Wednesday 8 November: A very British welcome for an ex-Hamas leader and anti-Israel agitator

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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600 thoughts on “Wednesday 8 November: A very British welcome for an ex-Hamas leader and anti-Israel agitator”

  2. A very British welcome for an ex-Hamas leader and anti-Israel agitator

    So it’s looking like as the BLM campaign to stir up racial unrest has largely fizzled out and failed now they are lining us up for riots on the streets to over remembrance Sunday, you have to hand to to the forces of globalism, they are persistent

    1. Any genuine British government would have banned the so-called Palestinian solidarity marches called for Remembrance weekend.

  4. Good morning, chums. Hope you are all well. Today’s forecast is rain all day, so lots of indoor work for me.

  5. Good morning all and a wet & miserable one it is too.
    A tad above 4°C and I’ve a bus trip to Derby to shuffle some of my meagre savings from the Building Society about to bump up my current and reserve accounts.

    The rain is forecast to clear up by mid-day so we MIGHT have a drier afternoon.

  6. More than a third of victims say they would not report a crime to the police again. 8 November 2023.

    Victims are losing trust in the criminal justice system, as more than a third say they would not report a crime to the police again because of their experience, research by the victims’ commissioner will reveal on Wednesday.

    Police inaction, lack of information about the progress of cases and lengthy court delays contributed to 34 per cent of victims saying they would not report their crime to police again.

    The only reason that I can conceive of for reporting a crime to the police is that you want the body removed as a health hazard.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/11/07/34-per-cent-victims-say-not-report-crime-to-police-again/

    1. Reminds me of the old story:

      A chap telephones the police and says he can see 3 burglars in his garden taking things from his shed.

      The police say they cannot do anything about it because they have no one available to look into the matter.

      He rings the police again saying that he has taken his shotgun and killed the burglars.

      Within minutes three police cars with sirens blaring and 10 policemen miraculously arrive.

      1. “I thought you said you’d shot them!” the Sergeant says.
        “I thought you said you had nobody free!” said the houseowner.

        1. The original version of that tale was supposed to have occurred somewhere near Portsmouth, but probably a shaggy dog story. I did hear of someone in the mid 1960s who was fed up with attempted burglaries, so he wired his safe to the mains. The alleged burglar almost died, and the local Constabulary were none too happy.

        2. Remember Tony Martin?

          He was the Norfolk farmer wo complained many times to the police that he had been burgled.

          Finally he had had enough and fired his shotgun in the direction of the burglars and killed one of them.

          Martin was convicted of murder and was sent to prison but this caused public outrage ad eventually the murder verdict was changed to manslaughter.

          https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-norfolk-49355814ghter

          1. And don”t forget that a 78 year pensioner confronted a burglar armed with a screwdriver and in the scuffle the burglar, who was a gipsy, was killed.

            The 78 year old an was arrested but they decided not to prosecute him. However his house was besieged by the gipsies who thought it was an outrage that an armed burglar should be killed with his own weapon while he was burgling and the old man had to move from the home where he had lived for 42 years and change his name because the gipsies swore they would kill him.

            https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6984581/Henry-Vincent-sister-denies-violent-person-tells-inquest-no-one-deserves-die.html

          2. Apparently his empty house is being entered by people going in and videoing it. Mr Martin still visits and the tresspassers have been warned it’s dangerous.

    2. Reminds me of the old story:

      A chap telephones the police and says he can see 3 burglars in his garden taking things from his shed.

      The police say they cannot do anything about it because they have no one available to look into the matter.

      He rings the police again saying that he has taken his shotgun and killed the burglars.

      Within minutes three police cars with sirens blaring and 10 policemen miraculously arrive.

  7. Others may disagree with me on the letter below, but my reaction on reading it was “ffs”. (Again, apologies for the rude language but really, ffs). (Edit: can’t scroll down on my phone but i am referring to the first letter).

    “ Sir – I thoroughly object to Suella Braverman, the Home Secretary, continually referring to the propalestinian protests as “hate marches”.
    It is an affront to the many people genuinely and peacefully protesting against the killing of thousands of innocent Palestinians caught up in the fighting between Israel and Hamas. Anthony Haslam Farnham, Surrey
    Sir – If the demonstrators were marching and calling for Palestinians to be freed from Hamas, I might join them. Alec Bradley
    Kidderminster, Worcestershire”

    1. The oh-so-reasonable Tone – today’s prize winning Smugster – is shredded in the BTL comments.

  8. Met chief says ‘no law exists’ to stop pro-Palestine march on Armistice Day. 8 November 2023.

    The Metropolitan Police Commissioner has said he cannot ban a pro-Palestinian protest on Armistice Day.

    Despite the Prime Minister saying that the planned protest should not go ahead, Sir Mark Rowley said that a march could only be banned in extreme circumstances and “the law provides no mechanism to ban a gathering, a static protest.”

    Well that never stopped them in the past! Tommy Robinson must be laughing himself sick!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/11/07/ban-pro-palestine-march-armistice-day-mark-rowley-hamas/

    1. TR is going down to London at the weekend, I dont expect him to get further than stepping off the bus before the Met’s finest bundle him into a paddy waggon.

    2. Allison Pearson [good article too, sadly I can’t link to it] in today’s Telegaffe suggests that such laws do exist and Mark Rowley is being a total wimp! She points out that the Met have form for stopping EDL marches – apparently such marches do constitute “extreme circumstances”.

    3. They could always use “obstruction”. Tell them to move, then when they refuse, arrest them if they don’t disperse.

  9. 37855 up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    SIR – So there we have it: a former Hamas military leader comes to Britain, is granted citizenship and provided with a council house, and begins organising fellow supporters (“Ex-Hamas chief behind pro-Palestine protests”, report, November 7…

    Added to the Mr Mercer comment in the Dt seemingly telling the vets to stand down may one ask “will the defensive fight back” ever get a starting date or will it be full on submission all the way.

    As for the “council house” issue surely that is now well established as being par for the course.

  11. Good morning, all. Raining.

    Jim Ferguson is aware of what the likes of Sunak and Biden are up to re the influx of large numbers of unknown foreigners. Destabilisation, plain and simple. Sunak’s pronouncements on policies are an attempt to lull the people into believing that business as usual is continuing. It’s all a deception: the boats will continue along with the other avenues being used to overwhelm our Country with arrivals.

    https://twitter.com/LarryTaunton/status/1721687780407775603

  12. The US submarine which just went east of Suez is a special operations mothership. 8 November 2023.

    The four SSGNs were made by taking a normal Ohio-class SSBN, a nuclear powered deterrent submarine armed with nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles, and removing the Trident ballistic missiles. Many of the Trident launch cells are replaced with multi-shot canisters containing conventionally-armed Tomahawk cruise missiles, giving the submarine a formidable arsenal of over a hundred powerful weapons able to strike targets afloat or ashore over a thousand miles away.

    Also interestingly, some of the vacated Trident space is used to create “lock out chambers”, airlocks which permit divers to leave the submarine under water. It’s also possible to fit the submarine with a “dry deck shelter”, a small docking bay in which a mini-submarine can be carried. This means that the mother sub can remain undetectably submerged offshore in deep water and send frogmen in to make a landing without anyone seeing them by eye or radar until they emerge on shore. The SSGN which transited the Suez Canal had such a DDS fitted.

    This is almost certainly the means by which the Baltic Pipelines were sabotaged!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/11/07/us-ohio-class-submarine-ssgn-navy-seals-iran-houthi-israel/

  13. SIR – So there we have it: a former Hamas military leader comes to
    Britain, is granted citizenship and provided with a council house, and
    begins organising fellow supporters (“Ex-Hamas chief behind pro-Palestine protests”, report, November 7).

    The worry is: how many more are plotting in this way?

    Malcolm Allen
    Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire

    Why and who granted this man citizenship? Did he say was fleeing persecution?

  14. Good Moaning.
    I’ve posted this before, and will probably be posting it again.
    Rudyard Kipling – very fittingly in view of this coming weekend – wrote The Beginnings in 1917.
    However, I equally loathe the spineless British government and the frothing homicidal nut jobs and their dupes.
    (Which makes me even-handed; such a valuable attribute in our non-judgemental times.)

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

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

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

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

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

    1. I’m sure that he would have written something similar about WW2. But I think he died in 1936.

    2. 378555 +up ticks,

      Morning Anne,
      I too have put it up on numerous occasions, am awaiting the pull the trigger of draw back the longbow in anger date.

  15. SIR – I thoroughly object to Suella Braverman, the Home Secretary,
    continually referring to the pro-Palestinian protests as “hate
    marches”.

    It is an affront to the many people genuinely and
    peacefully protesting against the killing of thousands of innocent
    Palestinians caught up in the fighting between Israel and Hamas.

    Anthony Haslam
    Farnham, Surrey

    Hamas has a history of manipulating useful idiots. Wake up Tony.

    2. Their none military wing have been manipulating most of the people on the planet for years.
      You just need to pay more attention AH.

  16. Morning all 🙂😊
    Two days I guess is enough for sunshine first
    thing. Now back to normal.
    And excuse me, but how did a hamarse leader ex or not get permission to live in the UK?
    Perhaps this is to date the most significant act of stupidity from our government. More yet to come folks, from the idiots who imagine they have a grip on anything important.
    Is he living in Edgware or Golders Green ?

    1. Just reading further, it seems he’s in Berkhampstead. Once a very nice town. Now wrecked by the usual know it all idiots.
      None of them live there. That’s for sure.

  17. G’morning all,

    Wet and windy at McPhee Towers but it should stop raining in the afternoon. Wind in the SW, 10℃-11℃.

    Never mind Gaza, Ukraine or the current hoo-hah over the protest at the weekend, James Delingpole has unearthed someone who has built up an understanding over many years of what is going on and when it all started, the reason for all the distractions. It’s a wet morning so why not spend and hour and a half listening to what Katherine Watts has to say as she lays bare the lies we’ve been told.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0f58e05fd07bb5fc973d6b97cf71bbc8790d95dd6a0ed2627cbeeb37b3e3355b.png

    https://odysee.com/@JamesDelingpoleChannel:0/2023-11-06_Katherine-Watt:c

  18. 378555+ up ticks,

    Hamas terrorists’ last stand at Gaza hospital
    In showdown witnessed by a Telegraph reporter, Israeli warplanes, tanks and infantry corner last remains of 1,000-strong battalion.

    Any remnants will be granted immediate boat space at Calais on the Dover bound daily run.

    A social housing house awaits on arrival, this is the norm recognised by ALL governance parties and has been for decades.

    Apologies will be made for any waiting in 5* hotels incurred.

    Currently supporting & voting lab/lib/con coalition will without doubt give you the right on visitations to the children’s
    incarceration / indoctrination camp to say
    ” I have done my part in getting you
    re-educated”

    1. Was it the drug barrons who did well ?

      I’m still getting reminders from the NHS to book my appointments.
      They don’t seem to be able to read my replies.

      1. They made a killing but are now whining over their stock value falling. BOO bloody HOO!

      2. I have the same problem with NHS reminders after I have consistently told them that I am not interested, Ready Eddy.

        1. A couple of weeks ago I had three letters telling me of a cancelled appointment and a forth one informing me of the new date,………….The same day.

    2. Good morning Dandy Front Pager

      You ask ‘Who benefited?’

      It is certain that many people have become fabulously rich owing to Covid. We ought to know who they are so but the PTB and the MSM will do their best to make sure we never do.

      1. Too many people still view ‘covid’ as a natural attack and they look no further.
        Others, who have taken the time to think and research, view ‘covid’ as a multi-pronged attack by the globalist money and power grabbers ably assisted by politicians and some areas of the following, academia, medical profession, Quangos, NGOs etc. The transfer of both money and power from the people appears to be the short-term goal with more, much more, nefarious targets in the mid to long-term.

    1. Waitrose, M&S I guess, but about 2 years ago they moved from their large store in the Howard Centre in WGC to Stevenage. Parking very difficult.
      But there is a very popular food store in a small town/village Called Marshalwick.
      The area has become so popular parking is very difficult.

    2. Sainsbury is a public company quoted on the UK stock exchange. It is not “owned” by Qatar.
      Most if not all supermarkets have halal products, including Waitrose and M&S (sorry Ready Eddy!). Just don’t buy them!

        1. Yes, the Qatari Investment Company (something like that) owns about 14%. Other investment companies are also big shareholders.

    3. We changed from our 4.5 Tog summer duvet to our 9 Tog winter duvet about 3 weeks ago.
      My wife is very hot blooded. 🥰🥰

      1. Thankfuly one of the Ambulance men fancied himself as a duvet -stuffer and covered mine in a trice.. I’m now nice and snug at nights.

      2. We use the same one all year round – just shake it up a bit or shake it off if it’s too hot.

    4. I strongly suspect that the Co-op never did source supplies from those territories, so this is likely to be little more than vanity posturing. While I do not object to the position it takes, does it apply its moral posturing proportionately to all parts of the world where injustice takes place? What, for instance, is its policy on goods from China, a country with a poor human rights record?

    1. Every morning when I wake up, I give thanks that SWMBO and I are still together. After 41 years. Tolerant and kind, so she is.

  23. SIR – If the demonstrators were marching and calling for Palestinians to be freed from Hamas, I might join them.

    Alec Bradley
    Kidderminster, Worcestershire

    What has happened to support for the Ukraine , Christians in the Sudan , Nigeria , Slave labour in the Middle East, Taliban treatment of women blah blah ?

    1. Islam is at the top of the Left’s priorities as it is with the PTB.

      Whether, as Douglas Murray predicts, we shall soon decide that we have had enough and take action ourselves when the police and the politicians refuse to do so or whether we just accept defeat and do nothing to halt the voracious progress of Islam in our country remains to be seen.

  24. Bugger!
    Bought a new pair of glove last month and can I hell find them!
    However, rain has paused and I’m about to head off to Derby. Getting dropped off in Cromford by DT as she’s on her way to work.

    2. Earlier this year I parked the car at King’s Lynn Station. When I returned, another car was very close to mine. I removed my cap and gloves and placed them on the roof of the car – so that I could squeeze through the narrow opening into the driver’s seat. I then drove home…..

          1. Our SiL did that with our daughters very expensive purse, credit cards and money! He was not a popular chappie for quite a long time!

  25. 378555+ up ticks,

    Now there’s a question,

    Richard Braine
    @AgainBraine
    ·
    55m
    Is he dead yet?

    As someone who has taken his own bloods, I can assure this twat that it’s not the needle I’m afraid of, it’s the untested experimental gene manipulation drug provided by the same people who released an engineered killer virus into the wild. I don’t trust them.

    https://x.com/AgainBraine/status/1722168293828489349?s=20

  26. Apparently the commissioner of police in London has given the go ahead for the pro Palestinian march to go ahead on the 11th as the remberance service goes on in Whitehall.
    Oh dear.

    1. This will not end well.

      And when it doesn’t will the PTB side with the indigenous British or with the invaders?

      2. I can’t see that happening Obs unless he’s used as a scape goat for al the other idiots.
        But he’s getting close to retirement.
        On Monday it’ll be feet up and two fingers.

  28. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7572ae349659b0f6e239004387f76053504e3eab77c72f301c971be39b539381.png
    https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/that-reminds-me-dastardly-deeds-at-the-drones-club/

    I am currently re-reading my collection of Plum’s novels and just finished The Mating Season yesterday.

    Before I committed matrimony a friend of mine asked me the most important question about my fiancée: “Does she like P.G. Wodehouse?”.

    Many women seem to find his work trivial and without serious content but my bride-to-be said she loved his books and was as great an aficionado as I am. This must be one of the many reasons why we have been so happily married for the last 35 years!

  29. Good morning Folks.

    “A top Ukrainian official said Kiev is seeking to become one of the largest arms manufacturers in the world. The statement comes as the Biden administration has begun pushing Ukraine to engage in talks with Russia on ending the war. Ukraine developing a large weapons industry and selling those arms to the enemies of Russia will likely interfere with any deals to end the conflict.

    The czar of Ukraine’s weapons industry believes that Kiev should become an arms production hub for the West. Oleksandr Kamysyhin, the minister for strategic industries of Ukraine, explained, “We’re really focusing on making Ukraine the arsenal of the free world.”

    At present they seem to be succeeding in making the Ukraine the arse hole of the free world…..

    1. On Monday Zelensky put an end to any speculation that Kiev was holding elections next year. “We all understand that now, in wartime, when there are many challenges, it is utterly irresponsible to engage in topics related to an election in such a frivolous manner,” he said. “We need to recognize that this is a time for defense, a time for battle, upon which the fate of the state and its people depend. …I believe that elections are not appropriate at this time.”

      1. Not surprising – it would be difficult to have elections when, as I understand it, most of the “opposition” is in prison?

    3. “We’re really focusing on making Ukraine the arsenal of the free world.”

      Breaking!
      Tottenham Hotspur fans are NOT happy.

  30. Good morrow, Gentlefolk. today’s story (late as usual)

    Economy Always

    After 53 years of marriage, Solly Weintraub sadly passed away, leaving a grieving widow.

    Among all the other arrangements she had to make, she thought she ought to place an announcement in the Social and Personal section of the local Jewish newspaper.

    So she called them up and asked how much it would cost. “Five dollars a word,” said the clerk in the advertising office.

    “Oh, dear,” said Mrs. Weintraub, “that’s rather expensive and I don’t have a lot of money. Better just say, Solly Weintraub died.”

    “Actually,” said the clerk, “our minimum charge is thirty-five dollars, so you can have seven words for that price.”

    Mrs Weintraub thought for a minute, then said, “All right then, put ‘Solly Weintraub died. Buick Skylark for sale.’”

  31. ‘Morning All

    Hmm Tommy Robinson and Katie hopkins get their twitter accounts back

    Cynical Rik wonders about the timing……….

    “It was a peaceful March calling for the eradication of Israel and

    death to the Kuffar until a few hard right trouble makers with union

    jacks turned up shouting islamaphobic slogans”

    Copyright BBC

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/257778a6d30c53aed51ffdff645a01a4a02452663daac6b42e636d0907dbd26a.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/53e52b43f25f7b6ad1e957ebf7b93bd1d246dee138f3e524bad03c04757e7474.png

      1. Lionel Jeffries was a very good film character actor. I always enjoyed his appearances.

        1. Hmm! To my mind he too often played the same character in the different roles in which he was cast.

          1. Just as Hugh Grant plays Hugh Grant just as his Uncle Cary used to play Cary Grant!

    3. Sir Mark Rowley said:
      “The events taking place this weekend are of great significance and importance to our nation”.

      “We will do everything in our power To ensure they pass without disruption”.

      Well Sir Mark, in my humble opinion, you have missed an opportunity to protect the memories of some of the most important people our nation has ever had, our fathers and grand fathers. With out them we would never have existed.
      And without their efforts and bravery. This country would not exist.
      These two adverse situations should never have been authorised. Meaning the demo should not have been allowed.

      1. Face it – the Sheik Rowley is simply doing what the MCB tell him – and raising two fingers to the Hindoo “Prime Minister” and the Buddhist Braverman.

        When the Parade is invaded and the Cenotaph defaced – he’ll have a hell of a job arresting all the white, British former servicemen.
        The slammers might even have a pop at the JWK.

        1. All the redundant politicians and self-serving dignitaries will do a runner and stand up stairs talking on their mobiles watching the slammers trying to make some sort of point.

    1. Dr Barker looks like an ex-man. I hope Dr Barker looks into the under-representation of drunken slobs in the field of physics. I suspect they are not made welcome.

        1. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/762d05604e304d19b0fc1dbd29953db43c12fe39c17fe7c01a124b505465eb35.png As is this!

          ‘My internal testicles do not make me less of a woman’

          Caster Semenya, the double Olympic 800metres champion, said that being born without a uterus, or having internal testicles, did not make her “less of a woman” and accused sporting leaders of turning women against each other.

          “I am different and special and I feel great about it,” Semenya, who cannot compete in female track events without taking testosterone-reducing drugs, said.

          Just accept the fact, Caster, sugar, that no normal human will ever consider you to be a lass. Get over it and take up crochet.

          And don’t you have some steps to scrub?

          1. I do have some sympathy for Semenya in that nature has played a cruel trick on him/her, but he/she does have a physical advantage over indisputable women. We have the Paralympics for those, from birth, illness or accident, who have physical disadvantages. Another category at the Paralympics for people like Semenya seems like the fairest option.

          3. I am sympathetic too. I’d suggest that making the men’s category open in all competitions might be a good option.

          7. I feel more sympathy for this person than I did for the brazen Lia Thomas who had a bulge in ‘her‘ swimming costume where most women do not have a bulge and no bulges in places where most women do!

      2. Once a man, always a man regardless of what bits you might have chopped off or how many drugs you take.
        I am not a scientist but I know what both men and women are.

    3. I see the IOP have closed comments so it’s now quotes only. The most complimentary suggestion in the thread is that he should at least wash his hair!

      1. Funny thing, I thought that about the “fragrant, innocent” top civil servant (in the blue trouser suit) who gave evidence last week to the Great Whitewash

    4. As he walked past (a ‘beautiful’ belle),
      The reaction was easy to tell.
      But despite his persistence,
      He was kept at a distance
      By that darn conservation of L.

      (The L2/2mr2 term in the effective potential is sometimes called the angular momentum barrier. It has the effect of keeping the particle from getting too close to the origin.)

      Hat tip Harvard University Department of Physics…

    5. I think the reason for gender issues not being included in the King’s speech on forthcoming Government legislation was because if the subject were to be tested in a trial then the evidence might stand up in court.

          1. So do we. Last Boxing Day we had a 1.5 kg of fillet steak from them and made a beef Wellington we all, us, son, dil and grandson, all agreed it was the best beef we’d ever tasted. Used a recipe mix of Gordon Ramsey and Jamie Oliver and it was a family effort to make it.

          3. No. We had the duxelles and, as one of recipes suggested, used Parma ham to line the pastry and it worked prevented any soggy pastry and didn’t impair the flavour. Delish!

      1. Get a copy of Inconvenient Facts by Gregory Wrightstone (available on Kindle). There’s an App too which lists them all with graphs.

          1. It’s still good for the long-term data, remembering that temperature records only go back about 350 years. The 2023 satellite data will be fiddled before it’s released, I have no doubt.

          2. Again, it’s impossible for me to know if the official records have been or will be falsified. Has the announcement about October 2023 come from satellite data or ground weather stations? Not that that will tell me anything about distortions or falsifications.

            My scepticism about “pure bollox” centres on the claim that recorded world temperatures were higher in October 2023 than those recorded in October 2019 and that this represents a new record temperature high for the earth as a whole above all those recorded in previous Octobers. I do not have the means to know whether that’s “pure bollox”.

            Where i live felt like an ordinary October but that tells me nothing about the rest of the world and isn’t even a particularly reliable indicator of my personal experience, given the fallibility of my memory.

          3. Selective use of statistics. The warm-ish October here was as a result of southerly winds and nothing to do with the climate.

          4. When you say “selective use of statistics” are you suggesting that data from weather stations around the world is cherry-picked so as to fabricate temperature averages?

            I agree that weather data for a particular month is not, on its own, a useful tool for deciding what the climate for a particular locality might be. That can only be established using long term averages and change can only be discerned by observing long term trends.

            All I can say from my perceptions and from memory is that there has been a gentle warming trend of hotter summers and milder winters where I live since I was a child. That, however, means virtually nothing on a global scale, nor is it at all accurate.

          5. It’s just natural variation of the weather, according to winds and tides. All driven by the sun.

          6. It might very well be, but I’m not discounting the effect of human activity. We know that humans are responsible for smog, so we’re hardly a benign influence.

          7. Smog was a mixture of smoke and fog – fog is a natural occurence, and there is a lot less smoke now than there was in the 1950s.

          8. I can not see how temp observations can be gathered together across the globe and produce a ‘world’ temp. One could say that these clever satellites can do that now so comparisons before the 60s are not comparing like with like measurements. Our weather here is almost entirely dependant on the season and origin of the airmass. As the UK is situated on the boundary between polar and temperate air just slight changes of where that boundary lies has a big impact on the temp in the UK. I always turn to my basic argument that the climate changes over hundreds of years, what we see over a century or so are fluctuations in the weather.

    2. Poppycock.

      Man-made global warming is a myth and Net Zero is a scam.

      I know many of us say this repeatedly but we shall go on saying it as long as the MSM perpetuates their hogwash.

      Yes, I know I am not a climate scientist- but scientific opinion is very far from unanimous on the subject.

      1. “Yes, I know I am not a climate scientist- but scientific opinion is very far from unanimous on the subject”.

        Any intelligent person who can listen to arguments, read and interpret data can see for themselves that it’s all a load of bovine ordure. You don’t need to be a “climate scientist” anyway. Most of them are political activists masquerading as scientists. It is said by some scientists with integrity that 95% of all scientific research is not science at all but research carried out to further the interests of the corporations and wealthy individuals who finance it.

        “Follow ‘the’ science”, whenever heard, should always be heard as “question the science”.

          1. Ah, I know where I’ve heard that term before! In the HoC when the Speaker shouts Ordure, ordure!

        2. “Better the question that cannot be answered than the answer that cannot be questioned”
          (c) Richard Feynman

      2. As far as I can understand Westminster has recently passed a long standing request to allow an increase of one million extra customers a year at Luton Airport. Not enough parking of course. But unless they are are people flying in numbers, one way to the middle east etc, which I doubt, how is this the slightest shade of green and meets the proposed ‘Net Zero’ ?

        2. They know it’s all bollux. It’s propaganda to scare the unthinking, unquestioning population.

    3. As the “records” only go back three or four hundred years – and the Earth has been around for billions of years – I’d say this is bollox.

      2. Warmest on record doesn’t mean warmest ever, just the short period of time since humans had scientific instruments which could measure temperatures and in sufficient locations around the world to form an idea of what a world average might be. Astronomers are very certain that the planet was extremely hot at its creation, then again when the moon was created by a massive collision between earth and another celestial body, and then again with frequent bombardments from asteroids.

        https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/formation-earth/

        1. The temperature guages (thermometers) are usually sited on busy airport runways and ‘urban heat islands’ where the ambient temperature is always warmer than most other places. That’s how they get away with massaging the figures.

          1. If they remain sited in places such as that then comparisons from one year to another have some validity, although changing volumes of air traffic might have some effect. During the pandemic, as air traffic volumes diminished, thermometers sited at airports should have recorded lower average temperatures than usual if thermometers in those particular locations are influenced by air traffic volumes.

          2. They are still influenced by hot tarmac. The ‘record temperature’ on 19th July 2022 was proven to have been taken as three Typhoon jets were passing.

          3. True, but the hot tarmac is there, year in, year out, therefore comparisons from one year to another are in the same circumstances.

    4. Funny how they’ve forgotten to mention the cooler than average July, August and September ( in the South of England anyway).

      2. That’s the thing. Whatever we experience where we happen to live tells us nothing about what’s happening in the rest of the world. I’d be surprised if September was cooler than average here as it gave me the hottest spell of the year.

    6. The average World Temperature is as useless as the average house price. It tells you absolutely nothing.

    7. No heatwave in Scandinavia. In fact, cooler than usual this summer, reflecting in poor crop yields and much less honey.

    1. Which EU parliament? There are three (one of which isn’t used, in Luxembourg, despite costing a fortune to maintain).

  36. PM vows to hold Met chief accountable for Armistice Day protest safety. 8 November 2023.

    Rishi Sunak will hold Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley “accountable” for his decision to give the go ahead to a pro-Palestinian demonstration on Armistice Day.

    The Prime Minister said he will meet with Sir Mark later today to discuss the march which is due to take place in central London on Saturday.

    Speaking during a visit to a school in Lincolnshire this morning, the Prime Minister told broadcasters: “This is a decision that the Metropolitan Police Commissioner has made.

    See Minty: http://disq.us/p/2wh1djv

    Such a result would be a political calamity. Multiculturalism is a basic tenet of the Political Elites and has already been exposed by the reaction to Gaza as a lie. The thought of Battles on the Streets between supporters of Islam and the Government must be giving them kittens in 10 Downing Street. If they can mug Rowley into taking the decision they can at least blame him. If he doesn’t take the decision; well they can blame him anyway!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/11/08/rishi-sunak-latest-news-labour-tories-starmer-live/

    1. He’s probably being used as a Scape Goat and lined up for early retirement and a fat bonus. Because the government are too scared to stop this islamic invaders demonstration. That could have been held at any other time but during this month. If at all !

      1. As we have seen with all the previous big hats at the Met it won’t matter how much he effs up he will still get a knighthood.

  37. https://www.daily-stuff.com/brace-yourself-for-the-craziest-and-darkest-things-about-the-victorian-era/?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=497&utm_campaign=jucva&utm_term=18ce557t75x_o9mr3_obnbv&utm_content=%5B497%5Dgallery%40victorian_era_a4_180523%40annat%2C10.0cn%5B23051811390622%5D&twclid=2-1imbdhsayaxzj7gts89714ewt

    Brace Yourself for the Darkest Trends of the Victorian Era – some interesting stuff here and good photos. Those of us who are only one generation away from this era can remember our grandparents lived this life.

  38. The demographics are horrendous, America is lost.

    https://www.takimag.com/article/shifting-support/

    An obvious reason for declining support for Israel among American voters is because the U.S. isn’t as white Christian as it used to be. In 2019, the Pew Research Center reported that “for white Americans, the most common [modal] age was 58.” And, as we see in the polls, white Christians tend to love Jews and Israel. In contrast,
    The most common age was 11 for Hispanics, 27 for blacks and 29 for Asians as of last July, the latest estimates available. Americans of two or more races were by far the youngest racial or ethnic group in the Census Bureau data, with a most common age of just 3 years old. Among all racial and ethnic minorities, the most common age was 27.

    In the wake of the October 7th atrocities, the Harvard/Harris Poll asked, “In general in this conflict do you side more with Israel or Hamas?” Among American voters aged 65 years or older, 95 percent sided with Israel over Hamas. But 48 percent of the much less white 18- to 24-year-old cohort backed Hamas.
    A majority of young people answered the question “Do you think the Hamas killing of 1,200 Israeli civilians in Israel can be justified by the grievances of Palestinians or is it not justified?” that the October 7th slaughter was justified by Palestinian grievances, compared to only 10 percent of voters 55 or over.
    Other polls found much the same generation gap: In the NPR/Marist survey, 83 percent of baby boomers (1946–64) said the U.S. should support Israel vs. 48 percent of those born from 1981 to 2005. And,
    An Oct. 17 Generation Lab poll of 978 college students found that 48% of them do not blame the Oct. 7 attacks on Hamas.

    Similar demographic changes will be becoming apparent all over Europe.

        1. We have seen the best of our time. Machinations, hollowness, treachery, and all ruinous disorders, follow us disquietly to our graves.

          [King Lear]

          These words are spoken by Gloucester – the poor old deceived father who fails to ‘see’ the truth until his eyes have been gouged out. “I stumbled when I saw”.

          4. Apparently it is the 400th anniversary of the publication of the First Folio (no, not the racehorse, Will’s edition).

    2. That the majority of that young cohort thinks that Palestinian grievances justified the slaughter of that many Israeli civilians, some in the most barbaric and grotesque ways imaginable, is indeed a great worry. Unless they moderate their positions as they grow older, what will the US civilian population be capable of accepting and justifying in decades to come?

      1. It’s easy to imagine an acquiescent population when you consider the Nazi era, or the nosy neighbours here only three years ago.

        1. I don’t think they are Baastards. But with Latinos in power in the US they probably won’t be looked upon favourably…

  39. Just had a text from my GP.
    They were investigating whether i had colon cancer, hepatitis C and fatty liver disease with 6 different blood tests and scan. All tests have come back satisfactory. This took six visits to the phlebotomist, three separate visits to two different practices, four different Doctors and a hospital visit for a scan… Time for a drink, to lower my blood pressure you understand.

    All i had was a stomach bug.

    I believe they made a diagnosis from looking at my lifestyle choices more than anything.

    1. I’m just happy that nothing serious was uncovered, despite the hoops you had to jump through before they were satisfied. Your last paragraph rings true.

      1. Thanks.
        I missed out the part where i had to sit on the phone for ages countless times. The wait for calls that never came because i had been put on the wrong list. The formal complaint to the practice over no follow up calls from tests for months on end.

        I am quite sanguine about the whole episode but for someone more vulnerable it could have driven them over the edge.

        3. Was sitting on the phone some kind of at-home remote diagnostic method?
          Asking for a friend…

    3. Excellent outcome!
      Just been invited for some beers with a mate who is having daily radiation treatment for prostate cancer, and it’s knocking the living shit out of him. So, I’ll go along and fill him up with beer, to hopefully cheer him up a bit.

          1. I had my gall bladder removed about 20 years ago and my wife had hers removed the following year. Our younger son, Henry, then had his removed 12 years ago when he was 16.

      1. They ask about these things. Like how much do you drink and diet and such. How much exercise and sleep habits.

          1. Doctors know that if they ask you how many units of alcohol you drink they know to double it !

        2. The answer to that question is: Two glasses of red wine for my health (and any more for pleasure!)

    6. Great news, but what a disgrace that you had to.jump through such hoops to get it.

      Cheers! x

    7. Phizzee, the result is pleasing even if the route to that result was tortuous. Good luck for the future.

    8. I recently had a blood test because of the drugs I’m on.
      Everything was in range except that the machine couldn’t properly count my platelets because of ‘clumping’ and the count was too low.

      I was called back for another test but in the meantime I looked up the reasons for problems in evaluating blood counts.
      It’s not that simple for reasons of using the wrong kind of collecting tube, the wrong collecting method, the wrong kind of anticoagulant and tardiness in sample processing.

      The second count was not successful either but the conclusion was that the count was OK because it looked all right and an NFA was recorded (No Further Action).

      There was a time when doctors were not able to measure anything meaningful but the patient looked OK.

      Nowadays of course Big Pharma can only stay profitable if it creates drugs that doctors can prescribe for patients whose lab measurements fall ourside defined acceptable limits.

    10. If I were you, I would cook something wonderful to go with a nice bottle of wine to celebrate!! Happy to see some good news, take care.

    11. Brilliant news, Phillip! Enjoy cooking something tasty and having a slurp as you go!💕

      1. I have a Donald Russel meat delivery tomorrow morning (they had a SALE on !) I shall have an indulgent lunch.

      1. I believe the real problem is patients seeing different Doctors each time who have seconds to cram a patient history. If they knew the person and family from how it used to be done these conditions wouldn’t be mis-diagnosed so often.

      1. It will be considered irrelevant, no more important than what they’d eaten for breakfast or the street number of the home where they live.

      3. The boy who was killed was a white English boy.

        ‌Alfie Lewis, 15, was reportedly knifed in the chest after being
        attacked by a gang outside St Margaret’s Primary School in the Horsforth
        area of Leeds on Tuesday afternoon.

  42. Just asking. Why on earth is there an Association of Slammer Police Officers? Or one for Blacks??

    Just imagine the outcry if anyone wanted to set up an Association of White English Police Officers.

  43. Reports say fans are about to riot over the decision by Nestle to discontinue the Caramac bar. I’m sure there must be some other things people could riot over but am struggling to think what.

  44. Tricky one today

    Wordle 872 5/6

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

    1. Took me time ax well
      Wordle 872 5/6

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

    2. Par but yes, odd one.

      Wordle 872 4/6

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

      1. Very odd.

        Wordle 872 4/6

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

  45. Lloyd’s of London to pay £52m over ‘significant role’ in slave trade
    World’s largest insurance market plans to support black people in work and education

    I’m looking forward to a similar reparation sum from North Africa for the estimated 1million Europeans enslaved over decades by the Barbary Pilots and others ( See Giles Milton’s ‘White Gold’ for details)

    2. A year later:

      “Trustees of Lloyd’s Slavery Fund gaoled for massive fraud…”

      You read it here first.

    1. Perhaps the non Muslim organisations should attend mosques, to learn what type of attacks they might expect.

      1. I’ve just noticed that this extract comes from a webpage of 2019, so it’s not really pertinent if new instructions have been issued.

  48. I cannot remember under which article I saw this BTL post but there is a certain amount of truth in it. Mind you those who did give it away have received what HMRC would term as accountable benefits in kind.

    People say that our politicians have sold our country. That is a lie – they have given it away.

  49. 378555+ up ticks,

    Dt,
    When poppy sellers cannot honour the dead, we must take a stand
    It shows how weak our country has become if a patriotic day raising money for veterans ends with them surrounded by enemies of patriotism

    But many in today’s society prefer to show a clean pair of heels from a full kneeling, appeasing position, to the person behind.
    Patriotism has seemingly taken a hike with common sense & self respect.
    There is much to straighten out regarding what has been put in place via the polling stations and the peoples consent.

    3. Well, there was no coffee and croissants to start with. No Prêt à Manger sandwiches for lunch and no 5 course supper at a Michelin 3* restaurant.
      How boring.

  51. Pro-Russia politician assassinated in car bomb attack in occupied Ukraine. 8 November 2023.

    Ukraine’s spy agency said it ordered the assassination of a Russian-backed politician with a car bomb in occupied Luhansk.

    Mikhail Filiponenko was killed on Wednesday morning in the eastern Ukrainian region, local media reported Wednesday, citing his son.

    “A special operation to eliminate Filiponenko was implemented jointly with representatives of the resistance movement. As a result of the morning explosion, Filiponenko died on the spot,” Ukraine’s military intelligence said.

    Vlad (supposedly) knocks off a couple of confirmed traitors and infamy results. The Ukies admit to murdering a couple of innocent people to the sound of applause! Go figure!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/11/08/pro-russia-politician-assassinated-car-bomb-attack-ukraine/

    1. Just like those tens of thousands of teenage girls were making lifestyle choices with those predatory muslim men, Minister?

    2. Birch them at half time at their favourite football clubs.

      I doubt they would be keen for a repeat performance.

      1. No Jill, I shop at Lidl on the odd occasion I don’t get a delivery from Tesco. I’m 65 miles from a supermarket so I rarely go to a store

  57. Home! And I’m bloody knackered!
    Bought a pair of gloves and then did the bank shuffling I planned, few problems except a 10 min wait in Nationwide.
    Drew some cash out of the cashpoint and went & bought myself the blazer I’d been promising myself for the past year, to have the Corps Badge & buttons sewn on and then went for a light lunch at Milk & Honey, a lovely little cafe-deli up Saddlergate.
    Caught bus back to Belper, did some shopping at Morrison’s and Aldi, then walked to the greengrocers for more shopping.

    1. Cont. (pressed CTRL Enter at the wrong time!)
      Got the bus back to Cromford from whence I walked home.
      Sorted shopping out, shoved some potatoes into the microwave for DT & the two lads and am now sat with mug of tea.
      Spent FAR too much money, but no point being the richest man in the graveyard, is there?

      2. I thought that (about spending too much, but what’s money for if not to enjoy it?). I’ve just renewed my racecourse annual membership. It isn’t cheap, but I get a lot of pleasure out of it.

      2. Enquiring minds want to know if it is possible to become a resident on the Isle of Man (during end of life care) so one’s family might benefit from the zero inheritance tax?……

        1. My father had a rich friend who retired there. Unfortunately he needed emergency treatment (following a heart attack?) and died on his transportation to the mainland.

          1. Unfortunately I was diagnosed with heart failure and was urgently admitted to the cardiac ward.
            Unfortunately, whilst asleep, the ecg alarm went off and woke me up.
            Fortunately the night nurse rushed in to see what was going on, found the alarm had woken me up and suggested we both forgot it had really happened.
            Fortunately I wasn’t in there long and escaped with my heart still beating.

      3. When Christo was at Gresham’s the head had previously been head of a school on the Isle of Man. We did not have many dealings with him but he seemed pleasant enough though I believe he was not liked by many of the staff – mind you this is not unusual.

        We had a French teacher from Wellington College staying with us some years ago and she idolised the head, Anthony Seldon. I could not understand it.

        What did your MR think of her former head at Gresham’s?

  61. Apparently Carol Vorderman has called Tory ministers

    ‘a lying bunch of greedy, corrupt, destructive, hateful, divisive, gaslighting crooks.’”

    Couldn’t have put it better myself!

    1. Count down and out?

      By those standards I should have thought Lineker will be evicted soon. /sarc

    3. Is the USA taking any? After all, it triggered Afghans to flee their homeland for Pakistan when its forces were rapidly withdrawn from the country in the face of the return of the Taliban.

    5. Would it be racist to say that Muslim refugees should be welcomed in Muslim countries; Christian refugees should be welcomed in Christian countries.

      And if it is racist or discriminatory why should it be considered so?

  63. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/11/08/us-uk-military-climate-carbon-army-navy-air-force/

    In one of the more unusual studies recently conducted by the
    trans-Atlantic think tank community, it appears that the US and UK
    militaries are in arrears to, well, somebody, to the combined tune of
    $111 billion. For carbon emissions.

    UK-based Common Wealth, and
    the US-based Climate and Community Project, reported that the two
    countries’ militaries are jointly responsible for some 430 million
    metric tonnes of carbon dioxide, since the 2015 United Nations Paris climate agreement.

    Now
    on the face of it, that number looks rather bad. More than four hundred
    million metric tons is a lot of carbon dioxide. So let’s analyse that
    number another way. Since 2015, total global carbon emissions were a
    combined 254 billion metric tons. To show just how small the combined US
    and UK militaries’ emissions in fact were, they made 0.16 per cent of
    all global emissions.

  64. Well you can’t get much safer and effective than a now banned ‘vaccine’….

    The Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine has been branded “defective” in a multi-million pound landmark legal action that will suggest claims over its efficacy were “vastly overstated”.

    The pharmaceutical giant is being sued in the High Court in a test case by Jamie Scott, a father-of-two who suffered a significant permanent brain injury that has left him unable to work as a result of a blood clot after receiving the jab in April 2021. A second claim is being brought by the widower and two young children of 35-year-old Alpa Tailor, who died after having the jab made by AstraZeneca, the UK-based pharmaceutical giant.

    The test cases could pave the way for as many as 80 damages claims worth an estimated £80 million over a new condition known as Vaccine-induced Immune Thrombocytopenia and Thrombosis (VITT) that was identified by specialists in the wake of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine rollout.

    Independent studies show the AstraZeneca vaccine was incredibly effective in tackling the pandemic, saving more than six million lives globally in the first year of the rollout. Last year, the World Health Organisation said the vaccine was “safe and effective for all individuals aged 18 and above” and that the adverse effect that has prompted the legal action was “very rare”.

    The vaccine, which was heralded at its launch by Boris Johnson as a “triumph for British science”, is no longer used in the UK. The Government recommends three other vaccines for its autumn booster programme.

    2. Sorry to be pernickety. The suggestion that the vaccine was “defective” came from lawyers for the plaintiffs. The suggestion in the first paragraph is that a judge so held.

      Let us wait and see. A lawyer writes….

      1. Agree that they are presumed to be innocent until proven otherwise. However, why ban this particular ‘vaccine’ if it is safe and effective?

        1. Here’s the answer:

          By April 2021, there had been 79 reports of blood clots and 19 deaths in Britain, leading the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to rule it was no longer worth the risk for young people.

          Crunching the numbers showed that at the time, for the under-30s the vaccine would prevent just 0.8 people per 100,000 being admitted to hospital with Covid, yet could cause harm to 1.1 in 100,000.

          Many questioned why the issue had not been picked up in trials. But although vaccine trials consist of tens of thousands of people they are still too small to pick up rare, population-level events.

          “You can’t pick these kinds of things up until you have literally deployed tens of millions of doses of vaccine,” Prof Sir Jonathan Van-Tam said at a Downing Street press conference in April 2021, in which the Government announced a “course correction”.

          1. Every medicine/vaccine/treatment/operation has some risk. Just read the bumph that you find in a packet of aspirin.

          2. For example a study in yer Scotland:

            There were 133 deaths out of 31,525 operations over the 4-year period (1994-1997). Mortality was highest among femoral hernia operations in women (37 deaths/1184 operations; 3.1%) and 59% of femoral hernia surgery was performed outwith normal working hours.

          4. Grandson (3rd year Pharmacy student) says paracetamol would not have been made in current circumstances.

        2. “…is no longer used in the UK. ” Because it has been superceded by something EVEN better?

          I am not arguing that it is the devil’s poison – just that I’d rather wait until a court makes that judgment. I’m following the science, you understand….

      2. The Astrazenecca was though ‘safe and effective’ was withdrawn because so many people were suffering blood clots.

        I always thought the over litigious nature of the Americans was a bit much (sue when anything goes wrong).
        Not so sure now.

        1. I don’t think the Pfizer and Moderna ones were any better. None of them were properly tested for long enough.

          3. Then there would have been “millions dead”, and HMG would have been accused of denying people an existing vaccine that might have helped….

            They can’t win. And you know how much I loathe this sham government.

          4. Had it been known that early trials of a Covid-19 vaccine showed very encouraging signs of efficacy in treating symptoms of the illness but that the trials would continue for at least 5 years to ensure their safety and that, in the meantime, treatments for the illness would continue to evolve using existing methods, I’m sure there would have been no public clamour for emergency-use authorisation of the vaccines despite the number of Covid-19 victims mounting up and piling high and victims of other illnesses and accidents also mounting up and piling high due to health services being overwhelmed and unable to cope because of the sheer number of patients it was being faced with.

          5. The hospitals were never overwhelmed, and the Nightingale hosptals were not used. That was all before the jabs became available. The majority of the deaths were of the elderly who were discharged from hospitals into care homes.

            Others were people with diabetes, and obesity or other comorbidities. There was never any need for a vaccine – the Common Cold Unit had tried for many years to produce one for coronavirus without success.

            It was the fear campaign which frightened people into compliance.

          6. They had effective treatments (ivermectin, hydroxychloroquin). They forbade them to make the “vaccines” the only treatment. (edited to get the right second treatment)

          7. I remain unconvinced they were effective treatments. The £50,000 fee I received from George Soros.. Or was it Klaus Schab?… It doesn’t much matter… convinced me so.

          8. I think a trial over one month using six mice was entirely effective…said Matt Hancock Minister for killing useless eaters Secretary

          10. If the subsequent evidence proves a lot of folks suspicions there should be plenty of time for trials…..

        2. See my hernia example just posted. And I bet you thought it was safe as houses. I certainly did.

      3. And thus an intelligent lawyer writes.
        As opposed to an artificial lawyer of limited intelligence

      1. How can they know? It is just propaganda in the hope that there is wiggle room to get them out of the way of that which is gathering speed on what is the now near horizon.

      3. That is the £64 million question. (Especially as in the light of the fact that many folk ‘vaccinated’ caught Covid subsequently [Ah but they didn’t die….])

  65. It’s beginning to come out now in the MSM!

    I hope the effects don’t materialise after more than two years – I dodged a bullet with this one!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/11/08/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-astrazeneca-vaccine/

    Just five days after a Christmas spent by millions in lockdown, this

    was the best gift ever. On December 30, Britain’s regulator gave the

    green light for the emergency use of a Covid-19 vaccine developed by the University of Oxford in collaboration with the Cambridge-based pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca.

    It was announced Boris Johnson as “a triumph for British science” in a typically enthusiastic post on Twitter. Matt Hancock, the (also Oxford-educated) health secretary whose subsequent fall from grace

    proved to be spectacular, declared it “a moment to celebrate British

    innovation” and a time to pay “tribute to the incredible UK scientists

    at Oxford University and AstraZeneca whose breakthrough will help to

    save lives around the world”.

    2. Moh and I have been having a series of tests on blood and hearts and lungs.. because of various reactions we have had due to you know what.

      I haven’t had any more boosters since last year, my doctor’s advice.

      More blood tests today, and chest xray last week and ECG. I passed my spirometry breathing test , but they don’t understand why I a so breathless on exertion although I can achieve over 8,000 steps aday, but not the volume of exercise pre covid .

      I am waiting to have an echocardiogram , Moh has already had his .. he will have to have another next year.. definite systolic heart murmur

      I spoke to a friend of mine , she is the same age as me , and she is also undergoing the same test routine .

      She believes the NHS is in panic mode , and they are calling in patients who have had covid and the jabs .

      1. A year ago, my OH collapsed while playing table tennis – (more than once) and it took a while for me to get him to the doctor’s. When I got past the recorded message and the receptionist, we got an immediate appointment, and all the tests began. He had all those you’ve mentioned, and a triple by-pass and aortic valve replacement just before Christmas. His heart rate is still elevated now. He gets breathless just walking up stairs. It’s certainly changed his sporty lifestyle, but at least he’s still with us.

        He had three Pfizer jabs but no more boosters since 2021. I had two AZ jabs and no boosters. Not having any more jabs for anything now.

        I hope your tests find nothing too serious. We are both taking vit D3 and have had no respiratory bugs at all.

        1. We are constantly getting letters and text about convid and flu jabs.
          Today the surgery rang us; we both said no and they have – apparently – now made note of the fact that we are not interested,
          Watch this space.

          1. If they are rational people at the surgery – and they do seem to be, on the whole, then they should have put two and two together by now. They are probably also being badgered to meet “targets” and of course, the business gets paid by numbers.

      2. A year ago, my OH collapsed while playing table tennis – (more than once) and it took a while for me to get him to the doctor’s. When I got past the recorded message and the receptionist, we got an immediate appointment, and all the tests began. He had all those you’ve mentioned, and a triple by-pass and aortic valve replacement just befre Christmas. His heart rate is still elevated now. He gets breathless just walking up stairs. It’s certainly changed his sporty lifestyle, but at least he’s still with us.

        He had three Pfizer jabs but no more boosters since 2021. I had two AZ jabs and no boosters. Not having any more jabs for anything now.

        I hope your tests find nothing too serious. We are both taking vit D3 and have had no respiratory bugs at all.

      3. Are they interested in those who did not have the Jabs and then had Covid extremely mildly?

          1. Neighbours – who were/are Full Covidians have had lots of jabs and boosters AND test themselves every time they have a sniffle. They have had covid a dozen times. Up to now!

          2. Just heard from friends that they’ve had their fifth boosters.

            Judging by their previous experiences they are now due for their fourth or fifth dose of Covid.

          4. And they regard themselves as well qualified, well educated, and circumspect.
            Ha bluddy ha!
            Mask wearers even today, naturally…

          5. I have had my fifth booster and flu shot on advice of my doctor, all without side effects, 2010 was when I last had any signs of coughs and sneezes, I guess I am lucky!

          6. I take Vit D3 daily, and haven’t had a sniffle since I started some years ago.
            No Covid vaccinations; I had a flu one once, and have never been so ill.

          7. But,
            If you had been jabbed, then caught covid, jabbed again, and then caught covid; would you have rinsed and repeated a further three times having read about potential problems?

          8. My Department Head has been jabbed a billion times, and each jab is immediately followed by a covid attack.

          11. He’s permanantly ill, and boats of how many jabs he’s had.
            So, not much exaggeration, really.
            Me: Zero, and zero.

          12. Clearly, that is definitely not an exaggeration.

            After all, an injection every ten seconds would only take about 300 years to complete the billion.
            };-((

          13. Can’t really answer that. But I do trust my doctor, who has looked after my health since moving to WV, through pneumonia, breast cancer and sepsis. We were not exposed to all the hoopla that the UK suffered, and I was always able to get appointment if necessary.

        2. They are interested in those who had Covid and the jabs , I had Covid and side effects for over 6 weeks in March and April last year.

          I haven’t felt quite right since . No energy etc.

    3. I wonder how many poor sods opted for this one because it was British?
      I suspect that if given the choice between others I would have.

      1. I wasn’t given a choice. But I’m glad I didn’t have the mRNA ones. I think I’ve been very lucky to have had no reaction at all. I just hope my immune system has cleared it all by now.

        1. Caroline and I thank God for our Doctor Françoise who advised us not to have any Covid jabs.

        2. I am glad i did not have any. I explained to so many people why they should not have the jab. not one took my advice, that is when they lost my respect. So many slaves that cannot think for themselves. It was a flu virus and nothing more. losing its power as it mutates.

          1. In principle, I agree with you, but certainly here in France (yes I know that that was my choice) it was almost impossible to function without being jabbed, even to shop.
            We had to return to the UK periodically and without the appropriate certification it was impossible.
            It’s a great pity that those who forced it on the population cannot be required to be guinea pigs for the next lot of pandemic vaccinations.

          2. It wasn’t a flu virus. Flu and corona viruses come from different families. Covid is more akin to a particularly nasty cold virus.

          4. Yes – I understand all that – I didn’t fear the virus and didn’t leap at the chance of being jabbed, but I’ve had so many in my life for travel purposes, and it was clearly going to become a requirement. I had a trip already booked (which was postponed twice) and had it due to that coercion. I greatly underestimated the damage it has caused to so many people.

        3. More and more, I am suspecting that MB’s life was irrevocably changed by the bloody jab.
          He only had it because he had other health problems.

          2. Let’s hope it was mere coincidence ant that he eventually (sooner rather than later) recovers.

          3. My J was fit and sporty before the three jabs. with no apparent health problems. Though the urinary retention and subsequent diagnosis of prostate cancer did surface in the same month but prior to the first jab.

    1. Perhaps our media will show and share all that. So far they all seem to be totally supportive of Hamas.
      Why?

        1. But, but, have the media no recollection of previous events enacted by slammers in our country?
          The list is quite long and the most worrying issue is, I can’t remember how any of them were punished. Even that little ten year old girl who was recently murdered by her relatives. There has been not a word from our normally over conspicuous media, on what has happened.

          2. Too delicate, dear boy, to waken the dragon of remembrance and have people slamming Muzzies as harmful and uncaring (which they are).

    2. Well, Gaza resident; if you really want to put your money where your mouth is, why don’t you all show the IDF where every single tunnel entrance/exit is, where all the “safe houses” are, which schools, hospitals and mosques the rats are hiding under and expose them?

      I’ll bet my shilling to your brass farthing that you and yours know exactly where they all are.

        1. Let me guess:

          Damned butchers of the IDF murdering the innocent, heroic Hamas defending their women and children?

          1. More or less – devastated streets and people fleeing for their lives as their families are killed.

    3. I make little effort whatsoever to know anything about any of this. In what way would knowing enhance my happiness?

    2. Indeed he did.

      Correct me if I’m wrong after all you’re the English teacher, but surely the brackets suggest that the pony was promoted, but not to the rank of colonel in chief.

    3. I know the MSM have an agenda – to show Brash and Trash in the worst possible light by printing pictures of the “busy, everso caring” Waleses every sodding day – but it does get a touch tedious.

      2. I am now fed up with seeing Kate gurning away on every possible occasion (does she have NO discrimination?), and hearing William’s witterings. If he wants to make a difference, he should step down and take a proper job. Until then, he should accept that he’s a clothes horse for dashing uniforms and keep his trap shut!

  68. That’s me for this cold, dreary day. The winter greens in the greenhouse are thriving.

    It is said that the sun may shine tomorrow. But I doubt it as I have to turn the AGA off at bedtime as the AGA man is coming at 9 am. May risk the central heating for a few hours.

    Have a spiffing evening planning your march on Saturday.

    A demain

  69. A shadow looms large across the waters of the South China Sea: and it’s cast by the Shagdong, China’s first home built aircraft carrier, which recently arrived there.

    The Chinese warship cuts an imposing figure, intensifying concerns over peace and stability in the region. Chinese naval power being projected in such a bold way is a very clear symbol of the country’s territorial aspirations.

  71. Little Cat just sat down next to me, after I had been taking the Michael. A contemptuously huge flick of the tail to arrange himself, so that put my efforts into the shade. Puh! Put me in my place.

      2. Yes. And Firstborn got a serious telling-off for quite a while – about five minutes of loud MEOW! – captured on video.

          1. Or just got lost in the barn – although Firstborn searched for him there. Most important thing is that he is back, though, and doesn’t wanter off just before Christmas vacation.

  72. ‘Seeing is believing’
    @dave24144975
    This is where we are at…

    An asylum seeker who UK spies believe to be an ISIS supporter has won the right to remain in Britain after judges ruled he is not a threat to national security.

    The 30-year-old Iranian Kurd, who can’t be named for legal reasons, first arrived in Britain on the back of a lorry in 2016 and was granted refugee status.

    In 2020, he travelled to see family in Iraqi Kurdistan. The government claims he then re-entered Iran resulting in his refugee status being revoked and being unable to fly back to the UK.

    The man then managed to get back into the UK on a small boat from France in March 2021 and claimed asylum for a second time, which was refused by then home secretary Priti Patel, who argued he was a risk to national security.

    https://twitter.com/dave24144975/status/1722311984262058011

    2. A shame he didn’t fall off the back of a lorry doing 70mph. Can’t be named due to legal reasons. Anyone accused of historic harassment, sexual or racially, named and shamed before a trial. FFS!.

  73. Thought for the day:

    A new pandemic, and far more deadly than covid appears, and the experts invent an injection that “cures” it.

    Unfortunately the injection for new disease only works if one has not been injected against Covid..

    What then?

    2. Is it a spoof, Maggie, or is she as fucking mad as a fucking hatter? (please excuse my French)

  75. Between 15 & 21 April 2023, 21 aircraft destroyed on the ground in Khartoum as a result of ground fighting. No deaths.
    Was that in the news, or was Ukraine too important?

  77. Boring boring

    Another thought for the day:
    Are there any figures for adverse reactions to the covid jabs broken down by ethnicity?

    2. I don’t think they kept a record of that. But covid seemed to knock the ethnics disproportionaetly, possibly due to lack of vitD.

    3. I have been reading on Twitter reports that in some families several members have been struck down by adverse effects – I was reading evening of one woman who was the only sibling remaining, her three brothers had all died from the effects of the jab. This was in the US. It has been observed that the US would appear to have suffered more fatalities, whereas Western Europe has suffered more from adverse effects. Is this the effect of different batches (presumably experimentation by the pharmaceuticals) or genetics within families – I would have thought that the genetics of the US were very similar generally, to those of W. Europe in 2021.

      1. I strongly suspect that America will have more in the ethnographic mix than even Europe.

        My question relates to the various racial differences; I very much doubt it has been done, but the differences might be significant.

    4. Among my acquaintance, I would say the benefits of the covid jabs are distributed pretty evenly, regardless of ethnicity.

    1. It’s a pity that ICO doesn’t understand the difference between Lloyd’s Bank and Lloyd’s of London ……

      1. Lloyd’s of London will invest £52 million in causes promoting racial equality after a research project set out its “significant role” in the transatlantic slave trade.

        An 18-month review by Johns Hopkins University found that Lloyd’s was “part of a sophisticated network of financial interests and activities” that made the slave trade possible between the 17th and 19th centuries.

        The world’s largest insurance market, which can trace its history back 335 years, was found to have insured the largest slave shipowners in the early 1800s, to have campaigned against the end of the slave trade, and to have dealt in risk policies for uprisings by the enslaved while referring to people as “goods … valued at £45 each”.

        https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/lloyds-of-london-puts-up-52m-to-atone-for-role-in-slave-trade-ptsvz75cp

        1. Any mention of reparations for the descendants of the 1500 Royal Navy personnel who died in the service of the West Africa Squadron fighting to abolish the Trans Atlantic slave trade?

  79. I was looking through some of my inherited cookery books .

    Many of the books are pre war and wartime , when rationing started .. there were huge shortages of food , and families coped with the stress of meat shortages , butter cheese etc , and flour .

    As we now have 30 million additions to our population and nearly 10 million Asians , Africans etc .. How would their diets have fared here in war torn Britain , no spices , shortage of rice and many other dietary requirements .. and the hardships of pre central heated Britain, no NHS, no benefits…

    If Britain wasn’t so modern these days , difficult like the 1950s onwards , but with no benefit system or NHS, would the Windrush people and Asians have lingered here ?

      1. Old Ray, now 88 years old , told me the story of his father and mother who had a butchers shop and small farm near here during the war.

        They were very protective of their rare breed pig , and were worried that the Ministry of Ag or who ever they were during the war would demand the animal to be slaughtered … so when ever the family met up with cousins / family / business elsewhere , they took the pig with them in the car, in the large boot rack on the rear of the car.

        The pig survived the war.

        The villagers ate badger instead !!

          1. There is a country pub near here, that fed people with roast badger well into the 1950s.

            Raymond told me it was even nicer than pork , had flavour , what ever that means .

        3. Lol imagine the uproar today if you suggested the hedgehog-killers should be eaten for sustenance.

      2. Properly prepared they are a delicacy. Just make sure they are shaved and have had a pedicure.

    3. I think the Windrush people did come to better themselves and settle in. It’s their children and grandchildren that are the problem.
      They keep promising to stop the boats but all they have to do is say there will be no benefits for newcomers and no fine housing either. They would soon stop.
      They have no intention of doing that though.
      We give Universal credit to people all over the world who have no connection to Britain at all.

  80. Oh well I’ll be off until the morrow.
    Does anyone know if our comments make any difference. We all seem to be of similar opinions. Hate our useless politicians and most of our media.
    Night all. 😴

    1. No – but it’s good to chat with like-minded people. It may be an echo chamber but it’s kept me reasonably sane, knowing I’m not alone.

      1. Snap, the same here , and people need to feel safe when they feel a sense of outrage that the country our parents and relatives fought to protect from a cruel German invasion and assault on civilised Europe is now being invaded by wogs.

      2. It’s very difficult to broach any of it with ‘normies’ isn’t it? None of my neighbours show any signs of being awake yet.

        1. The pub is almost verging on being Nottlerist on many subjects, but vaccinations aren’t being regarded as suspicious yet. Although a left wing ex primary head teacher (of 40 years and a very nice man) has come to the conclusion that all the kids’ ‘inoculations‘ are the source of such a huge increase of ‘Aspergers (‘et al) in children.

      3. Agreed, but it can be somewhat disconcerting at times to read that ‘fings ain’t wot they used ter be’ Realistically, you understand the changes but depressing to see at times, especially the past 20 or so years.

    3. Yes, it’s mostly an echo chamber, parroting back to one another what is hoped will secure approval.

  82. It’s frightening for the National Literacy Trust to report that in 2023 only 43 per cent of children and young people say they read for pleasure. It’s vital for every child to have the opportunity to discover the joy of reading. They can learn what life is like in idyllic havens or in war-torn countries, experience extreme poverty or fabulous wealth, live in the past or the future, simply by opening a book.

    Reading supports empathy and creativity. It stimulates the imagination, enhances vocabulary, excites and also comforts. Storytelling has always been part of human existence. Since the “ragged” schools of the 19th century, which provided free education for children too poor to receive it elsewhere, we have tried to make reading a skill available to all.

    It’s worrying that reading is in danger of becoming a niche hobby. Not all homes have books as part of the furniture. Like many, I spent my weekends and holidays in the children’s room of the local library, borrowing hundreds of books that meant the world to me.

    Sadly, many hundreds of public libraries have closed during the past ten years. That is why it’s so important for every primary school to have an attractive, fully stocked library. Some schools do have a space termed “the library” but the books are old and don’t necessarily reflect our diverse modern life.

    Children need to have the chance to read about communities, cultures and families like their own to enhance their sense of identity. They need new books as well as beloved literary classics. One in seven primary schools don’t have a library at all, which rises to one in four in our most disadvantaged communities.

    A report released today from the Primary School Library Alliance shows how important it is to parents for there to be attractive school libraries. As a veteran speaker in primary schools, I know that a new library can make an overwhelming difference. Last year I opened a library at Harbour school in Newhaven, East Sussex. It’s not a wealthy area but it’s a warm and friendly school thanks to a dynamic head teacher and her staff. I was delighted to see how thrilled the children were to have a library of their own.

    One boy showed me a copy of my book The Story of Tracy Beaker and said he’d loved taking it home to show his mum. I asked if she’d read it to him. “Mum can’t read properly yet so I’m reading it to her, and we both laugh at the story,” he told me.

    It would be wonderful if all children, and indeed their families, could benefit from school libraries in this way.

    Dame Jacqueline Wilson is an author and former children’s laureate

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/act-now-or-we-risk-turning-reading-into-a-niche-hobby-5xpgjrc52

    1. MoH has volunteered to help maintain the excellent library at our local primary school. The library has benefitted from a bequest of a former Head Mistress. I get drafted in from time to time to improve the shelving. The pupils are actively encouraged to choose books to take home to read.

      1. I hope the school has lots of copies of the Quran. Locally, you couldn’t find a Muslim within 20 miles. They tend to be in the densely populated centres. But it won’t be long…

    2. “only 43 per cent of children and young people say they read for pleasure.”

      I very much doubt it’s anywhere near 43%.

      “but the books are old and don’t necessarily reflect our diverse modern life.”

      Bugger their diversity.

      1. “but the books are old and don’t necessarily reflect our diverse modern life.” children don’t want to read anything involving the government’s attempts at social engineering. By its very nature it becomes tedious, dull, boring. Children know when they are being bamboozled and switch off.

        1. Just what I was thinking. I wouldn’t mind betting that the % of readers would be higher if they weren’t being fed such ghastly blatant propaganda.
          It was just coming into school libraries when I was at primary school, and I remember being baffled by it, because it clearly didn’t make sense.

          1. Did you enjoy it, though? Or was it a matter of wading through it to get good marks and pass exams.

          2. Good question, Stig. I enjoyed Dickens, but Shakespeare wasn’t my go to reading. I much prefer early and mid 20th century literature.

          5. I think whether one is receptive to learning in any subject has much to do with the teacher.

            Some teachers have the knack of enthusing their pupils whilst others merely make study a drudge.

          6. I recall for C19 we read a lot of George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss, Daniel Deronda and Middlemarch the masterpiece in my view. George Eliot was of course a woman.

            I mention this because a novel such as Daniel Deronda remains a lesson to us today with the rampant anti-Semitism we now experience daily.

        3. When I was growing up I wanted to read adventure stories, particularly if they were set in exotic locations. The last thing I’d ever want (then or now) is John and John set up home together.

        4. The Oxford reading tree is a ghastly offence to writing. We have a massive collection of Michael Rosen, Roald Dahl – before the scum ruined his work – Tolkien, Wodehouse.

      2. Diverse modern life has had 100,000 scum arade through London on Armistice day. Brats don’t even know what that means any more.

    3. At the moment, I’ve put reading for pleasure on the back burner (not that I’m not reading, it’s just what I have to read is not by choice). Oddly enough, I remarked this evening after the meeting that I am looking forward to being able to read for pleasure again.

      I suspect children don’t read because they are so glued to their phones they don’t have time.

      1. I presented three paragraphs to a kiddie as instruction and was told it was a ‘wall of text’. Some people are lazy. Some illiterate. Others just pig thick – which is an insult to pigs. Mostly it’s laziness to avoid putting the work in because they’re frightened they won’t understand.

    4. Junior has been reading since he was 3. He has a computer and an iPad even a telephone but he takes a book to the loo.

      Once both he and I were reading on separate loos and the Warqueen banned lavaries as she termed them. It lasted a week.

    5. At my little primary school we didn’t have a library but we did have a selection of books delivered each term from the county library. And I always had plenty of reading matter at home.

    6. At my little primary school we didn’t have a library but we did have a selection of books delivered each term from the county library. And I always had plenty of reading matter at home.

    7. Of the 57% who do not read for pleasure, how many read as a tedious chore demanded by their schools and how many others read little or nothing at all?

    8. It starts at home.

      We read to each of our boys every night at bedtime when they were very little; they loved books and could not wait to be able to read themselves and indeed both were fluent readers at the age of 4.

      They both studied engineering or computers at university and they both work professionally in these fields. But they both still love books and read voraciously.

      1. It does indeed start at home!
        Books are in every room in my house, I am miserable if I do not have a book to read, with several back-ups!!
        And my children and grand say the same thing.

    2. Is Norman Wisdom one of the least funny popular comedians this country has ever produced?

      2. Yes, it wasnt perfectly safe and not utterly effective. What does that mean for future viral outbreaks and attempts to combat them? How many thousands should be allowed to die to prevent a much smaller number suffering the side effects of attempts to combat it?

        1. There is no evidence that these poisonous ‘vaccines’ saved anyone. On the contrary these ‘vaccines’ have killed and injured tens of millions.

          Covid was a bio-weapon, a relatively small and manipulated experiment in social control by comparison with what is being planned. Why else would so many advanced countries fall into lockstep, abandoning established pandemic planning and stabilising Nudge Units to influence societal behaviour?

          Many were given saline solution whilst others received various dosages of differing harm including lethality in order to conceal the crime.

          3. The research into the batches’ differing impacts supports your last sentence. Early on data was ‘obtained’ and analysed that threw suspicion on batch differences and a recent study from, IIRC, Denmark, placed the potion into three categories of harm. The lowest category was as near being a placebo as can be expected.
            The recent revelations about Pfizer and Moderna potions should make everybody who is contemplating having it jabbed into their body very cautious.

            Steve Kirsch Substack – OK You Were Right

          4. Every single person I know who had the ‘vaccine’ also had covid. All of our family included.

      3. Yes, it wasnt perfectly safe and not utterly effective. What does that mean for future viral outbreaks and attempts to combat them? How many thousands should be allowed to die to prevent a much smaller number suffering the side effects of attempts to combat it?

    2. Moderna was created in order to exploit the supposed wonder mRNA vaccine technology. Sunak was an original investor. Moderna’s share price has plummeted given that uptake of its boosters is in low single percentage figures.

      Pfizer has also failed to persuade nobody but a few sheep to take its boosters and it has lost billions in share value as a result.

      People for the most part are not totally stupid. I expect the people and companies lying about the efficacy of their poisonous jabs are held to account, monies seized and prison sentences for those offending.

    1. If the £20,000 stays the same there’s no extra incentive. Jeremy rhyming slang is an idiot. All they do is tinker with things to make it look as if they’re doing something. Trouble is it’s never anything useful.

    2. I take the line of not reading anything about any of this. Life’s happier that way.

  86. Evening, all. Had a busy day, walking Kadi (Oscar went to bed), doing my cycling stint (and going nowhere), going into town to do some Christmas shopping (I tend to pick things up all through the year to avoid a last-minute mad rush), then a meeting in the evening.

    I suspect “A very British welcome” does not mean the same thing now as it would have when I was growing up. Then fascists got short shrift. Now they are housed and feted.

    1. Reducing the food supply has only one destination, and that is mass starvation. People need to wake up quickly and start teaching themselves how to use every scrap of land to produce food.

  88. After I made reference earlier today about my inconclusive blood test that came back from the lab a few days ago there was some discussion about VITT – Vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia.

    Here’s a reference that concludes that Demonstration of circulating anti–platelet factor 4 (anti-PF4) antibodies in conjunction with thrombocytopenia and thrombosis suggests that VITT is a clinical variant of aHIT.

    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8172307/

    VITT identifies as being similar to aHIT and Heparin Induced Thombosis (HIT) but its treatment is complicated by involving both the coagulant (clotting) and anticoagulant (bleeding) processes of platelets.

    My own attempted blood counts in the lab were compromised by the inability of the automated platelet count attempts to adequately enumerate the cells due to platelet aggregation in the sample. However my platelet count was recorded as a lower than normal value suggesting that I had thrombocytopenia which is consistent with my anticoagulant medication.

    I have no idea if this has anything to do with me never experiencing COVID symptoms even having had the maximum number of jabs albeit not AZs.

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