Dull? Never

 During the 1974 Wilson government (I think Wilson - I can't be bothered to look it up  - because it was a turbulent time with governments for a few years in the early/mid 1970s with Heath and Wilson) we had the survival stuff and lots of No Nukes, cold war stuff.  I remember saying to my mother we could jump into the grain hole (it was like an underground holding place for grain in our barn) to be safe from nuclear attack.  She wasn't so sure and didn't want to talk about it.  We changed the subject.  The rest of survival was about nuclear attack and keeping big items of furniture around you to shield you and dried food and tins.  Then there was water too.  We had lots of containers we could fill that were used on the farm.    I still have a couple of jerry cans for water so no buying bottle water for me.  I will fill them in the garage one day soon, doing my bit. It goes against the grain to buy bottled water so I don't do it.   The survival  protection plan in 1974 included making sure you had a bucket available for using as a toilet.  I don't know if the current government has said anything about toilet coping but I guess with nobody under 60 knowing much about going outside to the toilet without a flush they are not going to want to talk about it anyway.   The whole country would probably die of typhoid before anything else. 

It is a sunny, windy day today.  The rain has gone.  The electricity went off twice last night, the first at a crucial moment just as the second half of the Chelsea v Spurs game was going to start. Damn.  Plunged into darkness and no football.   (It came back on again for the last 10 minutes).  Chelsea were terrible and Spurs had a season-corner-turning moment by winning 2-0 and a first win at Stamford Bridge for many decades.  Alonso was a puzzle in his team selection and why he brings on Welbeck with only a few minutes left when the game had been crying out for him for the whole time beggars belief.  Doesn't he like Welbeck?   Cole Palmer went into meltdown and got a red card, totally deserved and should have been off on the first yellow,  and then not to be outdone Rogers should have gone off for an outrageous tackle on Gallagher in injury time. So Chelsea should have had two red cards.  Penders was the new 21 year old goalkeeper on his debut in the rain and wind, what could be worse for a goalkeeper on his debut?   (another great Belgian to come) because the Chelsea regular goalkeeper broke his jaw last week against Everton and he, Penders,  managed an own goal with a clip of the ball that went behind him into his own net.  Mike Penders doesn't sound like a very Belgian name but there you are, he is Belgian.  However Chelsea were so bad overall that the poor boy cannot be blamed for Chelsea's defeat at all.  They were bad way before he clipped the ball into his own net. 

Football dull?  

(The electricity then went off again when I was in bed so I read Trollope by torchlight). 

Lunch Moods Etc.

 Yesterday I went to the Sainsbury Centre (pictured below)  to meet my elderly lady friends for lunch.  N, 95 was in a cantankerous mood.   She ripped off one earring because it hurt;  she complained because her wrist was not flexible anymore after she broke it and she couldn't get her bracelets on.   But she enjoyed her food.  Her sister S in her 80s was oblivious to it.  C didn't come because her son was having chemo for bowel cancer and feeling  ill after it, D,  84 came in on the bus from Dereham and was sprightly and ok and  spoke about the invasion of Sicily in the year of her birth because she heard a history lecturer talking about in while she was queueing for her food (the Sainsbury Centre is on the UEA campus) and chatted to him.  We discussed it for a few minutes.  We also discussed Trollope's Barset books because they are all Trollope experts having done a course on him recently which I ddn't go on.  I said that Trollope is like a  male version of Barbara Pym, a great eye for detail and the human psyche.  Whether it be Victorian England or the 21st Century you would be surprised how little the psyche of folk has changed.  The subject then changed to Pym and great enthusiasm was had for her.  She is a very good writer but one so rarely finds her books in charity shops.  I think Pym and Trollope are both vastly underrated and under-read. 

It wasn't a lunch of a bundle of fun and I left promptly at 2pm and came home.  I felt strange about it all in a way I cannot put my finger on but being out with people is important for me so I carry on.  But the strange feeling has not left me and I cannot say what it is.  C at one point in the past (she was absent yesterday you will recall if you are reading carefully) said it is because I am 10 years, at least, younger than they are.  I wouldn't have thought that alone would make any difference but maybe it is like a return to childhood when age suddenly starts to make a difference again when all the years of age that have occurred in between don't, and then the difference suddenly reappears.  

I think the worst of the rain was while we were having lunch.  It was just like a bit of a stormy Autumn day.  I don't go for these weather warnings and storm names, total load of rubbish causing fear and alarm in the population when fear and alarm are not needed.  It would be a good thing if the television went away and never came back and the only thing people could do would be stream their favourite drama, documentaries and movies.  I am sure that never has it been before that news bulletins have so much influence on people's moods.  No wonder there is a rise in mental health issues for the tv viewing pubic. And of course the more welfare paid out for saying you are depressed and can't do this and can't do that means the more it will go on.  Once upon a time emotions were nothing more than feeling a bit fed up because your boyfriend finished with you or you got out of bed the wrong side. 

You can see Henry Moore's Reclining Figure in the photo

 You still went to work, you didn't say you felt "depressed", you had a clip round the ear from mum and told to get over it and you then got on with life.  Brushed yourself down, picked yourself up and carried on. Or as N did yesterday, ripped off your earring and got on with your lunch. 

Locks and Water

 When and why did we start locking our cars?  As a teenager I used to go out three nights a week to a local dance hall (I think we called them that in those days), Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays.  I had my Triumph Herald which had been my brother's before me and that of many other owners before either of us, and parked it on a large car park next to the Castle, on a hill, and never locked it.  Nothing ever happened to it and I assume that all the other cars parked there were not locked.  It was even possible to leave things inside the car and they were not touched and everything was as you left it when you returned.  I did used to take the ignition key out.  

When did all this change and why?  Was it because we became a nation of thieves one day?  Was it because the insurance companies demanded that cars were locked in order to validate insurance?

I was wondering this today because I was reading an American blog, one of a few blogs I read in the US who are bloggers who do not add a hate note about Trump before they sign off each post, and it appears that the same was true in the US - that people of my age did not lock their cars when they were young, and nobody did, and now everybody does. 

On the note of Britain and being prepared, I think those of a certain age are always prepared as we always have been so no special extra purchases needed.  The cats are well provided for too in case of bad weather and I can't get out.  If you carry on arming Ukraine and helping them send missiles to destroy Russian logistics you are going to put your own people at risk and that is what Burnham is doing.  And Nato are doing just that along with Britain. (Don't expect any help from Israeli intelligence now either after Miliband's little outburst a few weeks ago kicking one of the best intelligence services and our ally in the teeth).   I note that my post on Ukraine recently saying that Zelensky should go did not get any comments.  It is now creeping around that many international leaders think Zelensky should go, I wonder what reaction they get.  And talking of fraudulent ministers, we have one John Healey who should go, the defence minister who said that 3% of GDP should be spent on defence when he was defence minister, now backtracks on that as Chancellor.  We have gone from Rachel in accounts to Healey from the charity shop, trade union,  never got his hands dirty, never invested,  bald twerp in charge of our Exchequer.  And as one gas field opens a serious oil field gets the no.   Safe hands?  Go and fill your water bottle and turn off the heating if it's on, you can't afford it. 

Football etc.

 Last night I watched PSG v Barcelona in the UEFA Champions League.  You will recall that I was very impressed with PSG after their match with Man City last week and I chose at that point that PSG v Barcelona would be my next game.  I could have watched Liverpool beat Villarreal 4 -3 or Man City beat AEK Athens 5 - 1,  but no, I wanted to see two of the best teams,  PSG and Barcelona.  I was not disappointed and PSG won 4-2.   PSG did not dominate throughout but they were the more accurate at passing the ball and the more accurate on target when in front of goal and the win was deserved.  Man of the Match was probably the Barcelona goalkeeper who made some superb saves and prevented PSG from achieving something like a 7-2 win.  The young Jamal, 19 year old star of Barcelona, did not have a very good night even though he did score to equalise but his celebrations were barely over when PSG took the lead once more.  Jamal is considered to be a favourite for the Ballon D'Or although I believe Harry Kane will win it and deservedly so.  Depending on what you read it is either Jamal favourite or Kane favourite.  The winner will be announced on 26th October at 8pm.  Messi and Ronaldo are fighting it out in the papers for the Ballon D'Or Of All Time, some say Messi, some say Ronaldo.  They are both winners of it multiple times with Messi on top I believe.  

Tonight I can watch Harry Kane in action again when Arsenal go over to Bavaria to play Bayern Munich.  Vincent Kompany is the manager and an old favourite of mine in his playing days at Man City when I was watching football much more than I do today.  He was also one of the best in the Belgium national side with Eden Hazard in the golden days of Belgian football when it seemed unbelievable to me that such a small nation could have such an outstanding national team.   And Courtois the greatest goalkeeper I have ever seen (currently playing for Madrid).    Those days were around 2008 and onward for over 10 years.  Kompany is unlikely to be on the touchline tonight because he is suffering from a virus which is badly affecting his health and ability to walk.  

Before watching the match last night I chanced upon a documentary on Netflix called Power.   I had no idea what it was about, this is often the way with Netflix -  I click on something before reading what it is about, and it was about the police in the US from the time of the Indians like we used to see in westerns (I know, they weren't called police then but there was law and order enforcement) and it went through the Kerner Commission Report of 1968 after the 1967 riots and commissioned by LBJ.  It was very pertinent to today with the current riots in France.  All started for similar reasons, campus problems with students and blacks being stopped and searched etc.  (Stop and search is vital to policing and actually knocked knife crime on the head in Glasgow you will find if you research it).  The report went to over 1000 pages.  The riots were full of looters who were picky in where they looted and white shopkeepers got it worst.  I don't watch television news as you know so haven't seen any of the  French rioting visually in front of me.  I read and see it in the newspaper where one can be much more gentle, picky and relaxed when reading the news as opposed to having it blaring at you in the living room.  My view of French rioting is that it is primarily part of the French culture to riot and there it can stay and there it is likely to stay for the most part.  You may have friends in France right now who will come back from a romantic stay in Paris who will 100% tell you they saw nothing of the riots, truthfully.   48,000  packed into the Stade de France  in Paris last night, of which 2000 were Spanish supporters for Barcelona, and there was not a riot in sight, nor a riot mentioned nor anything out of the ordinary about Paris in the visuals.  We were told where the stadium is, what road goes by and not a problem.   So I will continue with my ordinary view of France, its culture and its outcome with very few rioters ever going to prison, quite normal there, when it dies down it will be life as normal until the next time  probably with tractors and bales blocking roads and fears of Le Pen winning one day. And so it goes on.   We have had riots and looting in London, Broadwater Farm, and it all went badly wrong but started just the same.  If France and anywhere else continue to ignore social problems then riots happen, the people rebel.  Burnham needs to realise that being PM is a lot harder than revelling around in Manchester as a Mayor and getting away with housing for the rich and young professionals, beautifying rough ground and promising first refusal to Saudis.  Here in Downing Street he is accountable and has a flock that will not obey.   There is a lot more to governing a population of 70,000,000 and keeping them happy, seeing and admitting that more than welfare exists and if it does exist it has to be paid for,  so he needs to engender honesty from the claimants and participation in getting better, working and not being stupid.  It means juggling balls to stay on top of production, wealth and the economy, growth, borrowing, defence, taxes, keeping the high earners to top up the tax coffers, keeping out the scroungers, keeping out those who take Britain for a ride, and doing all this with four hours sleep, and an Airey Neave to advise.  Where the Airey Neave advisor comes from in this Burnham government I do not know but there is definitely something missing with Burnham.  I don't see it in Rayner, Powell, Haigh, Miliband - need I go on -  flanking around him to rip this country apart. 

Home Made Sausages and Home-Cured Bacon

 Yesterday our WI cooking group cured its own bacon, made sausages with rough cut pork shoulder, chopped with a knife, not minced, and finally a couple of pats of butter.

It was all very easy and took me back to mum doing this at home in the 1950s.  By the1960s mum was buying the sausages and bacon from Sainsburys where the men wore aprons and still served you before it went self-serve.  She had given up on the home cured and home made.  The butter making carried on for some while because we had a herd of Jersey cows and cream was available.  The butter maker was hand cranked and hard work though.    Yesterday the lady used an electric mixer for the job, much easier. 

The lady giving the demonstrations (one of us, not a specialist brought in)  is still doing the home-cured bacon and her sausages did look more tasty than the supermarket variety I have to say.  However, we have a local butcher in town, local to all present at the demonstration, where we can get these sausages already prepared for us and that is where we go.  

It made for a pleasant couple of hours with friends and plenty to occupy us followed by bacon rolls and tea (some bacon she had cured earlier and brought with her).  In case you are wondering, curing bacon is very easy and not particularly labour intensive and a smoker is not required.  Just a good butcher to sell you some belly pork, a quantity of sea salt and some demerera sugar, or any brown sugar.  For the sausages, the sausage casings are available via Amazon and you will need a hand cranked sausage maker  machine which looks a bit like a small canon with a nozzle and will cost a few quid.   

Sentences

 You may recall in one of my Yorkshire news posts I mentioned the young Norwegian boy who was hired by Iran as a hitman to come to Britain and kill an unknown individual thought to be a Jew.  The boy carried out his orders step by step and was at the point of collecting his gun from a forest near Huddersfield and returning to his bed and breakfast where he was arrested following a tip-off.  At trial in the summer he was found guilty and was awaiting sentencing when I last wrote about him.  He has now been sentenced to 20 years in prison.  His Norwegian mother  back in Norway says what a nice young man he is and he would never have murdered anyone. The judge thought otherwise and the evidence was that the boy was excited by his mission and was carrying it out to the letter. 

In Norwich a young 15 year old is currently on trial for going to school armed with a knife and stabbing an unknown. random,  pupil (female)  in the back.   "Please sir, I've been stabbed" she said, with a knife sticking out of her back.  He appears to have been somehow or other brainwashed by something on the internet and thought he must do this.  The trial is on-going.  Nobody, neither accused nor victim,  has been named at the trial for legal reasons because they are under age.

In the land of Liverpool and the country as a whole, Jon Venables comes up once more for parole.  He has a hidden identity that nobody knows except a very few who need to know.  If it is discovered it is immediately changed.  He was identified by his defence counsel as a very good liar at 10 years old and a very slippery character.  He has had to hone this skill even more during his time in prison with the new identity because of course he would soon be following the way of Ian Huntley and murdered in jail if it were known who he is.  He has been out on parole twice before and both times re-offended - caught with images of young children on his computer, sex with those as young as 7 interesting to him -  he was put away again.   James Bulger's parents are not allowed to attend the parole hearing and they feel very aggrieved that Venables is given the star treatment and protected when they wish to be there.  Venables will be protected and only seen on video by those in the parole process.  If his identity were ever to be revealed it would be curtains for him.   The other boy, Thompson, who Venables constantly blamed for the murder of James Bulger, mostly all Venables lies, has successfully reformed and started a new life outside also with a new identity.  

I was watching a programme on Ian Brady and Myra Hindley last night and saw that the mother of one victim said that she would personally murder Myra Hindley and she wanted to do it with her own hands and would go to prison for it.  She wanted nobody else in trouble for it in her family where her sons were also ready to murder Hindley if they could get their hands on her.    Of course time has overtaken it all and both Hindley and Brady are now dead and neither were murdered in prison or anywhere else. 

I haven't explained any background to the James Bulger or the Moors murders because I am sure that you all know them.    

The James Bulger disappearance takes me back to sitting in my office and listening to the lunchtime news that a boy had gone missing from a shopping centre.  (1993).  The story then dominated the news for weeks and the boys were arrested and charged as adults.   

Light and Sweet and Clean

Autumn seems to have put me in the mood for a Spring clean, wrong season but nice to have a clean up before Winter.  I have lit the woodburner for this evening and a little bit of extra comfort.  So far I have not had to light the woodburner each evening.  The longer the better without having to go into the wood pile. 

It has been a good Autumn day with plenty of sunshine and a few showers.  I got all the cleaning cloths washed and dried, the kind of washing you only do now and again.   

I cleared up the clothes that get left around the house and everything is back where it should be.  

I then went out and did a weekly shop before meeting my friend C for our customary lunchtime chat which rounded the week off well. 

I received my GHIC health card today which, as Simone reminded a few weeks back, is a useful and free item to have when travelling in Europe and entitles one to medically necessary, state funded, medical treatment in European countries.  I am currently researching full medical insurance for my holiday next year but it is good to have the GHIC in place.  It runs for 5 years. 

My friend and I looked for good things to talk about and we found plenty of laughs to have, her and her book club and me and the WI, which, believe it or not,  do lead us down many pathways of hilarious sharing.   Life can get very gloomy in Britain if you don't support Labour so we made a point of finding some more light things to talk about.  We did make a few points early in the conversation about the PM but then let it go.  Got to find a smile and a laugh to get us through the week coming and so on and so forth. 

Films Football and Fun

 I went to see the Social Reckoning movie yesterday.  This is the latest documentary/drama, with an emphasis on drama over documentary, on Zuckerman and Facebook and a journalist exposing the bad side of Zuckerman and how Facebook is run.  (That's me writing it out plain and simple: there is probably a much more sophisticated way of describing it.)   

A young girl working for Facebook, and a great believer in Facebook, exposes the use of algorithms that are used to target people with specific news items/items (?).  I put question mark because I admit to not fully understanding what some of this was all about.  The young girl tries to ask questions in monthly team meetings about the algorithms and is always timed out and cannot get her questions across to Zuckerman and this eventually leads her to a Wall Street journalist.  She is effectively blocked  by her department head and fellow workers and thought of as a pain and a nerdy type.  

I found the movie interesting in that this was a side of Facebook that I have read about but never paid a great deal of attention to - the use of sending certain news items etc. to specific Facebook users. I am not a Facebook user and when I was many years ago I would just delete anything I did not actually ask to see or know from where it came.  It appears that other people in the main do not do this if the film is to be believed.  

In the movie I had a little bit of sympathy for Zuckerman in that he thinks that people should be able to judge for themselves what they see and what they don't want but in reality human beings are not like this.  We learn that the driver is the algorithm side of Facebook and the failure to take steps to stop it is money.  Less targeted items means less page views and consequently less advertisers.  This is when Zuckerman appears at his worst and is driven by money and the consequent failure to change his platform.   Again, this is if the film is to be believed.  It is clearly scripted with a certain political slant. 

I found the movie interesting for me as a person not knowing or paying much attention to Facebook being blamed for political outcomes in the world and so I learned a bit.  Other than that I found it rather slow, boring and dated probably because I have not used Facebook for years.   The acting was good with the Facebook whistleblower being nervous and halting and a loner - not a mouthy and loud whistleblower as one imagines them to be sometimes.  Nothing really changed on Facebook except its name at the end of the day when it was all renamed Meta thereafter but that changed nothing in the content. 

Talking of social media platforms I received notification from Blogger yesterday that Blogger terms and conditions are changing and that harassment on line within blogs will be given short shrift in future.    I have taken the decision to make my blog public again based on, firstly,  giving some thought to it after reading the new terms and conditions and,  secondly,  being aware that few of my invited readers have been able to find me now and,  thirdly,  thanks to Meike who coincidentally confirmed in an email  this morning that she has been unable to see my blog in spite of both of us taking the correct steps to give her access.  I am very grateful to Meike for keeping me up to speed with the private blog problems both of us have encountered - me following the instructions to the letter as the provider and Meike on the receiving end of things not being able to access the blog, both sets of problems I have been unable to solve. 

I watched a thrilling Champions League game last night - Manchester City 2 PSG 4.  For football lovers it was lesson in football from a display of sublime football from one team in the first half to a fighting come back from the other in the second half.  It didn't quite come off but it was beautiful and exciting to watch.  PSG were the former and Man City the latter.    The PSG fans numbered several thousand and they are as organised as their team.  A quick hop across from Paris. 

Ukraine

Ukraine need a new President.  Zelensky should go and should never have been there in the first place.  The popular comedian who thought he could do the job because he had such fun in the sit com part he played. And of course the Ukrainians loved him playing the piano with his penis and other such antics.   I remember when I was in Ukraine a month after he had been elected.  He was popular at the time although there was a war going on with Russia in Eastern Ukraine at the time and the Donesk people wanted to be Russian, they still do, but instead of that there is still fighting.  The mothers will be wanting the war to stop.    He is not so popular now. 

Trump is right about making a compromise and ending the war.  Zelensky and Putin are like a couple of children fighting over toys.  It can end and it should end.  There will be give and take and the more likelihood of a warm winter for Ukrainians if Zelensky steps aside. 

His term of office is well and truly over.  Six months ago he sacked his clever defence minister and this pleased another defence minister in the pecking order who moved up and then Zelensky promptly sacked him too.  At present he has a defence minister in a trial period I believe.   Who advises Zelensky?  I believe that Nato are behind a lot of what goes on and it is as sure as eggs are eggs that Zelensky is bombing Russian oil refineries under Nato's direction. 

The period of office for a President in the Ukraine is normally 5 years but because of wartime there was not an election in 2024 when his five years were up. 

If it hadn't been for Obama's meddling in Russian affairs in 2014 Ukraine would never have ended up where it is today anyway.  

Odessa, Potemkin Steps 2019

Sunday

 Isn't it strange how old age creeps up on you and suddenly you are no longer a young person, you are now old?   Although I still feel young my body is always tellilng me otherwise.  I know it is very much admired to "grow old gracefully" and to say things like "I am happy with how I am and I don't mind getting old" I admit to not feeling like that myself.  I know there is no use in not accepting it but I do fight it and try to keep myself fit.  I am but a shadow of how I was when I was young in spite of all the work I put in to keeping fit and maintaining total independence.   It is very important for me because I live alone and there nobody here to turn to to even to make me a cup of tea if I am suddenly unable to look after myself let alone go to the shops for me or take me to appointments. I must keep mobile and able to move around to fend for myself.  

I met up with my friend C yesterday for our usual coffee and cake and chat.  C is recently widowed, without children, and four years older than me.  She is having to hit the ground running with taking over the house and maintenance and decision making and computer administration.  Whilst C is a very capable and determined lady she is finding it is a steep learning curve because she was used to her husband's expertise on computers that she does not have and, of course, he was there to discuss every decision regarding the house maintenance and garden, decisions which she is now making on her own and engaging trades people to carry out the work.  This is not new to her but the fact that she does not have that point of discussion with her husband is new and weighing up who to call upon for help.  As we get older so do our usual points of contact with tradespeople and, as with me, C has been faced with workers she has known for many years having reached retirement age and ceased to be available and she is having to source new ones on her own.  Many take this in their stride, as do me and C, but it is always without a partner to discuss with.  When the word "we" appears for other people as a natural as night follows day,  for those of us alone "we" does not exist. 

 

We chatted for two hours and decided on our Christmas "lunch" which will be at the same venue but on a weekday rather than a Saturday.  This will make it slightly different because the café users will be workers from the local office complex next door rather than the usual Saturday family shoppers.  A small difference and maybe one that is insignificant to many but not to me and C for reasons that I have written about before that can make Saturdays noisy and uncomfortable. 

I am currently watching "Carrie" on Prime.  It is a modern take on Carrie with a social media high school bullying slant and it is very good. 

I also re-watched Chernobyl documentary, probably in fact one I haven't seen before because it is narrated  by Ben Fogle and I don't remember this one;  I enjoy pointing out loud to myself  "I have been there", "I walked there"  when they show the overgrown town of Pripyat, the town built for Chernobyl workers. This particular documentary brings it up to date since the Russian invasion.   When I was there we had a big walking tour of the town and I was a lot fitter then and an excellent guide called Johnnie who was great fun and very informative and young.   (2019).

Johnny the guide

The abandoned fairground Chernobyl

Violent and Deadly

 News from Norfolk is that a 45 year old man allegedly bludgeoned his wife to death with an axe whilst the same night the kids had friends over for a sleepover in the same house.  She was a GP in West Norfolk and had attended Sandringham estate as it comes within the catchment area of the surgery she was attached to. The King and Camilla have been informed. 

He is in custody and comes up again before the court on 3rd December.  He was charged with her murder after police interrogation.    After all the real life murder investigations I watch on television I now have a particularly nasty one on the doorstep.  I am imagining the police interviews with him during the early hours of Sunday.  

So when your grandkids go for a sleepover at the nice GP household just remember anything can happen.  

The children are three boys said to be "under 14". 

The husband called the ambulance because he said he had been hurt and there had been a burglary gone wrong.  The paramedics called the police when they found the wife in a very bad way in the bedroom.  He had some superficial cuts.

Meanwhile here is uproar in the UK amongst the left because Trump has decreed that an execution in the US  can be live streamed.  It will be a firing squad execution.  The man, Nidal Hasan, mass killer,  is guilty of mass killings in the name of Islam. The dead were 13 American service personnel who were defenceless in a medical centre at Fort Hood.  He went to work that day armed and ready.  He killed his fellow US Army friends having himself "switched sides" as he described it.  There are many ways of switching sides and leaving the Army with a protest but murdering 13 of your friends does not come into the scenario of normal people.   People can watch the execution if they want and not watch if they don't want.  I do not wish to watch it but I have no qualms about the firing squad for this man and it being available to watch.   Personally I would like to have seen a live streaming of the execution of Ian Huntley.  Sadly no permanent action of execution was ever taken on him and it was left to a prison in-mate to do the necessary.   That reminds me, I wonder how Varley and Fazakerley are doing in prison right now.  

Finally, London's latest MP.

Crazy

 The only thing the Conservative Party need to talk about at their conference is joining the Reform Party and embracing and joining with them. Anything Kemi is saying about what the Conservative Patty will do is pie in the sky and not worth reading. They will not and cannot win an election.  As for saying they will build prisons, they had 14 years to build prisons and didn't.

In 14 years they did not re-write the Human Rights Act of Blair or exit the European Court of Human Rights.  The things they are saying they will do they will never do or be able to do or be put in a position of even trying because they will not win an election in the foreseeable future, my lifetime probably.  If they stand any chance whatsoever of overturning the Labour Government it will only be if they join forces with Reform.

In 14 years they did not stop the boats and it took all that time to do nothing until the very end of their term when they came up with Rwanda which they took a long time to put through and then it was all taken apart and discarded when Labour came to power. 

Macron in France is now saying that if Burnham wishes to get closer to the EU again we will be expected to take 20,000 more migrants each year.  

Digger

 I went to see Digger today and enjoyed it contrary to what many of the critics seem to have said about it being a total flop.  It is a satire of many things of current political interest, i.e. the oil industry, global warming and denial, unchecked corporate life and greed, the US government and all adding up to very dark humour.  It made me think of the Ewings and Dallas at times.  I love a satire.  I have no idea why the view is that the movie is not worth seeing.  It is definitely worth seeing.  It is dark humour and very funny. Others may or may not see it that way. It stars Tom Cruise although I would only have known this because I was told it was Tom Cruise.  It didn't look like him. 

I believe it is as well to have done a little bit of research before seeing the movie because it is slightly difficult to understand that the movie is actually a dress rehearsal of a stage play which is being re-run from 30 years before on Fossil Fools, itself a satire on the same subject. This is a film where spoilers will help with the understanding of what is going on in my opinion.   You will be less puzzled and your enjoyment will be enhanced. 

Labour shoots the kids

 Who will lose out through the one limb chopped off the triple lock? 

The kids who are coming along, your 40, 50 year olds.  The state pension will have slipped behind thanks to their wonderful leftie Labour government who they love to love because they aren't Conservatives and who they, and you, loved to vote for. 

So there you are.  You made your bed, you can lie in it. 

(The triple lock means that the state pension rises by inflation, or 2.5% or in line with average earnings.  By lopping off the average earnings limb your kids will lose out on the pension because it will not have grown as we have had it grow).  So there you go, vote Labour and this is what you get over and over again.  They'll hit you.   This time it is going to be the kids who'll find the pension has lagged well and truly by the time they are eligible for it and the average earnings growth factor will have let it go. 

The triple lock has helped the British state pension and it is now a lot more respectable than it was although it still lags behind many European countries.

How Burnham expects the state pension to hold its value relative to earnings (the bit that is being taken away) is hard to say because he didn't explain how.  Because as we all know, it won't.   Your kids are going to suffer. 

It's also funny because it is easy to con the voter by telling them that  all this is  going to help welfare and social care for the elderly and going into homes will be on a more level playingfield.  I note from a few comments that already the gullible fools believe that a place in a care home will become forever free under Labour.   Read the small print babes.  Even Burnham admits that this will not and cannot be the case.  But people just don't read, listen or (fail to) assimilate what they hear. 

And do you really want the Britain of Andy Burnham's father, weep, weep, pass the bowl I need to vomit, no, the Labour Britain of the 1970s was a very bleak time. 

 

Private or Public Stop or Start

 I like the scenario of guessing why a blogger isn't blogging and I find it amusing that readers almost always jump to the most dramatic conclusions.   This happened when Cro didn't blog for a month.  People thought he was dead or something bad had happened. 

This is happening again now that Jabblog has been absent for some weeks.   

My possible scenarios are, in ascending or descending order. 

1.  Her broadband has been down.  This is not very likely to be the cause as in this competitive day and age no broadband provider leaves you without broadband for anything in excess of 48 hours because compensation payments kick in. 

2.  Her laptop blew up/caught fire and she hasn't replaced it.  Also fairly unlikely to explain such a long time not blogging. 

3. Gone on holiday and preferred not to say, or she had a spur of the moment holiday/trip landing in her lap which she took and did not take her smart phone with her.  

4. Given that she was away from blogging for less than 48 hours recently and immediately prior to that absence  decided to give an explanation about absence so "we wouldn't worry";  this time with a long absence she decides to say nothing at all.  Odd and non-consistent behaviour.   This makes number 5 slightly difficult to comprehend but I will throw it in:

5.  Decided to just stop because she is fed up with blogging.   It proves we are all human and not perfect bearing in mind 4 above. 

6. Hospital for her and therefore unable to blog from bed because of medical matters rendering her unable to type/be conscious/think straight

7. Ditto above but spouse.

8. Ditto the above but very serious illness affecting offspring. 

9. Lost a pet and is in a state of panic. 

10. House burned down and still on phone to insurers. 

11. Foresaw an apocalypse and got into car to leave town before the masses and is now in secret hiding without broadband. 

12. Is writing a book on how to bring up children in the correct manner being an area of her specialist expertise. 

13. Eloped with another and is incognito. 

Number 5 is the one in that she got fed up with blogging and decided to stop.  

Well my blog went private and nobody mentoned a thing!  I know my place. 

News

 We live in a Britain that politically stinks to the core.    We have a police force that is so fettered it cannot defend us either through its own incompetence or through that of government control.  We have a state tv station that is unable to bring us accurate and unbiased news bulletins and cherry picks to suit its own political ends.  We have a nation of people who are poorly educated and thick and lacking in historical knowledge and the intellectual means to think logically, without sanctimony or self righteousness and an elderly population who have a government who can't wait for them to die and therefore shut up. 

Would Ann Widdecombe be alive if the police had followed up on the lighted paper going through Nigel Farage's letter box, published the photo and caught the man who they have now charged with the attack on Nigel Farage and, yes,  he is the same man who murdered Ann Widdecombe?    

The Hook Handed Cleric's wife has a house forever in Hammersmith which the authorities say they cannot get away from her even though it is a council house and now they are spending £70,000 on it to give her lots of nice things.  This country is crazy.  I bet a council tenancy could be rescinded if the council had someone they didn't like in there like an anti-government, anti-migrant, boat buster person. 

Nobody has written about Man City and the cheats. 

Nobody has written about the Green Party and approval of words they can use.  Homosexual is to be banned as a word to describe a homosexual.  I only use the words homosexual and queers to describe them.  I mourn the taking of the word gay which was once a lovely word to describe joyful and this definition is now ascribed to the history books of word meaning.  I am with Lord Arran on "do not flaunt your sexuality"  which he said in 1967.  It's ok but for goodness sake just get on with it.  

Cro wrote about gender and toilets and the Labour Party but the comment replies were all about what people like to think about toilets themselves and not what the Labour Party said about gender and toilets and the replies preferred to sidestep the political thrust of Cro's post altogether.  

Nobody has written about the Suffolk MP who thinks that if you own a black lab and go to the pub then you are clearly right wing and unlikeable and part of a conspiracy, whatever that means.  Response?  The woman is mad.    

Plenty have written about the price of fuel.  Few, if any, have written about the plight of Iranians.  Will Healey help the country's economy and remove all the fuel duty from diesel?  I doubt it, Labour have no sense when it comes to the economy. 

Nobody has written about the death of 30,000 Iranians.  I am repeating myself I know but it can never be over estimated.  And yet it is not talked about.  The Iranian regime does not make the subject that can be talked about.  Iran cannot be talked about by bloggers.  

Mahmood is doing nothing about migration except increasing the once closed routes to British citizenship and resettlement by opening up the rules.  She buckled under a backlash from Labour backbenchers,  caved in. So in they come with family and Uncle Tom Cobbley and all.

Wayne Broadhurst, a dog walker, was murdered, stabbed to death, by an Afghan migrant on the streets of Middlesex.  Random, senseless.  Migrant from Afghan who lied about his age, given free accommodation and money and asylum and hugged. The murder was not mentioned in the House of Commons except by the opposition but was of no interest to the Burnham government.

Much news is not mentioned but larder building and fuel and stay at home because of the evils of Trump are the only things that make the news.  Release of prisoners gets no mention until I suppose the re-offenders start grabbing the headlines in a year or two when wives are hit and bruised and, worse, murdered.

 

Land of Britain

 We still have the Trump Derangement Sydrome people and Iran admits to killing thousands of protesters in the months (and years) before the US action against Iran.  The TDS are a people who are to be pitied if they are given any time of day at all and I give them very little.   Iranians, as do Venezuelans, thank Trump for what he did.   People should look at the Iranian massacres of innocent people who opposed the Iranian regime from December 2025 to January 2026 when at least 30,000 were shot dead. Morgues and hospitals filled with the dead.  But all they think about here is fuel prices. And they're just the kind of people who love their iot devices like Alexa in their homes.

I am beyond blogging much about Britain at the moment, the mess just gets bigger and bigger each day.  I did not vote for it and I listen to those who allowed it to happen who now weep and feel sorry for themselves and repent at leisure, plenty of time for that. 

I am afraid it is "told you so" and you are getting what any Labour government will give you, punishment for doing well, punishment for trying, punishment for aiming to get a good education, punishment for being the successful, punishment for thrift and saving.   You will pay for the scroungers.  You will pay to give welfare to the problems we all had at school and didn't even know they were a problem.  ADHD didn't exist, you were just a bit thicker than the top stream.  You didn't get a free taxi to school and your parents didn't get a welfare allowance for your inattention at the tea table. 

The people want a Britain as it once was with British people as we knew them.  We want doctors who speak English as their first language, GPs to know us, and phone lines with British people on the other end.   We want streets of English faces and smiles.  Soldiers to be soldiers brought in to help with law and order when cadets, a country with respect and clean streets, orderly as I saw in Chisinau and Baku.  

Labour have abandoned the one in one out migrant scheme at the request of France. France want to negotiate for Britain to take more migrants from the EU.

10,000 prisoners let out on early release yesterday, first tranche, to be followed by 50,000 each year.  Let's hope that elderly dog walkers don't meet one of the murderers or GBH ones in the churchyard, the park or the dog walk.  That's also hoping that the young park goers, middle aged workers on the way home,  young people on a Saturday night, also don't meet the murderers, rapists and violent ones.  The domestically violent ones and the families of the dangerous ones who now live in dread of the release of the family member who is not to be trusted, let us pray for them all, and let us hope that Calocane and Rudakubana  never get out.  Crazy things happen when it comes to governments. 

Meanwhile all Burnham can think about is re-introducing alcohol on the football terraces while Rome burns.   

Books and films and dentists

 This morning I have been to the dentist for the six-monthly check up.  All is well.  We discussed Azerbaijan because my dentist is well travelled, has friends (dentists) in Baku and enjoys talking about travel.  He had told me six months ago that if I had any teeth problems whilst there I was to phone him first in England and he would then put me in touch with one of his Baku dentist friends.  That was very reassuring and a friendly touch from him.  My dentist is from South Africa.  We discussed my next trip and he has been on the train across from Denmark to Sweden and highly recommended it.  He thinks my choice of holiday is a good one.  He is just back from China.  He teaches dentistry all over the world and works in private practice as well which is how I get to see him.  As I have said before, I feel very fortunate to have him as my dentist in a small town in rural Norfolk.  

The day here is very warm - 23C - and there is no sun but spots of rain, so a grey and very muggy day. 

Whilst out visiting the dentist I called into the charity shop and found a copy of Anthony Trollope's The Last Chronicle of Barset.  I have not read any of the Barsetshire novels but am hoping that I can read it as a stand-alone book.  I also purchased Penelope Fitzgerald's The Gate of Angels.  It is a long time since I read a Penelope Fitzgerald, or saw one in a charity shop, so was pleased to pick it up for 50p.  This particularly book was shortlisted for the Booker prize in 1990.  She is a splendid writer and has won the prize three times. 

I am currently reading Rose Tremain's Colour which is a very melancholic read about the New Zealand gold rush in the 1860s and a couple who went from Norfolk to New Zealand in search of a better life.  Rose Tremain is not one of my favourite authors, I find her a bit heavy going in strange subjects,  but she can craft a good story, is a former student of the University of East Anglia creative writing course and  Chancellor of the university. 

Yesterday I went to see Sense and Sensibility at the cinema, the latest film version of the Jane Austen novel.  I enjoyed it for what it is, broody and romantic and sometimes even fun and funny.  I have never seen any other versions and since having to read Austen at school have never wanted to go near a Jane Austen novel. 

Private Blog

 I have taken the blog private for my peace of mind.  I am currently going through the requests I received in July from those who notified me that they wish to continue reading the blog when I first said that the blog would be going private.  It is taking me some time to add them all to the Blogger invitation list.  I have prioritised those who leave comments as my first tranche of invitees.  I am now working through those who emailed me to say they are long term readers and would like to continue.  I apologise for the delays which are inevitable as I can only do so many per day and am also in the hands of Blogger.  In addition it is a bit of a "learn as I go along" about how to actually create the private blog and invited readers per se.    So please bear with me. Mistakes may be made and later corrected.  So if you get a repeat invitation please respond to it.  Thank you for your patience but hopefully normal blogging will continue through this. 

If you are able to comment please let me know or, if not and you are experiencing any problems with comments please email and I will see if I can sort it. 

Racist level playing field

 If people are posh and object to the illegal immigrants on the boats who come across from France and are destined for camps near their homes they are not called racist.  If a perceived "rough" kind of person demonstrates on a beach and objects to illegal immigrants and then knifes a dinghy he is called a racist.  This labelling is wrong.  In my opinion they are  either all racist or none of them are racist.    (My personal opinion is that none of them are racist.)  

 The charge for the knifing of the dinghies is a bit of a grey area because there is a perpetrator and a victim  - the victim is normally the owner of the property -  when the Criminal Justice Act comes into play.  So who is the owner of the boats? Who has complained?    These are not playground little kiddies dinghies, these are very expensive £20,000 seaworthy dinghies with outboard motors.  Somebody is paying for the mass import of these by the container load.    Is it paid for by a government somewhere?  If Burnham does know then he should tell us.  If he doesn't know then he needs to find out.   The man refused bail for criminal damage of a dinghy should be released from prison.  We have violent men who are walking the streets on bail, allowed to go home.