Wednesday 6 April: For too long the West has tiptoed around Russia instead of reining it in

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

556 thoughts on “Wednesday 6 April: For too long the West has tiptoed around Russia instead of reining it in”

      1. Embarrassing – and, although I have little time for the man – very sad.
        And very worrying for the western world.

      2. You’d think given the amount of effort put in to installing the bloke they’d at least show some interest in him.

    3. Yes, it is sad. He should be properly cared for, not trying to do a job he’s patently not fit for.
      That film almost makes me feel sorry for Joe Biden!

  4. When I was still employable, I was asked in a job application form what gets me up in the morning.

    The correct answer is eagerness to provide a quality of service, meet diversity targets and interpersonal skill requirements, present an appropriate corporate image and go the extra mile. The true answer is much more down-to-earth, and far more nutritious for the roses.

    Where can I get hold of recycled toilet paper that doesn’t disintegrate in my fingers the moment I use it for its intended purpose?

    I feel on principle that such paper should be recycled, and that trees cut down from the woods be put to better use. However, in their drive to make their product fluffy and stylish and soft as a puppy’s bottom, complete with fancy patterns on each embossed sheet, I need at least a dozen sheets simply to clean up without getting it all over my hands.

    25 years ago, I remember buying a roll in the Netherlands that was cheap, a dismal grey colour and looked like reconstituted newspaper, and was anything but stylish, but it did the job.

    1. Morning Jeremy. That Izal stuff was tough. It just kept skating off your bottom!

      1. I think Bronco was softer, but not much. Somewhere in between would be nice though.

          1. “Tearing across the Texas plain” is a rather delicate way of putting it!

    2. What gets me out of bed in the morning? Radio 4. It develops such rage in me that I have to get away from it.

      Apparently this wasn’t an appropriate answer, despite being honest.

  5. Morning all.

    SIR – Anyone who saw the first episode of Thatcher & Reagan: A Very Special Relationship will have understood why, in recent years, Russia has been allowed to perpetrate the most appalling crimes in Syria and Ukraine.

    The death and torture of so many innocent people is due, in part, to the weakness of the Western world. We all want peace, but wringing our hands and saying we dare not get involved in case Vladimir Putin uses a nuclear weapon is simply not good enough.

    Thatcher and Reagan would have made sure that anyone who really threatened peace was completely deterred by the threat of even fiercer retaliation. Spending money on effective deterrents, backed up by strong words, would have saved much heartache and bloodshed – and although it might have made us poorer in the short term, I am sure we would now consider it money well spent.

    Peter Fairs

    Colchester, Essex

    SIR – For how much longer will the weak and vacillating West continue to watch the destruction of a sovereign nation and its people? Witness Bucha and Mariupol.

    When I hear that we must tighten sanctions, I wonder why they are not tight already. The West needs to stand up to Mr Putin now.

    Geoff Millward

    Sandside, Cumbria

    SIR – It is now abundantly clear that Mr Putin, along with elements of his administration, security forces and military, are the ones who need to be denazified.

    Oliver Tyson

    Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire

    SIR – I trust Western governments will make it clear that, whether or not the Ukrainian and Russian governments reach an agreement to end the war, no sanctions will be lifted until all war criminals have faced justice at the International Criminal Court.

    Rodney Francis

    Brentwood, Essex

    SIR – The Foreign Secretary’s “maximum level” of sanctions will only be achieved once Russia has no friends left.

    Sympathetic countries, including the Nato member Hungary, must be made to choose: align with the West or face sanctions and economic oblivion. Only this approach will have the desired effect on the Russian war machine.

    The world cannot be allowed to forget the terrible scenes and stories of torture and murder. We must be willing to bear the cost of sanctions and increased military spending for years to come.

    Martin Whapshott

    Frimley, Surrey

    SIR – Surely the time is now long past for Russia to be expelled from the United Nations Security Council altogether.

    Its permanent membership can no longer be tolerated.

    Alan F Judge

    Deeping St James, Lincolnshire

    1. Letters fuelled by propaganda, if not letters from the Ministry of Truth. It really is quite amazing how few people are unaware of the full time deception being played by the Ukrainians. Including photos from other events and “dead people” that move after they think the photo op is finished. If there are any war crimes to be had it will be the Neo-Nazi Azov Battalion and others like them, working on behalf of Ukraine, who have been using civilians as human shields in Mariupol and threatening those who want to leave with death.

      1. If Mariupol was not being shelled to dust, there would be no point in putting human shields there.

        I would like to see before and after pictures of your moving corpses. The news broadcast I saw from satellite images taken from space and datestamped had the corpses in the same position for weeks.

        1. But it’s been shelled for eight years by the Ukrainians. That French journalist made her film in 2015.

          1. Indeed, and a lot of it was a response to a pro-Russian uprising, which itself in protest at Maidan removing an elected president who cancelled Ukraine’s application to join the EU with an intention also to apply for NATO membership. There has been instability in Mariupol since 2014.

            Nevertheless, the city was largely intact until six weeks ago. It seems to be pretty well totally destroyed now.

            Strategically, one cannot underestimate its importance. The Sea of Azov, with its fisheries and that it is a large sea with an easily guarded gateway at the Strait of Kerch, has had to be shared between two nations, and it is understandable that Russia would dearly like it for itself. It is also a point where a belligerent Ukraine would be a constant thorn in the side of Russia, given Russia’s limited coastline on the Black Sea.

            The neo-Nazi pro-Ukrainian Azov Batallion was only formed after the pro-Russian uprising in 2014, but has since been incorporated into the national armed forces of Ukraine. Russia cannot be happy about this.

            I do think that the incorporation of Crimea and the Azov coastline into Russia is a legitimate military objective, albeit one that the international community would frown on, and would face heavy objection from Ukraine which is only to be expected.

            What really turns me against Russia though is the brutal manner in which they have conducted this military operation, including attacks on Northern Ukrainian cities that have nothing to do with the dispute in the Donbas. I do feel that substantial war crimes over and above normal military tactics between enemies condemn Russia far more than they do Ukraine, and that Russia needs now to pay a heavy penalty if we are not to set a horrible example for other nations to follow.

          2. The neo nazi stuff has been around in Ukraine since the second world war. I think the stuff that happened before, including the Maidan revolution, were also brutal. It was brutal to use Ukraine for money-laundering and other illegal activities. Criminals are not better because they sit several thousand miles away with clean fingers.

          3. Dan Bongino recently described Ukraine as the ATM for every corrupt American politician occupying the swamp in Washington.

            To those with open minds and discernment Ukraine is an utterly corrupt country run by oligarchs. We read about Hunter and Joe Biden but hundreds of other corrupt politicians have taken bribes from Ukraine and some from Russia as well (viz. Bidens who hedged their bets).

    2. The Nazi’s were a specific group with a clear agenda. Suggesting everyone you dislike in a vague attempt to demonise them is a Nazi is immature, same as calling everyone a narcissist is.

  6. I was called a ‘disgusting human being’ in the comments section of the DM yesterday. Perhaps I was called more than that, I didn’t bother to look any further when I checked. I had 73 downvotes. I had received an email from the DM to say they had received complaints about my comment so they had decided to remove it. It was only two lines long, I did not use bad language, I was perfectly polite. I presented a different point of view on the Russian/Ukraine debacle. I recall Churchill’s comment “If you have upset somebody, good! You have stood up for yourself in some way.” It may not have been Churchill, it may have been Margaret Thatcher, I can see her saying that too. poppiesmum.

    http://disq.us/p/2o85lct

    There is a concerted effort on all the MSM threads at the moment to drive off any reasoned opinion about Ukraine. If you are not foaming at the mouth for War with Russia then you are going to be abused and swamped by adverse posts. Judging by the standards and nature of the comments along with the organised Downvotes ploy it is almost certainly 77 Brigade.

        1. A perfectly reasonable comment. And, I would say, perfectly right. But it seems that our establishment is not interested in facts, just propaganda and a demonization of Russia and the Russian people in a way that is out of all proportion to what is actually happening. Perhaps it has to do with deflecting from the true guilty parties in this mess? And we know that the guilty are certainly not the Russians or Putin. The foam flecked diatribes against him are absurd and seem to be designed to make any compromise impossible. It is very totalitarian in attitude. Guided, in my opinion, by little men.

        2. On Al Jazeera recently their chief correspondent in the Ukraine was complaining bitterly that all press releases were coming

          directly from the presidential palace, and that no western press reporters were attempting to check the honesty or

          accuracy of these press releases, but just accepting them without question.

          ……so now we have an independent view of the situation.

        3. The comments are depressingly vicious and polarised. The people saying “Russians have form” seem to be forgetting that last time Russians were on the move through Europe, the Ukrainians were part of the Russian army though.

    3. I responded to poppiesmum’s comment yesterday thus:

      “Your DM comment can be repeated here, and not taken down unless it is a personal ad hominem assault on someone here. Good-natured dissidence is always welcome here, especially if it can provoke a like-for-like response from an opponent.

      I have been fairly lurid in recent days myself against the Russian invasion, and have myself descending into calling for the extermination of these brutes like a pestilence of rats. I expect anyone reading Goebbels would have said the same about the Jews.

      However, it troubles me greatly to think that these horrible images swamping the news are a genuine report of the situation there, and I wish deeply and sincerely that they were all a product of the Zelenskyy Propaganda Unit, as serious as his piano playing.”

      The reports coming out right now are so horrible, it is like expressing a reasoned opinion about the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. One would need a cast iron stomach and the objectivity of a computer to make sense of it all.

      1. I wish deeply and sincerely that they were all a product of the Zelenskyy Propaganda Unit…

        There are of course individual acts as one would expect in any War Zone (Rape in Vietnam) (Murder in Iraq) (Drone Strikes on civilians in Afghanistan) but the main theme here that there is some uniquely Russian Horror taking place is Ukrainian propaganda.

        1. Considering the circumstances, this is only to be expected. It would be odd if the Ukrainians were not grumbling about the invasion.

          All the evidence I see suggests though that Russian atrocities are not isolated occurences (as your use of “individual acts” suggests) but are widescale and endemic.

          I would like to see counter-evidence that shows to me otherwise. Intact towns and cities, with the odd bullet holes and people there going about their business despite the tanks and checkpoints would do.

    4. People live in a state of terror of being disagreed with. When they’re challenged, they don’t know how to think to resolve the conflict, so they attack the messenger.

  7. Dismissed by the GP

    SIR – Like Denise Beevers (Letters, April 4), my husband was told to find another doctor. We had been with our surgery for more than 40 years.

    Our dismissal was prompted by a recent request for a home visit, which could not take place as we live “outside the catchment area”. We live 2.8 miles away. A private company contracted to the local NHS trust to provide home visits to patients such as us saw fit to try to call at 1.12 am, and we have been told that even this company cannot now provide us with home visits.

    My husband has medical conditions that need constant monitoring. As the surgery fears that he will need to be seen increasingly regularly and home visits are effectively out of the question, we are asked to go elsewhere. Whatever happened to the Patients’ Charter, and “our” NHS?

    Jane E Everson,

    Leicester

    1. Whatever happened to the Patients’ Charter, and “our” NHS?

      One doesn’t know whether to Laugh or Cry!

  9. Published just over a year ago – in case you missed it:

    Possibly one of the best BTL comments ever:

    Finknottle • 4 hours ago • edited
    How did an enigma like Theresa May become PM? How indeed? Given the numbers that try to climb the greasy pole of British politics, it is an enduring wonder that quite so many second-raters have managed to get to the top over the last 30 years.

    I can’t imagine history will be any kinder to them than I am about to be.

    (Posted this previously, almost a year ago, so apologies for repetition but little has changed)

    Theresa May – As rightly famous for her personal warmth, political flexibility and persuasiveness as she is for her lithe and lissom grace on a dance floor. Like Rosa Klebb without the naïve charm. She lied throughout her premiership; to the people, to Parliament and to her closest party “allies”. She made aggressive noises towards Brussels and then cravenly backed down. Similarly she made patriotic, pro-Brexit noises in her early pronouncements but secretly started backing away from all of her promises step by step as the process went on. She is a walking case-study in how NOT to be an effective PM, every facet of her premiership was a failure. Lacking any vision to see any opportunity in Brexit and thus lacking the ability to convince either side on her unpalatable compromises. Actively undermining the efforts of her own Minister in charge of Leaving the EU by secretly carrying on parallel negotiations in the shadows with a foreign power – all at the behest of her witch’s familiar, Olly Robbins.

    Tony Blair – The most shameless leader we’ve ever had and the sincerest man that money can buy. Would do and say absolutely anything in the pursuit of his ultimate goal – that of high office within the EU. He long felt that scuppering Brexit was his best hope of achieving his dream. To that end he actively colluded with M Macron, the leader of a foreign power, trying to undermine his own country’s position in negotiations in the hope that if the EU gave us nothing we could be bullied into a humiliating capitulation. He has spent the years since leaving office selling influence and connections to help central Asian dictators and amassing a fortune from his work with, and for, some deeply unsavoury characters, all whilst strutting the world stage as the (laughably titled) Middle East Peace Envoy.
    I’d no more trust his motives than I would trust Jean-Claude Juncker with the keys to the wine cellar.

    Gordon Brown – Still grimly continuing to try and distance himself from any culpability in the various messes he gifted the nation, even though it was he who signed the Lisbon treaty – knowing full well that it was essentially the same as the EU Constitution that he and Mr Blair had promised us a referendum on. Thought he’d get away with it by pushing the treaty through Parliament before it could be properly scrutinised. Though, even by his low standards, he could hardly have looked more shifty when, after all the other EU leaders had signed the Lisbon treaty in front of the cameras, he slunk in like a thief in the night – as though missing the ‘photo-op’ would absolve him of blame. Scottish devolution was another Brown inspired debacle. Has spent the years since office glowering with his one good eye and writing pieces for the left wing press highlighting all the problems we face as a nation yet never once stopping to consider his part in creating those problems. A socialist Ted Heath – all simmering resentment in public, no doubt boiling over when behind closed doors.

    Sir John Major – Weirdly, could have been a crowd favourite if he’d handled his own PR better – and grown a pair. His early life shows he was a rebel at heart. John Major’s father was a circus performer. It is a tired old cliché of rebellion, that of running away from home to join the circus – but imagine Sir John, running away from the circus to become an accountant, and then to become the elected leader of the establishment. A far, far greater act of rebellion. Surely that makes Major the greatest rebel we ever had in No 10. HOWEVER, his inner greyness, once established, completely captured him and he became timid and weak. Witness his behaviour over the last 4 years – endlessly sniping from the sidelines, making unhelpful suggestions despite pleading – when having been in a similar position (to both Mrs May and Boris) – “Whether you agree with me or disagree with me; like me or loathe me, don’t bind my hands when I am negotiating on behalf of the British nation” I’d be interested to know when, in his opinion – that stopped being good advice?
    He spent much of the last 2 years advocating for a 2nd referendum, despite earlier stating (when he assumed Remain would win the referendum) “If we vote out, we are out, that’s it. It is not politically credible to go back and say that we have reconsidered, let’s have another referendum. If we vote to get out, then we are out and we will have to get on with it”. He went one better (or worse) by going to court to fight prorogation despite having prorogued Parliament himself in order to avoid embarrassment over the “Cash for Questions” issue. He is a steaming, canting hypocrite.

    David Cameron – A PR man of unplumbed intellectual shallows who believed he was born to rule. Only agreed to hold the referendum because he was convinced he would win it and thus finally slay the Euro-dragon that had done for previous Tory leaders. Managed the unique trick (though since copied) of talking tough to his domestic audience then going to Brussels, asking for very little and getting far less, then trying to sell it as a victory for Britain. His plans didn’t work out quite as he intended, though. Despite throwing all the weight of the establishment behind the Remain cause, despite drafting in the support of foreign leaders and every international economic institution, despite spending £9million of taxpayer’s money on a propaganda leaflet, he failed to convince the country and lost the referendum. …. BUT, at least Cameron had the good grace to recognise that he could not, in all honesty, lead the country towards the Brexit that he didn’t believe in and so he resigned. It was the only commendable thing he did.

    The irrepressible “Sage of Canning Town”, Danny Dyer, maybe had it right when he described Mr Cameron as a Tw*t but, oddly, not for the reasons he gave. Though, when compared to these 4 other recent PMs, Cameron stands out as a beacon of probity, integrity and rectitude, ….. I guess all things are relative.

    In a dung heap even a plastic bead gleams like a sapphire.

    My critique of Boris, now made somewhat redundant by subsequent events, can wait. He achieved some sort of Brexit deal for which he is to be commended. His Covid policies have been haphazard and inconsistent. No doubt the vaccine roll-out stands as a triumph but much else could and should have been handled better (easy with the benefit of hindsight, I appreciate).

    But I do believe that even among such dreadful leaders as Blair and Brown, Mrs May will stand out as the worst, most inept and, frankly, most duplicitous PM of my lifetime. From the article above, the fact that she clearly was unaware of her own mind, except a vastly over inflated sense of her ability to govern, says it all.

    Now that we are outside the EU, politicians have no easy scapegoat for their failures. Maybe this will encourage some real leadership, because to be honest, when I look back on the leaders and front-benchers we have had since Mrs Thatcher was forced out of office, I wouldn’t trust most of them to be able to pour water out of a welly if you wrote instructions on the heel!

    1. If Boris Johnson loses the election, I imagine Mrs May will have to relinquish her top spot as the worst PM of our lifetime, just as Boris Johnson toppled Sir Ken Livingstone’s honour in the same manner after the former HIGNFY host resigned and was replaced by someone worse to run London.

    2. 351859+ up ticks,

      Morning S,
      The major was the start of the rapid decline, mayday
      leadership farce involved
      ALL laying down as a path
      for the already selected mayday.

      The gove assassin / pm candidate, johnson the victim, leadson found the kitchen to hot supposedly
      ALL complicit, been so since the farce opening day.
      The main thing was the
      “Party” comes first and had to have a leader of whatever quality.

    2. I was only discriminated against 4 times that I recall, in the USA. Two were Irish Americans = morons, who still think the great potato famine is raging and that the English and Irish are mortal enemies. The sort that live in a fantasy, in other words and, of course, have never been to Ireland or the UK. The type that slobber over “Danny Boy” into their beers.

      The other two times were blacks. One tried to “sucker punch” me for no reason at all, unless you count crossing the street on a green light as provocation. The other occasion was waiting for the BART. The local intercity train at the Berkeley stop. Tried to pick a fight because I was white. Laid into them, verbally, by pointing out that just because I was white didn’t make me an American and that my people had nothing to do with their problems, so go punch up someone else. Backed off and left me alone. But the fact is that you always think of blacks on the street as dangerous and the simple reason is they are. And I’m not racist. Had plenty of friends who were black but most of them were from Africa. The dynamics between them and black Americans was quite interesting. Black Africans do not see black Americans as the same as them at all. I found that black Africans actually preferred me rather than have dealings with black Africans because, being English, we actually had some sort of shared history and thus something in common. That is not the case with Black Africans and black Americans, black Africans look down on them.

      1. I’ve been to several African countries and the people I’ve met there are invariably civilised and interesting people. Nothing like the street rioters here or in America.

        1. The Anglican rector in my village in the 1990s, who is from Devon, was made into an African bishop because he could speak Swahili and kept the peace between two warring local factions.

          When he came back on a visit, one thing that struck me was that Africans are pathologically incapable of praying quietly, We could hear them in the next village. Maybe they argue that God is a long way away, so they have to make a lot of noise when praising Him?

          3. AS Ndovu says: “Just exuberant”. There was a Black church in my neighbourhood. It was always fun passing it on a Sunday, the place was bursting at the seams with loud music and singing, pure joy, that was a pleasure to hear. Most unlike the funereal Episcopal Church.

          4. In 1984, having sailed across the Atlantic, we were in Bequia at Christmas.

            I went to the midnight service on Christmas Eve and sat next to an enormous Bequian woman who was very loud, very brightly dressed and very full of joy. She hugged me and everyone else in range and shouted Hallelujah from time to time with tremendous gusto.

        2. It’s because they’re constantly told they’re special and important without having to earn it.

          As a consequence, they believe they are – and then they see reality and realise that, actually, they’re not the centre of the world. This creates a massive chip on their shoulder. After all, you’re told you’re more important and deserve what others have.

          As my coal black Nigerian chum would say, get into school and work, you lazy sod. This from a bloke who flunked his GCSEs, got a lecture from his father about being a lazy bum, saw his Mum cry at how he’d let her down, got kicked out of his home and went on to take 5 a Levels (when they meant something), a degree in a compressed time, his masters, doctorate and then another one in some obscure thing I can’t remember.

          He’s still black slave scum to me though. The bugger calls me pale face colonist, so it’s only fair.

      2. That is not the case with Black Africans and black Americans, black Africans look down on them.

        Just as an aside Johnathan. West Indians hate Pakistanis!

        1. My best friend for many years, until Trump came along, was a Kshatriya from Jamaica, a brilliant and very cultivated individual as only high cast Indians can be. Graduate of both Oxford and Harvard. He was the epitome of kindness and consideration. However, if it had been at all possible, he would have had every Pakistani on the planet slaughtered. It was quite extraordinary how much he detested them and wanted them exterminated.

        4. Most of the mini cab drivers around here in Brun are Pakistanis and they never hesitate to express their disdain for Somalis and “blacks”.
          It seems like racism is truly multi cultural.

          1. Morning John. Of course it is! It’s quite natural. It’s in all our genes. The attempt to eradicate it is a futile errand!

  12. Now that marriage between a man and a woman has been downgraded to allow unilaterally and without justification any professional divorcee to claim the kids, the family home and half the pension of any man who will not identify according to Diversity rules, can anyone here tell me what is the point of marriage?

    1. The new law presents an interesting concept that a legal contract between two people can be broken by just one side without penalty. That is before you get into division of children and assets.

    2. None. The left have been calling marriage “a meaningless bit of paper” for years, and now they’ve succeeded in reducing it to just that, with enthusiastic help from David Cameron and vicar’s daughter Theresa May.
      My son, at 18 years old said “you’d have to be insane to get married” – he and his friends are absolutely aware of the situation.
      Destroying marriage is a key part of destroying a country. No society can last for long without stable families to bring up psychologically healthy children.
      The gold standard for raising healthy children has been proven to be a man and a woman in a stable, lasting relationship; it has also been shown that more than 9 out of ten couples who don’t get married will split before their child is 16.
      This is one battle that the left has comprehensively, hands down won. We have to get marriage back if we are to build a new, stable society.

      2. In California 14 year olds were aware of what your 18 year old son said and had no intention of getting married or having kids. Most I knew were from single parent mother lead households and did not respect women or girls at all. On the contrary, they saw them as the enemy.

        1. A dysfunctional relationship with their mother (mummy’s boy or hating women) seems to be a particular problem with single mothers and sons in my experience too – predictably, really.

      3. The state has spent years trying desperately to destroy the family unit. It redefines it, removes the tax benefits, punishes it – everything.

        Why? Because the nuclear family doesn’t need it. It doesn’t need the welfare, doesn’t raise the criminals, doesn’t want the control systems, it is self regulating and autonumous. Big government hates the family.

        Yet… it cannot exist without the taxes that the workers in the family provide, and will in future provide. It both hates and relies upon it. This is why society is collapsing. The state has spent so long destroying the working, law abiding, decent family unit that there’s nothing left.

        The solution’s simple: scrap welfare. When some bint shacks up with el twonk, don’t give them a house. Don’t give them a penny. They made the choice thinking Joe Soap would be forced to pay for them, they should find out that he won’t. Let their parents pay for them.

    3. There isn’t any Jeremy. None at all. The wife will get most of what you have and also get your children. You, of course, can live in a one room flat, live off gruel, shut up and work to pay the ex as if she were incapable of doing anything other than mooch.

        1. Almost, although when she put in her claim with the Child Support Agency, she was earning three times more as a headteacher than I was as a junior civil servant, but didn’t want to declare it, since it undermined her victim status. They changed the rules to disregard ex-wife’s earnings because the Major Government decreed this was unfair to women.

          1. I understand Jeremy, believe me. I was reduced to eating Top Rahman soup for a year with frozen vegetables in them as a meal every day. The Court actually wanted more from me than made it possible to function. Had to give up my job because I could not pay the fare to go to work.

          2. I was active with the Network Against the Child Support Act in the 1990s. The CSA had their regional headquarters in Dudley, just opposite the Merry Hill shopping centre.

            One day, one of our members parked his car in the entrance of the CSA sideways on, and then went to do some leisurely shopping all afternoon. Nobody could get in or out. When he returned, he found a parking ticket along with a handwritten note from Plod which said that he had to issue this ticket because that was his job, but one of his colleagues was forced into retirement because of the Child Support Act, and that he was right behind what he was doing. This member said it was the best £60 he has ever spent.

        2. Happened to me too, with the last wife. The Daughter of the Anti-Christ. Everything gone. All I had left was a backpack of clothes. Fighting the @*&%$ just wasn’t worth it. Would not even let me see my son and the courts were useless. They automatically take the side of the mother. In truth they give not one jot for the welfare of the child. And this was a women who was eventually diagnosed as “Borderline Personality Disorder of the Narcissistic Kind”. But even then, she was still more worthy of looking after our son, the weapon, than I was.
          Joined Live Beat Dads as a result and heard horror stories that you wouldn’t believe. Family courts and the judges that inhabit them are evil people in my opinion.

    2. We are having a sort out and the local charities are benefitting. I take great delight in telling any masked assistants that we are no longer able to do gift aid because the government has mucked up our earning power.
      Well, everyone else has spent two years lying, so why shouldn’t we join in?

  14. Good morning, everyone. My dear wife’s birthday today and I have remembered to get a card!

    1. Well done.
      The DT and self have an agreement not to waste money on birthday cards, but we tend to keep our eyes open for little presents we know the other will like through the year.

        1. Well done Delboy. If either of us forgets it is more likely to be me! Alf is very good at remembering.

    3. Wish her the very best from Caroline and Rastus.

      I bet she’s a corker. Does she qualify as a Delgirl?

      How long have you been married?

      1. She is lovely. We met when she was 28 and I was 42. We have been married for 40 years.

        1. I met Caroline when she was 24 and I was 40 so we have a similar age gap as you and Delgirl! I must say I think that very few people are so lucky as to have as good a marriage as we do.

        2. Congratulations on your anniversary, Delboy.
          We will hit 40 years in July this year.

  15. During the ‘covid years’ many bizarre events have come to pass, the pair of revelations below appearing on social media within a day or two of each other is another bizarre event.

    I picked up on the Arizona University article via social media a day or two ago. The report is dated August 24th 2021. The following Stew Peter’s Show extract, somewhat cryptic, but strongly hinting at ‘The Biblical Snake’ appeared about the same time. Dr Ardis’s full revelations are due in around 10 days. Coincidence?

    Like Venom Coursing Through the Body: Researchers Identify Mechanism Driving COVID-19 Mortality
    Researchers have identified what may be the key molecular mechanism responsible for COVID-19 mortality – an enzyme related to neurotoxins found in rattlesnake venom.

    University of Arizona – Like Venom Coursing Through the Body

    Stew Peter’s Show video featuring Dr Brian Ardis:

    Dr Ardis – Watch the Water

    News Anchor:
    Setback in the quest to understand Coronavirus after a researcher is shot and killed. 37-year-old Bing Liu was on the verge of making significant findings on COVID-19.

  16. During the ‘covid years’ many bizarre events have come to pass, the pair of revelations below appearing on social media within a day or two of each other is another bizarre event.

    I picked up on the Arizona University article via social media a day or two ago. The report is dated August 24th 2021. The following Stew Peter’s Show extract, somewhat cryptic, but strongly hinting at ‘The Biblical Snake’ appeared about the same time. Dr Ardis’s full revelations are due in around 10 days. Coincidence?

    Like Venom Coursing Through the Body: Researchers Identify Mechanism Driving COVID-19 Mortality
    Researchers have identified what may be the key molecular mechanism responsible for COVID-19 mortality – an enzyme related to neurotoxins found in rattlesnake venom.

    University of Arizona – Like Venom Coursing Through the Body

    Stew Peter’s Show video featuring Dr Brian Ardis:

    Dr Ardis – Watch the Water

    News Anchor:
    Setback in the quest to understand Coronavirus after a researcher is shot and killed. 37-year-old Bing Liu was on the verge of making significant findings on COVID-19.

    1. I wrote a few days ago in respect of the Maggie & Ronnie programmes that “…the BBC is beginning to show signs of a move away from the left-leaning position it’s held for so long…”

      Perhaps the recent changes at the top of the BBC are beginning to have an effect.

  18. Good morning all

    Rain , wind and not very nice here .

    I put this on the DT comments , well whadyaknow.. the moderators dissed it … why?

    The Tax Poem

    Tax his land, Tax his bed, Tax the table at which he’s fed.

    Tax his tractor, Tax his mule, Teach him taxes are the rule.

    Tax his work, Tax his pay, He works for peanuts anyway!

    Tax his cow, Tax his goat, Tax his pants, Tax his coat. Tax his ties, Tax his shirt, Tax his work, Tax his dirt.

    Tax his tobacco, Tax his drink, Tax him if he tries to think.

    Tax his cigars, Tax his beers, If he cries tax his tears.

    Tax his car, Tax his gas, Find other ways to tax his ass.

    Tax all he has, Then let him know, That you won’t be done till he has no dough.

    When he screams and hollers, Then tax him some more, Tax him till he’s good and sore.

    Then tax his coffin, Tax his grave, Tax the sod in which he’s laid.

    Put these words Upon his tomb, ‘Taxes drove me to my doom…’

    When he’s gone, Do not relax, Its time to apply the inheritance tax.

    1. TBF: by being so outright strange, Savile fooled people of far higher intelligence.
      It was a double bluff; nobody that openly bizarre could be as weird as their appearance …. could they?
      Thank goodness younger son’s application to appear on ‘Jim’ll Fix It’ was unsuccessful.

      1. My elder son wanted him to arrange a visit to Legoland. Not sure if he actually got round to writing to him but they both enjoyed the programme.

      2. I loathed him from the moment he first came to my attention.

        I must admit that I am unfortunate in that my judgment and instincts are invariably right. It must be far better for a person like Geoffrey Woolard whose judgement and instincts are always wrong but he is completely and blissfully unaware of the fact.

      3. “….of higher intelligence”? come on Anne we’re talking about the BBC here

      4. It’s strange that at the time our three sons took an instant dislike to Saville.

          1. It must be in the breeding Anne. 😄😀
            I was around 12 and once riding my bike home from Swimming in Mil Hill and this man stopped me to ask the way some where which i knew as a country lane. He put his hand on my knee i kicked him in the balls. Natural reaction. 🤗

    2. “Charles and other members of the Royal Family had no idea Savile’s philanthropy was a cover for decades of abuse.

      ‘He [Charles] was duped, like we all were,’ the Netflix documentary’s director Rowan Deacon told The Times, adding: ‘The letters show the trust that Prince Charles put into Jimmy Savile. He was trying to appeal to the British people, trying to modernise. And he saw Jimmy Savile as his conduit to that. In hindsight, that was catastrophic.’ ”
      Your criticism is unfair.

        1. Especially among the insecure who feel a need to be reinforced through an association with a well known figure.

      2. I should imagine that Prince Charles has been noticed for his extreme ‘dupablity’ and as an easy victim for potential exploitation.

        He has been so easily taken in by the Greens that he must have been a complete push-over for Savile.

        I have been dismayed by the way that he, and his elder son, have been so venomous towards their respective brother and uncle. Families should support each other and, whether he is guilty or not, Prince Andrew has not been found guilty in court and insists that he is innocent. Maybe he is not innocent – but isn’t British Law based upon the presumption of innocence and why we must insist on habeas corpus and not, as many EU countries do, go for corpus juris.

        1. It is very difficult to understand another way of life.
          Although MB and I have dealt with people at their lowest, we still listen raptly to our cleaner’s accounts of her convoluted life; we could write the script, but that still doesn’t stop her outpourings holding a dreadful fascination. We’re no strangers to money shortages, but a few years of relative comfort does divorce you from all too many people’s every day struggles. Imagine if you have always been surrounded by money and flunkeys; how on earth do you have that visceral understanding? The same applies to Blair with his moneyed background as much as Chuck. Major started off in modest surroundings, but he has been bought off and no longer empathises with the petite bourgeoisie from which he comes.
          And I freely admit, even in our smallish borough, I heave a sigh of relief and recognition when I return to ‘our part of town’.

          1. Watching the news last night, of the trial and conviction of the ‘neighbour from hell’ who stabbed a man 27 times over a parking dispute, not a million miles from here (about 20) I felt very glad we live here, where we know our neighbours, for all their foibles, would always be good neighbours.

            There was a bit of dinner table chat going on the other evening, about various neighbours, and our N-d-n’s newish new chap said it was “like the Archers”.

        2. I think, Rastus, when it comes to the Royal Family, reports should be taken with a grain of salt. We don’t really know if Andrews family members have been “venomous” toward him. But what we do know is that we have a press and “royal correspondents”, who are on the gravy train, who’s interest is in manufacturing malicious and scandalous gossip. And because the royal Family rarely answers back it is easy for the press and other to get away with it. Plus, I am convinced that there is a deliberate attempt on the left to denigrate the Royal Family so that it ends up being abolished. So one has to be, taking in all those factors and more, extremely cautious about anything said about the Family.
          It goes without saying that I agree with you about English law. It was the primary reason that I did not support the EU.

    3. What about the parents who let their children be stroked and fondled by Biden while they just watch with a constrained smile.

    5. From the text of the article in that loathsome “newspaper”:

      “The day after the bombing, Charles wrote Savile and asked: ‘I wonder if you would ever be prepared to meet my sister-in-law, the Duchess of York?”

      “Charles wrote Savile”? Who is the editor of this idiotic rag? Some hillbilly boy from Chattanooga?

      1. Americanism. Ditto ‘protest’ instead of ‘protest about’ and ‘debate’ instead of ‘debate with’.

        1. Also ‘meet with’ (and ‘met with’) instead of, properly, ‘meet’ (and ‘met’).

      1. She was photographed and filmed in Dame Vera Lyn’s old house in Hendon NW4 The Downage. I’m not sure how but the charity managed to get their hands on it.

          1. Looks familiar Anne. I used to cycle to school and back past it quite often.
            I just looked on Google earth 2021, four very expensive cars on the drive.

  21. Good Moaning.
    I hate to say “I told you so” …. but I did.

    “‘I was told a person will come around and let me know what upgrades I need to make to meet the requirements,’ he added.

    ‘He specifically said I needed lockable windows, closable doors, extra fire alarms on each floor and a ‘Gas Safe’ certificate.

    ‘When I explained that the bedroom windows could be closed but not locked, that there was a smoke alarm on the ground floor but not on other floors and that I had never knowingly been issued with a Gas Safe certificate, he went a bit quiet.

    ‘He said that the inspectors could advise me what upgrades would be required to prepare my house to reach a suitable standard.

    ‘It feels a bit petty – there are no legal requirements to live in a house. I have lived in it myself for 15 years without requiring these things. It’s totally safe for my children and they are not legal requirements.’

    Mr Rundell continued: ‘The prescriptive list of requirements goes beyond what is required for my kids to live in my home.”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10689523/Famed-architect-Mike-Rundell-told-upgrade-multi-million-pound-house-refugees.html

    1. One thing is more than obvious his stair case balustrading is illegal as well especially if children might be resident. Window locks are easily remedied.

  22. Some bad news already over the sale of Channel 4, porn industry moguls have ruled out any potential buy out of the provider, an industry spokesman revealed that Channel 4 content was considered too implausible to be used in any movies and was unlikely to be taken seriously by the audience.

    The local Pizza Delivery Man was unavailable for comment.

  26. Wordle 291 4/6
    🟨🟩⬜⬜⬜
    🟩🟩🟩⬜⬜
    🟩🟩🟩⬜⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
    When it came to choosing the third word I had two obvious candidates. I chose the wrong one!

    2. Ditto. Also did Quordle quite easily for once, although the answers seems rather macabre.

    3. I wor locky.
      Wordle 291 5/6

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

      1. Wordle 291 5/6

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

        Not ‘Great’!

  28. A further step in the mind-boggling idiocy which is running the country into the grounnd – and has reduced the quality of life much more than shown by gaps between prices and incomes:

    ine new official symptoms of Covid-19 have just been added to the NHS website. Symptoms may or may not include the following:

    Sneezing in the past 10 months
    Possession of a cat
    Feeling like a week off (public sector only)
    A runny nose
    Memory loss, especially if employed by the DVLA, when you find it hard to remember the nature and place of your employment. (Perhaps because you haven’t been into the office since March 2020?)
    Netflix
    Fog. Not brain fog. Just fog. Any fog.
    Irritability following the ending of free Covid tests in England, thus making 3. less likely.
    Dry throat, splitting headache, intermittent vomiting, throbbing behind the eyes (not linked in any way to working your way through the cocktail menu in the Goat and Grapes).
    You have to laugh, although this is not really a laughing matter. Not when the new “symptoms” – which sound remarkably like the condition formerly known as “a bit of a cold” – are basically an open invitation to call in sick. Not when the NHS seriously appears to be suggesting that people with a blocked nose or a headache should “stay home and avoid contact”. Most especially not when Covid-related absences are still causing havoc in essential services such as schools, hospitals and airlines.

    I can’t be the only one who finds it startling that, on March 31, 120,000 pupils were off school with confirmed cases of Covid, even though nearly all of those kids must have had Covid at least once by now and many will have no symptoms whatsoever. (Perhaps the teenage habit of taking a screenshot of a positive test and reusing it several times is a factor?) On the same date, 46,000 teachers and 53,000 teaching assistants were off sick with the virus. Who knows, maybe adults also make sly use of screenshots of a positive test?

    This malarkey is meant to be over. Universal free Covid testing for the public was scrapped in England on Friday and – hey, whaddya know! – there has already been a massive drop in “cases”. On Monday, cases were down 33 per cent from a week ago. If people have to pay, turns out they don’t have any urgent need to do a lateral flow test after all. That is exactly how it should be.

    Despite bellows of protest from Labour and the trade unions, who have shamelessly used the pandemic to bash Boris and hold the Government to ransom, the fact is providing lateral flow tests gratis was costing taxpayers a maiming £2 billion a month. (There are better uses for that money; subsidising scary energy bills for the less well-off would be one.)

    Free national testing was also giving Covid a prominence it no longer merits. The wretched virus, which has dominated our lives for two years, must now take its place among scores of contagious critters that give rise to indistinguishable symptoms.

    Among people I talk to, cynicism about the high level of absences is spreading faster than the BA.2 variant. “Fortunately, I’m self-employed so immune to Covid,” quipped one Amazon delivery guy bitterly. The truth is, beyond the laptop classes and public-sector workers, most people simply don’t have the luxury of being able to miss another week of work.

    Of course, it is common courtesy not to expose colleagues to your high fever and to have a couple of days in bed if need be – just as you would with flu. It is common sense to postpone a visit to an elderly relative if you are ill. But ringing in to a school or an A&E department to announce you won’t be in again because, although you have no symptoms, your test is still “positive” on Day 8? Nope, sorry. That’s just taking advantage. Selfish – but Covid is the excuse that keeps on giving.

    The ramifications of this epidemic of absences are bleak for those who have suffered enough already. Schools have just broken up for Easter but, due to the staff absences quoted above, many were struggling to stay open anyway. About one in 12 teachers is off sick. Yet nearly all teachers will be triple vaccinated by now or will have Covid antibodies from prior infection. Dare I ask, how many of those missing from the classroom are actually, you know, unwell? Or incapable of stirring their stumps after a couple of days of rest to teach kids who have already missed so much of their precious education?

    Children? Hmmm… what are they again? The teaching unions seem to neither know nor care.

    In an open letter to Nadhim Zahawi, the Education Secretary, unions representing heads and college leaders say that “in the face of this extensive and ongoing disruption”, the decision “to remove free access to symptomatic and asymptomatic testing for almost all pupils and staff feels reckless in the extreme”.

    Hang on – it was testing staff and pupils who had no visible signs of illness that caused the crazy disruption in the first place.

    At long last, I’m delighted to report, the Government has stood up to the unions and advised children to go back to school “if they feel well enough to do so”. (The fact that it should be a remotely controversial idea tells you a lot about the feverish depths of our coronaphobia.)

    Millions of kids have missed weeks, even months, of school over the last two years when they weren’t remotely ill. Utter madness.

    Nadim Zahawi, Secretary of State for Education.
    When he became Education Secretary, Nadhim Zahawi said: “We can’t and won’t stand back and let attendance fall. The education of our children is simply too important.” CREDIT: Andrew Fox
    It’s hard to exaggerate the lethal legacy of lockdown for children. This week, a devastating Ofsted report confirmed what people like me have long feared.

    A generation of babies and toddlers is struggling to crawl and communicate. Infants who have spent a big percentage of every day gazing at masked faces don’t know how to form words. Parked for hours in front of the TV, some little ones are even speaking with the American accent they hear on the gibberish singsong CoComelon.

    Deprived of playtime with other children, many infants are shy and anxious. Regression has been observed in basic things like doing up a coat and going to the loo independently. The admirable chief inspector, Amanda Spielman, warns of “lingering challenges” which, if left unaddressed, will soon be causing major problems in primary schools.

    Faced with this unprecedented educational catastrophe, what is the response of the teaching unions? Why, demanding a return to free Covid testing so any of their members with a blocked nose can have yet more time off and vital catch-up plans are stillborn. Truly, they are beneath contempt.

    In his new book, The Year The World Went Mad, Mark Woolhouse, professor of epidemiology at Edinburgh University and member of Sage, says that closing schools was “morally wrong”. I couldn’t agree more.

    And now, as we enter the post-Covid era of the Great Forgetting, observe how the most strenuous cheerleaders for lockdown begin to suffer selective amnesia. Labour shadow minister Jonathan Ashworth actually had the cheek to tell Sophie Raworth on BBC One that “we always wanted schools to stay open where they could”. How lucky we are to have a thing called Google so we can spot when Mr Ashworth’s memory has unaccountably let him down!

    His predecessor as shadow education secretary, Rebecca Long-Bailey, made no attempt to hide her backing for teaching unions as they fought the Government’s plan to reopen schools tooth and nail. “Schools must only open,” said the woman known with some justice as Rebecca Wrong-Daily, “when it is unequivocally safe to do so for pupils, staff and their families”.

    That would be never, then, if there was one sniffle left to be snuffed out. Schools would still be closed today if it had been up to the “zero Covid” Opposition and the unions. Literally, any excuse will do. And the NHS just gave them nine more symptoms to call in sick with.

    There is only one epidemic that threatens the health of this country now: absenteeism.

    Runny nose? Feelings of anxiety about leaving your sofa? Here’s an outrageous idea: buy a packet of Kleenex balsam and go do your job.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/columnists/2022/04/05/work-shy-covid-gift-keeps-giving/

    1. Again, the public sector is split into workers and shirkers. All too often the workers go back too early and don’t let themselves recover and remain ill for longer.

  29. Home Office admits it is spending almost £5million PER DAY on housing asylum seekers in hotels – almost FOUR times the figure it gave to MPs probing Channel crossings
    Civil servant told MPs yesterday the department was spending £1.2m per day
    But Home Office confirmed that Tricia Hayes gave number after ‘drafting error’
    It said £4.7m per day was being spent to house 37,000 people in UK hotels

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10472625/Home-Office-admits-spending-5million-DAY-housing-asylum-seekers-hotels.html

      1. Or a mis-speak? I always thought they were lies, but then i must be getting old.

    3. Psshh! It’s only £1,800,000,000 per year – a rounding error in Treasury terms….

    4. That was on the 3rd February – how many more have come since then? We now also have an open invitation to Ukrainian refugees – who at least are more likely to be genuine.

    5. Morning all.
      If we add that to all the other extra expenses we are paying for thousands of other migrants it probably adds up to around 10 billion plus the 13 billion we hand over for over seas aid.
      I’m glad this has at last come out into the open i have been banging on about it for ages and friends and rellies have been saying i am daft……well that’s acceptable, daft but correct. I’m not sure where that leaves me in the scale of things but……….
      Now we know why there has been so many recent price rises in the UK, it’s not all Vlads fault.

    3. Being Devil’s Avocado for a brief second – they could be the owners, of course….

  34. Let us all be pathetically grateful for slightest smidgeon of good news.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/04/05/bbc-replace-june-sarpongs-267000-year-diversity-job-bureaucracy/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr

    “BBC bins June Sarpong’s £267,000 a year diversity job in bureaucracy purge

    Newly created role will be on a much lower salary as broadcaster reduces wage bill

    5 April 2022 • 7:53pm

    June Sarpong is set to leave the BBC

    The BBC is set to replace June Sarpong’s £267,000 a year role as diversity chief with a cheaper position, as the broadcaster slims down its inclusivity bureaucracy.

    Ms Sarpong was appointed as the BBC’s first director of creative diversity in 2019. She has since unveiled a £100 million television fund for “inclusive content”, but was criticised for earning a six-figure salary for working a three-day week.

    The diversity boss is now set to leave her £267,000 a year job at the BBC, it is understood, with the broadcaster creating a new and cheaper position to replace her role.

    The corporation has advertised for the newly created position of “director of diversity and inclusion”, which will pay below the BBC salary declaration threshold of £150,000 – significantly reducing the current salary bill for the broadcaster’s key diversity job.

    The role will also combine managing inclusion targets for all BBC staff along with Ms Sarpong’s current remit of boosting on-air representation. The person who takes on the role will have to improve not only racial inclusion but also ensure 25 per cent of staff by 2027 are from lower-income backgrounds.

    Talent exodus at the BBC

    The amalgamated role emerged after Ms Sarpong’s decision to leave and the exit of Miranda Wayland, her de facto deputy, as well as the departure of Anne Foster, who last year swapped her position as diversity boss at the BBC for a similar role at the Houses of Parliament.

    Ms Sarpong currently sits on the executive committee of the broadcaster, alongside Tim Davie, the BBC’s director-general. However, the corporation will introduce the position of chief people officer to oversee diversity issues in future. The new director of diversity and inclusion will report to the chief people officer.

    The loss of Ms Sarpong and other staff in key positions has come amid an exodus of on-air talent from the broadcaster. Dan Walker, the BBC Breakfast presenter, this week announced that he was joining Channel 5.

    In a period of tighter impartiality rules and a reducing wage bill under Mr Davie, high-profile and highly paid figures have departed the corporation. Emily Maitlis and Jon Sopel jointly joined Global, along with Andrew Marr.

    The BBC has said that “people move on for a variety of reasons, including to take up excellent jobs elsewhere”. Insiders have said they are confident that new talent is coming through.

    It is understood that Ms Sarpong’s departure had been expected, as she is a sought-after figure in diversity consultation and she pursued other opportunities outside of the BBC.

    She was hired on a two-year contract and was due to leave her position in November 2021, but stayed on ahead of the publication of a report on the projects she has overseen since 2019.

    A BBC spokesman said: “As the BBC’s director of creative diversity June Sarpong is continuing to deliver on her commitments to ensure audiences across the UK, from all backgrounds and communities, can feel that the BBC is for them.”

    1. 25% of BBC staff have to be poor. Which is so disgustingly offensive that I don’t know where to start.

      Will those people then be kept poor, just in case they stop meeting the 25% quota? How will the person hired feel to know they were classed as ‘poor’ and that’s why they go the job, not because of their ability?

      How utterly insulting, denigrating and abusive. Perhaps the BBC needs to start looking at merit being the only motivation rather than any other factor. Then it can end this racist, divisive, elitist twaddle.

      1. Unfortunately merit is neither here nor there these days. It seems to be the last thing required!

      2. Unfortunately merit is neither here nor there these days. It seems to be the last thing required!

    2. From all backgrounds and communities, can feel that the BBC is for them. Except old white people. We hate you.

    3. Whenever I see the word ‘Diversity’ I sigh. Likewise ‘Mission Statement’ and ‘Strategy’.

    4. There’s that misuse of the word “earning” again! And Sarpong leaving is certainly not a “loss”, certainly as far as the licence fee payers are concerned!

    5. ‘… she is a sought-after figure in diversity consultation and she pursued other opportunities outside of the BBC’. Presumably then she is ‘minting it’. Is there any way us mere mortals can get on this particular gravy-train?

    6. ‘… she is a sought-after figure in diversity consultation and she pursued other opportunities outside of the BBC’. Presumably then she is ‘minting it’. Is there any way us mere mortals can get on this particular gravy-train?

    8. In a period of tighter impartiality rules and a reducing wage bill under Mr Davie, high-profile and highly paid figures have departed the corporation.

      As I wrote elsewhere, maybe Mr Davie is just beginning to pull the BBC away from its left-liberal leanings.

  35. Regarding my comment late last night, those who saw it might be interested in knowing what I said. Here you are:

    The top comment:
    I wish Putin a slow and agonising death in the manner of these poor and innocent people.

    My reply
    Poppiesmum
    How do you know that this is not staged? ‘Accused’ means nothing. During an interview with the mayor he simply says ‘the Russians have left’. Zelensky is pulling out all the stops to draw in the west, into what is an internal matter.

    The reply to my reply
    UKuk1984
    Poppies you are a disgusting human being. Got forbid that you should die an agonising death. I for one wont miss people like you.

    I thought my comment was inoffensive actually!!

    1. It was. Firstly, the poster can’t spell and should be shot.

      Then they’re so frantically blinkered they can’t allow doubt and conflict to enter their minds. Simply put, people seem to like being frightened.

      There’s also the ‘attack the messenger not the message’ bit. It’s all the emotional investment to show how ‘good’ they are. It’s rather worrying that people are incapable of being rational.

      1. I think they enjoy the adrenaline rush from the fear. They cannot live without it now.

    2. Nothing controversial about your remark. There is a lot of misinformation being propounded throughout the MSM. Being cautious about news items does not equate to being pro-Putin (I certainly am not). Ad-hominem remarks are a sign that the argument has been lost.

    3. The evidence that it was all staged has been blown out of the water by satellite imagery taken while the Russians were in occupation. Mind you, that doesn’t explain the video the other day of ‘corpses’ apparently moving their arms. As they say: ‘truth is the first casualty in war’.

        1. I don’t regard satellite photos as evidence either.

          From what I read of the discussion on Twit, there are 3 main likely ways the people could have died:
          1. they were murdered by Russians before the Russians left (31st March?)
          2. they were killed by Ukrainian shelling into the town before the Russians left
          3. they were murdered by Ukrainian forces after the Russians left.

          The circumstantial evidence is
          a. the Russians were in the city until 31st March (?)
          b the Ukrainians shelled the city before that date
          c.the Ukrainians were in the city after that date
          d. the Mayor of the city spoke the day after the Russians left, and did not mention a massacre
          e. there is a written news report that the Ukrainians said they were going into the city to “clean up” “collaborators”.
          f. it is said that some of the bodies had no gunshot wounds
          g. it is said that the first reports of corpses were made on 1st April.
          h. Zelensky is a professional actor and film maker (sorry, I cannot forget this!)

          To that, I would add “Cui bono?” if the legacy media version is believed
          i. the West gets a huge boost to keep its population supporting sanctions
          ii the Ukrainians are viewed as blameless

          My guess is a mixture of all three causes of death, with a minority being murdered by the Russian army. The Mayor referred to the Russians as “orcs” in his speech – don’t tell me that he and his supporters weren’t dying to settle a few scores with those whom they perceived as supporting the Russians.

      3. I think the movement is not clear, and this video can’t be relied upon, if it’s the mirror one in the rain. There is another one with a news reporter speaking in the foreground, and a “corpse” trying to keep the plastic over himself in the background – not sure of the provenance of that one.

          1. Exercise for what, do you know?
            Lining up people under black plastic to play corpses looks weird!

    4. The comment that replied to yours should have been removed, IMO.
      It’s quite likely however, that they remove comments that attract such bile and that’s why yours got taken down.
      I regularly got comments removed when I was commenting on the Mail, so I wouldn’t let it worry you!

    5. Take it as an honour, rather like having a comment deleted by the BBC.

      If you want some obnoxious commentary go to foxnews.com and post something stupid – it doesn’t matter if it is left or right, many will take the bait.

    6. People are crazy, PM. Had similar feedback to a recent tweet in a similar vein… apparently, I’m due an agonizing death as I’m scum. But we knew that already!

      1. I’ll join your club. I am surprised that people cannot see the truth of the matter which is, to me, blindingly obvious. Everything is ok, though, the comment did not cut me to the quick, in any way. I was just surprised by the lack of any thought whatsoever at all. Putin is now being used as a lightening conductor for that dark place of hatred in people’s souls.

  37. Duchess Meagain has applied to the U.S patent office to patent the word ‘archetypes’. Meaning anyone using the word would have to pay her royalties.

    I am applying to the patent office to patent the words ‘stupid arrogant bitch’. I’m going to be rich !

    1. How in the name of all that is sensible can someone “patent” an existing word?

  38. We have just been informed that our LPG has just gone up 15p a litre, to 85p a litre, excluding VAT. How does this compare with other forms of heating that people have here (on this site). We have a 1000 litre tank, and use about one and a half tankfuls a year.

    2. That compares very well with our heat pump, which made our electricity bill in the last year about £1500-

    3. We’ve just paid £480 for a top-up to our tank which hopefully will keep us going till the autumn.

    4. I paid £1400 for 3 tonnes of anthracite. I’ve barely used half of it this winter (but it’s heated the house, cooked the food, boiled the kettles and heated the water).

      1. That sounds like really good value. No need to worry about next winter, you’ll be toasty!

          1. Yes, that is the sensible thing to do. You’ll be good for the following winter, too. And then ditto next summer and so on. Sounds like a plan!

          2. It’s one I’ve been following for a decade or more 🙂 Because I buy in bulk, I also get a good discount.

  39. Saw the nurse this morning for a BP check. Normal !
    One person in the waiting room. And apparently no appointments available.

    1. I should hope not. You don’t want dozens of people spreading their germs round the angels and heroes at the surgery.

          1. No. It’s to treat high blood pressure. I’m still on Ramipril though. Seems to be enough.

            I don’t pee like a dog! Dolly does. She crouches and lifts her left leg.

  41. The sky will burn, the seas will boil, the mountains will crumble. Oh, and the polar bears will drown.

    IPCC scientists say it’s ‘now or never’ to limit warming
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-60984663

    Professor Arthur Petersen might be sceptical about the suggested approaches but what is his view on the AGW thesis? It’s typical of the BBC’s environmentalists that they offer his quote as an afterthought.

    3. Just waiting for Ferguson “Million dead from sunstroke” to get involved.

    4. Several Canadian provinces are reducing fuel taxes to help control costs.

      The federal climate minister was on TV yesterday, ranting against these moves which will impede his efforts to price oil and gas out of the market.

  43. Leaked documents have confirmed George Michael’s cause of death as a chocolate overdose.

    The coroner put it down to Careless Wispas.

    I’ll get my coat before I go-go.

  44. I have found out that the worst thing about getting older is that nobody cares what my favourite dinosaur is.

    1. Hello Lottie. I’ve been meaning to ask you what your favourite dinosaur is…

    5. You need to spend more time in the company of five year olds! They care about what your favourite dinosaur is!

      1. You make a nice couple and by no means are you a dinosaur. No scales for one thing;-)

    7. That’s rather a sad thought, Ann.
      Go on, then, tell us!
      I like Diplodocus – it’s bigger than average!

    1. If somebody killed this repulsive piece of excrement would it be the police or the RSPCA who followed up the case?

  47. I went on a date with a blonde last night and she mentioned that she
    enjoyed running marathons.

    “Oh” i said “so what position do you usually come in?”. She paused to
    think about it and then said “missionary most of the time, but you have
    to put the work in”

    1. I went on a date with the same blonde. We caught the bus into town. Sitting in front of us was a chap with terrible dandruff. I whispered to the blonde:

      Me: “Someone should give him some ‘Head & Shoulders’.” She looked puzzled then replied:
      Blonde: “What’s ‘Shoulders’?”

    2. I went on a date with the same blonde. We caught the bus into town. Sitting in front of us was a chap with terrible dandruff. I whispered to the blonde:

      Me: “Someone should give him some ‘Head & Shoulders’.” She looked puzzled then replied:
      Blonde: “What’s ‘Shoulders’?”

    1. Top flight analysis. It should be read by everyone especially idiot politicians.

      As you say a heavy weight commentator:

      “Jacques Baud is a former colonel of the General Staff, ex-member of the Swiss strategic intelligence, specialist on Eastern countries. He was trained in the American and British intelligence services. He has served as Policy Chief for United Nations Peace Operations. As a UN expert on rule of law and security institutions, he designed and led the first multidimensional UN intelligence unit in the Sudan. He has worked for the African Union and was for 5 years responsible for the fight, at NATO, against the proliferation of small arms. He was involved in discussions with the highest Russian military and intelligence officials just after the fall of the USSR. Within NATO, he followed the 2014 Ukrainian crisis and later participated in programs to assist the Ukraine. He is the author of several books on intelligence, war and terrorism, in particular Le Détournement published by SIGEST, Gouverner par les fake news, L’affaire Navalny. His latest book is Poutine, maître du jeu? published by Max Milo.

      This article appears through the gracious courtesy of Centre Français de Recherche sur le Renseignement, Paris.

      2. Not really. He is saying what several of us in greater or lesser measure have been saying since this started. The villains of the peace are Ukraine, the Americans, and the EU. And as I keep saying RT is telling the truth and that is why it and all Russian sources of information have been banned. The Ukraine side shouts the loudest because it is the guilty party. While our MSM and our governments try to deflect from their guilt by blaming Putin. But, in this day and age, the truth will out, it always does thanks to the internet.

    4. It is complicated but the West is shown up as bowing to political force rather than intelligence.
      Now there’s a surprise.

  50. Apropos the comments below about GPs etc.

    I realised half an hour ago that my new blood thinning tablets (so far, so good) will run out while I am abroad. The earliest online renewal date is just after we leave.

    I e-mailed the dispensary and explained and asked if the tabs could be available on 21 April (market day). Within five minutes there was a reply promising that they would, and wishing me a lovely holiday.

    Pre-plague, that would have meant lotsa phone calls, waiting in a phone queue etc etc. I am all in favour of the new system. When one NEEDS to see a “health professional” face to face – we are able to do so.

    As I have said before, I think we are very fortunate in Fakenham,

    1. That is good to know. We hope to move to a modern property in Whissonsett in a few months, all being well with the sale of our house.

          3. I believe you spoke to my wife about our nuisance neighbour (10 hours per day lawn mowing) on the Jeremy Vine radio slot years ago. My wife adopted the name of the researcher ‘Rebecca’.

    2. My Haematologist said i needed a face to face with my GP to have my meds reviewed. Reception non-medically trained overruled that and made an appointment with the nurse.

      My Haematologist also said after a blood test that i was very low in folic acid and it should be added to my list of prescriptions. This too has been over ruled.

      I can easily buy it myself but i am still going to give them hell.

  51. This one is for Our Susan:

    “Clerics arriving for the recent Synod at Church House were asked not to discus religion with staff at Church House in case it “caused offence”

    3. PMQs wassstrangely stilted today as politicians decided to not talk politics….

      Dear life.

    4. Ooh, Marcus is a Synod member. He was off with the dreaded lurgy last weekend but if I remember…

        1. Help me please, Mola.

          When my Wordle is on screen, I can see only three and a half ‘rows of five’ rather than six.

          The ‘keyboard’ obscures the lower half of row four.
          This means hat if I play a third choice, I can see only he top halves of the letters; if I play a fourth choice, I am ‘blind’/ cannot see my chosen letters.

          My daughter says something is wrong with the display – on her mobile, six rows are visible.

          Any idea how I might fiix it, Mola?

          1. I’m really not the man to ask. Have you moved the cursor to the bottom of the frame and dragged the screen lower?

        2. Help me please, Mola.

          When my Wordle is on screen, I can see only three and a half ‘rows of five’ rather than six.

          The ‘keyboard’ obscures the lower half of row four.
          This means hat if I play a third choice, I can see only he top halves of the letters; if I play a fourth choice, I am ‘blind’/ cannot see my chosen letters.

          My daughter says something is wrong with the display – on her mobile, six rows are visible.

          Any idea how I might fiix it, Mola?

      1. The whole country is going to hell in a handcart…
        All the woke stuff, people wanting to change our history, instead of learning from it. The rudeness on social media.
        I’m glad ‘m on the way out……..

      2. Change and decay in all around I see
        O Thou who changest not, abide with me…

        And Forsyth does not mention it – but look at what has happened to the Church of England

        After his pronouncement yesterday about the joyous voyage of self-discovery in adopting a new gender I am expecting Rowan Williams to identify as Rowena Williams and have a ceremonial event in Canterbury Cathedral at which his willy and his balls are chopped off.

        1. You could provide a service to him like your ancestor did for an earlier Archbishop of Canterbury……..

          1. I think my days of archbishop slaying are now over. But who knows – Christo or Henry might take up the mantle one day!

        3. …on the high altar…! With the choir singing “Dear Lord, and Father, of Mankind, Forgive our foolish ways…”

  55. A tale of two hospitals – both within the same council area. My husband has had excellent follow up; today a call from the specialist nurse re a prescription he needs which will be phoned into the local Boots. He will be at the hospital Sunday for a scan but the Boots there isn’t open. They are on this. He has had letters and phone calls of follow up.
    I saw my GP on March 8, was referred and went to this other hospital on 16th. Had a biopsy. Not a sodding thing. I phoned the hospital on Monday and left a message with the consultant’s secretary. No response thus far. Today I called my GP who wasn’t there but I told the guy on the phone the issues and he said he’d get the GP onto it.
    The treatment I received at this hospital was efficient and good as far as it went but ….it’s 3 weeks today since I had the bloody biopsy and not a word.
    I really feel for people with far worse things than I have, I really do. What a bloody disaster this country has become.

    1. Tell them you are a bame. Or, better still, a Ukrainian refugee. They’ll see you in a trice.

    2. It used to be that no news was good news, they would be very quick to get in touch if anything was wrong.

      Hopefully that is the case rather than just incompetence.

    5. You are still up in the air?
      Any way you can find out which day’s the consultant secretary works? I have found them the best source of information – when they are in the office.

      1. Hopefully Anne, the GP will be on it. If not I will be like a terrier down a foxhole;-)

  56. So you have to be left wing not to believe the medja.
    Dave Rich, CapX

    The same factions that ignored antisemitism in the Labour Party and parroted the Kremlin’s conspiracy theories over the Salisbury poisonings have now pivoted to questioning the evidence of Russian atrocities in Bucha. Further proof, as if it were needed, of the moral bankruptcy that stalks elements of the left.

    1. I don’t think the majority of us here are left-wing……… but we do question what we hear and read in the medja.

  57. Does the headliner understand that the reason we haven’t ‘reined Russia in’ is because our Left wing, wealth redistributive, energy poor, big state, high tax economy has made us utterly reliant on foreign agencies?

    So many things could have been done to prevent the chaos and haven’t been. It’s like a child trying ot rein in an adult only to find the adult controls the food and that, really, they’re a small, powerless child.

  58. Boris Johnson says ‘biological males’ should not compete in women’s sports
    The Prime Minister adds that women should have spaces in hospitals, prisons and changing rooms that are ‘dedicated’ to them alone
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/04/06/children-should-not-able-take-decisions-gender-says-boris-johnson/

    Boris has actually said something sensible. Watch him change his mind when the wind changes direction (or when the Trans lobby applies pressure).

    2. Why is nobody prepared to suggest that all trans sportswomen compete only in events in which only other trans women are competing?

    5. I think the Trans-Taliban has shot its bolt and more people are calling them out.

    1. A very, very old solicitor writes:

      “I’ll believe that when I see it.”

      The resolution of the end of a marriage depends on the people involved.

      Decent, thoughtful people can make it relatively painless.

      Those (of either sex) who are horrible – will ensure that the split is horrible.

      Human nature, innit?

        1. That is where the lawyers will still be involved, taking a big cut of the assets in an effort to divide them equitably.

          Somehow I don’t see the past being left out if a couple are arguing about who gets what.

        2. Our son just split up with his wife. They have three cats and that has been an issue.

          I suggested they split one of the cats lengthwise.

        3. Interesting. 49 years ago, in Crawley (W Sussex), at the CAB, I set up a free legal advice clinic – and one of my suggestions to the many people who sought advice about divorce, was for both parties to see me together, so that I could explain what the likely financial, property and, above all, child arrangements would be.

          Worked very well.

          Later, when I returned to private practice, I gave up doing divorce because of the terrible way in which one side or the other would use children as weapons.

          1. We had a solicitor friend who said the same thing. Divorce work was absolutely destroying him; he stopped taking them on and left those cases to his partners.

        4. When my ex and I parted we split the house – I got the inside , she got the outside

      2. My next door neighbour left his wife in 2015. They had been married more than 20 years. The house was originally his, but she had bought their holiday home in France. He owned two other properties and a business. Before he left, he persuaded (manipulated) her into giving her life savings to her son to buy a house.

        He indulged in some nasty games to make her appear incompetent and loopy. She was actually quite physically ill and in and out of hospital for a couple of years.

        He engaged expensive barristers and spun the whole process out for four years. Eventually she was awarded the house. She was landed with a huge legal bill so she had to take out equity release to pay it off. He kept all his other properties, including the house in France.

        If one party has the upper hand, like he did, then changing to a ‘no fault’ divorce system will make no difference.

        I divorced my first husband but I waited two years for the dust to settle. I bought out his share of the house and remortgaged. Done.

      3. Thank God I have never been involved in a divorce.

        Caroline and I have never actually had to ‘work’ at our marriage – it seems natural, effortless and easy. I know it sounds a bit soppy but we have never, even for a moment, stopped loving each other. Being kind also helps as does loyalty, honesty and companionship.

        1. You are both lucky if that is so. I feel I am in that kind of marriage now; I get love, affection, humour, companionship and support.
          We both used to work in Peckham years ago but never met. He has said more than once, what a waste of all those years we could have had together.
          Altogether now….aaaah;-)

        2. Married 4 times (in 4 different countries) divorced 4 times – and that’s just with 2 different women, 1 Irish and 1 Swedish.

          Fortunately the last divorce was through the Swedish Courts, cost £160 and was dealt with easily and very expeditiosly.

    2. In which ethnic group are fathers most likely to walk out on their wives and families?

      And which ethnic group are our politicians most eager to suck up to?

  61. Meghan, Duchess of Sussex tries to trademark name of her new Spotify podcast
    Bid to protect the word ‘Archetypes’ from use by other television shows, websites and live performances
    Jack Hardy : https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2022/04/06/meghan-duchess-sussex-archetypes-spotify-podcast-trademark/

    BTL

    There was a chap called Joe Virgin who was a sole trader in a quiet country market town who had used his name for many years before Richard Branson came along.

    Branson went to law and, because Branson had the money to pay for more devious lawyers, poor old Joe had to change his company’s name.

    1. The makers of the crap American Budweiser (Anheuser-Busch) tried to prevent the original Czech brewer (Budějovický Budvar) from using the name. Fortunately they failed.

      1. McDonalds also tried to prevent a Scotsman of the same name from selling burgers at his joint because of the name. Really is a cheek when these shysters try to monopolize other peoples surnames and usage of words.

    2. Archetype is an old English word , isn’t it?

      What on earth is wrong with that jumped up mulatto bint, why is she such a darned nuisance .

      1. I doubt that the Jungian archive is going to fork out money to her for a term that good old Gustav was using long before she was even born.

  63. I don’t take much notice of cars unless they are sleek and take my fancy , or practical and can fit stuff to take ro the tip and can carry a comfy dog box that accommodates a couple of dogs .

    So, today I took a trip in to Dorchester , the weather has been windy , wet and noisily horrible all day , March winds and April showers .

    I needed to find a birthday card suitable for a dog , ( Pawsome birthday, that sort of thing ), and some plastic curtain hooks , because the curtains I washed last week needed new hooks, the old curtain hooks were so brittle after such a long time in situ , they were useless , so I needed some new ones .

    We had a trip to the Range in Weymouth and Dorchester last week .. and it seems like little basic items are on a slow boat from China .. Anway today I paid a visit to an old fashioned hardware store in Dorchester , and found what I needed .

    When I parked the car in a very full car park , there was a nice looking car parked nearby , can’t remember the make , but it was a Hybrid … What is a hybrid car , how are they powered ?

    1. OH has a Toyota Yaris hybrid – it uses petrol but also has a big battery somewhere inside that regenerates some power – it uses very little fuel going downhill but lots going uphill. It’s very quiet when it’s working mainly on battery power. He likes it anyway, and has had it nearly 10 years now.

          1. The car park was so interesting today. Parking was free .. the nearly new District council offices , now empty, have been lent to the NHS for clinical use .. yes that’s right , a White Elephant that was built probably about 10 years ago is now taking overspill NHS clinics .

        2. ‘Evening, Maggie, given your earlier specification, “…practical and can fit stuff to take to the tip and can carry a comfy dog box that accommodates,a couple of dogs .” Try a 2006 Toyota RAV4. It’s what we have, very comfortable, roomy and excellent on tip runs.

          If I remember correctly, we bought ours for £4,300.00 and it’s done sterling work for the last three years.

    2. Petrol or diesel driving a generator which then feeds electrickery into 2 or 4 electric motors to make it go.
      When the car slows down, instead of applying the brakes, those motors become generators which charges up a ton of battery cells.
      When the car next drives off or accelerates, the engine is assisted by the electric power from the battery, theoretically resulting in a lower fuel consumption.

      2. When you do the sums the efficiency figures are not that good. Some commentators regard them as a dodge to get round tax issues with petrol cars.

      3. Electrically powered cars are a potentially successful innovation; any concept that requires cars to carry [heavy] batteries is a No, No!

        BTW, Newton is on my side …

      4. I remember years ago a bus that used a flywheel to store the energy from the braking process, which was then fed back into the drive system to move it off again. Not sure how it behaved when cornering with what was effectively a large gyroscope on board…

    2. Dashed clever what he does with his hands. The only thing I regret not learning.

    3. You can make any old piano sound like that by inserting drawing pins into the felt striker heads … !

    4. Worked in a theatre once and we had a piano with that tone in the dressing room – except it only had two notes – high jangly and low jangly. Called it Mr Bo Jangles…

  65. That’s me for today. Sunshine, showers and strong south-westerly. Same tomorrow – though windier.

    Have a jolly evening. (That fake Ipcress File is getting dafter and dafter…!!)

    A demain.

    1. It’s a gorgeous evening up here!
      After a damp morning it really brightened up!

    1. It’s good but it doesn’t look real to me. I also don’t think he would say those things about Boris & Biden. Even though they maybe true.

    4. My stepfather, although Russian never taught it to me and didn’t even teach it to his son, my stepbrother. Like many of those people my stepfather insisted we speak English, even though he was multilingual. It is, to this day, something that has always bothered me that he wouldn’t. It is based on an insistence that the younger generation integrate thoroughly. It’s an odd phenomenon, the older members of the family speak Russian, the younger ones do not, there is a strict demarcation line. This attitude to language and integration is something that certain Asian immigrants could well take a lesson from.
      But I have to say, that I suspect this is fake although my guess he certainly thinks what the subtitles say and he probably is saying it but not in the idiomatic style the subtitles suggest. His point of view would be right in my opinion. I really should learn Russian, good for an old brain to learn new tricks.

    1. Has there ever been a more ambisinister prime minister in the history of the UK?

    1. The man is an utter wanquer – what “surplus” ambulances? People are waiting ages for ambulance support and this idiot is giving them away!

      2. “This is the first of many surplus ambulances”
        Perhaps he knows something about the UK’s population size that we don’t.

    4. Haven’t they got enough problems without creating massive waits to hand over the injured to A&E staff?

    5. Those are ours, paid for with public moeny. If they’re no longer sufficient for this country, then gift them to St Johns or similar.

    6. Is it possible that the lack of paramedics rather than the vehicles might be the problem, or the fact that yer actual normal ambulances are no longer big enough to accommodate the “people of mass” they have to deal with?

    7. Fabricant has a point. I just wish our aid had stopped at ambulances, rather than conflict-prolonging missiles.

    8. Went past Chertsey ambulance station this afternoon. Plenty of ambulances going nowhere and there always is.

    9. I’m sure that the recipients of the tender care meted out by the neo-Nazi Azov Brigade will relish a ride in Javid’s Jalopies.

  70. Protester who tied himself to Everton goalpost fears he can never go to Liverpool or Newcastle again after death threats

    Louis McKechnie, the Just Stop Oil protestor who tied himself to a goalpost during a Premier League match, said: “I hated the idea of ruining these people’s favourite pastime, but they have a right to know what is coming, that their lives are on the line too so they can act accordingly.”

    Campaigners have said they will “continue to put their bodies on the line” for the cause.

    https://www.gbnews.uk/news/protester-who-tied-himself-to-everton-goalpost-fears-he-can-never-go-to-liverpool-or-newcastle-again-after-death-threats/266351

    The silly little boy might like to ask himself what is coming when the current stops and the petrol runs out.

    1. I heard him on Julia H-B last week, and he was such a patronising little creep! He tried to insinuate that she was being paid by the oil companies for propaganda on the radio! She handled it brilliantly and made him sound/look ridiculous!

        1. That’s exactly what he sounded like! He’d have been better in a balloon debate!

    3. “I hated the idea of ruining these people’s favourite pastime, but Just Stop Oil protestors
      have a right to know what is coming, that their lives are on the line
      too so they can act accordingly.”
      PS Although of course, anyone capable of ruining a wendyball game gets my vote.

  71. Protester who tied himself to Everton goalpost fears he can never go to Liverpool or Newcastle again after death threats

    Louis McKechnie, the Just Stop Oil protestor who tied himself to a goalpost during a Premier League match, said: “I hated the idea of ruining these people’s favourite pastime, but they have a right to know what is coming, that their lives are on the line too so they can act accordingly.”

    Campaigners have said they will “continue to put their bodies on the line” for the cause.

    https://www.gbnews.uk/news/protester-who-tied-himself-to-everton-goalpost-fears-he-can-never-go-to-liverpool-or-newcastle-again-after-death-threats/266351

    The silly little boy might like to ask himself what is coming when the current stops and the petrol runs out.

  72. Bought a Google Chromecast wifi connection to the telly, and now can show YouTube, Netflix and all other streaming ents, facilitated by the PC or smartphone.
    Excellent!
    Now there’s summat worth watching! Bill Baileys Guide to the Orchestra first… that man has talent!

      2. Only 21 pounds in ASDA. They work well, except with Amazlob TV, which wants you to buy their own version.

    2. If you have Amazon Prime I can wholeheartedly recommend Nicolas Le Floch, The production values and sets and attention to the detail of 1760s France are superb taking it a way above the usual cop/detective drama.

    3. I also loved “Norsemen” on Netflix, not to everybody’s taste, it’s a bit like the bemused lovechild of Game of Thrones and The Office.

  74. I saw a online advert. today for a company that supplies linked fire alarm sets (3/4 alarms as each room with heating/cooker/stove requires one). Linked fire alarms are now a legal requirement for all houses in Scotland. this company supplies them for self fitting and that talk to each other electronically (when one goes off they all have to).
    Many fire alarm sets are mains powered.
    This company offers alarm sets that are powered by lithium batteries with a claimed life of 10 years.
    Now, I may be cowardly but, lithium batteries? The kind that go on fire and cannot be put out? Something wrong there surely?

    1. Hi Horace! My electronics engineer husband fitted our system and doesn’t think you should worry about the lithium batteries. They’re sealed for 10 years and are very safe. It was a company in Hamilton called Linked Up Alarms, who supplied the sets. He was very happy with them.

    2. Its my understanding that Li batteries are fine so long as they are not damaged. Not sure what happens in a bad EV accident! Was wondering today what the view is from the insurance companies, the vehicles are much more expensive for a start..

    5. Our fire alarms are linked. They are mains powered but have battery backups.

      A bloody pain when a battery needs replacing, they all start chirping and chattering away together. I normally end up unplugging the lot of them just to shut them up.

      I think they have optical sensors because they only go off at night (exept when the boss is cooking toast that is).

  75. Today I spent a lot of time sleeping, but eventually got up and finished my marmalade-making. In just one hour the maramlade reached setting point and was then decanted into 5 jars, containing in total 6 lbs of marmalade. Will now do a little reading before turning in for bed. And a very good night to everyone.

    2. Bravo Elsie! I haven’t made marmalade in years! I miss that glorious smell, but not the sticky walls and stove! Enjoy your toast!

        1. Oh yes! So does my chutney! Why are you up so early/late, Phizzee? Are you OK?

          1. I’m okay thank you. I often wake in the early hours and read. I will need a nap this afternoon after getting up at 4.25am. :@(

  76. Channel 4 has become a Left-wing Frankenstein

    Mrs Thatcher would be appalled and shocked by the anti-Tory takeover of the broadcaster she set up

    ANDREW ROBERTS

    Liberal Conservatives such as Damian Green and Ruth Davidson are queuing up to denounce the Government over the privatisation of Channel 4, which is of course their right, but when they try to drag Margaret Thatcher’s name into their campaign they need to be reminded of the truth about her and the television channel she created 40 years ago.

    Back in 1982 there were only three TV channels, and Thatcher was interested in having a genuine diversity of views broadcast because, in contrast to the image the Left loves to portray, she was genuinely interested in debate. But even during her lifetime, Channel 4 fell victim to Robert Conquest’s Second Law of Politics, that “any organisation not explicitly Right-wing sooner or later becomes Left-wing”.

    In its original incarnation under the formidably talented broadcaster Jeremy Isaacs, the channel was committed to serious programming, and giving space to a range of views from across the political spectrum. When Jimmy Goldsmith first voiced his opposition to the EU, for example, it was in a lecture for Channel 4’s Opinions series in 1993. The libertarian Martin Durkin was allowed to make documentaries on subjects such as global warming and the national debt. The Left tended to have more of a say, but within a reasonable framework that also allowed conservative voices to be heard.

    It is hard to spot the precise moment when Channel 4 slipped into its present role as a virulently anti-Tory, crypto-Corbynite propaganda outlet, parroting the views of London’s metropolitan establishment. But the idea that Mrs Thatcher would today oppose the privatisation of Channel 4, as posited in a tweet by Damian Green, is ludicrous.

    The way that Channel 4 has behaved over the past decade and a half has meant that she would be cheering on Boris Johnson and Nadine Dorries in their extension of her signature privatisation policy to an operation that was worthwhile when there were three channels but is meaningless now there are 333. For the Government’s plans are essentially Thatcherite, about attracting more investment, acknowledging that governments don’t know more about running a business than businesses, and that in a multi-media democracy the government shouldn’t be owning a TV channel anyhow.

    Readers will decide for themselves the moment when the Left started to dominate Channel 4. Was it in 2003 when Dorothy Byrne, who later called Boris Johnson a “known liar” in a public speech, was appointed the head of news and current affairs? The channel’s ingrained dislike of the Prime Minister was seen when a reporter was accused of coaxing two women who had been attacked on a London bus into effectively blaming Boris for the crime and saying that he was “not fit to lead the UK”. Channel 4 has brushed off thousands of complaints to Ofcom about bias over the years.

    Or was it in 2008 when it chose President Ahmadinejad of Iran to give its Alternative Christmas broadcast, who told viewers that Jesus was anti-American and anti-British? “If Christ were on Earth today,” he claimed, “undoubtedly He would stand with the people in opposition to bullying, ill-tempered and expansionist powers.” He even had the gall to call for “a return to human values” while his regime instituted the death penalty for Iranians converting to Christianity.

    Then there were all of Jon Snow’s antics in his role as presenter of Channel 4 News between 1989 and 2021. He used to refuse to wear a poppy on Remembrance Day, denouncing what he called “poppy fascism”. In June 2017 he was heard chanting “F— the Tories!” at Glastonbury, and two years later when reporting from a pro-Brexit rally he said that he had “never seen so many white people in one place”. The format of Channel 4 “debates” tended to have two Left-wingers against one conservative, with Snow, the “moderator”, interjecting such remarks as the claim that Tory austerity had “gripped people by the throat”.

    In June 2019 a comedy show, Year of the Rabbit, depicted a foamingly Right-wing campaigner called “Neil Fromage” being shot in the head. The Guardian described it as “a heady mix of period detail, gleeful anachronism and baroque profanity”. Understandably its very obvious target, Nigel Farage, was less impressed, saying “with Channel 4, we have reached a point where they are so partisan, politically, in everything they do that they now consistently go beyond what’s acceptable”.

    A few months later, during the 2019 election, Channel 4 replaced Boris Johnson with a melting ice sculpture at a climate change debate, one at which they refused to allow Michael Gove to speak [not all bad then…†]. When Boris’s victory in the 2019 election was announced, the specially selected Channel 4 audience booed.

    At Christmas 2020, the reliably republican Channel 4 produced a truly grotesque takeoff of the Queen’s Christmas message, in which Her Majesty’s head was superimposed on an actress’s body by computer-generated imagery, and she was depicted making jokes about lavatory rolls and a pathetic double entendre about being seated “on the throne”.

    All of this would have left Margaret Thatcher sickened and embarrassed about the Frankenstein that she had created, and all in favour of forcing Channel 4 to face the cold winds of competition, albeit around 20 years too late.

    Andrew Roberts is a trustee of the Margaret Thatcher Archive Trust

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/04/05/channel-4-has-become-left-wing-frankenstein/

    † Joke!

  79. My son turned me on to Ben Folds…. I really do like his music. Just listened to his concert in Perth Oz with an orchestra- simply bloody wonderful.

    1. I have now finished the reading I referred to earlier. And I might have a small piece of cheese before I retire – perchance to dream. (Sleep well, Ann.)

        1. Posted elsewhere, Ndovu, but it took just one hour to add and dissolve the sugar and reach setting point. Then 10 minutes to decant into jars.

          1. Well done! When I made mine in January I did it in two stages – left it overnight after the cutting up and then did the sugar and setting the next day. Sometimes I do it all in one but it works either way.

  81. Evening, all (if any of you are still awake!). Had a busy day today, hence the lateness of my appearance.

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