I see my hero Peter Tatchell is tweeting a headline from the Pink News on how Britons “unanimously reject calls for bans on drag shows.  Tatchell thinks that those who oppose drag shows are “far right” and a tiny minority. I sense some fake news and a fake poll here. And I am right.

In these Russiaphobic times many will see this article as proof that I am a Putin apologist. I am not. The invasion of Ukraine was wrong, and I am sure that, while both sides have committed war crimes in this war, Ukraine as well as Russia, it is the latter whose sins are greater. But that is not a reason for Britain to supply depleted Uranium tank shells to Ukraine. Iraq and the Yugoslav wars show just how horrible these weapons are.

I am ordering a stack of Discovery apple trees to create a colonade along the path by the river. I am not sure how they will do in what is a flood meadow but I shall stake them firmly and see. The stakes I put up by the river with some oak saplings last year have survived even if the oaks have not. And the trees I have ordered are already 5 foot high so I hope they will flourish.  My orders were divided as my normal supplier had only nine trees left and so I had to use Beechwood Nurseries for the rest. Buyer beware: Beechwood are shysters!

The river Dee is still outside of its banks and I am still rather worried about the killer cows and thus on Saturday morning, for my second Rogue Bloggers for Woodlarks training walk, I opted for the most boring of walks: my house to the service station on the Wrexham ring road and back.

There is a photo out today of Ms Braverman laughing on a trip to Ruanda. With hindsight that might have been unwise as she claims to be tightening the UK’s immigration system. I shall believe that when I actually see it. However, there can be no excuses for the tweet below from the leading anti Brexit campaigner Steve Bray photoshopping the laughing minister in front of the entrance to Auschwitz.  He also removes from the origonal picture two laughing Rwandans either side of Ms Braverman. 

The Donald reckons he will be arrested over alledged payments to porn star Stormy Daniels on 21 March 2023. I discuss that case, the sad weaponisation opf the law in American politics and what it all means for the 2024 elections in this podcast.

My father and mother were in Oxford in the 1960s at a time when Sergeant Morse arrived in the City and when Oxfam was set up and they were – like Morse – almost, lifelong supporters. They paid over a monthly direct debit even when they could not afford it and would order Christmas presents from the third world via the Oxfam catalogue. But in his final years I finally persuaded Dad that sending his cash to an organisation which covered up for paedophiles in the field was not a good idea.  We discussed the bloated salaries of the administrative staff in Oxford and how Oxfam was now opining on areas well outside its original remit of fighting famine. He could not argue and one glorious day I answered a begging call for a Tom Winnifrith from the aggressive sales team at Oxfam, and, with the consent of my father, ( also called Tom) told them to bugger off and to stop the direct debit.

As an assistant to the leader of the Lib Dems in the house of Lords we might not be too surprised that poor Caroline has caught a case of #BrexitDerangementSyndrome. One imagines there is a lot of it going around in the offices or Lord Newby. Whoever he is. But we should not mock Caroline but should pray for her as her level of sickness is off the scale.

Next year we must do something special as the Greek Hovel will be 100 years old. Maybe I shall build a stone wall as an add on up by the house. I shall consider my options. This year, between the start of April and the end of October, the place will be busy.

I have watched every episode of Inspector Morse, Lewis (the sequel) and Endeavour ( the prequel). Many episodes I have watched many times.  It is fair to say that I am a fan but after a quite appalling last ever Endeavour, I now welcome the end. Morse is left hanging as a Sergeant in 1972 with a 15 year gap until he comes back to Oxford after a spell in the Met in 1987.

Normally the Guardian does it utmost to talk down Britain. Especially after Brexit, we are just shit at everything. But today it celebrates the fact that we are in the top 4 globally for our supportive attitudes to: abortion, divorce, casual sex, prostitution, LGBT rights and “assisted dying.” We are not quite up their with Canada in terms of killing off the disabled or those who can;‘t hold down a job but we are top 4.

 Naturally we all celeberate the achievments of many wonderful women on #InternationalWomensDay and as part of that can you pick the odd one out in the “women” being celebrated by LGBT+ Labour. Hint: this woman might have to shave her facial hair a bit more than the other “female patrons” and unlike the other female patrons has a penis.

Here in the last village in Wales the snow has been falling for a couple of hours. On the grassy bank outside my kitchen there is, perhaps, half an inch of global warming. On the road down to my house and other roads in the village it is yet to settle at all. But, quelle surprise, the village school has already cited ef ‘n’ safey reasons for a full shutdown.

The Mrs switched on Radio 4 then left the room.  By the time she returned it was the news at 9 and the state broadcaster was reporting that Tories were angry about £1.35 million a year BBC presenter Gary Lineker saying that new immigration plans were “beyond awful”. The Mrs could not see what the Tories were complaining about and snorted. That is because the BBC News did not report in that bulletin the really offensive thing that Lineker said, comparing the Tory policies to those of the Nazis in 1930s.

Were it to emerge that women were, as my mother, one great aunt and one of mum’s cousins did, far more likely to kill themselves than men, the BBC’s Women’s Hour would be all over it demanding that action be taken. Were it to emerge that black and Asian people were far more likely to kill themselves than whites, all the usual grifters would be out demanding public enquiries, Government spending and suggesting that this was a legacy of colonialism. David Lammy, Priyamvada Gopal et al would be all over the papers and outr TV screens crying and demanding action. As it happens, the ONS has published data on suicides today.