Latest news with #Goatherd
Spectator
13 hours ago
- Politics
- Spectator
Starmer looked out of place in the mountains with Sky's Beth Rigby
Sir Keir Starmer was doing an interview with Beth Rigby in the lush mountain landscape of Canada. Hardly a man who evokes the sweeping grandeur of nature, seeing the Prime Minister surrounded by mountains and pines was odd. It looked a little like someone had mistakenly cast a chartered accountant in the Sound of Music. What percentage is his approval rating? Seventeen going on sixteen of course. Seeing the Prime Minister surrounded by mountains and pines was odd Rigby asked whether the Prime Minister had any idea what President Trump was doing about the Middle East that was so important that he had to leave the G7 early. 'I actually sat next to the President at that meeting,' came the non sequitur reply. I have confidence that there is probably a 15 per cent chance that The Donald actually doesn't know who Starmer is. One can imagine the conversation on the home trip on Air Force One: 'Hey, lil' Marco, why'd they sit me next to that brylcreamed Limey who sounds like he has a cold?' Next came the inevitable Grooming Gangs question. Hardly one of the PM's favourite things; he gave a weird look that was supposed to say 'earnest' but actually said 'constipated'. Rigby hammered home; he really didn't think he owed anyone an apology, did he? There followed a self justificatory list of his achievements. Somewhere in his youth or childhood, he must have done something good, that sort of thing. After this touching interlude was over he claimed that he 'tried to remain courteous at all times' – which will come as news to any of the women who have ever asked him a question he didn't like in the House – before launching into a direct attack on Kemi Badenoch. At the end of this, Rigby gave him a sort of pitying smile, like one might deliver at the sight of a dropped bag of shopping or a weeping clown. Rigby went further: did there need to be prosecutions of those in institutions who had covered this up? The hills were alive with the sound of bluster. 'There must be accountability…there must be no stone unturned…but I'm not going to say here X, Y, Z'. He might as well have added 'Do-Re-Mi' for all the effect it would have had on his meaning. I have read things on the back of lavatory cubicles or scrawled on railway underpasses which convey more meaning than this string of platitudes. Rigby asked again if he wanted to see more prosecutions and got the same answer. Interviewing the present government is no easy task: you can Climb Every Mountain, ford every stream: and still at the end of it you have a pile of Edelscheiss. Rigby ended on a 'most proud moment and biggest regret', as if it was an interview with Smash Hits! magazine. Apparently our Lonely Goatherd hadn't 'told his story as best he could'. You can say that again. Or yodel it, it'd be just as compelling and coherent. So it was we bid 'So Long, Farewell' to the Prime Minister. Unlike the Sound of Music there is no happy ending to this tale: instead of staying in his alpine G7 wonderland, our very own Maria is back on Wednesday.
Hans India
20-05-2025
- Climate
- Hans India
Over 40 sheep, goats killed in lightning strike in J&K's Ganderbal
Over 40 sheep and goats were killed on Tuesday in a lightning strike in Jammu and Kashmir's Ganderbal district. Officials said the animals were killed by lightning in the Hariganwan area of the Ganderbal district. The livestock belonged to a nomadic 'Bakarwal' (Goatherd) community. 'The Bakarwal has been identified as Abdul Wahid Khatana of Sunderbani in Rajouri district. He was grazing his flock in Chechi Pati in Hariganwan area,' said officials, adding that the lightning struck after a brief thunderstorm in the area. Gusty high-speed winds have resulted in damage to private and public property in the Valley during the last three days. Unusually high day temperature, shooting up to 32.6 degrees Celsius, has created low pressure zone over the Valley. This results in high-speed wind blowing into the Valley to stabilise the pressure-temperature equation. Accompanying hailstorm has resulted in huge damage to the apple crop, especially in the south Kashmir districts of Kulgam, Pulwama, Shopian and Anantnag. At many places, damage has been caused by hailstorms to Paddy nurseries. The Paddy crop is grown by transplanting the saplings from the nurseries to the field. The entire Paddy crop season is spread from the beginning of May to the middle of October, during which the crop has to be sown, transplanted and harvested. Not adhering to the exact schedule often results in the failure of the Paddy crop to produce the grain for which it is cultivated. Rice is the stable diet of the people in the Valley. As the cultivable land has shrunken due to indiscriminate construction of houses, shops and malls, the area under the Paddy crop has alarmingly been reduced. This has made the people in the Valley dependent on government-run ration shops where rice is available at different rates to different segments of the society, depending on their financial status.
