Wednesday 25 September: Who in Labour will speak for those with a lifetime’s work behind them?

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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657 thoughts on “Wednesday 25 September: Who in Labour will speak for those with a lifetime’s work behind them?”

  3. First, chums. Good morning, and thanks to Geoff. Oops! I should have written third.

    Wordle 1,194 4/6

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    2. Good morning Elsie and all
      Wordle 1,194 4/6

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      Anyone who knows my strategy could probably figure out the word from this pattern!

    3. Good morning Elsie and all
      Wordle 1,194 4/6

      ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
      ⬜🟨🟨🟨⬜
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      Anyone who knows my strategy could probably figure out the word from this pattern!

  4. First, chums. Good morning, and thanks to Geoff. Oops! I should have written third.

    Wordle 1,194 4/6

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

    1. Is that meant to be Jez?
      Perhaps Jez should be asked if he managed to attend an Arsenal game when he was leader of the Labour Party without having to have the security of a private box? After all, most (if not all) of these freebies must have been given to TTK when he was leader of the opposition rather than PM because he has only been in power for 12 weeks and the Premiere league was between seasons for about 4 of them.

  11. Good morning all. Off to Paddington soon for the train to Bristol for work today. Hopefully done by 4pm. Got Breakfast GBN on. Why was it OK for the US and its allies to kill millions, including children, in Iraq but not OK if Israel kills any civilians at all?

    1. Whataboutery. Morning Sue. You get the same result on the Telegraph/Ukraine threads if you mention Iraq or Libya. And don't even think about Mosul.

  12. 393443+up ticks,

    Bridgen is the only voice I personally would put any trust in, ALL the rest, and I mean ALL ,in the HP sauce factory, NO MAY.

    Wednesday 25 September: Who in Labour will speak for those with a lifetime’s work behind them?

    Be a close run result if the question was in regards to the criminal fraternity via the lab/lib/con coalition.

    1. 393453+ up ticks,

      Morning JN,
      I believe we have witnessed the "culling season"

      which as with the low flying season will, in my book, be repeated on a yearly basis.

      3. Not so much in the jabs as in the tap water. Dixit Françoise, our now retired GP. Apparently so many women take oral contraceptives that there are significant amounts of the stuff in sewage, and sewage plants cannot remove hormones.

        Logic says that men drink these female hormones too, which might go some way to explain the feminisation of men.

  16. Starmer makes Gaza ‘sausages’ gaffe in conference speech. 25 September 2024.

    The Prime Minister was also interrupted by a heckler saying: “Does that include the children of Gaza?” when Sir Keir said every child deserves respect. In response, Sir Keir joked that the protester had a ticket from the era when Jeremy Corbyn led the party. On Monday, Rachel Reeves faced a similar interruption in her conference speech.

    You have to suspect (such is now the state of the world) that, despite the hecklers protestations, that these “interruptions” are fake. It allows a voice for the left and demonstrates the conference’s and Starmer’s democratic credentials. It was all handled internally. No police.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/09/24/tuesday-evening-news-briefing-starmers-conference-gaffe/

  17. Good morning all.
    A dry, windless overcast start with a rather cool 4°C on the Yard Thermometer.

    A run up to Manchester for an auction pickup.
    18 bottles of American Whisky at less than £20 a bottle!

  19. Tim Stanley
    Keir Starmer finally, unwittingly, adds meat to his argument
    PM recycles last year’s conference speech, but with extra doom and gloom and sausages

    Keir Starmer read his speech well, but then rumour says he’s got a new pair of glasses. Just one snafu: he referred not to “return of the hostages” but “return of the sausages”, which sounded like a comment on the breakfast buffet.

    Please, I thought, don’t let David Lammy be listening, or this will somehow become British foreign policy. A million sausages sent to Ben Gurion Airport, half of them pork.

    Otherwise, it was a near-word-for-word repeat of last year’s conference speech, with extra doom and gloom, suggesting that life had actually got worse since Labour had been elected. Dressed in undertaker black, he said Britons had lost faith in politics and that “the hope has been beaten out of us”. It leant weight to the theory that the Government is going to relieve pressure on the NHS by depressing us into assisted dying.

    Labour is a party of neuroses that it is determined to impose on others, chiefly class. Keir was introduced by a 21-year-old boy rightly proud that he’d made it to university, against the odds. But, of course, this happened under an administration of Tory Etonians.

    Starmer recited his own life story – the son of a Black & Decker Workmate – adding a fond visit he had recently paid to his old holiday home in the Lake District. “We walked up to the cottage and stood outside.” One can imagine, inside, John and Margaret looking nervously at this impassive group, head-to-toe in matching cagoules, just staring at their property.

    “Margaret: fetch my gun.”

    The party, continued the PM, must be patient; it will face many efforts to blow it off course. The subtext is that donorgate and the winter fuel anger are temporary hysterias. The prose was, as ever, a series of lists – “Nazi salutes. Scrawled racist graffiti. Attacked NHS nurses” – and absurdist imagery. If you “bury your head… your country goes backwards” (a neat trick).

    We need a “decisive, mission-led government… that belongs to you… That’s not rhetoric,” he added, even though that’s literally what it is. Almost a textbook definition.

    The hall stood for ovation after ovation, but they must realise they’ve already exhausted Keir’s political talent. He was never supposed to be prime minister. He was this season’s Neil Kinnock, the man who would modernise Labour and pave the way for a Blair – but Covid crashed the Tories and accidentally put him in No 10, where he arrived without a plan or the skills to improvise.

    The projection of him to national redeemer status is absurd. A video showed him wearing a high-vis jacket, pointing at a crane, like Stalin in a Soviet Realist painting. “Every child deserves the chance to study” art, he said. True, I suppose, but one draws a line at Tracey Emin. Civilisation would be better off if her parents had forced her to do netball instead.

    As for Keir, his parents apparently made him learn the flute. So did mine. I took it as evidence that they always wanted a little girl.

    Vic joined her man on stage for a hug; the press stampeded for the exit – to file, to drink, to catch the 15.42 back to London. My dream, Keir had said, was to build a Britain where a care worker can “walk into any room and instantly command the same respect as the Prime Minister”.

    I should say that a care worker deserves a lot more respect than that.

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

    Andrew Ferguson
    11 hrs ago
    Absolutely. Perhaps we should aspire to a Britain where a Prime Minister can walk into any room and command the same respect as a care worker.

  20. Carl Sanderson
    11 hrs ago
    Why do politicians feel that they have to ‘transform’ the country, ‘build a new Britain’, etc? They come into power with a mandate based on a set of manifesto promises – Labour has already reneged on that.
    For all the ruling class’s PPE degrees, for all their media training, for all their Commons speeches and their White Papers and their photo-opportunities, look at the absolute horlicks they continue to make of things.
    It would be a refreshing change if they just left us alone to get on with our lives and businesses, and intervene only when absolutely necessary. Secure the borders, enforce the law, protect the currency, allow businesses to flourish. It’s not rocket science. But no, they have to ‘change the country’. There’s been enough change. Just bloody leave us alone.

  21. Good day to everybody. New today is an article by Youtube motoring magnus Tony Goodman on the excitement and adventure of driving an electric car, in what is probably the best-written car review ever.

    And if you missed it yesterday, Xandra H's article on raising children is highly recommended.

    freespeechbacklash.com

  23. 'Morning All
    Living alone it's a bit of a faff to cook a full roast dinner for one so as usual I plated up a dinner for an elderly (hah look in the mirror) neighbour
    She had the MSM ITV news on something I haven't seen for months maybe years i had walked when they were on their foreign news coverage Lebanon the wailing and moaning about civilian casualties and the usual calls for an immediate ceasefire
    I awaited the latest news of Ukeland crickets the place has vanished from the earth…
    Obviously there was much coverage of the Labour conference and the Starmer speech with many clips shown I had already explained the sausage gaff to my friend so we settled in to watch it live finally the relevant clip came up only to have the feed cut just before the fatal word!!
    The lies of ommission by the MSM are off the scale!!
    Happily the internet is still swift and merciless and happy to do its wurst……
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4809e0cc6f543c57a11ba0a2849c7811f93f301f6e1fcff77fd80e28188eca30.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/90859c8f87c5769221b45062858fe5898ac1cc589e975a693c1cb5064c7ad9ae.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/12dda947eb83345fdfffde5934b23529a0f441494cc53886d4a15ab4ab970014.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d922a60660ae6d991e2acf7619507f207f110b0bc0a6a687a7951d80a964ba98.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/44f327ba5f26f3626721fb3ae7dbb0fdfb07ce6fb3b86260f710350c419f6a49.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8b3fedbf0e6a3ba8371f24f2d25222c237c6411534b5e93c5dc390397478459f.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7944e8869bff1cf70ee8a71436ac59018ccfee26c2f2c1542a40f122a87d8e95.jpg

        1. Very appropriate…..
          But that came about after one of the other TV chef's was caught stealing bangers.
          I can't remember exactly who, was it someone with a double barrelled name ?

          1. Celebrity chef Antony Worrall Thompson has been arrested for shoplifting cheese and wine at a supermarket, police have said.

    2. To make a roast dinner for small numbers easier, cook off the joint. Slice to portions. Add gravy and freeze.
      Next time all you need to do is some veggies.

      2. To make a roast dinner for small numbers easier, cook off the joint. Slice to portions. Add gravy and freeze.
        Next time all you need to do is some veggies heat and eat.

        Tell me: why do chef's cook things off? Fry them off, bake them off, boil them off or roast them off? What do they do with pancakes?

        1. It's like "Sign off on the deal…" Off/on? Two contradictory prepositions? What happened to "Sign the deal?"

    3. I watched the episode of 'Yes Minister' where Jim Hacker finally gets to be PM. If I recall, essential to his elevation was a stirring defence of the British Sausage.

  24. Today's Tales
    GREEK
    How do Greeks separate the men from the boys?
    With a crowbar.

    IRISH
    The curfew in Belfast started at 10 p.m. At 9.30, the British soldiers were leaving their barracks to enforce it. A sergeant in charge of one of the patrols heard a shot ring out at 9.35. He soon discovered that Private Connolly had shot a man.

    “It’s only 9.35,” roared the sergeant. “Why did you shoot him?”
    “I know that man,” said Private Connolly. “I know where he lives. He would never get home by 10 o’clock.”

    Two Irishmen were visiting London and were walking down Pall Mall.
    “This is not such a bad place,” said Sean. “Where else could you walk down the street, meet a complete stranger, have dinner with him and then be invited to spend the night at his house.”
    “B’golly, did this happen to you?” asked Seamus.
    “Agh, no, but it did happen to my sister.”

    1. I worked with an Irish chap who told me that he was going to Turkey for his holidays. I asked him where he was flying from and he said he was driving……but was worried about the narrow country lanes.

      1. Once I heard of a young lady who was invited on a sailing trip to Poole Harbour, but she was worried about finding her passport.

  27. Simon Carr for Guido

    Keir’s Sausages to Fortune – The Unimaginable Transformation of Britain

    There we were, Labour’s first government conference in many years, and their leader’s first as prime minister. He began by praising the introductory speaker, a youth from an unfortunate background who had through hard work and ambition risen to a place at university. “You’re doing something you’ve never done before. Fantastic!” To which hecklers might have responded, “Like you, mush!”

    How fantastic will Keir be? It is increasingly likely that he will prove himself to be a genuinely transformative premier.

    The speech itself was a disappointment, of course, he always manages that. But in this case, he disappointed most of all those expecting the familiar amalgam of boredom, irritation and political incompetence blended into a phlegm of sinusitis clichés.

    From that metric, the speech was a triumph.

    Indeed, there was something for everyone.

    He has developed an easy demeanour offering glimpses of his personal life to please the pensioners; a list of legislative changes already in train to please his activists; and a sober series of socialisms for his Clement Attlee fans.

    There was a self-contradicting statement to please Labour’s philologists: “Country first, party second,” he said. “That is not a slogan.”

    And, in a spirit of inclusive generosity, there was more than enough piety and piffle to please the naysayers, wreckers and blockers. His talk of rebuilding Britain, the importance of joy in life, and that “politics can be on the side of truth and justice” cheered up very many of us. That was bested by his desire for a Britain where everybody had an equal voice. That his care worker sister could walk into a room and command equal respect to the prime minister.

    It’s hard to critique that without resorting to farmyard language. Readers may care to try, it is beyond your sketch writer.

    There were passages where his solid, sober, serious demeanour carried off really quite authentically. There was something in him ancestral to the Labour tradition, something of a Gordon Brown after a successful lobotomy.

    But he went too far when he said, “Britain is no longer sure of itself. Our story is uncertain”. Surely that’s not so? Surely we know we’re a country of colonising, white-supremacist slavers who are going to die by climate change because of the Industrial Revolution that still sends Global Majority infants up chimneys? Isn’t that what the Left have been beating into our children for years?

    There were also a number of sausages to fortune to please those who take a long view of politics – as long, in this case, as 18 months.

    “The patient, calm, determined era of politics as service has begun,” he said, in a phrase to be remembered and relished. That ranks and rankles alongside “a kinder, gentler politics”, and “a politics that treads more lightly on people’s lives”.

    How patient, how calm will the Government be when the Shires rise up against the “rebuilding Britain” project, the unions are striking to take over the economy, and the power is available on Third World rolling blackouts? When the Cabinet is leaking and briefing and scrabbling each other’s eyes out in a narcotic frenzy of ambition?

    But that may be just a beautiful dream.

    Where were we?

    “This is a Government of Service. And that means, whether we agree or not, I will always treat you with the respect of candour, not the distraction of bluster.” Allied to that, he promised, to applause, to legislate before April for a duty of candour with criminal sanctions, imposed on all public servants. He will need a prepared answer when he is asked if the duty applies to prime ministers.

    He kept saying, “Britain belongs to you” but never candidly said what he meant by “belongs”, and certainly never said what he meant by “you”. Were gender-critical, climate sceptic Leavers included? Probably not. Were violent, thuggish, racist, modesty-patrolling jihadis included? Probably yes. That at least shows strategic foresight preparing for an Isis party with 35 seats below the gangway after the next election.

    Another interesting absence in the speech – the words “net zero”. Starmer and his Chancellor are keeping their options open on that – something which could have been read on the face of Ed Miliband’s in the front row of the stalls. That face said, “My boiler ban is never going to happen. I am going to have to take over the government, for the sake of the climate.” Time alone will tell.

    Keir certainly persuaded this observer that his administration is going to be supremely active and energetic. And that he will have a a large and lasting effect. It is a safe bet that within the life of his government he will transform Britain in ways that are unimaginable to us now.

    In five years, Keir will have transformed the electorate and persuaded 20 million constituents –utterly inconceivable as it may be – that voting Conservative is no longer ridiculous.

    24 September 2024 @ 17:43

    1. Equal respect for his care worker sister, what a load of nonsense. Nothing has changed, things are as they always were.

  28. The state will take back control of people’s lives, says Starmer
    Prime Minister uses Brexit war cry to appeal to Reform voters as he sets out Labour vision for Britain
     https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/09/24/state-will-take-back-control-of-peoples-lives-says-starmer/

    Control Freaks R US – new slogan for the Labour Party!

    The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'

    https://www.google.com/search?q=reagan+I%27m+here+to+help&oq=reagan+I%27m+here+to+help&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIICAEQABgFGB4yCAgCEAAYCBgeMg0IAxAAGIYDGIAEGIoFMg0IBBAAGIYDGIAEGIoFMg0IBRAAGIYDGIAEGIoFMg0IBhAAGIYDGIAEGIoFMgoIBxAAGIAEGKIEMgoICBAAGIAEGKIEMgoICRAAGIAEGKIE0gEJMjE1MjNqMGo3qAIAsAIA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:b9cb0ba6,vid:nCedOQJ0ZEA,st:0

    2. What? Why aren't people more scared?
      Did he make that sausages gaffe on purpose to distract the internet from his Stalinist tendencies?

  29. Morning all 🙂😊
    A leaden sky it seems to fit in with a labour party confluence, the merging of the thoughts of vindictive minds.
    Who in labour will speak for those with a lifetimes work behind them ?
    The answer is NO ONE. As not a single person in British politics knows what a lifetimes work is.
    A life times work for an annual pension pot they claim in 'expenses' each fortnight.

    1. We can blame Bliar for “modernising” the system, making it “family-friendly” (and therefore supposedly attractive to women) and the bizarre idea that full-time “professional” politicians would somehow be better.

  30. Bit of a build up chasing wurst case scenarios so have a medley…
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/61b6dffff4218628a546c2f8c01c4a686ad0edb5bd9cf57aac55f0dfed297811.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3d2ac9b2ccdf83771b875846053e3f1d59d74cbdb669345afdb7a217ee4bea67.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/02dd4b75bb8ac8cafdc59ae7debad145ad854d1e07561121eaa178cb9f28e898.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1b641a2b7239a8a2b7cb3739a75dd4b0bf60440dc86c03f23d2b7997b7a911c2.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2928667196f1058b46dfbe05a5bf56d87a2033a6b5979d438f26f01d64f8b2df.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f6852746d2d0848129dc6248603452497c78e4eb545feca1561cfedee1a88be8.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9d2d418cd1dc4903301b85f16b5125ee6adf5ffc10fdc864f3d0f2b26d2e2712.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/37898119ccd6818b83ec3ec05bdf7963381168a63899bb831759e26feb22d22d.jpg

    2. Your memes (or whatever they are called) get better day by day, Rik.👍🏻

      That first one had me crying and wetting my pants simultaneously. 🤣

  31. Judge a man (and also a robot identifying as a type of woman) by what he does rather than what he says. Salesman grins and crocodile smiles may hoodwink the Strictlys, but I see through it all. I know what I would like to hear, and a large part of me would like to think all will be made well, and a warm glow of hope gets me off to sleep, when the alternative is tossing and turnnig all night with anxiety listening to the wasps scratching around in the loft.

    The clear targets for pain and "difficult choices" so far are thrifty pensioners and the sickly and despairing poor. The clear targets for benevolence "investment in growth" are the super-rich with their flash clothes and flash cars showing off their aspirations for purloining public money in their direction as a model for all of us, More of the same then. So much for change.

    The country is bankrupt, but has pledged not to raise the fairest taxes to share out the burden. Big business should make their contribution towards the infrastructure that supports their enterprise in this country. So they freeze Corporation Tax and Income Tax and put it instead by pushing up Council Tax, fuel duty, and all sorts of other taxes that put up prices and make life wretched for those who do not deserve it, burdens which are borne overwhelmingly by those that cannot afford to pay to put illegals in hotels, paid for by stealth taxation.

    The Opposition on the Right are all over the place. They let the nation down badly in July by enabling a government, tough on people whose lives do not matter, to claim an overwhelming parliamentary majority on a 20% popular mandate. Tories sitting at home are widely to blame – Starmer offered nothing positive to the nation during this election and actually polled less than Corbyn five years earlier. Farage has been very quiet lately; he should be shouting from the rooftops and the barricades, not curled up cosily with his cocoa.

    Most people frequenting this board will not like this, but I think the best hope for mitigating this rotting lettuce of a government will come from the Left. It needs 150 Labour MPs to be pushed into revolt by their local supporters, who have every right to feel betrayed. Corbyn is too old and his new party needs a better name, but if we are to have change, it is not by out-torying the Tories.

    1. What does 'out-torying the Tories' mean? Being even more craven in the face of the revolutionary establishment than Johnson, Truss and Sunak?

  33. It’s Macmillan Coffee Morning today at work. I made some carrot and ginger cakes and – something i normally never do – some cream cheese icing. Cycled them 12.5 miles in the pouring rain into work. Luckily i have a towel and stash of dry clothes, and there are showers. I iced up the cakes. They look ok. I’d post a photo, but i keep getting “network error”.

    2. I've started using cream cheese filling and topping on my cakes, it's especially good on a carrot, walnut and raisin cake.

  34. It’s Macmillan Coffee Morning today at work. I made some carrot and ginger cakes and – something i normally never do – some cream cheese icing. Cycled them 12.5 miles in the pouring rain into work. Luckily i have a towel and stash of dry clothes, and there are showers. I iced up the cakes. They look ok. I’d post a photo, but i keep getting “network error”.

  35. 393453+ up ticks,

    Listening to the political kneeling sausage early doors and his plans for fighting the people smuggling gangs in europe I do see as organising the issue more efficiently in a pro eu manner.

    In truth, three patrol boats on 8 hours shifts in the English Channel would prove a resounding success with every tide that run.

    The odious political sausage knows this, but taking the piss
    BIG TIME is his true intention.

    1. 393453+ up ticks,

      O2O,
      The indigenous are once again on a war footing this time the enemy enamas are also to be found within.

      This brings into being even the English Channel
      RNLI come under suspicion and must be boarded and searched for alien bodies.

      Indigenous decent peoples / families very survival is at steak, in the hands of the political pro kneeling sausage

  36. Good morning all,

    Grey and damp at Castle McPhee, wind South, 10℃ with 13℃ forecast. Rain due.

    Wooden man speaks, says he will control our lives, has performative public embrace with wife with lips closed.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c5d7153d36f384299cf2381c44aaa605afdaf715ccc5bf531019a8e8d2e44b35.png
    He was in my living room last night because SWMBO insisted on having the BBC News on whereas I would have preferred the 'off' button.

    Why are we made to endure this shit?

    1. Of course looks can be deceptive but it strikes me that Starmer's wife is far too good for him.

      How can such a dull, humourless, completely charm-free man as Starmer ever succeed when wooing. There is no accounting for human taste.

      Mind you you often do see offensively unattractive men with good-looking women in tow.

      2. Bonjour Mr T and everyone.
        "Mind you you often do see offensively unattractive wealthy men with good-looking women in tow." Cynical, moi?

        2. He was a junior exhibitioner at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama until the age of 18, and played the flute, piano, recorder and violin. In the early 1980s, Starmer was caught by police illegally selling ice creams while trying to raise money during a holiday on the French Riviera.

          So he is clever.. the ability to play a musical instrument is an attractive asset , women enjoy musical men .. Becoming a lawyer.. especially human rights, would have also attracted a huge salary . I suspect Starmer has a dark side , but is steady and boring .

          I cannot believe Starmer has embraced Marxist/ Socialist thoughts and feelings .

          I feel that embracing Socialism made his boringness part of a crowd , a wealthy crowd , because of his London upbringing ..

          If he owned land and lived in an inherited castle , would he embrace socialism, nah , of course not. If he were a wartime youngster , and bombed out of his home , would he, nah never . If he were a soldier/ sailor/airman sent to the front in Europe , or even a POW , would his nonsense have been tolerated , nah .

          He is just a trendy product of a new type of socialism that never existed pre war.

          He is a wooden twerp .

      3. Bonjour Mr T and everyone.
        "Mind you you often do see offensively unattractive wealthy men with good-looking women in tow." Cynical, moi?

      4. I've heard it said that sometimes a good-looking woman will marry an average-looking man rather than a good-looking one because she would rather have other people say 'I wonder what she sees in him' than 'I wonder what he sees in her'.

    2. 393453+ up ticks,

      Morning FM,

      Well deserved, the fruits of tactical voting

      “Act in haste, repent at leisure” tis only five years after all.

    7. From Coffee House, the Spectator
      Spain makes for an awful holiday
      It’s the worst country in western Europe
      Zoe Strimpel25 September 2024, 5:01am
      Spain is busy with an image update. Thanks to a host of savvy media stories, we’re now supposed to think of Spain not just in terms of package holidays, sangria, and Catholicism but also as chic, romantic, stylishly left-wing – the macho anti-fascism of Hemingway’s Spain updated for the #MeToo age – and devastatingly cutesy.
      Take the recent viral trend among Spain’s youth: a supermarket pineapple gimmick that’s gone global. A TikTok video has Gen Z storming the Mercadona chain between 7 and 8 p.m., under the notion that placing an upside-down pineapple in their shopping trolley signals romantic availability. ‘Spanish singles found a new dating strategy. It’s in the fruit aisle,’ crooned the Washington Post. How utterly adorable.
      Barcelona, twice intended by me as a romantic break, is a bewildering tundra of tat and dive bars
      Well, I’m not buying it. Of my medium-number of brushes with Spain, none have been great – and certainly not cutesy – most were downright dreadful. In fact, I’d go so far as to argue that Spain is the worst country, admittedly not in the world, but certainly in western Europe.
      The cities are dire – some of the least appealing on the continent, and not just Magaluf, Marbella, or Alicante. The classy ones are also weird and sad – the much-lauded Ronda depresses me, recalling the end of the world with its perilous chasm; my trips to Seville, Granada and Córdoba as a kid were marred by the stink of drains in every room we slept in. The baked, dull avenues of Madrid, the endless and fruitless quest for the best place for cured meat, the corporate flourishes. Barcelona, twice intended by me as a romantic break, is a bewildering tundra of tat and dive bars, dotted with the ugliest architecture on earth – that of Gaudi. It’s got a bang average beach, bang average buildings and overpriced food. Now it’s an anti-tourism war zone and you’ll get pickpocketed as a bonus.
      Politically, Spain is nasty. It’s got a loony left and right with far too much power. I’d give special mention to its knee-jerk hatred of Israel. Right after 7 October, when there was an EU motion to halt aid to Palestinian territories as it was demonstrably funnelled to Hamas, Spain and Ireland refused. In December, a Spanish politician raised a stuffed dead baby in a shroud in parliament to represent Israeli bloodlust in Gaza. It was ghoulish.
      Meanwhile, the country’s rambunctious anti-tourism and anti-Airbnb demonstrations have provided a titillating vision for the anti-profit crowd across the West. ‘Down with tourists, down with gentrification, down with rents, and down with growth, wealth, and money!’ they chant. This is Spanish protest culture bravely ‘fighting back’ – as the BBC puts it – against the influx of vulgar people who dare to spend their money in Spain’s roasting cities. ‘Your luxury, our misery!’ they declare. Isn’t it the other way round?
      Then there is the economy, which is all but moribund, with seismic, Europe-leading joblessness. Spanish history is also horrid if one begins with the Inquisition, the bloodiest, most sadistic, most pathological manifestation of Catholic dogma in Europe, and moves through to Franco and the long love affair with fascism.
      I can’t think of anywhere in Europe – even eastern Europe or the Balkans – where the food is so bad and yet so hyped. Am I really to travel a thousand miles for poisonous mounds of oily carbs, those childish vats of paella, the greasy tapas that hide their unwholesomeness in the romance of the little beakers of wine and the buzzing terraces, the ungodly mounds of cured pig, and my ongoing gastronomical nightmare: fried calamari in butter-soaked baguette?
      And what of a great Spanish literature – is there one? I mean other than Cervantes? If there is, and probably there is, it’s never appealed to this devourer of Mann, Flaubert, Stendhal, Hugo, Gissing, and Dickens. Even Hemingway’s Spanish novels, while good, are oddly two-dimensional and brutish.
      Bringing it all together is the bullfighting; slowly and cruelly torturing animals for sport in view of tens of thousands of baying onlookers. This is not a tradition fit for the modern era, let alone western Europe. So no, you can take your tapas and your pineapple dating and your progressive rage – I won’t be troubling Spain with my tourism any time soon.

        1. It reads as if she were set a challenge to write a diatribe against Spain. I very much doubt that she has such an antipathy towards the country.

    8. Sorry, that really should be illegal and it is the kiss that they teach to actors, in other words, it's fake.

    9. Sorry, that really should be illegal and it is the kiss that they teach to actors, in other words, it's fake.

    1. But but, Lammy is man of singular intelligence and achievement Ogga. Didn't you know he's the first black Foreign Secretary? OK yes, there's been one before him, but was he from Tottenham eh?

      See Lammy mentioning his very great achievement here:

      Lammys achievement

    2. Frankly I'm fed up with hearing people like him moaning.
      Perhaps he'd feel better if he took the time and effort to discovered his ancestors and showered them with his new found riches.

    3. His whining really is a bit rich coming from a person who has had a privileged life that 90% of all people in Britain have not had and couldn't even dream about.

  41. Morning, all Y'all.
    Hooshing down with rain again, and we seem to have blocked gutters. Oh, good. Don't have a ladder that long to deal with it myself, either.

  43. Morning, all. Nothing good about today: it's wet and is forecast to stay that way until Friday and now this:

    https://x.com/myhiddenvalue/status/1838699486958571987
    Are the Labour, Tory, LibDums and Green parties supportive of this move towards World tyranny? If so, they must be eradicated at every election, starting next May.

    Now is the time for Reform to stand up and state emphatically that they will never support this take-over of our rights and freedoms.

    2. 393453+ up ticks

      Morning K T K,

      My opinion only, regarding reform, use a long spoon when dealing with the hierarchy.

      In my book tory MK2, yet concealing ALL the old
      ways.

    3. Starmer openly said they are going to take control of people's lives. It was in his speech according to the Telegraph. They always warn you!

      1. Yeah but, in keeping with everything Kneelalot does he also warned us previously that the State would not get bigger in people's lives.

        1. The two statements are fully compatible. He is planning to pass control to a world government via the WHO. They always tell you….

    6. Sadly so many people have been successfully dumbed-down. I saw it so often when canvassing in the past "I'm not interested in politics" says a young girl with lank hair tied in a knot on the top of her head, wheeling a pushchair (yes,they do exist – they are not just a parody). "Will you be voting" she is then asked "Nah. Well maybe". "Who will you vote, for do you think?" "Dunno".

  45. Morning all.

    Don't know about sausages but I've a feeling we are about to be done up like a kipper!…

  48. Clueless Starmer is blind to the scale of disaster to come

    Labour's conference has displayed our country at its worst – censorious, priggish, envious and mean-spirited

    Annabel Denham, Columnist and Deputy Comment Editor • 24 September 2024 • 5:59pm

    Well, that didn't work out as planned, did it. Britain voted for an end to Tory sleaze and chaos, only to be lumbered with a government that's made so many missteps its shoelaces might as well have been tied together. One packed full of politicians who've been trousering freebies and rewarding their own client groups. But the hypocrisy, the double standards, the seeming disdain for the little people isn't even the worst of it.

    Labour has already failed, not because of "donor-gate" or the unedifying squabbles between Starmer's special advisers, but because it has no clue how to run a country.

    It spent two months maniacally talking down Britain – with Reeves reportedly considering it a golden opportunity to "bury the Tories", as though she were a far-Left social-justice activist rather than our Chancellor of the Exchequer – only to be pushed into a humiliating retreat after business and consumer confidence plummeted. Without the optimism to spend, hire, and invest, it's near-impossible for our economy to expand.

    Their multi-billion pound bung to the public sector has not, as Starmer claimed in August, ended industrial strife – as the decision by the Royal College of Nursing to reject a pay uplift of 5.5 per cent makes awkwardly apparent. The issue, presumably, is not the above-inflation offer, but that Labour has already given 15 per cent over three years to better-paid train drivers and offered 22 per cent over two years to junior doctors. The bright sparks in government, apparently, could not see this coming.

    Whether Labour has a plan it daren't reveal, or was so unprepared for office it never bothered to devise one is almost beside the point. It's the naivety and hubris, with or without an agenda, that's so troubling. The belief that, because it would be in charge rather than the grubby, venal, morally inferior Tories, it would succeed. That's why it makes such absurd proclamations as "scrapping the universal winter fuel allowance would avoid a run on the pound". It's perhaps why our Business Secretary seems to believe he knows more about employee productivity at Amazon than its senior executives.

    The Government talks of growth as though it can be achieved through osmosis, yet takes decisions that will stymie it. It speaks as though there is no problem that cannot be solved with a bigger state, yet the public sector has scarcely ever been so bloated and ineffective. The Prime Minister told conference delegates that he would put "country first, party second" – but studies have suggested a 10 percentage point increase in the tax or government spending burden is associated with a roughly 1 per cent fall in the growth rate in the long-term.

    Were he truly committed to our national interest, he wouldn't be bringing railways into public ownership, or handing workers a raft of new entitlements, or creating state-owned energy companies. Even parts of the economy seemingly distant from the locus of government are now subject to state meddling – thanks to legislation like the Equality Act, which Labour wants to expand even further. Ministers are musing on potential investigations into the price of holiday flights and Oasis tickets.

    Britain might not have voted for a government that presents itself as a paragon of moral probity while its politicians accept freebies from millionaires, but the nation has little appetite for lower taxes, or personal responsibility, or a smaller state. A poll by Global Counsel in December revealed people wanted spare government money to go on spending increases rather than tax cuts. Heaven forbid others be allowed to keep more of their own hard-earned cash.

    It's believed the Government won't announce a wealth tax this autumn, not because it's having second thoughts about a levy likely to cost more than it'll raise, but because they want to get the unpopular decisions out of the way first. One poll has suggested just 18 per cent of Brits are against the VAT raid on private school fees.

    Britain may not consciously have voted for a charmless, mithering administration, but we are an increasingly mean-spirited, priggish nation more interested in depriving others of pleasure than finding our own sources of enjoyment.

    You might argue that we didn't vote "for" anything. But that's a feeble defence. Jefferson wrote that we elect the government we deserve. After five more years, I hope we feel we deserve better.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/09/24/mediocre-britain-deserves-this-grim-government

  49. t'internet still busy…..
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1fc6721567f49cfe1f1041fd095e0f4134bcb459f232d922cee82e2d0237943f.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/df8766fd79315737dd0125aa884d3f3b7c7db0a4884f76c81a312a717b4db7c1.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/87ad296049977c9e20ca915473f13df67317204b12ec1657596daae437c491ec.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5f168437c544fd4749b7f0c9028a220f8cebe6179dc6580ca6710b59156702bd.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/11f62532479a383cf91d68e99e432517ed8d0c83712e1437968ff225fd402f2d.jpg

    1. I could say all of ’em, but I think it was Cupid Stunt. Whoever, I’ll take it – backhanded compliment that it is :-D…. I loved Sid Snot, recognised him.

  52. I guess it doesn’t really matter what part of the 24 hours you sleep/are awake, if you feel well. I can’t sleep without an eye mask, think as we age we seem to need less sleep. I usually drink Ovaltine before bed, the original contains magnesium but the Light version doesn’t.

  53. 393453+ up ticks,

    I take it we do realise there is a higher court unseen, but in my book, in action.

    I find it bloody remarkable that any five year olds get through the gauntlet they have to run currently, an obstacle course set up via the polling stations and a multitude of supporting dangerous fools.

    Dt,
    ‘Remarkable’ four-year-old boy survives after life support is switched off

    Child born with severe brain abnormalities had been expected to die following High Court ruling over his treatment

    1. Courts have long imagined they control things in the real world. Nothing could be further from the truth, as every crime boss knows.

  54. A SPECTACULAR EVENT RARELY SEEN OUTSIDE OF LABOUR CONFERENCES

    A huge herd of flying pigs was seen passing over Liverpool yesterday afternoon. The females all dressed in the finest satin and silk robes wearing diamond necklaces and sapphire broaches. The males in Savile Row suits with one or two diamond studded Rolex watches on each leg. Each one carrying a bundle of brown envelopes about the size of a school satchel. What could possibly have caused this staggering ostentatious display of wealth and social superiority? The mind boggles. We shall probably never know.
    (Here is a picture of the undress rehearsal taken at TUC headquarters in Russel St. London.)

    https://1.bp.blogspot.com/_g25bDp45_Kg/TH3IebKSg-I/AAAAAAAAztY/NssuueCtO64/s200/pigs_flying-347.jpg

  55. An Apache helicopter, and 2 Wildcats have just gone over the house! The same Apache went over yesterday from Kinloss. Is there something we should know?🚁

    2. Apparently one of the pilots wife's has been having an affair so he landed in their garden and by helicopter.

    4. They're always poking around over me, since I live in a decent radius from their base in Suffolk. Probably the Israelis have decided to share intelligence with us despite Sammy's lamentable performance: that they're going to town on Lebanon, hence the sudden British evacuations. That's all I can see on the cards, nothing in bonny Scotland.

  56. An Apache helicopter, and 2 Wildcats have just gone over the house! The same Apache went over yesterday from Kinloss. Is there something we should know?🚁

  57. Harmer Starmer suggests people on benefits should look for jobs.
    Where does that leave elderly people who don't qualify for benefits because they own their own property have some savings and obviously can't work because they are too old. And in this day and age can't I've on the old age pension, because of the huge rises in cost of living.

  59. Good morning to you all! Would like to recommend this video. Well worth watching and corrects many false accusations about Winston Churchill. Including all that nonsense about the Bengal famine although he leaves out, perhaps in an effort to be diplomatic, the responsibility or, to be more accurate, the neglect and corruption of the Indians themselves. When the Indians howl about the famine it really is a case of: "The lady doth protest too much, methinks" Uncancelled History, an excellent series, by the way.
    Uncancelled History with Douglas Murray | EP. 05 Winston Churchill
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-W6lqwIG2Y&t=1910s

    1. I find the story about the Bengal famine wildly inaccurate. British rule was very "hands off" and India was largely self-governing at State level. Surely, the other States could have offered food aid to Bengal but I hear nothing of this. That aid was offered by the USA and Canada, but there was problem with the availability of shipping and the danger of getting it across the Pacific.
      Eventually, the aid came from Australia and Ceylon.

      1. Hi John. Apart from what you say above. I have read that There were less than five British men in Bengal because of the war. So administrative incompetence was entirely in the hands of Indian bureaucrats. That also, there was enough grain in Bengal but it was being horded by merchants speculating on the market. A situation that would not have happened if the British presence had been there in strength, preventing famine was always a priority in British India. Apart from the fact that we were undergoing a total war, a fact that critics like to omit, they also omit the fact that the Bay of Bengal was infested with Japanese submarines that were sinking almost everything that entered the area. Rice was in short supply too. It was not as if a boat was sunk we could simply send off a ship until it got through. Every shipload was precious because our normal sources for the grain were cut off. I’m about to post another history program with Rafe Heydal Mankoo and the guys from Trigonometry. Well worth watching. In fact I intend to watch it a couple of more times. Mankoo produces a huge amount of information that promises many avenues of research.

        At the moment what I’m trying to do is understand who we are as a people, a distinct ethnic group. Due to new DNA research we have been in England since at least 1000 BC. But that there are, of course additions, including The Anglo-Saxons, which, it appears we are rather misleadingly referred to, when in fact that comprises only a third of our genetic make up. We are mostly Celt and have been here since around 800BC.

  60. Philip Schofield is back! From BBC – "The 62-year-old will appear in Channel 5’s Cast Away, which will sees him stranded on an island off Madagascar for 10 days." Will be be allowed to vote to leave him there?

      2. Some little squirt that the Daily Mail keeps going on and on and on about. I don't understand it either.

      3. He is an animal lover who used to work for the BBC He is well known as a relentless woofter who spends most of his time dogging.

  62. A rather positive story about Islam. I have heard of the Bektashi Order, they are famous, historically speaking, as one of the 4 great schools of Sufism. So it is rather nice to hear that they still exist. Long may they prosper and become a solution to the problem of Islamic extremism.

    A new country is about to be created and it's going to be the world's smallest

    https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/a-new-country-is-about-to-be-created-and-it-s-going-to-be-the-world-s-smallest/ar-AA1r7fyW?ocid=msedgntp&pc=ACTS&cvid=ab750fd7ec5b43d58c54fe2e2d158d18&ei=15

  63. I have just opened my freezer and thrown away all my sausages into the bin!

    I shall not eat any food that has been tainted by socialism!

    1. Now now, don't be a typical socialist; throwing out something that is perfectly good just for no other reason than to show how morally superior you are.

      1. Who's going to be playing Hunt the Sausage?

        I think our friend is being ironic. His sausages are as sacred to him as the Christian communicant's wine and wafer.

    1. Imagine being humiliated on TV by Jeremy Vine! There really is nowhere lower to go, surely…but if there is, Starmer will find it.

  66. The State's going to get bigger in my life. Excellent news, I can look forward to endless days playing on my computer while pretending I'm working from home, luxuriating in limitless free heat from my windmill powered heat pump and all I ever need in free suits and specs.

    Utopia!

      1. It is round me that’s for sure. I don’t think this lot can hear themselves and how ridiculous they’re starting to sound. Communism isn’t a joke, but it is laughable.

  68. The idiots can't stop digging…Alli the corruptor has them by the goolies

    I had to take freebies for my son, says Starmer

    Labour leader defends decision to use Lord Alli’s £18m penthouse during election campaign

    Dominic Penna Political Correspondent. Genevieve Holl-Allen Political Reporter
    25 September 2024 11:16am

    Sir Keir Starmer has defended taking £20,000 in donations towards accommodation from Labour peer Lord Alli, saying it was important for his son to revise for his GCSEs “without being disturbed”.

    The Prime Minister has been dogged by questions about donations he has accepted for clothing and tickets to football matches and concerts.

    Earlier this month, The Telegraph reported that Sir Keir repeatedly used an £18 million penthouse owned by Lord Alli while campaigning to enter No 10.

    He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “My boy, 16, was in the middle of his GCSEs. I made him a promise, a promise that he would be able to get to his school, do his exams, without being disturbed.

    “We have lots of journalists outside our house where we live and I’m not complaining about that, that’s fine. But if you’re a 16-year-old trying to do your GCSEs and it’s your one chance in life… I promised him we would move somewhere, get out of the house and go somewhere where he could be peacefully studying.

    “Somebody then offered me accommodation where we could do that. I took that up and it was the right thing to do.”

    The Labour leader was at the property in the Covent Garden area of London on election night to watch the 10pm exit poll results with close aides and family.

    It is understood that the 5,000 sq ft home was also used for strategy meetings attended by Sir Keir in the run-up to the election, as well as for hosting fundraising dinners.

    Lord Alli has donated thousands of pounds to Sir Keir to spend on suits and spectacles, as well as £5,000 worth of clothes and personal shopping to Lady Starmer.

    There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing by Lord Alli but the row has overshadowed much of Labour’s annual party conference, which came to an end in Liverpool on Wednesday.

    The peer attended the conference despite the ongoing furore, but refused to answer questions from journalists.

    The Prime Minister said he would not apologise for taking donations from Lord Alli, as he did not believe he was “doing anything wrong”.

    Sir Keir said that moving to Downing Street after the general election had been “tough” for his two children, aged 16 and 13, which he described as a “very important time” in their lives.

    The Prime Minister has been very protective of his family, not naming his son and daughter in public or having photographs taken alongside them.

    Bridget Phillipson, the Education Secretary, has also said that she accepted tickets to attend a Taylor Swift concert because of one of her children, who was “keen” to go to the sold-out tour.

    “Look, I’ll be honest, it was a hard one to turn down,” she told ITV. “I appreciate there was a big demand for the tickets, it was a privilege to be there.”

    1. "Sir Keir said that moving to Downing Street after the general election had been “tough” for his two children, aged 16 and 13, "

      The answer Mr Sturmbannführer is to move out until the children are in their 40s or 50s. They may have learned to cope with life's little pressures by then.

    2. I have some sympathy for the decision to find a quieter place for his son to study. It must be a nightmare having jabbering journalists surround the house.

      2. Could have sent him on retreat; he might even have found some morality. I doubt 2TK offers any at home (or in Alli's flat).

    3. Heart of stone here.
      There were all sorts of things that our sons wanted or needed. But we had to budget and just do our best.

      1. I think it way past time we judged. Beginning with all those leftie prosecutors and judges going after Trump.

  70. Miliband is poised to wreck Britain – Starmer has little time to rein him in
    Britain’s last coal-fired power station is closing this month. Energy cuts in 2028 are now a possibility

    Philip Johnston 24 September 2024 4:50pm

    Which minister will be most responsible for the fate of Sir Keir Starmer’s government? Will it be Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, whose Budget next month will be the first indication of Labour’s strategy for the next five years, assuming it has one.

    Will it be Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, who promises to reform the NHS, yet eschews the radical overhaul necessary to ensure the survival of a public health service for the next 50 years, not just the next five.

    Or will it be the Prime Minister himself, whose speech to the party conference in Liverpool sought to reassert some sort of control over events after an uncertain and stumbling few weeks in charge?

    Sir Keir likes to portray himself as someone without ideology, though he is happy to say he is a socialist, and relentlessly focused on what works for the country as a whole. “We are the pragmatists,” he told delegates.

    But that is not entirely true. There is among his Cabinet a zealot who more than any other minister will make or break the Government. I speak of the former leader Ed Miliband. While Sir Keir believes his administration will be judged by growing the economy and repairing the NHS, its very foundations risk being undermined by a mad dash to decarbonisation within six years.

    September 30 will mark another milestone on that road when the UK’s last remaining coal-fired power station at Ratcliffe-on-Soar in Nottinghamshire shuts down. For a country that once relied so heavily on King Coal this is a poignant moment and one that has arrived remarkably quickly. As recently as 2012, coal supplied more than 40 per cent of Britain’s electricity.

    The decline has been long and painful. Production peaked in 1913 when more than 1,500 pits extracted some 290 million tons. By 2015 that had fallen to under four million when the last deep pit, at Kellingley in Yorkshire, closed. A small number of open cast mines remained for a few years but have all now gone. Plans to open a coking coal mine in Cumbria were quashed last week by the High Court and will not be revived by the Labour government.

    That’s it. The end of an extraordinary story. As George Orwell wrote in The Road to Wigan Pier, “Our civilisation is founded on coal, more completely than one realises until one stops to think about it.” Coal fuelled the Industrial Revolution and underpinned an empire. It fuelled a mythology developed around miners and their communities that belied the dangers and wretched nature of the job.

    There was nothing romantic about working down the pit. It was hard, poorly paid for a long time and responsible for the early deaths of many miners from dust-borne diseases. Disasters claimed the lives of thousands of pitmen, a death toll far greater than in the nuclear power industry.

    Cheaper coal production around the world meant that pits closed throughout the 1960s and 1970s under Labour, even though that was conveniently forgotten when Mrs Thatcher’s government took on Arthur Scargill’s NUM 30 years ago. The very people demanding back then that pits be kept open are now insisting they remain shut in pursuit of a non-carbon future.

    Only in Britain is the entire industry being shut down so rapidly – yet we still import huge quantities of goods manufactured from electricity generated by coal, especially from China. The People’s Republic led the world in the construction of new coal-fired power plants in the first half of this year, with work beginning on more than 41GW of new generation capacity. Germany has 25 per cent of its electricity produced by coal and even dismantled a wind farm in order to expand open-pit lignite production.

    Everyone knows coal power plants were filthy. They pumped out pollutants that affected all who lived near them. The Palace of Westminster was black when I first started working there in the 1980s, as was Westminster Abbey, smeared with the soot from Bankside and Battersea stations. The former is now the Tate Modern and the latter has been converted into luxury flats, retail outlets and restaurants.

    King Coal is dead, in Britain at least. The sale of traditional house coal has been banned for use in England since last year.

    So what, say the greens, if renewable alternatives continue to power the economy, our homes and our cars. But will they fill the lacuna, given that Mr Miliband wants to take other carbon sources out of the mix as well by running down North Sea oil and gas.

    Mind you, the unions have noticed. At the TUC conference earlier this month, they voted to oppose Miliband’s planned ban on new oil and gas licences until North Sea workers are guaranteed comparable jobs. The latter, they warned, must not become “the miners of net zero”.

    It was further reported this week that the North Sea pipeline network is facing possible closure a decade earlier than planned because of the tax raid on the industry, which Labour is to step up.

    These are straws in the wind. Moving to a low-carbon future is no longer a matter of debate since all parties are committed to it. What is at issue is the speed of the transition and whether it is proportionate to the problem.

    Even if we account for just 2 per cent of the world’s output today, Mr Miliband believes we should be in the vanguard of fossil fuel reduction to atone for all the CO2 pumped out since the Industrial Revolution. He is off to the United Nations this week, which will press for further action on net zero even if the hectoring falls on deaf ears in Beijing and New Delhi.

    “Fossil fuels simply cannot provide us with the security, or indeed the affordability, we need,” Mr Miliband said recently. But seeking to eradicate them from our electricity generation within six years risks both security and affordability as around 40 per cent of the UK’s electricity is produced with gas that will need to be imported.

    The closure over the next three years of nuclear power stations still in service, delays in building new ones and rising demands for electricity will leave the UK facing a crunch point in about 2028. The chances that wind, solar and other renewables can fill the gap by then are for the birds.

    Yet this is where we are headed unless Sir Keir reins in his evangelical minister. Voters will not forgive him or his government if the lights go out.

    2. From Coffee House, the Spectator

      Would scrapping the monarchy really save us money?
      Ross Clark25 September 2024, 5:00am
      Britain’s republicans won’t give up. In spite of trying to use the coronation of Charles III as an opportunity to push their campaign to abolish the monarchy, support for the institution has remained stubbornly high. It is our elected politicians – on both sides of the political divide – who seem to have lost support rather than the new King.

      Not to be put off, however, the campaign group Republic has this week published its latest Royal Finances Report, claiming that the royal family is really costing us £510 million a year, nearly five times as much as the sovereign grant.

      How does it arrive at such a figure? It claims the costs of the monarchy break down as follows:

      Sovereign grant – £ 108.9 million

      Income foregone from royal palaces and other buildings – £ 96.3 million

      Income from Duchy of Cornwall which could go to taxpayer – £ 65.3 million

      Income from Duchy of Lancaster which could go to taxpayer – £ 33.8 million

      Royal Collection surplus – £ 11.8 million

      Cost of local councils of royal events – £31.9 million

      Security – £150 million

      Other – £ 12.4 million

      And if we didn’t have a monarchy? An elected head of state could cost us just £5 to £10 million a year, the group claims.

      Sorry, but it doesn’t pass the smell test. Its £150 million estimate of the cost of royal security is put down to ‘various press reports over the years citing the Metropolitan police’. The Metropolitan Police’s budget for this year is £3.3 billion – so Republic is implying that £1 in every £22 is spent protecting the royal family – which seems improbable when the force has a city of 10 million inhabitants to police. Actually, while annual costs of £100 million have been reported for the branch of the Met known as the Royalty and Specialist Protection, that doesn’t just cover the royal family – it covers protection government ministers, politicians and other VIPs too. Even if we did away with the royal family we would still have a government to protect – as well as an elected head of state – so we could hardly eliminate these costs.

      The idea that we could have an elected head of state for under £10 million a year is preposterous. It would cover the costs of a few staff and an office – although evidently not in Buckingham Palace, which Republic wants to let out for a net £70 million a year.

      Good luck with that – even with 240 bedrooms, 19 state rooms and 92 offices in London’s inflated property market. You could sell it to developers for an impressive lump sum, I guess – as you could Hyde Park – but I doubt that flogging off London’s landmarks would endear you to the British public. Moreover, wouldn’t Britain need state rooms, even if it didn’t have a monarch? To run a head of state’s office for £10 million a year seems to assume that Britain would no longer entertain world leaders on state visits, nor that our head of state would ever travel abroad on official trips.

      Nor is Republic prepared to conceded that the monarchy earns Britain a single penny in tourism revenues – merely saying that such claims have been ‘debunked’. The crowds who gather for royal events and who are to be found standing outside Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guard every day would appear to question this – unless you think that those same crowds would be interested in gathering for a peek at Tony Blair, David Cameron or whoever else became our head of state.

      If you want to try to save the taxpayer half a billion pounds there are perhaps better alternatives than trying to asset-strip the monarchy.

        1. So sorry. I am abusing your good nature to publish a snippet. Since Disqus was updated my iPad will no longer allow me to start my own threads.
          When at home in front of my computer publishing is not a problem but here on the coast away from my permanent residence I am dependent on my iPad.

      2. I favour chucking out WEF Charlie and his smug WEF son and bringing back the true King over the water.

        Imagine Blair being Head of State on a budget of 10 million of our money…. he would find that positively miserly!

      3. I favour chucking out WEF Charlie and his smug WEF son and bringing back the true King over the water.

        Imagine Blair being Head of State on a budget of 10 million of our money…. he would find that positively miserly!

      4. It also includes protection for all the former Prime Ministers. Eight of them if Liz Truss is included.

        John Major
        Tony Bliar
        Gordon Brown
        David Cameron
        Theresa May
        Boris Johnson
        Liz Truss
        Rishi Sunak

    3. "Starmer has little time to rein him in"

      He's got all the time in the world, since he has no intention of doing so.

      1. I find that odd; Miliband is the most likely author of an humiliating defeat for his government . . .

        1. Milliband is doing their masters' bidding which is the most important thing after all. I doubt Starmer is thinking beyond the next election. Another mini sociopath will step up for the next term.

          1. Yes. Our electoral system used to lead to short-term thinking, as they always knew the other lot would get in sooner or later and did what they could for their electorate, hoping that some of it would stick in the form of lucrative directorships or a bankable name.

            Now, however, the electorate has been sidelined. Given the certainty of a life of luxury later (subsidised, for example, by 'speaking engagements' that pay more than the cost of a small house per hour), politicians of all stripes can afford to ignore us and Look To Higher Things. 🙄

        2. Ah yes, but don't you see the fatal flaw in that suggestion? It assumes Starmer actually understands what he's doing, too.

    4. “Fossil fuels simply cannot provide us with the security, or indeed the affordability, we need,” I'm fairly sure both parts of that statement are rubbish!!

      1. Yes indeed, Still Bleau; our own oil and gas would provide security and affordability – not to mention nuclear and gas fracking which Miliband disregards.

  71. Victoria Sponge – the very private person:

    "As it stands, what is best known about Lady Starmer is her desire to retain a privacy others have gladly given up in support of the political campaign." July 2024.

    How times change, eh?

  72. Iran ‘refusing Hezbollah’s requests to attack Israel. 25 September 2024.

    Iran has reportedly refused requests by Hezbollah in recent days to launch a direct attack on Israel, two Israeli officials and one Western diplomat said.

    Iranian officials, the sources told the Axios news website, warned their counterparts in Hezbollah that the “the timing isn’t right” because Masoud Pezeshkian, the Iranian president, is visiting New York the UN General Assembly.

    Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea. If they assist Hezbollah they will both be defeated. If they don’t they will have abandoned their most powerful proxy to destruction.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/09/25/israel-hamas-war-latest-news-hezbollah-64/

  73. Yesterday I prepared my Christmas pudding mix – I have a large pud left over from last year that will be eaten this coming Christmas – and this year I had sufficient mixture for a medium size and two small puddings. The latter have each been encased in a steaming bag made from foil – a tip found on the internet – and are in my slow cooker; the former is in a Pyrex bowl and cooking in a tall stockpot . Three hours in and three or so to go.

    Another tip from the internet I'm using in the slow cooker is foil crushed into balls and using them as the trivet. A simple idea that I would not have come up with, likewise the foil bags.

    When the Sun emerged I decided to pick some apples and blackberries to cook together. Here are some of the apples; the variety is Elstar. An eating apple but it cooks quite well and holds its shape.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/96d4178a53e694c368bcebe998652781ac0002ed8148b3996e0184a9f651fb37.jpg

    For the last two or three years I have been beset with 'brown rot' on my apple trees but this year it hasn't been too bad and I have had some good Bramleys and now these. Perhaps the pruning, a hard pruning in winter and then summer pruning in August, has helped.

    I'm looking forward to eating the large one this afternoon.😋

    1. I'm using all the jar lids that are rusty or otherwise damaged as a trivet. Currently bottling the entire contents of the freezer following cellar flood.
      Has anyone repaired a flood-damaged cupboard freezer? According to youtube, it is possible.

      1. The lids for trivets is a good idea. In my stockpot I'm using one of those stainless steel rings for poaching eggs. My pressure-cooker came with a trivet in the shape of a long sided isosceles triangle, completely useless for using with bowls with a curved bottom.

        1. By brown rot, do you mean little brown dots in the Bramleys? Mine have had that for some years, but there's hardly any of it this year. I suppose it will be back next year!
          Oddly enough, the adjacent Russet doesn't suffer.

          1. Not sure. It’s a fungal infection that pruning can help reduce by increasing air flow through the branches.

            This is the end result for infected fruit and it can be worse; it killed my James Greave tree a few years ago.

            I’m certain that it came into my garden from a neighbour’s Victoria plum tree – the fruit on that tree was always rotten. The plum tree was toppled in a gale three years ago and took half of my Bramley with it. The Bramley survived and I’m still attempting to get it back into shape.

    2. This year we have had a bumper crop of eating apples on our apple tree (variety: Ariel) and also on our pear tree (variety u/k). My neighbour's tree has been laden with Victoria plums and she also has a decent crop of quinces. I await news from my friend on the status of his damsons. It has also been an exceptional year for raspberries (both summer and autumn varieties) and strawberries. Cherries were quite dismal though.

      On our return from holiday, our climbing French bean (variety: Cobra, seeds kindly sent by Bill) was again heaving with pods.

      1. Firstborn's farm has huge crop of apples, rowanberries, blackberries this yesr, too many to get them all, unfortunately. Even the rhubarb has been prolific! Lots of raspberries and juniper earlier. No luck with cranberries, though.

  74. Breaking News –
    The PM has returned his expensive glasses back to his generous benefactor.
    He reports that they are faulty and make the H's look like an S's

  78. Khan’s Latest USA Vanity Trip Celebrating Voles and Eels

    Sadiq Khan has once again jetted off on an eco-jolly, this time ditching the Labour conference early to rub shoulders in New York. Instead of “having fun with my friends in Liverpool”, as he said, he’s chosen the bright lights of the Big Apple to show off his green credentials. Nothing says environmental warrior quite like hopping on a plane across the Atlantic…

    https://twitter.com/SadiqKhan/status/1838643931887677918?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1838643931887677918%7Ctwgr%5E0092826dd306a517005e2ee88e9f07838a4e14d3%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Forder-order.com%2F
    Taxpayers will be pleased to hear Khan is enjoying his latest vanity trip, this time involving a boat ride to celebrate… voles and eels – an excursion the Mayor found “so inspiring”. Perhaps less inspiring than the city he left behind, where knife crime involving large blades has doubled in the last five years…

      1. The bivalve molluscs grow quickly – in a couple of years they can reach maturity.
        Cornwall Wildlife Trust said each oyster could produce up to 200 million larvae a year.
        To cull them, the volunteers strike the shells with a hammer until it breaks.
        "It feels counter intuitive to be going around with hammers… but there's many invasive species.

        Have they found a answer to unwanted and harmful invasive species? I do hope so.

  80. Inside the Luxury Study Pad Starmer Took as Freebie for Son’s GCSEs

    Starmer said too many journalists were outside his house and his son needed somewhere quiet to study for his GCSEs. Who else but Lord Alli was there to provide…

    https://i0.wp.com/order-order.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Screenshot-2024-09-25-at-10.44.32.png?resize=542%2C720&ssl=1

    Alli’s £18 million penthouse in Covent Garden is the perfect choice for any studious 16-year-old. Of Alli’s known properties (the other is a Kent mansion) this is the most likely – it’s one Starmer already admitted using for meetings and on election night. With three en-suite bedrooms to choose from, the flat offers panoramic views of London from no fewer than two terraces, all to help soak in crucial facts…

    https://i0.wp.com/order-order.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/office-room.png?w=1194&ssl=1

    After a few hours of work in the spacious office any teen would let off steam in the games room before settling down to watch some telly in the dedicated TV room. A large roof terrace offers yet another study location with “lush evergreens” to keep the air fresh…
    https://i0.wp.com/order-order.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/outside.png?w=1198&ssl=1

    https://i0.wp.com/order-order.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/living-room.png?w=1186&ssl=1

    With 5,000 square feet of space there’s little chance a revising teenager would be disturbed by anyone else using the property, like Starmer and his team. Imagine how big the house is going to have to be for A-Levels…

    25 September 2024 @ 10:43

  81. I see parallels with Epstein.

    He noted that despite allegations of criminal wrongdoing in lawsuits, including one brought by Diddy's ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura, prosecutors in California did not bring charges.

    Instead, the charges were brought in New York, which Deal said he believes is linked to a slate of resignations and allegations of corruption among Big Apple officials.

    'People aren't going to tie this together.'

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13885699/diddy-bodyguard-videos-politicians-freak-offs.html

    I also think this is why they are after Andrew Tate. Tate didn't entertain democrat judges and politicians.

  82. Michael Gove to be editor of The Spectator following takeover
    Former Cabinet minister will take over from Fraser Nelson on Oct 8 – three months after standing down as MP
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/09/25/michael-gove-appointed-editor-spectator/

    I stopped my subscription when Boris Johnson became the editor and I am not likely to renew it!

    Will any Nottlers be eager to take out a sub?

    Will any Nottlers be eager to renew their existing subs?

    Will any Nottlers decide to cancel altogether?

    2. I have great inner conflict about subscription to the Spectator. Many of the articles sicken me and make me feel uneasy because they often endorse the running down of our country but the upper team and its writers are too lofty to admit this, if they see it at all. Many self-appointed, self-proclaimed elites write for it. It sets itself up as being balanced overall, but it is clear that Andrew Neil's and Fraser Nelson's Overton Window is very far to the left of most of its subscribers – and the public at large. As is many of its writers. At the same time, I think it is an influential magazine, precisely because of its claims to 'balance' – and because of its contemporary political feel. Because of this I think it important to provide pushback. And these elites are too scared of upsetting one another so it is left up to common commenters to express the points of the ordinary people. Many of the Spectator articles need to be challenged. They lie through omission ie. by leaving out key contextual information or even try to demonise those who don't fit into their milieu like Nigel Farage. Commenting on the Spectator articles is essential to provide pushback to their rotten telegraphing. Didn't know about Gove. I actually don't mind him. I think he was often thwarted by the rich influentials in his party. Maybe he wants to provide pushback too.

      I have more time than most and I think it important to set the young straight and not look up to such as the Spectator as being the province of righteousness. That can only be done through robust commenting with time taken to research and provide context to many of its articles.

      I notice it is offering itself for free now. Either they are trying to harvest a new subscription base, or subscribers are leaving in droves. Maybe both.

      1. Offering itself for free, jelly? What the actual, whilst I'm still paying. Where did you see that please?

        1. Banner across the online version. Free for three months. Am currently partaking. Another commenter has said that their success is stagnating. Possibly why.

          1. Thanks, desperate times desperate measures ……..it needs a shake-up, we'll see if Gove is the man to do it. Johnson back before we know it….

    3. I have great inner conflict about subscription to the Spectator. Many of the articles sicken me and make me feel uneasy because they often endorse the running down of our country but the upper team and its writers are too lofty to admit this, if they see it at all. Many self-appointed, self-proclaimed elites write for it. It sets itself up as being balanced overall, but it is clear that Andrew Neil's and Fraser Nelson's Overton Window is very far to the left of most of its subscribers – and the public at large. As is many of its writers. At the same time, I think it is an influential magazine, precisely because of its claims to 'balance' – and because of its contemporary political feel. Because of this I think it important to provide pushback. And these elites are too scared of upsetting one another so it is left up to common commenters to express the points of the ordinary people. Many of the Spectator articles need to be challenged. They lie through omission ie. by leaving out key contextual information or even try to demonise those who don't fit into their milieu like Nigel Farage. Commenting on the Spectator articles is essential to provide pushback to their rotten telegraphing. Didn't know about Gove. I actually don't mind him. I think he was often thwarted by the rich influentials in his party. Maybe he wants to provide pushback too.

      I have more time than most and I think it important to set the young straight and not look up to such as the Spectator as being the province of righteousness. That can only be done through robust commenting with time taken to research and provide context to many of its articles.

      I notice it is offering itself for free now. Either they are trying to harvest a new subscription base, or subscribers are leaving in droves. Maybe both.

    4. I'll see what I think to the cut of his jib, Rastus (eg if he cobs some or even most of the journos) then I'll decide to renew (or not) my current sub which runs out soon.

  83. Surely this isn't in the script?

    "Czech President Petr Pavel, a former NATO general, has told the New York Times in an interview that Ukraine needs to be “realistic” about its goals in the war and that the most likely outcome of the conflict is that Ukraine will have to concede some territories.
    The admission that Ukraine may have to cede territory is especially surprising from Pavel, who the New York Times describes as one of the most steadfast supporters of Ukraine.

    “The most probable outcome of the war will be that a part of Ukrainian territory will be under Russian occupation, temporarily,” he said.
    However, the “temporary” occupation could last years, according to Pavel, who is currently visiting the U.S.
    He cited war fatigue after 19 months of war and that conflict was “growing everywhere.” Under such a scenario, Ukraine “will have to be realistic” about how likely it is to recover territory from Russia."

    1. That has been the outcome from the start as anyone with a brain would understand. History tells you the outcome.if nothing else.

    3. Minneapolis was all but destroyed by Black Lives Matter activists who torched many buildings to the ground.

      Presumably they intend to build mosques on the vacant land. We live in strange times where most countries, Russia excepted, are run by blithering idiots foremost of which is the UK.

        1. Not long I’ll wager. They have already renamed Colston Hall and presumably Blackboy Hill.

          Hard to believe that Bristol was at one time Britain’s Second City. On my last visit I was shocked to see that the Commercial Rooms (I had known as a boy from a solicitor friend of my mother who was Secretary for years and who would take me there for coffee) is now a Wetherspoons.

          Hard to believe that Castle Street, the main shopping street before the Blitz on Bath and Bristol) now has no shops.

    4. Christian and Jewish leaders in the city seemed to be at ease with it.

      "At a recent public hearing, Christian and Jewish leaders expressed support for extending the hours for the adhan.

      Council Member Lisa Goodman, who on Thursday was observing the final day of Passover, said the Jewish call to prayer — which is generally spoken rather than broadcast — doesn’t face legal restrictions. Observers said church bells regularly toll for Christians."

      https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/minneapolis-becomes-first-major-u-s-city-to-broadcast-islamic-call-to-prayer-5-times-per-day

      I don't know when the relaxed rules came into effect but this was first reported in April last year. I also note that the call to prayer had been allowed 5 times a day during Ramadan 3 years before April 2023 and year round the year before between 7am and 10pm outside Ramadan, typically 3, sometimes 4 times per day.

      1. UK is nominally a Christian country with an established Church, the Head of which in the monarch.

        How many Islamic countries make allowance for Christians, and how many churches are there in Saudi Arabia?

        Do we, as a Christian country, allow other faiths to practice in our country because we are more tolerant, understanding and , let's face it, we feel superior to the others? If so, would we not be less arrogant if we behaved as Islam does and give their religion the same level of respect as they give Christianity in Islamic lands?

      1. I have looked up the GCSE dates:

        The first GCSE exam was on 9th May 2024 and the final GCSE exam was on Wednesday 19th June 2024.

        When was Starmer given free access to Alli's apartment for his son? If was after 19th June then there are some serious questions to be asked.

        1. But official records reveal that the Starmer family’s stay in the luxury accommodation, didn’t begin until 29th May 2024—weeks after the first GCSE exam on 9th May. The final exam, meanwhile, wrapped up on 19th June, nearly a month before they checked out on 13th July.

          Guido Fawkes who broke the story said: “So, how much “revision” time do you really need in a five-star pad post-GCSEs?”

          2. Sunak announced the date of July's General Election on 22 May, so one assumes he could study undisturbed at home up to that date.

          3. Yes, but also during the last three weeks of the GCSE exam period. Which particular exams Starmer's son was taking has not been made public. However, Starmer's stay extended beyond the last GCSE exam date by about three-and-a-half weeks and nine days beyond the date of the General Election.

            This is in Parliament's Register of Members' Interests.

            "Name of donor: Lord Waheed Alli
            Address of donor: private
            Amount of donation or nature and value if donation in kind: Accommodation, value £20,437.28
            Date received: 29 May 2024 to 13 July 2024
            Date accepted: 29 May 2024
            Donor status: individual
            (Registered 2 August 2024)"

            https://members.parliament.uk/member/4514/registeredinterests

          4. Sir Keir never breaks a promise.

            “My boy, Speckle Jim, 16, was in the middle of his GCSEs. I made him a firm promise, a promise that he would be able to get to his school, do his exams, without being disturbed. But if you’re Speckle Jim trying to do your GCSEs and it’s your one chance in life.. the one chance in life… I promised him.. firmly promised him we would move somewhere, get out of the house and go somewhere where he could be peacefully studying. Unlike the Tottenham Turnip who was kidnapped as a child and sold into slavery.”

      2. I have looked up the GCSE dates:

        The first GCSE exam was on 9th May 2024 and the final GCSE exam was on Wednesday 19th June 2024.

        When was Starmer given free access to Alli's apartment for his son? If was after 19th June then there are some serious questions to be asked.

      1. A good business opportunity for a Coach hire company to link up with the gangs and rubber dinghy manufacturers and organise coaches to Calais: From Amsterdam, From Paris, From Berlin, from Rome, and From Warsaw.

        So when people complain that the Labour government has destroyed business Starmer will be able to point with pride to the Coach and Dinghy business which is booming as never before!

    2. The Germans and the French do it,
      Even Dutch and Poles do it,
      Let's do it, let's send them home.

      Apologies to Cole Porter.

    3. Excellent question, Johnny, one we'd all like the answer to…cue deafening silence from Starmer & Co….

        1. Well, I’m really not sure what’s in them but the grandchildren love them! 😘
          In fact they don’t have skins, let alone 4!

  89. Former cabinet minister Michael Gove has been appointed as editor of The Spectator magazine, replacing Fraser Nelson, who ran Britain’s oldest magazine for 15 years.
    Ha.

    And forget worrying about EUs Army.. Eds army is on the march.
    Millipede with no warning suddenly hugely expands the armed Civil Nuclear Police to guard gas oil and power infrastructure. A sweeping expansion of armed policing with no mention at all in Parliament

    1. Similar mould to previous editor Boris Johnson then (not uncle Frank). I'll give it a go until my sub runs out, then decide. Thanks for post, kowlooonbhoy, I hadn't heard the latest Spectator joy. As for Millib*x, not unexpected, presumably when he says 'guard' he means something else.

    2. On the eve of the Brexit agreement both Johnson and Gove arrived in Brussels

      Until then David Frost had held firm and assured us that Britain would not give way on Northern Ireland or UK fishing waters.

      So when the deal was signed the UK had miraculously surrendered on both Northern Ireland and UK Fishing Waters.

      Gove has the reputation for being completely untrustworthy so he was likely to have been at the very root of the UK's capitulation to the EU.

      1. Copied as a BTL Comment:-

        Bob of Bonsall
        a few seconds ago
        Copied from another place still using DISQUS:-
        On the eve of the Brexit agreement both Johnson and Gove arrived in Brussels
        Until then David Frost had held firm and assured us that Britain would not give way on Northern Ireland or UK fishing waters.
        So when the deal was signed the UK had miraculously surrendered on both Northern Ireland and UK Fishing Waters.
        Gove has the reputation for being completely untrustworthy so he is likely to be at the very root of the UK's capitulation to the EU.

    3. Perhaps he's worked out just how many illegal immigrants are jihadis who have been instructed to attack vital infrastructure?

      1. Millipede and working out? That's optimistic. More like he's going to try to shut them down and stop anybody trying to prevent it and keep them working.

    4. From Coffee House, the Spectator

      Michael Gove is the new editor of The Spectator
      Fraser Nelson25 September 2024, 1:26pm
      It’s a time of new beginnings here at The Spectator after Sir Paul Marshall’s historic £100 million bid for the magazine. As we plan for further growth, I’m delighted to announce two major appointments: Charles Moore is to become our new chairman and Michael Gove is to succeed me as editor.

      There’s never a good time to leave a job like mine but, after 15 years and a new owner with big ambitions, there is an obvious time. In many ways, Michael is the clear successor. He’s a first-class journalist who took a detour into politics and not (as so often happens) the other way around. He was my news editor when I was a young reporter at the Times and even then he was writing Spectator cover stories and being tipped as a future editor. His hinterland, love of mischief, intellectual depth, energy, sense of humour and – most importantly – fondness of good writing make him perfect for the job.

      Having known him for so long, I know (for example) that he first declared his ambition to edit The Spectator in an Aberdeen classroom at the age of seven. Now, aged 57, he has made it. He might have taken a circuitous route but his experience, combined with his journalistic skills and the quality of The Spectator team around him, will make for quite a potent combination. Perhaps most importantly, he’s also from the north-east of Scotland.

      Charles was made editor of The Spectator aged 27, went on to edit the Daily Telegraph and has written a weekly column in the magazine for 20 years. His remit as chairman will be to safeguard editorial independence. He is perfectly suited to this role. When it looked like the Emiratis had bought The Spectator, Charles was denouncing the deal long before anyone else. This showed not just his courage but his principles: he stood up for the publication’s readers (and its freedom) even if that meant confronting powerful new owners. I can think of no one better suited to The Spectator chairmanship.

      There’s also a third element here. When I was offered the editorship in the summer of 2009, I was staying with my friend Freddie Sayers in Sweden. I’ve been comparing notes with him ever since. As I leave the job, there’s also a certain symmetry to the fact that Freddie will be masterminding our expansion as publisher of The Spectator and chief executive of Old Queen Street Media (which also owns UnHerd). The success of our American and Australian editions – as well as our broadcasts, emails and first-class online commentary – has the basis of something that can be far bigger. That’s how Sir Paul sees it and Freddie will now be leading the work to make it happen: in our magazines, broadcasts and online.

      Michael will now be working with a Spectator team that took this magazine’s value from £20 million when I became editor to £100 million today. This increase, unseen by any comparable publication anywhere in the world, is the work of their hands. They are the best in the business, not just in the quality of what they commission and edit but in their unmatched ability to innovate and to protect and project The Spectator’s voice. Michael has asked me to become an associate editor. I’ll keep writing and will stay a member of The Spectator family. And the best thing about this job? The honour of working for you, our readers. Our success has been extraordinary, but you have brought us every bit of it. Being able to meet so many of you at our events over the years has been a constant reminder of what makes The Spectator different, what it means to so many people. I can hand the editor’s pen over safe in the knowledge that The Spectator is in good, confident hands – and now has the leadership to start what should be the most successful chapter in its long history.

  90. Holy Smoke. Is this man for real?
    It's all right to accept freebies to help with your son's educational chances, but not to scrape together school fees from your taxed income. And, apparently, the dates are wrong; GCSEs had finished weeks before the General Election.
    And, on his income, he could afford to pay for his and his son's wendyball tickets.

    "Sir Keir Starmer has defended taking free football tickets and accommodation because they were important for his son.

    Earlier this month, The Telegraph reported that Sir Keir repeatedly used an £18 million penthouse owned by Labour peer Lord Alli while campaigning to enter No 10.

    The Prime Minister has been dogged by questions about donations that he has accepted for clothing and tickets to football matches and concerts.

    He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “My boy, 16, was in the middle of his GCSEs. I made him a promise, a promise that he would be able to get to his school, do his exams, without being disturbed.

    “We have lots of journalists outside our house where we live and I’m not complaining about that, that’s fine. But if you’re a 16-year-old trying to do your GCSEs and it’s your one chance in life… I promised him we would move somewhere, get out of the house and go somewhere where he could be peacefully studying.

    “Somebody then offered me accommodation where we could do that. I took that up and it was the right thing to do.”

    The Prime Minister also said that he had to accept free tickets to Arsenal football matches so that he can keep attending games with his son."

    1. But if you’re a 16-year-old trying to do your GCSEs and it’s your one chance in life….

      P.G. Wodehouse's character, Bingo Little, summed up socialism and communism very succinctly.

      It's about taking money from those that have it and keeping it for yourself.

      What about the chances of those in private schools who will lose their schools and those in state schools whose classes will be overwhelmed with extra pupils?

    2. If I wrote what I thought about this lying, grasping bar steward I'd be banned for life. Despicable hardly comes close.

  91. Apropos Korky's apples – we, too, have ha a disappointing season. Many of the trees produced fruit which grew to the size of a large marble – then just stopped growing. Many others are rotting on the branch. I put it down to the shyte weather from mid May till mid July.

    3. My Spartan are nice and red, if not very big. They aren't ripe enough to pick yet, though. I had a fig on my fig tree for the first time ever. Unfortunately, it fell off when it was still unripe 🙁 I have flowers on my passion fruit. It remains to be seen if they will produce fruit.

    1. Yes. A treasure. I continually reread them to bask in the glories of unabashed sexism, racism, nationalism, misogyny and all the others that Fraser was able to cram in.

    2. The Flashman novels are a good introduction to historical events in the 19th Century. Informative while being supremely entertaining.

      1. Was there an eggsplosion?

        Fart bags strapped to cows have been invented, btw, to capture methane. Perhaps we should strap one to the MiliManiac.

      1. I never like parking meters myself either!

        Sometimes Nothing's a real cool hand to play!

        I saw an old film called Long Hot Summer with Paul Newman, Orson Welles, Lee Remmick and Joanne Woodward on Talking Pictures TV a few days ago. I fell asleep in the middle – as I often do – but I enjoyed the bits I did see!

    2. The best one we have is an old Pippin, a local variety, seems to produce a lot of small yellow apples, the deer love them.

    1. Every day, and in every way, he's getting more embarrassing – out of his depth in a paddling pool! "I stand here as.." while sitting, indeed.

  97. BBC antiques dealer and husband reported migrant hiding in van – and were fined £3,000
    Couple held responsible for failing to properly secure their vehicle after discovering the stowaway on a return business trip from France
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/09/25/bbc-antiques-bidding-room-migrant-fined-border-force/

    So the moral is that if an illegal immigrant hides in the back of your van or lorry you had better set him free and don't be foolish enough to tell the authorities or the police.

    My experience is that the French police are rather more sensible. However there was a case a couple of years ago when a farmer's wife went unexpectedly early into labour. The farmer's old car with over 200,000 km on the clock was running low of fuel so he put some of his tractor's pink diesel into it as he dared not risk running out of fuel on his way to the hospital.

    After the birth of his child he got in touch with the tax authorities to tell them that he had put 5 litres of pink diesel into his car as it was an emergency. Instead of thanking him for his honesty and wishing his wife and baby well they decided to throw the book at him and in addition to giving him a fine they charged him tax on the difference between the price of agricultural and private diesel on the whole 200,000 km that his car had done.

    Again the moral is – honesty is very seldom likely to be the best policy!'

    1. Again the moral is – honesty is very seldom likely to be the best policy!'

      Takes a long time to learn that. I hope everyone is paying attention.

    2. Several groups in Ireland used to specialise in removing the pinkness from derv. Long before the internet appeared I asked a colleague how it was done, and he raised his eyebrows but explained the basics.
      Today I expect the process would be more complex. AFAIK, inspectors can dip your fuel tank at the roadside, so if the farmer had refuelled several times, and then also changed the fuel filter, perhaps there would not be much evidence of the dye.

      1. I got stopped driving an ex RN van. The prodnose wanted to dip the fuel tank. He had a struggle; it was fitted with an anti-syphon baffle. I stood by and watched. Then when he managed to test it, I told him, "Tesco's finest". I was not flavour of the month.

  99. Would a 7-year-old be so precocious as to articulate a yearning to edit the Spectator? I find it hard to believe.

  100. Those in power may curtail freedom of speech. Even QE I, recognised one couldn't control freedom of thought!!!

    1. Unless you are praying anywhere near an abortion clinic.

      Of course Bess said she did not want to look into the windows of people's souls but today's politicians have no idea what a soul is.

  102. Was the Alli Palace really for 2Tier's son's GCSE studies???

    Starmer Pretended Lord Alli’s Penthouse Was His Home For Covid Broadcast

    Speculation is rife as to how long Starmer has been using Lord Alli’s properties. He declared £20,000 worth of ‘accomodation’ use during the election, revealed to be for meetings and to watch the election result. The PM’s team came up with an explanation for him to use – it was for his son to study somewhere away from journalists during once in a lifetime GCSE exams…

    Guido cast his mind back to December 2021, when Starmer produced a Christmas video message during the pandemic to attack Boris but praise the new Plan B system. Co-conspirators might just recognise the designer-made bookshelf in the background of the video from pictures of the office room in Lord Alli’s £18 million penthouse. Complete with postcards and family photos…

    https://i0.wp.com/order-order.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/desk-comparison-alli-starmer-covid.png?resize=1536%2C644&ssl=1

    The video was broadcast on BBC One at 7 p.m, 13th December. Five days prior to Starmer’s message the government announced the entirety of England would be moved to Plan B rules in response to the fast spread of Omicron. According to the regulations those who could were meant to work from home. ‘Mr Rules’ even said in the video message:

    “It will be easy to let the festivities we’ve all been looking forward to divert us from our national duty. Getting jabbed, wearing masks, and working from home if we can really will help prevent infections and help prevent the NHS being overwhelmed.”

    Guido’s not sure working from home rules included working from someone else’s home. Must have been nice to head up to the massive roof terrace after that was done though…

    25 September 2024 @ 15:42

      1. The sooner we are rid of him and the the four secret black and midnight hags (Mrs Yvette Balls, Mrs Rachel Joicey, Mrs Angela Anybody's and Mrs Sue Grant-Conlon as some versions of the Scottish play add Hecate the chief of witches) the better it will be for all of us.

    2. It would be interesting to know what expenses, if any, were charged to the taxpayer by Starmer for its use and exactly what Pal Ali charged him, if anything.
      I'm sure the Chancellor's stormtroopers could investigate them both.
      If Ali didn't charge but Starmer claimed, prison should beckon, if only they weren't all full of nasty tweeters.

    3. Not only does it appear that he was working from somebody else’s home but he was doing ‘work’ that was entirely uncalled for. Why on earth did the leader of the Opposition need to do a broadcast at all?

      2. The DT story is new today. The family Photo (Pixilated in the DT) is an old one from the Sun, dear Subject! :-))

  104. Michael Gove will be the new editor of the Spectator. The majority of posters at the Spectator are not happy . This site and Tom's site has been mentioned by a few people so batten down the hatches, you might have Spexciles yet again .

          2. Dancing like a loon a close third, opopanax.:-D (Yes, today’s weed can be the first step down a long staircase.)

          4. I thought I’d replied to you earlier, opopanax…screw loose obvs…look forward to his new position as speccie editor…:-DD

    4. Gove has written in the Speccie about his huge admiration for Gramsci. I think we know what is happening now. It is "The Endgame". The "Long March" is nigh complete.

      I just hope that they are going for it too soon.

      1. Didn’t Dominic Cummings work for Gove? And, of course, Mrs Cummings (Mary Wakefield) is an associate editor (or some such) at the Speccie.

        1. Mary W is an engaging writer but yet another liar. And Domini Cummings alleged brilliance has been hyped beyond belief.

  106. Oh, a par here today.

    Wordle 1,194 4/6

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

  107. You know when you are getting old when you read the obituaries in your local paper and you don't recognise anyone. Nearly all your friends, relations and acquaintances have beaten you to the finishing post.

          2. Managed Genius rank again today. More often get stuck on Amazing with a word short. Often American spelling where the letter ‘s’ is replaced with a ‘z’.

            No claim to other than being a good Architect in my time. I play the simple games to keep the brain wired now that I am retired.

      2. Very well done cori.
        Wordle 1,194 4/6

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

        1. Four for me too.

          Wordle 1,194 4/6

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

      3. Top banana! Just a boidie here…..

        Wordle 1,194 3/6

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

        1. Well, they’re a little further down the thread Rene but, at the risk of pissing everybody off, I’ll post them again!

          Wordle 1,194 3/6

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

      1. Education
        Kyte was raised in Eastern England. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in history and politics from the University of London and a master's degree in international relations from the Fletcher School.[Wiki]

        i.e. She is an Essex girl without any scientific/ engineering or business knowledge.

  111. Starmer is not going to last long…He really does think he's an absolute ruler

    Sue Gray’s salary is not for the public to debate, says Starmer

    Prime Minister defends his chief of staff over her £170,000 pay and takes ‘responsibility’ for No 10 briefing war

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/politics/2024/09/25/TELEMMGLPICT000395476359_17272817735180_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqpVlberWd9EgFPZtcLiMQf0Rf_Wk3V23H2268P_XkPxc.jpeg?imwidth=680 Sue Gray at the UN General Assembly in New York during Sir Keir’s visit
    *
    *
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/09/25/sue-gray-salary-not-for-debate-starmer/

    Massive eruptions BTL. Of course her salary etc is our business if we're paying it.

    1. The fact that all these "scandals" have become public knowledge so soon into the start of the new Government (and nothing known before the election), seems to me that THEY only wanted Starmer to get the election won, then he can be disposed of and THEIR own man be be inserted.

      Or am I just a conspiracy theorist?

      1. No. I thought he'd be gone by now. The left want the fragrant Angela…. She'd make Lammy look a towering intellectual.

      3. No. Suggestions for replacement? My guess…not a man, well not an obvious one, but someone in a 'frock'.

          4. Allegedly not a very savoury person, albeit great as Reginald Iolanthe Perrin, especially in the first series.

          13. OMG, Sue – you are so right, didn’t she marry one of the other characters, so many years since I watched it – possibly even early 60s..how time flies 🙁

          19. I used to see Coronation Street if I visited my grandmother’s house in the 1960s and maybe the very early 70s. I remember when Thelma Barlow was electrocuted in the bath and when (I think) Lucille Hewitt’s dad was killed when he was crushed by a car falling on him when the jack collapsed. Happy times ;-).

          20. I used to watch it until I had children, no time then for anything else. I remember the car crush. Real life…not the angst about life we have today. As you say, happy times 😀

    2. Who the hell does he think he is, “not for the public to debate!” How bloody dare he. Talk about deaf.

    3. R. Spowart
      just now
      Message Actions
      If her salary is, in anyway, paid for by public funds, then Yes, it IS a legitimate topic for public debate.

      As are the salaries of ANY Public Servant paid for by the Poor Bloody Taxpayer.

      reply
      3
      0

    4. The man is absolutely bloody mad. Bat shit crazy. ( Love that expression; it is totally illogical but 100% understandable. Like "getting mediaeval on your arse".)

      1. I don't really understand that saying. The bats I've studied just shit where they are, or quite often on their way out for the night. Once it builds up so access/sleeping quarters difficult to access (although warm from the shit heat), they just move on elsewhere, often in the same building/tree trunk/wherever. Also vampire bats (not UK) will regurgitate blood and feed their neighbours if those neighbours haven't fed. Socialists, if you will……

        1. Proper socialists perhaps. I love bats, although I came across a dodgy looking one offshore W Africa.

          1. Yes I think so, mola. Highly unlikely bats UK carry rabies, but even with them I would only pick up wearing thick gloves – and most definitely W. Africa – haven’t been but sounds fab, did you enjoy your time there?

          2. Off and on. I was regarded as the onboard naturalist. The dodgy bat was under the bunk sheet of one of our crew, whizzing about but without being seen. I had a pair of thick gloves on, I'm not keen on big spiders, and as I lifted the sheet their was this, probably insectivorous bat, with a mouthful of needle like teeth. Chucked him out the porthole. Wasn't that far from shore.

            I did enjoy the natural history of wherever I worked, mainly marine, fish and reptiles, but also the birds. You can't beat the tropics for variety.

          3. I sounds absolutely wonderful, how I envy you, I love all wildlife – simpler to deal with than humans. Bats all have needle teeth, it’s really all they have to defend themselves with if they’re caught. My husband freaks out if one comes in the house, hilarious to see and hear him. I was bought a Mark Catesby book as birthday present, it’s a treasure trove, also have one of Art in India, all by Indian artists – some odd looking fish in there.

          4. This bat was also naked, no fur, just a clawed leathery teethy beast. Will check out Mark Catesby books.

          9. Auberon Waugh had a bit of a thing about this. He has been vindicated in the last few years following his death.

        2. Typical socialists, bleeding people white to feed those who can't be bothered to fend for themselves.

        3. That is the bizarre thing. The saying is so obviously inaccurate and illogical; but we automatically understand it.

    6. Is she picking her nose? So low grade like the rest of them. We are become the laughing stock in the world.

      The staggering revelations and sheer scale of the cronyism should bring the lot of them down. That and the dreadful picture TTK paints of the state of the UK finances and public services for all the world to see, both alarming UK companies and industry and putting investors off from investing in the UK.

    7. Just read Gray's political history at Wiki, What a political animal. She should be put down as you would a rabid dog for its own good.

  112. Spectaclesgate. Wardrobegate. Flatgate. GCSEgate. Graygate. Lammygate…..

    Surely the skids must be under Cur Ikea Slammer?

        2. That would be the obvious choice, but possibly Reeves would have something to say about it……..fight!……..

    1. 393453+ up ticks,

      Evening B3,

      Lest we forget ,

      A sausage alone does NOT a full English make.

      My dad use to say that when he was not saying "move along the bayonet please room for one more".

      I found both to be pretty profound.

      1. Now is the Vintner of our discontent
        Made inglorious summed up by this Tool of Woke;
        And all the clouds that lour'd upon our house
        In the deep bosom of the taxation buried.
        Now are our brows bound with vicious wreaths;
        Our bruised arms hung up for monuments;
        Our stern alarums changed to wary fleecings,
        Our energy purchases to spiteful measures.
        Grim-visaged Starmer hath smooth'd his wrinkled front;
        And now, instead of spouting barbed words & deeds
        Lets fright poor souls by fearful Reeves,
        He capers nimbly in Lord Alli's chamber
        To the lascivious pleasing of his lute.

        (With Apols to the Late Mr Shakespeare)

  114. 393453+ up ticks,

    .May one ask, have the indigenous sane element of British society got a boycotting party, think of the beneficial power that could wield

  116. The man is fekking mad. The woman's salary is paid by the taxpayer; we have every right to discuss it.

    "Sue Gray’s salary should not be “the subject of public debate”, Sir Keir Starmer has insisted.

    The Prime Minister defended his chief of staff after it emerged that she is paid £170,000 a year, £3,000 more than him."

        2. It's possible the tide could have been halted for another reason – it's a bit of a Gray area.

    3. He is conveniently forgetting that we employ him rather than the other way around. He isn't a very nice man, is he?

    4. This equates to £107K net a year or £8,941 a MONTH (assuming she pays no NI as a pensioner). Tax of £63k.

  117. Time for me to go. Picked up another barrowload of fallen apples to compost. Took empty bottles to the bottle bank. . (If anyone asks, I always say I am doing a favour for Soldier Neighbour…!) T'was a chilly, grey sort of day. Rain expected overnight (but then it was last night…) Market tomorrow.

    Have a splendid evening thinking of reasons why you "borrowed" someone's flat for three years…

    If there was an opposition – they could embarrass Cur Ikea and his gang of troughers by demanding that "gifts" in kind should be taxable at the recipient's highest rate….. But, of course, there is no opposition…….

    A demain.

    1. My late next door neighbour, on the Cromford side, has two bins for recycling that, when she died, were absolutely FULL of empty beer cans, wine and spirits bottles and nothing else.
      After the place had been broken in to, I had a look round before I secured it, and there were enough cans and bottle to fill another two bins.

  118. The Norwegian owner of the Bulgarian company that sold the exploding pagers to the hizbollocks is missing. Travelled to the US, hasn't returned, police advised.
    Either in hiding, or a concrete overcoat.

    1. According to Garrison Kiellor there is a Statue of The Unknown Norwegian In Lake Wobegon. The story as read by Garrison is one of the funniest stories I've ever heard – sadly I no longer have the cassette recording…so if anyone knows of it and can post it here please do…

          1. No idea, but a quick websearch give an extract from Wiki to suggest it is:-
            The 800 residents (1950 Census: 728) are proud of the Statue of the Unknown Norwegian (so called because the model left before the sculptor could get his name).

      1. Why did you downvote me yesterday, Mola? (For my remark on sausages and pork being sort of contiguous0

          1. I did assume it was a fat finger job. I never, ever downvote anyone but this very slip has happened to my great shame.

          1. Ta. It doesn't matter – just would hate to offend you as I like you very much :-))) (the nicest fish I know)

          4. Ta. It doesn't matter – just would hate to offend you as I like you very much :-))) (the nicest fish I know)

        2. Saucisson sec, salami and fuet when well made and given time to cure, dry and very finely sliced are exquisite.

  123. It's time the decision makers started to pay the price for their decisions.
    Guillotine the judge.
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13890535/Fury-France-student-19-murdered-exclusive-Paris-suburb-22-year-old-Moroccan-rapist-released-jail-awaiting-deportation.html

    The suspect, named by French media as Taha O., is a 22-year-old from Morocco who had been due to be expelled from France after serving five years in jail for raping a student in 2019, Le Monde newspaper and BFM TV said.

    On June 20, he had reportedly been sent straight from jail to a detention centre for illegal migrants pending his expulsion, but a judge set him free on September 3, as the expulsion process was getting bogged down in administrative delays.

  126. Only a very special person could impose the supranational 2030 agenda on their electorate and remain popular.
    Starmer obviously isn't one of them.
    I don't think there are any Western leaders that are.

  127. Old Confucian saying: "Pat on back does not fill rice bowl….."

    More than £3.5bn was wiped off the value of car giants Ford and GM this afternoon after analysts warned that Western carmakers would struggle to keep up with Chinese rivals.

    Shares in GM fell as much as 6.4pc, while Ford dropped as much as 5.1pc.

    Investors sold after Morgan Stanley issued a warning that the carmakers would be among those to struggle to keep up with the Chinese in developing the artificial intelligence software needed for the next generation of cars.More than £3.5bn was wiped off the value of car giants Ford and GM this afternoon after analysts warned that Western carmakers would struggle to keep up with Chinese rivals.

    2. Whilst Western manufacturers have realised EVs aren't the money spinners (or even sellers) they were cracked up to be, China continues to go big on them. Guess they'll see how that pans out. I understand China also continues to build tower blocks, although there are many unsold apartments. Ditto EVs comment.

  128. Spain to legalise half a million undocumented migrants..
    that'll show em, and make em think twice about making the trip to Europe.

    2. Apparently this is all our own fault, kowloon…we're just not breeding as we should, no longer having large families – often just two children when we should have at least four, having children later, women in the workplace and not at home…yadda yadda….so if we think we're being overrun we're sadly mistaken because a) we're not and b) if we are it's our own fault. This is the latest narrative….more will likely follow…

      1. And, yet, there are too many people in the world, and technology can do pretty well all the jobs that need doing.
        How does that work?

        1. There are too many people but they’re spread unevenly around the world (immigration anyone?) why some countries eg Japan embrace technology more than others, although Japan now seems to be encouraging more than it did….and babies too, everywhere, workers of the future. I know it seems like madness….

  129. Evening, all. Just back from a walk (with Kadi) to the pub. I don't do it often, but I had a voucher for a free glass of wine so I thought, why not? Had something to eat while I was there, too. I've spent too many years in France to be happy with drinking without food. Very pleasant. Kadi got some dog treats as well, so we were both happy. I've had a good day all round, for a change. A very nice young man came from a Cheshire plumbers and looked at the tank, took temporary measures to stop it leaking and gave me a quote, which I accepted. Upshot is, I am booked in to have the oil removed, stored, restored, a new tank fitted and connected, all checked and the old tank removed at the beginning of October. I just have to remove some branches at the back because the new tank is longer and there are regulations about clearance. Very efficient.

    Nobody in Labour is in the least bit interested in people who have worked all their lives and tried to provide for their old age so as not to be a burden. Labour only likes the dependent and the underclass. They are more easily controlled. I noticed in my local rag the LD MP has jumped on the Countryside Alliance bandwagon (she's urging people to vote for their countryside awards). On the other hand, the County Council is going for an all plant based menu. I always knew they were vegetables.

  130. 393453+ up ticks,

    Pillow ponder,

    Ode to the indigenous peoples via banger the tool,

    Theirs is not to reason why, theirs is but to do and die.

    Dt,
    Sue Gray’s salary is not for the public to debate, says Starmer
    Prime Minister defends his chief of staff over her £170,000 pay and takes ‘responsibility’ for No 10 briefing war

  131. Nina Myskow has just said on GBN that the channel migrants are, “People we’ve abandoned”. Eh? What planet is she on?

        2. I had no idea she had any Scottish antecedents. I note from a quick google that she failed to graduate then worked on a teen magazine and subsequently on junk TV. My instinct about her was not misplaced…

    3. Nina Myskow is a truly repulsive woman: she constantly interrupts and talks over the other members of the panels she is on and then screams like a banshee if anyone tries to say a word when she is talking.

      Three other lefty women on GB News panels are: Rebecca Reid, Amy Nickel-Turner and Tessa Dunlop. They all refuse to answer the questions put to them, interrupt other speakers and are completely offensive and evasive. Tessa Dunlop is quite extraordinarily rude and behaves like a guttersnipe.

      I wonder if these thoroughly foul women are aware that the way they behave and express themselves does great damage to the points of view they are presenting.

      GBNews has to be impartial and present people who express different points of view. However I cannot believe that, by the using these four women, the channel is not deliberately exposing just how very foul, inconsistent and muddle-headed the Left is,

      1. Rastus – the appointment of Gove as editor of the Speccie perhaps explains where the owner of GBNews actually stands, I feel physically sick now.

      2. Rebecca Reid is OK. I don’t agree with her views on most things and she overhypes issues about the risk of women being assaulted (outside the obvious hotspots which lefties rarely mention) but she has some self-deprecatory humour. Myskow, and Dunlop are beyond ghastly – outright rude, talking over others, and über patronising. Nickell-Turner is a china doll with an analytical ability bypass.

  133. Off to bed now, chums, so I wish you all a Good Night. Sleep well, and see you all tomorrow.

    1. I thought we had reached the bottom of the pit with Cameron as foreign secretary.

      We have gone even deeper into the mire!

Comments are closed.