Wednesday 28 February: Don’t blame baby boomers for politicians’ mismanagement of housing

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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502 thoughts on “Wednesday 28 February: Don’t blame baby boomers for politicians’ mismanagement of housing”

  4. Elderly man killed at London train station in ‘unprovoked and despicable’ attack. 28 February 2024.

    An elderly man was killed in the early hours of Tuesday morning outside a railway station in an “unprovoked and despicable” attack.

    British Transport Police (BTP) said the victim was found “badly hurt” by a member of staff outside Harold Wood Station in Havering, east London at around 4:30 am.

    There seems to be some online suspicion that he was Jewish!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/02/27/elderly-man-killed-in-london-unprovoked-despicable-attack/

    3. Are the police waiting for the assailant to convert? His “Christian” name will be John Smith.

    4. Are the police waiting for the assailant to convert? His “Christian” name will be John Smith.

    5. That’s dreadful, the MSM won’t spread that around, it’s not in line with their current adgenda.

    6. “A man has been arrested in connection with the incident and remains in police custody.”

      An Elizabeth Line railway worker said the victim had been an “elderly man” but declined to provide any further information.

      It is obvious that the assailant was not a white male Christian or they would have blazoned it in the headline.

      No comments allowed under the article: surprise, surprise!

  5. Good morrow, gentlefolk. Today’s (recycled) story
    THE POWER OF PRAYER 2

    In a Tottenham church on Sunday morning a preacher said, “Anyone with ‘special needs’ who wants to be prayed over, please come forward in front of the altar.”

    With that, Leroy got in line, and when it was his turn, the Preacher asked, “Leroy, what do you want me to pray about for you?”

    Leroy replied, “Preacher, I need you to pray for help with my hearing.” The preacher put one of his fingers in Leroy’s ear, then he took his other hand and placed it on top of Leroy’s head; and then he prayed and prayed and eventually the whole congregation joined in with great enthusiasm.

    After a few minutes, the preacher removed his hands, stood back and asked, “Leroy, how is your hearing now?”

    Leroy answered, “I don’t know. It ain’t ’til Thursday.” </spoiler

  8. Guards to patrol MPs’ events in £31m security drive in wake of anti-Semitic attacks. 28 February 2024.

    Security guards are to be deployed at events held by MPs as part of a £31 million drive to protect politicians amid increased threats following the Israel-Hamas conflict.

    MPs at risk will be able to use private security guards for constituency events or surgeries, in an announcement Home Secretary James Cleverly pledged would “safeguard the people, processes and institutions upon which our democracy relies”.

    Our Democracy has joined Special Relationship in my Lexicon of Lies. It omits to tell you here for example that though the guards will be private the peasants will be paying for them and that you will not be getting any!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/02/28/guards-patrol-mp-events-31m-security-drive-anti-semitism/

    1. Better the buggers that promoted the trouble feel it themselves rather than hiding behind security. Maybe they shouldn’t have encouraged all the worlds scum to come to live in the West? Just a thought.
      The rest of us don’t get protection. We have to fend for ourselves, but without somebody else to pay for protection.
      Edit: Spolling

    2. MPs voting themselves protection from islam on public funds, while at the same time going along with the official narrative that muslims are victims and the ‘far right’ is a real threat.
      This hypocrisy can’t be allowed to continue.

      1. It’s just getting completely ridiculous. This cannot be ignored any longer.
        Every man and his dog knows what Islam is trying to do to our country.
        It’s got to be stopped.
        Not all of us brits can move to Spain Portugal and France.

        1. Rural areas are generally far better.- in France as well as in Britain.

          Brittany is rural but Rennes – 50 miles south of where we live – is already polluted by culturally alien immigration.

      3. “……..This hypocrisy can’t be allowed to continue.”

        You’re right but it will..

    3. Will those “private” security guards be armed?? because they’re of very limited use if they’re not…………

      I read ex-SAS are already guarding some MP’s

      Sad Khanage is always escorted by armed policemen when out and about

      The right of self defence another right for them but heaven forfend the hoi-polloi should have the same rights………….

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/22ad8d61a25633959272a81ed03d9a15e4556a92c83ff1d66e499a015651532c.jpg
      ‘Morning Minty

  9. Good morning, chums. Stayed up late last night and overslept this morning. Now I’m off to Wordle,

    Wordle 984 4/6

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

    1. I wish I could do the same, Sir Jasper. Maybe later. (Good morning, btw.)

      LATER: After doing a bit of urgent shopping for a neighbour I finally decided to go back to bed for a short while until 11 am. I woke up at 2 pm! Now enjoying a cuppa before getting out into the garden for an hour to do a little more weeding. I obviously needed the Zeds but I think it will be an effort to get to sleep tonight.

  11. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/487136804e69f67a5f5b7d9d503a3ad57433004ac403a81ae225946a6f95a35a.png The logo on this photograph, from this morning’s DT, labels the device as a ‘specialist’ boring machine. Really? What other uses would it have? I used to work for the company that, for over a century, were the world leaders in manufacturing such ‘specialist’ units.

    Is it ‘specialist’ in the same manner that a teapot is a ‘specialist’ means of mashing tea; a Rubber Johnny is a ‘specialist’ method of preventing pregnancies; or a bed is a ‘specialist’ device for sleeping and shagging on?

    These ‘specialism’ tendencies could become a cult.

    1. Good morning, Grizzly. I thought it was a specialist machine for making mincemeat of the man giving a demonstration at the top of the photo. Or perhaps for scalping the woman (?) with a long ponytail at the front of the photo.

      1. Good morning, Auntie Elsie.

        ‘Mincemeat’? Is that a term pooftahs use when they’re on the pull?🤣

        1. Is that because there was a certain amount of blind faith that when two started from opposite ends they would eventually meet exactly at the right spot?

        2. Talking of moles our garden is overrun by the blighters – we have tried without success to get rid of them but none of the numerous methods of getting rid of them work for us.

          1. The problem is that while you consider it to be your garden, the moles know that it is their garden.

        3. I don’t think so, Grizzly. Molars are what I have in my mouth for chomping on my food at mealtimes.

          1. You are very nearly correct, Auntie Elsie, but your molars are for grinding food, not ‘chomping’ it. Your incisors are for cutting through the food (i.e ‘chomping’ it), your canines are for shredding it and your premolars are for chewing it.

            This column’s erstwhile fang-wrangler, PtV, will concur with this.😉

    4. Possible a use for it in Westminster.
      To replace the specialist boring machinery already installed.

  12. G’day all and the 77th,

    Drizzly start at McPhee Towers, wind SSW, 6℃ warming to 10℃. by this evening – with the next band of rain.

    Here is the catalyst for serious civil unrest in Britain if it comes to pass after the general election.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c0335b089f02d3d7478107824b7f4ea2e157899f054ee456fd8a2fa361c93ac7.png

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/02/27/islamophobia-is-todays-blasphemy-wrong-speak-criminalised/

    The tone of BTL comments would seem to indicate so.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/73378baa870f276cab6446e1daf929bc87d05cbc970f4068664ad4a66298bc33.png

    Does anyone disagree?

    2. Good morning FM,

      The rise and rise of sectarian politics is with us again .

      We all remember the birth of the troubles in N Ireland , Liverpool sectarianism and football nonsense in Scotland .

      It is so alarming to think we are going down that route again . We SHOULD be very fearful , and especially so if Labour come to power .

      The glittering prize will be theirs . It is possible for a party to win with a largely ethnic or religious appeal.

      https://thecritic.co.uk/the-rise-and-rise-of-sectarian-politics/

    4. An example of the grip, reach and selectiveness of islam?

      A couple of weeks ago I was at a social evening organised by a club of which I am a member. Attendees take their food and drink of choice and I chose, amongst other items, to take some sausage rolls that I’d made. On offering one to a woman on our table she declined, claiming to be a moselm and therefore not allowed to eat pork. I shrugged my shoulders and got on with listening to the music.

      Later, I learned from an acquaintance, that many years ago the woman who had spurned my offer of a delicious 😇 home-made sausage roll had married a Turk and had moved to Turkey and lived there for a decade or so. I don’t know, nor care to know, whether she remains a practising member of that particular lifestyle but she was at an event where western music was being played and people, including this woman, were dancing and enjoying themselves. Now, I thought that western music/dancing was, as is pork, haram to practising moslems.

      She could, of course, have merely declined my offer instead of making her particular point.

        2. Live singer performing pop music from the late 50s up to the 70s-80s with a country and western theme. Not really my choice but better than a disco. We’ve had a couple of good live bands and a rubbish one in the last year or so. She attends most events.

      3. In the marina at Marmaris we met a very agreeable Turkish Muslim whose father had been the ambassador in Paris and who had been educated at a lycée in Paris and at university in the USA.

        Ali used to sail over to Simi or Rhodes in order to restock his boat’s stores with whisky, gin, wine and pork.

        He was what I call a CofE Muslim – he was nominally a Muslim but did not take his religion too seriously just as many people in the CofE are nominally Christian but don’t let their stated religion rule their lives!

      1. 366 this year.

        Edit – you were one ahead of me here – of course next and last year, I had only 364 Unbirthdays!

      2. 366 this year.

        Edit – you were one ahead of me here – of course next and last year, I had only 364 Unbirthdays!

    6. Many thanks to all for my birthday greetings! Today is also the half-centenary of me voting, having had a general election on my 18th birthday.

      I have a choir rehearsal tonight, preparing a set of Eastern European music for a new organ that has been installed in Pershore Abbey, singing in Czech, Russian and Latin, but the M.D. bottled out of the Hungarian, so we are doing Jesus with the Traders in the Temple in English.

      Otherwise, I am on my own pondering the housework that is piling up and will take all the springs I have left to make a dent into. My mother says I need a wife to sort out my cottage, but then she is 98 and of a generation when women did not feel offended by such a suggestion. My “wife” is Henry II, a plastic lump of tech with a smiley face. When Henry gets bolshie with the grime, then Henry III is in the shed waiting – bought before the EU reduced the suckery.

      I think I’ll celebrate with a carvery in a pub over the river I went to last year, and then sleep it off. Right now, I am playing trees, having pulled down the honeysuckle swallowing up a pear tree, and now to be laid across an arch I built by the gate by tying together a hazel and a bay.

  15. Good morning, all. Overcast last time I looked, around 06:30, with the patio showing signs of earlier light rain.

    JRM coming late to the table and Bob Moran calling him out on another self-administered threat created by one, some or all of of the following predispositions that infect the political class: ideologically driven, inept, corrupt, lazy or uninterested in anything other than their position, salary, and of course, expenses.

    https://twitter.com/bobscartoons/status/1762515021098049550

    Whatever they may claim to be or believe in, it’s clear from the state the nation finds itself in, is that 650 elected representatives over recent decades have been in lock-step when it comes to making a balls-up of running the UK.

    Other major problems these cretins have created: Net Zero and its implications, seemingly all-powerful mayors of major cities, crumbling infrastructure, HS2, criminal activity unchecked etc. etc.

    On the horizon, food shortages as the attack on farms and farmers is intensified. Which MP of the 650 will be the first to bleat when the shit is, as near as makes no difference to the outcome, close to hitting the fan blades?

    1. 384009+ up ticks,

      Morning KtK,
      I do second everything in your post but I see it as the same sentiments being repeated these past near four decades.

  16. Morning all 🙂😊
    Three words to describe the weather, grey, fog, wet.
    Three words to describe our politicians Absolutely King Useless.
    Have a nice day.

      1. I keep seeing forecasts telling us we are going to have at least six inches of snow next month. How can this happen? Poor old Sir Dave has dedicated his later years to Climate Change. In every other paragraph he mentions it.

  17. 38009+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Wednesday 28 February: Don’t blame baby boomers for politicians’ mismanagement of housing.

    Baby Boomers 1946 / 1960 the remnants of real man / womanhood still reeling from a war protecting democracy and the home front.

    Currently they can and are blamed for the state of these Isles today, via the thick as ox shit,
    very dangerous, destructive, treacherous politico’s along with their hard core indigenous following minions.

    Baby boomers AKA “the workforce” constructed a decent nation out of a damaged
    battered nation,unified in their intent to rebuild a nation fit to raise a family in, and they succeeded in the extreme.

    Those were the days / years of decency and self respect, and rationing until 1953.

    Today we have the complete reverse, and in the main, as the voting pattern shows that is the requirements of the voters, decade on decade of deep shite governing factors pursuing a foreign criminal agenda.

    Truly harvest time is with us and we are reaping what has been…….

    1. Lazy American terminology creeping in again.

      It is fashionable to lump in everyone born between the war and the 1960s as “boomers” because America did indeed have a baby boom throughout the 1950s. In Britain, however, there were two peaks with a slump in the mid-1950s – the time when I was born.

      The post-war boom, who are now all retired, were the Beatles generation, the 1960s hedonists and student protesters who never had it so good, and much maligned by the generation that had lived through the Blitz and then sacrificed so much during rationing to rebuild.

      Those born in the 1960s, contemporaries of Boris Johnson and David Cameron, grew up in the Thatcher era of materialism and upward mobility, where there was no such thing as society and the undeserving poor were just a nuisance and probably lazy and good-for-nothing, whatever the cause of their poverty.

      Few consider the relatively few numbers born in the 1950s, who missed the Summer of Love, were too young for Vietnam, but hit the oil crisis and the subsequent inflation and recession head-on. My generation were all too aware that things that our elders took for granted (and so too the Thatcher generation) were running out and what remained needed to be conserved rather than wasted.

      I celebrate today half a century of voting in a general election, yet what I have got to show for it?

      Why should I be lumped in with the other two groups with the blanket term “boomers”?

      2. Happy Birthday! I too was born in the mid-50s. The yuppies of the Thatcher era were really upper middle class types who already had a head start. Social mobility died with the grammar schools.

  18. Good Moaning.
    A plea. I have lost the cartoon of the Chihuahua mirrored as a lion in a puddle. Could whoever posted it, please post it again.

          1. I think some one had doctored the pike.
            Drat and double drat. Looks like I was too efficient. That’ll teach me to keep my laptop clear.

    1. Chances Grifters and Cowards.
      Well that hits the proverbial nail right on the head.
      And I hope it hurts.

    1. Let’s face the facts, these horrible vile creatures carry out these disgusting appalling acts on children because they know they will get away with it.
      Because of our futile weaknesses and because of who they are.
      Stand up straight and be counted you useless politicos. Oh you did, all nine of you.

  22. ‘Morning All

    Medley

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/587fd72659f9932a496e373aec6f50bf427a66602cf7bf53f8f008ee19ea4037.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3862a29d0a42b12a7ba2cad77d29662a28c27ce46af21cded1c2d751792ffc0e.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5bc98759b5352bc272e6b07180c93476646c9599df5920b90e75e69962aa57df.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0f090c9476cc68329f2d1127435b553fe27ce357ec19400b40bc08fd826adc7f.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/eb5d02222e6eadda41c81350b3e361adcf433fd64bf9ead94358aef26efe3eac.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3b220ac0cfca2a071fe6e979020764744dd30d35b3e7023d18108bad572077d6.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/928cffc612b08e813beaefeea3b00f7727ae865b812fd390ecf640c3548af572.jpg

      1. Yet the media and political class so desperately want to keep the attention on the man, not the ball. None of them are prepared to discuss massive, uncontrolled muslim invasion. Not one.

        1. And that is the reason why they are taking advantage of the lack of commitment to our established laws, that have protected our society for hundreds of years and has made it attractive to overseas visitors.

          1. I think the state would be far happier just for those to go away and heir ‘new order’ to be the only one.

    2. Excellent comment that, by Thomas Sowell.

      You can find him on You Tube. Well worth listening to.

  23. Well,well well

    First Van Tam to Moderna and now………..

    https://twitter.com/MarkMasonDream/status/1762459129296089305?s=20

    https://twitter.com/freddiesayers/status/1762451489472028787?t=LxU6or-CUZb77jZAiTqK_A&s=19

    Rats deserting a sinking ship………..

    Medicines regulator failed to flag Covid vaccine side effects and must be investigated, say MPs

    All-party group believe MHRA were aware of heart and clotting issues

    in February 2021 but did not highlight the problems for several months

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/02/27/mhra-covid-vaccine-side-effects-mps-all-party-parliamentary/

    “You can’t hide the pile of bodies from excess deaths for ever” (The ONS is giving it a good try though)

    https://www.sgtreport.com/2024/02/you-cant-hide-the-dead-bodies-edward-dowd-testifies-on-excess-deaths/

    1. A fellow Nottler posted a short video of Katie Hopkins explaining that they have adopted a new way of counting unexpected and unexplained deaths in order to make the numbers seem less horrific.

      “Truth’s a dog must to kennel; he must be whipped out …”

      [King Lear]

      Does a single day pass without our being sprayed by a shower of lies from the PTB and the MSM?

  24. Politics latest news: Tories ‘tearing themselves to pieces’ over Lee Anderson row, says Nigel Farage
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/02/28/rishi-sunak-latest-news-tories-lee-anderson-farage-reform/

    A thread of BTL comments:

    Richard Tracey

    Is it racist to criticise Christianity?
    Is it racist to criticise Judaism?
    Is it racist to criticise Buddhism?
    Is it racist to criticise Hinduism? Is it racist to criticise Pantheism or Zoroastrianism?
    We do not have blasphemy laws in the UK and we are free to say what we like about religions so why should Islam say that any criticism of it is racist? There are Christians, Jews and Muslims of assorted races and colours.

    Reply to Richard Tracey by Steven Young.

    But if you criticise the Jewish politicians or their actions you are immediately jumped on and classed as Anti-Semitic.

    Reply to Richard Tracey by Arthur Dent.

    True but people often use religious criticism to mask racism.
    Vast majority of Muslims are of a different race.

    Reply to Arthur Dent and Steven Young by Richard Tracey

    I am a white Christian – is a white Muslim a different race to me? Is a black Muslim a different race to a white Muslim, an oriental Muslim or a Semitic Muslim.

    Confusing race with religion is an old trick and it is high time people saw that it is a trick designed to create confusion and muddy the waters.

    1. ‘Race’ is a subjective term. We are all (at least, most of us) part of the human race. Whatever their traits, all breeds of dog are classified as Canis familiaris. For consistency one should use the word ‘breed’ rather than ‘race’ to describe variations in the outer appearance of human beings.

      1. As the usurping Scottish king in Shakespeare’s play said to the nasty looking group of murderers he had employed to murder Banquo:

        Ay, in the catalogue ye go for men,
        As hounds and greyhounds, mongrels, spaniels, curs,
        Shoughs, water-rugs, and demi-wolves are clept
        All by the name of dogs.

    2. Have there been any terrorist attacks in Britain by Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Rastafarians? Yet most of the adherents of those religions are of different races, and not of the indigenous British. Racism used to be (and still is sometimes) used as a defence by Muslims against criticism of Islam. Use of the term ‘Islamophobia’ is now the preferred silencing mechanism.

    3. Have there been any terrorist attacks in Britain by Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Rastafarians? Yet most of the adherents of those religions are of different races, and not of the indigenous British. Racism used to be (and still is sometimes) used as a defence by Muslims against criticism of Islam. Use of the term ‘Islamophobia’ is now the preferred silencing mechanism.

    4. I remember having a conversation with an Irish student who could not be persuaded that being anti-Protestant was not racist. There was no way I could convince him that RC or Protestantism was a religion, not a race.

  25. How Western boots on the ground in Ukraine could play out. 28 February 2024.

    Nato allies swiftly closed ranks when Emmanuel Macron said what you are really not supposed to say.

    His comments suggesting there could be “boots on the ground” in Ukraine broke a golden rule of not provoking Moscow.

    The remarks triggered a predictable row about escalation. But troops in Ukraine don’t have to trigger a nuclear conflict.

    Since the decision would be Putin’s you know this how? One of the surprises of this war is that it has not yet expanded. Vlad has ignored the vast materiel and military aid input into Ukraine which is the main reason that it is still going. I don’t think that he could realistically accept changes that might alter the end result.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/02/27/analysis-how-western-boots-in-ukraine-could-play-out/

    1. The great tragedy and the great cruelty is that Ukraine would have secured a far better agreement with Putin before the war started.

      The decision of Johnson and Biden to offer support to encourage and corrupt Zelensky to go to war with Russia was evil.

      1. Maybe the Eastern region could have been given more autonomy and with the passage of time, people in the region could have moved political allegiance towards Russia or Europe. But it seems that death and destruction were the chosen route, an absolute tragedy for both sides.

        1. The route was chosen by the Right wing Ukrainian political establishment, Nazis, literally. Blame is entirely on them, not Russia. The Russians would have even left the Russian areas of Ukraine alone if it had not been for the persecution of Russian speakers in those areas by Ukraine. The Ukrainian regime even went so far as to declare Russian an illegitimate language.

        2. The route was chosen by the Right wing Ukrainian political establishment, Nazis, literally. Blame is entirely on them, not Russia. The Russians would have even left the Russian areas of Ukraine alone if it had not been for the persecution of Russian speakers in those areas by Ukraine who even went so far as to declare Russian an illegitimate language.

    2. It is no surprise to me that this war has not expanded. I have said before that Russians say what they mean, no more and no less. It is built into the culture. They will not, for example give you a big smile and a glad to see you, if they are not. No false bonhomie, like Americans. So, when Putin said he had no intention of having this war spread and it was simply his intention to protect Russia from the predation of the West, he meant it, in the same way that everything he has said throughout this conflict, that is verifiable , turned out to be true. Unfortunately people in the West still live, psychologically, in the Soviet era when deceit and dishonesty were the norm. But let me remind you that Communism is a Western invention foisted on the Russians by people mostly educated in the West. Communists lie but true Russians are very straightforward. I’f you met my aunts Antoinette, or Camilla,, you would know within a couple of minutes, unless you were exceptionally dim witted, whether they liked you or not. And to any questio0n they would give you a blunt answer.

  26. 384009+ up ticks,

    May one ask,
    Is it monies well spent, when regarding the
    £31 million protection package for the political overseers, macabre laughter with the ladder being pulled up on their supporting minions.

    Having gripped the rabid tiger ( importation of criminals / terrorism)firmly by the tail they now find the rabid tiger wants a piece of their pin stripe clad arses.

    The princess of horror HH suggest’s they could, the political overseers, work from home.

      1. 384009+ up ticks,

        Morning KP,
        Only for a short while, once they give a lift to the alien enemas from the river to the sea, they in turn will be devoured.

  27. New Zealand repeals world-first ban on young people ever being able to buy cigarettes
    The law, due to come into effect in July, would have prevented anyone born after 1 January 2009 from buying tobacco products.

    Tuesday 27 February 2024 11:59, UK

    Why you can trust Sky News
    New Zealand is today repealing what would have been a world-first ban on young people ever being able to buy cigarettes.

    The law, due to come into effect in July, would have prevented anyone born after 1 January 2009 from buying tobacco products.

    It would have also cut nicotine content in tobacco products and reduced the number of retailers by more than 90%.

    But New Zealand’s new coalition government has now confirmed the toughest anti-tobacco measures in the world are being revoked.

    Prime Minister Rishi Sunak also has similar plans and previously said that the New Zealand U-turn would not change his mind.

    The change in position in New Zealand comes after a new coalition deal ended six weeks of negotiations following the general election on 14 October last year.

    The election saw the country shift to the right, with a win for the Conservative National Party under Christopher Luxon ending six years of a Labour government.

    Under New Zealand’s proportional voting system, parties typically need to form alliances to command a governing majority.

    The government’s associate health minister Casey Costello said the coalition is committed to reducing smoking, but it is taking a different regulatory approach to discourage the habit and reduce harm caused.

    1. The law, due to come into effect in July, would have prevented anyone born after 1 January 2009 from buying tobacco products – no it wouldn’t, it would just have made it a criminal act. After all, possession of unlicenced firearms has been “prevented” for years, but how’s the armed crime figures going again?

  28. Michael Tomlinson, the minister for illegal migration,

    I thought we had enough people entering illegally, without the need of a Minister for them.

    The real problem, is that this chappie will break the Ministerial Code.

    Get a Cabinet Seat; Cock Up the area you have been ‘put in charge of’

    He will make sure numbers increase, they are housed, fed, mollycoddled and free to be Anti-Zionist

    I despair

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/02/27/lee-anderson-comments-michael-tomlinson-nick-ferrari-lbc/

  29. Niall Gooch
    Lee Anderson is a convenient distraction
    27 February 2024, 12:07pm

    If some great challenge or difficulty is looming in the near future, it is human nature to want to change the subject, to busy ourselves with displacement activity to avoid the confrontation. This is perhaps even more true of groups than individuals. Everybody might be aware on some level that a crisis is brewing, but being the first to speak out is hard. Often we prefer calm and superficial harmony to dealing with the truth.

    Studied indifference to the elephant in the room has been the order of the day across much of the British political class during the last week or so. Last Wednesday saw extraordinary events in the House of Commons, as long-standing conventions were overturned, allegedly because of threats made to the safety of Labour MPs. Since then we have had an enormous amount of discussion and debate, most of which has actively and specifically avoided the main source of the growing undercurrents of sectarian violence in our politics.

    The Prime Minister’s statement on Wednesday’s events did not mention Islamist extremism. Over the weekend the BBC and other large mainstream news outlets focused not so much on the threat to British democracy that had been exposed, as they did on the threat of ‘Islamophobia’, by which they meant that the favourite chattering class punchbag Lee Anderson had said Islamists had control of Sadiq Khan.

    As of Monday evening, the BBC News website was still leading with ‘Anderson refuses to apologise for Islamist claim’, a story that they have been pushing constantly for several days. Curiously enough there has been no substantial BBC investigation into who exactly has been threatening which MPs and the ideology of the aggressors. Instead, we have had lots of both-sides handwringing – with MPs discussing the ‘far right’ again. The most frequent reference point is the assassination of Jo Cox in 2016 by a man who was motivated by arch-nationalist beliefs. The most recent murder of an MP – that of Sir David Amess, killed by a jihadist in 2021 – is mentioned rather less often.

    Similarly, we hear little now about recent mass casualty terror attacks by Islamic terrorists: the Manchester Arena suicide bombing (22 dead) and the 2017 London Bridge rampage (8 dead). The regular and intimidating anti-Israel protests that have taken place regularly in London for four months now, and the harassment faced by MPs from partisan crowds heavily invested in the Israel-Palestine conflict, also seem to have slipped the minds of sensible centrists now that a Conservative has said some bad words. Their new preoccupation is Rishi Sunak’s supposed failure to visit a mosque since becoming Prime Minister.

    Fretting about anti-Muslim bigotry, and making vague allusions to the growth of non-specific ‘threats’ and ‘violence’, suits the political class very nicely. Once again they get to stay in their intellectual comfort zone, posturing as the defenders of nice liberal tolerance against imaginary hordes of white supremacist yahoos, while not having to confront any of the hard dilemmas of contemporary policy-making. They seem untroubled by any serious consideration of the trade-offs around security, multiculturalism, mass immigration, law and order, and social cohesion. To them, public anger at terrorism, intimidation and the authorities’ feeble approach to grooming gangs and local corruption is largely a PR problem, to be managed with candlelit vigils and sentimental hashtags, rather than a reasonable and healthy reaction to the deterioration of the British social fabric.

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

    OhAndAnotherThing
    21 hours ago edited
    “Lee Anderson is a convenient distraction”
    Indeed. But try telling that to your editor Fraser Nelson, who – predictably for a closet leftist – joined in the pile-on against Anderson deliberately to deflect attention away from the genuine threat to this country – the sinister and corrosive impact of Islamist anti-Semites and their Labour allies upon our crumbling democracy.
    Our progressive and elitist establishment appear to have imposed a virtual news blackout on the issue, and our effete and complicit Fourth Estate obediently fell into line, just as they did in respect of the decades-long grooming scandals.
    Clearly no lessons have been learned from that appalling dereliction of duty.

    Anthony Declan
    19 hours ago edited
    Laura Kuenssberg wrote a piece the other day for the BBC purporting to be about these issues. Except she didn’t. Predictably, it was all about the “far right” and Jo Cox. Not a word about Islamist violence, nor even a mention of the late Sir David Amess MP, Sir Salman Rushdie, Mike Freer MP and so on. Despicable misinformation. Do they think we are all dumb?

    Bill Rogers
    21 hours ago
    Exactly right. Convenient for every liberal navel-gazer who ignores the threat, refuses to name it, and is happy to watch Britain slide down the sink. Convenient for the BBC and the Times, the Telegraph and Fraser Nelson, not to mention the Tory party. They want Anderson to apologise for telling the truth – and then they can return to watching Khan reduce London to a crime-infested ghetto

    1. I don’t recall this mealy-mouthed approach when the IRA was blowing us all up. It was “The Irish ” this and “The Irish” that – why so sensitive now? Islam isn’t an indication of skin colour – my white English mate from Loughborough converted some years ago and married a lovely Malay lady who followed Islam.

      1. There are also millions of white Muslims in the Balkans and Russia. Remember Sarajevo? Most people have short memories apparently. The idea that disliking Islam is racist is demonstrably false.

          1. I have no idea Johnny. After all it is the religion of peace!………..The peace of the dead.

        2. The Serbs have a centuries-old hatred of Islam. This is considered unacceptable.
          Some Irish have a centuries-old hatred of Britain. This is considered ‘understandable’.

          1. It’s perfectly understandable when you know about the kidnapping of children to be brainwashed and used as Janissaries by the Turks and the men and women enslaved by the same Ottomans, the latter to be used as sex slaves. But, of course, now a days we do not mention white slavery. Galley slaves were almost inevitably white, using human beings in that manner was torture pure and simple. Forced to urinate and defecate where you sat, crawling with maggots and flies, riddled with disease and forced to row until you dropped, them thrown overboard like rubbish. But we must pretend that we whites exclusively are the guilty party.

    2. “Studied indifference to the elephant in the room has been the order of the day across much of the British political class during the last week or so.” The last week or so? It’s been going on for YEARS!

      Edited to remove unwanted line breaks.

    3. “Studied indifference to the elephant in the room has been the order of the day across much of the British political class during the last week or so.” The last week or so? It’s been going on for YEARS!

      Edited to remove unwanted line breaks.

  30. At the bidding of the MR I watched the first part of a Channel 4 prog called “The Jury“. It is allegedly the reconstruction of a murder trial. There are two “juries” (neither of which knows of the other) who observe the “trial”. The first day’s “proceedings” lasted 20 minutes…. Then we had a great deal of stuff with the “juries” – whose members were majority not white – (typical Colchester, I suppose) rabbiting on about what they had observed. Total bollocks. Juries do NOT sit about each evening discussing at length the case they are trying. They go home. The only time they pontificate is when they are sent out to consider their verdict. And barristers do NOT walk about the court in the way that American attorneys do. Grrr.

    The MR wants to watch more. Don’t think I can face it.

    1. Typical – the scum who caused the problems, either directly or by omission, now want protection from those problems, at the expense of the rest of us, who have no such luxury!

      1. My wife plays the organ at funerals. She has played at far too many where the deceased was between the ages of 45 and 65, fit and active, and with no known previous illnesses and fully Covid jabbed.

    3. Death ‘not being treated as suspicious’ often points to suicide but we never know what is around the corner in terms of our health.

  35. Early yesterday afternoon, I went to the local Wethersponns with my grandson for a meal. Outside the pub, the was a police car, lights flashing, and two other parked cars. It turned out that someone had stolen 30 bottles of wine from Iceland, and had been trying to sell them outside the pub. Iceland, I should point out, is two shops away from the pub.

    Even the quality of our petty criminals is in decline in broken Britain.

    PS. Large mixed grill and a pint of San Miguel, £13.50.

  36. From the Philip Johnston article quoted below:

    Almost 20 years ago, in the aftermath of the worst terrorist attack on British soil, Tony Blair said this: “We know that these people acted in the name of Islam. But we also know that the vast majority of Muslims both here and abroad are decent and law-abiding people who abhor this kind of terrorism every bit as much as we do.”

    When Tony Blair was speaking in 2005 there were 1.3 million Muslims in Britain; now there are around 4 million.

    As many on here have said many times before, the ‘peaceful’ Muslim is either not really a Muslim at all, is too scared to speak out or tacitly approves of what is happening but is happy for others to make the ultimate sacrifice. There may be some real Muslims who disapprove of aggressive or violent tactics but only because it harms their peaceful takeover of the country, aided and abetted by the frightening rate of immigration and reproduction.

    1. Also – after that attack, a poll among “peaceful, normal” slammers revealed a majority who thought that the attack was the right thing to do (though they wouldn’t do it themselves, oh no…)

    2. The problem is that it is not the muslim on the Kabul omnibus that directs the direction of a society, it is the firebrands and activists. Germany in the 30s, Iran after the Shah, North Korea (Im sure the peasants are nice people), Uganda after Idi. The political movements are directed by the extremists and they do not allow anyone to interfere with their vision once in control. Just looking at what a small number of muslim activists can achieve in terms of political clout and societal change is a short time is frightening. Bestowing ‘protected characteristics’ on certain groups is milked to the full and is followed by accusations of all sorts of ..isms to keep criticism to a minimum. As with Germany, the political leadership and its institutions had to be destroyed or dismantled and killing civilians was accepted as collateral damage. Perhaps there is a established network of religious leaders and their sanctuaries that need looking at. Anyway, I’m off to set up my own religion. The Enlightened Deus League (EDL). I was visited by an angel last night after supping a few beers and have all the necessary scriptures noted down. If plod should come knocking on my door because of my unreasonable attitude to others and calling for war against other religions, I shall remind them that I have a protected characteristic which trumps all.

    1. At one time or another my parents hit me with every one of those implements, and more besides.

    3. Slippers,. rulers, and one thing missing, chalk to hurl and someones head at full force. All remind me of teachers that I have had. I remember with fondness the geography teacher who was a slipper man. He would put on National Geographic film with a particular emphasis on semi naked natives and regale us with boisterous remarks about tits, large small and perky. Now a days he would be fired immediately for sexual something or other. Us boys loved him.

  38. 384009+ up ticks,

    The Tories have one shot at fixing our housing crisis
    By ending the leasehold rip off, the party could help beleaguered tenants – and woo younger voters

    Maybe so, maybe so, but a sure fired way of keeping themselves in power and solving the housing, education, medication, incarceration
    odious issues, is MASS deportation, no incoming migration.

    No more / no less.

    3. Can anyone figure out what they are chanting? It sounds like ‘Peequy day’, to me. Something tells me I have it wrong.

      2. It did make me think who the girl might be. I would expect most parents to be monitoring their seven year old children.

  41. I see that JK Rowling has entered the Trans-women are men farrago*. As far as I can tell, like the majority of folk in these Islands, she thinks its a load of Cock and Balls….

    (*/fəˈrɑgoʊ/ A farrago is a pile of odds and ends or a random assortment of stuff.)

  42. Came in from the garden and found the local LibDum’s ‘Focus’ stuffed in to the letterbox. Usual “everybody’s at fault except us” but one short piece caught my eye:

    Conservative run Essex County Council are failing to deliver on our roads and pavements.

    The Conservatives admit that street repairs are now in ‘Managed Decline’ even with ‘extra funding’ from the government for potholes.

    First thought, why is the government funding potholes? 🙄

    Second thought, I doubt that Essex County Council could manage decline any better than they manage most of the assets they are responsible for.

    1. Remember lockdown?

      Moh and I during the exercise hour we were all allocated , (because there were Covid patrols in the village ) We used to speed walk around the village a couple of circular miles .. on uneven pavements and sometimes the road .

      I stumbled and messed my rt hip up, fine , NOT , so my doctor prescribed pain killers which upset my stomach, then over the course of that lockdown period , my left knee became a problem .. because of my hip being under strain ..

      Moh and I were great walkers , . I walk everyday , try to achieve 10,000 steps but often or not 6,000 , at least I am moving .

      Ascending our stairs is a nightmare .. or any stairs anywhere else .. and walking on country walks , stoney paths etc has really slowed me down .

      The roads are appalling , especially the B roads ..

      1. Alf and I took absolutely no notice of all the ridiculous rules, including only exercising for an hour. Mind you, as far as I’m aware there were no “patrols” around here.

        1. No patrols here either. Though one woman did get a bit hysterical when i walked by her in the supermarket. Apparently i was ignoring the one way system. *slaps wrist

          1. It’s laughable, isn’t it. And still some places have the footprints in each direction. The number of people who stepped into the road when we approached them, sometimes without checking to see if a car/lorry was coming behind them, was mad. We used to have a jolly good laugh about them.

          2. It is scary though that peoples behaviour could so easily be adjusted. Project fear worked for a lot of them.

            As i wended my way around the supermarket i noticed this woman at the end of each aisle watching me.

            You know what i am like for pranking people but i resisted the urge in creeping up behind her and saying BOO ! Probably would have had a heart attack.

  43. Came in from the garden and found the local LibDum’s ‘Focus’ stuffed in to the letterbox. Usual “everybody’s at fault except us” but one short piece caught my eye:

    Conservative run Essex County Council are failing to deliver on our roads and pavements.

    The Conservatives admit that street repairs are now in ‘Managed Decline’ even with ‘extra funding’ from the government for potholes.

    First thought, why is the government funding potholes? 🙄

    Second thought, I doubt that Essex County Council could manage decline any better than they manage most of the assets they are responsible for.

      1. Unlikely there have been any reports of Subs lately. Two possibilities a leaky stern gland or the hull has rusted through….

      2. Unlikely there have been any reports of Subs lately. Two possibilities a leaky stern gland or the hull has rusted through….

    1. “and I now run a nonprofit called Free Hearts Free Minds, which supports ex-Muslims”

      Ex-Muslim has a nice ring to it, a bit like an ex-leper.

      1. The rise and rise of sectarian politics is with us again.

        Why are MPs so precious , with their security costing £30 million , and what about us .. because politicians have wrought / inflicted these blighters on us ..

        We Did not ask to be diluted and put upon , we did not ask for our own security to be compromised .. all we wanted was an army and /Royal Navy to protect our Island interests.

        Hundreds are arriving here on the the rubber boats today.

        We have a corrupt home office and corrupt Serco or what ever they are called , and I expect Afghans will be used as an MP protection squad .

        I feel so depressed and tearful .. My generation will soon be the only ones who remember how things were , as post war babies .

  46. A new sport is upon us – competing over whose bit of Britain is most broken

    From DIY dentistry to pretending trans killers are born women, so much has gone wrong that one-downmanship seems like the answer

    ALLISON PEARSON
    28 February 2024 • 12:00pm

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/columnists/2024/02/27/TELEMMGLPICT000367266087_17090621163890_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqpVlberWd9EgFPZtcLiMQf0Rf_Wk3V23H2268P_XkPxc.jpeg?imwidth=680
    ‘Our potholes are bigger than yours’: one way of dealing with Britain’s crumbling infastructure is to brag about it

    We have now reached the rather amusing point in the history of this Government when ministers are trying to take the credit for reversing their own mistakes. Look on it as a sort of shameless Blue Peter variation: “Here’s one I cocked up earlier!”

    I had to laugh when James Cleverly boasted on Twitter (now X) of the “biggest ever cut to net migration”. Numbers would be slashed by 300,000, he said proudly. Yes, Home Secretary, but that’s only because you broke the net migration record last year by admitting 745,000 net into the UK and, if you cut 300,000, that still leaves 445,000 coming in, which is over a quarter of a million more than the Tories promised in successive manifestos. James is now busy closing all the loopholes the Conservatives opened in the first place. Seriously, do they think we won’t notice?

    To be fair, disillusion and a general sense of hopelessness are now so off the charts that a fresh horror to add to the list barely registers. On Tuesday, when JK Rowling tweeted, “I’m sick of this s—”, I thought, “Yes, me too” before even noticing which particular s— the Harry Potter author was sick of. There’s so much ordure to choose from, isn’t there?

    It turned out that she meant the transgender psycho who filmed themselves strangling and liquidising a cat before killing a man called Jorge Martin Carrena. Clearly, it must have been a man who had the strength to choke Mr Carrena and push him into a river, but the court referred to Scarlet Blake as a woman because guidance for judges tells them to “respect” the gender identity of those who appear in court “regardless of whether they have obtained legal recognition of their gender by a Gender Recognition Certificate”.

    JK Rowling was right to be furious. What possible respect is owed to a demented cat strangler and vicious murderer who may have used a feminine appearance to fool his victim yet still may get chalked up as a female killer (leading to the creation of misleading crime statistics)?

    “This isn’t a woman. These are #NotOurCrimes,” Rowling tweeted. How any other view to hers became valid, let alone the settled practice of the judiciary, is hard to comprehend. The people holding sane, commonplace views are now routinely depicted as the mad ones.

    One ingenious way of dealing with the feeling that the country is in a state of collapse, and that nothing works, has been suggested by a Planet Normal listener who styles himself Dave, the Window-Cleaning Prophet.

    “I’m wondering if it’s just me,” emails Dave, “or are we all bragging about how crap our local services and crumbling infrastructure have become?” In the last six months, Dave says he has witnessed the British character “on top form all around me”, boasting about adversity where once we used to boast about achievement.

    Examples may include:

    “Our potholes are bigger than yours!” with proud jokes that one’s town should be twinned with the moon.
    How long your wait-time was to get through to the GP surgery. “Twenty-five minutes? That’s nothing! I started at five to eight and was hanging on for 45 minutes before a recorded message told me to call back tomorrow.”
    If you actually manage to get an appointment. “Mine is in three weeks’ time. On the phone.”
    Adding insult to injury. “I got an offer of telephone physio.”
    Competitive operation cancellations. “Because of the junior doctors’ strike, mine has just been cancelled for the third time.”
    When you last received any post.
    Cost of last energy bill notwithstanding alleged cap on prices.
    Ambulance wait-times. “Oh you were LUCKY, that was quick! You do realise I actually died while lying on the drive.”
    Burst mains flooding roads for weeks at a time.
    Bitter laughter at any suggestion that you may get a dental appointment in the next year.
    DIY dentistry – most painful examples. Cotton wrapped around molar, chewing gum for fillings, etc.
    “I was asked if we kept getting power cuts by someone in the next village,” says Dave, “and I felt a bit deflated when I had to reply ‘No’. Sums it up really, Allison, when you have the perverse feeling that you’re missing out when things do actually work!”

    Thanks for making me laugh Dave. At least our sense of humour is working, and still free. Well, until Labour gets in. Instead of one upmanship, I guess you could call this new trend one-downmanship. Do please send me your ways of coping with Broken Britain.

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

    1. I think Nottlers may be considered Veterans in this particular field, which have you noticed is completely overgrown with Rag Worst and Nott Weed!!!

    2. Call those potholes? You could fit both of those pathetic attempts into one of our smaller Derbyshire potholes, with volume to spare!!

    3. BTL

      Notwithstanding that A Allan chappie sticking his oar in…

      Pete Smith
      3 HRS AGO
      The assertion that males can be women is insanity.
      Those that make the assertion should be removed from Parliament and all other positions of responsibility; armed forces, police, education and healthcare.
      The public have been subject to psychological warfare tactics, to condition them to passively accept everything that is done to them by government, and it has worked.
      Politicians do not reflect the views of the voters, they push onto the voters agendas that are internationally agreed, and the details of which voters are unaware. Politicians are fundamentally restructuring society without the knowledge or consent of the masses.

      Thomas Pain
      2 HRS AGO
      We have got rid of all the engineers and now have PR consultants. We have got rid of government and now have Quangos. We have got rid of defence and now have a channel taxi service. We have got rid of education and now have a certificate printing industry. We have got rid of women …….etc.

      timothy cassel
      2 HRS AGO
      I really don’t think the politicians, hopeless as they are, are entirely to blame. What about the working from home left wing tofu eating Muslim loving civic servants who claim to run this country?

      Clare Louise Coleman
      34 MIN AGO
      I think our changing vocabulary is a pretty good guide to modern life. Here is a short extract from my guide to euphemisms and non-words.
      Community – ghetto
      Vibrant and diverse community – noisy ghetto
      Community school – out of control sink establishment
      Inclusive – filled with nut-jobs
      Offender – criminal
      Vulnerable – criminal
      Cis woman – woman
      Trans woman – man
      Gender – means whatever you want it to mean
      #BeKind – #BeKindOrElse

      Rosemary Led
      40 MIN AGO
      Strange how the courts are told to respect an evil man .This is the fundamental flaw in the human rights law.
      That man deprived another person of their life, which is the ultimate in disrespect of the victim.
      No civilized country should live by a rule that such a person deserves respect. It goes against natural justice.
      If a prison officer misgenders this man in jail, no doubt he will be sacked.

      Nathan Hobbs
      1 HR AGO
      I watched on GB News Patrick Christys Tonight last night, the accommodation that Army families are housed in. What an absolute disgrace! The ceiling was caving in and bricks were literally falling out of the walls. Totally dangerous to the children and wives of our armed forces heroes.
      Meanwhile, illegal immigrants are housed in at least 4 star hotels, with clean bedding and 30 inch televisions. I donated £15 yesterday to a homeless veterans charity because I am literally horrified by how our homeless armed forces veterans are on the streets whist illegal immigrants come here and get treated like royalty, despite having never contributed to the country before. Shows you everything about broken Britain.
      We seem to be in a race to the bottom Allison, with Britain going to hell in a handcart economically , morally, socially and culturally. However we do have to be optimistic in this dire situation we find ourselves in. I am a patriotic British 19 year old and I am voting Reform to try and save Britain.
      Enough critical mass and we can start to turn the country back from the precipice.

      1. Here’s a laugh (only hollow if you’re a rate-payer like me); Shropshire County is seriously in the red, but they have allocated up to £6.2 million for a consultancy to tell them where to make cuts! They could employ me on a fraction of that! I’d get rid of the diversity and inclusion lot, ditch the climate change department, stop translating everything into myriads of languages and end the provision of translators for a start. Then we’d look at all the other non-jobs.

    4. It may seem crazy having a physio phone appointment, but that happened to me; the physio was supposed to be examining me by phone! Can you stand on one leg? What, with a phone in one hand and a piece of paper in the other?

    5. It may seem crazy having a physio phone appointment, but that happened to me; the physio was supposed to be examining me by phone! Can you stand on one leg? What, with a phone in one hand and a piece of paper in the other?

  47. Meanwhile the rapper Ja Rule, who was released from prison in May 2013 after serving two years on gun possession and tax evasion charges [source BBC], has been denied entry to Britain, apparently because of that criminal record. This despite the fact that he is due to start an 85% sold out tour this week, has served his prison sentence and it was 10 years ago. Personally I think all rap stars should be denied entry, but the rank hypocrisy of banning this one man when thousands of illegals are entering the country seems almost beyond belief. How many of those illegals have a criminal record? I presume we have no idea; if we do know, why aren’t they deported at once?

    2. I doubt we even know what nationality they are that arrive on the beaches let alone their criminal records.

    3. If they have a criminal record, why are they allowed to enter the country in the first place?

  49. Here’s an interesting article that I stumbled across. The “Palestinian Intellectual” Edward Said claimed that he was born and raised in Jerusalem in a house that had belonged to his family forever and from which they’d been evicted by Jews who also destroyed his family business. It turns out that he was born and raised in Cairo and it was Nasser who forced his father out, thereby destroying their livelihood. Nothing to do with the Israelis at all.
    https://jcpa.org/jl/vp422.htm

      2. I’m reminded of the story of the Prosecutor who allegedly said: “Ms Lewinsky, did you LIE for your President?”
        She replied: “No Sir, I knelt”.

          1. Yes, but I understand she allegedly tried to take Bill to the cleaners rather than the dress….

    5. She’s not the best interpreter of written English, she made a bit of a hack of Clinton’s desk memo.
      “Hold my calls and sack the cook”.

    1. No other way to describe him, He is the ultimate lying turd.
      Shame they didn’t include another crime, election fraud.

    3. He’s a liar. Khan is a habitual crook. It’s almost reflexive. He lies to himself, he lies to others, he refuses to accept the truth. He is the epitome of everything wrong with this country.

  53. And while on the subject of clichés – another new one that irritates me is. “To play sport”.

      2. It’s a bit hot over there at the moment. They’ve been moving fire fighters into parts of Victoria just in case.

    2. Not as bad as this crassly idiotic headline from today’s DT:

      Anderson meets with Tice amid talk of defection.

      No, he did not “meet with him”. He met him! [Only imbeciles, the retarded, and Americans meet “with“.]

      1. I cannot see that post (to share its humour) since it appears that the poster (whoever it is and for whatever reason) has blocked me!

          2. I cannot see any of poppiesmum’s posts. Again, I’m unaware of any offence I’ve caused so I’m putting it down to keyboard or touchscreen error.

          3. Tell you what: if you ask LD if his blocking of me is accidental or intentional, I’ll do the same for you with PM.

    1. Diversity.. oh sod it. I’m sick of this farce. They’ve got to go. Every last bloody one of them. If they won’t leave, shoot them.

      1. In any previous era of British history they would have all been got rid of well before now … by any means at their disposal … no questions asked.

    1. 😀Amusing but….
      It won’t be long before white people are limited on entry to certain public events.

      1. The Wigmore Hall are trying to be diverse in their artist hires and season brochures but if white folk were barred from the audience there’d only be a handful of people left. A few more if Koreans are counted as non-white. I guess the wokies would like to shut down such institutions altogether.

      2. Already happening – “West End play stages shows to all-black audience ‘free from the white gaze’
        Slave Play will hold two ‘Black Out nights’ in move that critics call ‘simplistic and racist’”

    1. Remember that on’ telly.
      Poor buggers had been left aboard too long, so the Argies could load up and bomb them.

    2. 20 Field Squadron, renumbered and designated as an Airborne unit to serve alongside 9 Independent Para Squadron RE, was also on the Galahad and lost several lads.

  61. The US has a lot of very dumb people:

    Meanwhile, President Biden handily won the Democratic presidential primary in Michigan state, garnering 78.6 percent of the vote!.

    1. In the topsy-turvy world of the United States, it’s the self-regarding upper middle-class Democrats that are the dumbarses. Meanwhile, they sneer at the supporters of Trump as being the thick ones.

    2. There’s a joke doing the rounds showing an elderly black man saying “If I die, please make sure I don’t vote for Biden.”

  63. Good afternoon! The Biden answer to Rosa Kleb has been shooting from the mouth again and has confirmed: It’s about regime change in Russia! Amazing surprise……This is the creature who was monkeying around in Kiev with the CIA organising the Maidan and who, with her unlovely neocon friends wants us to try to win a nuclear war by having less ruins than the other side. Capital punishment beckons for these people…..half a million young dead in Ukraine are just the first witnesses for the prosecution.

    https://open.substack.com/pub/tarableu/p/nuland-blows-the-gaff-on-russian?r=10qzvs&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

    1. If they think that Putin is bad, just wait until they see who’s waiting in the wings to replace him!

        1. Not to mention the arrogance of believing that they have the right to change any world leader.

        1. What a shame. St Barts began life as an Augustinian priory so to mark its 900th anniversary, the Augustinians were invited back to celebrate the old mass. It’s just a nice thing to do.

  64. Nearly a week in an open boat in the North Atlantic, in February. Horrendous, quite horrendous.
    .
    S.S. Holmelea.

    Complement:
    38 (28 dead and 10 survivors).
    7,000 tons of grain, linseed and maize

    In the early morning on 28th February 1941 the Holmelea (Master John Robert Potts), a straggler from convoy HX-109, was damaged by gunfire by U-47 (Günther Prien) and sunk by a coup de grâce southwest of Rockall. The ship had been missed by a torpedo from U-99 (Kretschmer) earlier that night. The master, 26 crew members and one gunner were lost. On 5th March, ten crew members in one lifeboat were picked up by the Icelandic trawler Baldur and landed at Fleetwood.
    On the same day, the trawler had picked up 39 survivors from the Dutch merchant Simaloer, which had been bombed and sunk by a German aircraft 60 hours before.

    Type VIIB U-Boat U-47 has been missing since 7th March 1941 in the North Atlantic south of Iceland. 45 dead (all hands lost).

    https://uboat.net/media/allies/merchants/br/holmelea.jpg

  66. Boris the Bad getting his daily pasting on Twitt…

    🆂🅲🅾🆃🆃🆈 🎸🎶
    @ScottyGoesAgain
    Boris Johnson: “It’s possible to take back Crimea”
    There’s more chance of you brushing your fucking hair and telling the truth for once in your miserable life, you impossibly foul bumblecunt.

    1. Then, let Boris go and do it. Flak jacket, steel helmet, clown trousers and L1A1. Be worth watching, that!

      1. As long as all his pseudo military attire pockets are full of hand grenades and flares. I do like a good light show.

    2. Sums him up. And in desperation some in the party are saying bring him back. lol. Next they will be saying we need Theresa May to win the next election. The Conservatives are already in their graves.

    3. Bore-us has had plenty of practice at making a complete fool of himself.
      Keep it up you plank and you’ll have enough scaffolding to give you the platform you and your type actually need.

  67. One in the eye for whinging wimmin:

    Christian Horner has been cleared of misconduct by an independent Red Bull investigation after allegations that he acted inappropriately towards a female employee.

    An independent barrister has dismissed the grievance against him, with the 50-year-old now set to remain as team principal. The female complainant has the right to appeal.

        1. It makes one wonder whether it was somebody else, with a vested interest, who actually made the initial complaint.

          In today’s woke environment once made it would have to be followed through.

    1. I’m generally not in favour of warnings like “Contains upsetting images” but I can readily make an exception for this pair….

  69. Good afternoon from an Anglo Saxon Queen with longbow, blooded axe and marmalade sandwich In handbag. Its nice to see that it’s still light at 5pm, .
    might be able to have a cup of tea In the garden before long.

    1. It wasn’t light here at 5pm! It’s been a very dull day indeed. I thought the racing might have been rained off, but it went ahead and the going was heavy.

        1. And Angela Raynor Rainer, deputy leader of the Labour Party, is hardly ray of sunshine!

          Will she hold the reins of power during The Idiot King’s reign?

    2. People doing a runner from their jobs just before the sh1t hits the fan are famed for their timing. Somehow they know just when to disappear.

  71. Another row is brewing over Ireland. The government’s Legacy Bill is:

    “‘…an attempt to draw a line under the events of the past. It would stop new Troubles-era cases and inquests from starting, and offer a conditional amnesty to those accused of killings. If implemented, the law would apply to former members of the security forces and to ex-paramilitaries.”

    The High Court in Belfast has ruled that the Bill is in breach of the ECHR. Notably, the case was brought to court by the families of victims shot dead by loyalists and the SAS.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-68419238
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-66648806

    No mention of Blair and his comfort letters.

      1. Isn’t it more to do with the generalities of human rights law? So open to interpretation…

        1. I don’t believe so. These laws and others are wilfully interpreted to suit the Establishment views, judges being members of said Establishment. If this is illegal, why isn’t Tony Blair’s Letters of Comfort?

          1. Irish republican activists aren’t going to pursue an ex-prime minister who capitulated to the IRA and gave them the GFA as a step towards a united Ireland.

          4. No, but if we reverse the situation and say that it’s loyalists going to court to seek a ruling on a government that has said it will not seek future prosecutions against the IRA, would the courts rule this illegal likewise? Forgive my cynicism, but I highly doubt it. The laws are not applied equally, and it’s the judges that decide according to their own prejudices. That’s judicial activism.

          5. You are arguing for the specific, me for the general. The problem with HR legislation is that it is open to such personal judgement. It may well be that a court might rule in favour of republicans and against loyalists in the matter of the Legacy Bill but they will be doing so because of the nature of the ECHR.

    1. Eating a kebab is on my not-to-do-bucket-list alongside not going to Lakeside, Bluewater and that newish shopping place in Stratford London.

      What happened to pie and mash with green liquor and jellied eels with chilli vinegar? Too white?

      Jellied eels are also on my not-to-do list but pie and mash is OK. White’s have moved to Walton-on-the-Naze and their place is very popular. A recent addition to Colchester’s food scene in Trinity St provides Manzes’ pies with mash; not tried it yet but will give it a go soon.

      1. Pie and mash with green liquor is available in outlets in both Stevenage and Ramsgate, too. I used to enjoy an occasional doner kebab but haven’t eaten one for many years, although that’s not through any conscious boycott on my part.

      2. I remember Manzes in Exmouth Market EC1 and Chapel Market N.1 in the 50s and 60s.
        Never fancied jellied eels nor pie and mash. Always looked most unappetising.

    1. Well done. I made a couple of stupid mistakes.

      Wordle 984 6/6

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    3. Par here.
      Wordle 984 4/6

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      1. It poses an intriguing dilemma. Ought ahistorical depictions using ethnic minorities be exclusively in positive roles or should inclusivity include historically incorrect depictions of those minorities in unfavourable roles? Would it be racist to bar people of African heritage from title roles in biopics about Pol Pot and Joseph Stalin?

        4. Although I laughed, that actually is an interesting point.
          Would Idris Elba be happy to take the lead role in an English language remake of “Downfall”?

    2. Wonder what comes up if you ask it for an example of black death… A couple of dealers with machetes?

    2. I have no idea which MP Hancock has in mind nor of the comments which offended his sensibilities.

      1. 384065+ up ticks,

        Morning DW,
        In regards to mr hancock and his thoughts, in many peoples minds tis his actions that are highly suspect.

        I believe mr hancock and accuser will meet on Friday and all will be revealed.

  76. That’s me for today. A grey, dreary one. Still went out for a brief walk just now – it is practically dark – and saw a car coming towards me with headlights on – and NO foggy haze round them – as has been the case these last ten years and more! So that is another success for the eye treatment. Brilliant.

    Market tomorrow in the drizzle.

    Have a spiffing evening.

    A demain

  77. Deep breaths okay?

    Conway might be interested , as any linguist might be ?

    Cor blimey! Cockneys redefined in effort to end stereotypes
    Rather than being born ‘within the sound of Bow Bells’, modern members of the culture come from a variety of backgrounds not limited to those who live in London

    Rhyming slang, Dickensian villains and Dirty Den: the classic view of the Cockney has not always been a flattering one but after two centuries of snobbery and prejudice good honest Londoners are fighting back.

    The modern Cockney is railing against the bad history and lazy stereotypes which have cast their forebears as uncouth, unintelligent and villainous. Instead, they are seeking to redefine their image as resilient, multicultural and not only for Eastenders.

    Rather than being born “within the sound of Bow Bells”, Cockneys should be more properly viewed through the comedian Arthur Smith’s definition of Cockney as “non-posh Londoners”. This includes those who come from a variety of racial backgrounds and is not even limited to those who live in the capital.

    There is now a “Cockney diaspora” creating a “wider Cockneydom” based around a set of shared values and beliefs which have been defined as including defiance, resourcefulness and “’avin’ a larf”.

    “We believe Bow Bells is heard not through the ears but through the heart,” say Cockney Cultures, a community partnership that has championed Cockney heritage in recent years. Last year it secured the recognition of Cockney as a “community language” in Tower Hamlets and now, with the University of Warwick, has produced A Cockney Blueprint, a guide to cockney language and identity.

    Cockney Cultures has stated that there are now three manifestations of Cockney: the “old-school Cockney” who is not unstereotypical; the “Cockney diaspora’, which carries the culture beyond the M25; and the “new-school Cockney” who is evolving through exposure to new cultures and languages.

    The latter has several iterations and the report lists Bengali Cockneys, Black Cockneys, Essex Cockneys, Jewish Cockneys and more, all of whom reflect an openness that has been embraced by none other than a Pearly King.

    “It’s no good alienating people, is it, just because they’ve come from somewhere else or were born from another culture,” said Clive Bennett, Pearly King of Woolwich. “We’ve got differences in London and are multicultural in London: that’s not to say that they’re not Cockneys.”

    This bold new era is set against the history of how Cockneys were misrepresented by centuries of snobbery and stereotype. Much of what one associates with Cockneys is wrong, even down to where they come from.

    Traditionally, Cockneys were not only east Londoners and the term was used broadly for all from the city. It was in 1571 that the preacher J Bridges said: “We are thorough out all the Realme called Cockneys that are borne in London, or in the sounde of Bow bell.” At the time, that essentially covered the whole city.

    But the term was subsequently pinned on the working class, and uncharitably so. The report cites the actor and elocutionist Thomas Sheridan who, in 1762, claimed there were two different dialects in London. “One is current in the city, and is called the Cockney,” Sheridan said. “The other at the court-end, and is called the polite pronunciation.” From this point, aspirational middle classes were encouraged to turn their backs on the Cockney accent and its innovations.

    “It was necessary to give people a set of behaviours to avoid,” said Dr Christopher Strelluf, associate professor of linguistics at Warwick and a co-author of the report. “The elocution educators in the 18th and 19th century invented a stigma for the working class. Rather than use ‘Cockney’ as a label for all Londoners, it is just the way that these uneducated, working-class people are speaking.”

    The snobbery became worse in Victorian times. Alongside the contributions of authors such as Charles Dickens and William Makepeace Thackeray, the working-class Cockney stereotype developed centred on the East End. Characters such as Bill Sikes and the Artful Dodger in Oliver Twist added a criminal element in the popular imagination.

    The playful innovations of rhyming slang attracted the myth that it was a criminal code. This is almost certainly false. It is not the hardest code to crack and would not have been very effective against local policemen who had grown up around the lingo.

    Nevertheless, the stigma persisted and Strelluf says the impact lasts to this day. Research shows that those with Cockney accents are unfairly treated in job interviews, though they are not alone.

    “It is relevant to all ‘non-standard’ Englishes that invoke social prejudice and discrimination,” said Strelluf. “Any evaluation of a language variety as ‘good’ or ‘bad’, ‘correct’ or ‘incorrect’, ‘smart’ or ‘stupid’, is a social judgment not grounded in linguistic science.”

    Now, the language of Cockneys has been protected by Tower Hamlets council in east London. Its listing as a community language recognises Cockney as being in use, though this is not likely to be day to day.

    “I don’t want to give the impression that Dick Van Dyke is walking around east London talking about apples and pears,” Strelluf said, “but the cultural inheritance of Cockney remains important to the fabric of Tower Hamlets.”

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/cor-blimey-cockneys-redefined-in-effort-to-end-stereotypes-b078zzzlv

    2. My maternal Gt Grandparents were cockneys – he was born in Bethnal Green and she was born in Stepney. The paternal ones were a little further out – Forest Hill and Brixton.

      1. My dad used to joke that he must be a cockney because he was born in Bethnal Green. Problem is, both his parents came from the Black Sea port of Odessa. Also, after 40+ years living in York, he had a Yorkshire accent!

    1. Say what one likes about earlier century generals and kings, they tended to be seen on the battlefields.

      Modern gung-ho politicians and desk bound general officers would never be seen on the front lines, being more than happy to send young men, and now even women, to die whilst ensuring none of their sons or daughters, let alone themselves are involved.

      1. If not him, somebody would have defended them. Even those accused of the most grotesque crimes are entitled to a defence. The question is, was his conduct that of one performing his professional duty to the best of his ability or did he carry out the task with the relish of one who thought the defendants’ cause was a just one regardless of its consequences?

      3. There are items on ‘X’ (formerly known as Twitter) that make me laugh, and at times are also informative. For instance, I would never have known about the farming uproar in Europe, one of many. I post them because I hope others find them informative, and might occasionally make people laugh to lighten the day’s load of gloom. If you don’t like the items I post then simply do what I do, and scroll on by. But I won’t stop posting them.

  81. BTL COmment from the DT:

    “Carpe Jugulum
    5 HRS AGO
    The Conservatives have betrayed their voters in every single policy area,
    They have betrayed the armed forces every single year from Cameron onwards.
    They have not only presided over the highest levels of immigration EVER they have actively encouraged that rise whilst deliberately lying to the public.
    They have raised taxation to the highest levels ever.
    They have consistently lied about the costs of Net Zero and have adopted policies that are scientifically illiterate and utterly moronic.
    They have allowed the NHS to reduce bed numbers, and consequently resilience, every single year including post-pandemic when the population is ballooning under immigration.
    I was a Conservative voter when they were Conservatives. Now? Now I have a long standing aversion to lying scum, much less utterly incompetent lying scum.
    I will be voting Reform and celebrating every single Conservative MP who is thrown out.

    158

    1. And Labour will win the GE, having been in 1997-2010 the authors of so much that set the country on the road to ruin and, since then, supporters of almost everything that the Tories have done to complete the job.

        1. It depends on who stands. I don’t trust Tice. Otherwise it will be a spoiled ballot paper. I do have previous in that respect.

    1. I know the photograph is serious. but forgive me if I add:
      ‘Mametz you either love it or hate it!’

      1. Would that be Mametzite, Mametzalade, or Mametzipan? None have shades of grey among lovers/haters.

  83. Oh, man.
    Seems a Bristows helicopter has gone into the sea offshore Bergen. So far, five out of six recovered alive.

      2. That’s good news. Hope he recovers okay. Don’t like helicopters; if the fan stops they glide like a brick.

        1. Not quite Conners.

          Put them n a downward glide and the wings (rotor blads will auto rotate.

          When you decide where (if you have time) to land, lift up on the collective, pull back on the cyclic and convert the forward speed to lift.

          Pilots have to practice it

          1. I’ve read about too many chopper accidents to be convinced. They can’t all be the result of pilot error!

  84. My first trip to the Olympic Studios (cinema) in Barnes. Don’t even know what we are supposed to be watching!

      1. Actually it was good. Called “the Holdovers” about three differently unhappy and angry people having to spend the Christmas period in each room others’ company. Set in the Boston area of 1970/1971.

    3. Used to play school (Shene Grammar) rugby and cricket at Barn Elms sportsground. Then fished at what was a series of reservoirs nearby, which turned into a wetland centre. Had a few underage beers in the Red Lion. Happy memories.

  85. I love it.
    We have to suffer the full deprivations of mass uncontrolled immigration of third world savages whilst paying to protect those responsible from the self same third world savages.

  86. I heard this earlier regarding islam…… It’s not race, or a favourable friendly religion. It’s just an evil and malignant way of life.
    Sums if up very well.
    So it’s good night from me.
    Till tomorrow folks 😉

    1. It is a political theocracy masquerading as a religion intent on world domination. We are experiencing an old-fashioned invasion aided and abetted by our own government, a government whose first duty is the defence of the realm. Once upon a time we could have defended this island with sticks, spears, slings, stones, bows and arrows and later cannon – now we cannot even call these invaders names.

    2. Its followers have immunity as religion is a protected characteristic in law. In fact, its an ideology, a way of life, and has always worked to displace those who follow other ways of living.

  87. Evening, all. Baby boomers have nothing to do with the housing “crisis”. Importing hundreds of thousands of illegals that the govt intends to house, on the other hand, has everything to do with it.

    Was very proud of Kadi today. I went racing and left him on his own for the time I was away. No wingman, no dog sitter. He had to be a grown up, brave little boy. The house was fine when I came back; no signs of separation anxiety chewing or stress-laden deposits. It’s the first time he’s been completely “abandoned” (last Sunday I had my dog sitter come in for him) and he rose to the challenge magnificently. As he’d never been an only dog before, I thought he did extremely well.

    1. He certainly did, bless him. You must have walked through the door with some trepidation. And I am delighted to report that Rico is a slowly improving little dog! How old is Kadi?

      1. Glad to hear Rico is improving. He must be accepting you as the pack leaders now. Kadi is 8, but has lived a sheltered life. He’d never even been camping (his owner used to put him in kennels when she went on holiday) until he came to me and lo! he was a motorhomer 🙂 I was totting up Oscar’s travels the other day; in 2 years and 8 months he went to Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and Lincolnshire (including riding on the little train at Chatsworth and having tea on the terrace at the Petwood Hall Hotel) as well as Kent, visited the Festival of Hunting, went racing at Taunton, spent a week in Norfolk and a very wet week in Yorkshire.

          1. Without biting anyone. He only ever nipped anyway. He did occasionally threaten the idiots who ignored what I said about not touching his head but never made contact. Towards the end, he loved to have his ears scratched and his head massaged, but probably only by me.

        2. Oscar had a good life with you in the short tine he was with you and experienced things he would never otherwise have done. We loved travelling with Poppie and hopefully we will do with Rico, although we won’t be travelling across the channel, I have my suspicions about the rabies jab – (regarding lymphoma) indeed I am suspicious about all veterinary vaccinations now in view of the WEF’s antipathy towards cats and dogs (as well as humans). And if cafès, restaurants and the rest won’t accept dogs, then they don’t get to see our cash. I hope Kadi has a lovely long life with you, he sounds a real trooper. It is never too late to see results.

          1. Thank you. I hope he does, too. I’m not going to rush into getting another dog now he seems to cope okay without, but I shall hope one will find me before I’m left dogless.

          2. I understand – at what age does one stop? An elderly lady down the green (her husband was the head of the vet school in Cambridge, deceased quite a few year ago now) got herself a Lhasa Apso pup at the age of 81 three or four years ago as a companion for the incumbent 10 years’ old Lhasa Apso – she must be 85 now and I see her regularly tripping around the green and on into the fields with her two little dogs alongside. I am convinced that it is dog-walking and a dog in the house that keeps one keeping on.

          3. I shan’t be getting a pup. That wouldn’t be wise at my age, but I’ll hope that a youngish (5 or 6) dog that needs a good home might come my way. Research has shown that dog owners are happier and healthier than non-dog owners. Probably the same goes for cat owners, but they rarely get the social interaction that walking a dog gives, never mind the exercise.

          4. Our cats looked after OH while I was away and they’ve been very attentive since I returned home.

    2. British birth rates have been falling for years, but it seems we still need to build millions of houses.

      1. They have, so it’s just a bit odd how the total population numbers are growing so much. What could that possibly mean?

      1. We had had a trial run or two. I left him for five minutes, then ten minutes then an hour. Today’s three and a half hours was the acid test.

    5. Did you have to let Oscar go while I was away? His condition had seemed to be improving? I’m sorry to hear he’s gone. He came to you at a difficult time and although he was an awkward character, you worked wonders with him.

      1. Yes, I’m afraid so. Monday 19th. He’d gone off his legs that weekend and it was the kindest thing to do. The vet did warn me that things could deteriorate very quickly and that was what happened.

          1. That’s what I keep telling myself, but I do miss him. I invested so much time and effort into him (not to mention cash – if the vet isn’t driving a top of the range car it isn’t Oscar’s fault!).

          2. Yo Conners

            We hated it if we had to take our Bosses (THE CATS) to the vets, when it was new Range Rover time

        2. My condolences to you, Conway. You gave a troubled dog a happy home in his later years. He posed a challenge which you met with kindness and resolution. Nonetheless, my sense is that you found your time together to be rewarding.

  89. Correct my arithmetic.

    Devastated Palestinian father claims 103 of his relatives were killed in single Israeli strike in Gaza – including his wife and three daughters, his mother and four brothers: ‘Who will call me Dad?’

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13132281/palestinian-father-103-relatives-killed-israeli-airstrike-gaza.html

    Let’s assume 4 brothers and 4 sisters, each married:
    8 + 8 people, 16.
    Each couple has 4 children ie 8 x 4 = 32 children + the 16 parents = 48 people
    Each brother’s wife has 4 brothers and 4 sisters, another 32 people = 80 people
    Each couple of couples has 4 children ( 8 x 4 = 32) so total = 112 people.
    And 103 of them died in a single airstrike?
    Blimey, how many other people must have been injured…

    2. At this stage, my compassion has not only run out, but I’m tending to think, “Well done the Israelis”.

  90. Just wondering .

    My replacement car is a 16 plate Peugeot .. and road tax free ..

    How many cars are road tax free , and is this now coincidental with the lack of cash to repair roads .. this tax free business is strange because we know that cigarette rices have risen , but pubs are closing ,and drink sales are down , is this why we are being clobbered in other directions .

    How can the government justify £50 million for the security of MPs when the problem of security is self made , imported problems and what about the rest of us and especially so those poor souls/ members of the public who have been slaughtered by blinking foreign infidels .

        1. A friend said to me ‘I would happily pay more tax if it would mean they would repair the roads’ to which I replied ‘Alix, they will never repair the roads because it simply isn’t a priority for them in our suburban and rural homes, they would simply spend more taxed cash on yet another pet project.’ And now I think they are neglecting the roads because they are expecting us not to be driving on them for very much longer, the potholes will speed that process up.

  92. Well it’s time to wish all my chums a “Good Night”. Sleep well, and see you all tomorrow.

  94. Thursday 29th February, 2024

    Ped

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/838500a987397b84e04fa3fd11e1d92ef13ee181c7a4962ff250c93562964c20.png

    We hope 2024 is a good birthday year.

    Very best wishes

    Caroline and Rastus

    Do you only get Birthday presents every 4 years?

    We don’t know your year of birth – the oldest Nottler on the list (Delboy) was born in 1936 – if you were born that year you would be celebrating your 22nd birthday; the youngest Nottler on the list (ourmaninmunich) was born in 1967 so you weren’t born that year!

  95. This is a dark period for British democracy

    The Rochdale by-election has seen sectarian politics rise to the fore

    TELEGRAPH VIEW • 28 February 2024 • 10:00pm

    If George Galloway wins the by-election in Rochdale today, what does that tell us about the state of political discourse in this country? He does not appear to be standing for Parliament solely in order to further the economic interests of the people of the Lancashire town or to represent their views on, say, transport links, schools, or the NHS.

    His pitch seems to be entirely sectarian, and unapologetically so. He has helped to transform what should be a contest about domestic policy into a battle about Middle East divisions. He has been aided by the meltdown in the campaign of the Labour Party, which was expected to hold the seat but which disowned its candidate Azhar Ali for making anti-Semitic comments.

    It is possible that Mr Ali, whose name remains on the ballot paper because it was too late to be changed, could still win the seat, though since Labour does not consider him to be a suitable candidate, he would then sit as an independent. There are also two former Labour MPs standing – Mr Galloway and Simon Danczuk – neither supported by that party.

    Mr Galloway is aiming to do in Rochdale what he previously did in Bethnal Green and Bradford, directly targeting his old party for not being robust enough on the Palestinian question. He has delivered thousands of leaflets claiming the by election is a “straight choice between George who will fight for Palestine … and Keir Starmer who will fight for Israel”.

    Why should this matter to the people of Rochdale? It does so only because sectarian politics has been allowed to grow in parts of England, just as they have in the past in Northern Ireland and Glasgow. They are toxic and debilitating, setting one community against another in a way that foments trouble and potential violence.

    While Rochdale is hardly typical of most of the rest of the country, this contest is nonetheless worrying. Not one of the major parties is campaigning seriously, Labour having stood back while the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats did not put much effort into the by election in the first place.

    Meanwhile, our MPs are spending millions on employing private security guards following threats associated with the Gaza issue, while Harriet Harman has suggested they should all work from home. This is not a good time for British democracy.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2024/02/28/this-is-a-dark-period-for-our-democracy/

    __________________________________________________________________________________________________________

    Nobody should forget Galloway’s ‘10,000 bodies’…

    Police view film of East End anti-fascist rally

    https://twitter.com/woodgnomology/status/1409224386167644161

    1. George Galloway is, and always was, hugely dangerous, far worse than anyone such as Oswald Mosley or any of the other pariahs of British politics. Two Marxist parents and the gift of the gab; utter poison.

  96. I just finished re-reading The Master and Margarita written by Mikhail Bulgakov. I can think of few books written in the 20th Century that so capture the imagination and span the gulf between the ancient world and the present.

    I think our Russian compatriots are the most worthy of neighbours. I personally prefer to support President Putin above the ghastly wretched advising the incompetent Biden regime in the USA.

    I just hope and trust that our people will wake up as soon as possible.

  97. Wordle 985 4/6

    My results for Thursday posted late on Wednesday’s page:

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