Wednesday 30 August: Ulez expansion will hit the poor hardest – and Sadiq Khan knows it

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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462 thoughts on “Wednesday 30 August: Ulez expansion will hit the poor hardest – and Sadiq Khan knows it”

  1. Morning all 🙂😊
    An unusual opportunity to make an early statement.
    Perhaps I went to bed too early I’m wide awake now. I’ll doze off again soon.
    And of course kahnt knows what he’s doing he’s destroying thousands of people’s lives and our capital city. If this isn’t obvious by now, who else is behind this ? Why is he getting away with it?
    And when did the area inside the M25 become subject to the control of the London mayor?
    He’s carrying out actions way above his station and his remit. It’s about time it was put an end to.
    No one else but those in the London area can cast a vote when he tries to get re-elected.
    The millions inside the M25 are can’t vote for or against him, yet he’s acting like a tyrant.
    What gives him the right to hold so many people to ransom?
    What he’s doing is outrageous.

    1. What does he care? I caught a bit of Nigel’s show on GB News last night. He was doing it from some tiny village on the outskirts of the new ULEZ zone.

      They were going over an interview with Khunt, who was saying he was sorry for the people affected but thousands of people were dying from pollution yaddah yaddah yaddah. I was beginning to wonder if he actually believed his bullshit. He’s vain enough, so who knows?

      1. Absolutely correct.
        Thousands of people are dying from pollution?
        That’s one of his largest porkers.
        They had the mother of one little girl who died of a lung disease on tv. Sad as it is, its extremely unusual.
        Most of the pollution is blown away by the wind. Even all the pollution from LHR Gatwick London City and Stansted. Which doesn’t feature because he kahnt control that.
        His father was a bus driver, buses were the worst polluters of all time.
        And I also believe in his previous employment as a ‘lawyer’ spelt Liar
        He attempted to defend the 7/7 muslim London bombers !

      2. People are still going to drive into the ULEZ therefore pollution isn’t going to decrease but his coffers will grow by £12.50 a day per car

        1. Yes Alec, that’s been the idea all along.

          He stated some time ago to the Sunday Times that he anticipated £260million in fines in the first year.

    2. Exactly what I wondered – exactly what mandate does he have to impose ULEZ outside “his” area of responsibility – surely it’s nothing to do with the little sheet?

      1. Unusual for today’s page to be open at that time and I see no announcement from Geoff.

    2. No idea, Sir Jasper, at present (8.45 am) it is showing over fifty. (Good morning, btw.)

  4. ‘Morning All,on a lighter note

    I’d take her ohm

    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bcfbacaf0475cf192b5a2861bdcbf486778a01d5f9c434692266d9baea6ff7ac.png

    Rest

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    https://media.gab.com/system/media_attachments/files/146/430/679/original/285857263893c776.png

    1. The girl has quite a high carbon footprint but will offer little resistance whilst having a very high tolerance.

  5. Regular medley……….

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1bdff8232ff49854636e73445905da8294466718c453246524d6c5ec8c6e923d.jpg

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  7. Ulez expansion will hit the poor hardest – and Sadiq Khan knows it

    Most importantly it’s another stage in the agenda to force us all into out little 15 minute reservations.

    1. I didn’t pay any attention to Nadine Dorries’s resignation letter, but just listening to this week’s Daily Sceptic podcast, it appears she thinks the Tories need to keep to the “nut zero” target to “win” the U40 vote. I have to say, i know they say the youngsters are all “terrified” about “climate change”, but i didn’t think all of them were that stupid.

    2. I read on Twitter this morning that 14 US cities have signed some accord with the WEF pledging that by 2030 their citizens won’t be eating ANY meat or dairy, will have 3 or fewer new items of clothing and one longhaul flight every three years. Oh and no car, of course.
      Wonder if they put that to a democratic vote….and what will happen when they try to enforce it….
      I suppose the annual air traffic control “IT glitches” that coincidentally happen on the busiest days of the year are the start of enforcing limits on air travel in Britain.
      https://twitter.com/junogsp7/status/1696136860828057602

        1. I doubt it will last long, even if they manage to push it through. The usual suspects would make a fortune on the black market while it does, of course…

        1. I suppose one does not want the bird to see the net closing around it until it is trapped…

      5. bb2, as ATC don’t appear to be carrying out any reprogramming, or else taking any disciplinary action, you

        could well be right.

      6. I’m amazed that anyone in Texas thinks that’s a good idea! I too wonder how “THEY” will enforce it – Americans still have lots of guns, so I can’t see it ending well!

    3. I like my BEV because it vitually drives itself to a short term free parking space and I can sit there with full climate control listening comfortably to high fidelity classical music without the engine running whilst MOH does the shopping.☺️

      I do miss having a reliable petrol car that I can fully maintain myself but that’s all been put on ICE.😞

        1. Since lockdowm MOH feels less pressure whilst shopping on her own and realises the freedom she has to browse on her own.
          I get away with loading heavy stuff in the boot,

    4. And how did he take control of people’s lives who don’t actually live in London ?
      No one inside the M25 apart from Londoners can vote to get rid of the little shiite.
      He rather likes to exclude certain voters. As he did before the last election by making sure Jewish communities didn’t get their ballot papers. He called it an administration error. Takkyia and kìtman.

      1. I wonder if he wears a bullet proof vest? If he does not he is either very brave or very foolish.

  9. Good morrow, Gentlefolks, today’s story

    Running Tests
    A woman went to the doctor’s office for a physical. The doctor took a blood sample and told her to return in one week for the results.

    One week later, she and her husband returned to the doctor’s office. The doctor took the husband aside and told him,

    “Sir, I’m afraid I have some bad news. We accidentally mixed your wife’s blood sample with another patient’s, and we have no idea whose is whose. The bad news is one has Alzheimer’s disease, and the other has AIDS. I want you to come back in another week and by then I should have it all sorted out.”

    The man looked scared and said, “That’s terrible, Doc, what should I do until then?”

    “Well, when you’re driving home today, drop her off two blocks away from your house. If she makes it home, don’t have sex with her!”

  10. Good morning.
    Here’s a short (5 minutes) youtube video about how the world is good, but we’re programmed to see danger everywhere. You may not agree with everything he says (I didn’t!), but I think his conclusion is good (follow the trend lines, not the headlines).
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkBliSIaxOg

    1. I am not ‘programmed’ to realise that the planet’s human population has quadrupled within my lifetime and is now out-of-control to the direct detriment of all other species of plant and animal. No organism can survive in an environment where the balance-of-nature has been destroyed.

      We are escalating the destruction of our living space and our extinction will naturally follow. Anyone believing otherwise has been eating too much vegetation or listening to the banal witterings of other imbeciles.

      1. How do you explain the worldwide reduction in poverty over the last generation, and the greening of the earth since the 1970s?

        1. I don’t ‘explain’ anything that has clearly not happened. If you really believe that rubbish then you need to eat more meat.

          1. Greening of the earth clearly shown on satellite photos and acknowledged by NASA, iirc.
            The worldwide reduction in poverty is very well documented. Obesity is a greater problem than starvation, even in countries where food has been short in the past. All that is about to change of course.

          2. “The worldwide reduction in poverty is very well documented.”

            Show me all the examples of that “well-documented” reporting.

          3. I am very surprised you aren’t aware of this. Contrary to the establishment’s malthusian doom and gloom, the world has become a lot fairer and less poor in the recent era of global trade.
            Here are three links that I found at random by searching “decline in world wide poverty since 1990s”

            https://www.axios.com/2023/08/16/wealth-inequality-declines-worldwide-global-income

            https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-evolution-of-global-poverty-1990-2030/

            https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2018/09/19/decline-of-global-extreme-poverty-continues-but-has-slowed-world-bank

  11. 375867+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Dt,

    May one ask,
    Police are there to enforce the law
    can someone pinpoint exactly where “there” is so this rarity can be witnessed in action.

    1. Just type ‘ni88er’ and Plod will be Chez Ogga in a jiffy, enforcing the law like billy-o.

  12. Notting Hill Carnival is unmanageable, say police, as youths brawl with machetes. 29 August 2023.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b27633d4610752d6c639779a786bf4588bc0e9268a39021525579f97841555d8.jpg

    A police officer was sexually assaulted and six others were bitten this year while footage has emerged of a youth running through the streets with a machete.

    Video showed a gang of youths, many of whom were dressed in black and wearing balaclavas, fighting as Europe’s biggest street party descended into violence on its final day.

    Two men are in hospital, one in a critical condition, following a spate of stabbings as the carnival drew to a close.

    Ah the wonders of multiculturalism.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/08/29/officer-sexually-assaulted-six-bitten-notting-hill-carnival/

    1. I thought the fighting was just part of the carnival, it would be quite dull without it. Just let them get on with it..

      1. Arm the bloody lot of ’em; run a wall of barbed wire round the area.
        Electrify if the wind’s blowing.
        Sit back and enjoy.
        Better still – ignore.

  14. Good morning, all. Sunny. Rained overnight.

    How sorry I am not to have been able to go to the Notting Hill Murder Fest.

  15. Good morning all. A cool 7°C outside and the ground appears to be drying off after an overnight splash. Blue sky with scattered clouds with a mixture of rain and sunshine to follow.

        1. I lit the fire last night (I had company). I don’t think it will be too long before I light the Rayburn and once it’s lit it stays in (unless I accidentally let it go out). The sweep is coming tomorrow, so not before then 🙂

      2. I put the heating on yesterday, too. Only for a little while in the morning, but it was just a little too chilly for comfort.

    2. Isnt there an offence of outraging public decency. As Caribbean culture seems to have few boundaries, no one seems bothered by the gross conduct on display and we have come to accept it as normal. I suppose it saves an entrance fee to a zoo to watch such animal behaviour.

    1. I wonder how long it will be before everyone attending the NHC will be obliged to carry a knife by law?

    2. I thought the Met Police Commissioner had put a stop this. Obviously the message never got through and was for consumption of the press.

    4. Eight recorded stabbings and one person seriously injured. Gangs with machetes.
      Robbery as is normal.
      Good job the shop fronts are boarded up.
      I need to have a serious word with our grandchildren about moving out of the UK.

        1. Just been reading about their cousins in Chicago, robbing a Spanish TV crew at gun point.

    5. Presumably some of his kit will be ruined and require replacement, almost certainly at taxpayer’s expense?

  18. Bore da from Pembrokeshire,

    Sunny periods here today, wind in the Nor’-West, 13C, with 16C the forecast maximum.

    The view from the hotel bedroom window.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b6e5bd3da3e52b91e3dbdd17fbae32f49fa581910cf560ec84b64d0043707a38.jpg

    The rock is Poll Carn, known locally as Lion Rock. It sits above the Treffgarne gorge through which flows the river Western Cleddau where I used to fish for sewin (sea trout) 40-odd years ago. The very ancient Treffgarne village sits under the rock too. It’s a site of mineral extraction, including gold, as far back as Roman times.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treffgarne

      1. It’s a lovely spot. In the village of Wolfscastle (Cas Blaidd). Unseen under the trees in the foreground is the river Western Cleddau over which is an old stone bridge leading to the homes and the old chapel in the centre of the photo.

  19. Well that’s a relief – no need to collect and analyse the data anymore:

    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) V-safe website quietly stopped collecting adverse event reports with no reason or explanation.

    The V-safe website simply states: “Thank you for your participation. Data collection for COVID-19 vaccines concluded on June 30, 2023.” If you go there today, V-safe directs users to the FDA’s VAERS website for adverse event reporting, even though officials continually derided VAERS as “passive” and “unverified.”

  20. Good morning, chums. 50th – or thereabouts! I slept like a log last night. Fortunately Bob of Bonsall didn’t know so he didn’t come over last night to chop me up ready for firewood at a later date. Lol.

  22. Morning 🙂😊 again this time in grey daylight.
    Once again rain later. Especially tomorrow our 49th wedding anniversary. I remember driving my MG BGT to Cornwall on the first full day of our married life. It rained.
    My family call me rainman.
    I have a 100% record of holidays when it has rained at least once. All over world.
    On our long in land journey towing our large caravan with the LWB Land-Rover, from Northern QLD to South of Melbourne. We stayed over in a town in NSW called Coonabarrabran. They had water tankers in the streets.
    It hadn’t rained there for 3 years……..guess what ? 😉🤗🌨🌧
    I’m still waiting for the cheque.

    1. Worked several times in the Libyan desert. It rained. I have some sympathy, Eddy – I feel like Donald Duck – wandering about with his own personal rain cloud.

      1. And we share the same Christian Name……..I’m Paul the other one. Don’t tell me your family originated in Yorkshire.

        2. I was born in Ilkley. Mother from Leicestershire, Father a monkey-hanger.
          How mongrel can you get?

          1. Did yer ‘ave yer ‘at on ?
            My grand father was from Scarborough.
            He came to London with his family late 1800 to early 1900s. He married a young lady from Fordham in Suffolk. They had six boys. One being my father.
            The eldest was killed in WW2 I never saw my grandmother I expect she was worn out and died long before I was born. I didn’t see my grandfather often he lived in Willesden a days journey there and back from Mill Hill in the early 50s. I couldn’t understand what the old boy was saying his accent was so strong.
            He had set up a business as a coal merchant.

          2. Never knew paternal grandparents, nor maternal grandmother, instead had Great-Aunt Hilda, who regularly beat up Leicester City Council. Made small to stop her taking over the world if she wanted. Nearest I ever got to a granny.

    2. I hitch hiked from the Dorchester roundabout to Southampton. Was picked up in an MG BGT in 1979. Was it you? :@)

      1. No, I was in Oz then. I had to sell it in late 75 after the price of fuel went up, we had a mortgage to pay then.

    1. There was a chap on the news last night explaining how he now had to park his car about 50 yards away from his house or it would cost £12.50 to park out side his home inside the zone.

      3. As Joseph says, of course it is. Plus the non-repair of the disgraceful state of our roads to discourage us from driving anywhere.

  25. https://open.substack.com/pub/edwarddutton/p/britain-plunges-into-low-iq-chaos?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=adgbw

    The Jolly Heretic having an enjoyable rant about the air traffic chaos.

    (For those unfamiliar with him, he’s an academic who researches intelligence, and is, um, unconstrained by notions of political correctness. Not everyone’s cup of tea, but (to mix my metaphors) a cat happy to be put amongst the pigeons; I thought some Nottlers might enjoy him.)

        1. The constantly unlearned lesson of history: don’t p!ss off the middle class.
          The mediaeval equivalent – skilled artisans with their own businesses and minor priests – were the driving force behind the Peasants’ Revolt.

          1. Aristo’s not only lost their shoes by pissing off the middle classes they also lost their heads.

        2. Which explains the ongoing campaign by world governments, aided-and-abetted by their cohorts: the global corporations, the WEF, the UN, the WHO, and the universities an seats-of-learning; in compelling the ignorant masses to eat more and more rubbish that stultifies their already feeble brains.

          It is clear there is a direct correlation between the food that people eat and their rapidly declining level of intelligence. The fossil record clearly shows that carnivorous animals (including humans) remain at the top of the food chain due to the fact their nourishing diet develops and maintains their brains, muscles and skeleton. Herbivores remain at the bottom of the food chain because their feeble, low-nutrition diet makes — and keeps them — stupid, idiotic and moronic. Eat meat (the natural human diet since we evolved) and remain strong and intelligent. Eat vegetation and processed ‘food’ and become a weak, brain-dead imbecile.

          The PTB know this and act accordingly to reinforce their power and control over the ever-increasing, writhing cabbage-brained masses of humanity.

          1. Home made steak pie with mushy peas and slow cooked tomatoes for lunch with a bottle of Dornfelder German red wine.

          5. The Dornfelder was dissapointing as its not as good as we drink in Germany, but they always keep the best for themselves.

          11. Its the best part of the meal, soaking for 24 Hrs and made as only Lancastrians know how.

          12. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5867453cbf71a8cbc4bd26afc3ec16a970a02c49c98eea5c223f034a7cc0ac20.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/035c1279b952591f6479d037c8af162396d1759f2117e3dc5941c538795b5976.jpg Very tasty good food, John.

            I didn’t eat yesterday and I won’t again tomorrow. My meal today was this 1″ thick rare rib-eye steak, pan-fried in home-rendered lard, then thinly-sliced and topped with two fried eggs. and served with some roasted black pudding and home-made pork-and-tomato sausages. For pudding I had some fresh strawberries and fresh blueberries with a splash of double cream.

            I am now sated and will not feel any degree of hunger until Friday.

          14. I made a delicious hamburger a couple of weeks ago. In a large bowl I mixed some 20%-fat beef mince with some freshly-fried crisp bits of bacon, some crisp fried onions, and some crushed pieces of pork crackling. I seasoned this with black pepper, shaped it into a patty and fried it in lard. I then melted some cheddar on top of it and served it on some leaves of cos lettuce, sliced tomatoes and pickled gherkins. No bread, of course.

          16. Elephants are herbivores and they are large, strong and very intelligent. They live much longer than most other creatures.

          18. Lions can take out the young ones but most survive – it’s people with guns which are their main threat.

          19. I understand all that, Jules; however, my main point (carnivores being top of the food chain: herbivores being bottom of the food chain) is an irrebuttable presumption of fact.

          20. Elephants being a large exception. Their natural life-span of about 60 years is longer than most carnivores in the natural world, apart from Man.

    2. He’s very good!

      Air traffic chaos due to “one malformed report from a French airline?”
      Must have been tested by the same people that tested the Post Office software…

        1. In some cases, this is easy, for example if a date is input, or a time, you can only accept numbers and a few extra characters like a slash. Or you can give them a calendar to choose from.
          In other cases, like entering names, it’s a lot harder. It’s almost impossible to sanitise names!
          example:
          Only alphabet characters? Mr O’Gorman and Mrs Riley-Finch beg to differ!

          This is not my speciality, but I might think about testing an input name to see if it contains common SQL commands and syntax, such as might be input for an SQL injection attack.
          Also, the software should have been pen-tested, where testers play hacker and try to break the software. I mean – Air Traffic Control software! It’s a no brainer. I find it highly suspect that malformed input breaking the system wasn’t caught by pen testing.

    3. I just so happen to be re-reading James Gleick’s “Chaos; The Amazing Science of the Unpredictable.

    4. I just so happen to be re-reading James Gleick’s “Chaos; The Amazing Science of the Unpredictable.

  26. On the way Pembrokeshire yesterday we got bored with the M4 so, having plenty of time, we headed North to pick up the A40 at Raglan and take the scenic route through Abergavenny, Brecon, Llandovery, Llandielo and Carmarthen. Lunch in Crickhowell followed by tea in Llandovery.

    There’s the remains of a motte and bailey by the car park in the centre of Llandovery in front of which stands this marvellous stainless steel sculpture in memory of Llewelyn ap Gruffydd Fychan who was hung drawn and quartered in October 1401 in the town square on the orders of Henry IV and in front of his son for not betraying the whereabouts of Owain Glyndwr and his army.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9801b4f6c369bbd01036d214334ba6d2355da582e82520995d5ddef29f7f3503.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/91e3602a5e5e1647f66274d9d23a92c9df48651362d547a0d1db4a41364f5925.jpg

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Llandovery

    3. One of the reasons I often eschew motorways and will often look out former A(T) class roads now downgraded to B class when on my travels is to explore the countryside.

  28. Good Moaning.
    Anyone remember the Tasmanian Devil in the Bugs Bunny cartoons?
    Last night, I ‘persuaded’ Spartie to move from his donut bed in the sitting room, to his night bed in the kitchen.
    The tantrum was a combination of the Tasmanian Devil, Violet Elizabeth Bott and Veruca Salt on steroids.
    Ultimately, I won the battle of wills, but it gave MB (safely out of way and reading in bed) a good laugh.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5d04a40e7f9d9e57e967a032e652b71c04aef66945fcc2db8e6f9dfb8bce334f.jpg

    1. ‘ Morning, Anne. My daughter, living and hobby-farming in Northern Tasmania, cannot keep chickens (chooks) because the Tasmanian Devils kill them all.

        2. Ah, cute little foxy-woxy of Animals of Farthing Wood fame 🙂 Vermin that needs to be culled! Don’t get me started on people who feed them in back gardens!

        1. Our lab use to take notice of animals on TV. She would sit and watch animals with interest.

    4. The new puppy has decided the only place to sleep is on poppiesdad’s pillow, above pd’s head with his back against the headboard. So sweet to see them sharing the pillow….

    5. Oscar and Kadi don’t bother about moving to their night beds. After I’ve sent them out “because we’re going to bed” they thunder upstairs and are shouting at me to hurry up! I suppose it could have something to do with the late night biscuit they get once they’ve settled in their beds 🙂

  29. Putin supported by majority of Russians but could have rivals within his ranks. 30 August 2023.

    President Putin appears to have the support of everyday Russians but some analysts suggest that his biggest rivals could be those closest to him

    As many as four in every five Russians approve of Vladimir Putin’s presidency. It’s a statistic that hasn’t changed much since the Wagner mercenary group marched on Moscow in June 2023.

    One supposes that when they read the West’s MSM and look at the pictures from the Notting Hill Carnival that ordinary Russians thank their lucky stars that they have Vlad to protect their interests!

    https://www.euronews.com/2023/08/30/putin-supported-by-majority-of-russians-but-could-have-rivals-within-his-ranks

    2. You can take savages out of the jungle but you cannot take the jungle out of savages!

    3. I have just read the article in the Mail about the Met’s experience of policing the event – it is really not fair to expect our police to put themselves through that purely in order to appease a “community.”

  31. Well, the forecast rain arrived an hour ago, a light shower, more of a heavy drizzle, with the complete clouding over of the sky.
    Now? Back to bright sunshine.

    2. For once it hasn’t rained here. I managed to get one lawn cut (although it wasn’t really dry enough and the inadequate mower, which kept falling apart, didn’t do a very good job).

  32. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/472de8fcb3be35c280401839e7d1677d5cc7f887fbf530dff17ca2f8e5fb042c.png
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2023/08/30/prince-harry-heart-of-invictus-netflix-afghanistan-diana/

    A couple of BTLs

    John Wales

    The main point of the Invictus Games for him seems to be that it enables him to make huge sums of money from Netflix. If he had any worthwhile standards, he would donate the money he gets from Netflix for the series to support the Games and the injured ex-service men.

    Reply to John Wales Richard Tracey

    Some years ago we went to see Ralph McTell at the Theatre Royal in London. This concert was to celebrate his 70th Birthday.

    Ralph made his name out of a beautiful song called ‘The Streets of London’ about the down-and-outs and homeless people on the streets of London. All the proceeds from the concert were given to charities for the homeless. Let us hope that all personal profits Harry makes from the Invictus Games are given to injured servicemen.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiWomXklfv8

      1. I think its a contraction of the word feetal when you curl up enough to suck your toes.

        1. Much better to suck someone elses toes when in bed. Stops you getting a crick in your neck.

      3. That’s the position I lie most nights……….doesn’t mean I have a mental health crisis.

        1. That is the recommended position. Also with a slim cushion between your knees to aid circulation.

          1. Can’t be bothered with that. I improve my circulation by trotting to the loo a few times.

          5. At least it’s not a live worm like the one they found in a woman’s brain in Australia.

    2. Of course he now has the broad shoulders of Trash upon which to make an appointment to weep. (She’s a busy woman…)

    3. It’s about time the whiny little shit grew up. Everyone loses their mother. Mine died in a car crash too Harry. Get over yourself !

        1. My maternal grandmother died when my mother was only 12. Mum told me once that she remained 12 inside but she didn’t mean emotionally stunted and she certainly didn’t behave like a 12 year old. They share the same grave now.

          1. I was four when my father died but I still grew up.

            My mother would heve been 114 if she were still alive today. It’s her birthday.

          4. My mother lost her father when she was 16; my father lost his father at 14. I was in my late 30s when my father died and in my 50s when my mother died.

            I loved my parents and I grieved but I was not devastated. The loss of one’s own children must be far more difficult to cope with because it is outside the normal expectations of the order of life.

            The description of David’s reaction to the death of his son, Absalon, in the Bible is hard to read without it bringing tears to one’s eyes.

          5. My aunt outlived both her children and it really blighted her last years. She died aged 88, but her son and daughter only just made 61 and 60.

          6. That is the same age my mother would have been. I expect your grandparents were born at the same time as mine, the late 1860s early 1870s. I feel like the last surviving dinosaur. No wonder I was regarded as being ‘quaint’ at school.

          7. Maternal grandparents: 1872 and 1878. Paternal grandparents: 1880 and 1883. So not quite as early as yours. My mother was four years older than my father – she was a few weeks short of 39 when I was born, but her first baby (my brother) died at five days old in 1944.

            Both my grandfathers died before I knew them – one in 1931 and my mother’s father in 1950, when I was still a baby. Her mother lived with us for a couple of years and died in 1955, so I knew her fairly well, but my father’s mother was a bit of a recluse. I only remember meeting her a couple of times. She died in 1970.

            Not sure if I was regarded as “quaint” but somewhat of an oddity, I expect. However, I still have good friends from those days.

        2. That is a feature of trauma – the sufferer is unable to move past the point where the trauma happened, so they never grow up properly.

    4. Must get my eyes tested – I read that as ‘lying on the floor in a fecal position….’

      a large, hard mass of stool that gets stuck so badly in your colon or rectum that you can’t push it out

  33. School children urged to go veggie and listen to whale songs during net zero lessons

    Devon schools initiative aims to combat ‘climate anxiety’ among five to 16-year-olds

    By Noah Eastwood • 28 August 2023 • 11:50am

    Children in Devon are being urged to abandon meat and listen to whale songs by councils that have declared a climate emergency. Teaching materials sent to schools last month by the Devon Climate Emergency (DCE), a local authority-led climate change initiative, aim to combat growing “climate anxiety” among five to 16-year-olds.

    Suggested lesson ideas include learning about how “young environmental campaigners” use social media in Internet Technology classes and engaging with “hard-hitting” statistics about the planet’s ecological collapse in Maths. Schools across the ceremonial county have also been given draft letters to send to parents asking them to drive less and pack meat-free lunchboxes for their children to try once a week.

    The move comes in response to Devon’s self-declared climate emergency, which was announced by a consortium of 11 councils and over a dozen public, private and voluntary organisations in May 2019. At the time the group called for “transformational change” to meet net zero carbon emissions by 2050 that would see Devonians travelling less, changing their diets and using more smart energy systems.

    The so-called Net-Zero Visions Curriculum, which was approved for schools by the DCE on July 21 ahead of the start of the next academic year in September, puts forward a series of lesson plans and guidance to enable teachers to overcome the challenges of educating children about climate change. One unattributed quote used to introduce the syllabus, presumably from a teacher, states: “It’s really hard to manage the emotional responses that some children experience when we talk about mass extinction, natural disasters or other really difficult realities.”

    Materials intended for use in Key Stage 1 to 4 propose novel ways of helping pupils learn about the future of the Earth, which are said to be in response to mounting levels of anxiety among children about climate change. One classroom exercise detailed in the curriculum involves children passing around an egg painted to look like a globe in between each other and taking a step back with every pass until it is dropped and broken. It should then be explained, teachers are told, that “unlike the egg, the Earth can regenerate if we think about being more careful in how we act”.

    Elsewhere in the curriculum subjects are noted for their potential to demonstrate the need to transition to net zero. Physical Education is a chance to open “conversations about how air pollution might effect sports performance”, while Music lessons are suggested as an opportunity to study recordings such as the whale songs employed by the Save The Whales campaign in the 1970s.

    Maths should be utilised because information presented through numbers is “clear and hard hitting”, according to the curriculum. Suggested statistics for children to learn include claims that 60pc of flying insects in the UK have disappeared in the last 20 years and 96pc of life on Earth is made up of humans and their food and only 4pc is wildlife.

    The same document also warns teachers against “dropping shocking facts or images unannounced on them [children]”.

    In 2021 then Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi announced that climate change education would be delivered through a model science curriculum that is set to be unveiled this year. But the DCE’s curriculum encourages teachers and schools to “take matters into their own hands” and begin teaching pupils about climate change ahead of any changes to the national curriculum.

    A spokesman for Devon County Council said: “The resource booklet for schools to use if they choose to has only very recently been published online, and as it is still summer holidays, hasn’t yet been flagged with schools.”

    They added: “We know that Devon schools and colleges do a lot to teach pupils about the environment, the climate emergency and about biodiversity within that context. Schools make their own decisions regarding curriculum content and how they choose to teach pupils individual topics.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/consumer-affairs/school-children-urged-go-veggie-listen-whale-songs-net-zero/

    1. They could do both. Listen to whale song and then eat them. Minke whales are a delicacy in parts of Norway.

    2. The brainwashing continues……..isn’t it time they actually taught kids to read and write and think for themselves?

    3. Should agitators such as the Devon Climate Emergency (DCE), a local authority-led climate change initiative, shut up and disappear, it’s my contention that the anxiety levels of children aged 6 to 15 years of age would greatly diminish.

      It ain’t climate science!

    4. Q: Why are there mounting levels of anxiety among children about climate change?
      A: Because bodies like ‘Devon Climate Emergency’ put them there in the first place.

    6. Let’s hope nobody tells the children about new research that proves conclusively that offshore wind farms are killing whales…

    7. They wouldn’t have “climate anxiety” if idiots didn’t spend so much time declaring “climate emergencies” and terrifying people that a perfectly natural plant food meant the end of the world!

      1. “…perfectly natural plant food…”

        This understates the importance of CO2. It is the very basis of life on earth.

    3. ‘Suggests…’ A new one in the stable right up there along with could, probably, possibly, should, may, might…

  35. OT – bid for sympathy. Imagine trying to pack a car for a short trip without being able to carry anything…. (Back, you see…)

          1. No – really. I have always done the packing and carrying. This is the first time in 60 years that I simply can’t. It is horrible.

          2. You could take her out somewhere expensive as a treat. Save her doing all the cooking !

          4. You go self catering so you don’t lose your moth collection infesting your wallet. :@)

          5. Not at all. Personally, I’d go to a nice well-appointed hotel with half-board any day.

          6. I’m sorry, Bill. It’s a bitter pill to swallow but I’m sure the MR is much happier doing it herself than seeing you wreck yourself trying. That’s love, you see…

        1. I see. I thought it might have been part of the big wave of speciality things dedicated to women and blacks. No one has anything dedicated to white men.

          1. I think more of the people who comment btl on the articles are men than women. Some time ago they became TCW – Defending Freedom, so it wasn’t so much aimed at women.

  40. Good day. That the neocon nutjobs are putting the US on a path to war with China is already clear. The speech to the Defence Industry Conference in Washington lays out the dribbling stall with amazing arrogance. Apparently they will not use cannon-fodder,. an idea that will appeal to the families of the 300,000 yoiung man already dead in Ukraine. For these creatures it’s a big computer fight game with their hands in the till.

    https://tarableu.substack.com/p/washington-plans-war-with-china

    1. The war in Ukraine has been good business for the US weapons industry. She wants the next war to benefit the American cyber industry.

  41. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQZ9BPSS1_I I keep reading all the tales of woe from people who are obese, or suffer from: type-2 diabetes, heart disease, sleep apnoea, liver disease and liver failure, cancers, Alzheimer’s disease, cognitive decline and impairment, strokes, joint diseases and many other maladies. This makes me wonder how many would care to watch — and learn from — the excellent and up-to-date research such as that is in this video.

    A standard diet of crap and highly-processed material sold as (and consumed as ) ‘food’ makes people progressively more moronic, so I accept that the more stupid members of society will refuse to watch, listen and learn, since their ability to learn and assimilate is terminally impaired.

    As Dr Aaron Blaisdale of UCLA clearly postulates: “We are not just getting fat, we are losing our mental functions, our ability to pay attention, our ability to work, and we’re starting to get tumours and cancers at a higher rate and dying younger. Then the implications for society are quite severe and we need to do something now to address that.”

    Trouble is: who is going to take notice of the warnings if the general public are too stupid to learn?

    1. Too many of the general public were bullied, mandated or coerced into taking several unnecessary injections for a disease which was only dangerous for the very old and frail. Now they are “dying suddenly”……..

      1. Those in charge of the world know that to keep the public stupid enough to bow to their whim all they need to do is carry on feeding them crap to warp their minds.

        Their success rate is astonishing.

        1. That was my thought on Monday as I sat on the 94 bus trundling through Notting Hill Gate and the hungry mob could be seen piling into McDonald’s. I don’t cook if I can possibly help it but I can no longer bear to eat that stuff. It doesn’t even taste like food.

          1. I bought a fast food Adsa meal. My sister and I shared it with some salad- was great! Lasange! Well done ;

          2. That sounds nice. Microwave meals have been know to be half decent too but McDonald’s burgers would be best used to repair shoes.

          3. I occasionally have a ready made lasagne. Usually I eat it with olives and various pickled veg or a salad. I might start cooking more when the Rayburn is lit.

          4. It is, indeed, Sue, not food. MuckDonalds are part of the global conspiracy of big-business dedicated to feeding the masses more carbs and sugar. It increases their profits and keeps the dense sheeple coming back for more.

          5. All this junk food seems to originate from the USA. We didn’t have stuff like that in the 1950s. When I was at primary school, there was one fat girl – and her mother was huge as well. My mum said they must have a glandular problem.

            At my secondary school, there were one or two girls who were larger than average, but not many.

            Nowadays there seem to be more fat people than normal sized. I don’t often go into town, but when I do, the place seems to be full of fatties wobbling around.

            My elder son was a skinny child, but he put on a lot of weight after he went to university. He stayed overweight, but more recently decided to lose weight – he’s lost quite a lot.

          6. We came to Norway 25 years ago.
            Fat young people were very unusual, as were pizza joints, burger bars, kebab shops, you name any kind of fast food.
            Now, it seems that every 2nd establishment is a kebizzbaburger place, and fat bastards are everywhere.
            Correlation? Go figure (in Merkin).

    2. We can’t see video in France, Grizzly (“The uploader has not made the video available in your country”).

      I think you’re right on the “rubbish in, rubbish out” principle. If people eat unhealthy food, they will be unhealthy, it stands to reason. And that it also has an impact on their cognitive ability is logical, as well.

      What I fail to understand is why so many GPs don’t investigate what their patients eat. Our Irish friend Jim, now 88, is generally reasonably healthy but he complains bitterly about various minor ailments. About a year ago I suggested that a diet of two or three items of fruit and veg per week was simply not enough to keep his bowels moving and so I recommended that he eat an apple every day. He followed this simple advice and he told me that to his great surprise, it had the required effect. Unfortunately, he eventually got bored with it and stopped eating his daily apple. The upshot is that he ended up getting over-the-counter laxatives and now has a much bigger problem. Had the advice to eat more fruit and veg come from a doctor rather than from me, I am sure he would have been much more assiduous in following it.

      What I also fail to understand is why schools aren’t re-introducing cookery classes. It would appear that it is the poorly educated who cannot cook and who buy the ultra-processed products marketed as food. Why aren’t governments in Western countries, all of which are affected by the so-called obesity crisis, teaching children the necessary skills to cook from scratch? It would surely be a much better investment than some of the subjects currently taught in schools!

      3. I think the reason, Caroline, why so many modern-day GPs don’t investigate what their patients eat is because they are paid a premium to push the drugs of the many pharmaceutical companies who are competing for business. Big Pharma, after all, rules the waves. My own GP, for instance, keeps ‘advising’ me to go back on statins. I keep ‘advising’ him where to shove them!

        Domestic Science (as it used to be called) was a set-curriculum in secondary education for girls. I could never fathom out why boys were not permitted this too. Why it was stopped is beyond my ken! It is curious as to how the sage advice of our ancestors, in matters culinary, was followed for centuries and people remained slim, strong and extremely fit. It was only when the vested interests of the global corporations —heavy funders of so-called “health” authorities and facilities at universities dedicated to the topic (Harvard School of Public Health a prominent suspect) — started publishing and broadcasting their malign propaganda that the tide was turned and people stated getting more and more obese and unhealthy on the abject sugar-laden rubbish they were purveying.

        On the subject of fruit, too much fruit is now frowned upon since many fruits contain too much fructose, which is detrimental to good health. Low fructose fruits, such as berries, being less likely to cause insulin resistance. https://www.funmeddev.com/img/fichier_074053a055a65eaa8f27ac90df1217d3.pdf

        I get most YouTube videos without a problem, here in Sweden. I’m wondering if it might be that you need a decent VPN to enable you to watch them.

        1. The fructose chart is interesting – but how much is too much? It doesn’t give a suggested amount.

          1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBmvvP53818 Table sugar (sucrose) is made up of glucose and fructose. The body needs glucose to fuel the mitochondria. The body does not need fructose at all, since it is harmful to all bodily functions. It gets laid down in the liver and other organs as visceral fat. The less fructose one consumes (from all sources) the healthier you become.

        2. Prescribing pills is an easy option, just follow the manual. Researching the cause takes a while, and there’s no time or money for stuff like that. If it doesn’t fit into the 10(?) minute appointment, then forget it.

        3. I did Domestic Science when attending secondary school for girls, the boys attending their school had wood work classes, back in the 1950’s However, my nephew, going to his local comprehensive, chose to do a year of domestic science in the 70’s. and enjoyed it.

        1. I’ll have a go at those later……… but I sleep pretty well and I don’t think I have a mental health problem.

  43. The Morrison guy who came to install BT Digital Voice with a direct optical fibre connection omitted to fo a speed test.
    So I tried a web based one: https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cd276a09a2227b0187f29a4d6d364a0756734c7769629fbb66dfadd0e62cd90c.jpg

    Tablet at Smart Hub 2: https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f9714d6452166e06fd1f7bedd1133aabf0040e63896a64b2405306fc806a685e.jpg

    So I could have landed all the stranded planes following NATS blackout! 🤔

    1. Is that with a wireless connection to your tablet Angie? If you do it with a direct ethernet connection you should get rather faster download speeds, you will be limited by the speed of your wifi.
      No sign of Openreach here to run the fibre through the newly laid ducting….

        1. Wow…. you presumably are on their Full Fibre 500 product, I am going for the cheaper FF 100 which should give me 150Mbs, fast enough for most people.

          1. I’m on a Halo option.
            Should support game playing to keep grandchildren busy flying planes even when NATS is down.

    1. Yes they are. There are also slimeballs who hang about the clubs around closing time waiting to pounce.

    3. If he said drivers who go out and get drunk are vulnerable to crashing would that be regarded as victim blaming or stating a fact?

      He isn’t saying they deserve it, he’s saying they are making themselves easier targets for sexual predators, the same applies to drunk men.

      1. “Truth’s a dog, that must to kennel: he must be whipped out, when the Lady Brach may stand by the fire and stink.”
        [The Fool : King Lear]

        Shakespeare’s Fools are often the wisest characters in his plays.

    5. They are vulnerable if they are so drunk they don’t know what they’re doing. But men who take advantage of that vulnerability are still to be blamed. The women don’t desrve to be raped or attacked.

      1. Of course men who take advantage of such women are scum bags; but the fact that date-rape additives to be put in girls’ drinks are available on the market shows that scum bags are out there on the prowl.

        Of course vulnerable women do not deserve to be raped but they should also take responsibility for their own safety and not make themselves more vulnerable.

      2. And our stupidly ignorant political classes have in many ways wrecked our once fairly safe and ordered country.

      3. Rape is a vile and unpardonable act that deserves to be punished heavily. False accusations of rape are equally heinous and deserve precisely the same punishment as rape.

        Anyone who disagrees with this needs birching since in both offences, the lives of the victims are utterly destroyed.

    6. Drunken people are less able to detect threats and deal correctly with them, as well as putting themselves into bad positions. Whether that’s robbery, with or without violence, rape, whatever.
      So, the statement is correct. And it’s not blaming anybody, it’s stating fact.

  46. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/13c0861637f573a4d647dcae8ed2ecccfffda35a6e5281ac1d4c5c889e3ebfb8.png
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/08/30/donald-trump-vivek-ramaswamy-republican-establishment-us/

    This article is about the US but it is just as true in the UK.

    Labour has complete contempt for its core supporters – the working class – just as the Conservative Party has complete contempt for those in small businesses and those who are philosophically and economically conservative and don’t want to be constantly messed about and told what to do.

  47. Collected the boat from the Dry Dock this morning. One of the proprietors said that he had to add their new VAT number which they have just acquired to the invoice. Seeing the devastated look on my face he quickly added: “It’s alright the prices we quoted include VAT….” Phew.
    Anyway a pleasant 3 hour motor back along the canal to a mooring close by…

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/570251b77e1b83131a0132649171f9065cd6502f020fd66f3878800e6e7a1ea9.png

      1. Indeed. They missed a small patch last week (just below the water line so they booked it into the dry dock on Tuesday then cleaned and re-blacked the patch….

      1. Well it is a tractor engine block, but now with new Air, Oil, Primary and Secondary Fuel Filters, new stuffing in the stern gland, 4 New Anodes, hull jet washed, sand blasted and epoxy painted (blacked); limited to walking pace on the canals (and half that when passing moored boats) so the short answer is: (It’s impossible to tell)

    2. Dirty bugger. What a waste of a good salami. Use a big carrot ! If you wash it after you can still eat it… :@(

      2. I once caught a perv on Chesterfield railway station who was spending an inordinate amount of time chatting up young male trainspotters. He was carrying a carrier bag which contained the largest carrot I’ve ever seen … and a jar of vaseline.

        I asked him, on interview back at the nick, how he was going to explain that combination of items to a jury.

        1. “Well, members of the jury, my client, as a transexual has been following the Grizzly diet and he specifically told they (my client’s preferred pronoun) that carrots are good for their digestive system. There are 6 benefits of eating raw carrot for overall health, they provide hormonal balance, they detoxify endotoxins ,they are rich in Vitamin A, they eliminate excess oestrogen they promote clear skin and they help balance their thyroid.
          Vaseline is a pure jelly and helps the carrot get in. That’s why they follow the Grizzly diet.”

          2. Whether a carrot is good for the digestive system (or not) really depends into which end of that digestive system it is introduced.

            Don’tcha think?

        2. Er..Well ya honour. the vaseline was for their chapped feet and the carrot was for my supper…Case dismissed. Who likes trainspotters anyway…OCD freaks !

    2. Worse. A dangerous lunatic with the ear of others similar in what passes for the Government.

    3. Britain’s government has ensured millions of Britons cannot afford to heat their homes in the evening even as it pays their taxes to be sure that gimmegrants can live in comparative luxury and warmth.

  53. An easy one today and given that I use the most common first word, could that be deliberate?

    Wordle 802 2/6

    🟩🟨🟨⬜🟨
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Four here

      Wordle 802 4/6

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

    2. Just par here, Sue, well done.

      Wordle 802 4/6

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

    2. In this article he is quoted as saying “I was like…” and then “I’m like…”. I, on the other hand can say “I was like… “Am I bovvered?” “.

  56. Mourners despair at Ulez camera installed 150 yards from cemetery
    Decision to place device near graveyard branded ‘cynical’ as low emission zone expanded

    By
    Noah Eastwood
    30 August 2023 • 7:00am

    A camera enforcing Sadiq Khan’s Ultra Low Emission Zone (Ulez) has been installed just 150 yards away from a cemetery and crematorium near Upminster.

    One mourner was shocked to discover the device designed to enforce the £12.50 daily charge to drive in London’s clean air regime.

    John Tully, who lives in Havering, north-east London, said he felt “sad” to see the camera on his way to a funeral held at Upminster Cemetery yesterday, when the Mayor’s controversial levy on older, more polluting vehicles came into force across the capital’s 32 boroughs.

    “It’s about 100 or 150 yards from the entrance. I was quite sad really to think that people visit that crematorium on a regular basis to see the graves, to see where their loved ones have ended up. Some people visit more than once a week.”

    He said that the camera’s location was “cynical” because it is less than 1.5 miles from the Ulez boundary, which mostly falls within the M25 motorway, and could catch out people driving into Greater London to pay their respects at the cemetery and crematorium.

    Mr Tully added that he had made a journey of nearly an hour, using two local buses, to avoid being charged to drive his non-Ulez compliant car to the funeral on the day of the scheme’s expansion.

    He said: “It would take 10 or 15 minutes to drive to the crematorium from home. Luckily they [the buses] came one after the other, but the journey still took 45 minutes to an hour. In outer London the bus services aren’t as regular as they are in central London.”

    The camera is one of hundreds that have been erected in outer London to support the roll out of Mr Khan’s Ulez scheme. Vigilantes have targeted the cameras in a spate of attacks in recent days, employing spray paint and wire cutters in efforts to put them out of action.

    A spokesman for the National Association of Funeral Directors said: “We need to make life easier for bereaved people, not harder. This cemetery serves not only a large community within London, but also communities in Essex and Hertfordshire too – all of whom would not only visit the cemetery to attend a funeral but may return regularly to visit the grave of a loved one.”

    She added: “With the various low emissions zones in operation around the UK all having their own set of rules and exemptions, it’s challenging for any traveller to feel confident they have mastered the rules, let alone someone who has lost a loved one and is therefore likely to be extremely distressed. Hopefully, compassion and fairness will prevail.”

    A spokesman for Transport for London (TfL) said: “The purpose of the Ultra Low Emission Zone (Ulez) expansion is to enable everyone in London to breathe cleaner air.”

    He added: “More than 2,000 cameras are being installed across the whole of the Ulez to support compliance and ensure the effectiveness of the scheme. We will continue to review Ulez camera locations to ensure they are supporting meeting the scheme’s main objective, which is cleaning up the capital’s toxic air.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/net-zero/mourners-despair-ulez-camera-upminster-cemetery/

    3. I’m surprised that Khunt hasn’t banned crematoria, I can’t imagine that they add to clean air and Muslims bury not burn…

  57. From https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.telegraph.co.uk%2Fnews%2F2023%2F08%2F30%2Fnotting-hill-carnival-violence-not-racist-to-criticise%2F
    Anyone who has braved the Notting Hill Carnival will know that it is an experience you’re unlikely to forget. The Mas Bands, Steel Bands, Sound Systems and food stalls are an incredible visual spectacle, albeit one counter-balanced by unsettlingly dense crowds, more police officers than you’ve likely ever seen in one place and an uneasy, unyielding, underlying tension.

    Across Sunday and Monday there were 308 arrests; 71 of which were for possession of an offensive weapon, 57 for assaulting police officers with the remainder for offences as serious as GBH and sexual assault. Officers on the perimeter intercepted a firearm. Pictures emerged of men fighting with machetes amid the crowds. On Monday evening eight people were stabbed and one person received slash wounds. One victim is still in a serious condition. There were 198 arrests on Monday alone. To put that into context, that’s well over a third of London’s entire custody suite capacity.

    When eight people are stabbed in one location you might expect it to be headline news with rolling updates and a reporter dispatched to spend the day as the spectre at the feast, giving timely updates stood against the chilling backdrop of a police cordon. Not after Notting Hill Carnival. The fear of being denounced as a racist has made TV news demur; discussing it is a political hospital pass.

    Ahead of the Carnival, a group of ten Labour MPs alleged that Conservative Mayoral Candidate Susan Hall “seems convinced of the innate criminality of Black people”, and called on the party to publicly condemn her previous comments.

    The comments in question were made during a Police and Crime Committee session of the London Assembly. Hall had said that “problems with crime within the Black community is something I have brought up constantly because we need to assist those communities; the problem is, the minute we do we are accused of being racist or as near as damn being racist.”

    Oh the irony.

    But in the wake of the Carnival, those same MPs have been noticeably quiet. In fact, very few of those who were passionately defending the Carnival last week have condemned the violence on Monday night. Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised.

    Notting Hill Carnival is already the largest regular single-event policing operation in the country, costing the taxpayer £8.6 million in 2019. The Metropolitan Police have said officers at the event this year were punched, spat on, bitten, head-butted and sexually assaulted. Understandably, the Metropolitan Police Federation says its members dread having to work on it, and it’s difficult to see how the Metropolitan Police could justify or even facilitate committing greater resources.

    One of the alternatives proposed was to move the Carnival to Hyde Park, an idea first mooted by Ken Livingstone but dropped after staunch criticism. Moreover, whilst relocating would move it away from a residential area it’s hard to see how that would necessarily reduce the cost of policing it, or the potential dangers. Even Hyde Park’s Winter Wonderland saw a stabbing last year. Santa’s Grotto isn’t traditionally a place for gangs to settle scores.

    Yes, the Carnival is a celebration of Caribbean culture, but that isn’t what is being criticised. Criticism of an event that is marred by serious violence every single year isn’t a contentious point. Suggesting that eight people being stabbed in one small area on a single day is unacceptable isn’t racist.

    If only there was a Mayoral candidate who had a strong view on tackling its issues.

    Perhaps people should hear her out.”

    1. I’ve got a much better idea:
      Do not police the event in any way, shape, or form and let them get on with it.
      Do not permit any ambulances or other “first responders” in for 24 hours after the event, except to attend to heart attacks, strokes etc.

      Then sweep up and hose down the remains.

    2. What’s the black prison population compared with the percentage of blacks in the population as a whole? How many blacks are stabbed by blacks as opposed to the white equivalent? Numbers and facts are not “racist”.

      1. Judging by what I’ve seen in town over the last few weeks, it’s been “diversified”.

  60. Ref that photo (and extract from the Grauniad) that Grizz posted at 8.30 this morning.

    I hope and pray that the current Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police – who was reported today to be “cracking down” on wokery in his farce – sees the photo and suspends the dread-locked “policeman” forthwith without pay while he investigate such appalling behaviour.

    1. I posted that picture to illustrate just how standards in public life have deteriorated since I wore uniform. In my day officers were not permitted to display tattooed arms (usually only ex-mariners had them), being refused permission to roll up their sleeves in a heatwave. Written permission had to be given to grow a beard. Hair had to be short, neat and tidy (women with long hair had to wear it ‘up’). Uniforms had to be clean and pressed. Ties had to be worn. helmets and caps had to be worn correctly (not pushed to the back of the head). Shoes had to be polished. Women could not wear excessive jewellery or over-the-top make-up. Anyone failing in these standards was disciplined.

    2. I can’t help wondering whether that was fake policeman dressed up.

      Every coonival goer hit by the paint would be suing, if it was a real cop.

          1. Maybe. I still think that an event “perliced” by hundreds of so-called real perlice, it would unwise to attempt to imitate them.

  62. That’s me for this diverse and inclusive day. Can tomorrow’s news be any worse? (No – don’t answer).

    Have a jolly evening.

    A demain.

    1. The reviews suggest that Nottlers will use it, not as an aphrodisiac, but as a sleeping aid.
      Phizzee, on the other hand…
      Perhaps I should rephrase that: Phizzee on the other hand…
      Damn, perhaps I should rephrase that;
      Phizzee on the other hand,..
      Damn, caught in a doom loop…
      He must be ambidextrous…

          1. I don’t recollect dancing with you so how do you know that I have 2 left feet? 🤔

  65. It’ll be a while before it all collapses but any bad news is good news.

    The real costs of wind power prove the sums don’t add up

    The chasm between net zero ambition and reality is growing ever larger

    JEREMY WARNER • 30th August 2023 • 1:25pm

    Someone get a grip. UK energy policy is once again coming apart at the seams, with growing doubts over whether net zero or even energy security goals can be met.

    Only now are the true economic costs and practical difficulties of going carbon-free becoming fully evident, and it’s not a pretty sight. Yet still policymakers don’t seem to get it; either that or they are being deliberately misleading on the ease with which it can be delivered.

    All pretence at “leading the world” in the application of renewables is meanwhile going up in smoke, as one-time champions pare back their ambitions for the UK market in the face of rising costs, oppressive planning laws, and better opportunities elsewhere. Rival jurisdictions, particularly the US and EU, are beginning to offer far superior incentives.

    If you cannot beat them, do the opposite. Slowly, but surely, the Government is watering down its environmental agenda, which sadly but inevitably frequently clashes with the parallel goal of enhanced economic growth – the latest example being so-called “nutrient neutrality” water pollution rules which act as a barrier to more housebuilding.

    Yet on paper at least, and indeed legally, the overarching environmental goal of net zero by 2050 – together with the staged targets set for getting there – remains sacrosanct, even though most practically minded people have long thought there is not a snowball’s chance in Hades of actually meeting it. A giant leap of faith in the transforming powers of technology is demanded to think it can be.

    As if to confirm the gaping chasm between ambition and reality, the latest round of auctions for UK renewable energy licences, the outcome of which is due to be announced late next week, has plainly hit the rocks.

    Having already abandoned a key UK offshore wind development because of rising costs, the Swedish utility Vattenfall has indicated that it won’t be participating in the Government’s so-called Auction Round Five.

    Similarly with the UK energy group SSE, which has said it will not be entering its Seagreen offshore development into the auction, citing a low, officially set, strike price, and dramatically rising costs.

    Under pressure from the renewables industry, the Government has announced a slight increase in the promised subsidy below strike prices, but it’s unlikely to make a difference.

    Presumably there are at least some bidders still in the running; even so, officials will struggle to get the capacity hoped for, putting in jeopardy the target of 50GW of offshore wind by 2030. Current capacity stands at just 14GW, so there is a way to go.

    This in turn raises doubts about the Government’s separate target of complete decarbonisation of the electricity network by 2035. This, too, looks unrealistic. British energy policy is once more in a chaotic mess. It was ever thus.

    As it is, policymakers have set strike prices so low that investors are struggling to see how they might make a return. No surprise that prices should be forced down like this, for the green energy transition is not just about saving the planet. It is also meant to deliver much lower energy costs.

    This, too, is turning out to be a pretence. It’s true that in the past seven or eight years, the notional cost of renewable energy has plummeted. The price of offshore wind output has, for instance, fallen by around two thirds, from £100 per megawatt hour to less than £40. There you go, say ministers in response to net zero sceptics; it’s cheaper than coal.

    Would that it was, but the claim is in fact a statistical illusion. The manufacturing, installation and maintenance costs alone have been surging since the war in Ukraine. To these we must also add the costs of upgrading the National Grid to bring the new sources of electricity from where they are generated to where they are used.

    Littering the countryside with pylons is understandably running into local opposition. Billions may have to be forked out to compensate affected communities, or in finding alternative, more expensive, transmission routes. It could make HS2 look cheap by comparison.

    But to gain a proper understanding of the real costs of wind, and to a lesser extent, solar, we need to factor in another of their characteristics – that they are intermittent.

    In order to function effectively, the grid needs a constant balance between supply and demand; if the wind isn’t blowing, or even if it is blowing too strongly, thereby overloading the grid, there is a problem.

    Lots of conventional backup capacity is required to deal with the shortfalls that result from intermittency – capacity that can be brought online quickly at the flick of a switch when needs arise.

    The upshot is likely to be a high degree of duplication in generating capacity. This will obviously very considerably add to the costs of the renewable element. It’s disingenuous to say wind is cheaper than fossil fuels.

    Potentially, storage could provide a solution to the intermittency problem, yet for the moment it doesn’t exist at the scale needed to do the trick. If Britain cannot guarantee to keep the lights on, nobody is going to want to set up shop here.

    What about batteries? This may seem unduly pessimistic, but it stretches credulity to believe that they can ever really be the solution. Is there even enough lithium in the world to provide the level of battery power needed to supply the National Grid when the wind stops blowing?

    There are alternatives, nuclear being the most obvious, but many environmentalists are as opposed to it as they are to coal, gas and oil, and here in the UK, policy on new nuclear capacity, as on much else, falls woefully short.

    It is as much as we can do even to get the money-eating leviathan of Hinkley Point C up and running. Next comes Sizewell C, which scarcely promises to be much better. As Britain’s ageing fleet of existing nuclear power stations reaches the end of its life, merely replacing what’s closing down seems to be beyond us.

    And to phase out the 80pc of UK energy demand currently satisfied by fossil fuels, we would need far, far more. Yet the Government continues to procrastinate. Shamefully, it is still faffing around with an international competition to decide who gets to build Small Modular Reactors, never mind how to finance them.

    The last two auction rounds lulled the Government into a false sense of security on the economics of renewables. Both were hugely successful in attracting bidders at apparently highly competitive prices.

    But things have changed. Having been ahead, Britain is slipping behind. Next week’s announcement on the outcome of the fifth round auction threatens to be a rude awakening.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/08/30/renewable-energy-net-zero-britain-wind-power-costs

    1. Met a fellow parish councillor in town and he said that the energy policy didn’t add up; we were sending the problems abroad and pretending we’d solved it. He commented that our soils were in good nick because we used animal fertiliser, which is why getting rid of animals is such a stupid idea. I concluded that most of the decision makers were totally urban and didn’t have anything to do with the natural cycle.

  66. Evening, all. Khan doesn’t care. No doubt the slammers will have a get out of jail free card and the kuffars have to pay jizya anyway as dhimmis in a Caliphate.

  67. Good evening all! We’re having a very exciting time today as the twins are here for a sleepover! I’m not sure they know what it is, but they’ve had a ball! I had to take twin one to the dentist this afternoon as he’d hit his tooth on something and it’s gone a bit grey. On the way back to the car I met Neil Oliver and his wife! Said ‘hello’ and then said that we shared a sweep! He laughed, said he was brilliant and his wife said he always cost them a new chimney! Anyway, we chatted a bit and I said a lot of us hope he keeps on doing what he’s doing!

      1. I was a bit starstruck! You know when you walk away and the think ‘Gosh, I wish I’d said….’

    2. Lucky encounter. I’d love to have a beer with Neil sometime. He strikes me as a very modest fellow with not a lot to be modest about.

  69. Well, that’s it for today. Good night, chums, I hope you have a good night’s sleep.

    2. Off myself shortly, been up scaffolding most of the day trimming some cypress trees – I’m nuckin’ fackered

  72. Good morning all! I got up at 5.15 as I was worried I wouldn’t wake up for the twins, and had been awake for ages! The blue super moon was amazing! Absolutely huge and quite stunning! Hope it’s a good omen!

      1. Double Strewth – it seems that twin grandchildren and Blue Moons are unfair to Grandmas.

        Time for Grandpa to awake and take the pair of ’em outside to view the moon.

        Or does that only even happen “Once in a Blue Moon.”?

        1. Grandpa is sleeping the sleep of the just! The naked cat managed to get in with the boys and it made them very happy! This is obviously what a sleepover is all about! We’re having another one tonight! 😱

  73. The raging storm that was forecast to devastate Florida and kill half the population has been downgraded to tropical storm. Total deaths so far – two in traffic accidents and one man cutting up a fallen tree. Americans advised not to leave safety of shelters for next month or so, just in case.

    1. God help us – even by the low standards of his contemporaries the man is an idiot!

      1. And a very wealthy idiot.
        Who was able to move from his home in Hatfield to Brookmans Park after he had been housing minister. And coincidentally a lot of new homes had been built.
        Just sayin’. …….

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