's pay as you go anyway.

    1. Thanks, Geoff. Really appreciate your continuing to do this. Even if I am lagging most of you by at least four hours, and becoming nocturnal to boot… 🤣🤣

      1. Must check an atlas, I always assumed that you were west of us in Eastern Canada.

        oh loom, you are somewhere below greenland!

    2. Goodness me Geoff, early morning or late night? vw here btw. Alf safely tucked up in bed, snoring away; me, I can't get off to sleep so came down to catch up. Don't know what we'd do without you!

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