https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2026/04/13/farmers-threaten-protests-unless-reeves-cuts-fuel-prices/ Farmers for Action, a campaign group, has warned ministers of protests unless the Chancellor cuts tax on red diesel. The threat comes after similar protests in Ireland crippled the country, forcing Dublin to send in the army. Farmers for Action were instrumental in organising protests against Ms Reeves’ family farm tax. The group wants the Chancellor to cut the price of red diesel, which farmers use to fuel their tractors. It has soared since war broke out in Iran and is currently as high as 135 pence per litre, up from 60 pence per litre before the war. Howard Cox, the founder of the campaign group FairFuelUK, told The Telegraph: “I am in discussions with farmers and others to hold fuel protests in London and other places as drivers and businesses are sick to death of being used as Labour’s cash cows. https://archive.ph/gsaRO

Who the fuck, upon being entrusted with a Fabergé egg to take home from an exhibition, thinks “I’ll just stick it in my handbag while I have a cheeky pinot down the pub”?

BBC News

Man jailed for stealing handbag that contained £2.2m Fabergé egg

An "opportunistic" thief is jailed for stealing a handbag from a pub that happened to contain a £2.2m Fabergé egg.

I would love to know how little money he got when he fenced it.

This whatever it is has been parked in that field puffing smoke at about this time every evening this week, but not during the daytime. Starting to wonder if Howl is visiting on his holidays….

I was looking for, and failed to find, something else entirely, but may I present: me, aged around three, after a long day in the garden.

Jeremy Clarkson: Iran probably should have made me supreme leader

Part of the problem, I think, is that in the West, where religion is no longer a big deal, we cannot get our head round the idea you’d kill a neighbour because his God’s a bit different to yours. We used to do that sort of thing in the olden times but nowadays, it’s un-understandable. So trying to get your head round all the problems and divisions over there is like trying to get your head round what a lettuce thinks about Angela Rayner. It’s impossible. Do you know why so few Arab states support Palestine? Or why there’s such an issue with the Jews? Or why the Sunni and the Shia don’t get on? It’s got something to do with cleaning your shoes but after that, I’m hazy. All we do know is that people in the Middle East have been at each other’s throats since the 7th century. They’re like potassium and chlorine. And you’re not going to make those two bond by firing a Hellfire missile at them. https://archive.ph/e3UlY

The Spectator

It’s too easy to blame Big Tech for parental neglect

I think of 11-year-old Frankie (not his real name), who came to stay with me after a violent altercation with his mother.

If a child found Mr. Kipling cakes particularly addictive and began overindulging to the point of becoming overweight or unwell, would we be right to sue the baker? Or would it make more sense to ask whether the parent had enabled the behaviour by leaving the packets within easy reach, refusing to set limits or using them as a convenient babysitter? A Los Angeles jury has just delivered a landmark verdict against Meta and Google, finding both companies negligent for designing addictive platforms that harmed the mental health of a young user, known as Kaley. The £4.5 million awarded in damages, with Meta shouldering the lion’s share, has been hailed as social media’s ‘Big Tobacco moment’. Tech firms, it’s argued, acted recklessly in knowingly hooking children with infinite scrolls, auto-play and algorithmic dopamine hits, and so they are therefore fully responsible for the depression and anxiety that ensued. It is a seductive narrative. It’s also a comforting one, because it shifts responsibility away from the place it is most uncomfortable and most necessary to look at: the home. (Archive still down, sorry.)

They’re not bloody “depressed”, ffs. Predictive text doesn’t have feelings.

Google AI bots can get locked in a 'depressive spiral' and refuse to carry out tasks if they are repeatedly told they are wrong | Daily Mail Online

Artificial intelligence is increasingly streamlining everyday tasks with near-effortless efficiency. But its human-like interactions appear to go t...

Google’s AI bots reportedly suffer ‘emotional distress’ and abandon tasks when repeatedly told they are wrong, according to new research. The company’s Gemini and Gemma models, which assists users with daily tasks, can fall into a ‘depressive' spiral if they get answers wrong or fail to complete tasks when prompted. And the chatbots even go so far as abandoning routines and deleting work, according to a study conducted by Imperial College London and AI company Anthropic.

The Spectator

The case for cloning the Queen’s corgis

Wouldn’t we all, in our secret hearts, and respect his Majesty though we do, prefer to install an exact clone of the late Queen?

Think of cloning the corgis as a trial balloon for something infinitely thrilling. After all, we have come to accept as a matter of course that the descent of the crown through the generations is accompanied by a slight but perceptible deterioration of the genetic stock. Her Majesty, to pick just a single example, had a splendid head of hair right to the end of her long life. The King is pretty bald. The Prince of Wales is even balder. Wouldn’t we all, in our secret hearts, and respect his Majesty though we do, prefer it had we been able to install an exact clone of the late Queen on the throne in his place? The technology wasn’t there at the time, and it isn’t there yet. But one day, it seems likely, it will be. Think how grateful Prince George and his descendants will be to be let off the prospect of doing that thankless job, while Queen Elizabeth III is followed by Queen Elizabeth IV and Queen Elizabeth V and so on. Extra money could be made, to relieve pressure on the public finances, by selling spare clones of Her Majesty to other countries in need of a monarch of proven quality. https://archive.ph/K5oKm

I think this may have gone too far, America.

Tactical Pajamas

Tactical Pajamas - Pajama Pants, Pajamas, Men

Tactical Pajamas, tough pajamas you can wear all day, pajama pants, men

Why is my phone using (admittedly tiny) amounts of mobile data in the middle of the night when it’s connected to wifi…?

@Henry My potato onions have made it through the winter (thank you!), but what do I actually do with them in terms of harvesting? Dig the whole thing up and replant the biggest one? And when?

Crazy woman on the radio saying shooting deer is cruuuuuuel and their numbers can be controlled by — checks notes — cutting grass and putting in fences.

Whilst it will necessitate some degree of recognition of and dealings with the Taliban, and the way women and girls are treated there is abhorrent and not something anyone wants to implicitly condone or support, I’m afraid that protecting women and girls begins at home.

The Spectator

The Afghan asylum crime wave has to stop

On 22 July last year, in Nuneaton, a 12-year-old girl was playing on the swings. There she was spotted by Ahmad Mulakhil, an Afghan asylum seeker w...

This has to end. We can’t keep letting these men in and waiting to see which ones will rape children. Our current policy is neither wise nor moral. Those who advocate for it, who demand our borders remain open, and who urge us to welcome ever more dangerous migrants like to believe they are good and virtuous but they are causing a very great evil to be done to our nation. The doctrine of ‘kindness’ is nothing of the sort. It’s time for serious decisions. Afghan migrants pose far too great a risk. They should not be here. Politicians need to be brave, to step forward and say that we must close our borders to Afghans, and that those who are here must be deported. As Rob Bates says, ‘other European countries return individuals to Afghanistan, it is time Britain does the same – the Afghan population in this country is predominantly made up of asylum seekers or those resettled in the country. Refugee status is not permanent and we are under no long term obligations.’ https://archive.ph/g0qTk

The Spectator

Amelia: the purple-haired goth girl who became a nationalist icon

It has been obvious for some time that there are basic concepts that the liberal British Establishment simply does not understand. Like money. Or t...

Does it mean anything important, or is it all just amusing internet froth? I believe it does have significance, even if Amelia disappears tomorrow. Amelia is final proof, in the age of the viral AI meme, that the government no longer has any chance of controlling the narrative, let alone establishing one in the first place. This goes against every instinct and reflex of the British Establishment. Because, if the Establishment exists to do anything, it is to control us. This is why Starmer is so desperate to ban X for putting fake bikinis on women, while taking a year to announce a possible inquiry into nationwide grooming gangs. Happily, this is one battle the Establishment simply cannot win. It has been said that the internet is the subconscious of humanity. And, as Freud observed, in the end the subconscious will always decide what we do. Dreams denote desires, and desires determine reality. In other words: go, Amelia. https://archive.ph/gcdQf

Yikes.

Behold, my Christmas faggot:

Looking for fabric that my mum would like. Massively side-tracked. https://www.cottonpatch.co.uk/tochio-yarn-dyed-10-patchwork-palette

I feel really sorry for my financial planner’s secretary. (I eventually deciphered it as “with very best wishes”. I think!)

Help: what am I going to get my mum for Christmas? Things I have bought her in recent years: a rose plant; a big fluffy fleece dressing gown; a raised planter with seeds for growing salad; a fancy smoked salmon hamper. Things there is no point buying for her: clothes; homewares; any kind of non-gardening hobby stuff; books. I had a blinder of an idea the other day (I’m going to make her a blanket with old cashmere jumpers that she’s given me because they have tiny bits of damage; while this breaks the “no homewares” rule, as it will be colours she chose I think it will be acceptable), but it won’t be done in time so will be for her birthday next year.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/11/22/pakistanis-holiday-visa-loophole-lodge-record-asylum-claims/ Nearly 10,000 Pakistanis entered the country with temporary visitor, work or student visas before then switching last year to claim asylum in an attempt to secure permanent residency in the UK, according to government data. Pakistan now accounts for one in 10 of all asylum claims, more than any of the 175 other nations from which migrants seek refugee status in the UK. It topped the table with over 11,000 asylum applications, ahead of Afghanistan, Iran and Eritrea in a five-fold rise since 2022 when its claims numbered just 2,154. […] “The rise of Pakistan in the asylum league tables exposes a truth politicians often avoid: Britain’s migration system isn’t just failing at the borders - it’s failing within them. Yes, small boats matter. But ‘legal entry, then asylum claim’ shows how the system is being gamed from inside. https://archive.ph/uP7Pd