Wednesday 31 July: Labour’s callous change to winter fuel payments leaves pensioners fearing the colder months

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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671 thoughts on “Wednesday 31 July: Labour’s callous change to winter fuel payments leaves pensioners fearing the colder months”

    1. Three now.
      But, as Stalin said: One death is a tragedy, a million is a statistic

      1. My BTL Comment:

        "The only safe route is to the bottom of the English Channel. Stab the boats!"

        1. Safe for us. As for safe for them – nobody forces them to come the way we are forced to accept and pay for them.

          1. Sod, their safety. As you say, nobody asked them to risk their miserable lives, that puts us all in jeopardy.

      2. My BTL Comment:

        "The only safe route is to the bottom of the English Channel. Stab the boats!"

  7. How many more children will die?’: Starmer heckled on Southport visit. 31 July 2024.

    Sir Keir Starmer was asked “how many more children” will die as he left flowers at the scene of the Southport knife attack.

    The Prime Minister placed his own floral tribute among hundreds of others at a police cordon on Hart Street, and thanked the emergency services workers who responded to the incident.

    The brief visit, which lasted barely two minutes, was marred by shouts from some members of the public.

    We need to start throwing things. These people bear the ultimate responsibility for what is happening. They are our enemies.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/07/30/watch-prime-minister-heckled-southport-knife-attack/

    1. Kneeler is one of the facilitators of these tragedies.
      His visit merely added fuel to the fire.

  8. Good morning, chums, and thanks for today's NoTTLe page, Geoff.

    Wordle 1,138 3/6

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    1. Same result for me but purely by elimination.
      Wordle 1,138 3/6

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      1. Behind again on par 4. I was just saying to myself that they couldn't do a word like this, but tried anyway, and they had…

        Wordle 1,138 4/6

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  9. Good morrow, Gentlefolk, today’s (recycled) story

    Winning The Lottery

    Babbette finds herself in dire straits. Her business has gone bust and she's in serious financial trouble. She's so desperate that she decides to ask God for help. She begins to pray…

    "God, please help me. I've lost my business and if I don't get some money, I'm going to lose my house as well. Please let me win the lottery."

    Lottery night comes and somebody else wins it. Babbette again prays…

    "God, please let me win the lottery! I've lost my business; my house and I'm going to lose my car as well."

    Lottery night comes and still Babbette has no luck. Once again, she prays…

    "My God, why have you forsaken me? I've lost my business, my house, and my car. My children are starving. I don't often ask you for help and I have always been a good servant to you. PLEASE just let me win the lottery this one time so I can get my life back in order."

    Suddenly there is a blinding flash of light as the heavens open and Babbette is confronted by the voice of God Himself
    .
    "Babbette, you gotta meet me halfway on this… Buy a friggin' ticket!"

    1. I must have missed the original notification. Still, I've had an extra hour's sleep.

    1. My BTL response:

      "Sounds plausible to me and I, too, have been forecasting a bloody civil war. I thank God, that I'm too old and infirm to be involved."

      1. I think that Enoch Powell predicted what would happen over 50 years ago!

        They did not listen, they're not listening still
        Perhaps they never will.

        1. In the middle of the Don MacLean song he still thinks there's a chance.

          They would not listen, they did not know how
          Perhaps they'll listen now.

    1. It's clear that she would, they hate nuclear energy.

      I know that the Sun's energy is from a fusion process and current nuclear energy is from fission.

      1. And no one has found a suitable way of getting close enough to the sun (without instantly vapourising) to discover how that fusion process works.😉

  16. Good morning all.
    Another bright sunny start to the day with blue skies, near calm air, unlike Southport and Southend and a pleasant 10°C outside.

      2. Other things on my mind at the time.
        In retrospect, I doubt a grown man on scooter would have appealed.

      3. Mods always struck me as being rather effete while Rockers were greasy, rough but masculine.

        My elder son, Christo, who is totally fearless tried to kill himself on a powerful motorbike by his reckless riding; miraculously he he failed to do so so he took up hang-gliding instead.

        https://www.facebook.com/British-Hang-Gliding-History-191430910892099/videos/a-short-interview-with-christo-tracey-on-the-pimple-of-rhossili-july-2017by-mike/1447945801907264/?locale=id_ID

  19. I loved this letter in this morning's Torygraph. It should be posted everywhere:

    SIR – In 1971 Margaret Thatcher removed the school milk allowance, earning her the soubriquet “Maggie Thatcher, milk snatcher”.

    In 2024 we have “Rachel Reeves, queen of thieves”.

    Linda Willby
    Thornton-le-Dale, North Yorkshire

          1. Its too hot for us. We were born on the Lancashire coast at Southport and now live on the Sussex coast, much warmer.

      1. Our open commons here are grazed every summer by cattle. They would soon revert to scrub without the grazing. Every year a few cattle get knocked down by cars despite the warnings and speed limits.
        The commons are full of rare orchids and Pasque flowers, butterflies and other wildlife.

        1. Each animal brings with it its own benefits. Cattle browse by twisting clumps of grass with their tongues, where was sheep nip grass short. They can be kept in a field together since each perfer a different length of grass. Put in an alpaca or a llama into a field of sheep, and they act as guards and chase off anything worrying the sheep, and the sheep consider an alpaca or a llama as just a big sheep.

          Horses tend to be bad news for land quality, but donkeys are evolved to eat pricklies such as thistles. Pigs are splendid ploughs and will eat the roots of persistent weeds such as dock, leaving the land clean and well manured. Muscovy ducks go after slugs. Goats are unreliable and are famous for eating what you don't want them to eat, but they do well on very poor land.

      2. Just back from Bournemouth, apparently the council is broke and all the verges left to "rewild", it looks a mess. If it weren't for family connections I would stay away. Went to Brownsea island to watch a performance of Macbeth, excellent. National trust going to ban anymore shows. Vandals.

      3. Just back from Bournemouth, apparently the council is broke and all the verges left to "rewild", it looks a mess. If it weren't for family connections I would stay away. Went to Brownsea island to watch a performance of Macbeth, excellent. National trust going to ban anymore shows. Vandals.

    2. I am intrigued what expertise an agriculture minister whose speciality is urban black rights in Lambeth and whose constituency is Croydon brings to the job. He may surprise us all!

      As regards rewilding – there is no reason why food production should not also be environmentally benign. With intelligence, there would be only a small premium to pay to have both.

      For example, not ploughing within four metres of a hedgerow makes little difference to the yield of a field of several hectares. The benefits are that the hedges are not damaged, machinery can turn more easily, benign wildlife especially pest predators and pollinators can be allowed to thrive, people can walk around the field without trampling crops, and the farmer feels happier in his daily work.

      There are plenty of other measures well understood to enhance both production and also benefit nature. Mixed farming allows manure to be used to fertilise crops and improve soil structure and microfauna rather than allowing centralized (sic) slurry to pollute the waterways.

      This is not turning the field over to docks and thistles, but rather using imagination to maximise both profit, feed the nation, and preserve the countryside.

  23. What is a pity right now is that there is not an equivalent to 'Not the Telegraph Letters' or 'Free Speech Backlash' for leftwingers. Times have moved on, and regardless whether one is part of the 80% that did not vote for this Government, it has such a parliamentary majority that it can run roughshod over the Left, as it did under Blair. Back in 2010, I recall it was Cameron's Tories that were offering the disenfranchised Labour Left a home under the guise of "Compassionate Conservatism".

    Reeves was indeed being callous when starting off her assault on the Left's holy cows, which New "Changed" Labour regards at best as fit for burgers, and more likely cheap dog food. Removing the universality of State provision by means-testing the Winter Fuel Allowance divorces the wealthy taxpayer from any benefits of State intervention, and is no wonder they feel annoyed and isolated from the State. Far from being a Left Wing measure, it is playing into the hands of the Right, who aspire to turn the nation into a gated estate for the upwardly mobile, keeping those less aspirational well out.

    Rightwingers would have no problem with that, but leftwingers might, and I want to hear from them.

    It is being spun as "only the richest pensioners will be worse off". That is disingenuous. Ten million are most pensioners, with only a very few claiming additional State benefits that avoid the means test.

    I am one of those that will lose out, but I count my blessings. I paid off my mortgage twenty years ago, and do not hanker for anything grander than a small country cottage and a 37-year-old car. I have access to cheap firewood and a wood burner; I have solar panels on my roof; I have also secured a 3-year fixed price deal on my gas. At worst, I sit in a room heated by my wood burner with a small electric fan heater on my feet, and I am cosy enough even without the Winter Fuel Allowance.

    Life must be really tough though for pensioners living in flats put up when energy was cheap and plentiful, some of whom are still paying their mortgage into their dotage or facing ballooning rent rises as landlords get sick of all the corrupted hoops they must jump through and get out.

    1. Or my largest worry , to end up in penury in very old age.

      I think this thievery from the elderly is equivalent to the kiss of death .. killing old people off with stress and worry .

      2. Do they care though? If old people are not “net contributors to society” (i.e. wealthy or in a protected category), then the callous CHANGE movement may well consider them overdue for the skip.

    2. Although a Communist slogan (I think), I always rather liked "From each according to ability, to each according to need."
      This means most certainly not universal benefits, such as winter fuel allowance, as many do not need it – for example, Mother is quite well off and lives in a care home, so doesn't need it. Better to not tax everybody to provide it, with all the costs of administration as well. But – It's one thing not to give a dog a bone, another thing entirely to take a bone away from a dog (Tomas Sewell?).

      1. The Left relies on the somewhat naive assumption that common folk are decent and honourable and will do the right thing for their community, rather than to diddle the community for personal gain.

        Whilst universal benefits are to them a right and an entitlement, there is no obligation to accept such charity if one does not need it. Better more is left in the pot for those who are really in trouble, and also leaving more in the kitty for oneself when times are hard.

        Unfortunately, human nature ain’t always like that. It is why socialists place great store by mass moral indoctrination, in the hope that the mass of people are won over, leaving those that still take advantage to face due sanction. The Right, understandable, considers this to be a violation of fundamental liberty, and so the debate goes on.

        I might argue that it is considerably cheaper to administer universal benefits, since a whole swathe of intrusive bureaucracy can be cut out.

      1. I’ve not been able to get through to the BBC since James Purnell “upgraded” it.

        1. A former colleague once stood up at a big staff meeting and asked why James Purnell had progressed through the ranks without ever completing an application form while she as a manager always had to follow due process when recruiting staff. The director the question was addressed to literally squirmed in his seat. No credible answer was forthcoming. Fiona was a hero that day.

          1. Just looked him up. It appears he is a lying, thieving, conniving turd. Apart from regularly fiddling his extravagant expenses he, as an MP, proposed charging interest on crisis loans to the unemployed and pensioners which were interest-free, at a rate of up to 26.8% per annum. Well qualified for high office in the BBC.

            I don't know how you survive, Sue.

    4. We also have a wood burner, Jeremy and we will get by, though the £500 went quite a long way to fill our oil tank last winter, but we're not on the breadline so we will manage. But many pensioners will find it very hard.

  24. Good morning all ,

    19c here , cloudy and humid .

    The temperature during the night was so warm that I felt like trotting naked into the garden and positioning my self on one of the sunbeds in the never never ..

    I didn't do that because there creatures of the night that crawl, fly , sniffle and make funny noises ..

    Moh golfing , yes , he has the motivation, 2nd part of the Monday competition. Good luck to him .

      1. Morning Mm

        We have a family of hedgehogs in the garden again .

        How are you , we are waiting for a storm to pile in on us , what is the weather doing in your area?

        Can you remember Warri and PH.. The heat, the creepy crawlies and despite our mosquito nets , things managed to wriggle in ..

        We had loads of security .. A strong lockable wrought iron gate in the corridor where our secure bedrooms with barred windows and shower rooms were .. those bungalows were pure luxury , but if one needed a cold drink , we had to boil then filter our water , and fill the fridge with gin bottles full of clean water , no such thing as plastic bottles then , but wandering back through the secured padlocked gate to get a drink of water was a nuisance ..

        Having barred windows/ net screens on the bedroom windows still didn't deter things that crawl .. so we used to make sure the loo seat was down and the plugs left in the sink plugholes .

        Things were more active in steamy weather, and the old aircon rattled like mad.

        We had several trees in the garden , lime fruit , avocado and several date palms , oh and banana trees .. Nature hazard , snakes and rats and fruit bats used them as their home .. and heaven forfend , the rats were the size of cats . YES they were ..

        Nigerians ate everything that crawled , flew(bats) etc, giant African snails , and giant rats , I won't say anymore !!

        .

        1. It looks like we're dry for the rest of the day. As for Nigeria, I've good and bad memories. The natural history of the place was always interesting to me. When the rains came I'd love watching all the transformed antlion adults swarming into the air from their pits. The rain itself was an experience that I was in awe of. The number of bird species was also marvellous.

        2. Oh, also saw my first osprey on a small tributary river where I occasionally sneaked off to to fish near PH.

  25. Radio 4 has wheeled out Brendan Cox to rubbish Nigel Farage. They would, wouldn't they?

    1. The reason that Brendon Fox was sacked from his job was that, while he was still married to his wife Jo, he kept on touching up and behaving inappropriately with the women in his office.

      This fact should be re-iterated every time the repulsive man opens his foul mouth.

  26. Brendan Cox and BBC's Emma Barnett accusing Nigel Farage of inciting Far Right anti-Muzzie riots in Southport. Bad boy, Nigel.

    Brendan Cox, husband of Jo Cox, himself accused of sexual assaults and diverting money from wife's charity funds. Well qualified to comment on crooks, thieves and liars – being one himself.

      2. What’s not true? Nigel Farage inciting the riots (in which case I agree), or Brenda Cox being a crook and pervert?

        1. What has Farage even said? I feel angry about what has happened. This anger is nothing to do with Farage, it's just the parasite class scrabbling around trying to pin their ineptitude on someone else.

          1. "What has Farage even said?"

            On the day, something like "We haven't been told the truth."

    3. The elites champion/or often are perverts. Huw Edwards one of the highest paid BBC 'stars'. Charged in possession of child abuse photos – in the highest category of depravity (Category A).

      Anytime the British stand up for themselves they try to pin the blame on Farage, or a few others.

    4. Brenda's speaks as someone who is far too easily aroused… rather like many in the scum he is defending ..

  27. Good morning, all. Cloudy here at 06:00.

    We have a problem, a very serious problem. A very serious problem created by previous governments and with the present government committed to continue in the same vein. Southport should the final straw in the awakening of the English and British people, the latter to include long settled and integrated immigrants who have made their homes here.

    The time for debating this problem is long over and if the political class and their acolytes continue to try and "manage" the outcomes of savage outrages then they must accept that the people's resistance will grow.

    How is this acceptable?

    https://x.com/JimFergusonUK/status/1818407643360235565

      1. In view of the fact that the Labour government has decided to remove the up to £400 heating allowance from most Old Age Pensioners Sunak should stand up proudly in Parliament and state that personally he will not accept the MPs' heating allowance of up to £3,400 and urge all MPs not to accept it either.

        He should add that in one week's time he will publish a list of all his Conservative MPs who have decided to hold on to the heating allowance and pass it on to the main stream media and ask Starmer if he would be prepared to publish a list of all the Labour MPs who decide to hold on it.

        1. I like that idea. I shall write to my new Limodumb MP with that suggestion. Thanks. Illlet you know the outcome. If any.

        2. I have sent the folllwing to my newly elected MP.

          Congratulations on becoming an MP. I am sure you will do your very best for us all.

          Following the Labour government’s decision to remove the winter allowance from some senior citizens will you be giving up your MP’s heating allowance voluntarily? I realise you have not previously received this taxpayers’ largesse, however I am sure you will agree this would be a marvellous thing to do. And perhaps put this suggestion forward in the House that all Members of Parliament should do the same.

          ETA: New MP’s reply.

          ”Thank you for your email about the Winter Fuel Allowance.

          As you may know, the new Labour Government has made the Winter Fuel Payment conditional. Only those on pension credit will now receive the payment.

          The Conservative Party’s economic mess has left millions of families and pensioners worried about how to make ends meet – especially with energy bills set to rise again this winter.

          The Chancellor’s changes to Winter Fuel Payments will add to those worries – especially with hundreds of thousands of eligible pensioners not receiving Pension Credit. As the Government tries to clear up the Conservatives’ mess, it must find ways to help struggling pensioners and families with the cost of living this winter.

          As Woking’s MP, I will not support this change. However, as Labour have a significant majority, I do not hold out much hope of stopping the Chancellor’s announcement. I will work with the Department for Work and Pensions, Woking Borough Council and other organisations to encourage the take up of pension credit to support vulnerable people in Woking.

          Finally, I will not be claiming a heating allowance, as this is only available to MP’s with a second home (to support the costs of being based in their Constituency and Parliament) which I do not have and will not be having”.

          Fair play to him but I notice he is not going to suggest it to the other limpdumb MPs.

  30. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4af87481691280a989f900e29595528ce64cf07fd3a8721c07dd89fc7d00f364.png
    Sightseers take photographs close to the cliff edge at Birling Gap in East Sussex, apparently unaware of the beauty spot’s history of major cliff falls. Large sections of cliff at Seaford Head and Peacehaven collapsed in February, prompting a campaign to remind people of the risks.

    No doubt a crowd of vegetarians or vegans. Weed-munchers have advanced stupidity that is directly due to their idiotically inappropriate diet habit.

      1. Agreed. It is the vegetation component that is the culprit.

        Natural carnivores are intelligent, strong and fit. Apex predators. Top of the food chain.

          7. That is because they eat a diet that is suitable to them: they are naturally evolved herbivores.

            Humans are not natural herbivores: this has been proven, beyond dispute, by analysis of the bones of our ancestors.

      2. Agreed. It is the vegetation component that is the culprit.

        Natural carnivores are intelligent, strong and fit. Apex predators. Top of the food chain.

    2. Morning Grizzly Grizzly ,

      Hmm, they look like bat eaters , and the occasional gourmets of edible dog ..

      The country is full of visitors from the far East .

    3. Nice to see the French have outsourced the Darwin section of the Olympics to the British.

      I suggest they all jump up and down.

  31. Emma Barnett born on 5 February 1985 in Manchester to, Ian, a commercial property surveyor, and Michele Barnett. She has no siblings. During Barnett's teenage years, her father ran brothels in the Greater Manchester area. The family home was used for publicity shoots of some of the women and for the recording of sex films. Previously convicted of "living off immoral earnings" and subjected to a suspended sentence, in 2008 Barnett's father was sentenced to immediate imprisonment for keeping brothels and controlling the prostitution of a trafficked woman; Barnett’s mother received a suspended sentence for money laundering related to income from the brothels.

    With an upbringing like that she was obviously fully qualified for employment at the BBC.

  32. Good Morning, all

    The advance towards Sodom & Gomorrah is accelerating. The wokerati are at the steering wheel and taking the p*ss out of whatever we might think of as 'civilisation'. Kenneth Clark must be spinning in his grave.

    Near-nude Sam Smith joins Royal family members among the National Portrait Gallery’s ‘History Makers’

    The painting, depicting Sam Smith as a scantily clad angel with wings and a harp, will hang alongside the King and the Princess of Wales

    Craig Simpson
    31 July 2024 • 6:03am

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2024/07/30/TELEMMGLPICT000387612001_17223694527420_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqiX6_A48a-pJIvl4yST8LyE9btWcsrkszkFUoAtO18dM.jpeg?imwidth=680
    A portrait depicting Sam Smith, the pop star, as a scantily clad angel will be hung in the National Portrait Gallery alongside members of the Royal family.

    The painting will be displayed in the “History Makers” section of the recently refurbished gallery, in the same space as images of the King and the Princess of Wales.

    The image of Smith, titled Gloria, shows the pop star sporting wings and skimpy toga in a heaven-like scene, clutching a harp in the manner of a cherub.

    The portrait, which has never been publicly displayed, was created by the French duo Pierre et Gilles.

    The singer said it was a “dream come true” to sit for the artists, and to appear in the nation’s foremost collection of portraiture, which includes major figures from Henry VIII to Sir Winston Churchill.

    Smith said: “I was so happy when the National Portrait Gallery asked me if they could loan the piece.

    “It’s very important to me to support the arts. Being in their new History Makers section is an honour.”

    Sexually explicit shows
    The portrait gallery’s announcement follows Smith’s inclusion in another fixture of national cultural life, the BBC Proms.

    BBC executives have promised that the singer’s performance would be “appropriate” after complaints about the singer’s sexually explicit shows.

    The Grammy-winning pop star, who came out as non-binary in 2019, has become known for highly sexualised costumes and choreography.

    The National Portrait Gallery said the image aims to mix “reality, daily life, dreams and fantasies”, and has welcomed the loan of the painting from Smith.

    ‘An amazing moment’
    Clare Freestone, curator of photography at the gallery, said: “I’m absolutely delighted that Sam has agreed to lend this incredible work to the National Portrait Gallery.

    “An amazing moment for Sam’s fans to connect on a deeper level with the portrait.

    “Its display presents a unique opportunity for visitors to see a much-loved artwork, borrowed from the singer’s own collection and on show for the first time in a public art gallery.”

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

    Dave Lui
    41 MIN AGO
    Where's Just Stop Oil when you need them?

    …and several other fruity comments referring to 'A race to the bottom' etc.

    3. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/40c39d5568d328a1594d0cf22b53798b90d4eba940cafc6c9e25b6365f275616.jpg

      Career summary
      I joined the Photographs department of the National Portrait Gallery in 2000 as Assistant Curator. Some of the displays that I curated as such include Seizing an Instant: Photographs by Roger Mayne (2004), John Gay: Portraits in Print (2006), Private View: British Pop and the 60s Art Scene (2007) and Jazz in London: Photographs by Walter Hanlon (2008). In 2009 I was appointed Associate Curator for the exhibition and publication Ida Kar: Bohemian Photographer (2011). I studied BA Hons Fine Art at Wimbledon School of Art (1994-8), writing my dissertation on the work of Alberto Giacometti and Germaine Richier and the concerns of Existentialism.

      Areas of interest / research
      Whilst at the National Portrait Gallery I have developed my interest in post-war photography and culture. The research that I undertook for the exhibition of the work of Ida Kar, a photographer of Armenian origin, portraying artists and writers in London and Paris in the 1950s and 1960s, led to a specific interest in this period and milieu.

  33. Morning all,

    Noting the increasing migration of ex-Spectator BTL contributors to NTTL recently, I visited The Spectator website for the first time this morning and was agreeably surprised by this article – soon to be a mushrooming subject everywhere (except in the MSM I suppose).

    Labour’s private school VAT raid will stunt social mobility
    Following the announcement of Rachel Reeves’ spending cuts on Monday, the Treasury confirmed that VAT will be applied to private school fees from January 2025. Although the debate on whether to charge this tax on private schools has raged for months, this is still earlier than most of the sector expected. ‘Anti-forestalling’ measures will be introduced so that any advance payments for the January term are, from this week, also taxed. This means parents can no longer avoid the extra 20 per cent by paying fees upfront. Perhaps most importantly, Treasury documents have also confirmed that ministers expect the new tax to drive some private school parents to the state sector: the first time Labour has acknowledged this in writing.

    We should be making private schools more affordable and accessible, not less

    This admission by Labour is crucial: it is the biggest argument against the policy, and fundamentally undermines the narrative that taxing private schools is an easy win for social mobility. The average VAT raised per pupil (£3,600) is less than half what is needed to educate them in the state sector, and so every pupil that moves will simply add pressure to an already over-stretched system. No one is even exactly sure how much money the policy will raise. If 17 per cent of private school pupils move, the policy would raise £650 million in extra revenue; if 11 per cent move, then £900 million; if 5 per cent [should be 25% – Ed.] move, then £1.15 billion. Yet this doesn’t take into account the fact that independent schools, particularly wealthier ones, will be able to offset VAT against other costs.

    The exodus from private schools may not happen straightaway – parents may not pull their child out of school mid-year or mid-exams. Prospective primary school parents, however, will be looking at these new costs with trepidation. Private school privilege is by no means an even playing field; the super-rich, and the international elite (who increasingly make up the student cohorts) will be largely unaffected, whilst other parents (like the doctors and academics who make up most of my school’s parent body) will have a choice to make. Cough up the extra cost, or save the money, send their children to the best local state school (thus raising house prices further), spend some of the money on a private tutor instead. There is more than one way to give your child an advantage, and I’m not sure one is necessarily more virtuous than the other.

    The money will, apparently, be used to recruit 6,500 more teachers over the next five years. Yet this equates to roughly a third of a teacher per school, which is laughable in the face of our teacher retention crisis: every year around 40,000 teachers, or 7 per cent of the total, leave the profession. We have already under-recruited for 10 out of 17 secondary school subjects next year, with STEM subjects and modern languages in a particularly dire state: in 2022 we only recruited 17 per cent of the needed Physics teachers, meaning we would need 3,500 more teachers just to cover this subject alone.

    We need money to do this, but surely VAT isn’t the answer? Is it worth penalising all the things that should be celebrated in education – excellence, choice, individuality, diversity – in order to raise the teacher headcount by just 0.3 per cent a year?

    We should be making private schools more affordable and accessible, not less. Research from the organisation for economic co-operation and development suggests that fee-paying pupils in Britain are, on average, two years ahead of their state school counterparts, and we know that private schools have some of the best educational facilities in the country, if not the world.

    A much more nuanced policy therefore would be to have held private schools to their charitable status, and insist that private schools work for the public good. Many private schools already do amazing work for their local communities, whether that be sharing facilities, opening new schools, raising money for charities (my previous school raised between £50,000 and £105,000 a year for charity) or sharing knowledge and resources. Labour should capitalise on this positive momentum, and on the discussions around social responsibility, and think what else private schools could do.

    For instance, Labour could have insisted that private schools spend X per cent of their revenue on scholarships and bursaries for disadvantaged pupils, so that the best and brightest can get the opportunities they deserve. At Eton, 20 per cent of students receive some level of bursary support, with just under 10 per cent paying no fees at all; this is a remarkable and relatively recent change, and one that should be imitated and developed across the board. Students with an education, health and care plan will not have to pay VAT on school fees, but the truth is a highly academic pupil has as much right to fulfil their potential as one with special educational needs. We should therefore be doing everything we can to open the doors to private schools, rather than close them.

    Written by
    Kristina Murkett

    2. From Coffee House, the Spectator

      What would Reagan make of Trump?
      Comments Share 30 July 2024, 4:30am
      If the Donald Trump-JD Vance ticket is successful in November and the pair head to the White House, there is a former US president who would surely turn in his grave: Ronald Reagan. While Reagan saw the importance of American involvement in Europe, Trump and his running mate Vance seem in favour of adopting a more hands-off attitude. It’s an approach that could unpick Reagan’s hard-fought legacy in eastern Europe.

      What a different world it was back in the Eighties when Reagan was US president and the epitome of Western power and influence. In June 1987, he stood before the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin and gave a historic speech, one line of which was to become famous: ‘Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall!’ His advisors had counselled him to remove the passage, considering it too ‘extreme’. But Reagan said, ‘I think we’ll keep it in.’

      While the East German government condemned Reagan’s speech as ‘an absurd demonstration by a cold warrior’, West German chancellor Helmut Kohl said it was ‘a stroke of luck for the world, especially for Europe’. And so it was. President Gorbachev took note, East-West tensions began to relax and a path was set to the end of the Cold War. Two short years later, the Berlin Wall came tumbling down. Before long, the Iron Curtain itself, which had divided Europe in half after the Second World War, followed suit. To the newly liberated populations of Eastern Europe, Ronald Reagan was a hero.

      So what would he make of his successor, Donald Trump, 45th president of the United States, and quite possibly its 47th as well? For this is the man who, along with his vice presidential candidate, J.D. Vance, is in danger of undoing some of what Reagan helped to achieve three and a half decades ago.

      Most popular
      Alexander Larman
      It’s no surprise McDonald’s is struggling

      Trump and Vance have made it perfectly clear that they don’t believe in unequivocally supporting Ukraine in its existential war against Russia. Without billions in US military aid, Ukraine will quickly buckle under and be forced to accept a Putin victory – thus confirming that the brutal autocrat who laments the dissolution of the Soviet Union can get away with his war of conquest and expansion. A new dividing line will be secured: anxious Nato countries to the west of it, and Russia, Belarus and a subjugated Ukraine to the east.

      When Russia first invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Trump described the move as ‘genius’ and ‘savvy’. As president he’d had a kind of bizarre ‘bromance’ with Vladimir Putin. ‘I got along with him great,’ Trump boasted. ‘He liked me. I liked him. I mean, you know, he’s a tough cookie, got a lot of great charm and a lot of pride.’ According to his one-time advisor Fiona Hill, Trump admired Putin’s strong-arm leadership and longevity in power. He also ‘thought Ukraine, and certainly Crimea, must be part of Russia. He really could not get his head around the idea that Ukraine was an independent state.’

      Trump has recently asserted that the US can’t afford to keep subsidising Ukraine’s war and that if he regains the presidency, the flow of money will dry up. He’s not wholly unsympathetic to Ukraine’s plight, but won’t be drawn about which side he wants to win: ‘I don’t think in terms of winning or losing. I think in terms of getting it settled so we stop killing all these people.’ He wants only to ‘bring peace to the world and end the war that has cost so many lives.’ His plan is to meet with Putin and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and ‘end the war in 24 hours’, presumably by knocking their heads together. But as is clear by now, the only way Russia will agree to stop its war is if it can keep the roughly 20 per cent of Ukraine it has occupied.

      Then there’s Vance, poster boy for America First ideology, who remarked publicly: ‘I gotta be honest with you, I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine one way or another.’ He’s said that he admires the ‘brave Ukrainians’ fighting on on the ground, but also that it would be ‘in America’s best interest’ if Ukraine ceded territory to Russia. How exactly? And it certainly wouldn’t be in the interest of Europe to embolden Putin to commit further neo-imperialist aggressions, including against Nato countries.

      If president Reagan represented American power in the most positive sense (his administration didn’t, of course, get everything right), then Trump-Vance represents an abrogation of that power, a retreat into old-fashioned, go-fend-for-yourselves isolationism. As someone whose family escaped from the communist horrors on the other side of the Iron Curtain, it feels as if this new-style Republican party wants to flip history on its head. This isn’t how the 21st century is meant to play out. Stalin’s USSR created a half-century of ruthless dictatorship in its satellite states, and with its defeat we entered a new era of freedom.

      Now Putin wants to turn the clock back. But for me, and untold millions who remember the bad old days of Russian tyranny, the real superstar was Ronald Reagan. I was on a visit to Budapest in 1980 when he was running for president. The young people at a social gathering I attended (either actual communists or pretending to be) made fun of the ‘Hollywood cowboy’ on the Republican ticket. An actor, and not even a good one: ha, what a joke!

      But by the end of the decade they weren’t laughing anymore. Ronald Reagan had emerged as a world leader who’d helped effect momentous change. Young and old celebrated their new independence and suddenly you couldn’t find a communist in Hungary for love or money.

      1. "An actor, and not even a good one: ha, what a joke!"

        A prime example of someone not fitting in his chosen profession discovering his true remit when much older.

  36. Interesting nicked comment (hattip Rookwood)
    I'm often wrong, but I will argue this point on the basis that a week is a long time in politics and we currently live in extremely troubling times.

    If tonight's incidents are anything to go by, Labour are now jammed between a rock and a hard place. If they come down hard on the Southport protesters (as the Home Secretary has stated), the public uproar over two-tier policing will be deafening after the recent "Light touch" responses at Leeds and Manchester. I suspect those on the streets of Southport tonight will have considerably more support than the government if they take that stance. On the other hand, if they turn a blind eye given the circumstances, many "Communities" will feel extremely threatened and will then kick off regardless. They have truly been hoisted by their own petard.

    The only political solution to this conundrum (apart from dictatorship) is to return to proper, non-politicised policing where everyone, irrespective of wealth, political position, racial background or ideology, has to follow the same set of laws or face the consequences. Maybe then, the deep wounds in this country would start to heal rather than just fester. We cannot have favoured groups or protected characteristics outside the reach of the legal system. In a civilised society, the lady justice has got to be completely blind.

    As nothing so sensible would be anywhere near the mind of our current government, I give them six months before the wheels completely come off. Between what is happening here and the upcoming US elections, it won't take much more to upset the applecart.

    1. it will fizzle out.. ringleaders will be (take your pick; debanked, cancelled, abused, beaten up, down-ticked, unliked, arrested, fined, demonetised, fired, de-amplified, shadow-banned, marginalised, black-balled.. payment services providers withdrawn.)

      then business as usual.
      the fast-track importation of Africa, deforestation, and a building boom of red brick Barratt Homes..

      1. They've tried all of that with TR and Katie Hopkins. It hasn't yet silenced them. There aren't enough bricks nor the raw materials or the people to make them to fulfil the Labour building targets. Deforestation is interesting. The middle east was once mostly forest. The Sahara too.

          1. Modern houses already look horrible. Rooms so small you can't turn around in them. The Warqueen and I stood in the 'double bedroom' on the '3rd' floor and couldn't move without barging into one another. The stairs were steep and narrow deliberately to build a short depth, tall building to call it a three bedroom house so another one could be built directly behind it, both with postage stamp gardens beside a narrow 'carport' that we couldn't get the Fiesta in, let alone the tank.

          2. Show houses have scaled down furniture in them so the rooms look larger than they are.

        2. They can huff & puff all they please.. the progressive know they have them all covered and neutered.
          The ones they fear, I reckon, are the 0rish.
          Then contagion across the border.

        3. Quite a lot of the British Isles also, Sue. Unfortunately, quite an amount is now in private hands (companies) so they may be persuaded to sell…after all we can use the ensuing wood pellets at Drax. Crazy stuff. News today is that RR have made a lot of progress on their small nuclear reactor, first read about that at least two decades ago. Coming to a village/town/street near all of us.

    2. If we had genuine fair policing the muslim would be constantly investigated because they cause all the problems. That's why there's endless law protecting them from annoyances like 'stop being paedophiles', 'stop selling children, stop mutilating girls, stop killing people'.

      It'd mean the entire state machine would have to confront it's utter abject failure on forcing millions of alien, stone age savages on to this country. It would have to acknowledge that welfare was pouring from white workers and going to muslims who hated us. It would have to accept it has made a monumental mistake out of spite and malice as revenge for Brexit and it cannot do that – so it lies.

    3. My boiler servicer is running a book with his mates on how long this government will last. I think his guess is 8 months.

    1. Another BTL comment of mine:

      "Of course, Reeves will have her heating bills, as a parliamentary expense. Rachel Reeves, queen of the thieves."

      1. My energy bill has tripled, yes tripled, from what it was three months ago and my usage has not changed at all in that period of time. I'm sure like most pensioners here I am discovering that I have some sort of magic pound. It keeps shrinking by the week to the point that I can no longer save anything. I am, as it were, standing still. At least I can afford food and energy. I worry about those who cannot.

        1. Since we had the solar go in our bill has dropped radically. It's running the majority of the 'stuff' we have on all the time. However the curve needs further flattening with batteries as one big draw and the solar isn't working at that point and bang.

          But then who has £8000 sat around doing nothing to save £50-75 a month? OK, the pay off will be less than that but it's still a huge amount of money for an uncertain return.

          I remember a bloke saying 'why do you think of ROI? No one says 'Oh, I've just had a new boiler, what's the ROI?' Well matey, it's because it's not £2500, it's £10,000, possibly £20k. That's why people care.

          This is why we are on operation overpay. Even the Warqueen's holiday is budgeted for. I get my minis (which Junior and I will build), she went on hols. Total cost is £970 which we've saved since January for. on top of everything else.

          Heck, even the overpayment went up £50 this month.

          The sate has got to be stopped. The rapacious theft of our money through inflation, debt and taxation is moronic. They blither on about 'growth' but only see it in terms of wasting more money on the state.

          1. The growth is their own bank accounts and the expansion of their client underclass. Socialism in action.

          2. Moronic Labour will rue the day they meddled with our infrastructure/ energy requirements / house building/ importing nonsense .

            Industry will suffer as will hospitals , schools , refrigeration units , air conditioned buildings , lifts , escalators , underground , airports, railway lines .

            Labour party should be relabelled 666.. the end of everything and the coming of the Devil .

    2. Same for Milioaf. The Left do not care. For them, punishment and spite are the guiding principles. Doing the right thing is irrelevant. Cutting waste is irrelevant. It's just tax and waste.

  38. Labour’s private school VAT raid

    Before posting (below) this morning I wrote this to one of my sons:

    I wonder how local State schools (other than the "Outstanding" one that one of my granddaughters will be joining in September) are gearing up when it is clear that the “good” ones are already full and have waiting lists. The less attractive others (with spaces) may be glad of the extra capitation payments they will surely get from the Local Authority, but presumably this will put more pressure on Council Tax to find the money. I hope the Chancellor’s team have factored this in. Maybe they'll have to use the VAT collected from Private schools. What goes around, comes around…

    But from another source I found this:
    ..separate analysis by the Adam Smith Institute (ASI) found Labour's policy would raise no money at all if between 10 and 15 per cent of pupils migrated to the state sector. If this rose to 25 per cent of pupils, as previously predicted by the Baines Cutler consultancy, the policy could cost the Exchequer as much as £1.6 billion.

    1. Money is not what they’re after. It is hatred of those who want the best for their children.

    2. You'd think even the granite dense minds of labour would realise that private schools being successful, should be copied, not vilified.

      But no. So great is their desperation to take money and punish effort that they just see education as yet another source of revenue – all to drive down standards as how dare some do better than others.

      You'd think to really change outcomes they'd move to school vouchers. Just give the money directly to parents to give to schools. It's so simple. The department shut down, money saved, education improved and the state cut out of education.

      1. The Labour Government is very happy to lose money by taxing private schools.

        This is not about money – it fuelled by envy and spite and is about dumbing down the population because a dumber population will be more likely to vote Labour. Another of their ploys is to remove discipline from schools as a school without proper discipline is a school where those who want to learn cannot do so. Ergo fewer well educated people – more votes for Labour.

        1. But they don't lose money, Rastus. They can just put their hand in your pocket and take as much as they like. So, no problem for them. Big problem for you.

  39. Labour cudda wudda shudda.. except they have zero intention because they are spiteful egalitarians. And if only The Spectator would attempt to do some half-decent journalism they would notice..

    Keir Starmer served as the editor of Socialist Alternatives, a Trotskyist radical magazine. The magazine was produced by an organization under the same name, which represented the British section of the International Revolutionary Marxist Tendency (IRMT).

    Peter Hitchens in his book the The Cameron Delusion observes the Tories have been duped into signing up to egalitarian euro-communism without knowing it. Because they are just too stupid, thanks to the destruction of a great education system, (going all the way back to Shakespeare) in the 60s.

    1. Careful – with that language you risk sounding as though you are on the plectrum.

  41. Medley
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/49e9d72102fc35753dbbe340d8dfec66b73ae2d2fa73c606866e7976df54e7dd.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1ebf779b3312317450f37faa9e6141c1da9203990735fc73814d1aeb00491b81.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ed572c5c41268d4c4fc6a4c5b74d1465b66b5aec3f4b1b475599d9eae8065400.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2d4ebf1af09e3e813da9a93c6558a29382982d7dd28408e518676a58b311c2b7.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/23da2b8c06174ad334761eb7ff7bae3e3c28502f709dc143a4b44826028d77ec.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4355641d8142e2ea87b2d62641ec281a6694aca16589989f61c21bfa64cbc8e2.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3d6f298e28600016a3209ba04f46ee024b6dd2887f659f7a78fa18c0f5f68cc9.jpg

    1. I don't give my money to 'the rich' I have it stolen from me by the state who give it to people who don't deserve it.

      We do invest. The problem is the same people who rob me set about destroying the reason to do so. We've a decent portfolio in oil and gas. Milioaf is driving it away from the UK. It will make it more valuable, but it's crushing our pension income.

  42. "Shoplifter who committed ‘tsunami of dishonesty on Olympian scale’ jailed for 10 years
    Narinder Kaur travelled all over the country getting refunds for goods she’d stolen totalling £500,000…

    … John Cooper KC, defending, said delays in the case should not be held against the defendant who had been suffering in prison with her mental health.

    “She has been a victim of bullying and racial abuse – it has not been easy,” he said."

    Ah yes. That well known mental affliction known as "BeingCaughtitis".

      1. If she is the one who occasionally appears on GB News she is a thoroughly muddle-headed and offensive woman.

        1. Yes, that one Rastus. A repellent ‘human’being who has made race hatred her career.

    2. Hang her then. She'd stop 'suffering' then. She didn't give much thought to the people she stole from, did she? We'd all like something for nothing. No doubt this welfare waster simply squealed 'waycism!' at every turn to get away with her criminality.

      Solve two problems. Get rid of her. Set a precedent. Castrate all the pakistani muslim paedophile rapists then hang them as well. Anyone with more than three convictions, just burn them out of prison. Why should the country b forced to suffer the continual criminality of serial offenders?

      1. Typical of someone who finds the most expensive HS2 way to do a public service!

        Rather than burdening the NHS with ever lengthening waiting lists for judicial castration, could you not combine your two remedies and train the hangman to tie the noose around the nuts, rather than the head?

        Calling them paedophiles is lazy and prejudicial. As I understand it, they prefer teenage kuffah, whom they can get drunk and are robust enough to pass around one's mates.

    1. They all will soon. It's the playbook Ignore the original problem, blame the 'Right'. Keep the narrative moving quickly away from the cause. Never mention it, never address it, just look at the 'now' and attack them.

    1. Referencing Roughcommon's post or the writers?

      In either case, it's a few paragraphs. Barely 2 minutes of reading time.

  47. And both of those fall prey to far stronger and much more intelligent carnivores.

  48. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/07/29/labour-party-may-have-doomed-tories-for-a-generation/

    S Thomas
    1 day ago
    A brave assertion that “this lot will be out in one term”. I believe it’s a longer haul than that. Let’s look at the facts:
    1. Despite the readership of this venerable publication thinking otherwise, the UK has majority voted for left-of-centre parties since the war. The UK is demonstrably *not* conservative.
    2. Given (1), why have we had any conservative Governments? A combination of first-past-the-post, and a split left (with majority voting even Mrs Thatcher would not have attained power). A united right could then, and did indeed, win power. The right is now also split – which is the Tories biggest problem. The *only* way they’ll re-attain power is to reconcile with Reform (and hope Labour don’t pass a bill for PR & votes for 16 year olds).

    This is not true. The UK is NOT Left wing.

    What's happened is as people have realised they can vote themselves more of other people's money they have done. As more has gone on welfare, so taxes have risen, thus as taxes have risen so more welfare has been demanded.

    It's a circular argument. The state has lumbered the country with ever more tax demands from gimmigrants so too have they sat on welfare and voted themselves more money, more 'rights' and more pandering.

    Equally the supranational organisations are populated by, bluntly; lefty fascists. There is not a Right wing senior civil servant nor Eurocrat, nor UN official. These failed communists and wasters, having found further useless employment then seek to exacerbate their own power which leads to ever more government, which means ever higher levels of tax and so around it goes.

    The UK is not Left wing. It has been forced that way. The facts of life are Conservative. The Left just want to destroy those.

    1. The U.K. public is definitely not left wing, we are an extremely tolerant and patient people (apathetic?j. You only have to consider what’s happened in Stockport where there has been, at last, unrest at those who must not be named, for the slaughter of 3 children. TWMNBN do as they please, when they please, where they please. Just as JSO, ER and others do (recent jailings are the exception).

      It is all part of the WEF/UN plan to, first, destabilise the population, second, dilute the indigenous and, three, crush subsequent civil unrest and riots with riot police. Outcome: Total control.

      There seems not a lot can be done to prevent it. Any suggestions?

  49. TEAM KEMI SLAM ‘BULLYING’ ARTICLE AS “TOTAL FISHING EXPEDITION”

    The Guardian has just published a stinging piece on Tory Leader hopeful Kemi Badenoch citing bullying allegations from a former SpAd. The article has reportedly been “months in the making”, and it appears Political Editor Pippa Crerar wasn’t shying away from asking former employees to dish dirt. Guido’s seen the text that has been sent to junior civil servants:

    https://i0.wp.com/order-order.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/WhatsApp-Image-2024-07-30-at-3.44.18-PM.jpeg?w=416&ssl=1

    The same text was sent to another civil servant, who is said to be “shaken-up” after the approach from the Guardian. A Badenoch ally says:

    “This is a total fishing expedition by the Guardian who have targeted young, female civil servants to try and unsettle them. The shamelessness of referencing the Raab hatchet-job just confirms how much of a reach the whole thing is.”

    Kemi’s claws will be out…

    1. You don't enter politics if you are a kind or gentle person. Indeed, the nastier you are the more qualified you are.

    2. A lot of Kemi Badenoch's popularity within her party, I suggest, stems for her well-known disdain for all things woke, coming from someone who herself meets a number of "protected" characteristics. I suspect KB feels patronised by those banging on about her Nigerian heritage and that even by the PM's definition that she is a woman, and would be the first to want to be judged on merit instead.

      Now, given the indoctrination current in our universities, it is entirely plausible that any disagreement over policy or approach would be considered a form of bullying, especially when the "victim" claims the consensus and the "abuser" is saying something unfashionably incorrect. The appropriate action is cancellation of the dissenting voice, so that it can be heard no longer in any safe space.

      Like the King, spads are there to advise and to warn; they are not there to set policy. If the minister disagrees with advice, then a Civil Servant must do the minister's bidding, whatever the misgivings, and special advisers, not governed by any ethical code, may go off in a sulk and spill the beans to the press.

    3. Would that be the Mrs Crerar who was educated privately at Glasgow Academy and whose husband is apparently a civil servant?

  50. To NonWokeChurch:
    In Labour World, all pensioners are relatively well-off Tories living in 4/5 bedroom (min) houses in crime-free parts of the country. They all have sizeable private pensions, eat well, routinely take foreign holidays, and so on. It's only fair that they pay to support the nation from which they stole their wealth.

    1. Sadly that is the Labour mindset. Their abject hatred is never ending. I remember my Nan not able to afford her heating and my dad paying for it. That was 30 years ago. Goodness knows what the situation is now for older folk.

  52. We are supposed to believe it is all the fault of the EDL. I think as things progress or devolve, depending on your perspective, we will discover that the EDL has magically ballooned into a massive organization consisting of hundreds of thousands of people.

    What really annoys me is that the authorities expect us to believe them but they do not have the decency to tell us the truth. Instead they conceal, prevaricate and outright lie. Then they expect our sympathies and cooperation.

    I have to say that the rioters were very careful. Did the rest of you notice that not one house or business window was shattered??

    1. I imagine the fascist Left will arrive there soon to cause trouble because they seem to love doing that just to ensure no one else can speak their minds.

      Although this time I think they'll meet their match and just be beaten to a pulp. Muslims have killed children – not for the first time though.

      I can't find it now but there was a funny picture of an antifa thug all dolled up and as soon as he lost his chums and was chased and pinned he was a pathetic coward who squealed like a girl. They're just scum.

  53. Good morning all. Thank you all for your good wishes for my 78th yesterday.

    Sitting in the garden a few minutes ago when there was rustling in the bushes and out popped a sparrow hawk. Gone in a flash

    1. Could you see if the hawk caught anything, Alf? I have pipistrelle bats under the roof slates here, have seen sparrow hawk come down early evening and take one. (Belated Happy Birthday btw, hope it was a good one 🙂

      1. Couldn’t see if it had caught anything. From the colour it was s female.
        Had a lovely birthday thank you, out to dinner last night.

        1. We’re always the most deadly, Alf (love that, my grandad’s name). Good to read your birthday a good ‘un, and dinner too! 🙂 I recently saw what turned out to be a juvenile sparrow hawk, flying at such low levels in the wood I could see it’s back/topside of wings a slate blue. Fab. Usually only see them at height.

          1. One of our best memories is being up in the Col de Turini (yer France) and looking DOWN on a pair of golden eagles that were flying about and hunting.

    3. I had a squirrel on the roof of my studio. That went up into next door's tree quick as a flash.

  54. Pictured: ‘Curious kiss’ between Macron and French sports minister

    Photos of Amélie Oudéa-Castéra’s close embrace of the president have sparked controversy

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/07/30/pictured-curious-kiss-macron-and-french-sports-minister/

    CS

    Colin Sewell
    10 min ago
    it's nice to find an article on the front page where comments are allowed.
    Southport, Southend on Sea, Huw Edwards nothing allowed.
    DT and our media being forced to conceal the truth as we are now waking up to the reality of what has happened to this sceptred isle
    ps who cares who Macron kisses?

      1. From Coffee House, the Spectator

        Huw Edwards pleads guilty to making indecent images of children
        Share 31 July 2024, 10:51am
        To the case of ex-BBC presenter Huw Edwards, who this morning has pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images of children. The former TV star appeared at Westminster magistrates’ court earlier today, after facing three charges over WhatsApp images shared between December 2020 and April 2022.

        The former Six O’Clock News host was suspended from the Beeb in July 2023 after sex scandal allegations emerged. He was arrested in November and charged in June. It transpires he had 41 images on his messaging app WhatsApp – seven category A pictures, 12 category B and 22 category C. Of the most serious kind, category A, the court heard the images were of children aged between 13 and 15 years old. The offences carry a maximum jail sentence of 10 years.

        Edwards became a household name with his work on the BBC, having presented the News at Ten for 20 years and covered the death and funeral of Queen Elizabeth II. Just last week it emerged with the publication of the BBC’s annual account that the journalist was paid between £475,000 and £479,999 last year – receiving a £40,000 pay rise despite not working for most of that time. Will he now pay it back?

    1. We told our boys when they were growing up that if you tell lies people will not believe you even when you are telling the truth.

      We are being lied to so often by the MSM and the PTB that is it now almost impossible to know what to believe. There is something very chilling about the fact that our response to the murder of innocent little girls has to be managed.

  56. The self-annihilation of a too-clever-for-its-own-good species.

    The earth and it's resources are of an infinite size. It is the only planet, known, that supports a vast variety of life forms, much of it intelligent life. This earth is capable of supporting a massive number of diverse species of living things (plants, animals, fungi, etc) that all inter-react and live off one another in a complete biological harmony.

    Just one species, unfortunately, had risen its numbers — during a span of over eight million years — to 2·5 billion individuals by the time I was born in 1951. That obscene number has now — insanely — more than tripled within my own minuscule lifespan of just over 70 years!

    It is a fundamental tenet of physics (Newton's Third Law of Motion) that "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction." I have long opined that this abomination (gross human overpopulation) is unsustainable and that it will not be long before the dam bursts.

    The cracks are clearly evident and are getting wider by the second. The WEF and UN have long been aware of this and their ongoing ministrations are what I predicted many moons ago.

    Mankind: an unbelievably clever, but irredeemably stupid organism has sown the seeds for its own self-annihilation. I could write a tome on the subject: problem is, there will be — very soon — no one left to ready the bloody thing.

    1. Good morning Grizzly and everyone.
      Possible typing error: million/billion. The rat population has also increased.

      1. I’m sorry, Sean, but I find that dirge awful, banal and utterly drivel on so many different levels.

  57. The teenager held over the Southport stabbings has been described as an introvert who loved karate as a child but had rarely left the house on his own in recent times.

    The 17-year-old youth, one of two brothers born in Cardiff to Rwandan parents, was arrested by Merseyside police on Monday evening and held on suspicion of murder and attempted murder.

    The stabbing frenzy at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class for girls left three children dead, five in a critical condition and three more.

    Former neighbours described the suspect as a “quiet” boy who had been clingy with his mother as a child, in contrast with his elder brother, a few years older, who was “wilder and more boisterous”.

    “In all the time I have lived here, I have never spoken to the lad … I’ve never seen him out on his own,” a neighbour said. “I think I’ve probably only ever seen him on two or three occasions.”

    The suspect’s parents, a taxi driver and budding entrepreneur, and a stay-at-home mother, were a “nice, normal” couple who left Rwanda for a better life in the UK in 2002, neighbours said.

    The children, born in the years afterwards, were enrolled at schools in Wales and as a youngster the suspect and his father trained in karate with the teacher Chico Mbakwe, 79, who remembered a “typical, normal five-year-old” with “lots of energy”.

    https://www.thetimes.com/uk/crime/article/southport-stabbing-suspect-z5x5dvm83

    Dare I say , radicalised by virtue of his solitude and computer?

    1. Many of these young mass killers have been medicated- Ritalin or Adderall but this aspect is not given the scrutiny it needs. Of course, this individual may not have been prescribed these drugs but they are a common denominator in the USA.

    3. …. "A taxi driver and budding entrepreneur" ……
      H'mmmmmm. Ponders deeply.

    1. If all this shit is just the French being French then why wasn't there any of it at the 1924 Paris Olympics. Methinks Eric Liddell wouldn't just decline to run on a Sunday, if he saw this lot.

  59. Grizzly, both you and the WEF are latecomers to the party. Since the 1960s the global fertility rate has dropped from about 5.5 to below the replacement rate of 2. The UN used to have an impressive interactive graph of the rate for every country – it may still have it…. If it were not for immigration the UK's population would be dropping. In Japan young men it appears have lost interest in sex and the population is dropping, as it is drastically across the former Soviet Union. Unlike you, I have for more than 20 years been predicting a major die-out during this century, even without the bug-eyed eugenicists.

    It remains to be seen whether this is the result of environmental pollution or other factors, but mankind is dropping in numbers without the help of evil men.

    1. The 'global fertility rate' may well have dropped in the 1960s, Joss, but the irrefutable fact remains that — notwithstanding those 'statistics' — the human population was 2·5 billion humans when I was born and, right now, it is over 8 billion individuals and still rising, rapidly!

      Just peruse this: https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/

    2. Interesting , but hasn't this always been so, populations decrease then increase .

      War and plague, epidemics etc are part of our survival .

      Our great grandparents had large families , first WW and epidemics claimed many lives .

      Our grandparents survived and continued to contribute to industry/ emigrate /

      Our parents were not from large families as people realised the costs, and the great depression before WW2 broke out ..

      Some of us here are postwar babies , now referred to as baby boomers , and thanks to birth control and the ability to work , save and buy a home , own a car etc was brilliant .

      We only need a huge recharge of the population because governments allowed other cultures to migrate here , why I just cannot comprehend.. We were doing very nicely , and Brits could just walk into jobs .

      Now because the population has grown so much by about 30 million in under eighty years , because foreigners cannot get to grips with contraception and because they are awarded free money , homes etc etc .

      Healthcare has gone to hell on a hand cart , our roads are congested , our water supply i polluted and we have one God almighty problem with people who dislike us .

      1. There is a correlation between wealth and fertility. In the underdeveloped world people have as many children as they can, its an insurance policy for survival. As wealth increases the need for children to toil, use as insurance decreases. The world is getting wealthier as a whole, hence less children needed.

          1. That is the trend. The incredible shrinking family. I only have one grandchild although I have a son and daughter.

          2. My grandfather, a Devonshire GP, had eleven children because he felt the world was in need of better people.

            Now the better people have decided not to to breed while the inferior ones breed like rabbits.

        2. I saw a study a while ago that showed a direct inverse correlation between the level of education of a woman and the number of children she has. So, the solution is: EDucate females, and they'll have fewer babies.

      1. Truly fascinating. The last time I looked at the UN metrics more than 10 years ago they were distinctly different, and they are showing us now as having current global value at 2.3 which is significantly higher. I will have a look to see what I have archived, and ping you if I find the material. As the UN is run these days by people who want us to catastrophise on such matters my tinfoil hat is twitching slightly….

        What remains stark is the drop from 5.5 in the sixties and the evidence of population drop as crisis management requirement in an increasing number of countries. I was charmed – do you remember? – by the Russians giving workers Thursday evening off some years ago to promote breeding couples.

      2. "Density" – that's a good one. There are SO MANY very dense people in politics and in positions of responsibility…

  60. Robin Warren, pathologist who identified the true cause of most stomach ulcers – obituary
    He and Barry Marshall won a Nobel prize for their work on the bacterium, Helicobacter pylori

    Robin Warren, who has died aged 87, was an Australian pathologist who shared the 2005 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with his colleague Barry Marshall for their discovery of a bacterium, Helicobacter pylori, and identifying it as a major cause of stomach inflammations and ulcers.

    Their breakthrough came about not as a result of complex scientific research, but from old-fashioned medical detective work. As a result of their efforts, however, ulcers are now commonly treated with antibiotics, plus drugs to control the production of acid in the stomach or heal any damage done by the ulcer.

    For decades – centuries even – doctors believed that stomach ulcers were caused by stress, spicy foods or too much acid, so treated them with antacids and dietary changes. In 1981, however, Warren, a pathologist at the Royal Perth Hospital who was studying stomach biopsies, noticed inflammation in areas with colonies of small, curved bacteria in about 50 per cent of patients from whom biopsies had been taken.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2024/07/29/robin-warren-nobel-ulcers-helicobacter-obituary/

    What an amazing man . RIP

    1. Yes, quite so. Plus of course demonstrating that true science isn't a question of creating some model in mathematics then running it forward. It consists of observation and logic.

    2. " " Everybody believed there were no bacteria in the stomach. When I said they were there, no-one believed it.”

      To prove the point, in 1985 Marshall drank a Petri dish of bacterial broth to show that the presence of H pylori in people with ulcers was no coincidence. A week later, after suffering stomach pain, nausea and vomiting, he underwent an endoscopy, which showed the distinctive spiral-shaped bacteria crowding around the inflammation in his stomach. His wife urged him to get treatment – which he did, and after a short course of antibiotics he was cured.

      Even so, it took around a decade for others to fully accept their findings."

      1. A perfect example of how "those who knew" had decided the science was settled.

        He was one who didn't know, yet he turned the science on its head.

          1. Because it’s more modern it is better than one of my usual retorts:

            The settled science was that the sun revolved around the earth, and you could be in serious trouble if you suggested otherwise.

    1. It's quite indecent the way politicians treat us, especially Lie-bour. Reeves admitted today that taxes going up, but still trying to lie like Pinocchio that in fact this represents them sticking to the manifesto commitment. They've already taxed pensioners £200-£300 per year this week and yet Sir Kneelalot still trying to claim his is the party that protects them.
      .
      Labour tell barefaced lies > people don't trust government > riots in Southport. Go figure. The trouble is that politicians cannot put two and two together. Their response will be to do a collective harrumph, before telling the BBC that they're going to "restore trust in politics". Then of course they'll come out with more abuse.

      1. The WFP paid for most of a tank of oil – £200 for me and £300 for him as he's over 80. We'll survive but it does make me angry. We have a good supply of logs for the wood burner so we'll manage. Till they ban wood burners.

        1. A bunch of smug London Establishment troughers saying that most pensioners don't need the WFP really makes me angry. If they feel that they don't need theirs – then give it away to someone who does!

        2. Yes quite, it is the equivalent of tax, since it's become standard winter issue. Also it was brought in when prices were rising. Prices are rising still, so it's a double whammy. Nice to know the "nice" party is in now.

          Mine's technically "multi fuel". I've got a feeling I won't be complying with that legislation for some reason…

  63. Interesting. It doesn't mention that he was thoroughly opposed to the treatment for Covid and that he was a proponent of Ivermectin as the best treatment.

      1. What he did in his later years was interesting. He researched old medications for new problems. It is how he discovered that Ivermectin was the most effective treatment for Covid. In trail runs none of his patients died and non had to be put on respiratory machines.

    1. I don't 'fall' for any propaganda; I examine the facts. How on earth can a population 'plummet' to six billion? Even one billion is an abomination for a planet the size of ours.

      I am in no doubt, whatsoever, that the twin evils of mind control — religion and politics — are behind this crass and exponential rise in human numbers … and their stupidity.

      1. It can plummet to 6 billion and be quite comfortable. There is more than enough room for that with millions upon millions of acres returned to the natural state. It is already being done. That is the same population that the earth had in 1999. It was hardly catastophic.

        1. Those people who think that a human population of six billion, on such a small planet — especially when an essential biodiversity of countless other living things need to co-exist on that planet — are part of the problem.

  66. Southport mob used attack for ‘own political purposes’, says MP. 31 July 2024.

    A mob of hundreds of people in Southport used the “death of three little kiddies” for their “own political purposes”, the MP for the Merseyside town has said.

    Patrick Hurley accused “beered-up thugs” of disrespecting the families of three girls, aged six, seven and nine, who were killed in a knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed holiday club on Monday.

    Mr Hurley, who was elected as the Labour MP for Southport earlier this month, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “These were thugs who got the train in, these were not the people from Southport.

    Ah. This one is a real Gordon Brown lookalike. He'll be a Minister within a couple of years

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/07/31/southport-mob-children-attack-political-purposes/

    1. This is not a time for divisive politics..
      time for healing..
      thoughts & prayers..
      lessons to be learned..

      Then business as usual coming to every parish & shire across the land.

    3. Funny how Labour men have adopted severe haircuts and Nazi style intimidating spectacles .

      I think that Labour are now using a joyless authoritarian facade , very left wing , and will do their utmost to deny the indigenous occupants of this sceptered isle the right to show disapproval .

      Yet if there was a black riot , oh yes so different .

    4. Southport rioters will feel ‘full force of the law’, says Starmer..

      which version? the compassionate teletubbies, or the twelve-man SWAT team.

  70. Astute BLT comment"

    "The only thing a CBDC protects you from is Free Speech, Free Thought or Independent action."

  71. So – have I got this right?

    Any white person who murders a person faces life imprisonment.

    Any black person who murders a person always has "mental issues" and is sent to a comfy hospital.

    O Brave New World….

  72. St Huw of Pornoland pleads guilty. "Faces 10 years".

    A cynic writes: I do NOT believe he'll be banged up ("Clearly suffered from mental crisis").

    Nor will he be required to repay the extra £40,000 "pay" he received while being under the doctor for "mental crisis". BBC Liar says that their hands are tied – his contract so provided…..

  74. A statement from the Dinner Lady suggests that pensioners who cannot afford to do without the Winter Fuel Allowance have obviously inefficient financial advisers and poor stockbrokers. "What on earth have they done with their tens of thousands of life savings?" she asked.

    1. I think I’m going to faint! The myth that all boomers own million pound houses and have access to pensions people nowadays can only dream of is well established in the mainstream media.
      Most boomers have nothing of the sort and like all other generations, the majority were never in a position to make sure they could take advantage of the situation at that time.

  75. An unspoken scandal.

    The BBC (radio) spends more than one hundred million pounds each year for incidental and background music – most of it irritating and annoyingly loud, sometimes louder than the speech it is accompanying and completely unnecessary. It is almost certainly just another means of transferring licence payer's money to their friends, associates an their own bank accounts.

    Sack the lot and close down the BBC.

  76. 390584+ up ticks,

    The absurd plot to turn a tiny Scottish island into an Islamic state
    London-based preacher Sheikh Yasser al-Habib wanted to create a “homeland” for his followers – but his intentions were met with anger

    The cheeky sheiky wanted to create an extension to his current homeland ( london) is nearer the truth as a good area percentage of the United Kingdom is already under islamic domination thanks to the lab/lib/con continuing voting pattern.

    He surely could be seen as far sighted in regards to the Dover daily intake of potential foreign troops, as in fast tracking them NORTH to the homeland hub, the islamics new UK operating
    headquaters.

    Ps,
    twenty five years ago It would have been judged absurd to have 2500 mosques in England.

    1. When I did jury service one of the cases was a young man dealing in drugs. Bags of cannabis were passed to us as exhibits. The expressions on the faces of some of the jurors was priceless. Having to pass on and give back was quite a wrench and it showed!

  80. it's a show of intent that the new elite will ignore..
    here's a X message exchange from last year..

    "been thinking if we British Muslims move to Wales we'd easily make a majority, the population there is so low. One referendum for independence and we'd have our own nation."

    1. Then turn it into an Islamic hell-hole. Mind you, Labour have been busy screwing up Wales for some time, so it might be an improvement.

    2. 390584+ up ticks,

      Afternoon Kb,

      🎵
      There’ll be a beheading every morning when you come home again to Wales.

    3. The English would have to invade Wales again. And the Welsh won't be grateful…

  82. Blimey.. GBR just one gold medal away from knocking China off top spot in medal table.

    1. 1908, the Great Stadium, Shepherd’s Bush
      Medal winners
      {All lines appear in the format we give for GB but for ease of reading we have abbreviated this format for the other countries.}
      Great Britain: 56 gold, 51 silver, 38 bronze {didn't we do well?}
      US of America: 23, 12, 12
      Sweden: 8, 6, 11
      France: 5, 5, 9
      Germany: 3, 5, 6
      Hungary: 3, 4, 2
      Canada: 3, 3, 10
      Norway: 2, 3, 3
      Italy: 2, 2, 0
      Belgium: 1, 5, 2
      Australasia: 1, 2, 2
      Russia: 1, 2, 0
      Finland: 1, 1, 3
      South Africa: 1, 1, 0
      Greece: 0, 2, 3
      Bohemia: 0, 0, 2
      Netherlands: 0, 0, 2
      Austria: 0, 0, 1
      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5df65004f58568866365adb1ce66d60b265b97eada7bb71e1fe1505f69ee205a.jpg

    2. Who cares what happens at the satanic olympics?
      After the opening ceremony, we've now had a man beating up a woman as a spectator sport, approved by the establishment. Not forgetting the paedophile who is competing. The olympics should just die.

    3. Who cares what happens at the satanic olympics?
      After the opening ceremony, we've now had a man beating up a woman as a spectator sport, approved by the establishment. Not forgetting the paedophile who is competing. The olympics should just die.

  83. Blimey.. GBR just one gold medal away from knocking China off top spot in medal table.

  85. Morning all 🙂😊
    Just back from the optometrist department.
    Three lots of different eye drops three times a day for around 6 weeks.
    I can't see very well at the moment.
    But, after the riot at Southport I hope the lying scumbags and disgusting cheats in Wastemonster start to take notice of public opinion.
    Let's, give them 4 years of hell.

    1. See we are not allowed to comment on any of this in the telegraph.
      Makes you wonder why they bother with a comment section

      1. Of course it was when the DT stopped its Comments Section that The Nottlers Forum got going.

        I used to use – and still do use – my nom-de-plume when I posted comments under DT articles. Rastus C. Tastey was a sobriquet some friends gave me when I was at UEA and it seemed a good name to use when posting comments. Anybody who knows me can penetrate the disguise and indeed, a well-establish Nottler who knows me emailed me to suggest that I visited this site.

      2. I stopped buying news papers years ago. These days there is always an alternative. But I don’t think the editors have noticed. Their heads are collectively in the wrong place.

    2. My eldest son told someone "Dad doesn't look too good" – in reference to my eyesight rather than level of pulchritude… I hope.

      1. Anywhere, as long as it's not near their own homes.

        As for infrastructure -pah, let them drink the water in the streams that others have p!ssed in, let them heat themselves by burning busses and cars.

      2. Anywhere, as long as it's not near their own homes.

        As for infrastructure -pah, let them drink the water in the streams that others have p!ssed in, let them heat themselves by burning busses and cars.

  88. Small boats data
    This page shows figures for the last 7 days for irregular migrants attempting to cross the English Channel in small boats without permission to enter the UK.

    Date Migrants arrived Boats arrived Boats involved in uncontrolled landings Notes
    24 July 2024 0 0 0
    25 July 2024 0 0 0
    26 July 2024 0 0 0
    27 July 2024 370 6 0
    28 July 2024 255 4 0
    29 July 2024 255 4 0
    30 July 2024 130 2 0

    1. They are too stupid to realise that they are arriving just as the host is going bankrupt and the party's about to end. The lands of opportunity these days are in the east – and they won't be letting losers in any time soon.
      Or they have already been recruited in a supranational army, take your pick

      1. Like vultures they still come to gnaw the last piece of flesh from the corpse that was our lovely country.

  90. The Tribe That Lost Its Head

    Nicholas Monsarrat

    Five hundred miles off the southwest coast of Africa lies the island of Pharamaul, a British Protectorate, governed from Whitehall through a handful of devoted British civilians. In the south of the island lies Port Victoria, dominated by the Governor’s palatial mansion; in the north, a settlement of mud huts shelter a hundred thousand natives; and in dense jungle live the notorious Maula tribe, kept under surveillance by a solitary District Officer and his young wife. When Chief-designate, Dinamaula, returns from his studies in England with a spirited desire to speed the development of his people, political crisis erupts into a ferment of intrigue and violence.

    Richer than All His Tribe

    Nicholas Monsarrat

    The sequel to The Tribe That Lost Its Head is a compelling story which charts the steady drift of a young African nation towards bankruptcy, chaos and barbarism. On the island of Pharamaul, a former British Protectorate, newly installed Prime Minister, Chief Dinamaula, celebrates Independence Day with his people, full of high hopes for the future. But the heady euphoria fades and Dinamaula's ambitions and ideals start to buckle as his new found wealth corrupts him, leaving his nation to spiral towards hellish upheaval and tribal warfare.

  91. Last night's episode of Rumpole saw him sitting in the Dining Car of a GWR train to Devon. The expected menu was much diminished and no British Rail Claret was available. Turning to the crossword, he pondered the first clue "One Across: First course for coloured Royals (5,7)"…."Aha, Brown Windsor"

  95. We did similar on the Isle of Mull some years ago – only one eagle but flying up the valley below us.

  96. Hi wondering where white privilege has gone. We are supposed to be the ones who have society running for our benefit, yet a million excuses are made for black and Muslims if they commit a crime and get violent or throw “hate speech “ round and plod is told to show empathy. Laws are changed at a moments notice for small sections of the community without a thought as to the unintended consequences.
    Any time a white personal objects, they are either branded as a far right bigot or told to shut up and stop annoying the “community”.
    Being squashed down to nothing, with the lives of your children and old people being sacrificed to the greater good and your young adults having to give way to people just because they are the wrong colour reminds me of something?!!
    Oh yes! It’s what the same groups want reparations for, colonialism verging on slavery.
    Hey white people, you are now the ni**** in your own country and your government hates you.
    That worked out well didn’t it?

  97. Hi wondering where white privilege has gone. We are supposed to be the ones who have society running for our benefit, yet a million excuses are made for black and Muslims if they commit a crime and get violent or throw “hate speech “ round and plod is told to show empathy. Laws are changed at a moments notice for small sections of the community without a thought as to the unintended consequences.
    Any time a white personal objects, they are either branded as a far right bigot or told to shut up and stop annoying the “community”.
    Being squashed down to nothing, with the lives of your children and old people being sacrificed to the greater good and your young adults having to give way to people just because they are the wrong colour reminds me of something?!!
    Oh yes! It’s what the same groups want reparations for, colonialism verging on slavery.
    Hey white people, you are now the ni**** in your own country and your government hates you.
    That worked out well didn’t it?

    1. Over the course or nearly three millennia the white European races built the greatest civilisations the world has ever seen. Apparently we're to blame for the failure of the rest. The clear evidence that they failed and continue to fail by their own shortcomings is to be buried wherever possible and our civilisation is to be destroyed for all but the small greedy and power hungry cabal responsible for the destruction.

        1. Well it's true that they want us to rise up and fight so that they can use greater force to crush us. The aim is to make the collective beg for communism as the lesser of the evils and accept the massive death toll that always involves.

          The answer has to be a firm NO and passive resistance is useless. Take heart and remember that Jan Sobieski and his Winged Hussars were outnumbered four to one by the Ottoman Turks but they had absolute faith and won the battle. Fear is a sin and if we're demoralised, the battle will certainly be lost.

          1. I stand with you in that, but it’s so bloody hard!
            I wonder if it was this bad, psychologically I mean, for people in the blitz.

          2. The people in the Blitz had shared comradeship. They were, pretty much, all in it together. They were also, as someone commented to me recently, much more resilient than today's generations.

          3. I stand with you in that, but it’s so bloody hard!
            I wonder if it was this bad, psychologically I mean, for people in the blitz.

      2. The Native-Born

        We've drunk to the Queen—God bless her!—
        We’ve drunk to our mothers’ land;
        We’ve drunk to our English brother
        (But he does not understand);
        We’ve drunk to the wide creation,
        And the Cross swings low for the morn;
        Last toast, and of obligation,
        A health to the Native-born!

        They change their skies above them,
        But not their hearts that roam!
        We learned from our wistful mothers
        To call old England “home”;
        We read of the English skylark,
        Of the spring in the English lanes,
        But we screamed with the painted lories
        As we rode on the dusty plains!

        They passed with their old-world legends—
        Their tales of wrong and dearth—
        Our fathers held by purchase,
        But we by the right of birth;
        Our heart’s where they rocked our cradle,
        Our love where we spent our toil,
        And our faith and our hope and our honour
        We pledge to our native soil!

        I charge you charge your glasses—
        I charge you drink with me
        To the men of the Four New Nations,
        And the Islands of the Sea—
        To the last least lump of coral
        That none may stand outside,
        And our own good pride shall teach us
        To praise our comrade’s pride!

        To the hush of the breathless morning
        On the thin, tin, crackling roofs,
        To the haze of the burned back-ranges
        And the dust of the shoeless hoofs—
        To the risk of a death by drowning,
        To the risk of a death by drouth—
        To the men of a million acres,
        To the Sons of the Golden South!

        To the Sons of the Golden South (Stand up!),
        And the life we live and know,
        Let a fellow sing o’ the little things he cares about,
        If a fellow fights for the little things he cares about
        With the weight of a single blow!

        To the smoke of a hundred coasters,
        To the sheep on a thousand hills,
        To the sun that never blisters,
        To the rain that never chills—
        To the land of the waiting spring-time,
        To our five-meal, meat-fed men,
        To the tall, deep-bosomed women,
        And the children nine and ten!

        And the children nine and ten (Stand up!),
        And the life we live and know,
        Let a fellow sing o’ the little things he cares about,
        If a fellow fights for the little things he cares about
        With the weight of a two-fold blow!

        To the far-flung fenceless prairie
        Where the quick cloud-shadows trail,
        To our neighbour’s barn in the offing
        And the line of the new-cut rail;
        To the plough in her league-long furrow
        With the gray Lake gulls behind—
        To the weight of a half-year’s winter
        And the warm wet western wind!

        To the home of the floods and thunder,
        To her pale dry healing blue—
        To the lift of the great Cape combers,
        And the smell of the baked Karroo.
        To the growl of the sluicing stamp-head—
        To the reef and the water-gold,
        To the last and the largest Empire,
        To the map that is half unrolled!

        To our dear dark foster-mothers,
        To the heathen songs they sung—
        To the heathen speech we babbled
        Ere we came to the white man’s tongue.
        To the cool of our deep verandas—
        To the blaze of our jewelled main,
        To the night, to the palms in the moonlight,
        And the fire-fly in the cane!

        To the hearth of our people’s people—
        To her well-ploughed windy sea,
        To the hush of our dread high-altar
        Where The Abbey makes us We;
        To the grist of the slow-ground ages,
        To the gain that is yours and mine—
        To the Bank of the Open Credit,
        To the Power-house of the Line!

        We’ve drunk to the Queen—God bless her!—
        We’ve drunk to our mothers’ land;
        We’ve drunk to our English brother
        (And we hope he’ll understand).
        We’ve drunk as much as we’re able,
        And the Cross swings low for the morn;
        Last toast—and your foot on the table!—
        A health to the Native-born!

        A health to the Native-born (Stand up!),
        We’re six white men arow,
        All bound to sing o’ the little things we care about,
        All bound to fight for the little things we care about
        With the weight of a six-fold blow!
        By the might of our cable-tow (Take hands!),
        From the Orkneys to the Horn,
        All round the world (and a little loop to pull it by),
        All round the world (and a little strap to buckle it),
        A health to the Native-born!

        Rudyard Kipling, 1894.

      1. A gormless man walks into a book shop and speaks to the shopkeeper.

        Gormless man: "Do you have a copy of the book, 'An inept man's guide to successful seduction'?"
        Shopkeeper: "It's not in yet."
        Gormless man: "Yes, that's the one."

  100. In which case that could be construed as an act by him that caused the employer to lose money, and part of his pension can be forfeited. It is one of the very few reasons that pension can be touched.

  101. Prescient Kipling poem called "The Beginnings"

    It was not part of their blood,
    It came to them very late
    With long arrears to make good,
    When the English began to hate.

    They were not easily moved,
    They were icy-willing to wait
    Till every count should be proved,
    Ere the English began to hate.

    Their voices were even and low,
    Their eyes were level and straight.
    There was neither sign nor show,
    When the English began to hate.

    It was not preached to the crowd,
    It was not taught by the State.
    No man spoke it aloud,
    When the English began to hate.

    It was not suddenly bred,
    It will not swiftly abate,
    Through the chill years ahead,
    When Time shall count from the date
    That the English began to hate.

    1. Additional verse should include the lines

      "but the idiots who thought that Boris offered reform, freedom, and security, realised far too late, by late 2024, that an irreversible threshold had been passed. If only they had gathered their forces whilst they were young, 30 years earlier …. Now, it increasingly involves planning the grandchildren escapes …

  102. A poem I know well and very appropriate for current times but I think "hate" is perhaps too strong a word. Replace it with "anger" and in my view it is much closer to the truth.

    1. Caution needed when seeing this kind of post. A comment BTL says the photo is of a man accused of an attack in Ireland last year.

  105. I disagree. Kipling was correct. Hate is the emotion most people rightly feel about how they are being treated.

    Anyone who threatens my life, I utterly and completely hate him/her/it.

    1. I take it that More Info Required does not like my point of view. It seems that an increase on downvoting is occurring on this 'friendly' forum.

  107. Well I certainly prefer this forum.
    Are you an east Anglian now? Or did you just pass through on your degree course?

  108. As you understand, I wouldn't even qualify as a pub lawyer. As the defendant has pleaded guilty, is one now allowed to comment?

      1. The Protection of Children Act 1978 does not refer to 'images' but to photographs and 'pseudo-photographs'.
        Whilst I disapprove of any unacceptable acts or illegal behaviour or abuse by any adults towards children, there is a risk that St Huw was prosecuted simply pour encourager les autres. He may have become involved in a flirtation or relationship with a younger man, who then sent him unsolicited digital messages containing pornography. Until one opens a Whatsapp message on screen, it is difficult to view all the content, only the first lines. After viewing the contents, one can press the delete button instantly and all day long, but the systems would record that you received that parcel of data. His only hope would have been to denounce his young male friend to the authorities on Day One, but that's a matter of conscience. The original sender of the images should also be prosecuted; a lot of trackable data is contained within the 'jpeg', so it would just be a matter of conscience for the CPS.
        Incidentally, those Nottlers old enough to recall the Cold War might be interested to know that 'members' of the security service, SIS and GCHQ are permitted to make and possess indecent photographs of children in the line of duty, perhaps in order to be able to place pressure on foreign diplomats etc. (Textual amendments …1B Exception for criminal proceedings, investigations etc)

  109. Testing my new photo on this site. I hope it works as my it knowledge is zero to the power of my overdraft!

  110. Freddy Gray
    The truth about Kamalamania
    30 July 2024, 10:18am

    In a society that worships the self, identity politics is a very powerful force. We see this now in Kamalamania – the dizzying speed with which the vice-president and presumptive Democratic nominee has been turned, through mass acclamation, from national embarrassment to Democratic saviour.

    The fact that Harris’s transfiguration doesn’t make much sense is sort of the point – the more improbable it seems the better. We are memetic creatures, especially in the digital age, and the meme of the moment is that Harris has magically invigorated the Democratic base and turned the 2024 US presidential election around in their party’s favour. It’s quasi-religious in that you don’t have to believe you just have to repeat the message until you accept.

    Nobody who has seen Harris speak believes that she is the next coming of Barack Obama, but many millions of people will now express faith in the sudden excitement around her campaign because they want to believe in the idea of Harris, a mixed-race woman, delivering them from what they see as the horror of Donald Trump. For many, Harris’s past failings, her incoherent record as a politician, can all be forgotten in an instant. A select few, meanwhile, can claim to have had faith in her all along.

    Cornell Belcher, the Democratic pollster, put his finger on the key point for Harris earlier this year. In describing her appeal to young black women, he said: ‘Younger girls kind of see her in a way that younger African Americans saw Barack Obama: This too can happen, there too can I be.

    ‘It’s beyond politics, it’s beyond cultural, it’s a spiritual thing…from a political standpoint, that s*** is gold.’ In other words, logic is irrelevant. How Harris looks, her skin colour and her sex, trumps all. It’s the identity, stupid.

    Will Kamalamania last until the election is over? It might. The identity tribes of modern America are now coalescing around her in impressive numbers: on the Sunday Joe Biden dropped out, 40,000 black women joined an organising call for her campaign. The next night, 20,000 black men did the same. On Thursday, not to be out done, 40,000 ‘White women for Kamala’ joined at such speed that the Zoom livestream crashed. The New York Times called it ‘a paroxysm of solidarity and angst’. And yesterday, more than 60,000 ‘White dudes for Harris’ joined in. It’s one nation anti-Trump, if you don’t count the many millions of other Americans who believe in the Donald.

    Last night, we also saw what Joe Biden’s purpose in this election is to be, as he delivered another humiliatingly bad speech to mark the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act. The crowd laughed generously as he went through his tiresome stories about campaigning for the Senate in the 1970s. At one point, he seemed to refer to himself as ‘a former president’ – a telling slip.

    Republicans and others now complain that, if Biden is unfit to run, he is unfit to serve as leader of the free world. But in the Democratic worldview that’s beside the point. Biden is the Distracter-in-Chief now. His clear and present dysfunction will serve as a reminder to Americans of why they are better off with Harris, who can at least use a Teleprompter without reading off the ‘end quote’ instructions.

    In this way, Biden and Harris have switched roles. For the last four years, Harris, with her ‘word salads’ and her disastrous interviews, has fulfilled the primary duty of a vice-president – to make the big guy look better. All that time, one of the main arguments for keeping Biden was that Harris’s performances showed she would be worse than he is. That’s all changed now. Biden is now the decrepit yang to the Harris campaign’s energetic yin. She doesn’t have to govern, she just has to run.

    Until election day, she will now be stage-managed as tightly as Biden has been throughout his term. Her off-the-cuff remarks will be kept to a minimum, her public interactions limited. Because if ‘this too can happen, there too can I be.’

    Watch more like this on SpectatorTV:

    https://youtu.be/RLA5vBmnC1o

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

    MrCreosote
    a day ago
    This is merely another manifestation of the frightening power of the deep state – having botched the assassination of Donald Trump they now revert to their ownership of the MSM to convince gullible (mainly) women that Harris can be the new puppet….

    Sossidge
    a day ago
    Kamalamania does not exist.

    What does exist is the MSM saying that Kamalamania exists.

    Jingleballix
    a day ago
    The Democrat establishment is creating strategic mirages:

    1. Harris is wonderfully competent

    2. Harris is beating Trump in the polls

    3. Harris is super-competitive and has everything it takes to beat Trump

    ………only she has NONE of these things……..she is an incompetent fraud…….

    These mirages offer unalloyed proof that they are intent on stealing the election.

  111. Steerpike
    Listen: BBC say Haniyeh considered a ‘moderate’ Hamas leader
    31 July 2024, 12:45pm

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/GettyImages-95423945.jpg
    Uh oh. The BBC has come under fire once again after listeners took umbrage with Radio 4’s news reporting this morning. News came today that the political leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, was killed in an Israeli attack after a strike hit a building in Iran – just hours after Israel claimed to have killed a senior Hezbollah militant in Lebanon. Iran has vowed to get revenge for Haniyeh’s death as fears about escalation in the Middle East grow, while US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has insisted: ‘This is something we were not aware of or involved in’.

    Yet despite Haniyeh’s longstanding involvement and senior position in the Hamas terror group, the BBC’s Today programme chose to report that:

    Ismail Haniyeh had been overseeing talks on a new ceasefire and hostage release deal. Despite his tough rhetoric he was generally seen by analysts as moderate and pragmatic compared to the more hardline Gaza-based leaders.

    It echoed language used by Reuters and Sky News on the matter – but that hasn’t stopped it ruffling feathers. The impartial Beeb might have made more of the fact that not only did Haniyeh become a key target for Israel after the 7 October attack, but that he himself insisted that there was a ‘need’ for deaths in Gaza to ‘ignite…the spirit of revolution’ amongst Hamas fighters. In the same rant, made last October, the militant leader went on to add:

    The blood [spilled] in the Gaza Strip…will defeat this occupier, will defeat this enemy… As I said, and I repeat every time, the blood of the children, women, and elderly – I do not say that it shouts out to you, but rather we need this blood so that it will ignite within us the spirit of revolution, so that it will arouse within us persistence, so that it will arouse within us defiance and [a forward] advance.

    Is this what ‘tough’ talk and ‘moderate’ passes for these days?!

    https://youtu.be/ppVGNogcn44

    1. She also asked "Why did the Israelis target a moderate leader?" He only wanted to kill every Jew in the Middle East. What's wrong with that? (sic)

  114. 'The World At One' on Radio 4 had an interview with a police spokeswoman talking about yesterday's events. She was right to describe the riot as a insult to the murdered girls. She also said that Nigel Farage and others 'should take a good look at themselves'. Up to a point. It would have been wise for everyone to take a step back but (and yes, there is always a 'but', however much the priggish left and media protest) the public are so weary of the epidemic of knife crime that their immediate assumption on hearing of any such incident would be that if it's not black gang street warfare or a hormonal, teenage schoolchild dispute, it'll be a Muslim. And even when it is the latter, it'll often be described by police as 'not terror related'.

    The police have a problem. They are bound by the laws on contempt of court. How can they say enough to calm the public and allay suspicion (and cynicism) without breaking those laws?

      1. Slander is risky; as time goes by people remember only the names of those involved, not who was right or wromg.

    3. according to progressive liberals.. it's always a bad time, an evil time, to "talk about" mentalists & migrants.. because it's soooooooo divisive.

    4. The police have asked for an extension of the interview time. Not I imagine because it requires more investigation.

      1. It looks like a case of radicalisation of a weak individual, imho. The attack was planned, as your average youth has no idea of where dance classes are held and most unlikely just to go out one day to murder a load of kids. I'm sure all religions seek to persuade individuals to become their foot soldiers, but there is only one that inspires its followers to become slashers. They will be trying to find the others in the chain of on line encouragement

    5. Furthermore I don't think I'm interested in the Police view on politics. They should stick to serving the public, by which I mean all sections of it equally.

      1. Absolutely. No wonder no one trusts Plod (unless they are “of the left”)

  115. It's a mad, mad, world

    Ross Clark
    The inconvenient truth about ‘rewilding’
    31 July 2024, 12:11pm

    Angela Rayner has announced that the government will aim to build 370,000 new homes, up from the 300,000 a year implied in the party’s manifesto. But if the deputy prime minister really thinks that all she needs to do to achieve that target is to take on Nimbys – as Rayner and chancellor Rachel Reeves have suggested in recent weeks – she needs to take a trip to a slice of the ‘grey belt’ in Essex. There, a 206 acre farm at Harold’s Farm near Epping is to be turned over to rewilding.

    Some locals have announced themselves to be delighted because it means the land will not now be developed, as they feared, for housing. That is a predictable Nimby response, but it is not really the point.

    The land has been purchased, and will now be rewilded, using money raised from a levy on house builders through something called Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) rules. These demand that any developer building new housing must ensure that their development results in greater biodiversity than exists on the land at present. The trouble is that if you are building a housing estate on greenfield land – especially one which meets modern requirements for housing density – it is extremely difficult, if not often impossible, to increase the presence of wildlife and plant life on the site itself. As a result, developers are allowed to buy their way out of their BNG commitments by buying ‘biodiversity credits’ – which are then spent creating habitats for nature elsewhere.

    Most people like nature, but why is the cost of encouraging it being lumped on new housing? House builders are effectively paying an extra biodiversity tax, which inevitably gets passed on to house buyers. If it was going to create public parks and commons close to the new developments – and which their residents could therefore enjoy – that would be one thing. But biodiversity credits can end up being spent hundreds of miles away. Moreover, these are not public parks and commons – they are privately-owned nature reserves which might have little or no public access. Harold’s Park has been bought by a company called Nattergal, whose CEO Archie Struthers is pretty clear about its objectives: ‘Nattergal’s purpose is to make nature an investible asset class’. The company says it wants people to visit its rewilding sites, but you can find out what that means by clicking on the ‘visit’ tab on its website. It invites you to book a ‘rewilding tour’ at £20 per adult.

    In other words, the previous government has imposed a tax on new housing, pushing up the price of much-needed homes, so as to allow to a class of investors to make money out of creating private nature reserves. But it gets worse.

    Rewilding, needless to say, takes land out of agricultural production. Not only is it undermining national food security – which seems to take a somewhat lower priority in government ministers’ minds than energy security does, it is pushing agricultural workers off the land. In a typical case several years ago, a tenant farmer in Carmarthenshire had a bid accepted on land he had been farming for years only to be gazumped by a Guernsey-based company wanting the land to plant trees in order to claim carbon credits – a cousin of biodiversity credits. You can imagine the outrage were tenant farmers being forced off the land to make way for fracking wells – big oil crushing the interests if family farmers etc. But when it is powerful green interests doing the same thing it tends to pass unnoticed.

    You can’t blame Angela Rayner for BNG credits. They were the brainchild of the previous government. But will she strike a blow for affordable housing by abolishing them? I am not holding my breath.

    Ross Clark is a leader writer and columnist who has written for The Spectator for three decades. His books include Not Zero and The Road to Southend Pier.

    1. "They took all the trees, put them in a tree museum…and they charged the people a dollar and a half just to see them".

    2. This is pure evil. They are tokenising nature so that they can trade it in financial markets. Not hyperbole, that is what they have already said they will do, and this is how they are achieving it

    3. If we stopped importing hordes of incompatible savages, there wouldn't be such a massive demand for more housing.
      Stop the lifelong benefits/handouts, and the invasion will slow to a trickle.

  116. So no mention anywhere today of the three children murdered in Southport. It's as if it never happened. Don't worry everyone, we are being, 'managed'. Managed by the great brains such as Lammy, Raynor, Starmer and our cuddly old Uncle Blair.

    1. Killed, not yet murdered. Judge jury and court are needed for a verdict of murder. Do you want to put everyone out of work?

        1. Yes, mere happenstance happened there. Tragic. I expect God did it…

          No, not that one silly. The real one.

    2. Well it has vanished off the Telegraph front page and i've just watched the BBC which featured the Muslim point of view and how terrible the riots were.

      1. The Telegraph are doing a volte face and saying rioters were brought in from outside. They interviewed about three people. Who knows what the truth is but you won’t get it from the MSM, that’s for sure.

    3. But plenty of mention about the 'mosque' that was attacked and windows broken.
      Is there a link I wonder?

      1. Come on – it was the Colonel's stupidity in going out in uniform; and the brave young man who attempted to protect him using a knife has mental issues and will never be tried.

        1. The son of a friend (well, someone I know) is in the Armed Forces. Wasn't even allowed to wear his uniform to a wedding.

          1. It was said at least a decade ago that anyone who wears a uniform wether police, paramedic, military or whatever were told not to when traveling on public transport. This guy was near his base.

          2. Survival tactics in contenporary England: when a pedestrian, walk in pairs or groups, and ensure that you are not the slowest runner.

          3. Don't leave your house if there muslims about. Thought about going for a walk, a trip to the beach, admire the sunset, as a single woman you are clearly asking to be raped so it is all your fault.

            This is a Labour government advisory………………not.

  118. Katharine Birbalsingh On Multicultural Mayhem In Southport Riots

    "…schools have such a key [sic] part to play in ensuring that we should all get on with one another…they're not GCSE factories, they're about socialising children to make multiculturalism work…otherwise we'll see more and more tension between the different groups…multiculturalism can be managed to be successful…"

    It's not working, is it, Ms B? She's on safer ground when criticising the use of 'far-right' to condemn anyone who makes the obvious point about immigration and for condemning the Democrats in the USA for the creation of culture wars.

    http://youtube.com/watch?v=6dDsCxNWvdA
    Here's Ben Habib, depressed and angry.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QJN4ANExYc

    1. Really admire Birbalsingh. Terrific woman. Does she have a gong yet? Of all people she deserves one.

      1. Hmm. Her school's meals are now vegetarian because of protests by Muslims and Hindus.

        1. No big deal. It isn’t as if that effects the children’s education and that is the essential thing.

          1. It is a big deal. A minority of pupils (and their activist parents) held the school to ransom and got their way.

    2. She needs to acknowledge that certain 'cultures' have no intention of ever integrating in any way.
      The problem lies largely with muzrats, as well as many descendants of the West Indies/ Windrush immigrants. Violence seems to be in the DNA of certain groups.

  119. Katharine Birbalsingh On Multicultural Mayhem In Southport Riots

    "…schools have such a key [sic] part to play in ensuring that we should all get on with one another…they're not GCSE factories, they're about socialising children to make multiculturalism work…otherwise we'll see more and more tension between the different groups…multiculturalism can be managed to be successful…"

    It's not working, is it, Ms B? She's on safer ground when criticising the use of 'far-right' to condemn anyone who makes the obvious point about immigration and for condemning the Democrats in the USA for the creation of culture wars.

    http://youtube.com/watch?v=6dDsCxNWvdA
    Here's Ben Habib, depressed and angry.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QJN4ANExYc

  120. For taking away the winter fuel allowances I wonder if Rachel Reeves and the government could be fined for a constructive and planned actual act of cruelty against the elderly British people ?

    1. The amount that will be saved is miniscule, but the benefits (no pun intended) for the government will add to those 'savings.' Pensioners who die from the cold won't need any more state pension or NHS, many will have estates triggering IHT. Reeves and her fellow uncaring henchmen must be salivating at the thought.

      1. If they hand benefits to some for heating and disallow it to others because they are elderly. It's clearly human rights abuse.

    1. He does doesn't he…Though it is how he works. Like our government. They sound so reasonable all the time and how much they care about the poor and the starving and pensioners and then…crucify them.

  122. We have seen lots of rioting recently and in the past, those back in the early years of Cameron's term in office especially the London riots come to mind, where shops were torched, shops were looted all over London, because a man was shot by the police.
    Funny how nobody blamed the extremists, the far right or social media for those riots.
    Nor the recent riot in Leeds
    All the excuses under the sun were made.
    Those that rioted earned some respect for their communities hence the softly softly police approach ever since.
    Where the authorities give in to social unrest on a two tier basis along with the mainstream media, then one has to wonder who the racists really are.
    Especially if on this occasion the powers that be use it to try to curb freedom of speech

    1. Owen Jones is one of the most disgusting bullies of the left.
      It's a shame the Sun can't sue him into penury.

    2. Owen. You call yourself a journalist try getting your facts right. There was an investigation into him apparently grooming someone underage. When that came to light they looked at his devices in particular his whasapp messages. They then found the most depraved porn of children under 10.

      Any normal person in a whatsapp group being sent such images would have immediately reported them to the police. He didn't. He also didn't delete the images or leave the group.

      You, Owen, are clearly an apologist for the Devil and i hope he takes you soon.

      1. Once he's 18 can he be named for something he did as a "child".
        I presume so, as Venables and Thompson were named eventually.

        One thing that does strike me about the current case is the question of why it isn't in the public's interest to know and why there can't be a legal exception for clear cut killings as far as legal prejudice is concerned.

        If this child is a "born again Christian", I am fairly sure that that information would have been leaked.

        1. And as if by magic, up pops this case.

          The youngest murderers in Britain since James Bulger's killers can never be named because it would impact on their welfare, a judge has ruled.

          Two 12-year-old boys are facing mandatory life sentences after murdering a stranger in a brutal machete attack in November last year.

          However, High Court judge Mrs Justice Tipples yesterday rejected a media application to name the pair, stating the welfare of the youths outweighed the wider public interest and open justice principles.

          As part of her ruling, the judge accepted evidence from social workers that one of the defendants was vulnerable, had 'extremely complex needs' and that identifying him would have 'an extremely detrimental impact on his mental health'.

          Due to be sentenced at the end of September.

          Out before they're 20, no doubt.
          https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13693787/Youngest-murderers-Britain-James-Bulgers-killers-never-named-slaying-stranger-brutal-machete-attack-judge-rules-impact-welfare.html

  125. We’ll make sure the green belt doesn’t block our housebuilding plans. 31 July 2024.

    Britain’s future towns will be built on the foundations of our past. Our vision for the next generation of new towns across England is for places designed so well that you, me, anyone and everyone would want to live there.

    Why don’t we just surface the entire country? That way we wouldn’t need roads. You could just take a compass bearing and head off.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/07/31/i-will-make-sure-the-green-belt-doesnt-block-new-housing/

    2. We'll make sure that we can't produce suffficient food for the masses of people we're importing, too.

    3. We'll make sure that we can't produce suffficient food for the masses of people we're importing, too.

  126. LABOUR’S NORTH SEA TAX POLICY WRITTEN BY CLIMATE ACTIVISTS

    Reeves announced a 3% increase in the top rate of the energy profits levy — a.k.a. the North Sea windfall tax—bringing it to a staggering 78% and stretching its tenure to 2030. On top of that, she’s stripping away the investment allowances. This policy will carve out a £5-7 billion gap in the national accounts as the regime loses £2.2-6.2 billion in annual income, while still bearing the £2-3 billion yearly cost of decommissioning existing projects. Reeves, naturally, is happy to blame the Tories for the black hole in the books, yet conveniently sidesteps the fact that she’s busy digging a fresh one…

    Labour’s sheer ignorance in this climate-crusader policy may be linked to their dubious choice of tax advisor, named by City A.M.: Heather Plumpton, a rainforest historian under the employ of the Green Alliance, a group bankrolled by Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, and renewable energy firms. Back in 2022, Plumpton pitched, on behalf of the ideological climate lobby group, a proposal to ramp up North Sea taxes to Norwegian levels (78%), sans the generous investment incentives that make Norway’s steep rates somewhat bearable. Now Labour have taken it on. Guido can’t help but wonder the lefty outcry over ‘Government being bought by corporate interests’ if it were oil companies lobbying to raise taxes on renewable energy sources instead…

    1. It's the gravity of the situation we find ourselves in that creates a black hole. not digging.

      I'm off away in my Star Ship…

    2. From Coffee House, the Spectator

      Just Stop Oil and the secret power of the middle class
      Comments Share 31 July 2024, 5:15am
      Just Stop Oil isn’t what it was. When a handful of protestors from the environmental group tried to block a departure gate at Gatwick Airport this week, they failed miserably. It wasn’t much of a protest: they just plonked themselves down and adopted the traditional JSO expression: a stance of neutrality aimed at looking noble and martyrish but, in reality, comes over as suggesting they are mildly constipated. Embarrassed air travellers merely stepped over them, although one traveller did speak for the nation by suggesting that they reconvene elsewhere, using a two-word expression, one of them composed of four letters.

      The power of the middle class to charm officers of the law endures
      The seven protesters were, after a while, arrested and removed from the scene. But this was not before images emerged of a burly policeman standing over them looking gently disappointed. He resembled someone’s dad shaking his head, asking: ‘What have you done now, Lucy?’

      Just Stop Oil were at it again yesterday when two activists walked through Heathrow Airport spraying departure boards and various bits of the terminal building. A video shows them wandering casually through the airport with no police officers in sight as they squirted orange paint around. The pair were arrested but not before they caused thousands of pounds of damage. Why weren’t they stopped immediately?

      This restraint was all the more notable because it followed on from the scenes of chaos at Manchester Airport just a few days before, where police officers were somewhat more hands-on, tasers and boots everywhere, at the climax of an altercation whose roots remain unclear. These were very different incidents. But there was a lot of armchair commentary about the Manchester incident, and much of it was about how keyed-up, tense and quick-to-act airport police are trained to be. On a hair trigger, in fact. They’ll have you the moment you step out of line.

      Except if you’re wearing a Just Stop Oil T-shirt, a knitted rainbow hat, an ‘interesting’ beard and a moonstruck mug. In that instance, baffled tourists are left hauling their luggage over demonstrators before the police eventually step in.

      A lot about Britain has changed since I was a lad, but the power of the middle class to disarm and charm officers of the law remains the same. When I was young, I had occasional encounters with the police, as young people are generally more likely to. If you’re a big chap like me who looks a bit ‘suspect’, your chances of coming into contact with the police are higher still. I was always being ‘spoken to’ or ‘moved on’ when I was 18. I soon discovered that responding with mild, slightly startled politeness in a ‘nice’ voice – ‘oh I’m terribly sorry officer’ – worked wonders.

      Of course, you have to pitch this just right; aim for mildly softly spoken, Dan Stevens in personable interview mode, not Dan Stevens in character in Downton Abbey. Any hint of cockiness or sarcasm will swiftly blow up in your face. And you must also steer clear of overdoing it, and coming across as an Ian Carmichael-style silly ass.

      The police, and indeed many people in public-facing jobs, are relieved to encounter good manners. Manners are, in the tedious parlance of today, a superpower. As anybody who’s worked in such a job will know, dealing with the public is a dog’s life. The public are often rude, slow, stupid and angry; frequently they are maybe not-quite-all-there, with a misunderstanding of what you can do for them and what it is your job to do for them. There is such relief when you are faced, for a change, with a helpful and cooperative person who is fully attentive. You get a glow, your day is lifted.

      There are exceptions. This tactic won’t work, for example, on doctors, particularly higher-up ones, such as surgeons or consultants. This is because, unlike police or ticket collectors, people are pleased to see doctors and defer to them as routine, so doctors don’t appreciate your effort. They think everybody wants to see them, and they are right. If a doctor is being snotty with you, I’m afraid you just have to acquiesce.

      But you can charm most other functionaries by presenting yourself as a nice, harmless middle class person. This is how Just Stop Oil were able to waltz in and settle for a few minutes at Gatwick and Heathrow without being stopped sooner – and how they have been allowed to get close to priceless works of art and lie down in the road for hours.

      The reaction of Just Stop Oil supporters to the prison sentences recently handed down to five of their number has been very telling. In a speech that’s already become legend for its sheer entitlement, the mother of 22-year-old Cambridge music student Cressida Gethin, currently serving a four-stretch at HMP Bronzefield for blocking the M25 in 2022, was appalled that lag ‘Cressy’ is going to miss her brother’s wedding. Nice middle-class people just don’t get banged up, you see, no matter what they’ve done or how many other people they’ve ’inconvenienced’. It’s for ‘the planet’, don’t you know?

      We’re supposed to live in a society that doesn’t have the deference of previous ages. But this isn’t quite true. Adopt a dreamy expression, speak proper, associate yourself with the right cause, cause a lot of trouble, and you too can be – eventually – gently led away, not instantly grabbed and tasered.

      1. Because police seem so slow to react, one day a terrorist group will use this, and walk around in a similar manner, spraying concentrated acid or fuel all over the crowds and premises.

      2. Genuine video and starts with the genuine siren, but the Birdie Song has been edited onto it.

    2. Nice , cooked and then cold , watercress freshly cooked beetroot , no vinegar , few sliced hard boiled eggs, cooked cold asparagus , air-dried beef, baby little gem lettuce and a few olives , maybe a fig or 2 chopped up . Luxury

        1. We are just about to cook a crustless Waitrose quiche in our air fryer (14mts) accompanied by a salad .. We are frazzled with heat , have just watered our wilting garden ..

          1. Very similar to ours…air fryer in use most days, salad from garden…hosepipe ban soon?

      1. Of course it isn’t. It’s a tragedy. In a normal year we’d have started picking three or four weeks ago and gathered a kilo a a time.

        1. So sad. Meanwhile i am having bumper crops of all the things you said i planted too early. Ho Hum. Don't need a greenhouse when it is 40c on my upper deck.

          2. No time. Organising the slaves for the big event. So many Nottlers are coming i have had to get the whip out.

          2. We both know it won’t last, Bill…thunderstorms ahead…that should keep ’em off the streets?!

    1. Two years to obtain planning permission. No point in looking for a builder until PP is certain and there are no appeals pending. Find a builder, agree a start date, provide some finance for his firm to source materials. Deal with the shortage of tradesmen by offering higher wages. So, Autumn 2027 is looking hopeful.

    2. When I did a work-up I took the easy option i.e. 365 days in a year for 5 years and included 2028's extra day. With all the extra days my calculation contained there already is an excess building and it's in the thousands. They're playing catch-up after less than a month in office.

      1. Make the parasites feel at home. Naturally, they will have their heating bills paid in full.

  133. We have a car wash by hand in the village , usual suspects , but they do clean the car well.

    We have a few new barber shops in Wareham .. one was raided the other day, we have taxi drivers of a different hue who drive like maniacs , and another huge car wash on the outskirts of Wareham , I haven't mentioned Poole or anywhere else local , oh yes, lots of each in Dorchester and foreign takeaways , taxis again , care workers blah blah blah .

    Some one suggested those were sleeper cells for when everything explodes ..

    Dare we feel panicky , we smile but receive no smiles back .

      1. Is this the promised end
        Or image of that horror?

        [King Lear]

        We are getting nearer to it. We are like rabbits trapped in the glare of headlights and don't know how to escape

        1. We are making progress, Rastus…just not in the right direction. More to come, sorry to sayj.

  134. It is unlike me to be fair to the police, BUT – it is just possible that they have established – via the child's computer – a lot of other slammer killers innocent Methodists whom they are hoping to catch.

    A long shot, I know – but juuust possible.

    2. Well we already know what happened in Rotherham and other UK towns BT.
      The plod are probably sifting them out and rehousing them elsewhere.
      The locals who rioted probably already know the score.

  135. Judge Goldspring said he particularly wanted an assessment for a “sexual offence treatment” order.

    He adjourned sentencing and told Edwards: “It’s appropriate to read and hear more about you, your motivation, your risk of re-offending and the health issues that have [been] shown this morning.”

    (AKA – a nod and a wink that a happy outcome is expected.)

    1. 'Wisdom and goodness to the vile seem vile;
      Filths savour but themselves.'

      [King Lear]

    1. I doubt I'll see the next 5 years out, but there are so many loathsome politicians out there I don't think I'd want to anyway.

    1. BTL Comment:

      "I must book my holiday in Southend next year – everyone seems to have a fabulous tan. I’m going to pay for it with the dividend I get from my shares in machetes…"

      1. I really have thought of going to Sarfend on Sea but for all it's not far away, it's a bee to get to so when the need to see the sea comes over me, it's much easier to hop on a train to Brighton.

        1. I once went roller skating in Sarf End, but that was in the seventies when things were relatively quiet.

    2. When I heard a number of mentions of Southend yesterday and today I thought they were references to the entertaining knife dance in a car park, not this stampede.

    3. I posted the other day we watched exactly those mobs in their own countries through the 70's 80's and 90's.

      One has to wonder why anyone thought importing savages into a first world society would be a good thing.

      1. Some people really do think that bad culture is the result of poverty (and not t'other way around) and that if you bring them here and shower them with goodies, they'll miraculously transform into civilised ooman beans.

        1. The Arab/Muslim mindset is well known. Clearly the people who have had dealings with them know but politicos choose to believe otherwise.

  138. On my train to Peterborough this morning, Nikki identified herself as our "customer experience leader".

  139. The organisers of a music festival in Kuala Lumpur are suing British band The 1975 for breach of contract and damages after its singer Matty Healy attacked Malaysia's anti-LGBT laws, leading to the event being cancelled.

    During the band's headline performance last July, Healy also addressed the audience in a profanity-laden speech and kissed a fellow band member.

    The company behind the Good Vibes Festival is seeking £1.9m ($2.4m) in compensation in the UK’s High Court over a violation of performance rules.

    Homosexual acts are illegal in Malaysia and punishable by 20 years in prison. The festival does not allow talking about politics and religion, swearing, smoking or drinking alcohol on stage.

    Four poofters go to a muzzie country and start groping each other on stage – what could possibly go wrong? Silly Billies!

    1. Malaysia is promoted as one of the places where muslims, christians and other faiths get along together.

      In the food programme i watched where they visited a senior school everyone self segregated. So much for integration.

      It was also shocking to see in a different programme a Budhist monk losing his temper with a muslim kiddy fiddler.

  140. A bucatini Birdie Three!

    Wordle 1,138 3/6
    ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜
    ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Good one! Another five for me.

      Wordle 1,138 5/6

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

      1. 4 today.
        Wordle 1,138 4/6

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

        ETA: I presume you replied to Lacoste? I can’t see his any more because I didn’t want to see the hints he gave.

          1. I don’t know if there was today as I don’t see his comments. I had asked Lacoste not to post clues a couple of weeks ago but he didn’t stop. I only do wordle in the evening, it used to be as I came across Lacoste’s post – it reminded me – but didn’t want hints.

    2. Me too, by elimination.

      Wordle 1,138 3/6

      ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩
      ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    3. Oh you are good

      Wordle 1,138 4/6

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

  142. Borg Queen
    @FreddieQuadrant
    Since
    @Keir_Starmer
    became Prime Minister on 5th July 2024:

    – Leeds riots
    – Whitechapel riots
    – Soldier stabbed in Kent
    – Police attacked at Manchester Airport
    – Chemical attack in Bath
    – Southport child murders
    – Southend machete gang fight
    – Illegal small boat invaders: 3,138 last week.

    Share and like if you oppose Starmer’s Labour government.

    1. The disruption was forecast, even if not the detail. People still voted them in. What can one say?

    2. The disruption was forecast, even if not the detail. People still voted them in. What can one say?

    3. Prime Minister Starmer visited Southport – with crowds in mourning for three dead children – but could find nothing to say . . .

    1. just an innocent game of Tag.. before settling into Wednesdays' edition of Blue Peter or Magpie on tele.

        1. They should be shooting them.
          But slapping the wrist does not have the same effect.

    2. Any one of our age group will be very angry because our parents fought and many didn't live because they fought to stop the invasion of our and their country. These effing morons in Wastemonster and Whitehall have wrecked it.

  144. The BBC is gobsmacked to find out that Rolf Harris Jimmy Savile Huw Edwards has admitted to being a paedophilic pervert. We don't expect them to be discovered until years after they have retired. What is the world coming to?

  145. Night All
    Bloody hot simple supper of King prawns and crabmeat with home made Marie rose sauce and some salad
    Time for the laffs
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7823969a6c62d994e49d780c91d6b921e3ca552eaca2a9bed2bad5140f86350f.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f1dd154a68190df9e1d27b85221f3fb727f7013c40a1a1effc143976758399d0.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/422d86920cf4fa943bfb2f725deb91e159c40f092bb066d025b1c059a69f2794.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/604ca244363b86c262797f955b45a53f92be0ef0de4cc66013ed0850715f439e.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bfb896922272fd98351d957de0aacffcff0697c3ffd4c2437b30c15508fd95ad.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/51d09c06c7d4472f63b35faec585a4ae66bd9418bfc6f068c80158ea72d9b772.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/41a8d2903af5032fa6d02a5fe9459e995be36ccbbe393330dc47a16bf38ee10c.jpg

  146. Ref St Huw of Pornoland – even the Crown said that a "suspended sentence" might be appropriate…

    Can't bang up national treasures who wear suits and ties, can you?

  147. What a worthless and dangerous dork this man is

    Britain’s reliance on foreign energy hits record high amid fossil fuels crackdown

    Data reveal struggle of oil and gas producers to generate sufficient power from renewable sources

    Jonathan Leake
    31 July 2024 • 3:54pm

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/business/2024/07/31/TELEMMGLPICT000383432017_17224358459680_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqqVzuuqpFlyLIwiB6NTmJwSX5rhseiWKOo9p9OQ-ymek.jpeg?imwidth=680 https://cf.eip.telegraph.co.uk/illustrator-embed/content/6746259e9caa5e761078cdf061fcc1342dd03f8d/1722426970950.jpg http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/07/31/britains-reliance-on-foreign-energy-hits-record-high/

    1. Yep, can't argue with your assessment of the geek. Thick and bigoted as well.

      1. Can anyone remind me who voted him back into a power of influence or was he placed there as a dictatorship would do?

    2. Miliband is not just as stupid as he looks – he is much more stupid than that.

    1. Perhaps if he was given a lengthy of rope and a bottle of whisky he would do the gentlemanly thing ……………….

  149. That's me for this quite nicely summery day. Breezy but otherwise OK.

    Have a jolly evening.

    A demain.

  150. 17 attacks in last 48 hrs..
    A summary of fun facts:
    Southend: masked gangs fight it out. police observed but did not engage. No MSM coverage.
    Ipswich: one seriously crazed unwell creature from Africa.. Well mental. No MSM coverage.
    Stoke Newington: police did engage. Awaiting outrage from Diane. No MSM coverage.
    Stockport riot: faaaaaaaaaaaar right riot. Maximum MSN coverage.

  151. Jess Phillips was wrong to traduce Nigel Farage on Twitter

    Ministers should be aware that what they say on social media has consequences

    MICHAEL MOSBACHER • 31 July 2024 • 5:38pm

    Should government ministers really go on social media to lambast political opponents in a way that is likely to further raise the temperature of an already incendiary situation? Labour MP and safeguarding minister Jess Phillips yesterday admonished Nigel Farage on Twitter/X for "grifting" over his remarks in the wake of the Southport killings.

    The Reform leader had released a social media video raising concerns that the police were withholding information about the incident and its alleged perpetrator. This may well have been unwise in an already febrile atmosphere, but Phillips's response certainly did not calm things down. Indeed, they may have further exacerbated matters.

    Labour prides itself on being the grown-up party making responsible decisions for the nation's future. It claims to believe in a more civilised way of doing politics. Yet the minister's comments unleashed exactly the kind of pile on one might have expected. Farage was traduced as "Tommy Robinson in a suit" not just on Twitter but also on Radio 4's Today programme this morning.

    Phillips has recent personal experience of dealing with a hyped-up mob. At her election count for Birmingham Yardley, her victory speech was jeered and shouted down by supporters of her opponent, the Workers Party's Jody McIntyre. The convert to Islam and George Galloway protege had come within 700 votes of defeating Philips, whose majority was over 10,000 in 2019.

    When she was finally able to make her acceptance speech, Phillips noted that the election campaign this year had been the worst she had ever experienced and gave an account of how some of her supporters had been threatened and intimidated.

    So she is all too aware of what politics can easily descend into. And it is not only one end of the political spectrum that has had to endure such onslaughts. In Farage's case attacks have crossed over to the physical, with the threats and milkshakings he endured on the campaign trail. Tragically, other assaults on politicians have been very much worse.

    As the Minister for Victims and Safeguarding, Phillips has responsibility for hate crime and stalking. She is no longer just an opposition MP who can speak her mind, but has actual responsibilities in these areas and thus needs to be especially mindful of what she says.

    Phillips has acknowledged on Twitter/X that she is "loathe to talk about this stuff on this site because here has undoubtedly become part of the problem." All true, but clearly not loathe enough to stop herself making political points on the site and becoming part of the problem.

    The Minister's criticism of Farage is that he now, finally, has the privilege of sitting in the Commons and Parliament is the right place to raise any concerns that he might have. That is wise advice, but perhaps it is something that Phillips should take on board herself first.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/07/31/jess-phillips-was-wrong-to-traduce-nigel-farage-on-twitter/

    What Mr Mosbacher doesn't mention is that after her election victory, Phillips responded to the jeering by saying that the protesters did what they did not because they were Muslims but because they were men. She is clearly as thick – and coarse – as the Stockport Slapper and the Reiver but this was a particularly bad instance of someone refusing to accept the reality of Britain today.

    It's all boiling up nicely, especially as the Slapper has suggested that the EDL 'could be proscribed as a terror organisation'. Try pinning them down. All the participants have to say is "We are free agents. We belong to no organisation."

    1. "Labour prides itself on being the grown-up party making responsible decisions for the nation's future. It claims to believe in a more civilised way of doing politics." Yet more evidence of Labour's self delusion and lack of self knowledge.

  153. Watched the BBC news .

    Jane Hill news reader with scarf on her head went into the Southport mosque with the robed mustapha or what ever you call people like that , and we were regaled with the sob story how terrified the chaps were who were trapped in their mosque whilst they prayed , with the sound of angry mob outside ..

    Islamic loving BBC , yes they are .

    https://twitter.com/Shunyaa00/status/1818581017524850832 We are being ignored and the BBC don't dare UTTER a word of dismay , nor do they question why there have been so many acts of violence by their shared DNA compatriots .. the hate stabbers , the machete slashers and the innocent lives what are lost every day .. Did she ask him about the rape of young women or abuse of young boys or the hate preachers no she didn't .

    I am amazed she was allowed into a mosque .

  154. Where will Labour build new homes? Check your area
    Search the table to see how many new homes will be built in your local authority under Angela Rayner’s plans

    https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/councils-may-be-forced-to-build-houses-on-ugly-green-belt-rayner-says-jm5zvjtkv

    Horrifying , and no area escapes .

    Angela Raynor wants to up the stock hugely .. the countryside is being trashed by the need for red brick dog kennels , and maybe a mosque .

    1. There’s a half built block of flats just across the road from where I live. It could be a decent looking building if it’s ever finished but the developers ran out of money.

  155. English Defence League could be proscribed as terror organisation, suggests Rayner

    Deputy PM also criticises Nigel Farage for 'stirring up fake news online' about reasons behind Southport knife attack

    Charles Hymas, HOME AFFAIRS EDITOR • 31 July 2024 • 4:16pm

    The English Defence League (EDL) could be proscribed as a terror organisation in the wake of riots in Southport, Angela Rayner has suggested.

    Ms Rayner, the Deputy Prime Minister, said: "We have laws and we have proscribed groups, and we do look at that and it is reviewed regularly. So I'm sure that that will be something that the Home Secretary [Yvette Cooper] will be looking at as part of the normal course of what we do and the intelligence that we have. But I think the bigger issue is about taking on the minority of people that have got thuggish behaviour – that actually, that's not our British values."

    Hizb ut-Tahrir, a extremist group that organised pro-Palestinian protests, was the last organisation to be proscribed as a terrorist group by the former Conservative government. Proscription means it becomes an offence to be a member of a group or to support it, and carries a maximum prison sentence of up to 14 years and/or a fine of up to £5,000 for doing so.

    Both Sir Keir Starmer and Ms Cooper condemned the violence on Tuesday night, with the Home Secretary criticising those "seeking to use events to stir up division or advance their own views".

    Sir Keir said: "Those who have hijacked the vigil for the victims with violence and thuggery have insulted the community as it grieves. They will feel the full force of the law."

    Responding to the riots inspired by the EDL, Ms Rayner said: "The inciting of violence and violence on the street has absolutely no place in our democracy, and we have to crack down on those that perpetuate violence and spread it within our communities."

    Ms Rayner also criticised Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, for "stirring up fake news online" about the reasons behind the Southport knife attack.

    She told LBC Radio that, as an MP, Mr Farage has "a level of responsibility … and it's not to stoke up what conspiracy theories or what you think might have happened".

    She added: "There's a responsibility to say the police are doing a difficult job, local authorities, all of the services that are on the ground. We have a responsibility to hold the community together and say let's get the facts, and then let's look at what the actual solutions are and what we can do about the horrific situation that we find ourselves in, not to stir up these fake news online."

    In a video statement posted on X, formerly Twitter, Mr Farage had said important questions about the case remained, including whether there was any truth in suggestions that the suspect was on a security services watch list and whether it was terror-related.

    "I just wonder whether the truth is being withheld from us. I don't know the answer, but I think it is a fair and legitimate question. What I do know is that something is going horribly wrong in our once beautiful country," he said.

    Lord Walney, the Government's independent adviser on political violence, urged police and ministers to use new orders that enable officers to ban people from causing "serious disruption" if they have previously been involved in protest-related offences. If anyone breaches the order, they face being jailed for up to six months.

    "Serious disruption prevention orders were a welcome addition to the tools available to the police to prevent protests getting out of hand by banning serial troublemakers from the scene," he told The Telegraph. It seems clear that far-Right activists from outside Southport descended on the town to exploit the tragedy and the community's grief this week, just as extreme protesters sometime seek to hijack otherwise legitimate protests on issues like climate change.

    "Keeping the extremists away can be in the interest of the mainstream majority who feel strongly but don't want to break the law and cause mayhem."

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/07/31/english-defence-league-could-proscribed-terror-organisation/

    1. Will that apply to none whites as well?
      Or are all their riots seen as purely legitimate protest?

    2. Violence is not the right way, but sometimes, how do you get the message across to those shites in Westminster, who specialise in not listening?

    3. How many were arrested during the anti Israel, pro Hammas demonstrations for supporting a proscribed organisation.
      The answer is None
      The question is Why not.

    4. What would Rayner know about 'British Values'? She's just a nasty piece of modern female scum.

    5. It’s been considered defunct for several years now. But of course they know that!

        1. It probably needs saying again! I’ve just said it in the DT! There are very few stories allowing comment, but that AAllan chap and I are getting stuck in!

          2. From Coffee House, the Spectator

            How many stars got the Huw Edwards case wrong?
            Comments Share 31 July 2024, 5:04pm
            Dear oh dear. The news that ex-BBC presenter Huw Edwards has pleaded guilty to making indecent images of children has come as a shock to a nation which spent years watching the veteran TV star fronting the public service broadcaster’s biggest stories. And it will serve as a warning to those journalists who were rather quick to make sweeping judgements on Edwards’ innocence. Mr S has been looking back at some past remarks made by a certain group of stars – and it’s rather awkward for all involved…

            First was the ever-online Owen Jones. The Graun columnist slammed the idea that Edwards might have done anything wrong, tweeting furiously that Edwards was a ‘vulnerable man’, and that ‘we know now there was no criminality’. The moderators of Twitter/X may beg to differ…

            Up next is News Agents podcaster and ex-BBC man Lewis Goodall, who posted a rather long Twitter thread on 12 July 2023 about the coverage of the Edwards story. In one tweet, Goodall wrote: ‘Just heard a BBC News report saying they’ve seen “flirtatious” messages between Edwards and junior members of staff. There’s a difference between potential HR issues and front page potentially illegal impropriety. Astonishing how these things are being conflated.’ Mr S is more astonished by how many media commentators think they can play detective…

            Then there were the remarks made by former BBC Newsnight anchor and News Agents co-host Emily Maitlis, who took to her podcast to lament the Beeb’s ‘distasteful’ coverage of the story, suggesting it was, er, wrong to ‘turn it into a news story’. Not the sentiment one might expect from a journalist of over 20 years…

            And perhaps the worst example was from the BBC’s ex-North America editor and – you guessed it – News Agents presenter Jon Sopel, who told an interviewer that Edwards’ sex scandal allegations turned out to be ‘not that much’ and took to social media to lambast those who had aired complaints of impropriety:

            This is an awful and shocking episode, where there was no criminality, but perhaps a complicated private life. That doesn’t feel very private now. I hope that will give some cause to reflect. They really need to. I wish Huw Edwards well.

            Sopel, who worked with Edwards for a number of years, went on to tell ITV’s Good Morning Britain that he was ‘furious’ with the coverage of the BBC’s then-highest-paid newsreader. Jumped the gun a little there, eh?

    8. If she could, she'd declare the English a terrorist organisation and proscribe us.

  156. So the trip to Balmoral and the Cairngorms went well.
    What a lovely unspoilt area that is.

  157. Labour face a brutal awakening about the realities of governing modern Britain

    The Government must address concerns over preferential group treatment, or risk more disorder on the streets

    RAKIB EHSAN • 31 July 2024 • 2:40pm

    Last night's rioting in the Merseyside seaside town of Southport after three young girls were killed in a stabbing spree besmirched their memory and shamed Britain.

    With some involved being out-of-town troublemakers which Merseyside Police believe are connected to the English Defence League (EDL), thirty-nine police officers (as well as three police dogs) were injured in the unrest, which also saw attacks on a local mosque. Both prime minister Sir Keir Starmer and home secretary Yvette Cooper are right to vociferously condemn the violence and destruction of private property in a town which is reeling from an atrocity which was as horrific as it is heartbreaking.

    However, it has left the Labour government vulnerable to accusations that it has reacted inconsistently to various events. Compared to her statement over the Southport riots, Cooper struck a far less assertive and much more conciliatory tone when it came to the public disorder in the Leeds area of Harehills (which was in the aftermath of social services removing children from a Roma family).

    In the disorder which took place on the night of July 18, police officers were attacked, missiles were thrown, a police car was flipped over and vehicles (including a double-decker bus) were torched. Surely this also constituted "thuggish" behaviour during what West Yorkshire Police – which was clearly ill-equipped to cope with the riots – described as a "serious disorder incident"? The kind of language used between the two statements is chalk and cheese.

    The home secretary has also failed to intervene as strongly as she should over the Manchester Airport incident which involved Greater Manchester Police (GMP) and brothers Fahir and Amaad Amaaz. Greater Manchester Police was right to suspend a police officer after footage of him kicking a floored Fahir came to light. But this did not justify the intimidating gatherings outside Rochdale police station where those in attendance chanted "Allahu Akbar".

    Further footage obtained by Manchester Evening News has emerged, which shows that in the build-up to Fahir being kicked in the head, the Amaaz brothers attacked the police – with two officers being punched to the ground. In the violent dispute, a female officer was left with a broken nose. While it is important to recognise that there is a probe being carried out by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), Cooper has failed to robustly denounce this blatant physical assault on frontline police officers during a high-pressure situation at an international airport.

    For Labour, the honeymoon period is over – the party has been given a brutal awakening over the realities of governing modern Britain. And the new government simply cannot afford to leave itself so open to perfectly legitimate criticisms that it treats cases of public disorder differently, based on the racial, ethnic, and religious background of those involved. It is an irresponsible approach to managing the ever-diversifying and increasingly complicated portrait of modern Britain – risking the exacerbation of anti-establishment sentiments in white-British working-class communities who are anything but trusting of their so-called "natural party".

    The mainstream British political establishment must address public concerns that when it comes to matters of law and order, certain groups are the beneficiaries of preferential treatment. The failure to do so will only fuel suspicion of public institutions and undermine social cohesion – pushing our democracy towards a darker place.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/07/31/two-tiered-government-will-tear-britain-apart/

    The words Mr Ehsan failed to use were 'hypocrites' and 'cowards'.

    2. Nothing will change.

      Not that the left want change but even if the government wanted to crack down on the uninvited guests, the bureaucrats and police system would delay and deflect any attempts to improve matters.

      A few cracked heads (white), maybe pass a new law criminalizing something that is already covered by existing laws but apart from that just shallow words.

  161. I’ve never been a great fan but she’s not wrong about this.

    “I've never been to a strip club but I turn on MTV and see in every single video what it must look like… if you have to work so hard at appearing sexy, then perhaps you weren't that sexy after all, perhaps your music has no sensuality, perhaps your music is dull, indeed, that you have no choice but to pelvic thrust your way through a pop video in a leather bikini in order to detract from its mediocrity… it might be advisable to do something else.” ”::- Stevie Nicks 👹🌐🎸

  162. Trying for an early night so, another day is done and I wish you gentlefolk a good night.

    2. I expect he will offer her a free euthanasia on the NHS
      But there will be a long waiting list, of course

  165. With the events in Southport the person that attacked the soldier in a similar crazed knife attack appears to have been forgotten.
    I expect the same will happen to the Southport man in a few weeks,
    Then when other events have taken precedence in a few months time the truth of who is is will be leaked out in a article in the back of a newspaper and there will be no further mention of him.

    1. Dear Finland. Do you need a church organist? My pedalling is crap, but I'm reasonably convinced that the tune I've been asked for is doable. Watch his space..

    2. The Finns apparently regularly appear as No.1 on the world happiness scale, not hard to see why.

      1. Indeed. Finns do it right first time. But have you heard their language? Crikey!

        1. Just written Finnish is bad enough. Even though I don't speak the lingo, I could normally make some sense of European languages such as Norwegian or Spanish but deciphering a Finnish restaurant menu was completely beyond me.

          1. #metoo.
            Firstborn had a Finnish colleague, so can actually speak it a bit!
            Respect!

  167. Police seem to be fighting demonstrators in Downing St, according to the paper here.
    Edit: Outside Downing St.
    My bad.

      1. Nowt in the BBC yet… nor the Evening Standard, but there is in the Telegraph.

        2. But it is in NRK (Norges RiksKringkastning), the Norwegian version of the BBC.
          NRK, being the good lefties they are, say is extreme Right-wingers rioting because of lies spread in the media about the 17-y.o perp. Bless.

    4. Radio 4 news reported this at 8pm without identifying them – 'wingless' demonstrators, if you like…

    5. I watched it on X.com . The crowd (large) was peaceful but the pervading quiet mood was determined. The police waded into the crowd with truncheons with no provocation. An elderly lady probably early seventies was gratuitously pushed over. The police started arresting anyone and everyone, much handcuffing. I read 5,000 police had been diverted from elsewhere to this event on govt orders. Compare with Harehills where the police ran away – if two tier policing wasn't evident then, it certainly is now. And this is a march to draw attention to the safeguarding of the children of this land.

      https://x.com/Lewis_Brackpool/status/1818805776363712967

    1. Noooo!
      Sell it to the Muslims and transport every Muslim boatee there, the instant they arrive on our beaches.

      No benefits, no money, nothing. Let their community support them

    2. The same scheme sems to be under way over here. There were reports of some rich muslim trying to buy an island that lies between the US and Canadian mainland.

      1. Probably just a rumour. They are normally a lot more sneaky than that. If they thought there would be any type of resistance they would have used a proxy.

    3. Calvin Robinson should know the indigenous inhabitants of the UK spilled their blood to stop invaders taking possession of their realm , our little islands are ours as well .

  169. – Just imagine if we had this Labour government in power back when Germany invaded Poland
    They would have said that it wasn't a Third Reich inspired attack at all, but a bunch of 17 year olds from Wales and then blamed the Polish for resisting

  171. Tightens the noose of control… they can say that someone is a member, so go directly to jail, without having to prove anything for ages – so, another person locked away without any justification.

  172. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13694487/Terrified-imam-rapped-Southport-mosque-hours-riots.html

    A 'terrified' imam who was trapped in a Southport mosque as it came under attack during violent riots has admitted that he feared the thugs would 'burn the place down' with him inside.

    Ibrahim Hussein said he is at a loss as to why people shouting abuse and throwing missiles had targeted Southport mosque and that he had feared rioters would at one point break in and set the Muslim place of worship on fire.

    Crowds of violent thugs – many of whom are thought to have come from outside Southport – launched bricks, torched a police van and left 53 officers injured during the riots.
    —————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13694661/Protesters-three-girls-stabbed-death-Southport-Whitehall-riots.html

    Violent clashes have erupted between right-wing protesters and police in London this evening – as Britain braces itself for a second night of riots over the death of three girls in the Southport knife rampage.

    Police were forced to put on riot gear after chanting activists threw cans and launched flares outside Downing Street as tensions continue to grow following the stabbing frenzy at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport on Monday

    1. 'many of whom are thought to have come from outside Southport'
      so just speculation then that becomes mainstream.
      just what they were blaming social media for.

    2. At a loss to understand why? About as in touch with the general population as the government.

  173. Just a thought.

    There is an Island for sale in the middle of the Mediterranean.
    We could send all the world's Muslims there to live as they choose.

    Once they are all there we could reveal it's Atlantis, and watch it disappear along with them, without trace.

    Question:
    Would the world be a better or worse place?

    1. They don't want to live peacefully as Muslims, they want to whole world to be Muslim.
      They are a bit like socialists

      2. Exactly , The middle east had modern societies , then Islam took over , women lost the right to dress nicely , have fun play music drive cars have a career .. how has that happened in our life time ?

        Why?

      3. Even if (when?) the whole world becomes muslim, they'd still be fighting each other.

  174. So many muslims just never live in peace.They never have since it was founded.

    3. That's because every single place they are on the surface of the planet earth, they deliberately set out to cause trouble.

    1. The building to the left is Richmond House Whitehall for which I was project architect 1982-87. The building central marks the start of Parliament Street. Downing Street is opposite beyond the Cenotaph.

      The IRA were active in this area during my building’s construction.

      At that time the entrance to Downing Street was fenced off from the public with the present railngs. I was directed to design and install decorative iron railings at the end of Derby Gate as a similar protective measure such was the concern in the political class for their own safety.

  177. Young eco-catastrophists are clueless about real nature
    Childhoods are no longer being spent outdoors, but lost in an online world that evangelises climate doom – Judith Woods
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/07/31/young-eco-catastrophists-are-clueless-about-real-nature/

    Labour council suffers backlash over ‘draconian’ meat and dairy ban
    Countryside Alliance and farmers union criticise Labour-run Calderdale after move to 100pc plant-based catering at local authority events
     https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/07/31/yorkshire-council-suffers-backlash-over-meat-and-dairy-ban/

    The state of the world. Judith Woods's only slightly off-key moment is praising David Attenborough for his work in conservation, omitting to mention he's a fully paid up member of the School Of Doom.

    Elsewhere, Yorkies put world't'rights.

    New signs marking Yorkshire's old boundaries put up in push back against modern counties

    Campaigners keen to keep history and heritage alive mark boundaries with official signage 50 years after ancient counties were abolished

    Daniel Martin, DEPUTY POLITICAL EDITOR • 31 July 2024 • 6:36pm

    New road signs have been erected marking the boundaries of the three Yorkshire Ridings – 50 years after they were abolished.

    England's largest county was for centuries divided into three ridings – north, east and west – but these were wiped from the map in 1974. Some areas were handed to neighbouring counties, such as Lancashire.

    Now, as residents celebrate Yorkshire Day on Aug 1, campaigners from the Yorkshire Ridings Society and the Historic Counties Trust have put up official signs to denote the boundaries of the original ridings. The first six signs have been erected on the border of the North Riding along the River Tees, which used to be the northern boundary of the county.

    Nigel Wilkin, of the Yorkshire Ridings Society, said: "It's important to do this because the historic counties of England are over 1,100 years old. They continue to exist despite changes to local government areas. If we don't make this effort we run the risk that the history, heritage and cultural identity of these areas will disappear. We are trying to promote and explain to people that the ridings haven't gone away. While local government can change according to the whim of politicians, historic counties do not."

    The ancient county of Yorkshire is so large because it descends from an independent state, the Viking kingdom of Jorvik. Because it was too large to administer as a normal county, it was divided into three ridings (the word comes from the Norse word for "third"), centring on York.

    The boundaries of Yorkshire were marginally altered when county councils were formed in 1889, and then dramatically changed under Edward Heath's 1974 reforms. Much of the east went to the new county of Humberside and an area in the north-east went to a new county called Cleveland. Other areas went to Co Durham, Cumbria, Lancashire and Greater Manchester. At the same time, the county councils for the historic ridings were abolished, and replaced by North Yorkshire, West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire, all of which had completely different boundaries.

    The first North Riding sign was unveiled in April at Croft, a village on the Tees near Darlington. Since then, five signs have been erected in and around Stockton-on Tees, which used to be partly in the North Riding, but is now in Co Durham.

    The Yorkshire Ridings Society insist that even though the county councils were abolished, they did not alter them as "cultural, geographic and historic" places. They say the ridings have a history lasting more than 1,000 years and "continue to exist to this day". The signs have been financed entirely by donation, but North Yorkshire council has helped facilitate their erection.

    The first priority is to put up road signs on the boundaries of the North Riding, but the others could soon follow. Doing so along the boundaries of the West Riding would need the co-operation of Lancashire.

    Yorkshire Day is held every year on Aug 1 to celebrate the 1759 battle of Minden, where the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry gained renown. The day also commemorates the passing of the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 following the work of Yorkshire MP William Wilberforce.

    The day was launched in 1975 in protest at the previous year's local government reorganisation.

    Two days ago, Tom Pidcock became the first Yorkshireman to gain a medal at the Paris Olympics when he won gold in mountain biking. In 2012, Yorkshire would have finished 12th in the medals table had it been an independent country.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/07/31/yorkshires-ridings-battle-back-with-erection-of-road-signs/

    1. "dramatically changed under Edward Heath's 1974 reforms."

      Heath was Prime Minister, true enough, but the damage was done by the evil monster Heseltine who is still strutting his stuff.

      Regardless of that, Sam Small is and always will be a man of the West Riding.

          3. And with The Reiver's cancellation of capital projects, Tarzan will probably be dead before the Farthinghoe bypass crosses his land and spoils his view.

        2. On the main road between Yorkshire and Lancashire, LCC have erected a sign which says: "Welcome to Lancashire where everyone matters". In the opposite directrion some locals have erected a sign which says: "Welcome to Yorkshire where no booger gives a chuff!:

    2. A little bit of information missing there. The Vikings always divided their territories into thirds and always east, west and north. Never south because in Norse mythology the south is the land of the gods. There could never be a South Riding.

        2. I know but it’s wrong. There was never a South Riding in the Viking kingdom of Jorvik nor since then, until the ignorance of modern times. Riding means a third. East, west and north.

          1. I knew that when I named the company, but I was being provocative to those who knew. Those who didn't know just accepted it. And I was in competition with South Yorkshire Transport.

            Also, don't forget Winifred Holtby's novel of 1936 "South Riding".

  180. I have! In fact I had a Finnish Workawayer here for a couple of weeks about five years ago. He was a forestry specialist who decided to migrate south for the winter as there was no work for him in winter so came in November. A really nice man who worked wonders on the many trees I have in the grounds – not so keen on the flowerbeds though 🤣 Loved his food and wine and also the fact that I was happy to let him smoke a post-dinner pipe inside! Good company but not in the least bit intrusive and took himself off every day to explore some quite big, managed woodlands we have around here.

  181. It's now 10 pm, so time for me to "climb the wooden stairs to Bedfordshire". Good night all, sleep well, and see you all tomorrow, hopefully rested.

  183. Grrr…

    Had a letter from Frimley Park Horse Spittle today, advising me that my appointment at the eye clinic on 24 July was unfortunately cancelled, and rescheduled for late August. Date of said letter? 24 July. I was unaware of said appointment, so I'm rather glad I didn't try to attend. Frimley Park is arguably one of the best horse spittles in the South East. So (at least, according to the Lib Dem fuckwit who is now my MP) it's under threat of closure by the evil Torrrees… None of whom are still MPs…

    Had a letter within the last two weeks, saying that my boiler would be serviced on Monday 29 July, pm (i.e. between 13:00 and 17:00).

    Did anyone turn up? Not bloody likely. But a foreign bloke turned up today, Wednesday, at 17:30, just as I was heading towards the shower, to service my boiler. I may have been rather brusque… But the boiler is good for another year…

    1. My boiler servicer was due to arrive yesterday "after 2pm" – he turned up at 3.00. Can't complain about that. My boiler, too, is good for another year.

      1. Lucky you. One hour late is rather better than two days, with no contact. I'm pissed off because I stayed in all day Monday, when I really needed to go shopping. So I was reduced to eking out food from the freezer. Finally succumbed to an Amazon delivery this evening, from the Co-op. At least I now have a packet of "Irresistible" Sea Salt and Chardonnay Wine Vinegar crisps…

        It's taken seven months for the new landlord to deal with grounds maintenance. I suspect that my phone call to our "housing officer", who promised fortnightly visits, but has appeared once since February (I doubt whether she would have answered her mobile, had she recognised my number) finally produced a result. But I don't know, since she never got back to me last Thursday as promised. But the grass has finally been cut. Mentioning that half of our six properties' front lawns had only been cut by a bilateral below-knee amputee may have helped.

    2. Bad luck Geoff. For several weeks I have been contacting the two guys who installed our plumbing (4 phone calls and an email – zero response) Finally my early morning call to them this morning was answered and I learned that they were probably too busy to undertake my annual boiler service ( required as part of the 8 year guarantee requirement). So I telephoned a company that I had seen a neighbour (commercial architect) had used Ultra Warm, HQ at Diss. By 9:30 they confirmed a qualified engineer would do the service between 12:00 noon and 4:00 pm today. Engineer arrived at 2:00pm and within an hour had completed the service. Cost £100 + vat. 5****

      1. I was initially rather harsh with the guy who came today. But it wasn't his fault that the prolly WFH back office failed miserably to keep me in the loop. I expect I'll get another letter from them in the next few weeks…

  185. Good evening, all. Been a real scorcher here today. Went to a plant fair and bought a few perennials.

    Labour is the nasty party, so why anyone should be surprised when they stick the boot in, I have no idea.

  186. BTL Comment:

    "As a pensioner I’m thinking the only option with this mean government is to go out begging. ‘Pensioner with 133,000 junior doctors to support. Please give generously!’

    And with that Good Night!

      1. BBC1 10pm news had a brief piece from its Department of Truth, blaming other demos today on misinformation, especially about immigration (we saw a picture of TR, natch). On the specific matter of the Southport murderer, it is correct to say he is not an immigrant (although the Arthur Wellesley dictum applies) but no one yet knows if there is a link of some kind to Islam, which this report dismissed.

        The BBC was taking a very literal approach to the demos, as though they only happened because the dim-witted 'far right' yobs thought the murderer was a Muslim just off one of the boats. Perhaps one or two do – but perhaps many more are quite capable of looking beyond Southport and don't like what they see. The BBC won't discuss that, will it?

        Nevertheless, we must all be careful of the blizzard of info out there.

        1. That BBC approach is to take charge of the "optics" – if that's what they write, then it must be so. Far Right (the excuse for so long now…) my arse.

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