Wednesday 8 September: Without real reform to the NHS the extra billions are so much waste paper

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619 thoughts on “Wednesday 8 September: Without real reform to the NHS the extra billions are so much waste paper

    1. Yes, another 26/27°C due here (currently away in Wiltshire in the tin snail). Said vehicle was 38° when we got back to it at lunchtime yesterday.

    2. Yes, Bob3. (Good morning to you and all NoTTLers, btw.) More fence painting for me today – Year 2 of a 5-year cycle.

    3. Yes, Bob3. (Good morning to you and all NoTTLers, btw.) More fence painting for me today – Year 2 of a 5-year cycle.

  1. Is it just the tin foil hat conspiracy theorist in me, but these latest tax rises are just a tax on our competitiveness, jobs and business that will only stifle our recovery and result in less tax take overall, it will only really please our competitors like the EU, the EU have been very worried that the UK will have a huge business advantage over them after Brexit.
    Well now there is a thought, are we having these tax rises as part of some dodgy deal with the EU to be more compliant over Northern Ireland and border controls?
    If we see a sudden improvement in our relations then we will know.

    1. 338620+ up ticks,
      Morning B3,
      Tis funding DOVER, the £51 million carrot offered by priti treacherous is paedophilia in the sky as the french are saving their welfare system money & relieving stress on
      medication,education, accommodation,incarceration.

      Double up the numbers is surely their intentions.

      The treacherous double act priti / johnson know this
      but their hollow offer pacifies the main herd.

    2. To have a successful Brexit we needed to have a proper Brexit in the first place.

      With the EU still in control of Northern Ireland and our fishing waters and with no proper deal on financial services we have not a remotely satisfactory Brexit.

      I am becoming more and more convinced that the flagrant and flatulent flanneler Johnson was under strict instructions from his puppet masters to give us a completely rotten deal.

      1. Hear, hear, Richard, and Good morning.

        Time to scrap the WA, pay no more and trade under WTO rules.

  2. Afghan soldiers trained by UK and US forces have defected to Taliban. 8 September 2021.

    Afghan soldiers who were trained by British and American forces have reportedly defected and are now fighting for the Taliban, UK army sources revealed.
    While there is no official confirmation that Afghan soldiers who were trained by the UK and US have switched sides, the military source said it is likely they defected to save themselves after western countries withdrew from Afghanistan last month.

    Morning everyone. Though the evidence here is a little thin this is almost certainly true. In fact most of them probably defected during the takeover. When the Americans were present Afghan soldiers would campaign for the Taliban during the Summer and lie up with the Afghan Army during the Winter. This way they could feed their families the year round!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9967933/Afghan-soldiers-trained-UK-forces-defected-fighting-Taliban-sources.html

    1. 338620+ up ticks,
      Morning AS,
      Not hard to believe many in civvy street lay up in the United Kingdom then take RR in Afghanistan.

      1. But Ogga, I don’t think many in civvy street are rich enough to afford Rolls-Royce motor cars. (Where is my acronym dictionary?)

        1. 338620+ up ticks,
          Morning EB,
          But they can afford the boat ride over then return and
          get into all sorts of trouble at kabul airport i’m thinking.

  3. Why are care homes so expensive? maybe the government should be looking more into the reasons for that and also the terrible treatment and service that the people in them are receiving.

    1. ‘Morning, B3. Expensive for those who are self-funding, because they subsidise those who who are publicly funded. That is the cost of ‘saving for your old age’.

    2. As with all skills where we used to excel, but progress has now cast into oblivion, being able to care for people has gone the same way as the old industries.

      It is therefore simple to apply supply and demand, pushing up charges, while at the same time not needing to care because people no longer know any different.

    3. Expensive compared to what?

      A back-of-a-fag-packet calculation:
      Staff at £10 an hour, say £15 at work after employer taxes and admin costs, holidays, sick leave, courses etc, with, say, one per 5 residents = per patient, £3 per hour (£72 per day). Note that there are some 700k workers and 500k residents, the 1.4 ratio easily increasing to 5 when applying average hours per week.
      Buildings, rates, equipment, etc = easily £28 per day.
      Total of £100 per day – £36,500 pa.

      Those with serious medical needs will require higher staffing, eg dementia patients may require staff able to restrain them, will cost more.

        1. You don’t get care in a luxury hotel or a cruise ship. Apples and oranges Bob. But if you want to compare you can get 24 hours in a care home in London cheaper than you can get 24 hours in a 4* London hotel.

          1. Ours get a choice of daily newspaper, unlimited calls, board and lodgings, care staff 24/7, laundry, great food, constant warm environment, a lift, manicures, chiropodist, hairdressing, freeview and a TV. We can arrange netflix but no one has asked us too. Music, activities, areas for socialising, pretty gardens which we’ve slowly made more old person friendly with a lovely pond full of Koi they can feed with provided pellets. Considering they are waiting for God, it’s not such a bad life.

      1. The usual argument is look at the cars care home owners drive. Look where they live, they are rolling in it. Then they put two and two together and make five. Most care home owners earn their money in their professional job. My dad was in financial services, the home just down the road is owned by a private dentist, the next closest to us is owned by a dermatologist. Care homes make terribly small amounts of profit if a 96% occupancy rate is maintained. Basically rooms can’t be empty for more than half a week.
        Most care home businesses don’t own the land they operate on. The properties are leased and rent is paid. Property costs over the past 25 years have risen astronomically. Even the big chains tend to rent.

  4. ‘Morning, Peeps.

    This BTL comment from the letters column caught my eye. Excellent suggestions but the problem is, Angus old chap, Johnson ain’t no Maggie and this isn’t a Conservative government:

    Angus Long
    8 Sep 2021 12:16AM
    I don’t accept the need for tax rises to fund he £10bn needed for elderly care

    The government has squandered £37bn, so far, on the largely useless “Test and Trace” system.

    In addition the current estimates for HS2 are around £100bn.

    In my view, care for the elderly is far more important than shaving a few minutes off a train journey and being pinged to stay off work for a week.

    Fact is the £10bn needed for treating our senior citizens with care and dignity is easily available:

    First, I’d tell the over paid (£625,000 pa) and useless CEO of HS2 Andy Thurston he’s got 6 months to find £30bn of savings on HS2 or be sacked and this white elephant cancelled.

    Then, I’d demand the totally inept company behind Test and Trace that they need to refund 50% of the cost of their failure on grounds thier product, support and service wasn’t fit for purpose.

    To ensure we minimise waste and maximise efficent use of finite taxes. We need to get rid of time served public sector managers and replace them with private sector ones who know how to procure efficiently and effectively.

    1. HS2 and Test and Trace, the two largest feeding troughs of our time. Providing money for troughs doesn’t appear to be a problem for this government. Making hay while the Sun shines is the order of the day.

      1. ‘Morning, Korky. Permit me to add a third trough; that of the ridiculous ‘green revolution’ and its vast subsidies…

        1. Morning, HJ.

          Well spotted. There are too many to list: I thought about adding the PPE scandal but decided to keep my reply to the subject of the comment.

        2. And the Diversity Industry, as detailed BTL by Michael Staples:-

          Michael Staples
          8 Sep 2021 7:57AM
          I am grateful to Pip Snow who posted this link to how the NHS will be improved with all this extra money: Assistant Director, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion job with Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust | Guardian Jobs (theguardian.com)

          Warning: your mental health will not be improved by reading this, nor will anyone’s health be improved by this manager and his tens of thousands of colleagues.

  5. The red herring at the heart of Boris’s tax hike. 8 September 2021.

    One of the most dubious and meaningless parts of today’s health and social care plan is the pledge that the new tax will be a ‘legally hypothecated levy’ – ring-fenced so that the money raised can only go to health and social care services.

    It’s dubious in the same way that the Tory manifesto pledge not to raise taxes turned out not to be worth the paper it was printed on. And it’s meaningless because a government that wants to unlink the tax could just pass a law doing that – and no legal ring-fence can stop it. It’s also worth remembering that the ring-fence around health and social care is a red herring. What is really necessary is a barrier between the two.

    The Whole Thing is a Political Scam!

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-red-herring-at-the-heart-of-boris-s-tax-hike

    1. Morning, Araminta.

      Recent history re our “governments” must lead to the conclusion that ‘it’ i.e. the government, has in fact proved to be an impediment to improving the health, wealth and well-being of the populace in general. The current shower are working hard to provide the coup de grâce so long planned by the extremely wealthy, power seeking and controlling oligarchs.

  6. Just one reform might go a long way to sorting out the funding crisis throughout the public sector – the serious breach of ethical standards concerning Conflict of Interest. The rules are useless for as long as we are told “it is not within the remit of the regulatory authority to impose standards here” that let so many gigathieves off the hook with nothing more serious than a bit of grovelling before a select committee, followed by a commission report published after enough time has elapsed not to do anything about it.

  7. Morning all

    SIR – I sympathise with what the Government wants to do about social care, but without root and branch reform of bureaucracies in the NHS and local authorities, we might as well take this extra money outside and set fire to it.

    Frances Braithwaite

    London SE6

    SIR – My wife rang the GP surgery for some blood test results before a hospital appointment the next day. After a 1 min 20 sec message telling her to dial 999 if an emergency or 111 if not, she was able to select the “test results” option. After 30 minutes held in a queue, she gave up.

    She redialled, suffered the message and selected “reception’”, which answered after 1 hour 10 min. She was told the results would be available for collection later that afternoon.

    Does anyone believe that throwing more taxpayers’ money into the NHS black hole will solve such problems?

    John McDonald

    Altrincham, Cheshire

    SIR – The NHS in its present form is past its sell-by date. Problems with a system based on the 1948 model are not solved by ever-increasing sums of tax. Financing the NHS should be by private insurance for those who can afford it, with tax relief on premiums and help for lower-income groups, by a voucher scheme for example.

    It is not politicians who need courage for reforms. Voters must have the courage to elect those who promise NHS reform – and mean it.

    David Saunders

    SIR – Boris Johnson is being lazy, again. The NHS and social care need a restart – requiring some serious thought.

    Hiking taxes is no way to improve a system that already overspends.

    It’s not just hiking taxes, though, is it? It’s going back on a promise not to.

    The last election was well won, primarily because people didn’t want Jeremy Corbyn. What Boris Johnson must remember is that Tony Blair became PM not because we wanted him, but because the Conservatives looked no better than useless.

    Andy McCarthy

    Rayleigh, Essex

    SIR – The Tories must remember the cost to the Lib Dems of breaking their manifesto pledge (on tuition fees) in 2010. The public will chastise the Tories more severely for breaking their promises on taxation.

    Andrew Munday

    Shoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex

    SIR – Will anyone ever believe another word uttered by Boris Johnson?

    Deirdre Lay

    Cranleigh, Surrey

    SIR – Extra taxation on savers to fund the NHS and care-home fees is bizarre.

    Some paying the extra tax may have been motivated to save in order not to depend on the state in their old age. Now achieving that objective will be undermined.

    Others will be care-home residents, now having to make a higher tax contribution to fellow residents’ costs.

    Barry Legg

    Chairman of the Treasury Select Committee 1992-97

    London SW1

    SIR – My mother worked hard, and when at 94 she needed 24-hour care she became a resident in a good care home near me. I sold her house and used her savings to fund her in comfort until her death three years later. We have no right to our parents’ money. It is theirs not ours.

    Elizabeth Hill

    Wellingborough, Northamptonshire

    SIR – When the debate in Cabinet is “Which tax shall we raise?” we know no Conservatives are in that Cabinet.

    Jag Tatla

    Reading, Berkshire

    SIR – Labour was always a tax and spend party. The Conservatives are now a spend and tax party.

    Dr Richard A E Grove

    Isle of Whithorn,

    1. As regards the Lib Dems’ 2010 election manifesto pledge to the students, that was unequivocally confirmed by Nick Clegg at the time, would it have got the Lib Dems into Government if they had not made a pledge that could not be honoured?

      Likewise, would Boris Johnson have got his majority if he had not pledged not to raise the three major taxes, even though he was making any Government he would lead a hostage to fortune?

  8. Morning again

    Covid from China

    SIR – Joe Biden’s 90-day review into the origins of Covid was published last week but widely overlooked amid the turmoil of the Afghanistan defeat.

    It was inconclusive, but suggested that the virus was as likely to have its origins in a lab leak as a zoonotic transfer. With 31 years’ experience in this field, I suspect the former. China’s reluctance to help the inquiry, given its role in all this, is shameful.

    Last week, too, the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention was being discussed at the UN in Geneva. It went virtually unreported, even though it could provide the global regulation and policing of bio-labs required to prevent another pandemic.

    As an Afghan veteran, I am deeply saddened by our capitulation in Afghanistan, but as a security expert, I judge that a new pandemic is a much greater threat to us all than the Taliban.

    Hamish de Bretton-Gordon

    Bio-security fellow, Magdalene College, Cambridge

    1. Hamish double-barrelled is right up himself. “Expert” my foot! (Reposted to right place!)

    2. During Trump’s tenure every single morning on the toady programme would have the same tedious waffle: Trump bad, Tories bad, business bad.

      Every. Single. Day.

      Now Biden has royally screwed up and is clearly mentally ill. Where is their criticism?

      Is the socialist Lefty green Tory now so like Labour the BBC are having a problem whining?

  9. Morning again

    Covid from China

    SIR – Joe Biden’s 90-day review into the origins of Covid was published last week but widely overlooked amid the turmoil of the Afghanistan defeat.

    It was inconclusive, but suggested that the virus was as likely to have its origins in a lab leak as a zoonotic transfer. With 31 years’ experience in this field, I suspect the former. China’s reluctance to help the inquiry, given its role in all this, is shameful.

    Last week, too, the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention was being discussed at the UN in Geneva. It went virtually unreported, even though it could provide the global regulation and policing of bio-labs required to prevent another pandemic.

    As an Afghan veteran, I am deeply saddened by our capitulation in Afghanistan, but as a security expert, I judge that a new pandemic is a much greater threat to us all than the Taliban.

    Hamish de Bretton-Gordon

    Bio-security fellow, Magdalene College, Cambridge

  10. Mikhail Khodorkovsky: ‘Dialogue only strengthens Putin’s regime’. 8 September 2021.

    Question: But Putin seems to pay a lot of attention to World War II and to rehabilitating the image of the former Soviet Union, and also that of Ukraine. Even though money is probably of interest to everyone, including Putin, he obviously has an overarching idea, a certain philosophy regarding the nature of Russia and its place in history.

    Khodorkovsky: He possibly has an idea, but he lacks the education and the global perspective to join the individual pieces into a unified concept and make it his life’s work. I think that — fortunately for all of us — he lacks this. He’s not interested in a glorious Russia but rather in yachts, rooms filled with fur coats, castles and so on. That’s what he really wants. The idea of a glorious Russia is just a fig leaf.

    It is patently obvious to any impartial observer that the opposite is true. Putin is smarter than a waggonload of monkeys; he has raised Russia from the depths of its degradation after the collapse of the Soviet Union on every possible level. The people’s lives have been improved. The Military has recovered and the Economy is probably stronger than it has ever been and is certainly in much better condition than that of the UK. He also shows no interest whatsoever in the Trappings of Power. There are no Yachts or Castles!

    Vlad’s real crime is that he has shown what might be done by someone who has the interests of his Country and People at heart and not that of Vested Interests or of a Political Doctrine!

    https://www.dw.com/en/mikhail-khodorkovsky-dialogue-only-strengthens-putins-regime/a-59100697

  11. 338620+ up ticks,
    Morning Each,
    World leaders, to repeat myself be in no doubt the electorate in the main
    have pulled off a very unbritish coup with their adherence & solid backing
    for the lab/lib/con mass uncontrolled immigration / paedophile umbrella
    proven anti United Kingdom coalition.

    The daily whinge is in due to the fact that we have an abundance of
    paedophiles, knifers, assorted killers etc,etc., with the very same type governance in number ten we have had voted in for the last three decades.

    https://twitter.com/JamesMelville/status/1435366460877156353

    1. 338620+ up ticks,
      O2O,
      ALL orchestrated OG, their opening shot that triggered the treachery was the nine month delay giving birth to a
      whole load of anti United Kingdom troubles, the “deal” &
      suchlike their revenge weapon in repayment for the 24/6/2016 result.

      1. Is O2O any relations to H2S? Is OG an Olly Gark? (Where is my acronym dictionary when I need it?)

  12. Not-so-clever cars

    SIR – Like Richard Dalgleish (Letters, September 6) I have a modern car with a handbook over 500 pages long.

    Unfortunately, the support has not kept up. My car is in the garage for the ninth time in four months due to an electrical warning fault. But because the computer download does not identify a specific “error code”, the manufacture’s maintenance policy is to do nothing. Still, I am keeping the local AA service busy collecting my car.

    Brian Hunter

    Devizes, Wiltshire

    SIR – My daily drive is a 1972 VW Beetle and the instrumentation in front of me tells me two things: how fast I am going and how much petrol is in the tank. What more does one need?

    James Thomson

    Silloth, Cumbria

    1. The Monty Python Highway Robbery Team engaged in mass redistribution of lupins – but it was not an overwhelming success.

    2. Except the wife’s bank are now charging their customers more. Those companies (hedge funds, pension companies, big multinationals) then charge their customers more. And so on until Joe Soap is paying another 10p for an apple.

      Then people buy less.
      And demand falls.
      And Joe Soap finds himself thinking ‘I might lose my job.’
      And he does.
      And because everything is more expensive, welfare has to go up.
      So taxes go up again as the government has – again – run out of money.

      And so on and so on.

  13. SIR – There is yet another attack on the Royal Navy in general, and Nelson in particular, over links with slavery.

    There are many illustrations of the fact that the Navy in Nelson’s day valued all men, whatever their race or colour.

    In 1828, Lord Collingwood, second-in-command at Trafalgar, recounted Nelson’s actions: “Descending to the quarter-deck, he visited the men, enjoining them not to fire a shot in waste, looking himself along the guns to make sure they were properly pointed, and commending the sailors, particularly a black man, who was afterwards killed, but who, while he stood beside him, fired 10 times directly into the porthole of the Santa Ana.”

    Clearly the man was captain of the gun, with a crew who were doubtless mainly white. As someone who served in the Navy in the 1960s and 1970s, I know that men have always been accepted on the basis of what they are and not the colour of their skin.

    Christopher Stannard

    Cowes, Isle of Wight

    SIR – Yesterday I watched a television programme on the life of Sir Walter Scott. The presenter stood in Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh, and looked up to admire the Scott monument.

    He then turned to four passing youths and asked if they knew who was depicted in the statue. I was shocked when one replied: “Was he a slave owner?”

    Barbara Smith

    Stafford

    1. BTL Comment:-

      Robert Spowart
      8 Sep 2021 7:57AM
      Regarding Christopher Stannard’s letter, was there not a rule that when one of HM’s Ships was docked in the West Indies port, any male slave who volunteered to serve on her was immediately accepted as a sailor, gaining his release from slavery at the same time?

  14. My wife has just told me that sexually transmitted disease is well down because of covid. She has had the brilliant idea that if we were permanently locked down we could solve that problem. She thinks the government will be very interested.

    1. Judging by the behaviour of members of the government, I doubt these numbers apply in Elite-land.

  15. Afghan refugees left without cash or essential supplies after arriving in UK, says council. 8 September 2021.

    Afghan refugees have been left without cash and essentials such as sanitary products, toothpaste, nappies or medicines after being evacuated and arriving in the UK, according to the refugee council.

    It said some families had been left without cash for up to two weeks, forcing them to try to take essential items from shops without paying for them.

    Most are being housed in temporary hotel accommodation while the Government negotiates permanent homes for them with local councils.

    It used to be called thieving!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/09/08/afghan-refugees-left-without-cash-essential-supplies-arriving/

    1. And would probably have cost them a hand where they came from.

      Thus said, it seems harsh that they are being brought in by the UK but not adequately provided for.

      Channel hoppers I have far less time for.

      1. Morning Sos. Most of these people are unsophisticated primitives with little real knowledge of the World though I doubt that they don’t know what stealing is. What seems clear is that there is a Third World Narrative that the UK is a Treasure Island waiting simply to be plundered. This explains why these people cross Oceans and Continents to get here, refusing all stops on the way!

    2. Good! They shouldn’t be here. Why should we feed, clothe and give them things to wash with? Sod them!

    3. The BBC website claimed that all migrants were taken to Primark where up to £500- of taxpayers’ cash was spent on each individual.

      Can anyone say whether this has now been cancelled?

  16. Good morning all.
    Mustn’t stop, but my teenage mind couldn’t resist this gem:

    “SIR – Dr Michael Blackmore’s aunt (Letters, September 7) would have appreciated the advice of Lockwood Kipling, father of Rudyard. His idea of happiness was eating a ripe mango in the bath with a fine cigar.
    John H Stephen”

    I suppose that Mrs Lockwood Kipling also occasionally enjoyed the benefits of a fine cigar and a couple of mangoes.

  17. 338620 + Up ticks,
    Yet another in-house farce acted out via the ” All in it together” club you DO NOT get to be in the overseers hierarchy without a thorough grounding in treachery.

    Dt,
    Whipped into line: Inside the Cabinet meeting that crushed Tory tax rise rebellion
    Frontbench challenge to the National Insurance increase dissolves with barely a whimper after threat of reshuffle sends rebels scurrying

    1. It shouldn’t be up to the Commons. The issue should have gone to the public to accept or reject.

    1. Thanks, Citroen, nicked and posted to Ar5ebook, as a supplement to Maggie’s list of Boris’ promises – published yesterday.

  18. Good Moaning.
    Warm … Sunny … Global War.. Climate Change … all whitey’s fault … slavery …. we’re all doooooooomed ….
    Worse still – the ex-Mrs Gove has once again written something with which I agree. The End of the World is Nigh.

    “THIS IS MOTHERS’ RUIN

    An estate agent who took her employer to a tribunal after he refused to let her work a four-day week and leave the office early to collect her child from nursery has been awarded £180,000 — more than her annual salary — in damages.

    She claims she brought the case to ensure her daughter does not have ‘the same experience’ when she is older. In fact, she has ensured precisely the opposite: it’s thanks to people like her that small firms are so reluctant to employ women of childbearing age, in case they find themselves embroiled in similarly ruinous proceedings.

    Truth is, some jobs just can’t be done part-time or on reduced hours.

    In this particular case, the woman was on £120,000 a year — more than enough, you would have thought, to employ help. Not so much having it all as grabbing it all.”

    1. The employer is a twit and you let your employees work how they want to, and pay them accordingly.

      As said though, this sends a signal to other employers to not hire women. Stupid berk.

    2. The employer is a twit and you let your employees work how they want to, and pay them accordingly.

      As said though, this sends a signal to other employers to not hire women. Stupid berk.

  19. This would explain a lot about Boris…

    ‘Your proposal is whack’: Chaos as ‘junior worker’ who thought he was testing dummy council website rejects and approves REAL planning applications – including allowing two pubs to be demolished – and it is all legally BINDING
    Staff at Swale Council, Kent accidentally rejected or approved five applications
    Blunder was made by a ‘junior’ staff member at Mid Kent Planning Support team

    The person was trying to resolve software issues, but in doing so, five ‘dummy’ decisions, used to test the website was working, were accidentally published
    Among them included the rejection of an animal sanctuary to stay on its site
    Two Kent pubs were also given permission to be demolished or part-demolished
    A butcher’s change-of-use applicaton in Sittingbourne was turned down
    A farm was granted planning permission with 20 conditions, listed just as 1 – 20
    *
    *
    *
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9967701/Planning-chaos-junior-worker-unknowingly-rejects-approves-real-applications.html#newcomment

    1. This is what happens when you cheap out on proper quality assurance and think any old monkey can do it.

          1. True, but RNLI would not tolerate vessel to vessel transfer of people without buoyancy aids unless absolutely none available.

    1. You’re just another gutless lying politician that has effed up everything they/you come into contact with.
      Now you are set on stealing my home and my families inheritance to fund, let’s be honest, a ‘king ongoing invasion. *It has nothing what so ever to do with* looking after the elderly or health care. Pandemic or not you should not have allowed one single person to land on our shores.
      You blab on about climate change and carbon emissions but right at this moment there are thousands of mainly small cheap substandard houses being built on green belt and farm land.
      Because of the tory behaviour. We will probably end up with an even more useless and socially destructive labour government after the next election.
      *any more than the annual road fund licence (tax) has anything to do with road maintenance*.

    1. William the Conqueror, on landing on the beach at Pevensey, stumbled and fell to his knees. His followers were alarmed at this ill-omen, but William picked up a handful of pebbles and said “See, I have England in my hands already”. History repeating itself?

    2. I’m sick of this. It is truly nauseating.

      Have them filled with arrows and thrown in the sea.

  20. Morning all,

    Well, the fever has subsided and the cough has stopped. Nose now a running tap but I can cope with that. Problem is the pcr test. I know people run lateral flow tests under a tap to get a negative result but can I spit on the pcr?

      1. It would seem so. I fear the pcr test because it can’t actually distinguish Covid from a cold and will probably be run at high cycles because I haven’t been vaxxed.

        1. Sue – you haven’t commented since this morning – how are you? I hope you’re beginning to feel better – please let us know. xx

    1. I could send you a new box of lateral flow test kits; I was going to put it on EebayGum, but there were no others for sale so it is probably a Verboten item.
      The cotton stick makes me gag, but as long as someone is nearby to hear the awful disgusting retching noise I feel that it is worthwhile.

  21. The Art Of Negotiation

    After being away on business, Rich thought it would be nice to bring his wife a little gift.

    “How about some perfume?” he asked the cosmetics clerk. She showed him a bottle costing $50.00.

    “That’s a bit much,” said Rich, so she returned with a smaller bottle for $30.00.

    “That’s still quite a bit,” Rich groused.

    Growing annoyed, the clerk brought out a tiny $15.00 bottle.

    “What I mean,” said Rich, “is I’d like to see something really cheap.”

    So she handed him a mirror.

    1. Bizarrely, it is quite true. Knitting wool (wool, not acrylic, not a blend) is hard to find and very expensive. Yet the sheep farmers are complaining that they are being paid a pittance for it, which they are.

    2. One very obvious and glaring error. Just soak the unopened Tesco jars of jam in warm soapy water and remove the labels, it saves all of the hassle of making the jam and surely nobody would notice the difference.

      1. If anyone ever gives me a jar of strawberry jam (I love all fruit jams except strawberry) I give it away to someone else claiming it as my own.

        1. I notice we have a jar of raspberry jam in the cupboard that is seed-less, that takes half the fun out of eating jam.

          1. Two weeks ago I made some raspberry seedless jam. The seeds get wedged between my teeth and are difficult to remove. Raspberry is my favourite followed by morello cherry.

  22. I still have a picture of Thatcher in my office’: Sajid Javid insists the Tories ARE still a low-tax party ahead of vote today to land Britons with biggest peacetime tax burden – after Tory revolt on £12bn NI raid to rescue NHS melted away
    Ministers have vowed that billions in extra NHS funding would clear the Covid backlog by 2025
    Health Service will receive majority of £36bn raised by the national insurance hike over the next three years
    PM said it would help NHS fund 9m extra operations and checks before next general election
    Health bosses said it leaves a ‘significant shortfall’ and warned millions of patients will still face long delays
    By JAMES TAPSFIELD, POLITICAL EDITOR FOR MAILONLINE

    PUBLISHED: 08:20, 8 September 2021 | UPDATED: 09:01, 8 September 2021

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9968745/MPs-set-approve-eye-watering-12bn-tax-raid-NHS-social-care-TODAY.html

    1. Where are they going to get the facilities and staff from? Building new infrastructure and training new people will take years. They could make better use of some facilities, for example by using operating theatres more at nights and weekends, but the lack of extra beds and staff will soon see that grind to a halt.

      1. NHS top end facilities, such as operating theatres, scanners and such, are often hired out to private medical companies. There may be contracts in place.
        NHS medicine is one pace, very slow. If you want be treated quickly in A&E you must arrive in an ambulance, otherwise you will wait for hours without anyone even glancing at you.

    2. after Tory revolt on £12bn NI raid to rescue NHS melted away“- spineless, self interested traitors!

      1. There’s a reshuffle coming. They’re scared for their ministerial salaries and being moved away from the cabinet. Back-benchers generally toe the party line after bluster.
        The social care proposal is all hot air, virtually nobody will receive any real help, it’s full of holes, and it won’t stop the need to sell the family home even in the South. The real caveat is it doesn’t cover living costs which make up approximately 60% of care fees. So with an 86k cap on care costs, you’ll need to be paying full fees for yourself for about 4 years before the state steps in and helps you with a little over a third of the fees. It’ll cost the average pensioner 250k if they live four years. Most won’t and so will receive no help at all.
        You cant suddenly pump more money into the NHS and create resources like operating theatres and surgeons. It takes around 14 years to train a surgeon. So I expect this extra will be used to buy expensive operations from the private sector who now have the government by the balls. You’ll find a huge number of MPs are on the board of these companies or are investors in them.

    1. As I said earlier, we are faced with a colossal deception, based on lies and fraud.

      This deception starts from the premise that the justifications put forward by the authorities in support of their actions are sincere.

      More simply, the mistake consists in believing that the rulers are honest and in assuming that they do not lie to us.

    2. A quote from this letter of Archbishop Vigano, revealing that the Church Militant is not yet finished. He considers the need for the use of force to remove those currently in charge.

      “In the course of history, totalitarian regimes have been overthrown by force.
      It is difficult to think that the health dictatorship that has been established in recent months can be fought differently, since all the powers of the State, all of the means of information, all the international public and private institutions, all of the economic and financial potentates are complicit in this crime.
      Faced with this bleak scenario of corruption and conflict of interest, it is indispensable that all those who are not subservient to the globalist plan unite in a compact and cohesive front, in order to defend their natural and religious rights, their own health and that of their loved ones, their freedom, and their goods.
      Where authority fails in its duties and indeed betrays the purpose for which it has been established, disobedience is not only lawful but obligatory: non-violent disobedience, at least for now, but determined and courageous.”

      My highlights

      1. Hear, hear, Horace, and Good morning.

        We may not be part of Church Militant but there is definately, if not elderly, a NoTTLe Militant with the will but not necessarily the physicality to rise up.

      2. 338620+ up ticks,
        Morning HP,
        Totally agree, the political barrel is stuffed full of rotten apples with maybe one or two on the turn.
        It has truly gone beyond left / right politics it is now down to base level RIGHT / WRONG.

        The governing overseers know themselves they have burnt their bridges.

    3. The letter is very interesting, and has a lot of historical stuff of which I was not aware. It’s too long to reproduce here, but well worth a read.
      He’s a brave man!

      1. Morning, Ma’am. Having lived in Dorset since 1985 and never been to the isle of Wight we are going on Friday for a few days.

        1. Morning. Del.

          I visited the Isle of Wight for the first time in 2016. It was a huge disappointment. All the shops and cafés were run by get-rich-quick London wide-boys; their fare and service was deplorable. To get to see the Needles, I needed to pay a huge car-park fee, then invest another fortune on the bus service taking you to the place. I didn’t bother! I shall never return.

          1. Other English seaside towns have suffered a similar fate, long abandoned to the cheap flight Mediterranean regions. Sadly seldom visited now run down cafés and restaurants hotels B&Bs short of customers, the owners have taken the cheaper options. Our middle son, wife and small son went to South Devon this summer but they were very disappointed. Whilst number one went self catering in south Devon with the outlaws they had a great time.
            For our double birthday treat we have chosen to go to St Ives ( Carbis) next month. Stopping off over night in Somerset, to visit and old buddy and his wife for a chin wag dinner and a few pints. He’s a but of an academic old leftie (he has certain reservations) but it should be good fun.

          2. When I was stationed at St Mawgan and St Eval in the late 50s I lived initially in Newquay and enjoyed it.
            I went back for a visit in the 70s and wished I had just retained the memories of the 50s.

          3. So many places have changed Del, we love north Cornwall, in fact we are off to St Ives for a week at the end of the month.
            Looking at a google earth of my old school in Mill Hill NW7 I could see the people walking along out side were not of the same religion as my family were at the time. It’s the changes we have all been forced to make to accommodate these somewhat ungrateful people that is destroying our once green and pleasant land. Can you imagine what our parents and grandparents would be saying right now after so many of them gave their lives to protect their beloved country.

          4. Would that be a “bad rip-off day” as opposed to their norm, which is lots of “good rip-off days”?

          5. A friend flew Mrs D around the island two weeks ago so now she wants to see it at ground level.

          6. I hope you have a better experience than I did. The only town I discovered that had any charm whatsoever was Yarmouth.

          7. I sailed from Poole Harbour into Yarmouth almost every Summer in the 70s. Wonderful get-away-from-it-all place.

          1. Definitely {:¬)) I used to act for solicitors from the IoW – and even they warned me that their clients were nuts!

      1. I’m just back from walking the dog and 100 yds from home large raindrops fell on us and thunderstorms are forecast.

  23. On Netweather rain radar there’s some nasty stuff arriving from the SSE, and it looks like the fist of God in nasty colours. Can hear the thunder coming up the valley.

    1. So much for sunny, drought-ridden Cornwall, eh?

      Lovely and dry and sunny in yer Narfurk, by the way…

    2. Colourful clouds here, humid and just a light breeze .

      Really warm night last night , probably the hottest night yet .

      We need the air cleared , the lull before the storm, crows are wheeling and doing aerobatics over the field near to us , that sort of flying reminds me of Autumn .

      1. It was a very warm night here too. Waiting for some respite from the heavy rain before walking Oscar on Kit Hill.

      2. Warm here and clear blue sky. My neighbour, the one who mows lawns when she is bothered by something (her therapy), is busy attacking my lawn at the moment. Wonderful smell of new mown grass!

  24. I notice all the lawn tennis luvvies are wetting their knickers and spilling their Pimm’s over the prospects of the “New ‘British’ tennis sensation”, Emma Raducanu. This wonderful ‘British’ ball-tapper has a Romanian father, a Chinese mother, and was born in Toronto.

    Get those red crosses of St George waving, you limp-wrists. At least she seems to have more balls than Timid Henwoman ever did!

    1. Given her parentage she is a remarkably good looking young woman.

      I remember a speech day at Allhallows where the giver-away of prizes was a former headmaster at Wellington College, Frank Fisher, for whom our headmaster had worked before moving to Lyme Regis.

      He remarked how, on occasions like speech days, parents and schoolmasters mingled and the latter often wondered how such charming parents could have produced such a monstrous child; they also sometimes wondered how such a delightful boy could have had such …..

      Fisher’s address was by far the best I have heard and I have had to endure many speech day speeches. Another observation was that he speculated that there was a special public school somewhere which existed solely to be beaten at rugby and cricket matches so that headmasters of other schools could boast about how successful their own teams were.

  25. I wonder if Hilary Mantel will start writing about the Arthurian legend in her new place of residence as Ireland is a great place for mythology, mystery and legend.
    Sir Lancelot’s observation on the Lady of Shallot’s face would not be appropriate in her case, poor woman.

    1. Yet again the state undermining parental authority. And these evil people pretend to be Conservatives.

  26. “To rebuild a successful economy we need a smaller public sector and to encourage an optimistic entrepreneurial spirit”

    So what does the Conservative government do? It gives pay rises to the public sector and does its best to punish small businesses by tax rises and leaves the self-employed unsupported to drown in the quagmire the government has created.

    1. It’s been a long time since politicians put the interests of the country and its population ahead of their own and their party’s.

      The greater share of blame has to be taken by voters, who know what these politicians are like but have encouraged them to get elected by offering policies best described as bribes and pandering to prejudices and envy.

  27. Morning, Nottlers!!

    Off to demonstrate outside Parliament today; if anyone sees a madwoman covered in flowers, come and say hello!

    1. That’ll be Treason May…!

      Good luck – make sure you have a toothbrush for when you are arrested.

  28. Putin outsmarted as Brexit Britain to use Norway to bypass EU gas crisis: ‘Very fortunate’
    BREXIT BRITAIN will be able to avoid a looming gas crisis in the EU as Vladimir Putin threatens to restrict supplies, an expert has told Express.co.uk.

    So Britain with their “special partner” the US have spent the past 3 years trying to STOP the flow of gas from Russia to Europe but now they’re worried that Russia might do what they campaigned for!!!

    Russia won’t restrict the flow but it makes a good scare-story……it IS the Express.

    1. That’s fabulous! How wonderful! A super strategy! Mmm. Is Norwegian gas not pumped from under the North Sea just as ours is? How is Norwegian gas greener that ours? Will their gas last longer? Do they not have activists seeking to ban production?
      Oh, wait… I’ve just remembered the old saying;
      “The gas is always greener on the other side of the sea”.

      1. It’s pathetic, isn’t it? Big state moves the cost of the gas somewhere else, thus claiming we are greener. Stupid people.

  29. Morning all, England football team are at a double disadvantage this evening, not only are the playing Poland who are at home in Warsaw but the 11 or more dopey wokeys will be kneeling once again to show their love respect and affection towards a US criminal and druggy who died in the custody of the US police department.
    Job done boys,……….. get over it and get on with the game and do what you are paid to do.

    1. Expect the Poles will show much the same reaction to this gesture as Hungarians did the other day, and good for them for doing so.

  30. DM Story

    ‘I still have a picture of Thatcher in my office’: Squalid Jawdrip insists the Tories ARE still a low-tax party ahead of vote today to land Britons with biggest peacetime tax burden – after Tory revolt on £12bn NI raid to rescue NHS melted away.

    The big question is: does this man use beeswax to polish his bald pate?

    [Are my observations more or less ridiculous that those that come from our government ministers?]

    1. Morning Richard ,

      Okay I am going to be an absolute misery guts, , but after observing all the discarded tents and seats and other stuff that the thousands leave behind after music festivals , and knowing how expensive tickets are .. some people pay hundreds for a ticket , and when you also consider the amount of money people pay for football colours and season tickets or tickets on the day .. or expensive tattoos, why not a hike in NI

      When I see the green recycling boxes full of empty booze bottles , the rubbish left behind on beaches , the growth of leisure activities , designer clothes and thousands of very expensive cars , the sale of jacuzzis( everyone seems to have one now , and the must have it now brigade , ) people should be forking out more NI.

      Could be an excellent idea, except that it hasn’t been sold very well.

      1. Good morning, Maggie.
        The daily Mail sent up a drone after the Reading festival showing thousands of abandoned tents and other detritus. It was quite shocking and wasteful.

        What the Mail didn’t mention was the clean up cost was included in the price of the tickets.

        The tents were collected by a charity to be re-used.

        Sometimes seeing is not believing.

        1. Morning Phizzee,

          Ah, so the argument reaaly and truly gets better , festival goers are prepared to pay big money for a concert ticket knowing their filth will be cleared up afterwards .. so let them pay more for NI, and tough titty if they are ‘shtudents’.. they should also be paying because they know the value of nothing ..

        2. Maybe so, but why were the tents not brought together to a central point? Why were people not asked to put waste in a bin bag? Heck, we take a couple of thick bin liners with us everywhere we go. If you’ve rubbish, you put it in the bin.

          The mess was just disgusting and so easily avoided.

      2. Good morning, Maggiebelle

        Not such a good idea for the self-employed and those trying to run small businesses.

      3. I appreciate the sentiment, but why should I pay when I don’t go to a music festival. When I don’t litter? When the ‘expensive car’ is already heavily taxed on fuel and emissions (it’s a Volvo XC something). Alcohol already attracts a heavy duty.

        For the litterers at festivals, send them a bill for the cleanup and disposal. If they don’t pay it, keep hounding them with bailiffs.

      4. A 200% tax on footballer’s wages and transfers (and other sports) would be a start. Watching England lose would be less painful (if not less often) knowing that some of the time wasted has gone to help the infirm and the elderly.

    2. He’s lying to himself. He knows otherwise. In fact, he doesn’t care. He is simply parroting the party line. Maybe in his head he knows otherwise, but he is simply a barefaced liar. They all are.

    3. I think they are just trying to distract people from resisting vaxx passports. They could print more money for the NHS any time they wanted.

  31. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/09/08/tories-have-forgotten-tax-cuts-can-raise-revenues/

    I whinge about tax a lot but everyone knows higher taxes are a bad thing. Why doesn’t this stupid government?

    Case in point – I only take on 4 or 5 contracts a year as else I lose money to the tax man. The wife is registered offshore for her taxes through a service vehicle set up by her company.

    If taxes were lower, the government would get more money and I’d be able to employ more people, train some youngsters in security and penetration testing. I despair.

    1. I think the “stupid government” doesn’t realize it because most of them have not had to work in a proper business in their life, or they have money in the first place. I honestly don’t think they understand that taking a hands off approach to entrepreneurship generates more revenue whilst taxing generates less. A lot of people have proposed that you should not be able to run for office until you have worked and are at least 30. Not a bad idea except the people in power would never vote for such a thing because it would effect them and their network of hangers on, relatives, etc coming down the pipe who have also never done anything in their lives other than go to school and promptly work for their party whilst waiting to be parachuted into a constituency to become another clue3less MP.

  32. https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/ac4125e2feb076bf55003d988364ca008501ec01/0_0_1500_1000/master/1500.jpg?width=720&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=9162f62353693e6eb2005b39dec23ed7

    Living up to 500 years, these bizarre trees are unique to the island of Socotra, Yemen. When the trunk is cut, a deep red sap, highly prized from ancient times, oozes from the tree. Growing in harsh conditions, the tree has raised its branches upward over time in an effort to obtain moisture from the highland mists. Once part of a vast forest, these remaining trees are now classified as endangered.

    1. The ordinary name for this plant is ‘Dragons Blood Tree’. It is actually a Dracena and not a tree, but all the same. It’s related to the tatty things you see in the lobby’s of businesses https://www.plantrentals.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Dracaena-marginata.jpg

      You can buy seeds of Dracaena cinnabari from https://africa-seeds.com/products/dracaena-cinnabari-10-seeds a company I can recommend because I buy plenty of things from them and they are always excellent. But at $50.00 for 10 seeds you better know what you are doing! Basically treat as you would Cacti.

        1. Basically, yes.. And if you are interested in trying I would use the damp paper towel method and order some GA3 (Gibberellic acid) available on ebay . Try one with it and one without as a test run. Many plants from extremally arid climates require GA3 to germinate.

          1. My kind of plant. Those I have watered and tended with care and hope have promptly died.

          2. Yes, thanks. In the bathroom we have a fig tree. It was a present, a twig from Tesco, twenty years ago. It is now seven feet high and seven feet wide. I can crawl under the branches to get into the bath. With the sun shining through the Velux window, I am dappled with light through the leaves as I soak in restorative foamy water. I did nothing except water it when I remembered and we repotted it earlier this year.
            Another present was small cherry plant in a pot. We stuck it in the bare strip known as the “front garden”. We did nothing at all. It grew and braced its shoulders against the pot, growing deep into the ground. It is now sixteen feet high . There is no sign of the pot, except for a couple of lumps of stone put into the pot as drain covers, now entwined in the trunk two feet off the ground. Elsewhere, half of the this year’s selection of pot plants have died. A pot that was empty except for the compost stuff now wonderfully contains a very small oak tree that looks quite healthy. From bird droppings I suppose, as the nearest oak is at least fifty yards away.

          3. Maybe you could plant it outside, Horace, but then again, maybe Scotland is too cold.

            Here in Suffolk, we have one growing at the Eastern end of the Churchyard – massive size, massive leaves but very small, inedible fruit.

          4. We had others. A couple of big ones. I’d read that they could be given spot of fresh air by being moved outside to a sunny, sheltered spot. We did this. They died…

          5. The Fig tree in the bathroom sounds wonderful! Resting in the water while the light shines through it.
            Half your pot plants have died, neglect? If not feel free to ask when you encounter problems. I am, by profession, or rather was, a horticulturist. Although I still have two greenhouses in the garden and a third being built. I specialize in exotics, the weird and wonderful.

          6. Neglect -ish. We were away for a few days and they lacked water. At any rate they never recovered.

          7. Sorry about that. Tip, when going for a trip put plants in the bathtub with a little water.

          8. Ah. I tried a plastic device that was supposed to siphon water out of a container and drip feed it to the plant pot. (Yes, the fig again – it was too heavy to lift and the clay pot would have scratched the bath.). Anyway, when we returned the bathroom had been flooded – then dried – as a result of too high a rate of flow…

          9. Thanks, I have bookmarked it. I’ll have to think of names for the plants in order to label them; Cassandra, Vercingetorix, …

  33. Impeccable timing…

    NHS HIRING 42 NEW MANAGERS ON SALARIES UP TO £270,000

    Now that the government has decided to steal from working people’s pockets to throw yet more money at the NHS, it’s worth checking in on how some of that money will be spent. New job adverts on the Integrated Care Systems (ICS) recruitment page show that the NHS is now hiring 42 new chief executives to manage ‘integrated care boards‘ across the country, on salaries averaging £223,261. Seven of which will pay up to a whopping £270,000. 80% more than Boris himself…

    The site explains how the new executives will help lead “new partnerships between the organisations that meet health and care needs across an area, [and] plan in a way that improves population health and reduces inequalities between different groups”. The job description also insists that candidates “actively champion diversity, inclusion, and equality of opportunity for all.” All life-saving work, no doubt.

    https://order-order.com

    1. Bringing back matrons and fire every bureaucrat who cannot come up with at least 50% savings in the area where they are in charge and getting rid of all diversity directors and similar non-jobs would be a good start.

      1. Oh Sos, you know what would happen there. They’d sack everyone productive and pay themselves more as a bonus.

      2. …as well as Matron, stop recruiting nurses with useless degrees and employ more Sisters-Tutor to ensure proper on-the-job training.

    2. Thank goodness the medical side is so well staffed we don’t need any surgeons, consultants, registrars, doctors etc etc…..

      1. It’s just about all they know.
        For the layman it is just about impossible to work out what our civil service and politicians lords etc jointly cost this country. It would be many billions each year and knowing that as most of them would, one might be forgiven for reaching a conclusion that they might jointly show some respect to those who pay them. But seemingly not a prayer.

    1. Good morning to all!
      Since Boris and Carrie are on the public money, their behaviour rather reminds me of shady welfare recipients that have some sharp way of putting their hand in the till whilst waving two fingers at people paying their taxes.

      1. And quite often some have been caught out renting out their free home and living with a relation of a partner in another town.

      1. He’s realised to solve the problem of government wouldn’t stop as Westminster. He knows he’d have to nuke every single state location lest the poison spread.

    2. I think the difference between me now and a loony terrorist is that while we both find the target thoroughly disgusting, my approach is apathy and resignation along with active dissent.

    3. Which is the more shocking – the shade of pink of the woman’s dress or the sheer hypocrisy of the man holding her hand?

    1. RT:

      Russia state-controlled media · 5 September at 22:00

      Lol! When is it going to say:

      BBC:

      UK state-controlled media?

    2. RT:

      Russia state-controlled media · 5 September at 22:00

      Lol! When is it going to say:

      BBC:

      UK state-controlled media?

  34. Thought for the day

    When things in your life seem almost too much to handle,

    When 24 hours in a day is not enough; remember the mayonnaise jar and 2 beers.

    A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him.

    When the class began, wordlessly, he picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and start to fill it with golf balls.

    He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

    The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured it into the jar. He shook the jar lightly.

    The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls.

    He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

    The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar.

    Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full.

    The students responded with a unanimous ‘yes.’

    The professor then produced two pints of beer from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar, effectively filling the empty space between the sand.

    The students laughed.

    ‘Now,’ said the professor, as the laughter subsided, ‘I want you to recognise that this jar represents your life.

    The golf balls are the important things – God, family, children, health, friends, and favourite passions
    Things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.

    The pebbles are the things that matter like your job, house, and car.

    The sand is everything else –The small stuff.

    ‘If you put the sand into the jar first,’ he continued, ‘there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls.

    The same goes for life.

    If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff,
    You will never have room for the things that areimportant to you.

    So.

    Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness.
    Know your God.
    Play with your children.
    Take time to get medical check-ups.
    Take your partner out to dinner.
    There will always be time to clean the house and fix the dripping tap.
    ‘Take care of the golf balls first —
    The things that really matter.

    Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.’

    One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the beers represented.

    The professor smiled. ‘I’m glad you asked’.

    It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there’s always room for a couple of beers with a friend.’

    Please share this with other “Golf Balls”
    I just did…..

    1. I hope the students took note.

      I once read an account about an AA meeting the guy on the podium welcomed the audience and there were two large tumblers of clear liquid on the table in front of him. And another jar with a lid. He opened the jar and pulled out an earth worm, popped it into one of the tumblers. and the worm wriggled away for some time. He then took another worm from the jar and popped it into the second Tumbler the worm wiggled and quickly shriveled and died.
      He then stated the first tumbler contains tap water the seconded contains strong Neat Vodka. So my friends what do you learn from this ?……….. a few seconds later one of the younger members of the audience put his had up. Yes said the lecturer ? The Young man said, “What i learn from this is, that if you drink vodka you will never have worms”.

  35. 38620+ up ticks,

    Has priti treacherous realised that the £54 million carrot is only rhetorical & for domestic consumption, and not believed anyway, because the french
    are happy with their rate of exchange.

    Boatloads of undesirables OUT their domestic welfare outlay down.

  36. Well, that was fun. A hour’s useful ladderwork to remove another branch from the copper beech. When I finished, the MR very sensibly suggested that I marked a higher, larger branch for the tree chap to remove in the winter. I had a can of yellow spray paint. Went up ladder. Removed lid of can. Nozzle fell to the ground. Ten minutes searching – found nozzle. Tried to fit it back on tin…..result – hand and face covered with yellow paint. None came out through nozzle. Used paint covered hand to mark branch…

    All done and dusted – and I have removed most of the paint from hands and face. Not T-shirt or shorts, though. To be retained as “honourable scars”.

    1. Just make sure you clean off the paint before the man arrives with his chainsaw and you ask him to chop of a few limbs.

    2. Get yourself down to the local Chinese and tell them you have just arrived from France – you may get a free take-away.

  37. Borat star Sacha Baron Cohen hints at return for another fan-favourite character. 8 September 2021.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/787db8c02b9515fb69053dd91fe4cb92d2ef7f0d2874c0563447567879bbadcc.jpg

    Cohen had so much fun, in fact, that he is considering bringing back the character, a white wannabe rapper imitating hip-hop and British Jamaican culture.

    “Yes, I think I would,” he said when asked whether he would return as Ali G.

    “Because the reason I became a comedian was that I loved people laughing at my jokes. To actually hear laughter is a rare thing for me. When I do the movies, I think it is funny, but I have to wait three months to hear an audience laugh.”

    Am I the only person who thinks this guy is an absolute twat! (Asking for a friend)

    https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a37508653/borat-sacha-baron-cohen-ali-g-return/

    1. “To actually hear laughter is a rare thing for me.” Probably because he is about as funny as a Death Watch beetle.

      1. But it was funny when they played the wrong National Anthem at the *Eurovision Song Competition.

        [* Correction – apparently it was at a shooting competition.]

    2. No, he isn’t.

      The thing he does very well is point out hypocrisy on both sides. Once you ignore the persona, the point is very valid. The difficulty with Cohen is knowing when it’s him you’re talking to. He is articulate, well read, intelligent and cogent – you’re just never sure if you’re talking to him or not.

      1. And as a friend once admitted, he has (or used to have) a muscle bound physique which was occasionally on public view when he was sunbathing in the local park.

  38. Russia’s gold and foreign currency holdings have risen to a record high of $618.1 billion as of September 1, according to data published by the country’s central bank.
    They grew by $17.1 billion, or 2.9%, since August 1.

    According to the regulator, the previous record was registered on August 27, when Russian international reserves amounted to $615.6 billion.

    These comprise highly liquid foreign assets including stocks of monetary gold, foreign currencies and Special Drawing Right (SDR) assets, which are at the disposal of the Central Bank of Russia and the government.

    For a country with minimal debt they’re not doing too badly.

    1. Labour politicians and trades union officials routinely referred to the lady as “Thatcher”, usually by spitting the name out in contempt.

      Savid Javid needs reminding, urgently, that only Baroness Thatcher, Mrs Thatcher, or Margaret Thatcher are acceptable ways of referring to The Iron Lady by a so-called Conservative politician.

      1. I upbraided Norman Tebbit about calling her just “Thatcher”, in that it’s rude and aggressive. As you wrote, Baroness, Mrs or Margaret Thatcher.

  39. Lies, damned lies etc.

    Yesterday I pointed out how politicians try to give a misleading impression of the level of their robbery by using a percentage rate rather than the actual percentage increase. A 1.25% increase in the rate sounds relatively easy to take but, thanks to the DT’s tax calculator ( https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tax/income-tax/national-insurance-tax-calculator-much-will-paying-social-care/ ) I can actually give you the actual %age rates of the increase you will have to pay at different rates of salary:

    a) Current income; b) current amount of NI contribution; c) New contribution after rate increase; d) Percentage increase in your NI contribution

    a) £ 50,000 b) £4,852 c) £5,358 d) 10.42% increase in contribution
    b) £ 75,000 b) £5,378 c) £6,197 d) 15.2% increase in contribution
    c) £100,000 b) £5,879 c) £7,010 d) 19.2% increase in contribution.

    As I suggested yesterday the government is so confident in the low level of educational attainment in Britain that the general public will take some time to work out that a 1.25% rise in rate can equal a massive rise in the amount of tax payable.

    1. Far too numerate for the average journo, Rastus – they still spout the “£139” increase in energy bills.

  40. The West’s Islamist capitulation. 8 September 2021.

    On the contrary, the West is withdrawing from the ideological fray. Witness the way a Yorkshire schoolteacher was abandoned by politicians and teaching unions earlier this year after he dared show a picture of the Prophet Mohammed during a discussion about freedom of expression. Theresa May’s promise to have some ’embarrassing conversations’ after the London Bridge terror attack in 2017 is just one of many empty pledges made by western leaders in the last decade.

    This insidious capitulation to Islamist ideology is attributable largely to the spread throughout western society of another strain of extremism: one that promotes diversity above all else and sees any criticism of non-western thinking as racist by definition. This ideology, as intolerant and vengeful as Islamism, also seeks to bring down western civilisation. Consequently, many of its adherents appease and excuse the West’s enemies.

    It’s difficult to grasp the utter spinelessness of the Political Elites though a start might be made by looking at Batley Man. Here was someone who was in effect following their orders and when it failed they decamped so swiftly that no trace of them could be found. Out of the 650 MP’s who squat in the chamber and feed off Public Largesse not one could be found to speak up on his behalf. This defies not just belief but statistics themselves. It makes the Rump Parliament look like the Cockleshell Heroes! Don’t be under any illusions, these people will hand us over to the Forces of Islam without a qualm!

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-west-s-islamist-capitulation

    1. If an indigenous white Englishman was found guilty of rape in a British court how big would the reduction in his prison term be if he claimed he had converted to Islam?

    2. Let us not forget Mike Roper, headmaster of Allerton Grange School in Leeds, who was forced to apologise after the North London intifada in May when he commented upon the Palestinian (sic) flag.

    3. The first sentence of the article:

      On Monday, Tony Blair addressed a military think tank in London and stated that the West should continue to intervene in countries under threat from Islamist extremism.

      To whom in ‘the West’ should we issue the invitation to invade the UK?

      1. We watched the speech on Sky News.

        We were amazed.

        He has done a complete about turn from the time that he was in power and encouraging large numbers of uneducated Muslims into

        the country.

        1. His purpose was to rub the noses of the right in diversity. Now that we are so diverse that the noses of the left are just above the level of the cesspit he’s finally realised that we’ve built the funeral pyre that Enoch Powell warned us about and that those diverse incomers are about to set it alight..

          1. Blair will never apologise for anything he has done.

            He’s too busy apologising for things that happened generations ago.
            He is the epitome of a hypocritical pool of runny shit.

      2. I think the West should leave other countries alone. We’re not good at helping when we do get involved and lots of our soldiers die for little gain.

  41. The West’s Islamist capitulation. 8 September 2021.

    On the contrary, the West is withdrawing from the ideological fray. Witness the way a Yorkshire schoolteacher was abandoned by politicians and teaching unions earlier this year after he dared show a picture of the Prophet Mohammed during a discussion about freedom of expression. Theresa May’s promise to have some ’embarrassing conversations’ after the London Bridge terror attack in 2017 is just one of many empty pledges made by western leaders in the last decade.

    This insidious capitulation to Islamist ideology is attributable largely to the spread throughout western society of another strain of extremism: one that promotes diversity above all else and sees any criticism of non-western thinking as racist by definition. This ideology, as intolerant and vengeful as Islamism, also seeks to bring down western civilisation. Consequently, many of its adherents appease and excuse the West’s enemies.

    It’s difficult to grasp the utter spinelessness of the Political Elites though a start might be made by looking at Batley Man. Here was someone who was in effect following their orders and when it failed they decamped so swiftly that no trace of them could be found. Out of the 650 MP’s who squat in the chamber and feed off Public Largesse not one could be found to speak up on his behalf. This defies not just belief but statistics themselves. It makes the Rump Parliament look like the Cockleshell Heroes! Don’t be under any illusions, these people will hand us over to the Forces of Islam without a qualm!

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-west-s-islamist-capitulation

  42. Gavin Williamson confuses Marcus Rashford with a different black sports star: Guido Fawkes

    Some interesting comments.

    Edmund Waller
    So, he got mixed up between two sportsmen. Silly thing to do, but why is it always such a delicate issue when someone mistakes one bl@ck person for another? If it is not done on purpose or with mischievous intent, there should be no problem.

    Robin Burn
    How can you make a mistake, Rashford is the one that can’t take penalties

    Chris Plemmons
    Is he Conservative, Labour or Liberal? They all sound the same to me.

    Bikeb
    Bit of humour, about time let’s wait for the BBC (sorry) football players Indignant response.

    Charliefatbloke
    Except one is 6 inches taller and 6 stone heavier

    ExFish
    The clue was that the bloke he was speaking to was ‘incredibly engaged, compassionate and charming’. He should have known that was unlikely to be Rashford.

    njuham
    They look roughly the same to me.

    Steve
    Maro Itoje is an eloquent, polite national treasure who plays rugby.
    Rashford is a BBC stooge fed lines by spoon face Sally Nugent.

    https://order-order.com/2021/09/08/gavin-williamson-confuses-marcus-rashford-with-a-different-black-sports-star/#comments

      1. The next PM is going to be a Muslim or a Hindu.

        Given how badly Priti Awful has performed it will probably be her. Shades of Theresa May.

  43. Well I’m jiggered. The Bbc lunchtime news had a MP on who demanded that we need to send the dinghy people straight back to Calais, and if that triggers a diplomatic row, then so be it.

      1. I didn’t catch his name. It was just a 15 sec clip from a Zoom interview, and not surprisingly there was no response by the interviewer.

        1. He has skin in the game (as I believe they say). His constituents must have bombarding him for months…

          1. He’s not the Dover MP, though. That’s Natalie Elphicke, who hasn’t been quite so straightforward about the invasion.

        2. Brexit should make us better at trade deals.

          So if the French want millions of pounds for not stopping illegal immigrants coming to Britain then perhaps we can demand even more money for not returning them to France and dumping them on the beaches near Calais?

          1. 338620+upticks,
            Afternoon R,
            The french are on a far better deal keep shipping them out instead of accepting a one off payment.

            They have saved that amount already on mo’s welfare.

        3. 338620+ up ticks,
          Afternoon WS,
          You just triggered all my alarm bells, an old mate of nige’s, a very dubious duo.

  44. BBC Radio 4 A history of the World in 100 Objects. Neil MacGregor is wetting his knickers over an Indonesian Mooslim shadow muppet. He is an expert in his chosen profession – a first rate master debater. Fifteen minutes of wet-lipped, wobbly-kneed adoration. You don’t know what you are missing.

    1. His series ‘Germany: Memories of a Nation’ was much better, even if it did jump backwards and forwards in time.

      1. 338620+ up ticks,
        Afternoon NtN,
        Do it without leaving the office, stop welfare, the french have.

        Every boat load OUT is a winner.

        1. How come the French can stop welfare? We can and should now we are “no longer in the EU”! Huh – some hopes.

      2. How about not picking them up in the first place? How about sending fire tenders to douse them all in water?

    1. As soon as they turned the boat – ONE would jump off – then the “rescuer” boat would have to stop to rescue them, then another would jump – – etc etc etc.
      And the photo shows all men – once here family get to here – so for 10k – add on numerous kids, parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, all their in laws and THEIR families too. UK is finished. Hope Boris will be happy, running a 3rd world ****hole. Not long till the freeloaders costs outstrip the govt taxes. – – and there will be NO way back.

      1. “As soon as they turned the boat — ONE would jump off…”

        Tell him, “Tough shit, Abdul. Let’s see if you are as good as Captain Matthew Webb. Toodle-oo!”

      2. 338620 + up ticks,
        Afternoon W,
        Keep a weather eye open for smoke / mirrors the johnson will not be giving a damn for these Isles he will have done his qualifying bit for which he will be duly weighed in, one way or tother.

        The wretch cameron into zillions, treacherous treasa paid thousands for non speaking regarding a speaking part, charlie lynton ( willie watcher) a multi mill.

        Their supporter / voters these last 3 decades pondering on maybe it was wrong to throw their kids futures under a bus, but the old mussies ain’t so bad if you attend the mosque 5 times a day.

    1. The only good thing is that it keeps that smug bame git (who loathes England) out of the top job for a few months.

  45. Lyce Doucet interviews a founding member of the Taliban prior to their takeover and reveals their stance on ethnic and female inclusivity in the ‘interim’ government that they have now just formed with thirty three mullahs.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3ct2jn8

    I listened to this last night on the World Service and was impressed by Lyce Doucet’s depth of knowledge and interview techique with her thirty years experience on events in Afghanistan.

    She gets the Mullah to admit that, whilst the Taliban are saying that they wish to pursue peace in an independent Afghanistan, they are ready to fight if international negotiations don’t result in what they wish to achieve.

  46. Vladimir Putin’s close ally dies while trying to save filmmaker who fell off a cliff. 8 September 2021.

    A close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin has died trying to save a renowned filmmaker during training exercises in Russia’s Arctic.

    Yevgeny Zinichev, Russia’s Emergency Situations Minister and Mr Putin’s former long-time bodyguard, was inspecting emergency drills in the Arctic town of Norilsk together with a press pool on Wednesday.

    One strives (in vain) to imagine one of Johnson’s acolytes attempting the same.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2021/09/08/vladimir-putins-close-ally-dies-trying-save-filmmaker-fell-cliff/

    1. Very sad, although I struggle to understand what the film maker was doing at he edge of a cliff. Not that I am a great fan of President P, but people in power need trustworthy friends to keep them sane.

    1. Mr Rotten, only now are you realising you’ve been wrong all this time. The Right were always anti establishment. It’s in our nature.

  47. Because of the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan, the Government has pledged to increase the number of people resettled through the scheme from 3,000 to 10,000,
    Xxxxxxx (a small town in the Yorkshire Dales) has been identified as the preferred area for resettling families as it has the largest housing stock, available school places, and a wide range of services, It also has easy access to Bradford, where there is an existing Afghan community and specialist services.
    The Home Office taxpayer will pay a grant to cover all costs of setting up and running the scheme for the first year. Grants of around £10,500 per person. Costs will include setting up accommodation, ‘cultural integration’ including learning English, and the provision of ‘specialist and intensive support’..

    The cost of supporting the ‘newcomers’ with food, clothing, travel, schooling and medical services is not mentioned. You can see why the government needed to increase the tax of every working person in the country now.

      1. Because, Grizzly, the Yorkshire Dales already have large numbers of Muslims, so they will feel at home, and won’t have to integrate

        with the British.

        1. Then they could put up a high barbed wire fence to keep the imperialist, oppressive whites out.

          1. Do you mind, Uncle Bill. I have booked myself a holiday in the Yorkshire Dales in a few weeks’ time. Stop giving them ideas!

          1. They should all be sent to Sweden, home of the most hospitable and generous people on the planet.
            Just the paradise on earth that they are seeking. Particularly as the women are generally very good looking.

          2. Sweden’s stopped taking them in. As for your last sentence: you’ve evidently never been to Skåne. It’s twinned with some hillbilly land in the south-eastern USA. A visit here would put that ‘gorgeous blonde’ myth to bed for good an’ all.

          3. You’ve never been to Stockholm, Norrköping, George?

            I’ve lived and worked in both, together with some gorgeous and intelligent girls

          4. I’ve been to Stockholm a number of times, Tom, and I’ve seen many gorgeous women there. It seems that all the really ugly, filthy and stupid ones live in many small towns and villages here in the south of the country. Friends from elsewhere in Sweden can’t believe there are so many of them in one area. I’ll have to wander around and film them and post the results on here. It will come with a warning.

          5. Har du bott i sverige? Have you lived in Sweden? They are not at all hospitable to outsiders, I went there with 11 colleagues, all on 2-year contracts. 2 ran away home within the first 12 months, all but 2 went home as soon as their contracts were over. As for the women being good-looking, forget it. I fully endorse what Grizz says – it’s not all Volvos & Abba.

          6. It was a tongue in cheek comment on their alleged social care, I wouldn’t live there if it was all expenses paid.

          7. Very wise. Thy may have ‘social care’ but they have no idea how to treat old people.

          8. Given that the average age of the asylum seekers and economic migrants appears to less than 25, I don’t suppose the gimmegrants care.

          9. I left Sweden in Summer ’05, before the big insurge of gimmegrants, although there were plenty of Kurdish refugees.

      2. Because, Grizzly, the Yorkshire Dales already have large numbers of Muslims, so they will feel at home, and won’t have to integrate

        with the British.

          1. Don’t you, either, I live (just) within the M25 and there is nowhere suitable. Anywhere.

            Edit: I mean anywhere in this country.

          2. Oh, I dunno. Downing Street. The Ballses many houses – indeed all MPs with accommodation in yer London….

      1. Skipton is not exactly a small town. My father started his teaching career at the Grammar School there in the 1930s. Keep it the way it is.

        1. I have been through Skipton many times in my life. It is a small town compared with the nearby big city (not Bradford) where I was born and bred.

    1. No doubt they will be spread amongst all the constituencies who changed from Labour to the Conservatives at the last election. That, plus the tax rises and green malarkey should ensure that the Conservatives hand Labour a thumping majority next time round.

      That should bankrupt finish off the UK forever, other than as yet another shithole within the great caliphate.

    2. Apart from this, from

      For Whom the Bell Curve Tolls
      Steve Sailer
      September 08, 2021

      After a pandemic pause, momentum in behavioral genetics is once again building, threatening to undermine confidence in the conventional woke wisdom.

      Now, I’ve been warning against genetic triumphalism because the world keeps changing and nobody knows what will come next. But the prospect for the left of being intellectually humiliated by future findings appears much worse.

      The last major empirical contribution that boosted the left’s position in the IQ-race-genes argument was the late James Flynn’s discovery more than forty years ago of the Flynn Effect of rising raw IQ test scores.

      “Even when it comes merely to debating rather than discovering, the quality of the left’s paladins is in free fall.”
      In contrast, immense amounts of new data are pouring in. The cost of sequencing an entire human genome fell from $10 million in 2007 to around $1,000 by 2017, making possible studies of mind-bending scale. James J. Lee of the U. of Minnesota broke the million-person sample-size barrier in 2018 with an analysis of the genetics of educational attainment.

      We are also now seeing 10,000-subject longitudinal studies including both IQ scores and genomes, such as in the new paper by John Fuerst and Gregory Connor that correlates racial admixture with cognitive ability.

      In the 1970s, the science-denialist Establishment view was represented by actual scientists of achievement in their own specialties who were also cultured authors, such as Harvard biologists Stephen Jay Gould and the recently deceased Richard Lewontin. But now the left’s intellectual pacesetters are instead minds like Florida A&M African American Studies and Magazine Production double major Ibram X. Kendi, crank amateur historian Nikole Hannah-Jones, ed school prole prof Robin DiAngelo, and Fleet Street hack Angela Saini.

      A few on what remains of the pro-science center-left are becoming alarmed at the growing hatred of research among the woke. Thus, University of Texas psychologist Paige Harden is getting a big buildup for her upcoming book The Genetic Lottery: Why DNA Matters for Social Equality on how studying genetics can be good for equity.

      The New Yorker this week has given Dr. Harden a nice puff piece: Can Progressives Be Convinced That Genetics Matters? The behavior geneticist Kathryn Paige Harden is waging a two-front campaign: on her left are those who assume that genes are irrelevant, on her right those who insist that they’re everything.

      The book is an outgrowth of her 2017 Vox article with Eric Turkheimer and Robert Nisbett with the misleading headline “Charles Murray is once again peddling junk science about race and IQ” after a brouhaha erupted when Murray was allowed on a podcast.

      Actually, the Vox article, despite being rather incoherent due to conflicts between Harden’s Christian moderation and Turkheimer’s but-is-it-good-for-the-Jews extremism, makes clear that Murray is more right than the conventional wisdom about at least four of five crucial issues:

      (1) Differences in intelligence, as measured by IQ tests, are real.

      (2) Intelligence is partly heritable. The three authors admit:

      Like the validity of intelligence testing, the heritability of intelligence is no longer scientifically contentious.

      (3) Racial groups differ in average IQ. Vox explains:

      People who identify as black or Hispanic in the US and elsewhere on average obtain lower IQ scores than people who identify as white or Asian. That is simply a fact….

      (4) Standard racial categories like black and white are validated by genetic tests:

      Human evolutionary history is real; the more recent sorting of people into nations and social groups with some degree of ethnic similarity is real; individual and familial ancestry is real….

      (Modern genomics can do a good job of determining where in Central Europe or Western Africa your ancestors resided.)

      However, a willingness to speak casually about modern racial groupings as simplifications of the ancient and turbulent history of human ancestry should not deceive us into conjuring back into existence 19th-century notions of race—Caucasoid, Negroid, Mongoloid, and all that.

      Obviously, the last sentence is intended as misdirection. If you stop and think about it, the fact that modern population geneticists can not only determine that you are white or black but can even pin down precisely which part of Europe or sub-Saharan Africa your ancestors came from validates the existence of the larger continental-scale races posited by Enlightenment naturalists like Blumenbach. But nobody bothers to think: The point is to associate your enemy with words that 21st-century lowbrows find icky.

      Finally, the three professors accuse Murray of playing unfair with them on the fifth and final question—whether genetics might underlie part of the racial gap in IQ—by putting forward a moderate, reasonable hypothesis, leaving them to defend a view that they know is prima facie implausible: Murray makes a rhetorical move that is commonly deployed by people supporting his point of view: They stake out the claim that at least some of the difference between racial groups is genetic, and challenge us to defend the claim that none, absolutely zero, of it is.

      But, they argue, due to the moral superiority of their preferred assertion, no matter how improbable it is, the burden of proof must fall wholly on Murray and his deplorable rationality.

      But that was four years ago. Hopefully, Harden is now finally free of the baleful science-denialist influence of her dissertation adviser Turkheimer (who is perhaps the funniest living embodiment of the traditional Jewish worry that if the peasants ever figure out that Jews are smart, they’ll come for us with their pitchforks), and can come into her own. As Turkheimer admitted in a follow-up in Vox:

      In fact, I will close by noting that not even the three of us are completely in agreement about it: I (Turkheimer) am convinced that the question is irredeemably unscientific; Nisbett accepts it as a legitimate scientific question, and thinks evidence points fairly strongly in the direction of the black-white gap being entirely environmental in origin; while Harden questions the quality of the existing evidence, but thinks more determinative data may be found in future genetic knowledge.

      Harden is much younger than Nisbett or Turkheimer so she has good reason to be cautious about what the future may reveal.

      Indeed, Harden is a lovely young woman, so she makes a good spokesperson for her position that studying the influence of heredity scientifically can help craft better social programs to aid the poor.

      Indeed, it should. As the motto of Faber College in Animal House points out, “Knowledge is good.”

      In the New Yorker article, Turkheimer sputters: You have to believe in a certain amount of genetic causation or you don’t have a science, and you can’t believe in too much genetic causation or you believe that poor people are poor because they have poor genes—and that’s a very, very delicate walk.

      But Harden, who likes to cite Matthew 25:40 (“Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me”), believes exactly that: Poor people often are poor because they received poor genes in the “genetic lottery.” The New Yorker writes:

      Harden argues that an appreciation of the role of simple genetic luck—alongside all the other arbitrary lotteries of birth—will make us, as a society, more inclined to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to enjoy lives of dignity and comfort.

      The idea that we should look out for our fellow Americans and help out those who are born with fewer capabilities to get by sounds like something Jimmy Stewart would declare in a patriotic Frank Capra movie.

      But, of course, to be practical, this policy depends upon limiting the scope of our charity to Americans rather than extending our generosity to the 96% of humanity that isn’t American. But old-fashioned national solidarity conflicts with our new moral mandate to allow mass immigration of the wretched refuse of countries that can’t manage their own affairs, such as Afghanistan.

      The leftist philosopher John Rawls, whom Harden cites as an inspiration, justified his call for a Swedish-style welfare state by asserting his version of the lottery of birth: a supposed pre-birth “veil of ignorance” about your upcoming nature and nurture behind which you’d choose to minimize your risk. He dealt with the obvious danger to his system posed by foreign freeloaders by emphasizing the need for immigration restriction. Rawls wrote:

      People must recognize that they cannot make up for failing to regulate their numbers or to care for their land by conquest in war, or by migrating into another people’s territory without their consent.

      We’ll see if Harden dared to follow her idol Rawls’ logic on immigration policy…

      Do you really get your genes wholly through a random raffle, as Harden’s Genetic Lottery title implies? Or perhaps your ancestors and their decisions had something to do with it?

      As an example of how extremely nonrandom assortative mating can be, here’s Harden’s 2010 wedding announcement in The New York Times:

      The bride and bridegroom, who are assistant professors of psychology at the University of Texas in Austin, met at Virginia, from which each received a Ph.D. in clinical psychology.

      And what about poor genes? If a society generously chooses to subsidize the victims of poor genes, can it take any steps to lessen the chances of them passing on those poor genes and thus expensively victimizing future generations?

      Or is that eugenics, which is, of course, the worst thing ever?

      Consider a suddenly relevant example of poor genes: birth defects stemming from inbreeding.

      The American aversion against cousin marriage is due to early-20th-century American eugenicists, such as biologist Helen Dean King, proving that marrying your first cousin could harm your offspring.

      Afghans have very high rates of birth defects because they are so inbred: 28 percent of married Afghans are wed to their first cousins and another 7 percent of couples are double first cousins, who are as closely related as half siblings.

      Not surprisingly, 39% of Afghan infants suffer unfortunate disorders. The average IQ of Afghans is probably depressed several points by their penchant for consanguineous marriages.

      Questions for Dr. Harden in her chosen role as a proponent of genetic awareness:

      Should the U.S. public be informed of the high rate of costly genetic problems in Afghans before letting in more of them?

      Or should this kind of genetic knowledge be off-limits to American voters?

      Should Americans attempt to persuade the huge number of Afghans who are now being admitted that their culture’s custom of inbreeding is wrong?

      Or would enforcing our various state laws against cousin marriage be eugenics and discriminatory against Afghans and their right to move here and avail themselves of our tax dollars?

      And do you really think liberals can hold an intelligent discussion of genetic questions like these in the emotional state that they’ve gotten themselves into?

      I’m beginning to fear that our multiple current anti-intelligence moral panics might mean that Dr. Harden’s well-intentioned intervention is too late.

      1. ‘Evening, Lass, “People who identify as black or Hispanic, in the US and elsewhere, on average obtain lower IQ scores than people who identify as white or Asian. That is simply a fact….

        My punctuation.

        A fact discovered and published in the 60s, that produced such a howl of opprobrium that the findings were hidden.

        Glad to see that the truth will out.

    3. Have you got a source for this Ped? I can’t think of anywhere in the Yorkshire Dales that would want to have such an addition to their town.

    1. Been used for Test & Trace!? These useless government IT systems don’t pay for themselves you know!!

      1. £350,000,000, that’s around 1% of what he spaffed out on Track and Trace. Then there’s the PPE deals, the killings made on the “vaccines”, PCR testing and on the LFT kits. It’s been a gravy train of epic proportions: Bisto and OXO combined are green with envy.😎

  48. An interesting article/interview with an Afghan refugee.
    He would appear to be well qualified and motivated, I wonder if he is typical.
    The first thing his handlers should be doing is explaining how dire the housing situation in the UK already is.

    https://www.standard.co.uk/insider/diary-afghan-refugee-uk-government-support-b954064.html?itm_source=Internal&itm_channel=homepage_trending_article_component&itm_campaign=trending_section&itm_content=3

    Reading between the lines I suspect that he expects the UK to take many, many more.

    1. Ungrateful bastard, he is. No mention of safety from being hung from a helicopter, bullets, and bombs.
      Throw them in the sea, a long way from shore.

      1. Oddly enough I didn’t get the feeling that he was ungrateful, more that he wanted to be able to work.

        What does get my dander up is that he (and doubtless others like him) seems to think that the UK is awash with housing and should have systems in place to open bank accounts etc for everyone who arrives almost on the day they arrive.

        He could do worse than to tell his wife that modifying her dress might make her less conspicuous and willing to integrate.

        1. I’m surprised someone of his intelligence and status didn’t take steps to open a bank account in Europe or the US and move his assets while he had the chance as it was obvious the US was withdrawing.

          And yes, his wife should adopt western dress.

          1. I would be prepared to make a small wager that he has done exactly that, but the last thing he will want is to be means tested.

  49. Time for me to shuffle off. Gosh, it’s been hot. However, we didn’t go to Overstrand because there was a very stiff wind which would have made it unwelcoming.

    Tomorrow = market. And then to deadhead the roses in the forlorn hope that we’ll get another flowering. Still finding spots of yellow paint….!

    Have a jolly evening with your new Afghan neighbours. At least they’ll have lots of advice about which are the best drugs.

    A demain.

        1. Well we could do with some rain – it’s been very dry. It was still warm when I went out to the post office.

  50. That was a storm and a half.
    In an hour enough rain has fallen to fill a large wheelbarrow to overflowing.
    Looking at the level of the pool I would guess we had well over two inches of rain.

      1. Over and done with; back to clear sky and sun.
        Oh, and a beautiful rainbow.
        Enjoy your grey days and your wind, even if the MR doesn’t.

    1. For Gavin Williamson, Glaikit – a wonderful Scottish word meaning stupid, foolish, or thoughtless.

    2. My sympathies are with Gavin Williamson.
      I can’t recognise people, ever, at all. I wouldn’t be able to tell a football player from a rugby player.
      When in public, I am in a constant state of low level panic in case someone says hello and I don’t know who they are. The workplace is a nightmare – how do these people expect me to know who they are? I swear, I’ve never seen them before in my life. Or worse, I’ve seen them, but they remind me of someone I knew twenty years ago.
      Calling Williamson racist and mocking at him for something he can’t help is just cruel.

    3. For once, I sympathise with GW. Quite frankly, I can’t tell one virtue signalling ethnic sportsman from another.

          1. Well, I’m fairly sure we probably aren’t encouraged to use it as a term of endearment, nowadays!

    4. For once, I sympathise with GW. Quite frankly, I can’t tell one virtue signalling ethnic sportsman from another.

  51. 24C, pleasant sunshine and a whisper of a breeze – 3Kts – in Argyll today …

    Thunderstorms forecast tomorrow.

  52. Wow! Raducanu is through to the semi-finals of the US Open! She hasn’t dropped a set yet!

    1. As I said last week, he didn’t have bovine TB ad never had bovine TB. He should never have been put down, but useless Defra never admit that they’re in the wrong! Remember the burning pyres of needlessly slaughtered cattle and sheep, during the disastrous foot and mouth farce? And that was the idiot Ferguson as well!

      1. If there really was a God Ferguson would get BSE, nv Creutzfeldt-Jakob, foot and mouth disease and scabies.

  53. https://archbishopcranmer.com/jeremy-sleath-train-conductor-sacked-alcohol-free-caliphate-facebook/

    Civil Liberties

    Train conductor sacked for referring to ‘alcohol-free caliphate’ on Facebook

    Jeremy
    Sleath had worked for West Midlands Trains for 17 years. He was a
    Senior Conductor who had served his employer faithfully and admirably.
    He was sacked in September 2020, at the end of the national Covid-19
    lockdown, for writing on his personal Facebook account: “Thank F*** our
    pubs open up today. We cannot let our way of life become like some sort
    of Muslim alcohol-free caliphate just to beat Covid19.”

    1. Like many lefties and virtue-signallers, they cannot bear having the truth stuck up ’em.

      Sue, Mr Sleath, sue the effin’ ar5e off ’em.

  54. I’m probably late to the party, but I will arrange for an electrician to be shot and various elderly gentlemen to have their sunset years blighted by gossip and innuendo.
    Kerchinnnnggggg: that’ll be £230,000 per annum, ta very muchly.

    Once you’ve ticked the right boxes, what does it take to get the sack in this blasted country?

    “Dame Cressida Dick is expected to be offered another two years as chief of the Metropolitan Police despite being blamed for a series of blunders, reports say.

    Home Secretary Priti Patel is said to be arranging the extension while London Mayor Sadiq Khan is reportedly supportive of the move.

    But it has not been finalised and there are fears (hopes, shirley ????) Dame Cressida could turn down the £230,000-a-year role.”

    1. As a result of her orders in 2016, Jean Charles de Menezes – an innocent Brazilian electrician – was killed aboard the ‘Tube’ – the London Underground.

      She should have resigned.

      1. He was killed in 2005, not 2016. This woman has been over-promoted in spite of her blunders and her responsibility for ordering his death.

  55. Hubris punished.
    Having said it had returned to clear sky and sun the weather front has returned with a vengeance.
    Livid purple sky, thunder, lightning, rain. power cuts almost certainly on the way.

  56. Well done the Poles.
    They acknowledged the English (British) national anthem and applauded. And then they booed and whistled against the George Floyd memorial knee bend.
    That’s the best way to approach this idiocy, respect your opponents but call out their politics.

  57. I’m going orf early – too much misery and blight. Good night and God bless, one and all. Bis morgen fruh.

    1. A pensioner drove his brand new BMW to 100 mph, looking in his rear view mirror, he saw a police car behind him.

      He floored it to 140 , then 150, … then 155, … Suddenly he thought,
      “I’m too old for this nonsense !”

      So he pulled over to the side of the road and waited for the police car to catch up with him.

      The officer walked up to him, looked at his watch and said,
      “Sir, my shift ends in ten minutes. Today is Friday and I’m taking off for the weekend with my family. If you can give me a good reason that I’ve never heard before, why you were speeding… I’ll let you go.”

      The Man looked very seriously at the police man, and replied :-
      “Years ago, my wife ran off with a policeman, I thought you were bringing her back.” !!!

      The Cop left saying,
      ” Have a good day, Sir “…

      Cheer up Tom

      1. They’ve had it too good for too long. When was the last time they had to fight for something?

    1. I read that you have to register with the government in NSW if you want to have a visitor.

      When they’ve abolished cash, they can police your alcohol consumption directly at the supermarket checkout.
      “Purchase refused. Alcohol limit exceeded”
      “Purchase refused. Loo paper stockpiling not allowed” etc.

      1. I knew a married couple of teachers in Germany. They were passionately anti-credit cards, which were just coming in there. That is exactly what they warned against – monitoring & control of purchases.

        1. They were right!
          Credit cards are the devil’s work in my opinion. They bring no benefits for the ordinary user, apart from the ability to get into debt, and various artificial “benefits” that the card provider bestows in order to get the mug hooked.

          1. Funny, I do about 95% of my shopping with my Visa card, but I always stay within bounds & pay off the full balance each month.

          2. I meant the comparison between a debit card and a credit card, actually.
            But as to the other argument (cash vs non cash payments) – cash is your guarantee that the government doesn’t own you.
            In a world without cash, your every transaction can be monitored, restricted and controlled. The only reason that isn’t already happening, is because other people are protecting your rights by using cash.
            When we’re all on digital ids and digital payments, the nanny state will be able to restrict you from buying more than your permitted meat or alcohol ration. Purely to save the planet and for your own good, of course.

          3. Hmm. Most come with various benefits, including (mine as an example):

            Free cover for shoddy etc goods
            0.5% cashback on all purchases
            An interest-free payment period, allowing current/savings a/cs to accrue credit interest (I know – not much at the moment.)

            Settled monthly by d/d.

            Suits me.

          4. Those are the benefits that I mentioned, that are artificially added by the card issuers to get people to use credit cards.

  58. A strenuous day.
    Dropped a couple of medium elms that had died off, cleared and logged the trunks and then dropped a 50′ ash. To ensure it did not fall onto the road, I strapped it up using straps. One to pull it towards where I wanted it to drop and a 2nd to make sure it didn’t fall into the road.
    It came down well clear of the road which was a relief!

    1. Hello Bob, I was listening to a prog on the radio a couple of hours ago about Lord Gladstone When he was PM .. he loved chopping down trees , big trees little trees , all for relaxation ..

      I have found an interesting newspaper link as well https://www.chesterstandard.co.uk/news/16602687.axe-helped-carve-gladstones-place-history/

      When he used to visit grand country homes , the host used to select a tree on the estate for him to attack and demolish

      By any stretch of the imagination, Gladstone was an extraordinary character who burnt off his physical energy in long walks, hill-climbing and tree-felling (“The forest laments, in order that Mr Gladstone may perspire,” Lord Randolph Churchill famously joked in Parliament said). His intellectual energy meanwhile saw him own and read more than 20,000 books which today make up the collection at Gladstone’s Library in Hawarden, Flintshire.

      “My great-great grandfather was a man of massive physical as well as mental ability,” says Charlie Gladstone, the current resident at Hawarden, who also contributes to the programme. “He lived much of his life in cities, but he was a countryman at heart and his absolute love was chopping down trees.

      “William became famous for his pastime and he was given axes on hundreds of official visits,” says Charlie Gladstone . “We still have them at home. He was a huge celebrity and people in their hundreds and often thousands would come to the woods in Hawarden to collect chippings as souvenirs of the trees that he chopped down.

      Are you related to him , Bob? 😉😂🤣🤣

      1. Does anyone remember the the dreadful ‘Woodchopper’s song’ by the Radio 1/2 DJ Tony Blackburn?

      2. No, I’m afraid not.
        The trees I’m felling are either elm which has already died off, or ash which are dying off.
        I’ve quite a bit of both to get sorted so I’m not going to be short of logs for the fire anytime soon!

  59. There can be no justification whatsoever for an October lockdown

    It simply isn’t plausible that we could go from being at herd immunity for summer to having a new wave ten times as great this autumn

    ANDREW LILICO • 7 September 2021 • 12:34pm

    Various media outlets are this morning reporting that the government is considering a “firebreak” lockdown in England this coming October to combat a rising wave of covid hospitalisations. I want to explain here why that is a preposterous idea, entirely unsupportable by any analysis.

    First let’s be clear on the current situation. There are about 800 hospitalisations per day in England. That compares with around 1,600 hospitals and an average of roughly 100 beds per hospital. So at present there is less than one hospitalisation per day per hospital occurring for covid. That did not swamp the NHS this summer. Neither did it come anywhere close to doing so.

    And that should be no surprise. Hospitals run with about 20 per cent spare capacity, normally. Although extra demand per day can add up (so it’s not quite as simple as saying that there’s less than one per cent extra demand versus 20 per cent spare capacity), the NHS has shown that it could cope with much higher levels than this. In January 2021, peak hospitalisations av eraged about 3,800 admissions per day – nearly five times as high as at present – and the NHS was not swamped. Furthermore, we know from the experience of other developed countries’ health systems that much higher covid loads than this can be handled. This summer in Florida, for example, the health system coped with around 40 per cent higher hospital admissions, per head of population, than England had at its January peak.

    The lockdown last winter was not to avoid 3,800 admissions per day. That was what we had with the lockdown. That lockdown was to buy time for the vaccination programme and to avoid a far higher load of admissions than we experienced. Furthermore, the winter lockdown was not just about hospitalisations. It was also to limit the number of deaths. Even as it was, from November to March, over 70,000 people died of covid in England. By contrast, deaths have ceased to be a major issue since March. Vaccination has provided such excellent protection that between March 8th, when the schools returned, and September 5th, just 6,765 people have died from covid in England. To justify a lockdown this autumn on the basis of hospitalisations alone, with far fewer deaths occurring, we would need a vastly greater level of hospitaliations than was feared had we not had last winter’s lockdown.

    So, we would need much more than five times as many hospitalisations, at peak, as we have seen this summer, for there to be any risk of the NHS being swamped or anything close to a justification for another lockdown. But that does not mean we would need five times as many cases – we would need far more than that! This autumn, a much higher proportion (perhaps even most) of the new infections will be school-age children. Children are much less likely to be hospitalised by covid than older adults even if the adults are fully vaccinated and the children are not. So having merely five times are many cases will not come anywhere close meaning five times as many hospitalisations.

    To get the level of hospitalisations required to come anywhere near justifying another lockdown – ie much more than five times as many, at peak, as we had this summer – we would need in the order of order ten times as many cases as we had over the summer. And we would need to have that happen even though, over the summer, with no restrictions in place at all, cases in the UK went down in July, rose very slightly in the first half of August, then started falling again in the second half of August, meaning that we are at or about the herd immunity threshold (the level of collective immunity at which the virus cannot accelerate its spread for a sustained period) for summer.

    It simply isn’t plausible that we could go from being at herd immunity for summer to having a new wave ten times as great this autumn. The mathematics of epidemics do not allow that for a disease as infectious as the delta variant. Perhaps there are other risks that might lead to new restrictions in future months, such as a new flu pandemic. But there is no longer any possibility that the coronavirus could create such a wave of infections, threatening to swamp the NHS, that it could justify a new lockdown this autumn.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/09/07/can-no-justification-whatsoever-october-lockdown/

    1. Sacking Patel is pointless. The entire home office is not fit for purpose. Take them back to bloody France, not here. Pack the dross into a shipping container and dump it in Calais. If they try again, fecking shoot them.

      1. BBC offers staff a game to test how privileged they are – as Tory MP says: ‘Most will view this as nonsense – or worse’
        ‘The Ally Track’ is an online tool and game which asks the player 20 questions
        Answers to the questions are used to determine how privileged they are
        Whoever reaches the finish line first is the person who enjoys most ‘advantages’
        Tool is being promoted by the BBC’s director of creative diversity June Sarpong
        By CHRIS JEWERS FOR MAILONLINE

        https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9967965/BBC-offers-staff-game-test-privileged-are.html?ito=social-twitter_dailymailUK

      2. Pointless or not, she is Pritti bloody awful and Pritti useless so she has to go. She can take Cressida Dick with her.

          1. Just busy John. Trying to stay afloat and keep the wife in any other state than miserable is taking up all my time.

  60. Whatever happened to cabinet Government?

    The Cabinet signed off Boris Johnson’s controversial tax rise in just over an hour. You’d be forgiven for asking: what’s the point of them?

    ELIOT WILSON • 17 September 2021 • 12:43pm

    In my last column for this newspaper, I speculated on the ways the prime minister could use a much-rumoured cabinet reshuffle to revitalise the government, inject fresh thinking and shake up hidebound processes and procedures. I suggested names like Penny Mordaunt, Sebastian Coe and Helena Morrissey, and pointed towards a whole new way of doing business in Whitehall.

    One common response to my ideas was to ask “Does it even matter?” I take that on the chin. While there is a part of me which is a high-minded constitutionalist, drunk on Bagehot and Dicey, there is another, probably larger, part which has seen things you people wouldn’t believe, and is appropriately cynical about British politics in the trenches.

    This week has reinforced the latter rather than the former instinct. After many false starts, the government is finally steeling itself to tackle the Gordian knot of social care, and, while the prime minister’s forename may be Alexander, there is no indication he has anything as simple as a swordstroke to offer. The details of the policy are for others to analyse, but what is important here is the way the government is going about it.

    This morning, the cabinet met in person in its usual place for the first time this year (previously there had been some socially distanced gatherings in the cavernous Locarno Room in the Foreign Office). The most important item on the agenda was social care; but the cabinet, the prime minister’s first XV, the collection of departmental heads which commands the Commons and directs the Queen’s government, was not invited to conduct a discussion or analysis of the problem and potential solutions.

    Rather, the prime minister briefed his top team on the plans which had already been drawn up and which are being presented to the House of Commons today. The phrase “rubber-stamp” has been bandied about, and, while it is dismissively damning, it is hard to see that it is grossly unfair. Social care is not solved in a morning, so anyone who had not been involved in the preliminary policy discussions had little chance to make his or her mark on the government’s plans.

    This is not utterly unprecedented. The annual budget, for example, is presented to the cabinet by the chancellor of the exchequer and then unveiled immediately afterwards to the House of Commons in the budget speech (though invariably it has been widely trailed in the press beforehand). Again, the budget is not debated by cabinet: senior ministers merely hear the plans in advance before trooping dutifully down Whitehall to take their places in parliament.

    We should also set our faces against the notion of a golden age of cabinet government, when collective responsibility was sacrosanct and collegial discussions were all the rage. If such an age ever existed, it is in the living memory of few. Certainly the Thatcher government did not do much navel-gazing–while the Lady professed to enjoy a good fight, she was also vocally impatient with people who disagreed with her–and Tony Blair’s ‘sofa government’ was held as another move away from an oligarchy to an autocracy. But we do need to pause and acknowledge how far we have come, and contemplate what it might mean.

    Boris Johnson, for good or ill, is the only show in town at the moment. Sunak’s Circus is attracting a few admiring glances, and the occasional curious punter will even look at some of the more unlikely sideshows run by people like Raab and Patel, but the prime minister is still the chief carnival barker, and he knows it.

    He is supported by a lacklustre cabinet. If there are a few big beasts, one, Raab, is wounded by his Afghan experience, and another, Patel, is widely thought to be uncontrollable. The rest of the pack is largely interchangeable, and makes little difference to policy: can you think of a notable action taken by Dr Thérèse Coffey, Robert Jenrick or Simon Hart? Can you think what they look like? The cabinet has been selected mainly on their views on Brexit in 2016, and on perceived loyalty. It is a striking piece of Boris Johnson’s levelling down.

    It needn’t be like this. David Cameron, for his faults, had big players around him and showed little interest in interfering in their bailiwicks. So too John Major, whose parliamentary control was catastrophic but whose management of the country may end up being looked on kindly by history.

    Social care is a massive, intergenerational, cross-departmental, big-money problem. Even Westminster and Whitehall’s finest minds would struggle to solve it equitably and elegantly, in a way which was palatable to both parliament and the public. But that has not happened. The prime minister and his admittedly able health and social care secretary, Sajid Javid, are taking the lead and will weather the incoming fire. A note to future prime ministers: if you surround yourself with weaklings, it’s no good looking for a strong friend when you hit trouble.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/09/07/whatever-happened-cabinet-government/

    1. Dealing with Foot and Mouth. I was in an office and I heard a commotion in the general office. The TV was on and we all watched the disaster unfolding with horror and disbelief.

      1. The gentleman properly attired dropping from one of the higher offices in a vertical straight pose with umbrella and his case in his hands haunts me to this day.

        1. We were confronted with so many horrors in such a short period .

          F+M was a nightmare

          The world seemed to be a perilous place , then of course there were earthquakes and Tsunamis , and so much more

          1. T-B – This country is heading for blood shed if not civil war. Enoch Powell’ s warning years ago is coming to fruition yet our politicians are trying to force us to put up with their gross negligence of what is happening before their eyes.

          2. My father will be turning in his grave , especially so by knowing how many hard working great areas of all parts of Yorkshire have been so badly put upon , and the identity changed .

            His twin sister lived in Borrowby , untill she died 8 years ago !

    2. I was at work in Dursley and one of my customers told me what had happened. I saw the pics on the telly later on at home.

    3. I was in a meeting in Brussels and we were ushered immediately into a safe area. Well, as safe as it could be, given our proximity to NATO HQ.

    4. I’d just finished work and gone up to see my mum, who had just had another health scare. She was in bed and we sat watching the horror in silence. I can’t believe it’s 20 years ago – it could have been yesterday.

    5. I was standing amid piles of rubble as I renovated the lounge of my cottage. I had pulled down a plasterboard ceiling to expose the timber beams, and I had used a Hilti-gun to remove gruesome cladding in order to expose an old inglenook fireplace (reversing some idiotic ‘modernisation’ done by previous owners). Whilst I was standing in this scene of desolation the telephone rang and I was ordered to switch on the telly. It was quite surreal to see that carnage on the telly whilst I was standing in my own ‘carnage’ of brickwork, timber cladding and plasterboard debris.

    6. I was working in Ostfriesland. The receptionist came back from lunch & said a plane had flown into the first tower. We didn’t really take in the seriousness until the reports started coming through of the 2nd plane.

        1. No, Elsie. I had brought in a bottle of Sekt to drink with the girls after work, but none of us felt like it when the time came. They gave me a printed Tshirt as a present.

    7. I was on holiday in Turkey,sat in a jewellers negotiating on a set of earings for my stepdaughter when he told me of the first plane,retired to nearby bar to watch the rest of the horror unfold………….
      The security on the flight home was “interesting”

    8. I was in an office just outside Chemsford marking exams for trainee holiday firm clerks. I would guess that Peter Anderson was celebrating his birthday.

    9. I was in the office in Warner Street Clerkenwell. A Muslim member of my staff was watching the unfolding events on a G3 standard office Macintosh. He was very animated and seemed to miss the fact that several thousand human beings were being murdered. The chap in question was constantly toggling his screen between the drawing he was supposed to be working on and various websites.

      I watched the same on my computer and was shocked to see the second plane and the inevitable carnage.

      There was a concomitant rumour that further planes were about to attack Canary Wharf.

    10. My neighbour intercepted me on the steps and invited me to watch the unfolding horror on TV: Tuesday 11 September at 13.46 …

      The second tower fell some twenty minutes later.

      The worst real-time disaster in my lifetime, Maggie …

    11. I was in bed when the first plane hit. My wife woke me up to come and watch TV. We had no milk so I went out pretty quickly to the shop to buy milk for coffees and the second plane hit while I was walking back from the shop. I came home to endless replays of the action.

    12. In the office. After the crashes, we were desperately trying to contact work mates who were in New York that day.

      One of our group was in Atlanta, not directly effected by the events in Washington or New York but it took a long time to arrange for him to get home.

      A bit later, we carried on with a planned getaway weekend, it was eerie how the skies were clear with none of the normal contrails passing overhead..

      Comment reposted in the right place.

    13. Just returned home after an off-site meeting and collecting Firstborn from school.
      Watched the TV in horror, saw the 2nd plane crash, people jumping, and the towers collapse.

    1. The only thing she will ‘construct’ is another parking lot for the growing number of dingys.

    1. Good night, Peter. I too am having an early night, and spending lots of time painting garden fences and washing bed linen. More fence painting tomorrow.

      1. “Desperado, why don’t you come to your senses?
        You been out paintin’ fences for so long now…”

    2. I have just finished reading it and thoroughly enjoyed it . I intend to read it again and make a note of the characters and their marriages etc as I had to keep going back as my memory is not good now. There are a few unexpected twists for you, Peter, as the end approaches.
      I am now rereading a Dalziel and Pascoe book.

  61. As predicted Bagram Airport, partly built by the Russians and surrendered by the Americans, who had fortified it, is to be given over by the Taliban to the Chinese.

    Unless the Americans do something about either court marshalling or else impeaching the illegitimate senile old fool in the White House we are all in for big trouble.

    I wonder what Geoffrey Woollard, late of this forum and who expressed the wish to see the removal of President Trump in order to ‘return to normalcy’, makes of this. I suggest an abject apology to this forum would be in order.

    1. The US Bagram Airbase should have been the safe point of departure for all legitimate Afghan refugees – until surrendered by Dozy Joe.

      POTUS is a disgrace.

    2. Bagram ? Is that not the base where the US stored their tactical nuclear weapons? Did they leave those behind as well?

    3. I miss dear old Geoffrey – he is totally misguided in every opinion he ever expresses and, without doubt, he is severely cerebrally handicapped but if you were polite to him he was equally polite back.

      We have the birthday of another former Nottler coming up in a few days. I wonder if he will look in?

      1. I do think he’s starting to relax and come round, richard. He wags his tail when I speak to him now and is starting to lie on his back for tummy rubs more frequently. It’s just over the three month threshold when rescue dogs are supposed to start to feel secure. He does have occasional relapses, but I forgive him those (although I do tell him they, while understandable, are not acceptable).

  62. Sod it.
    Went to bed early, fell asleep quite quickly, then woke up after an hour & a half. Have been tossing & turning for the past hour so decided to sit down here for a while.

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