Wednesday 29 June: Russian aggression highlights the need to restore Army manpower

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here.

441 thoughts on “Wednesday 29 June: Russian aggression highlights the need to restore Army manpower”

  7. Russian aggression highlights the need to restore Army manpower

    But hasn’t that been evident for decades?

  8. Is it me, or does the writer of this letter conflate “rising sea levels” (who he?) with the causes of coastal erosion? If i am wrong, please correct me!

    “ Sir – Harry de Quetteville (Features, June 25) highlights the threat of coastal erosion.
    We have continually ignored the signs of rising sea levels. Our coastline has been changing across the centuries, one fine example being Dunwich on the Suffolk coast. This was a thriving medieval port in 1086 with more than 3,000 residents, but it is now long submerged beneath the sea, as are nine churches lost across subsequent centuries. David Saunders”

    1. I’m not certain MIR. The PTB certainly do since it adds credibility to the Climate Warming Scam!

    3. The sea levels ARE rising. I’ve stood and watched it in action, twice a day … approximately every 12½ hours.

      Conversely, the sea levels also fall, by the same amount, within the same time scale.

    5. Our island has been rising in the west and dipping – literally – in the east since since the last Ice Age as it recovers from the weight of the ice being lifted. The East Coast is doomed to submerge as a result of this ‘bounce’. I’m sure this mentioned when I was doing my Geography ‘O’ Grade in 1975.

      Edited for a brain fart.

        2. Technically a hook, but I’ll let you off.

          A hook is easier, and a jab would have meant stepping forward, which he wasn’t able to do from the standing position.

      2. Weight on the left foot, right foot lifting to provide body weight behind it. If the black scum had blocked though the bloke in green would be off balance and easy to throw or step inside and uppercut, winding him.

        But, good to see someone hit the vermin.

  10. Squinting through her prison-issued glasses, Ghislaine Maxwell’s fate was suddenly undeniable. 29 June 2022.

    The courtroom was stunned when the defendant herself then decided to take the stand. “Does Ms Maxwell wish to speak?” Judge Nathan asked, before Ms Sternehim signalled that she did.

    Much behaviour and motive has been ascribed to a silent Maxwell since her arrest two years ago. Many column inches dedicated to trying to understand why she did what she did. And, more importantly, whether she had any remorse.

    Standing at the lectern, she acknowledged “the pain and the anguish” of the victimised women who had addressed the court. But she stopped short of apologising or accepting responsibility for her crimes.

    I’m not usually an apologist for Evil-Doers but I have no doubts Maxwell is a Sin Eater! A Lightning Rod! A distraction from the real culprits here. She’s obviously a deeply unpleasant woman but is she really deserving of twenty years? The real villains have escaped their just desserts by paying vast sums or manipulating the political system and killing the major witness against them. As a demonstration of the Corruption and Decadence that is now endemic in the West it will make a good footnote in the history books.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/06/29/squinting-prison-issued-glasses-ghislaine-maxwells-fate-suddenly/

    1. I think I’ve stated in a BTL comment, I doubt that she’ll live long enough to utter one name, let alone provide evidence.

  11. Squinting through her prison-issued glasses, Ghislaine Maxwell’s fate was suddenly undeniable

    Did this journalist pass English at school? You’d tIim mhink not, otherwise she would be able to identify the subject in a sentence.

    1. Where are all the men that used these children.?? When will they be charged.???

      2. Never. At a certain point the law doesn’t apply, let alone any semblance of justice.

    2. Maxwell’s role was that of an old fashioned Madam .. a precuror of girls ( if that is the right word)

      The sort of thing one reads about in history books..

      The Royal family did that sort of thing .. was the late Diane procured for Charles ?

      Here in the UK , Muslim men use young girls for their own gratification , the law turns a blind eye. White paedos do the same .. but look at all the famous people who were not found out for years ..

      How strange it is that the media is focussing on Maxwell , but not disclosing the names of the famous men who were involved , apart from maybe the Royal who was a friend and idiot .

      The worry is that the men involved who are not named are still at large ( scuse the pun) and their appetites will continue to cause harm , although no doubt , many girls will fall into the trap for money and kudos .. and gain the first notch on the bedpost .

    5. Why is there not a public clamour both here and in the US for all those prominent politicians who used the services of the girls trafficked by Ms Maxwell to be named? Apart from Epstein who died or disappeared under mysterious circumstances, is it not highly bizarre that the only two named in this horrible business are British – Prince Andrew and Ms Maxwell?

      Many people assume – rightly of wrongly – that Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Barrack O’Barma and Donald Trump are on the list. Don’t any of them want to clear their names?

    1. We are daily schooled to be afraid. We are in the middle of a pandemic (??), which is clearly now milder than flu, promoting a vaccine (??) which doesn’t work and causes severe adverse effects. We are religiously trained to wear masks which studies show don’t work, whose constant use is proven to cause headaches and respiratory defects. Our every move is being tracked by Apps which collect our personal data that can and are being misused.

      Morning Bob. It is significant how the dissemination of fear for whatever reason is now the major part of Government Policy!

    2. Bunbury Boris?

      Remember Jack Worthing’s fictitious brother?

      There came a time when he was quite exploded. That time has come for Mr Johnson.

  13. ‘Morning, Peeps. Rain forecast here, but I’ll believe it when I see it.

    SIR – I agree with Nicola Sturgeon that Margaret Thatcher would endorse a second independence referendum (report, June 27) – but she would have insisted that Barnett formula payments were halted for, say, a couple of years before any vote, so that the Scottish people could understand what the loss of English financial support would mean for an independent Scotland.

    I doubt Ms Sturgeon would win a referendum if Scottish taxpayers had to pay for the freebies doled out so liberally by the SNP, and the independence cause would be extinguished for ever.

    Michael Edwards
    Haslemere, Surrey

    Great idea, but it will never happen.

    1. A BTL post on this subject:

      Michael Geddes 2 HRS AGO

      As a Scot suffering the regime of the SNP, I have persistently called for the UK government to allow a second, and final, independence referendum for Scotland. I see it as a win-win situation for most. If we decide, again, to remain in the UK, the incessant demands for independence would vanish. The SNP has a very healthy representation at Westminster, where their main contribution is the incessant spewing of negativity, led by Mr. Blackwood, a man whose rhetoric is delivered in the grievance/victim mode so beloved of his party, forever carping and obstructing; from behind the safety of the barricades that separate criticism from responsibility of course. Another crushing independence defeat would end the unremitting bleating.

      If the Scots voted to leave the UK, the financial burden would leave with them, as would the disproportionately high 48 seats currently occupied by griping Scots dissenters.

      I feel that the inclusion of ALL of the UK electorate in such a referendum would ensure that the SNP would get the result that they, allegedly, want. Toleration of this issue has become strained in recent years and I sense that the message from the English might well be, “If you’re not happy here, please go.” And who could blame them?

      * * *

      I was one of those who would like to have kept the Union intact, but since the dawn of the Fishwife – someone who loathes the English but not their money – I would vote for their departure, given the opportunity.

      1. I’ve always said that if Scotland truly wanted independence (as opposed to Devo Max financed by the hated English) it should have let the whole UK vote. The English would probably have voted a massive majority and the Welsh would have probably done the same (with an eye to independence themselves).

    2. As Sturgeon demanded, we should set out the terms of separation:

      No Barnett formula.
      All public sector jobs to be paid solely by the Scottish parliament
      No use of the pound except by paying to use it and then tied to UK monetary policy
      No access to British embassies
      No Westminster representation for Scotland
      A trade border with initially WTO trade
      All pensions liability to be transferred to Scotland to handle and no input from England at all.

      1. Shetland to be given the option of staying in the UK, becoming part of Norway or complete independence. (Subtext: oil.)

      2. …and no access to NHS.
        Remove RN base at Faslane to Plymouth.
        Remove all RAF bases to England
        Remove all Army bases to England.

        The lack of all those personnel and their families will really hit the local economies

        1. Scotland is dependent on the public sector for it’s economy. It’ll wither to nothing.

          Which is sad, but then, Sturgeon’s a typical statist socialist: she cannot see beyond high taxes and big state as that’s all she understands.

    3. There are many economically illiterate SNP fanatics who are adamant that it is Scotland which subsidises England. One such deluded fool is a cousin of mine who is rabidly in favour of Scottish independence – while being a big supporter of an independent Scotland joining the eussr. He was an economics lecturer at a prominent Scottish university. Mind you, he grew up with card carrying communist parents so maybe his leanings are not so surprising.

  14. The dismal truth is that Putin is winning the economic war. 29 June 2022.

    None of this is to lightly dismiss the scale of the problem the G7 is facing. Sanctions against Russia are all very well, but one of the effects has been to put a rocket under energy and food prices, such that it is sometimes hard to know who sanctions are damaging most – Russia or the West.

    In any case, Putin is getting a lot more for his exports of oil and gas than he could otherwise have hoped for. The Russian despot is still in the money, even at the deeply discounted prices he is forced to sell at in Asian markets, and therefore has no difficulty continuing to fund his war in Ukraine.

    Russia’s current account is in massive surplus, and the rouble is consequently strong. Moscow did admittedly default on some of its external debt this week, but this had nothing to do with inability to pay. Rather it was because sanctions prevented payment. It was therefore a somewhat meaningless default.

    When one reads about the collapse of Empires and Civilisations one is always struck by the lack of able men. The Politicians who built these Societies, the Generals who were able to defeat truly formidable opponents, the inventors, the entrepreneurs who made it possible no longer seem to exist. So we are now. Mediocrity abounds. Johnson, Biden, the rest of the G7 who would follow these people anywhere?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/06/28/macron-will-help-putin-confused-demand-oil-price-cap/

    2. At least the Grand Old Duke of York succeeded in getting his 10 thousand men to follow him to the top of the hill and then to follow him down again.

    3. We’re stuffed into decline by an unaccountable, unelected clique who think they know better. These people are fools who should be shot.

  15. SIR – The late, great cricket commentator Richie Benaud used to say: “My mantra is: put your brain into gear and if you can add to what’s on the screen then do it, otherwise shut up … The key thing was to learn the value of economy with words and to never insult the viewer by telling them what they can already see.”

    An idea for Wimbledon, perhaps (Letters June 28).

    John Wilkins
    Ware, Hertfordshire

    Great idea!  Those were the days…yesterday two commentators were obviously suffering from an attack of the verbals, so intrusive it went off.

     SIR – Here in France we have eight television channels showing Wimbledon without gabby commentators in either French or English. Bliss.

    Andrew J Morrison
    Bellevigne-en-Layon, Maine-et-Loire,

    That’s more like it…

    2. Dan (Oh I say) Maskell was a master of not saying what could be seen.
      Test match special, Brian Johnston et al, were masters at being the eyes via the radio.

    3. There used to be single commentators, all on their own, telling you what you needed to know about the ref’s decisions, rules of the game, and who could also fill in stoppage time with anecdotes and information about the players. Commentators who knew the sport.
      We now have teams of commentators, some of whom seem to know very little, and don’t tell you anyway. Even when the ref is on an open microphone they talk over him. Much of the time is spent on chitchat and banter between themselves. They are not talking to the audience. The best commentators always spoke to their audience as if there were only two people, the commentator and you.

  16. Wordle today is not so easy.

    I thought I was going to fail but hit it in the last guess.

    Wordle 375 6/6

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

    1. Congrats boss. I wait until someone tells me the word then I get it quite quickly.

      1. You’re an intelligent if a little stubborn man, but not lacking brainpower.

        Your first word should have 3 vowels if poss. Raise, radio etc. Use the second word to find where the vowels you have found might go and try to use different consonants to kill off as many as poss, same with word 3, then you should have a good idea.

        I failed one a few days ago. I had _loat giving a possible bloat, float or gloat. I had 2 guesses left and three possible words. Needless to say it was gloat and I went bloat then float.

        1. Sneaky approach needed – The first of your last two guesses should have been a word with at least two of “b”, “f” or “g” – for example “fling”. That would have told you if the “f” or “g” was correct, and if neither then it would have to be “b”.

  18. SIR – Rosie Harden-Vane (Letters, June 28) asks how the licensing of bicycles would be enforced. If my recent experience is anything to go by, it wouldn’t be.

    Last week I made a rare visit to Derby city centre, where I saw two e-scooters being ridden at speed in a pedestrianised area. There were police officers on patrol nearby, so I asked them if they were aware of the e-scooters. They replied: “We don’t bother enforcing it [the law], unless they are engaged in anti-social behaviour.”

    I contacted Derbyshire Police to ask if it is now official policy to ignore the law on illegal e-scooters, and whether putting pedestrians at risk is not “antisocial behaviour”. I await a reply.

    Terry Lloyd

    I would regard the riding of e-scooters at speed through a pedestrianised area as anti-social at the very least! Presumably public safety is now well down the list of law-breaking…

    1. According to our PCC, “hate crime” is their priority. It did not go down well when he said it.

  19. 353609+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Wednesday 29 June: Russian aggression highlights the need to restore Army manpower

    May one ask
    Surely but surely we are witnessing the same on the home front as an “in your face fact” that cannot be denied by peoples of decency and is currently only accepted by lab/lib/con mass uncontrolled immigration / paedophile umbrella member / voters.

    The majority of the electoral herds dilemma is they just do not know which way to stampede this is well known by the lab/lib/con politico’s who odious actions are employed to keep the herd teetering on their hooves.

    Who can really blame the coalition politico for acting as they do, where else are they going the get 80K pa plus exs and a cut in any scam even 24/7 ladies of the night
    cannot better that ongoing, year on year on year but the current idiotic use of the polling booth protects the political system serial abusers time after time in the party before Country mode of destructive voting.

    Owing to the continuing close shop voting lab/lib/con COALITION & regarding children’s futures, is visibly on par with duck shite on a once clear water pond.

    .

    1. The problem is the MoD is basically incompetent. It has been for decades. It will remain so indefinitely until it is shut down.

      The solution is to buy a lot of war machines and heavily equip a small cadre of soldiers in multirole combat. Heavy weapons, ordnance, evacuation – make each battlegroup self sufficient. We don’t need millions of men under arms. We need small, efficient assassination groups to get in, destroy and leave. Politicians keep thinking the military is there to hold. It isn’t. The purpose must be to kill so many of the enemy that their will to fight is broken.

      No one will countenance that though. You don’t win the hearts and minds of the taliban. You execute 500 of them. And their children down to the children in their arms. As soon as they know you won’t shoot them, they use them as a human shield to kill you. vicious, violent oppression. Break their will to fight and stop the fighting.

  20. SIR – Some Conservative MPs believe they will lose their seats at the next election if they do not defect (report, June 28).

    I had thought all these years that the purpose of my vote was to elect a representative of the people, but it seems I was wrong. Clearly the true purpose of an election is simply to provide a career path for the candidates, who are then free to move to another party at any time that suits their future prospects.

    I had better go back to the classroom.

    David Pound
    Daventry, Northamptonshire

    Any MP with a shred of honour would stand for re-election.

    1. “Any MP with a shred of honour would stand for re-election”
      Oh how we laffed………

        1. This indicates that supporters of Brexit are the only politicians with integrity. Mind you the current crop seem to have as little integrity as the rest of them.

          I think that all the Conservative MPs who got elected on the back of Johnson’s empty promise to ‘Get Brexit Done’ should resign and stand again in by elections as independent pro-Brexit candidates and once they are back in Parliament the group will be able to exert real political pressure on Johnson to fulfil his election promises.

          I think that Nigel Farage needs to have the humility to admit that he made a vital mistake in not contesting Conservative held seats held by remainers in the 2019 general election and on his failure to get any sort of quid pro quo from the Bumbling Bonker. This has left far too many remainers in the House of Commons and has certainly emasculated any chance of getting a proper Brexit done.

          I predict that if the EU still exists in ten years time Britain will be back in it. I hope I am wrong but am not confident that I am!

          1. With all its infighting and squabbles between countries, plus a weakening of the Euro, I can see the EU imploding in the next couple of years.

            Like you, Richard, and as the Irish say, “Live in hope and die in despair.”

          2. We can but hope, but its demise has been touted as on the cards for years. We need something that will definitely tip it over the edge.

          3. You’re right about Nigel. But he told Conservative MPs who wanted to come over to UKIP that they would be required to resign and stand in the subsequent by-election.

    2. It simply underpins the lack of democracy in this country. Changing party should immediately trigger a by election. Frankly, an MP should not be able to act without the consent of their constituents. They are our representatives, not themselves.

    3. Any honour mps might have had at the start of their career will be soon lost as said in the original version of House of Cards. As Francis Urquhart use to point out by saying, “everyone has their price”.
      Why would any dishonest person give up an opportunity to I’ve entirely off the British tax payer’s doing sweet FA for life with a gold plated bombproof pension at the end of it. Ask people like Ken Clarke what they do all day.

        1. Absolutely correct.
          And he lives in luxury somewhere entirely off the British taxpayers.
          He like many other in westmonster wallow in their expenses claims.

    4. If the political parties had any integrity they would refuse to accept a defector from another party unless he or she has first presented him/herself in a by election.

      Does anyone remember the repulsive Sean Woodward – a piece of complete excrement. He moved to the Labour Party from being a Conservative MP in a safe Conservative seat. The Labour Party rewarded him by giving him a safe Labour seat to contest in the next general election and even made him a minister.

      Woodward married, Camilla Sainsbury, a member of the Sainsbury Grocer firm, and frittered away as much money as he could on an enormous vanity birthday party for himself. True to his nature he deserted his wife and went off with a floosy once he had got as much money as he could out of the Sainsburys.

      Sean Woodward is the absolute epitome of the extreme sordidness of many people who enter politics.

        1. I notice she founded and chaired the dubious-sounding “Scottish Asian Women’s Association”. But we would be racist if we set up a white British group in our own country.

          1. Fully supported by the SNP government (which is mainly a female clique) who donated a handsome sum of taxpayers money.. The money was spent on a celebration launch party.

            As an aside I asked the Scottish government for a list the charitable donations that they had made in a year. The reply was that “we cannot do that, you have to ask in respect of an individual charity.”

          2. And to do that, you need to know the names of all the dubious charities ……
            I’m surprised that list wouldn’t be available under a FOI request. Maybe the fish woman disregards that.

          3. Exactly so. A deliberate subterfuge. It was an FOI request, but “too difficult”.
            I ha written to the Leader of the Tories in Scotland to suggest that he should avoid arguments about independence. The Tories cannot win such argument as half the voters in Scotland support independence. I also pointed out that there would be a Tory Party in an independent Scotland. I suggested that the best way to attack the SNP was on there performance as managers. I did not go so far as to suggest that if independence is the will of the people then the Tories should support it.
            Political parties in a democracy should surely back the will of the people. (Oh, hang on. That doesn’t happen, ever.)

      2. Our MP used to be the odious Quentin Davies who also defected to Liebour but, naturally, held on to his seat until the next election.
        His replacement, Nick Boles, wasn’t any more honourable. Regardless of what he spouted, he was a remainer in a strongly Leave constituency, voting accordingly.

    5. ‘Morning, Hugh.

      Honour doesn’t feature in the vocabulary (or psyche) of the modern MP. They are only driven my lust and greed. The lust for power and the greed of the lucre that brings them.

  21. 353609+ up ticks,

    May one ask which politico / friend will get the uniform franchise in the coming war involvement ?

    1. Revealed: Ringleader of Rochdale grooming gang WON’T be deported to Pakistan because of loophole that let him RENOUNCE citizenship of his native country just five days before key hearing
      A ringleader of the notorious Rochdale grooming gang known as ‘The Master’ by his fellow abusers has won his battle against deportation to his native Pakistan
      The taxi driver, 51, was convicted of trafficking and conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with a child and jailed for nine years in 2012
      Whistleblower Maggie Oliver, who resigned as a detective over failings in how police handled grooming cases in Rochdale, said victims would be horrified .

      A ringleader of the notorious Rochdale grooming gang has won his battle against deportation back to his native Pakistan, it was revealed yesterday.

      Abdul Aziz, known as ‘The Master’ by his fellow abusers, was stripped of his UK citizenship in 2018 after using human rights laws in a bid to avoid being thrown out of the country.

      But while fellow gang members Adil Khan, 52, and Qari Abdul Rauf, 53, are still fighting efforts to send them back to Pakistan, the status of Aziz has been shrouded in secrecy.

      The 51-year-old taxi driver, who ferried victims to sex parties as far away as Leeds and Bradford, was convicted of trafficking and conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with a child and jailed for nine years in 2012.

      But yesterday, to the outrage of campaigners, it was revealed that in reality, Aziz won his fight to stay in the UK almost four years ago.

      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10959109/Grooming-gang-leader-WONT-kicked-UK-winning-fight-against-deportation.html

      1. Cut his gonads off with a chainsaw and let him bleed to death. Why there was ever a challenge is beyond me.

        The lot of them should have been black bagged, flayed, flogged and their remains spiked as a reminder to the rest of them of the future.

        I’m sick of these creatures.

        1. There needs to be some legislation that removes the human rights of those who have violated the human rights of others.

          This monster has no respect for the human rights of the children he and his co-religionists violated.

          If we cannot execute the monster and we cannot deport him he should be locked in a cage, fed bread and water and left there for the rest of his miserable life.

          1. Yes – why should a criminal be allowed to call upon the law to protect him? He broke the law, so has no respect for it or the rights of others. Why should he now demand it’s defences when he held it so cheap?

          2. Yes – why should a criminal be allowed to call upon the law to protect him? He broke the law, so has no respect for it or the rights of others. Why should he now demand it’s defences when he held it so cheap?

      2. 353609+ up ticks,

        Morning TB,

        Seemingly this issue will be regarded by lab/lib/con mass uncontrolled immigration / paedophile umbrella coalition party current member / voter as his vote counts.

      3. A truly appalling failure of our judicial system. As I understand it (GBN yesterday) he was given two nine-year sentences, to run concurrently. But he was out in under four years, instead of serving what most would expect to have been the full 18? Furthermore, if his British citizenship was (quite rightly) removed in 2018, common sense says he has deliberately made himself stateless and therefore he has to take his chances with deportation. What part of a stupid, criminal-protecting law are we part of, and why are we not getting out of it as a matter of urgency?

  23. Morning all 😃
    I looks as if our pathetic and useless government are now trying to employ all of the illegal immigrants into army service.
    I can’t see any average brit wanting to join and try messing up other people’s countries in Europe just for the sake of it. There is obviously no need to, or any particular reason or gain. Except trying to achieve justification for another huge and abominable eff up by our useless political classes.
    And why in this modern day and age do all of them have travel thousands of miles to meet in person? I suspect it’s just because what they say to each other around a private table can’t be heard or eavesdropped by the Internet.
    Therefore infact the lies they tell us after the events can’t be questioned.

    1. As soon as she was arrested she should have been sacked. This country is in the toilet, and 90% of the reasons are down to government.

      A refusal to act on necessary issues. Dogma, ideological arrogance, ego, protectionism, spite, malice, greed are their watchwords. These people need a reminder of whom they serve and should be treated to a short, sharp shock. Get rid of the Webbe creature. She’s obviously vermin.

      1. 353609+ up ticks,

        Morning R,
        “The system is completely broken”
        Agreed,
        Due to the party before Country voting brigade the electoral majority voting in a destructive pro political reset manner.

        Decent people are suffering via what the polling booth
        dictates.

      2. Utterly. The only way to repair it now is to utterly dismantle and rebuild it. That is going to mean many millions are disenfranchised.

    1. 363709+ up ticks,

      TB,
      With the continued support & backing of idiots.

      For instance take the current United Kingdom …….

  26. I mentioned yesterday that I had no idea what was being said at Yorkshire Cricket Club. Today Michael Vaughan has “stepped back” from his job with the BBC because he is involved, or not. Nice euphemism. He has been fired because of complains from the BME gang at the BBC. On the same page there is an an advert/link to an article on taking up cricket. The man looks like Michael Vaughan.
    If one reads the article on Vaughan’s “stepping back” one gets to a link in the BBC article that takes you to a Telegraph page that you cannot read as it is behind a paywall.

    Bah! Humbug!

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/61975267

    1. Michael Vaughan temporarily stepped down from Test Match Special on Monday, almost two weeks after he was charged over the Yorkshire racism scandal.

      England’s 2005 Ashes-winning captain, who is also a columnist for Telegraph Sport, took the decision following the conclusion of the country’s Test series with New Zealand.

      Vaughan was among seven former or current Yorkshire players charged by the England & Wales Cricket Board earlier this month over accusations made by Azeem Rafiq and others.

      He has categorically denied making a racially-insensitive remark to Rafiq and other Muslim players when they were team-mates 13 years ago.

      Vaughan said: “On numerous occasions, I have put on record my views on the issues concerning YCCC.

      “It is always regrettable when commentary on matters off the field take the focus away from what’s happening on the field. In view of the ongoing dialogue on the subject, I have taken the decision to step back from my work with the BBC for the time being.

      ADVERTISING

      “The key driver for this is my concern for the well-being of my family members and my wish to protect their family life. Stepping back temporarily is also in the interests of the game and I hope that it will minimise any difficulties for my work colleagues.”

      A BBC spokesperson added: “Following conversations with Michael Vaughan, we’ve accepted his decision to step away from our cricket coverage. This is a decision we respect and understand. Michael remains under contract to the BBC.”

      It is the second time Vaughan will be absent from Test Match Special since the accusations against him first went public back in November.

      The BBC took him off air at that time “for editorial reasons”, namely to avoid a “conflict of interest” during its Ashes coverage when it came to discussing the Yorkshire racism scandal.

      It bowed to pressure to bring Vaughan back by saying the following month it expected to “work with Michael again in the future” and he duly made his return in March.

      This month’s charges saw the BBC review its position but it chose to stand by him pending the outcome of the case against him later this year.

      On Monday, it emerged the BBC Sport’s BAME Group and 5 Live Diversity Group had written a letter in opposition to that decision.

      Barbara Slater, the corporation’s director of sport, yesterday sent an email to staff in response which read: “I would like to assure everyone that the decision making process has always considered the impact it would have on colleagues – alongside a range of other factors.”

      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cricket/2022/06/28/michael-vaughan-stands-bbc-role-amid-yorkshire-racism-row/
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      49
      The Telegraph values your comments but kindly requests all posts are on topic, constructive and respectful. Please review our commenting policy.

      1. SB

        Steve Bryce
        7 MIN AGO
        Rafiq became a professional victim in short order. If he didn’t like playing for Yorkshire he could have left at any time. Vaughan is a class act and I resent him feeling pressured in this way

        JW

        John Winter
        11 MIN AGO
        Is there a bbc Support Whitey group?

        MV

        Marcus Vaigncourt-Strallen
        9 MIN AGO
        Don’t be silly!

        SV

        Sandy Virtue
        11 MIN AGO
        The “diversity and inclusion” contingents are nothing more than a bunch of wimps and cry-babies!

        MG

        Mark Goodier
        16 MIN AGO
        “Michael remains under contract to the BBC”. Does this mean he’s being paid to do nothing?

        FT

        Foxy Thecat
        16 MIN AGO
        In a way I feel sorry for Michael Vaughan he is the victim of an unsubstantiated claim of racism. In the current UK climate that accusation is a trump card and when played will ruin you on the merest hearsay evidence. However I think he should have fought these accusations which at worst were changing room banter and why did Raffiq leave it 5years + before coming out ?

        BG

        Barry Guevara
        18 MIN AGO
        So Vaughan is suspended but the anti-Semite Rafiq is treated as a special guest at Headingly.
        Something is very wrong.

        ME

        M Edginton
        12 MIN AGO
        Well said! I hope all these groups who set themselves up as judge and jury on the rest of us ordinary people are as pure in mind and thought as they would have us believe.

        1. How ironic that the ‘diversity and inclusion’ group want to exclude Michael Vaughan.

      2. Thank you. I read that as being fired. Just as” has decided to seek opportunities elsewhere”means fired. Has the Yorkshire Report been published? Do we know what was actually said?
        The banter in team changing rooms can get quite brutal sometimes. It is part of male bonding, I suppose. Maybe some saw that as a chance to get some money from “compensation”?

      3. It just appears to be part of the adverse and opposing adgenda that is at every opportunity being constantly directed against long established British culture.
        It just underlines exactly how pathetic and weak our authorities have become.
        Why the bbc have a sports Bame group sadly underines the anti indigenous objectives. It’s racist.

        1. Morning ,
          Yep, considering athletics and football are dominated by blacks , oh yes and music , adverts , TV shows , taking into account what percentage are represented in our white population .,

      4. Yes, if he called a Pakistani cricketer a ‘Paki’ he’d probably be racist for calling an Australian an Aussie while get called Honky or Pom with no complaint from us.

        A bunch of tossers, busy virtue-signalling.

    2. If you can’t ever read an article, copy the URL into Internet Explorer – not edge or firefox.

      IE X is so bad it doesn’t support the java controls that Telegraph uses to create the paywall. Bit sad really. Private window to read the comments, IE to read the article.

        1. Ah, ok. I have a windows VM I play with which has Internet Explorer 11 on it. It can’t do the things that the Telegraph relies upon to create the paywall so the articles are always readable.

    3. I think Vaughan, and possibly others, must have said something hurty to an LGBT bender at the BBC. They have been waging a long war on him and Yorkshire County Cricket Club. The MCC is also doing its best to get Yorkshire banned from competing in the UK.

      How many of these MCC bigwigs have other genders and same pronoun partners?

      The ECB are just as bad: Azeem Rafiq (the liar who started this action) was treated to corporate hospitality by the England & Wales Cricket Board during this month’s first Test at Lord’s, days before it issued charges over the Yorkshire racism scandal.

      https://lords-stg.azureedge.net/mediafiles/lords/media/images/standard-header/world-cc2_1.jpg?ext=.jpg

  27. Nato has to be ready for a Russian nuclear strike. 29 June 2022.

    Nato needs to be ready. The summit should address the threat and conclude with a stark warning of the swift, devastating and decisive consequences of such a decision, while leaving all options open, whether conventional, cyber or nuclear. Only by preparing can we reduce the likelihood of Putin making such a catastrophic choice.

    The only rational preparation that I am aware of for Nuclear War is on its announcement to bend down and kiss your ass goodbye!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/06/28/nato-has-ready-russian-nuclear-strike/

    1. “Put your head between your legs and kiss your arse goodbye”. ©Mike Harding.

      Not many people own a donkey! 🤣

      1. There was a young girl from Madras
        Who had the most beautiful ass
        Not rounded and pink
        As you probably think
        But was grey had long ears and ate grass.

        At least the donkeys who take children on their backs on the beach at Blackpool have a charter to protect them:

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

    2. IMHO if Putin was really as bad as the western media and political classes express. I’m sure by now he would have “taken them out’ during one of their many recent joint meetings.
      There are so many obvious ways and means.

    3. If NATO needs to be ready for a Russian nuclear strike, we should leave NATO immediately.

  29. Britain’s first asylum camp to get own GPs and dentists
    By
    Charles Hymas,
    HOME AFFAIRS EDITOR
    29 June 2022 • 7:30am

    Britain’s first asylum camp – dubbed Guantanamo on Ouse – will get their own GPs and dentists under NHS plans.

    The 1,500 migrants aged 18 to 40 expected to be housed on a former RAF base in Linton on Ouse in north Yorkshire will have access to a “bespoke” health service comprising not only GPs and dentists but also chemists and opticians.

    Campaigners against the camp say it will be a better service than that provided to residents of Linton-on-Ouse whose nearest GP is four miles away, closest private dentist more than seven miles away and whose mental health services are straining under a two year waiting list.

    The plans, set out in documents from the Vale of York’s clinical commissioning group (CCG), said the specialist on-site health services were necessary to prevent the “fragile” existing NHS provision in the area becoming overloaded.

    The camp on the converted RAF base will house up to 1,500 men aged 18 to 40 despite facing intense local opposition from villagers who claim they will be outnumbered by the asylum seekers.

    About 60 men were due to move in at the end of May, but at the last minute the Home Office said no final decision had been taken on whether to accommodate asylum seekers there.

    However, the papers from the governing board of the CCG show it plans to commission a “bespoke, standalone enhanced primary care service for the asylum seeker population” and say planning work is continuing despite the delay. The proposals are due to be discussed by the CCG tomorrow (thur).

    Services include GPs, pharmacies, dental and optometry services. With the three-GP practice in nearby Tollerton covering 3,500 patients, the CCG said it would not be “realistically achievable” to cater for 3,000 migrants a year, based on each cohort of 1,500 spending six months at the camp.

    The CCG said that, along with Serco and its health provider, it was “aiming to be ready by the end of June 2022”. The Home Office has outsourced the day-to-day management of the centre to contractor firm Serco.

    Professor Olga Matthias, one of the campaigners against the plans, said: “They are now supposedly going to be getting a GP service, dental service and mental health support that doesn’t exist in North Yorkshire at an adequate service level.”

    She said there were no NHS dentists and the nearest private practice to LInton on Ouse was seven miles. Even the GPs in Tollerton were four and a half miles away, provided the bridge on the road to it, which flooded in winter, was open. If it was under water, it was a six and half mile journey.

    The CCG papers suggested that even the end of June deadline for opening was a problem. “Whilst we have a proposed approach, even with willing partners we are some way from commissioning a compliant service and we have few options for a short-term interim stop gap given the fragility of local services which cannot be called upon at this time. This will be a priority in our discussion with the health provider,” they said.

    Comments

    Tracey Smith
    7 MIN AGO
    We are traipsing off to the ballot box to vote to be poorer and replaced. I think there is some insanity in that personally.

    MG

    Mark Goodwin
    7 MIN AGO
    Pay up subjects and stop whining! You know you are too supine to do anything about it.

    TS

    Tracey Smith
    9 MIN AGO
    Withhold council tax until you can get to see a doctor or have medical treatment. What are we paying for ? Bins emptied twice a month. Not much else.

    JC

    john Charles
    10 MIN AGO
    I have worked 40 years of my life, last 10 years of my life I have not had a dentist, too expensive

    CM

    Christopher Meston
    10 MIN AGO
    As the moderator didn’t like my last post let’s try again
    No wonder the main parties treat the taxpayers of this country with contempt
    Millions keep voting for them while this disgrace continues ..!!
    A red blue or Amber lump of wood , would still get voted in
    Until the voters wake up and smell the coffee, the country and its people are **ck** EDITED

    TS

    Tracey Smith
    15 MIN AGO
    So the tax payer waits for weeks months and years for medical treatment and these scroungers get it all immediately and without paying anything in. I don’t know how we are remaining civil about this. It is beyond disgusting

    Load more comments
    Rosemary Led
    17 MIN AGO
    Perhaps a national tax-strike is called for. No services = no tax paid. I f employers co-operate it is possible.

    RL

    Rosemary Led
    19 MIN AGO
    This is beyond disgusting. A coimplete slap in the face to taxpayers.
    These people – mainly economic advantage-seekers – should have only basic emergency medical and dental treatment, Britain does not owe the world full medical services. Specially while many of us are failing to get even urgent diagnoses and treatment for terminal diseases.
    And anyway, there are only 1500 migrants there at any one time, and for 6 months.. If you factor in the 6 month waiting list time most of us endure, then they’ll have moved on before their appointment is due.

    TP

    The Purple Crocus
    20 MIN AGO
    Utopia awaits illegal immigrants……..as taxpayers are faced with spiralling bills, restricted access to healthcare and a dystopian future. Get a grip please government…..this situation is unacceptable and unsustainable.
    We did note vote for any of this madness/insanity/stupidity.*
    * Perm any two from three. EDITED

    GF

    Greater Fool
    22 MIN AGO
    This shouldn’t be a problem, as we are often told half of the asylum seekers in the camp should already be qualified doctors, dentists and nurses.

    AR

    Anthony Richardson
    24 MIN AGO
    I can paraphrase the final paragraph. As a Government, we don`t give a fig for the indigenous population`s opinions or their healthcare problems.

    PM

    Piggy Malone
    25 MIN AGO
    Jesus wept. Better facilities than most of the UK population.

    SP

    susan pearce
    27 MIN AGO
    Day to day management run by Serco says it all .

    JS

    James Smith
    27 MIN AGO
    Am I dreaming? This doesnt seem real anymore.

    AV

    Another View
    30 MIN AGO
    Areas of the country lacking access to GPs (isn’t that almost the whole country?) and/or NHS dentists should perhaps label themselves as ‘refugee camps’ in order to get NHS to deliver a ‘bespoke health service’.

    MC

    Matthew Christley
    30 MIN AGO
    I am now convinced that the best case scenario at the next election will be a weak Labour-led coalition which will be forced by its’ partners into introducing proportional representation.
    Our “Conservative” party has shown no willingness to control immigration, so I believe that we need to accept the situation for the next few years, with the hope of electing a coalition including a party such as Reform/UKIP at the following election. There is no hope of anything changing under the FPTP system.

    7
    7 older replies
    SHOW OLDER REPLIES

    BH

    Bwana Haraka
    18 MIN AGO
    Scraping the bottom of the barrel. Hard cheese.

    CM

    Christopher Meston
    5 MIN AGO
    Drivel

    BH

    Bwana Haraka
    34 MIN AGO
    Brexit has opened the floodgates to Asylum shoppers who cannot be sent back under EU Dublin regulations. Can’t blame the shoppers for taking advantage of Brexit as they also desire “la bella vita”.

    CM

    Christopher Meston
    5 MIN AGO
    Drivel

    ME

    Malcolm Edward
    35 MIN AGO
    Our government are shipping illegal immigrants in and treating them better then British people who’ve contributed to the NHS.
    How come we are plagued with political parties and governments that continually put the interest of foreigners above that of British people.

    ST

    Socra Tease
    24 MIN AGO
    Politicians’ need to help their Rail director mates in securing a cheap labour force to replace the RMT workers who will still be striking for a living wage.

    RS

    Raju Sinha
    35 MIN AGO
    Interesting findings. Thanking you kindly.

    SP

    susan pearce
    40 MIN AGO
    Why should I be paying for this, when i have to pay privately for a dentist, Gp a joke they are still in hiding , even online consultation form only avail 9-5 and4 days a week and if lucky call back in 48 hrs. EDITED

    TD

    Tony Dalby
    43 MIN AGO
    I wonder what message these fortunate recipients are sending their families back home? ‘Bloomin’ wonderful here – Well Worth the Hassle of getting here! Come on over’ or
    ‘So tough here it’s not worth it!’
    Think I can guess.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/06/29/britains-first-asylum-camp-get-gps-dentists/

    1. That’s only one area where these illegal arrivals are being pampered. I can’t believe how this useless and diabolical government can allow this to happen.
      It’s a direct insult aimed at everyone in the UK who has and still pays tax in any shape or form.

    2. Good morning True Belle.
      It is absolutely outrageous that these illegal savages will be receiving services that the tax payers cannot access. I bet the GP appointments will all be face-to-face with prompt referral to the top of the lists at local hospitals guaranteed.
      I hope the householders of Linton-on-Ouse and nearby villages will invest in high security locks and CCTV too. None of their children or teenage daughters will be safe to walk unescorted to schools, parks, freinds’ houses or shops. And their house values will plummet so moving away will hardly be an option.
      if these sort of ‘camps’ are to be opened, they should only be very close to homes of ministers, MPs or HoL wasters.

    4. Execute the swine. Why are we paying for them to have anything? Why? They contribute nothing, they’re all criminals. They’re all vermin. Pack them on to a ferry sail it to france. If they won’t get off, shoot them. Why the flipping heck am I paying for this dross?

    2. All the unnecessary rabbit has just started that’s why i’m here. They had a program on absolutely decrying the consumption of alcohol and are issuing ankle detectors that stop people from drinking. Even small amounts. supposedly to stop aggressive behaviour. But i don’t think it will stop there. I wondered if they have a ankle attachment that stops taxi drivers, men in particular, from sexually children being abusing young girls,

      2. The slightest hint of an erection and a huge bell chimes in the local cop-shop, together with the taxi-driver’s whereabouts

        1. The police have been part of the problem. As in too scared to do anything about it. Pathetic useless people.

    1. I suspect that the public donations will dry up. Maybe the UK government are paying the RNLI a per capita payment for everyone whom they bring in?

      1. I can only image what would happen if a real emergency took place.
        As for using public donations to finance the demise of our country is not untypical of todays political classes.

        1. Perhaps in reality MPs have been claiming vast expenses and using the money to make donations to the RNLI.
          I wouldn’t put anything past those POS’s

      2. It must be at the behest and cost of the Home office. It’s vengeance. Nothing more. You can almost hear the crowing of the mandarins as more filth pour across the channel.

          1. Me neither – they still haven’t responded to my email of over a week ago

    3. The entire state machine is wedded to bringing them over. The solution is to force mandarins and civil servants to house them. 30 or 40 to a house. Ideally with those with young children and women. That’d stop the tide in no time.

      1. The solution is to enforce the law. Attest all aiding and abetting this criminal act, slam them in jail, seize their assets.
        Oh, yes, and shoot the scum crossing the channel.

    1. Maybe they meant “2021” and not “2022”, and maybe “unused Show court tickets, not “used”
      Or maybe I just did not understand any of it.

    1. They call it ‘minor attracted persons’. They’re insane. The Left wants to normalise the mechanical abuse of children.

      The entire world is back to front.

      1. Its merely an acceptance of the words of the Prophet. Two billion slammers can’t be wrong surely.

      2. 353609+ up ticks,
        Afternoon W,

        I assume the left being AKA the lab/lib /con mass uncontrolled immigration ,ongoing / paedophile umbrella ongoing, coalition party.

        I do not recognise right / left in politics currently only right / wrong.

    2. What was Harriet Harman’s and Patricia Hewitt’s involvement with PIE (Paedophile Information Exchange)? I believe that they denied it after the event but the words of Mandy Rice Davies echo : they would say that wouldn’t they?

      I believe this organisation wanted the age of sexual consent reduced to 10 or 11.

      1. 353608+ up ticks,.

        Afternoon R,
        Conversing with PIE, the age issue was I believed discussed, Hewitt DID apologise harmqan never did, still in situ, operating.

  34. Mall was not intended target of deadly Russian strike, UK says. 29 June 2022.

    It comes as dozens of people are still missing following the strike that also killed at least 18 people.

    Meanwhile, defence secretary Ben Wallace has said the Ukrainians are still “winning” in their struggle with Russia, despite recent Russian advances in the east of the country.

    Lol! Adolf used to tell everyone in the Bunker this for nearly two years as the Red Army crushed everything in its path!

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ukraine-russia-nuclear-war-nato-putin-b2111684.html

  35. Mall was not intended target of deadly Russian strike, UK says. 29 June 2022.

    It comes as dozens of people are still missing following the strike that also killed at least 18 people.

    Meanwhile, defence secretary Ben Wallace has said the Ukrainians are still “winning” in their struggle with Russia, despite recent Russian advances in the east of the country.

    Lol! Adolf used to tell everyone in the Bunker this for nearly two years as the Red Army crushed everything in its path!

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ukraine-russia-nuclear-war-nato-putin-b2111684.html

  36. Mall was not intended target of deadly Russian strike, UK says. 29 June 2022.

    It comes as dozens of people are still missing following the strike that also killed at least 18 people.

    Meanwhile, defence secretary Ben Wallace has said the Ukrainians are still “winning” in their struggle with Russia, despite recent Russian advances in the east of the country.

    Lol! Adolf used to tell everyone in the Bunker this for nearly two years as the Red Army crushed everything in its path!

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ukraine-russia-nuclear-war-nato-putin-b2111684.html

  37. Just a thought ……d’ya think that by putting the illegal arrivals into an out of the way airbase with its runway still operational, they might be able to fly them out without having to make explanations,……no ?

    1. This is big government you’re talking about. The intent was never, ever to get rid of them vermin, but to bring ever more in.

        2. You obviously don’t have any little grandchildren Grizz, we have gravel around an Acer in a large pot.
          They love loading it into a large toy tipper truck.

          3. I don’t have any grandchildren, Eddy, but I have inherited a gang of great-nephews. They are quite well-behaved though.

        3. Ours gets done so infrequently that I refer to “lowering the lawn” rather than cutting it!

    3. That really is lovely. I am always lost in admiration of those, and there are many amongst the Nottlers, who can create and manage beautiful gardens, small and large.

      1. Thanks. I’m also in admiration of those who can do so. None of the work there is mine (I am allowed to mow the lawn though).

    4. Very lovely, Mr. Grizz! Peaceful and calm! Your home looks beautiful too!

      1. Thank you, Mrs Macfarlane. It’s an old converted cow-shed (I kid you not) that has also been a blacksmith’s forge and a cobbler’s shop in its time. All there is on the ground floor is a large conservatory, the kitchen, and a huge workshop/studio. Lounge, bedroom and shower room are all on the first floor.

    5. Nice!
      Lovely garden, Grizz.
      Mine looks, well, like a disused tank training ground… 🙁

        1. My neighbour, Shaggy [real name Roland, but he is the spitting image of the dude from Scooby Doo], surrounds his ponies’ paddock (right outside my back garden) with a wildflower meadow. It’s a picture when in full bloom.

          1. Oh that’s funny! The guy who used to run the local petrol station here when it was a family concern, was called Shaggy! Absolute double he was!

        2. We have done. Once there’s some decent growth, it’ll look all right, but just for the moment it’s, well, scruffy.

  40. UK plans to cut pipelines to EU if Russia gas crisis intensifies. 29 June 2022.

    The UK will cut off gas supplies to mainland Europe if it is hit by severe shortages under an emergency plan that energy companies warn risks exacerbating a crisis on the continent.

    With European countries facing the prospect of Russia severing gas exports, the British plan to shut off pipelines to the Netherlands and Belgium risks undermining a push for international co-operation on energy.

    A cut off of so-called interconnector pipelines would be among the early measures under the UK’s emergency gas plan, which could be triggered by National Grid if supplies fall short in the coming months.

    This cannot possibly be true! It’s too much like Common Sense!

    https://www.ft.com/content/175ef927-efa2-439e-8ede-1dfc7edd23a6

    1. We cut off their gas pipeline they cut off our electricity interconnectors in retaliation……..
      But our European friends would never be so petty
      No Siree…………
      Afternoon Minty

      1. Sorry, Rik, got so overexcited to reply the same as you that I didn’t read down… 🙁

    2. International co-operation on energy. Words that strike terror into any sane person’s heart. You CANNOT outsource energy. The entire point of these malicious buggers is to destroy our generating capacity and thus force their agenda on us. We need energy, lots and lots of it for ourselves. Our society cannot be without abundant energy and frankly, we should not share it.

      We should be competing with other nations for lower taxes, cheap energy and infrastructure, not enforcing international socialism.

    4. Watch the ‘leccy interconnectors go dark as well – and since they almost universally feed the UK, Boris had better get a wiggle-on with opening the coal fired generating stations.

  41. Good Moaning.
    “Paper paper everywhere
    And all is on the blink.”

    Aaarrgghhhh ……. another day of running around to be allowed to exist because the computer either says “No” or “Stuff it”.
    Welcome to Stasi Land. I wonder if a Lidl carrier bag full Euro notes would smooth life’s rocky path?

  42. “Oh! What a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive”. Yes, looking at you Man-made Climate Change protagonists!

    If the data does not agree with the policies and propaganda change the data.
    “The Biden administration recently scrubbed all wildfire data prior to 1983 from the official record books.
    This was done because fire burn acreage was found to be much higher between 1910-1960 than it is today and therefore disproved their AGW/wildfire correlation. The ACTUAL data destroys ‘the climate emergency’ narrative, and so the current administration unabashedly removed the records, citing the lackluster reasoning that “it wasn’t official”–linked below.”

    https://electroverse.net/new-study-severe-droughts-not-due-to-climate-change/
    https://www.nifc.gov/fire-information/statistics/wildfires

  43. Hooray – able to log in at last – 2 days without Nottl, started to have withdrawal symptoms

    1. How many people remember Virginia Wade’s Wimbledon-winning date: 7/7/77. Very lucky for her.

  50. I know that Dame Deborah James was an exceptionally courageous woman but am I alone in finding it appalling that so many media people are trying to cash in on their acquaintance with her claiming to be amongst her closest friends and seeking vicarious kudos?

    1. I muted Dan Wootton last night because he was fawning over a woman I’d never heard of as if she put the Virgin Mary in the shade. I’m sure her friends and family are very sad but if she’d been that big a deal, her name would surely have been mentioned occasionally in public discourse before she died.

    2. I may be one of the few who had never heard of this lady. For what was she famous? All I know of her is that she raised a lot of money for cancer research, I believe, due to having cancer herself. Which was an amazing achievement.

      There are many many more people whose diagnoses and treatments have been delayed and/or cancelled whose families will have no such media support or publicity.

      It’s good to learn that gimmegrants in a camp are to have their own GPs and dentists.

      1. Little lad and little girl were showing each other what they had in their pants, Lad says “Haha you haven’t got one of these” Little girl replied “My mum says with one of these I can have as many of those as I like”

  53. Nicked

    A mate has just decided to go and live on a Polynesian coral reef. Like
    many other coral reefs over the centuries, it’s about to succumb to the
    rising sea, and all the natives have left.
    I asked him about his prospects, but he says he’s not worried – his travel agent has told him he’s atoll-protected.

    1. Yeah,me too, a toughy.
      Wordle 375 5/6

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

    2. Only just, today…

      Wordle 375 6/6

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

    3. Par Four for me …

      Wordle 375 4/6
      ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
      ⬜🟩⬜⬜⬜
      ⬜🟩⬜🟩⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

          1. Indeed, I tried it twice, the only time I tried it honestly it took three attempts, I checked to see if Grizzly’s website was accurate and it was.

          2. It’s a bugger to know there’s a place to see the answers, but anyone using it to cheat would only be cheating themselves. I find it a few (sometimes a lot more when I’m running out of options) minutes of brain exercise a day.

          3. My addiction is the Solitaire events.

            I accept that there are people who use bots to solve the challenges. My target is to be in the top 1% of all solvers and if I’m down the rankings of “my” group of fifty to be well above the relative position in the overall tables.
            I’ve been well under the top 4000 out of half a million a few times now

    5. Sliced my tee shot into the rough then out into a bunker – Bogey 6

      Wordle 375 6/6

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

    1. Sorry Rik- could only stomach 5 mins of that BS. There is no way I would ever have allowed that in my library or in any classroom. It is appalling in every way.
      As I have said so many times- I would last about 10 mins in a school in the UK these day.
      Shameful, disgraceful and it’s child abuse. Shame too on the schools that allowed this and also on the parents who attended.
      Yes, remove Wilfred Owen and Hardy but allow this shit.
      Gawd help us all.

      1. Are we mad conspiracy theorists to think that this is all part of a coordinated plan to demolish our moral values and thus our entire society?

        2. Everything is by design. Pure evil design. Our politicians are carrying out the instructions of globalist bankers and billionaires, so called elites, with the intention of maiming and killing the many using a combination of medical and eco terrorism.

          The principal offices of state, quangos, non government agencies, the Church of England, state schools, universities, local government, the Police and just about every other institution have been infiltrated and taken over by
          WEF sponsored cretins.

          Boris Johnson was never Prime Ministerial material. The man was put there by vested interests. Johnson is a prize fool whose performances are rehearsed and as intentional as his designer dishevelled suits and hairdo.

      2. If I was a teacher they would last in seconds not minutes, once I had cleared the classroom of children.

      3. It’s all part of erasing decent society and replacing it with their rancid version.

    2. Shooting in the groin area with a 12 bore on “cylinder choke” is too good for these creeps

      1. Ioad up with SGs 8 mm ball bearings you can fell a small tree with one of those.

        1. I would be content with the removal of penis/balls/prostate/vagina and local accoutrements. So much so that they remained in perpetual pain, but not enough to cripple them.
          What they are doing to, and attempting to do to children is unforgiveable.

    3. I reminded our new rector of that over coffee after the service this morning. She was telling us about the debate over giving communion to young children before confirmation.

    1. I loving it as DH Murray appears to be not losing the match but also his temper.

  58. Someone explain to me why the law abiding receive no protection from the law, yet when the criminal acts, they do?

    Why do we obey the law when it doesn’t stand by us?

  60. Moan moan, groan groan, what a hard life I lead.

    5 litres of good Bergerac red wine for under 15 euros.
    And that’s from the supermarket, cheaper direct from the chateau, but the cost of fuel tips the balance.

    How do I cope with the hardship?

        1. Our neighbour came back from rural France this arvo, she came round for a chat and didn’t enjoy the 40 c temps.
          But informed me of an increase in mask wearing. 😷

          1. I’ve noticed it creeping up in supermarkets. Case numbers are rising but those getting it seem to be getting a slightly milder version.

    2. Considering the draught Guinness was off at early doors tonight and I paid £5.20 (each) for three 250ml glasses of Pinot Grigio, I’m feeling a bit gutted.
      I’m sure it makes you unable to sleep at night knowing we pay so much in Blighty.

      1. Unlucky!

        When we go back to the UK we are horrified by the price of very, very ordinary wine.

        Mind you, very good wine is wasted on me.
        Give me a box of plonk over a glass of a premier grand cru every time

      2. I prefer my Kanga Pinot- the stuff at the pub is diabolical. Yellow Tail for the uninformed.

  61. A very tongue in cheek, thought for the day, and with apologies to wibbling, it could equally be that bastard sosraboc.

    };-))

    If wibbling ruled the world, taxes would be lower, people who worked would be rewarded, and the crooks would be imprisoned and the worst executed.

    Questions:
    1. Do you think the costs of imprisonment/execution should be charged to the families of the crooks?
    2. Should the bodies be fed to Mongo? hence the wibbling link
    3. Do you have any alternative suggestion as to how we should deal with the criminals and gimmegrants in our midst?
    Because I am at my wits end as I watch us gathering up and helping people ashore to become parasites and who will undoubtedly try to take over if given half a chance.

    1. Give the bastards shelter and they suddenly turn on you and shoot gay guys for being gay. Yet half the population still thinks it is compatible with being kind-hearted to bring in more – Norway has lots of cliffs that can be used for pitching gays off, as well.
      I despair over people’s stupidity or naiivety.

    2. My answer is version of Kristalnacht – burn ALL the mosques and halal butchers, round up ALL the nasty ideologists, stick them on a RN ship and drop them at midnight on a Somali beach wearing just their underclothes – men, women and children all. Let’s be rid of the plague.

  62. Evening, all. We are reliving the thirties as far as disarmament and unpreparedness for war go. On a personal note, the Connemara seems to have got over his stiffness and was forward-going and produced some nice work this afternoon. Very satisfying.

      1. He’s coming along, thanks. It seems to be a case of one step forward, two steps back. He avoided going for my toes the other day, but when he’d got something in his foot and I tried to look at it, he nearly took my fingers off! I dropped an olive when I was preparing a salad today and he scooped it up. I think he got a bit of a shock, but he obviously liked it because he wanted more! (He didn’t get any).

  63. Off topic
    I wish I could have filmed this:
    We have had hares “boxing”, roughly 20 feet from our door.
    They were giving it hammer and tongs and it looked quite vicious at times, but then they settled down.
    Was it two males or a male and a female preparing to mate?
    We get a lot of hares in the garden but we’ve never seen the boxing so close.
    Springwatch, eat your heart out.

    1. My guess is now that they must M&F because they are now happily eating next to each other and when I tried to get some pictures they ran off together; normally if I disturb hares they run off in separate directions.

        2. Indeed.
          I’ve looked up the behaviour and normally it happens earlier in the year.
          Oddly enough , we had a leveret appear late autumn a few year ago. It was “sheltered” by its parents very near the house and became surprisingly accepting of my presence nearby.

      1. We had them boxing in February/March too, and we have some leverets in the garden now, they are silly creatures.

        If I disturb them they will sometimes run a short distance and then hunker down. Because they head for heather or longish grass they are totally visible from behind!

        It would be nice if we had some in the autumn and they survive the winter, the later births tend to be more dismissive of my presence, I’ve even been able to stroke one without it running. It pays off the following year because they are not quite as likely to flee at first sight of me, so I get a reasonable opportunity to stand and watch them.

        They give me a lot of pleasure, just watching their antics.
        Oddly enough I don’t like rabbits, thank goodness for our stoats and weasels.

    1. With problems in food supplies just now, it seems a really good time to shut down farms.
      And, BTW, the only way of stopping animals peeing nitrogen is to kill them.
      That looks a good policy…

        1. Yes, but too much runs off into waterways and promotes algal growth rather effectively.

          1. That used to be a problem with over-use of nitrates by farmers. It seems now that animals are being blamed.

          4. Is that the vocabulary used in teaching, or how to teach vocabulary?
            Asks a pointy-head… I’ll get me coat.

          5. It was about teaching modern language vocabulary through games. “What’s in a Game?” Basically, the bright learned, the thick couldn’t get their heads round it, it aided motivation but the real influence was absence. The thick were much more likely to miss lessons.

          6. My Mister Phil was a brief fling before I met the love of my life, Mister Olaf (Bloodaxe). Lol.

          7. My Mister Phil was a brief fling before I met the love of my life, Mister Olaf (Bloodaxe). Lol.

      2. Plenty of gimmegrunts throughout Europe peeing Nitrogen. Kill ’em all and help the planet.

      1. Nah,
        lodge it at low water, so it can enjoy the tide coming in. Ideally in a bay where the tide arrives slowly

    3. Six and a half years to bring him to trial, so presumably held in custody with free bed and board courtesy of the French taxpayers. So the guillotine instead of life imprisonment sounds very sensible to me, Sos.

    4. “The only suicide bomber to survive the worst terrorist attack in the recent history of France will spend the rest of his life in prison, judges ruled tonight.”

      Why can’t we have judges like that?

  67. Another evening, another BBC channel swap! So, if you wanted to record “The Great Sewing Bee” final [BBC1] you’re going to actually get tennis, and vice versa – why can’t the morons leave the schedule alone – they haven’t even updated the online version.

      1. Very astute! Actually I CBA about either but Mrs Bleau wanted “Today at Wimblebore” and was a little dischuffed to find that it wasn’t on – BBC1 has Murray, vice the sewing carp, which has moved to 2.

  68. GB News…..Socialism is back and it’s “badder” than ever. Puts head in hands and despairs.

  69. The Halifax Bank has gone full woke and is asking customers and its staff to declare their pronouns. Evidently those customers unwilling to accede to this shit are welcome to bank elsewhere.

    Some business model. I never liked the Halifax when it was a Building Society having once had a mortgage with them, a dislike reinforced ever since by their execrable woke advertisements on TV.

    Edit: The Halifax BS Headquarters building in Halifax is the most rebarbative pile of excrement ever deposited on an English Town.

    1. I too had a mortgage and current account with that despicable and utterly useless bank. I was so happy to ditch them when I moved abroad.

    2. The old Bradford and Bingley HO gave it a good run for its money. Utterly out of scale and very ugly, even if the 5 rise concept seemed reasonable

  71. Goodnight from me too. Still very fatigued and need sleep.
    Take care y’all.

      1. …and now pi55 off back where you came from – you’re really NOT welcome here.

  74. People who opt to upgrade their gas boiler, as you will note in the video, will have lots more copper pipes to see and they will also have an unvented hot water storage tank which can go in the space where the old hot water tank used to be (now probably occupied by a shower).

    https://www.express.co.uk/news/science/1632196/heat-pumps-millions-britons-replace-boilers-cost-shortage-uk-energy-crisis

    With so many extra pipes and control valves there has to be a safety device to alert the owner when the system fails.
    This is called a tundish and here is a video to show how to recognise water flowing through it requiring the installer to fix it:

    https://youtu.be/1nuXmayzIac

    Goodnight all and don’t have wet dreams! 😉

  76. Goodnight, Gentle.tfolk, it is now midnight, so I wish you a restful and God blessed night.

  77. I’m a bit of a twirly today. 🤫
    It’s been reported that many of the revelers from Glastonbury have tested positive for covid after returning home.
    I wonder how that happened. Did some unscrupulous people arrange to spray the virus around ?
    My neighbour was back from her second home in rural France yesterday and she told me that covid had been spreading and Ryanair are insisting on mask wearing.
    Where did all this come from I wonder 🤔
    It’s not been happening outside of Europe.

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