Wednesday 13 April: Foiled at every turn while seeking NHS treatment for a broken arm

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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731 thoughts on “Wednesday 13 April: Foiled at every turn while seeking NHS treatment for a broken arm”

      1. Which reminds me that Red Indians said “How!” whilst holding up their empty right hands to show that they were not carrying weapons, just as a handshake shows the right hand carries no weapons. And that is why Boy Scouts shake hands with their left hand, because “A Scout is a friend to all, and a brother to all other Scouts” hence there is no need for them to show their (empty) right hands; they can be trusted. It used to be that Englishmen could also be trusted, hence “An Englishman’s word is his bond”. Sadly, that final quote is no longer reliable. Perhaps we should now say “A NoTTLer’s word is his bond”.

    2. That reminds me of the old joke: “I wanted to join the Klu Klux Klan but unfortunately I didn’t have a pointed head!” Lol.

    3. The colour purple, which I associate more with bishops than that horrible woman Woopsi Goldberg, reminds me of one of the best limericks which I am putting behind a spoiler so as not to offend more sensitive Nottlers:

      Three cheers for the Bishop of Birmingham
      Who raped all the girls while confirming ’em
      Midst roars of applause
      He pulled down their drawers
      And pumped his episcopal sperm in ’em.

  8. SIR – Like Dr Martin Gain’s wife (Letters, April 7), my wife fell on to a tiled kitchen floor last month and broke her right arm. She was in a great deal of pain and I was not able to lift her unassisted.

    I dialled 999 and requested an ambulance. After answering a lot of questions, I was told that, since the injury was not “life-threatening”, the wait would be about eight hours.

    I was then advised to call the 111 service. I did this and, after listening to five minutes of recorded advice about Covid, I finally got through to a person. After giving a few details, I was cut off.

    Rather than start again, I decided to try the doctor’s surgery, about half a mile away. I spoke to the receptionist, who went to look for someone to help. She came back and told me that the doctor was on the phone and there was no one else on hand. She suggested I ask a neighbour to help me lift my wife off the floor.

    I went home and, fortunately, found one of my neighbours, who was indeed able to help. I managed to get my wife into the car and drive her to A&E at Chester hospital, where she sat in great pain for eight hours before her arm was put in plaster. By this time it was 5am and we were both exhausted.

    NHS: envy of the world? I think not.

    J D Quick
    Northwich, Cheshire

    Despite his name, this was a shambles. I wonder whether he was aware that the Fire and Rescue Service could have assisted, as on occasions they do cover if no ambulance is available. At least they could have got her up and helped her into a car.

    2. Llike most UK institutions the Ambulance Service and the NHS are on their last legs!

      1. HMS? Are we talking about the Queen Elizabeth II aircraft carrier (sans aircraft?)

  9. If Johnson is still leader of the Tory party at the next election, they have no chance of winning.

    1. Morning Johnny. I hate to contradict you but it is entirely possible that they will win the next General Election.

      1. Unless and until it returns to being a proper Conservative Party it is lost.

        What is needed is a new party which can win 50 seats from the Conservatives and then form a coalition with it to move the whole party back to where it should be.

        This could happen if 50 or more Conservative backbenchers resigned from their parliamentary seats and then stood in the resulting by elections as Reform Party candidates pledging to scrap the NI Protocol, getting Brexit properly done and controlling illegal immigration.

        Of course there are objections to such a plan – most significantly that there is no guarantee that the Conservative backbenchers would have the testicular strength to do so – but can anyone come up with a better solution to save Britain from a Starmer Labour government and a return to the EU?

          1. Yes, but in my opinion if an MP wins his parliamentary seat as a representative of one party and then changes his party allegiance he should stand for election again under his/her new colours.

            Look at the disgusting women Soubry and Woolaston who changed party but kept their seats.

  10. Destroying your own country – a special kind of evil. 13 April 2022.

    As I read these stories – and they are terrible and should elicit our sympathy – I remember that they are brought to us by the very same media who whipped up the Covid hysteria that has directly caused much of this economic pain. This was the media that demanded repeated lockdowns. This was the media that made it illegal to sit on a park bench.

    It was the media – the Daily Mail, the Guardian, from left to right, from print to broadcast – who told us that we must torch our economy to stop this ‘deadly disease’; so deadly that it has an infection mortality rate of less than 1 per cent. It was this wholesale destruction of our economy, this shutdown, that caused the government to pump billions of pounds of funny money into the economy which has directly contributed to runaway inflation, destroying any savings you have and pushing up the cost of essentials.

    They are doing the same thing with Russia and Ukraine. This will probably finish us off entirely!

    https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/destroying-your-own-country-a-special-kind-of-evil%ef%bf%bc/

  11. SIR – After what my family suffered on the death of the dearest person in our lives, we trust that Rishi Sunak, unlike Boris Johnson, is a gentleman and will indeed resign.

    Patrick Tracey
    Carlisle

    SIR – Pay the fine and move on. We face far more serious issues and want no deflection. If Mr Johnson went to the country, he’d walk back into No 100.

    Gerry Doyle
    Liverpool

    SIR – At least we live in an open democracy where politicians are held to account for their misdemeanours.

    Fiona Wild
    Cheltenham, Gloucestershire

    SIR – I have no idea whether it is right for the Prime Minister and Chancellor to resign. But I do know that we must resolve that never again will a British government have the chutzpah to prescribe what law-abiding citizens may or may not do or whom they may or may not meet in the confines of their homes.

    Brian Gedalla
    London N3

    Alone the breaches were not, in my view, a resigning matter. What is a resigning matter is that both lied to the House of Commons and in normal times should have gone. Unfortunately these aren’t normal times, but if they survive then it will set a serious precedent. It’s down to the electorate now, and if the Tories take a drubbing on 5th May then so be it.

    1. A BTL poster is less than impressed:

      Michael Simpson
      7 HRS AGO
      Brian Gedalla is absolutely right when he says, ‘we must resolve that never again will a British government have the chutzpah to prescribe what law-abiding citizens may or may not do or whom they may or may not meet in the confines of their homes.’
      The so-called ‘Partygate’ scandal is not a scandal at all. What is utterly shameful is that our government sought to force people to adhere to ridiculous and unnecessary Covid rules in the first place and used fear to push people to comply.
      The one benefit of the goings on in Downing Street is that we can all now see that the political leaders of our country knew the rules were a farce and that they were not at risk. More shame on them for foisting such nonsensical laws upon us.

      Well said, Sir

      1. Yes, Hugh, but my take on it is that Boris wanted to drop the fear tactics after the first few (uncertain) moves, but was constrained by his Cabinet, SAGE, Carrie, the Teaching/NHS/Civil Service unions and the MSM. This, of course, shows his cowardice in standing up to them all. But, as I said to Korky, what are the alternatives?

    2. Morning, HJ.

      I do not agree that breaching the ‘regulations’ isn’t a resigning matter. Taken in isolation each breach can be spun to appear as a small aberration, a misunderstanding or forgetfulness but the bigger picture has to be considered. All through the plandemic we were exposed to Johnson et al. wearing their serious faces, tuning their serious voices and appearing at the warning bedecked lectern lecturing the people on the seriousness of the situation, death is stalking the Country, don’t put granny at risk etc. It was all lies and they lied to instil fear into the people and then, because they knew it was bovine excrement, they felt comfortable in ignoring their directives. The big picture, framed by the breaches, demands resignations.

      1. Korky, you speak a lot of sense, but what are the alternatives? Keir Starmer?

        1. That, Elsie, I admit, is an intractable problem. Who is there who we can put our trust in? The devil the people think that they know, Johnson, is not trustworthy for a host of reasons; Starmer is of a similar stripe to Johnson and would be as big a risk to our freedoms. Perhaps dragging John Redwood kicking and screaming from the back benches to save his party and then hand over to someone more trustworthy – who could that be in these corrupt times? – is some sort of answer, I suppose. I believe most of the current useless Cabinet have excluded themselves from being considered, although Raab’s name cropped up yesterday at a garden party I had the pleasure of attending. 😎

    3. Although, having people as top politicians who cannot see that they too should abide by the rules they themselves set, is intolerable.
      If Her Majesty can do it on the death of her husband of many decades, then those scrotes can bloody well do it too.

      1. That photograph will be resurrected time out of number. It will haunt the pygmies for the rest of their political lives.

  12. SIR – When the vile and unjust invasion of Ukraine ends, and Russia is forced to stop its aggression, it is surely incumbent on Western democracies to instigate a second Marshall Plan and rebuild Ukraine, so that it is a better and stronger country than it was before Mr Putin wrecked it.

    Philip Roberts
    Nant Peris, Caernarfonshire

    And what is to stop him, or his successor, from another invasion?

  14. SIR – As of June 6 this year, no item containing ivory will be legal to sell unless the ivory comprises less than 10 per cent by volume. Any such item will still require a non-transferable £25 licence from the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs.

    A very few objects with an ivory content over 10 per cent may be deemed culturally important and granted a (non-transferable) special licence at £150.

    Ivory was basically used as plastic before that material was invented and is included in countless antiques. It will come as a nasty shock to owners to be told that their 18th-century fans, chess sets, microscopes, and so on are now worthless. Those caught transgressing this law will be subject to draconian fines and prison sentences.

    This vandalism of centuries of culture won’t save a single elephant.

    Charles Miller
    London SW6

    1. Those ivory pieces won’t become worthless. The prices will skyrocket in a government introduced black market.

      1. Gangs of blacks stabbing each other to gain control of the market. Some things never change.

  15. SIR – I am disgusted at the proposal from Kwasi Kwarteng, the Business Secretary, to force consumers to pay different electricity rates at half-hourly intervals (Business, April 9).

    Why should people in small flats or houses endure sleepless nights because electricity costs force them to run their washing machines or tumble driers at three in the morning?

    Why is the Government so obsessed with controlling people’s lives that we will be told we can only have a cup of tea on a Friday evening if we pay three times the normal rate?

    Smart meters are not about giving consumers more “information”. Rather, they save suppliers the cost of meter readers and enable them to charge punitive prices whenever it suits them.

    Antony Atkins
    Chinnor, Oxfordshire

    Got it in one, Mr Atkins. And the irony is that the consumer allowed this system to be introduced and even stumped up the billions to fund it!

  16. SIR – Recently I installed double-glazed sashes in all my windows. This cost me the best part of £25,000. I received no grant from the Exchequer and the work and material (draught proofing aside) attracted VAT at 20 per cent. I had to dip into my pension fund to pay for the work and I had to pay income tax on that money.

    There is no incentive whatsoever for us to insulate our homes.

    Jeremy Parr
    Suckley, Worcestershire

    And the problem is that many of those who need energy efficiency the most are probably the least likely to afford it.

    1. Not sure how much double glazing saves on energy but I expect even at today’s prices it will take a lifetime to get any return on it.
      In my experience the units only last about 10-15 years in any case

      1. ‘Morning, B3. When you say “units” do you mean the frames or the glazing? If it’s the latter these are replaceable at modest cost. Whether that is cost-effective remains to be seen, but somehow I doubt it.

      2. Who knew that ref’s whistles had got so much louder [and presumably shifted frequency] since the pandemic began!?

        1. That’s why Stanley Matthews only managed to live to 85. His life was cut short by all that whistle-blowing.

        2. I don’t know how we survived in years gone by. At my primary school, a whistle blowing was the signal for the end of break time. Every day!

      1. Let’s hope that he doesn’t, like so many once they’ve been elected, turn out to b a Dr Jekyll …….

  20. Joe Biden accuses Vladimir Putin of genocide. 13 April 2022.

    Joe Biden said for the first time on Tuesday that there is growing evidence that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine amounts to genocide, but said it will be up to lawyers to make the final determination.

    The US president stood by his genocide description offered earlier in a speech at an ethanol plant in Iowa, claiming that Vladimir Putin is trying to “wipe out the idea of even being a Ukrainian”.

    Of course he does! And of eating babies and holding the Black Mass on Walpurgisnacht! The Jews were an object of Genocide and the Tutsis and Armenians and of course one of the most successful genocide programs was against the Native American Indians of the United States.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/04/13/ukraine-war-russia-latest-news-mariupol-zelensky-kyiv-putin/

    1. Biden accusing Putin of genocide? That’s rich coming from someone mandating experimental gene therapy inoculations for his people.

    1. The homework clip is intriguing, The guy speaking, Bernie Finn, is an Australian Liberal MP and the lack of cheers , groans and hoots of outrage are strangely missing, the clip is all over the American media mostly with the same explanatory text but I can’t find a single mention of it in the Australian media, something doesn’t quite ring true to me.

        1. He does seem to be a bit of a controversial character but I’m not sure what’s happening here. It looks as if he was talking to an empty room, perhaps this was a rehearsal video that was leaked out.

          1. Would I be right in thinking that the JY Prog’s Beagle wasn’t quite as well off as O’Barmy’s (Swiss?) bank accounts??

  23. Today’s DT Leader:

    An unprecedented act of censure for the PM

    Mr Johnson’s tenure may come to be defined by the most damaging political charge – that he considers the law to be for the little people

    TELEGRAPH VIEW12 April 2022 • 10:00pm

    For a Prime Minister to be fined for breaking the law is almost certainly unprecedented. It is always possible that past occupants of No 10 failed to wear a seat belt or exceeded the speed limit but none has been penalised for doing so as far as we know. However, even if the fine here is of similar scale, the offence is far greater because the activities for which Boris Johnson, Rishi Sunak and dozens of officials and aides received fixed-penalty notices were not crimes until they made them so.

    To face a possible career-ending moment for attending banned parties during the Covid lockdowns exemplifies how preposterous it was to use the criminal law to micro-manage the public’s behaviour.

    Most people would not consider that to meet up with colleagues after work for a drink and a chat is in any way untoward, let alone a crime. It was made so by the Government and, it should be said, by Parliament which voted overwhelmingly in favour of the most restrictive constraints on social interaction ever seen in modern times.

    At the time, we criticised the impact this was having on our freedom to associate even in our own home. Grieving relatives could not attend funerals, weddings were postponed, birthday parties abandoned and gatherings forbidden. It was a gratuitous attack on liberty justified by ministers on grounds that Covid was so dangerous.

    Mr Johnson himself said no prime minister wanted to introduce such illiberal measures and was clearly reluctant to do so, judging by the reports we have of the fraught discussions around lockdown planning.

    However, having decided that this was the right course of action it was incumbent upon Mr Johnson and his officials to stick to the rules. Not to have done so is an insult to the great majority who scrupulously followed laws that they thought to be daft having been assured they were necessary.

    Moreover, since the only possible rationale for the lockdowns was to protect people from the predations of the virus, the very fact that the people who made the rules didn’t follow them suggests they were not necessary. Is it being argued that they placed themselves in mortal danger in order to have a post-work drink? And, if not, why were the rest of us not permitted to do so?

    Mr Johnson is fortunate in having political opponents who would have inflicted even tougher rules for longer and cannot, therefore, deploy this line of argument. But they can accuse the Government of having one law for themselves and another for everyone else. If most voters draw that conclusion, it is not only damaging to the Government’s moral authority but potentially calamitous for its election prospects.

    This episode has also seriously undermined Mr Johnson’s integrity because he repeatedly assured the Commons that all the rules had been followed. Moreover, since these events happened under his nose in his own home-cum-office he was either being deliberately misleading or was ignorant of his own rules. It is hard to judge which is worse.

    The question that Mr Johnson hoped had gone away is also back – whether he has become a drag on his party’s fortunes and is no longer an asset.

    Conservative MPs, who a few weeks ago might well have tried to unseat him had the fines been issued then, will be reluctant to do so now at a time of international crisis. Letters from disgruntled backbenchers were sent to the chairman of the Tories’ 1922 committee but failed to reach the 54 needed to trigger a leadership challenge.

    Labour may seek a vote of confidence in the Government but they are bound to lose.

    At the outset of the pandemic Mr Johnson won a good deal of sympathy not just for having to deal with such a difficult national crisis but also for doing so after recovering from serious illness himself.

    1. A couple of leading BTLs:

      D Walker9 HRS AGO

      I opposed the Lockdowns and removal of our Civil Liberties almost from the outset. I can just about excuse the original “3 weeks to flatten the curve” in order to give the NHS time to prepare. The rest of it was inexcusable.

      In late May 2020, around 10 weeks into the first lockdown when Johnson, Carrie and numerous members of Downing St thought it was OK for them to socialise after work and have desk parties, a young man my son worked with committed suicide.

      He was 27 years old. For 10 weeks he had been living and working alone in his bedsit in London; isolated, lonely and depressed.

      As far as I’m concerned Johnson and his disgraceful Government killed him …. while they partied.

      And then Johnson lied to Parliament about it.

      sensible libertarian9 HRS AGO

      OK let’s see some leadership that we need:

      1. Defer the net zero cost until we can afford it

      2. Sort out the woke rubbish

      3. Return to conservative values and build a strategy based on them

      4. Get the opportunities that Brexit offers nailed

      5. Sort out the albatross: NHS

      This is the minimum that allows you stay Boris. I remember 10pm on election night and the elation of that moment. So sad it’s lead to where we are now.

  25. Putin, Gagarin and the great lie of Russian space supremacy. 13 April 2022.

    But behind all this is an irony that will no doubt be lost on that mind; Gagarin’s flight was never the epic of Soviet power it was always presented as being. It was, in fact, a very near disaster. Soviet space engineers took enormous risks to get a Russian into space in the nick of time to stop the Americans – who were just weeks behind – from getting there first. Several major systems were barely tested, or not tested at all, before Gagarin, undoubtedly a brave man, ended up having to test them for real. His rocket, a tactically useless intercontinental ballistic missile, was unhappily prone to blowing up and the only rescue procedure on hand if it did so on the launch pad was to catapult him 10 stories onto a steel net from which he was supposed to be lowered to safety in a bathtub. And that wasn’t the end of it. His radio hardly worked, his tape-recorder ran out half way round the planet because somebody had forgotten to put in enough tape, his re-entry into the atmosphere went haywire and he landed so far off course in a ploughed field that the only people to greet him were an old lady and her granddaughter, who both initially fled in terror.

    Wow! There’s nothing Russian that is safe or sacred to these guys is there? Gagarin made his flight on April 12 1961and Shepard followed on May 5 1961. The crucial difference is that the Russian made an orbit and the American a 15 Minute sub-orbital pass. It was just as risky, perhaps more so, than Gagarin’s. The primary launch vehicle was a cobbled together US Army Redstone ballistic missile. Russian rocket engines; specifically the RD – 180-1 have powered every American launch for the last sixteen years! The primary purpose of Shepard’s mission was to show that they were not far behind the Russians!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/04/12/putins-schoolboy-hero-inspiring-invasion-ukraine/?li_source=LI&li_medium=li-recommendation-widget

    1. Taking the piss.

      Alan Shepard just went straight up and then back straight down. His take-off was weather-delayed for so long that he desperately needed to urinate. When he radioed his plight to mission control they told him to simply piss in his underwear! Consequently his first trip out of the earth’s atmosphere was not as comfortable for him as he would have liked.

    2. Good morning Minty, and everyone.
      The USSR covers a vast area.
      Yuri Gagarin landed in a field less than 20 miles from where he had lived and studied at the Industrial Technical School in Saratov.

  26. ‘Morning again

    Headline in today’s DT. It’s a lengthy but important (in my view) article and my device seems reluctant to copy it, so will fire up the PC later:

    ‘Colston Four’ statue-toppling case to be reviewed by Court of Appeal

    About time!

      1. Indeed. And one of them has apparently expressed his admiration for Insulate Britain. What a partisan prat!

      1. Handed out by Charles. Woke William might abstain, still smarting from his recent encounter with a majority black country.

  27. 351976+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Wednesday 13 April: Foiled at every turn while seeking NHS treatment for a broken arm

    A little word change reveals a large amount of truth.

    Wednesday 13 April: Foiled at every turn while seeking governmental treatment for a broken Country.

    What the majority of the electorate are doing & have been doing for decades is political shite grading using the family tree as a guide, great great grandad, great grandad, voted tory ( genuine Tory) NOT
    the current ersatz tory current in power.

    The political overseers lab/lib/con mass controlled illegal ( Dover) / paedophile umbrella are united in using the Ukrainian / Russian war as extra deflection material whilst showing out as a political coalition
    within the United Kingdom.

    🎵

    The lament of a decent voter,

    Well I don’t know why I came here tonight.
    I’ve got the feeling that something ain’t right.
    I’m so scared in case I fall off my chair,
    And I’m wondering how I’ll get down the stairs.
    Clowns to the left of me!
    Jokers to the right!

  28. Right.
    The overcast start has become damp and I’ve a run to Hyde in Manchester to do to pick up some machining bit for t’Lad.
    Have a good day all and TTFN.

  29. Ukraine announces arrest of Putin ally in ‘lightning-fast’ operation. 13 April 2022.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/45399a72d81b8b21e98ddd21bdedc0307bc2ffae607dacfe2f5ec6412855d111.png

    Ukrainian security services have announced the arrest of Vladimir Putin’s closest ally in Ukraine, the oligarch and opposition politician Viktor Medvedchuk, in what they called a “lightning-fast and dangerous” operation.

    The capture of Medvedchuk, who escaped house arrest on treason charges days after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, was first announced by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who posted a picture of the detainee on social media, dishevelled, in handcuffs and dressed in army fatigues with a Ukrainian flag patch.

    A democrat to the core! Lol!

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/12/ukraine-arrest-putin-ally-viktor-medvedchuk

    1. Whatever happened to that woman “politician” who wore her hair in a long plait?

      1. Got done for corruption and jailed, by her successor. Can’t remember off the top of my head how she fitted in with the various corrupt factions who have headed the government at different times.
        I liked her though – she had style.

          1. Some women have their hair bleached and their roots dyed dark on purpose, to make people think they have not gone grey…

          3. She probably didn’t have time for the hairdresser when she was chucked into prison on corruption charges.

      2. Got done for corruption and jailed, by her successor. Can’t remember off the top of my head how she fitted in with the various corrupt factions who have headed the government at different times.
        I liked her though – she had style.

    2. I suppose he will now disappear like those two Ukrainian negotiaters who wanted to actually negotiate an end to the war.

      1. Judging by the position of his hands, I wondered if all that wiring led to his testicles.

  30. SIR – Since I have starred by name in six of Jack Higgins’s novels written in the 1960s, my character as a tough spy causes no little amusement among family and friends, especially given my later career. Even today the occasional correspondent wonders whether I am a real person.

    I wish I had been able to ask the late and much-missed Higgins (Obituary, April 10) how he alighted on my name. Can any readers help solve the riddle?

    Rev Paul Chavasse
    Swynnerton, Staffordshire

    Captain Noel Godfrey Chevasse VC and Bar, MC

    https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/32/N.G._Chavasse%2C_VC.jpg/220px-N.G._Chavasse%2C_VC.jpg

    http://www.lordashcroftmedals.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/medals_chavasse.jpg

    Captain Noel Godfrey Chavasse, VC & Bar, MC (9 November 1884 – 4 August 1917) was a British medical doctor, Olympic athlete, and British Army officer from the Chavasse family. He is one of only three people to be awarded a Victoria Cross twice.[1]

    The Battle of Guillemont saw acts of heroism by Chavasse, the only man to be awarded the Victoria Cross twice during the First World War. In 1916, he was hit by shell splinters while rescuing men in no-man’s land. It is said he got as close as 25 yards to the German line, where he found three men and continued throughout the night under a constant rain of sniper bullets and bombing. He performed similar heroics in the early stages of the offensive at Passchendaele in August 1917 to gain a second VC and become the most highly decorated British officer of the First World War. Although operated upon, he was to die of his wounds two days later in 1917.[2]

    1. Respect!
      Interesting how modest the VC is, not shiny at all, and a plain ribbon.

        1. I agree. One of our GPs is called Coghill. An excellent doctor of the old school. Coghill is an unusual name.

          We asked him if he was related to Nevill Coghill, the great literary scholar.

          Dr C had never heard of him. The MR explained. No interest at all!!

          2. Was it the third son? The second was the spare in case plague or appendicitis struck.
            Subsequent sons went into the forces.
            Maybe it depended how quickly the vicar could be defrocked and take over the estate if the Grim Reaper arrived too early.

  31. I am an innocent in international affairs.

    Can someone tell me why that WEF puppet “running” the Ukraine wants his country destroyed?

    It is a great puzzle to my pore brane.

    1. I put it down to his own ego. He is a showman after all. Ukraine derangement syndrome has captured most of the world into accepting the plucky Uke idea and Zelenskyy is happy to sacrifice his civilians and be seen as the hero leader. Talking peace would be so boring in comparison and it seems that the West is more than happy to promote war.

      1. I suspect he expects success at the end of it – and the status of plucky victim, both personally and nationally. That means lots of free shit, whether technobombs or burgers, and likely a Marshall Plan to rebuild the country with him as the Dear Leader.
        What’s a few dead women and children set against that?

    2. I put it down to his own ego. He is a showman after all. Ukraine derangement syndrome has captured most of the world into accepting the plucky Uke idea and Zelenskyy is happy to sacrifice his civilians and be seen as the hero leader. Talking peace would be so boring in comparison and it seems that the West is more than happy to promote war.

    5. Perfect cover for all the corruption and stolen millions.

      Oh…sorry…all the records were destroyed by Russian bombing.

  32. 351976 + up ticks,

    Many peoples want change but also want to retain membership & voting power of the lab/lib/con coalition,just in case.

    Many also want to see radical change after witnessing the daily destruction of these Isles via this treacherous coalition.

    Concealment for years of paedophilia actions and their importation of top up potential paedo’s on a daily basis at Dover.

    https://youtu.be/uvf5tTr4Zec

      1. 351976+ up ticks,

        Morning JR,
        Keep in mind that farage was dead set against the Tommy Robinson / Gerard Batten ( UKIP leader) assoc. could it be because Tommy Robinson had nigh on a million followers.

        Sorry, yes he has joined . good man.

  33. Hallo All, it’s quite warm here, 55F. But it’s cloudy, I assume it is going to rain. Todays leading letter doesn’t surprise me and it is almost ridiculous to say anything. What is the point, we can’t do anything about it anyway. The problem is to big.

  36. Hugh Janus wanted to post this article but he was having difficulties with it. I have taken the liberty, of posting it on his behalf. For which I trust he will forgive me.

    ‘Colston Four’ statue-toppling case to be reviewed by Court of Appeal
    Writing for The Telegraph, the Attorney General says the right to protest should not be a licence to commit criminal damage
    By
    Charles Hymas,
    HOME AFFAIRS EDITOR
    13 April 2022 • 6:00am

    The case of the four protesters cleared of toppling Edward Colston’s statue is to be reviewed by the Court of Appeal amidst fears that human rights could be used to justify criminal damage.

    Suella Braverman, the Attorney General, has asked the court to clarify the law amidst concerns that the “Colston Four” verdict sets a legal precedent that allows people to argue their rights to protest override criminal damage.

    The move will not overturn the four protesters’ acquittal, but it could have far-reaching consequences for the defence that protesters use in future to defend violent demonstrations be it blocking roads and oil depots or tearing down statues or memorials.

    In an exclusive article for The Telegraph, below, Ms Braverman said: “The right to protest should be jealously guarded, but should not be a licence to commit criminal damage.

    “Human rights should not be used to legitimise criminal conduct. Police and protesters, judges and jurors – they all need to understand where the boundary lies between protected rights and criminality.

    “It is in the public interest to clarify the law, which is why I am making this reference to the Court of Appeal.”

    The “Colston Four” – Jake Skuse, Rhian Graham, Milo Ponsford and Sage Willoughby – did not dispute their roles in toppling the slave trader’s statue in Bristol and throwing it in the River Avon during a 2020 Black Lives Matter protest.
    However, they were cleared of criminal damage after arguing that a conviction would be a disproportionate punishment against their right to protest and freedom of expression.

    They also claimed the statue was so offensive that it constituted an indecent display or a hate crime. The defendants’ legal team claimed that meant the four protesters were acting legitimately in toppling the statue to prevent a crime.

    The Court of Appeal will be asked to clarify the law around whether someone can use a defence related to their human rights when they are accused of criminal damage.

    It will also consider whether juries should be asked to decide if a conviction for criminal damage is a “proportionate interference” with the human rights of the accused, particularly the right to protest and freedom of expression.

    In the Colston statue case, the judge directed the jury that, before they could convict, they must be sure that doing so would be a “proportionate interference” – or compatible – with the defendants’ exercise of their rights to freedom of thought and to freedom of expression.

    The legal argument centres on a Supreme Court case, DPP v Ziegler, which involved protesters charged with obstruction of the highway when they blocked one side of a dual carriageway. It ruled that the conviction was a “disproportionate” interference with their human right to protest.

    In her article, Ms Braverman said she believed that the judgment had been misinterpreted by the judge at the “Colston Four” trial because she did not believe it established a “general principle” to cover other subsequent cases.
    n support, she cited a judgment by the Lord Chief Justice who “rightly” said it was “impossible to read Ziegler as establishing such a general principle”.

    The Attorney General has decided to refer questions of law to the Court of Appeal concerning the proper scope of defences to criminal charges arising from protests, and the directions which should be given to juries in such cases.

    The referral relates to the Colston statue protest. Ms Braverman has concluded that this case has led to uncertainty regarding the interaction between the offence of criminal damage and the rights relevant to protest peacefully. The Attorney’s action will not overturn the acquittals in this case.

    The “Colston Four” cannot be retried without fresh evidence, but the Court of Appeal can clarify the law and review the legal precedence it sets.

    The Attorney General did a similar thing in 2020 in relation to a sex assault, while there have been 19 similar referrals since 2000.

    She said: “Trial by jury is an important guardian of liberty and critical to that are the legal directions given to the jury. It is in the public interest to clarify the points of law raised in these cases for the future. This is a legal matter which is separate from the politics of the case involved.”
    Right to protest should not be a licence to commit criminal damage
    By Suella Braverman, the Attorney General

    The acquittal of the defendants in the Colston trial struck a chord. Armchair judges and jurors have alternated between commending and condemning it.

    The New Statesman’s Tom Lamont, in his absorbing long read, called it a case of “four white citizens intervening to correct… racial insensitivities”.

    I don’t agree with that. But I do agree with his conclusion: that the jury’s verdict is sacrosanct.

    Lord Sumption, the former Supreme Court judge, took a different view: “By acquitting them in defiance of the uncontested facts, they dishonoured their oath.”

    While I have great respect for Lord Sumption, I strongly disagree. Trial by jury is a fundamental pillar of our justice system and serving on a jury is a vital public service. A jury’s verdict cannot be unpicked. But we should be asking whether the jury was properly directed on the applicable law.

    Were they asked questions which should not have been left to them to answer? Lord Sumption may well have assumed, understandably enough, that there were no issues with the directions given, and that the law in question was clear.

    Juries must be asked the right questions
    It is critically important that juries are asked the right questions, and that the law navigated by judges and jurors is made clear. We all need to know what is and isn’t against the law. Where there is doubt over the correct interpretation of the law, this needs to be resolved either by senior judges or by Parliament.

    This is why, in January, I said I was considering referring legal questions in the Colston case for clarification by the Court of Appeal. The Criminal Justice Act 1972 empowers me to refer points of law, without affecting the verdict given.

    Since 2000, attorneys general from both main political parties have made 19 references. The decision to refer is a public interest function, meaning it is made purely on legal grounds. It is not about the broader context surrounding the Colston statue, contrary to some of the overheated commentary at the time.

    I have considered the matter in detail and have concluded that the Colston trial did give rise to legal questions that senior judges should be invited to clarify. There is significant uncertainty about the relationship between criminal damage and rights to protest.

    The trial judge directed the jury that, before they could convict, they must be sure that doing so would be a proportionate interference with the defendants’ exercise of their human rights to freedom of thought and to freedom of expression.

    Seeking a firm answer in the public interest
    There has been spirited debate between respected criminal lawyers as to whether this was correct. Given the uncertain state of the law, this puts the jury in a difficult position. It is in the public interest to seek a firm answer.

    The judge’s approach was informed by a 2021 Supreme Court judgment, DPP v Ziegler. Protesters blocking one side of a dual carriageway were charged with wilful obstruction of a highway. There, the Supreme Court held that conviction would have been a disproportionate interference with the protesters’ human rights.

    In my view, Ziegler was misinterpreted by the trial judge and erroneously stretched to create a general requirement in all protest cases to consider whether a conviction would be a proportionate interference with human rights.

    In the past few weeks, in the case of DPP v Cuciurean, the Lord Chief Justice rightly said that it is “impossible” to read Ziegler as establishing such a general principle. He held that there is a category of offences where conviction is inherently proportionate because the offence involves “conduct… beyond what could be regarded as reasonable conduct in the exercise of Convention rights”.

    In less technical language, this means that in such cases, there is no need for judges or juries to conduct a proportionality “balancing exercise”, as was done in Ziegler. The fact that Parliament has decided to sanction certain behaviour is enough to demonstrate that the punishment is compatible with the right to protest. Cuciurean leaves open the question of which category “criminal damage” falls into.

    The right to protest should be jealously guarded, but should not be a licence to commit criminal damage. Human rights should not be used to legitimise criminal conduct. Police and protesters, judges and jurors – they all need to understand where the boundary lies between protected rights and criminality.

    It is in the public interest to clarify the law, which is why I am making this reference to the Court of Appeal.

    1. Could you imagine the furore if the Islamic terrorist who murdered the MP Sir David Amess got off because he claimed it was his Human Right to do so? Which, incidentally, actually is his defence.

  37. Morning all.
    Is there any chance some one could post the full version of todays DT headline please. I’ve tried to look at it but i was buffered and obstructed by instructions to log in, pay and sign up to cookies. It seems to run in line with something else i read earlier that GPs are only working 3 days per week if that. I had a message from my local practice yesterday to ring them regarding the results of recent blood tests. But my GP as usual was not available very busy……..I was informed I could have had a phone call in around three weeks time, which sort of substantiates the three day week theory, so I opted for anyone will do, next week. And before the covid outbreak the government installed around 6 regional managers (being paid up to 250 k PA) in the NHS basically it seems, to fiddle with the running and organisation in general. I was only informed a couple of weeks ago that the NHS paper work had ‘gone a bit pear shape’ after i complained that i did not cancel any of my appointments. And asked what on earth was going on. I even wrote to my MP, but had to withdraw the email after i went to the hospital reception and sorted the problem out my self.
    No doubt as usually does this will all come out in the wash and the truth one day might be known. It’s a sure fact that we are all basically being conned by this pathetic excuse of a government.

    1. Eddy, I was about to do just that but stopped to read your post. So in about 2 minutes it will be here.

      2. Apart from still effing up everything they touch, So far they are getting away with their usual nonsense, habitual and pathological lying.

        1. go to the original page without the 12 foot in the middle, click on “See comments” and it works.

          2. I use the link to letters that Geoff posts. Opens, with firewall.
            Copied from the address line & pasted into 12′ ladder, opens so you can read the letters.
            Want to read the comments? open with Geoff’s link, outside the 12′ ladder and with firewall. Scroll down a bit and there’s a green box “See comments”. Click on that and there you go.

          3. Now you have completely lost me.

            I go to the 12ft ladder – paste the DT URL into the box – and “enter”. The DT pages come up. No mention of “comments”. So cannot open comments.

            I’ll go and have another lie down.

          5. Sigh…
            To see the comments: Click on Geoff’s link (do Not use the 12′ ladder), then scroll down to the centre of the page. There’s a faded bottle-green link with white text that has “Show comments” in it. Click on it. Comments appear. This doesn’t work if you are reading letters through the 12′ ladder site, I don’t know why.

          6. Clicked on Geoff’s link. Letters appeared. Then – after five seconds a bloody great thing in centre of page/screen telling me to subscribe. That’s all. Grrr

  38. With regard to todays leading letter to the Telegraph

    ‘Substantial’ fall in GP hours with half now only working ‘three days a week’
    A study, commissioned by the Department of Health, shows 58.4 per cent of family doctors were working six half-day sessions or less

    Most GPs now work three days or less a week, according to Government research which shows the rise of the long weekend.

    The study commissioned by the Department of Health shows a “substantial” fall in hours worked since the pandemic, with just half of family doctors in work by Friday afternoons.

    In total, 58.4 per cent of family doctors were found to be working six half-day sessions or less – the equivalent of three days. This compares with 50.1 per cent when the last survey was conducted in 2019, before the pandemic.

    The research shows that GPs, with average earnings of just over £100,000, are most likely to work a full day at the start of the week.

    While 63.5 per cent are typically working on Monday afternoons, the figure falls steadily as the week goes on, reaching just 50 per cent by Friday lunchtime.

    The data shows that the shift to remote consultations during the pandemic, and reduced access to face-to face appointments, saw GPs working hours fall.
    The figures show an average of 38 and a half hours clocked up per week in 2021, compared with 40 hours a week in 2019, before the pandemic, and 42 hours in 2008.

    Findings are ‘worrying’
    The poll of almost 2,300 family doctors working in England is the second in a row to show “substantial decreases” in hours worked, researchers said.

    The latest drop followed a policy of “total triage”, introduced in March 2020, alongside the first lockdown, with a shift to telephone consultations, instead of face-to-face visits.

    Despite repeated promises by the Government to expand surgery opening hours, the number of GPs working evenings and weekends has fallen sharply, the data shows.

    Just 27 per cent of GPs polled said their practice offered extended hours at evenings and weekends – down from 33 per cent in 2019. Over the same period, the number of GPs polled who themselves typically worked a shift on a Saturday morning fell from 8.3 per cent to 5.1 per cent.

    Last month NHS officials promised to boost provision of Saturday appointments, promising that every area should have a surgery open all day by October.

    Overall, the average GP was found to be working 6.3 half-day sessions a week – the equivalent of just over 3 days – down from 6.6 before the pandemic, and 7.5 in 2010.

    Researchers said the findings were “worrying,” calling for long-term reform in the way doctors work to ensure there are enough GPs in place.
    Professor Matt Sutton, from the University of Manchester, said: “We are seeing a steady reduction in the hours, albeit starting from quite a high level, and a concentration very much on the start of the week, so we have got fewer GPs in work by the time it’s Friday.”

    “Like everyone else, GPs want a decent work-life balance, and often they are able to cut their hours back,” he said.

    The polling found that overall the number of GPs planning to quit patient care has fallen since the pandemic.

    Across all age groups, 33 per cent said they were likely to quit patient care within five years, down from 37 per cent in 2019. But those below the age of 50 were more likely than previously to be considering quitting, with 16 per cent saying this, up from 11 per cent two years before.

    Prof Sutton said some changes in the way GPs worked since the pandemic – such as the use of remote appointments – had helped some doctors to feel they had “more control over their work” and to cut their hours.

    Rachel Power, chief executive of the Patients Association, said: “The pandemic has given us a very clear picture of what it’s like for patients who can’t access a GP. The prospect of a primary care service without enough GPs to properly support patients fills me with alarm.”

    Prof Martin Marshall, chairman of the Royal College of GPs, said: “The intense pressures facing many GPs leads to their decision to reduce their hours in order to safeguard themselves from burn out and protect their patients.

    “A worn out GP is not able to practise safely. Yet, working ‘part time’ in general practice often means working what would normally be considered full-time, or longer.”

    Rising pressures on hospitals
    Latest figures show that the rise in part-time work means the number of full-time equivalent GPs has fallen by more than 1,400 since a Tory manifesto pledge in 2015 to expand numbers by 5,000.

    It comes amid concern about rising pressures on NHS hospitals as the four day Easter weekend approaches.

    On Tuesday, the Telegraph revealed new NHS guidance ordering GPs to make up any appointments lost to the four-day bank holiday weekend within a fortnight.

    A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: “We are working to support and grow the general practice workforce, address the reasons why doctors leave the profession, and encourage them to return to practice.”

    The total number of doctors working as GPs rose by 1,600 since 2019, he said, with record numbers entering GP training last year.

    1. Many thanks JR I wonder if they are still paid the same ?

      “A worn out GP is not able to practise safely. Yet, working ‘part time’ in general practice often means working what would normally be considered full-time, or longer.” What a loada bollero that is.

        2. I remember last year he was delivering flu jabs to people who had lined up around the building in through the back door jabbed and out the front door.
          Some one told me they were paid around 20 pounds a shot.

    2. In Economics 101 the Supply curve for labour indicates that as wages / salaries increase the need to work full time is reduced. GPs provide a textbook example of this fact.

          1. My excellent GP, very early 50s retired at the end of 2020 because his pension pot was full.

  39. Boris, Boris, Brontosaurus,
    crashing blindly through the forest,
    hair askew, complexion pinked,
    unaware that he’s extinct.

    ‘We can have cake and eat it’, said Boris,
    Who claimed that the quote comes in Horace.
    He said too that Ovid
    Knew all about Covid,
    So Classics and Cake give us solace.

    Boris Johnson and Warwick-grad Carrie
    Thought this was the time they should marry.
    But ‘No!’ cried the Gauleiter Priti,
    And ‘Fraid not’, said mild Doctor Whitty,
    ‘Till all Brits are jabbed you must tarry.’

    1. Off topic TB but you asked about shuttering the other day.
      Did you ever see the Carton Hotel centre in JHB ?
      Shuttering was paramount in the construction process. I worked on the form work aka shuttering for over 12 months. The central tower which was the lift shafts and floor level attachments were built by hydraulic shuttering, it moved up around a foot per hour when the concrete was being poured on site. Up to twenty trucks a day at least one every two weeks.

      There’s a whole book about the hotel. https://www.kehrerverlag.com/en/leif-bennett-yvonne-mueller-inside-the-carl-ton-hotel-johannesburg
      And here are some more pics: https://www.huckmag.com/art-and-culture/photography-2/abandoned-hotel-carlton-johannesburg-south-africa-history/

      Also worked on shuttering/form work in the late 70s on the construction of the huge Aluminium smelter Boyne Island Gladstone QLD we built circular bases, some 30 metres across for the bauxite storage towers.

      1. Same for the offshore concrete base platforms. Complicated hydraulic shuttering and continuous pour for many weeks to cast the towers. About 400,000 tonnes for Beryl A, IIRC. Lots of that was reinforcing & rebar.

        1. An Interesting job we worked through the pour moving and resetting the form work as it went up. 12 hour shifts. Lodasa dosh.
          The section Boss a German. Kurt Ludwig took me and my mate John and two other guys off to help him in Port Elizabeth to build the storage facilities for the fruit export in the harbour. 6 months and i’d had enough went back Joburg and then came back to the UK with my girl friend. That didn’t last long either. SA girls can be a bit too demanding in many ways and are never wrong about anything…………

  40. No senior politician would dare to suggest changing it. Just think of the riots in West Africa…

    The NHS model has failed. Until we accept that, nothing will change

    The pandemic inquiry should examine how the health service’s structure is letting us all down

    PHILIP JOHNSTON • 12 April 2022 • 9:30pm

    The NHS is irreparably broken. Everybody knows it. Indeed, it is hard to go to any gathering without hearing tales of woe about cancelled operations, lengthening waiting lists, GP shortages and late ambulances.

    Horror stories that would once have elicited sympathetic tut-tuts from those who found the service perfectly adequate are now topped by experiences that almost defy belief. A friend who was told to wait 40 weeks to see a consultant for a complaint that turned out to be cancer might not have survived without getting a private diagnosis that led to speedy treatment (on the NHS, it should be said).

    For people unable or unwilling to seek private consultations such waits are terminal. How can anyone defend a health system that effectively sentences people seeking its help to death? Yet many do because it is free at the point of delivery. Although a recent public attitudes survey showed a collapse in satisfaction with the performance of the NHS, when it comes to its essential creed – that you do not pay directly for treatment – support is overwhelming.

    And why wouldn’t it be? Given the choice between paying for something or getting it for “free”, which would you take? The other founding principle, that the NHS should be paid for from taxes, also has massive public support. Again, if someone better off than you can pay for your health care why not? These two shibboleths have so taken root in our national psyche that they have poisoned any rational thought. What we want, surely, is a health service that works, delivers care to all, has enough beds for treatment, sufficient well-trained staff and good outcomes.

    In a modern economy those should be the minimum expectations. Yet the NHS does none of these, despite having stuck rigidly to its founding principle since 1948. The situation in primary care, with GPs told to work late to avoid A&E chaos, is a national scandal. By any measure, the system is fractured and yet the country continues to be persuaded that to question its underlying concepts is tantamount to apostasy.

    For the Left, the NHS is the one remaining legacy of the post-war Attlee socialist dispensation and they will defend it to the death. For the Tories, it is the one nationalised industry that they have been too terrified to privatise for fear of inviting political disaster.

    The Conservatives are now in the worst of all worlds. Having spurned chances to reform the NHS properly over the last 12 years, they now preside over a busted system for which they will be blamed.

    Billions of pounds have been poured into the NHS in recent years to no avail. True, the pandemic has made things far worse in terms of delayed diagnoses, cancelled operations and an exodus of staff; but the writing was on the wall long before Covid appeared.

    Boris Johnson has been desperate to wrest the NHS away from Labour’s proprietorial grasp. “We are the party of the NHS now,” is the new Conservative mantra. It may have sounded like a good idea to outflank Labour by claiming ownership of a national treasure but not when it has been shown to be made of pewter, not silver.

    The next two years leading to the general election will see a relentless bombardment of the Tories for everything that has gone wrong in the NHS. They haven’t put enough money in; they have allowed staff training to diminish; they are in hock to private health companies; they don’t use it themselves – every line of attack will be deployed. We know this because we have seen it before.

    It is fear of precisely this criticism that has paralysed decision-making around the NHS for so long. Ministers thought that by pumping more money into health care, funded by an increase in the taxes that people say they are happy to pay (but aren’t, especially if the result is poor), they could defuse the ticking NHS time bomb always likely to blow up in their faces.

    In the event they are now just waiting for the explosion, wedded to an unreconstructed system for which the only remedy is to feed its voracious appetite with yet more money.

    The Tories can enter into a bidding war with Labour if they want but the Left will always trump them because they are happy to load the costs on to the very taxes that Rishi Sunak wants to cut by 2024. Good luck with that, Chancellor.

    The upshot is that no one in a position to do something about this mess will risk trying to clear it up. The Tories talk about instilling greater efficiency in the system but they have done so for years without making much difference. Everyone rails against the top-heavy bureaucracy in the NHS but nothing is done to change it.

    The alternative, social insurance-based approach followed in many European countries with far better outcomes than ours is simply pooh-poohed by the Left as hidden privatisation or a betrayal of the true 1948 religion.

    Suggestions that we should emulate other countries where things are done better are met with tendentious statistics purporting to show that the NHS provides better value for money compared with its counterparts.

    If you ask die-hard supporters why, if the NHS is so good, it has not been copied, they maintain that elements are present in other health systems. But the full, nationalised, centralised, inefficient, tax-based monster that we have created exists nowhere else.

    We are unable to break free from a creaking 74-year-old model of health care that no longer delivers what we want and yet are too craven to let someone do anything about it.

    Nor is there an obvious forum for rectifying matters. Parliament is useless because the political debate soon turns into partisan name-calling and a Royal Commission would take years to set up.

    Here is an idea. The terms of reference for the forthcoming Covid inquiry are currently being drafted after a public consultation. Inevitably, it will focus on pandemic planning, preparations and responses.

    But given that “protecting our NHS” was the main aim of the lockdowns, the inquiry could usefully examine the extent to which its structures, systems and funding are contributing to the gradual collapse of health care in this country. This can no longer be ducked.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/04/12/nhs-model-has-failed-accept-nothing-will-change/

    1. How about getting rid of all the NHS diversity chiefs and their bloated empires? That’ll reduce complications they introduce and will help a bit. They could then think about doing without them in other organisations.

      1. IIRC, the NHS has about the same number of front-line medical staff as non-medical staff. That’s on a par with the MoD. Well, it was until the latest round of troop cutbacks.

    2. IMHO It was always a planned and a deliberate action.
      Has any one else noticed all the adds for private health insurance and how many private hospitals have sprung up around the country.
      But the problem is if a patient and many of our elderly do has underlying health issues your stuffed. Even if contracted out by the NHS to a private hospital (which has been the case for many years) for example a hip replacement. If you have any other health problems there are no emergency facilities at the private venues. The waiting list is now years long.

      1. When I wasn’t well recently, I decided to not trouble the NHS and to seek private treatment. Even the Harley Street Clinic told me sorry, all phone consultations are booked and there aren’t any face to face appointments available so you’ll need to go to your nearest A&E.

        A sympathetic friend who actually works in NHS admin pointed out that of course there aren’t two sets of doctors. The same people do private and NHS treatment and they’re pretty much all behaving in the same way.

        Ths NHS needs to ditch its Common Purpose management and quit all its social engineering but as the Civil Service is also run by Common Purpose and committed to social engineering, it isn’t going to happen any time soon?

        1. Early March I caught some sort of horrible gungy eye infection from our two year old grandson who had chicken pox. I went to our fairly local minor injuries clinic. And including the journey home and picking up the prescription form the local pharmacy after the 20 minute wait and ten minute consultation I was home with inside two hours. Much better than a two week wait for a PG phone call.

        2. Agreed.
          That’s probably because the NHS has let so many people down in the past three years they have sought alternatives. I suspect part of the long term plans.

      2. Talking of dentists has anyone seen Peddy recently under his Viking name or as Peter Andersen?

    5. “The NHS is irreparably broken. Everybody knows it. Indeed, it is hard to go to any gathering without hearing tales of woe about cancelled operations, lengthening waiting lists, GP shortages and late ambulances.”
      Give them a medal. That’ll fix everything. Not.

    1. That’s a bit rich. Hasn’t Micron often said he wouldn’t allow a Frexit referendum as he knows he would lose it?

  43. The elderly lady handed her bank card to the teller and said “I would like to withdraw £10”.
    The teller told her “for withdrawals less than £100, please use the ATM.
    The lady wanted to know why… The teller returned her bank card and irritably told her “These are the rules, please leave if there is no further matter. There is a line of customers behind you”.
    The lady remained silent for a few seconds and handed her card back to the teller and said, “Please help me withdraw all the money I have.” The teller was astonished when she checked the account balance.
    She nodded her head, leaned down and respectfully told her, “You have £300,000 in your account but the bank doesn’t have that much cash currently. Could you make an appointment and come back again tomorrow?
    The lady then asked how much she could withdraw immediately. The teller told her ‘any amount up to £3,000’.
    “Well please let me have £3,000 now.”
    The teller kindly handed £3,000, very friendly now, and with a smile to her.
    The lady put £10 in her purse and asked the teller to deposit £2,990 back into her account.
    The moral of this story is …. ‘Don’t be difficult with seniors, we spent a lifetime learning the skill’.

    More banking changes are afoot.
    ——————————–

  44. You Matter: The Human Solution

    Delia Smith says six publishers rejected her book on spirituality.

    TV chef hopes to help readers get in touch with their inner lives in book with insights from Pharrell Williams.
    https://www.theguardian.com/food/2022/apr/12/delia-smith-says-six-publishers-rejected-her-book-on-spirituality

    You Matter: The Human Solution explores her long-term passion for spirituality
    ‘I always wanted to write a book … about spirituality being natural,’ she said

    1. I got spiritual over six perfect jars of lemon curd. I rewarded myself with a gin and tonic.

    3. I’d welcome Delia’s advice on mastering my new digital ceramic hob and some simple recipes that even a lousy cook like me could manage without setting fire to anything.

      However, for spirituality there is a book compiled by St Jerome from ancient and established texts, with a definitive English translation commissioned by King James I, which satisfies all spiritual needs.

  46. Right. As promied earlier here is the DT article about the decision in the Coulson Four case for those who haven’t seen it. Their acquittals will stand, but the Court of Appeal is being asked to clarify the law:

    ‘Colston Four’ statue-toppling case to be reviewed by Court of Appeal
    Writing for The Telegraph, the Attorney General says the right to protest should not be a licence to commit criminal damage

    By
    Charles Hymas,
    HOME AFFAIRS EDITOR
    13 April 2022 • 6:00am

    The case of the four protesters cleared of toppling Edward Colston’s statue is to be reviewed by the Court of Appeal amidst fears that human rights could be used to justify criminal damage.

    Suella Braverman, the Attorney General, has asked the court to clarify the law amidst concerns that the “Colston Four” verdict sets a legal precedent that allows people to argue their rights to protest override criminal damage.

    The move will not overturn the four protesters’ acquittal, but it could have far-reaching consequences for the defence that protesters use in future to defend violent demonstrations be it blocking roads and oil depots or tearing down statues or memorials.

    In an exclusive article for The Telegraph, below, Ms Braverman said: “The right to protest should be jealously guarded, but should not be a licence to commit criminal damage.

    “Human rights should not be used to legitimise criminal conduct. Police and protesters, judges and jurors – they all need to understand where the boundary lies between protected rights and criminality.

    “It is in the public interest to clarify the law, which is why I am making this reference to the Court of Appeal.”

    The “Colston Four” – Jake Skuse, Rhian Graham, Milo Ponsford and Sage Willoughby – did not dispute their roles in toppling the slave trader’s statue in Bristol and throwing it in the River Avon during a 2020 Black Lives Matter protest.

    Placeholder image for youtube video: IagvkelG2QY
    However, they were cleared of criminal damage after arguing that a conviction would be a disproportionate punishment against their right to protest and freedom of expression.

    They also claimed the statue was so offensive that it constituted an indecent display or a hate crime. The defendants’ legal team claimed that meant the four protesters were acting legitimately in toppling the statue to prevent a crime.

    The Court of Appeal will be asked to clarify the law around whether someone can use a defence related to their human rights when they are accused of criminal damage.

    It will also consider whether juries should be asked to decide if a conviction for criminal damage is a “proportionate interference” with the human rights of the accused, particularly the right to protest and freedom of expression.

    In the Colston statue case, the judge directed the jury that, before they could convict, they must be sure that doing so would be a “proportionate interference” – or compatible – with the defendants’ exercise of their rights to freedom of thought and to freedom of expression.

    The legal argument centres on a Supreme Court case, DPP v Ziegler, which involved protesters charged with obstruction of the highway when they blocked one side of a dual carriageway. It ruled that the conviction was a “disproportionate” interference with their human right to protest.

    In her article, Ms Braverman said she believed that the judgment had been misinterpreted by the judge at the “Colston Four” trial because she did not believe it established a “general principle” to cover other subsequent cases.

    In support, she cited a judgment by the Lord Chief Justice who “rightly” said it was “impossible to read Ziegler as establishing such a general principle”.

    The Attorney General has decided to refer questions of law to the Court of Appeal concerning the proper scope of defences to criminal charges arising from protests, and the directions which should be given to juries in such cases.

    The referral relates to the Colston statue protest. Ms Braverman has concluded that this case has led to uncertainty regarding the interaction between the offence of criminal damage and the rights relevant to protest peacefully. The Attorney’s action will not overturn the acquittals in this case.

    The “Colston Four” cannot be retried without fresh evidence, but the Court of Appeal can clarify the law and review the legal precedence it sets.

    The Attorney General did a similar thing in 2020 in relation to a sex assault, while there have been 19 similar referrals since 2000.

    She said: “Trial by jury is an important guardian of liberty and critical to that are the legal directions given to the jury. It is in the public interest to clarify the points of law raised in these cases for the future. This is a legal matter which is separate from the politics of the case involved.”

    Right to protest should not be a licence to commit criminal damage

    By Suella Braverman, the Attorney General

    The acquittal of the defendants in the Colston trial struck a chord. Armchair judges and jurors have alternated between commending and condemning it.

    The New Statesman’s Tom Lamont, in his absorbing long read, called it a case of “four white citizens intervening to correct… racial insensitivities”.

    I don’t agree with that. But I do agree with his conclusion: that the jury’s verdict is sacrosanct.

    Lord Sumption, the former Supreme Court judge, took a different view: “By acquitting them in defiance of the uncontested facts, they dishonoured their oath.”

    While I have great respect for Lord Sumption, I strongly disagree. Trial by jury is a fundamental pillar of our justice system and serving on a jury is a vital public service. A jury’s verdict cannot be unpicked. But we should be asking whether the jury was properly directed on the applicable law.

    Were they asked questions which should not have been left to them to answer? Lord Sumption may well have assumed, understandably enough, that there were no issues with the directions given, and that the law in question was clear.

    Juries must be asked the right questions

    It is critically important that juries are asked the right questions, and that the law navigated by judges and jurors is made clear. We all need to know what is and isn’t against the law. Where there is doubt over the correct interpretation of the law, this needs to be resolved either by senior judges or by Parliament.

    This is why, in January, I said I was considering referring legal questions in the Colston case for clarification by the Court of Appeal. The Criminal Justice Act 1972 empowers me to refer points of law, without affecting the verdict given.

    Since 2000, attorneys general from both main political parties have made 19 references. The decision to refer is a public interest function, meaning it is made purely on legal grounds. It is not about the broader context surrounding the Colston statue, contrary to some of the overheated commentary at the time.

    I have considered the matter in detail and have concluded that the Colston trial did give rise to legal questions that senior judges should be invited to clarify. There is significant uncertainty about the relationship between criminal damage and rights to protest.

    The trial judge directed the jury that, before they could convict, they must be sure that doing so would be a proportionate interference with the defendants’ exercise of their human rights to freedom of thought and to freedom of expression.

    Seeking a firm answer in the public interest

    There has been spirited debate between respected criminal lawyers as to whether this was correct. Given the uncertain state of the law, this puts the jury in a difficult position. It is in the public interest to seek a firm answer.

    The judge’s approach was informed by a 2021 Supreme Court judgment, DPP v Ziegler. Protesters blocking one side of a dual carriageway were charged with wilful obstruction of a highway. There, the Supreme Court held that conviction would have been a disproportionate interference with the protesters’ human rights.

    In my view, Ziegler was misinterpreted by the trial judge and erroneously stretched to create a general requirement in all protest cases to consider whether a conviction would be a proportionate interference with human rights.

    In the past few weeks, in the case of DPP v Cuciurean, the Lord Chief Justice rightly said that it is “impossible” to read Ziegler as establishing such a general principle. He held that there is a category of offences where conviction is inherently proportionate because the offence involves “conduct… beyond what could be regarded as reasonable conduct in the exercise of Convention rights”.

    In less technical language, this means that in such cases, there is no need for judges or juries to conduct a proportionality “balancing exercise”, as was done in Ziegler. The fact that Parliament has decided to sanction certain behaviour is enough to demonstrate that the punishment is compatible with the right to protest. Cuciurean leaves open the question of which category “criminal damage” falls into.

    The right to protest should be jealously guarded, but should not be a licence to commit criminal damage. Human rights should not be used to legitimise criminal conduct. Police and protesters, judges and jurors – they all need to understand where the boundary lies between protected rights and criminality.

    It is in the public interest to clarify the law, which is why I am making this reference to the Court of Appeal.

  47. The BBC is at it again (when aren’t they?):

    COMMENT
    The BBC must end its addiction to divisive racial politics

    If the corporation wants to survive, it should at least try to understand the country it supposedly represents

    CALVIN ROBINSON
    12 April 2022 • 6:59pm

    The BBC is at it again, exposing a bias rooted in Left-wing politics imported from the United States. This time it has told parents to “check their bias” if their children only have white friends. One of the assumptions made by the corporation’s Tiny Happy People website – ostensibly a bank of educational resources for parents and children – is that any child who has a group of white friends must come from a home where “negative thoughts about foreigners” are openly expressed.

    You might think it was a slip-up to be quickly rectified, but this isn’t the first time the corporation has indulged such drivel. Two years ago, its Bitesize website published a video by John Amaechi, an American psychologist, telling children that “there is nothing but benefit to understanding our own privileges, white or otherwise”.

    They are practicing the language of Critical Race Theory (CRT), an American academic thought experiment that attempts to solve racial inequalities but, in fact, ends up exacerbating them. It centres on the belief that whiteness itself is the cause of many of the issues that we face – and thus to negate racism, whiteness must be diminished. Its full logic ultimately changes the fundamental question from “was this situation racist?” to “how was this situation racist?” The result is self-explanatory: we end up seeing racism everywhere, even where it doesn’t exist.

    Such a dangerous way of thinking should be given no truck within a public-sector broadcaster with a duty to remain balanced. The BBC has pledged, through its charter, to “bring people together and help contribute to social cohesion and wellbeing”. That could not be more divergent from the radical ideology that seems to have captured New Broadcasting House.

    Even if many of us have grown used to the metropolitan obsession with CRT, this latest advice takes matters to another level, for it is quite another thing altogether to bring its divisive language into the arena of parental advice.

    Parents access these websites hoping for fun activities and helpful guides, not patronising and arguably racist language. Nor is it at all helpful for CRT to be presented as if it were established fact, like gravity, rather than the often unverifiable musings of a few academics.

    Wouldn’t it be great if our nation’s broadcaster, to which we are all encouraged to pay a fee, played a unifying role for once? It could remind families that in this fair nation they all have a share in society, regardless of their colour, ethnicity or religion. If we focussed on Britishness and spent less time obsessing over our immutable characteristics, every community would be freer and more united.

    In fact, I would encourage the BBC’s new diversity team (now that June Sarpong, its £267,000-per-year diversity tsar is departing) to read the Government’s Inclusive Britain strategy, which outlines 74 actions aimed at tackling racial disparities in the UK. It is built on the fantastic work of Dr Tony Sewell, whose report last year, while identifying many areas where equality can be improved, highlighted that a racial disparity is not necessarily evidence of racism.

    Obsessing over race misses the bigger picture: that class, geography and upbringing all have far more impact on one’s life than the colour of our skin. If the BBC wants to survive, it should at least try to understand the country it supposedly represents.

    * * *

    The BTLs are rather predictable, here’s just the top ones:

    Caroline Watson
    15 HRS AGO
    A child who lives in Northumberland, Cumbria or Lincolnshire will almost certainly have virtually all white friends. Their few black or mixed race contemporaries; probably, as mine were, the children of doctors and other professionals from impeccably middle class homes, will be treated just the same as everyone else.
    The BBC is totally out of touch with people who don’t live in cities. In fact, it despises us. The feeling is mutual.

    Lynda Franklin
    14 HRS AGO
    If you believe what the TV ads portray, we are beset with black or mixed race happy families and whites are a minority.

    Bill Ma
    14 HRS AGO
    Don’t forget the gingers. They are clearly regarded by the advertising industry as a minority group requiring protection. Madness.

    Alan Cox
    15 HRS AGO
    The Irony of this is that this lunatic at the BBC is actually preaching Racism

    1. Can anyone imagine just how over whelmed we would all be if the BBC featured advertising as well as……………..their anti white propaganda.
      Not too long ago my good lady and I went to the BBC theatre in London to see a music concert. we have a snack and a drink before the event and I was intrigued to stand at the windows above the news department. Out of the 50 or so people working behind the desks I could only see one black person beavering away below. But on the screens in our homes…………..

      1. Years ago, I was working secretarial holiday cover at the BBC – the only black person I saw was pushing the cleaning trolley. They had a couple of black newsreaders in those days, just to rub in how progressive they were (not).

          1. Just out of university. I worked for a secretarial temping agency and had an assignment at White City once. Only a few weeks though.

        2. I feel sorry for people like Moira Stewart and Clive Myrie.
          They must always harbour a scintilla of doubt at the back of their minds.
          Talking of which, I haven’t seen George Alagiah for some time. Not a good sign.

        3. Was that at White city ? Perhaps that’s why they moved the name didn’t fit their future plans.

      1. I do believe the techniques work. Not the final stage obviously but with meditation and chants you can calm and center yourself. Clears the mind too.

        Om om om.

          1. Good if you are feeling fretful and can’t sleep. You don’t even have to vocalise. Just controlled breathing.

    1. I am taken by the reference to the EU leaving the UK as opposed to Brexit being framed as the UK leaving the EU.

      Le Pen if elected will take France out of the EU pronto and other nation states will follow leaving Germany and the Benelux countries to squabble among themselves.

      1. I don’t know if you are correct or not but Macron actually said that he would not give the French a referendum on the EU because he thought they would vote to leave it.

        They had a referendum on the Maastricht Treaty which was passed by a very narrow margin. This was deemed dodgy at the time and Mitterand had relied on emotional blackmail telling the people that he had terminal cancer and surely the French people would not wish to destroy a dying man’s lifelong European dream.

        They also had a referendum on the European Constitutional Treaty which Chirac failed to win so they renamed it The Lisbon Treaty and did not have another referendum!

        1. Macron is a WEF puppet with a Napoleon complex. The rural French must be sick of him. If re-elected the prospects for France are not good.

          1. Le Pen is hardly a desirable alternative. Even so a kick in the Micron scrotum would be most enjoyable to watch!

  50. Do you and your other-half regularly hold hands when outside?

    My reaction to film yesterday of an amply-bellied Bojo holding hands with Carrie at various events can best be summarised in a remark by Tony Hancock, observing two middle-aged neighbours holding hands as they embarked on a Sunday outing. (‘Boring Sunday Afternoon’):

    “Love’s young dream …. Makes you sick at that age”

    Am I alone? Is it just me?

    2. We do sometimes, seldom for long; but there are times that a gentle show of affection is apposite.

      2. I find a quick kiss behind the ear whilst standing behind her on the escalator suffices. Followed by a compliment on her hair. Ginger, a copper hue, btw…

          1. Either way. She’s short, so a pucker behing he ear is possible going up as well as down.

    3. We are late 60s and we hold hands when out. Mind you, we are relative newly weds.

      3. 🙂 It will be 60 year this coming October since MB and I met properly. We held hands while Kennedy and Krushchev dickered over WWIII.

        1. Last one was 40- don’t ask. I think it lasted as long because he was away a lot and I was working. Glad to be out of it.

      4. We have never held hands … I am usually 10 paces behind MOH because he walks so quickly ..

        I think we are quite detached and independent , emotionally, shame really.

        Would have been quite novel to have had a strong man to cling onto sometimes , like my father.

    4. Any tactile display is decidedly un-English. After 30 years, I think it was, of not seeing my mother, we shook hands at the airport. Displays of affection with ones wife in public should be confined to using the word ‘dear’ anything more should be subject to Mary Whitehouse rules.

    6. The Babbling Poltroon used to do that. And Ronald Reagan. But NOT Lady Thatcher.

      1. Case made.
        The question is (now adopts her best Hyacinth Bouquet voice) “What would the Queen do?”

        I actually asked myself that question when one of the RHS pupils fainted during Divisions.
        The answer: just stand there and let the teachers do their job.

    8. I always held her hand tightly when out shopping – it prevented her from disappearing into handbag and clothes shops and the like.

      1. 351976+ up ticks,

        Afternoon FA,
        As long as one hand is NOT chipped and leading the other astray.

    9. No. Handholding is fine in your youth – or, sadly if in later life it stops the wandering off.
      Otherwise, mature people holding hands just looks soppy. We link arms occasionally – particularly if it’s the only way I can keep up with a longer legged other half.

      1. Alf and I are soppy then and quite proud of it! I think officialdom is a different matter. With all that’s going on in the world, people holding hands I would have thought, is the last “problem” that should worry others.

    1. I only talk to people I can see. Hopefully the electorate will feel the same.

        1. Yes but invariably to people I know. Unknown numbers I let ring to leave a message but invariably they don’t.

          1. Nonetheless you are still talking to people you can’t see – it’s one of the reasons I find using the telephone difficult.

    2. 351976+ up ticks,

      Afternoon S,
      Along with lab/lib MUST be slaughtered for the benefit / welfare of decent peoples & the return of childhoods to children.

      1. Well, I wouldn’t, simple as that. I dearly want our MP to come canvassing so I can give him several earfuls at a loud decibel level. He won’t though;he thinks he’s above us plebs.

      2. In this case you are voting for her religion not her politics. Her garb tells you all you need to know.

      3. How do you know who is under all that – is it your councillor; it could be anybody!?

  52. 351976+ up ticks,

    Marine Le Pen Calls For ‘Referendum Revolution’ To Hand Power Back To The People
    This was tried on once by the peoples for the peoples via the genuine peoples party
    UKIP, not to be confused with the current
    ukip AKA a pro tory (ino) satellite party.

    Designed / triggered by the genuine UKIP party, it showed people power works, sadly the treacherous lab/lib/con siren call was heard post referendum, an umbilical cord
    was attached via “the deal” to brussels and a multitude in number of the electorate returned to the old party’s lab/lib/con, close shop coalition in their quest, namely the total destruction of the United Kingdom.

  53. This is guaranteed to make Richard’s blood boil…

    “Students and graduates in England will pay up to 12% interest on their loans this autumn, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS).
    The rate will dip in March 2023, when a cap on the interest will kick in.
    The IFS says a rollercoaster of interest rates lies ahead, but the long-term impact on repayments will not be large.
    For students starting degree courses from 2023, the rate will be fixed at a lower level.
    The interest rate on the loan for those currently at university in England is calculated by adding 3% to the retail price index (RPI) measure of inflation.

      1. Many such loans will never be repaid.
        Seems to me that it would be cheaper for parents to extend their mortgage and give the money to the child.

        If a youth can wangle a job in the public sector, the bosses may allow him or her to be trained and educated and guess what, no student loan. I know someone in that situation at the moment, been put through a vocational degree course whilst receiving complete salary.

        Some obligation to keep working in the role for a couple of years more.
        Now has a modest mortgage rather than the burden of a student loan.

        1. Absolutely. All of my children are determined by hook or by crook not to get one of these loans, and so far they have managed (with a modest amount of help from me).

          1. Mine did their degrees before tuition fees became payable – they also got a small grant each term, and worked in menial jobs during the holidays. They both had small loans and paid them off.

          2. Me too. I had a small grant, Dad paid a little and I worked all the holidays in shops to earn money.

          3. I was on the minimum grant (£50 pa) and had to pay my tuition fees. Fortunately I had a generous father who footed my bills so I left university debt-free. Caroline’s father also did the same for his three daughters who did not start their lives mired in debt

            We decided that the least we could do for Christo and Henry was to do what our parents had done for us.

          4. I put my son through his BA in CT so he came out of that with no debt. His MBA though he took loans for but as it was only a two year course, I don’t imaging it was too crippling.
            By then, I was leaving the marriage and US anyway and needed to put myself first.

          5. Well done!

            Why are Caroline and I still trying to make some money by running our courses?

            If we hadn’t spent so much of our resources on our children’s education we would have probably given up by now.

        2. The poor sods ARE paying off their loans but are unaware of the fact. All the interest they pay over the current mortgage rate is effectively repayment of capital

      2. Many such loans will never be repaid.
        Seems to me that it would be cheaper for parents to extend their mortgage and give the money to the child.

        If a youth can wangle a job in the public sector, the bosses may allow him or her to be trained and educated and guess what, no student loan. I know someone in that situation at the moment, been put through a vocational degree course whilst receiving complete salary.

        Some obligation to keep working in the role for a couple of years more.
        Now has a modest mortgage rather than the burden of a student loan.

      1. This is nothing short of theft on a grand scale.

        In civilised countries student loans are interest free and repayment of the outstanding balance can be charged against tax by both those with loans and their employers.

        The best thing we did for our two sons was to pay their tuition fees and help with their living expenses so they left university debt free.

        The NUS is a useless organisation – why did it not make sure that the student loan scheme was fair in the first place?

        I hope that there is a mass refusal by all students to repay a penny piece of their loans.

        An average student loan is £60,000 – at 12% interest this would cost £7,200 pa. Where are young people going to get this sort of money?

      1. I love that song. But making love in the dunes on the Cape is not a good idea….

        1. Prep school humour.

          Having been to a boy’s boarding prep school from the ager of 8 I don’t know if there were grubby little girls like the grubby little boys who told their rude jokes and giggled.

          “Please save me from the quicksand,” cried the maiden.

          “What’s in it for me?” asked the Sheik.

          “Sand,” replied the maiden.

  57. “Boris Johnson refuses to resign after being fined for breaking the law.”

    He has achieved turd immunity – the shit never sticks to him.

    1. Neither the death of Prince Philip nor the party at No 10 before his funeral were in the Tory manifesto.
      An MP only has to fly by seat of his soiled underpants if the judiciary sentence is more than a year.

      1. My money is on Carrion putting her foot down on BPAPM’s neck – and INSISTING….

        1. Penalty for wilful obstruction
          (1)If a person, without lawful authority or excuse, in any way wilfully obstructs the free passage along a highway he is guilty of an offence and liable to a fine not exceeding £50.
          (2)A constable may arrest without warrant any person whom he sees committing an offence against this section.
          Seems pretty clear, Grizz.
          Unless: The road is not defind as a highway?

          1. Take the driving licence away from all drivers for 12months who obstruct traffic on the highways . It should be in the appropriate motoring legislation.

          2. If it is a thoroughfare that is open for the free passage of the public, with or without toll, then it’s a highway.

      3. Absolute madness to allow them to keep doing this. One day would have made a point but it is pure criminality and spite that keeps them there.
        They are clearly breaking the law by being there day after day causing such a massively impact on fuel supplies – and that affects not only us filling our cars but all the delivery lorries, tradesmen’s vans, buses and so on. With unreliable fuel supplies for their cars, some front line medical staff, food delivery drivers and others will have difficulty getting to work too.

          1. Good morning (just),
            Sounds like an immature, gullible idiot. Maybe it is one of the holier-than-thou young preachers that (I didn’t use ‘who’ as that implies a human being…) thinks everyone should get around by bike.
            Of course it won’t have considered it might find shortages on shelves if the delivery lorries can’t get fuel, or its granny might suffer from being too cold.

  61. *Plod knocks at my door*
    Plod: “Excuse me sir, but we’ve had reports of your dog chasing someone on an electric bike”
    Me: “Sod off, he can’t afford one of those”
    *slams door*

    2. We know of two blokes at the pub who died because their cancer treatments were halted. I bet their cause of death is listed as something else though!
      Right now, MH is getting good follow up and info. He has another procedure tomorrow so will likely be gone much of the day- I am not allowed to be with him while he undergoes this….guess why?
      I will be calling the hospital I went to tomorrow as I still haven’t had the biopsy results. I think it really does depend on where you live and where you attend.

      2. All the best, and I’d be so cross, and I would shout if I were you. You’re obviously more mature than I. xxx

          1. Good for you! The trouble is that if one shouts, they often just close down any co-operation towards us, the people they are paid to serve. Except sometimes, when it works.

    3. I thought private hospitals had been “requisitioned” by our foul government. For all the “covid” disasters that were not so dangerous that No 10 and others couldn’t party during that time.

      Actually, the Government owes an apology to the Queen, who had to sit alone duting her husband’s funeral. I would have been surprised that the PM and other responsible haven’t fallen on their swords over that – except that falling on your sword in not in fashion with the disgusting denizens in our parliaments nowadays.

      Edited – oh gosh I’m getting worse and worse at typing.

      1. They went unused as far as covid was concerned just as the Nightingales did. 50 % of those unnecessary compared to cancer treatments were in NHS hospitals. 25% of those were foreigners taking up theatre, staff and beds.

        The next time i hear a consultant say sorry for your loss he is going to get a bloody nose.

        1. Yes. How about who made loads of dosh out of all this. Dido whatnot cr*p ex-head of cr*p talk talk. Of COURSE she got the job/money on her merit…

    1. Lovely deep red… Our new one is that colour, the older ones have faded to an almost transparent pink. The oldest dates from 1984, bought at Woolworth Newport Pagnell for 10p, “or we’ll throw it away”. Bulb like a small football.

    4. Altogether, exquisitely tasteful and very unPhizzeelike in his chaotic NoTTLer persona which amuses us all so much

      1. Why so nice all of a sudden? I rely on you Bill and Sos to keep me grounded!

        You start going all mushy on me you might put me of my stroke…erm.

        1. C’mon – there are many, many more than Bill, Sos, and me who take the piss out of you. Moreover, them two and thee take the piss out of me when appropriate. If you weren’t yourself on this forum…..you’d be deadly, catastrophically boring and of no further interest to the lowest worm.

          There is a TRUE STORY that I must tell you before the NoTTLers forum is banned forever. There is every chance that you will wet your knickers but you will understand the subsequent death-pledge that you must never tell anyone else, not even Garlands

  64. Is it all happening again

    Lots of garages without petrol or diesel in south London
    Lots of pointless roadworks seem to have sprung up as well.

    1. It’s not a democratic vote when the candidate doesn’t show their face. Anyone could be hiding in that getup.

      1. It’s not a democratic vote when you don’t know who actually did the voting. As opposed to who filled in the forms and sent them by post.

      2. It’s not a democratic vote when you don’t know who actually did the voting. As opposed to who filled in the forms and sent them by post.

      3. It’s not a democratic vote when you don’t know who actually did the voting. As opposed to who filled in the forms and sent them by post.

      4. It’s not a democratic vote when you don’t know who actually did the voting. As opposed to who filled in the forms and sent them by post.

  66. Well folks, I am putting my life on the line and heading to Asda before the Easter panic. I may be some time….

      3. There were a lot of sherries, port and etc. I stocked up on my Pinot because it’s still 25% off for 6 bottles. Hic and double hic.
        If there’s an Asda near you, suggest trying it. Soul destroying places, I know but the prices are good and haven’t gone up too much. I saved £21 today.

        1. You silly girl. you’re no good at Maffs. Had bought 12 bottles you would have saved £42 and be a further £21 richer when you go to bed tonight. Wimmin!!!

  67. So, Ali Harbi Ali has been given a whole life sentence. He will never be released. What’s the point? Why not just top him? If they are too squeamish to do that then just announce the time, date and place of his imminent release and let nature take its course.

    1. He’ll be out the minute Slammers are the majority in this country – which won’t be as long as that t”rd’s lifetime.

  68. A decent run to Hyde & back this morning. Left here quarter to nine and was home by quarter to three. Had a stop at Disley where I did a bit of shopping and had a haircut.
    Just had lunch.

        1. Yes 🙁 It was quite a nice town then and had a great market at the weekends.

      1. Another so-so five!
        Wordle 298 5/6

        🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
        🟨🟨⬜⬜⬜
        ⬜🟨⬜🟩⬜
        ⬜⬜🟩🟩⬜
        🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    3. Please, please, curtail all this boasting about how well (or badly) you did in solving a simple word puzzle. It just takes up valuable NTTL space. My solution is to ‘Collapse’ the self-acclamation.

      3. Their political PTB certainly. Unfortunately I think there is very little to stop ours following suit, if they thought they “could get away with it”.

        How many of the people in our Parliament are indigenous or even have been here beyond one or at most two generations? Most of our Cabinet have bolt-holes and money/passports/green cards/citizenship to live in other countries once they have screwed all they can out of us.

    2. Martin Lewis also speaks of civil unrest here because of energy costs and the rest rocketing.

      I do feel very sorry for those poor people.

    3. Treated like criminals just because they’ve caught a virus.
      We’ve both had a cold this week (the first since January 2020) – it may have been omicron but as we did no test as far as I’m concerned it was a cold. Mine lasted two days, and he has a bit of a cough but is otherwise fine. Complete overkill.

      1. The DT’s cough is still not much better. Annoying when I consider the practice she’s been having!

        1. If we had omicron it was not worth worrying about – as far as I’m concerned it was a normal cold which cleared very quickly. His cough didn’t last either.

      2. Well this is the essence of why the Chinese can never be allowed to become top dog in the world. They treat their own people like scum and those who are not Han are treated as less than human. Their attitude is more or less the same as the Nazis to Jews except with the Chinese it is Han only, all the rest of us are subhuman.

  71. Hello, dear NoTTLers,

    Just to say that Izzy/Issy’s funeral is on 28 April in Cardiff.

    D and I will be going, on behalf of NoTTL as well as on our own behalf. Katrina, his executrix, knows how much NoTTL meant to him, and anyone who would like to attend or to receive an Order of Service, which shows a few photos and the hymns etc. please contact me.

    Also, I sent Kat all the lovely things you wrote about him when I told you the sad news that he was so ill (and happily he was read them out to him while still conscious) and then when he died, but if anyone would like to add anything to what they have already written, to be read out at his funeral as part of the Tributes, also please let me know. I have already submitted some nice (anonymised) comments from those of you who posted here or emailed me.

    Thank you all. NoTTL is a very special place, as many of us know.

      1. He didn’t want flowers – but if you want, a donation to the Motor Neurone Disease charity – I will get its details. He suffered from MND for many years.

        1. OK.
          Maybe you could put the details in a featured post on Nottl? If you don’t mind, that is.

          1. I don’t want to put details of the place etc. of the funeral on here for obvious reasons, but I will of course put details of the MND charity – it will take me a couple of minutes because they are on the draft Order of Service…hang on.

            This is what’s there:

            Donations in Warren’s memory can be made direct to
            Motor Neurone Disease Association
            or by using the QR code below
            https://www.dignityfunerals.co.uk/funeral-notices/
            Call: 02920 522 633
            Email: djevansforse@dignityuk.co.uk

    4. Here’s a thought.
      Why did we not tell Izzy these things, about how much we appreciated him, whilst he was still reasonably well? I wonder why we had to be prompted by him being badly unwell and then dying, to express our feelings for him? Is it because of British embarrasement at showing emotion? I’d better take an improvement point here, could do better (where did I read that before?).

      1. We did, Oberst. He knew what my and D’s affection was for him, and when I was with him and talked to him about NoTTL I told him about how nice he was here too.

        He also knew, when he was in hospital; the nice words from you NoTTLers were spoken to him and he was put in no doubt about how NOTTLers felt about him. Once he was in hospital he was not going to come out again, but D and I were lucky enough to be called to see him while he could still hear.

        1. He did. All the way through.

          He was so stoic and so private that how could many NoTTLers know what he was going through?

          He didn’t even want his own name – Warren – to be known. I have been given the Ok by Kat to use it here.

        2. He did. All the way through.

          He was so stoic and so private that how could many NoTTLers know what he was going through?

          He didn’t even want his own name – Warren – to be known. I have been given the Ok by Kat to use it here.

      4. Dear Oberst,

        You could not have had any idea what he was going through, so don’t criticise yourself. And that’s the way he wanted it – he was a very brave and a proud man. He never moaned. I met him through NoTTL and after we met in Cardiff we just got closer and closer – one couldn’t help it as he was just so exceptionally kind and what one would once have called “decent”.

        We don’t express our affection for our fellow NoTTLers except when they tell us about their difficulties. If they don’t well then how can we know…

        1. “Be of good cheer about death and know this as a truth, that no evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death.”
          Socrates.

          1. That’s not correct IMO – plenty of evil can happen to a good man in life. And it can cause great unhappiness in life.

            After death – well that is something completely different.

          5. That’s not correct IMO – plenty of evil can happen to a good man in life. And it can cause great unhappiness in life.

            After death – well that is something completely different.

          6. That’s not correct IMO – plenty of evil can happen to a good man in life. And it can cause great unhappiness in life.

            After death – well that is something completely different.

      5. Dear Oberst,

        You could not have had any idea what he was going through, so don’t criticise yourself. And that’s the way he wanted it – he was a very brave and a proud man. He never moaned. I met him through NoTTL and after we met in Cardiff we just got closer and closer – one couldn’t help it as he was just so exceptionally kind and what one would once have called “decent”.

        We don’t express our affection for our fellow NoTTLers except when they tell us about their difficulties. If they don’t well then how can we know…

    5. Thanks Hertslass. He was a gentle soul and I don’t ever remember him being spiteful or unpleasant. I am not religious as you know, but there will surely be a special place in heaven for Issy.

    6. I shall not be there in person, Lass, but I will be fully present in heart and mind. Issy was one of those who made logging into NoTTLe a real pleasure. He is missed. 😢

      1. I know, and your kind words in the past (anonymised) are with Kat . I will add yours above.

    8. Well done and well said, Lass. We will be with you and Issy in spirit (mine will be a large Scotch in his memory.) I can only hope it all goes well. Good luck and Bon voyage, Issy.

  72. Hello, dear NoTTLers,

    Just to say that Izzy/Issy’s funeral is on 28 April in Cardiff.

    D and I will be going, on behalf of NoTTL as well as on our own behalf. Katrina, his executrix, knows how much NoTTL meant to him, and anyone who would like to attend or to receive an Order of Service, which shows a few photos and the hymns etc. please contact me.

    Also, I sent Kat all the lovely things you wrote about him when I told you the sad news that he was so ill (and happily he was read them out to him while still conscious) and then when he died, but if anyone would like to add anything to what they have already written, to be read out at his funeral as part of the Tributes, also please let me know. I have already submitted some nice (anonymised) comments from those of you who posted here or emailed me.

    Thank you all. NoTTL is a very special place, as many of us know.

  73. At least 85 migrants arrive in the UK after crossing the Channel on dinghies in the early hours – taking this year’s total to more than 4,500
    Around 40 people were escorted into Dover harbour, Kent, on board an RNLI vessel at 3am, with mostly male group seen wrapped in warm coats and blankets
    Shortly after 9am a second RNLI lifeboat brought around 15 migrants to shore
    Less than an hour later, Border Force vessel escorted at least another 30 to port
    Home Office figures show at least 4,578 people have reached UK by small boat so far this year, with more than 3,000 migrants making the journey last month
    By LIZZIE MAY FOR MAILONLINE

    PUBLISHED: 14:08, 13 April 2022 | UPDATED: 15:20, 13 April 2022 https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10715019/At-85-migrants-arrive-UK-crossing-Channel-dinghies-early-hours.html#newcomment

    1. 85 equals another 13 thousand pounds per day for their keep. That’s a total of 6 million pounds each day we now have to find. Whilst our stupid useless moronic government put all the prices up for us to pay for it.

      1. 351976+ up ticks,

        Afternoon RE,
        In supporting / voting for mass uncontrolled immigration one must expect mass uncontrolled immigration, now the lab/lib/con supporter has it both ways as in government controlled illegal immigration
        ( Dover)

          1. 351976+ up ticks,
            RE,
            It has been happening in one form or another for decades, there has only ever been three party’s holding power
            ( a close shop ) for decades, the three are pro mass uncontrolled immigration operating as a coalition.

            The party supporter / members / voters are fully aware of this, thereby
            when voting lab/lib/con coalition are in collusion.

            Post vote they whinge about mass uncontrolled immigration purely as a conscience salve .

            Dover invasion confirms treachery through & through.

  74. Sod’s Law. Lovely sunny afternoon. Got ready to go out and prepare the potato plots for Good Friday. Heavens opened. Put paid to that. Had to shelter in greenhouse potting on tomatoes and TROMBETTI.

    Shall be gone shortly. A lecture from Rome at 5 pm. On “Mime”. Hope there are subtitles…

    Have a jolly evening.

    A demain.

    1. Fence-building stopped by sleety rain. Yuk. Don’t like working in the rain, so sat indoors with a beer.
      Edit: And a haircut.

      1. Sounds like a much better idea! I am having a restorative glass of plonk after my ordeal in Asda 😉 (Any bloody excuse!)

        1. Last time I was in Asda, the building was so huge it made me a headache. Too much choice… and now out for a curry!
          Slayders!

        1. I’m sure that Caroline will be reassured by your public affirmation that she isn’t a pro

        2. I have a clipper. Works a treat, costs 1/2 a single professional clip to buy, and is well over 10 years old.

    3. They make some excellent chocs, we have an outlet in Snorbens. But 🎵I don’t get around much any more 🎶

      1. No i hadn’t. Bookmarked thanks. I will look later.

        I recommended the Hotel Chocolat because Ocado were giving out free vouchers for the £13.50 box assortment on my next order. Like a freebie don’t I…?

      1. ‘Pheasant is much cheaper at the moment than chicken. At my local butcher, you can get a pheasant for £3.50. You know it has had a better and longer life than a supermarket chicken.

        Sometimes you can even get them for free. Thousands of pheasants are shot each year, but those taking part in the shoot often don’t want to take them all away and pluck and eat them themselves.’ writes David Brabbiits Wiltshire

        1. You’re being ripped off, sweetie. £2.00 a brace here, plucked, gutted and frozen. You get me for free.

          4. Not really but I haven’t been convicted of killing anyone so far. As long as it’s dead before I put it in the oven, I can adopt a positive attitude, slosh buckets of sherry into the brew, and hope for the best.

            On second thoughts, we can hire Phizz to come and Wow us with his prowess and I’m quite sure we won’t starve. For once I’m not taking the piss out of our Phil when I say that I think he is extremely competent and I treasure his nuggets of guidance (that is not a slur, Phil; I really benefited no end from your culinary tips) but I understand that he doesn’t come cheap.

      2. ‘Pheasant is much cheaper at the moment than chicken. At my local butcher, you can get a pheasant for £3.50. You know it has had a better and longer life than a supermarket chicken.

        Sometimes you can even get them for free. Thousands of pheasants are shot each year, but those taking part in the shoot often don’t want to take them all away and pluck and eat them themselves.’ writes David Brabbiits Wiltshire

    3. You can pick up as many pheasants as you want after a shoot for a couple of quid each. You do have to chop their heads and feet off and pull their guts out. Rather than plucking them you can slip them out of their skins. Besides the meat their is the offal.

      You can also cook the heads and feet. Quite a delicacy in some places. Lovely crunchy stuff.

        1. Take the breasts off and use the rest for stock. Lightly saute for 90 seconds each side. It won’t be dry.

          2. Not a problem as long as the plate and salad is ready. Then flip the breasts….Erm…

        2. I roast any decent road kill pheasants I pick up, remove the usable meat and store it in the freezer until I have a reasonable amount.
          Then it gets casseroled with a cream sauce.

  78. Is it time to write off cheques?
    Daily Mail.

    Millions rely on them. Yet dozens of firms now refuse to take them.

        1. I would be lost without cheques to pay my subs to various organisations. I don’t use Internet banking (and making a BACS payment via my bank is a hassle).

      1. Of course HMRC does, because it takes so much more time for the money to leave their account and be deposited in the recipient’s account.

      1. It speaks volumes, I think, when the Saudi’s mock the President of the USA. How far the mighty have fallen, springs to mind.

          1. He surely has, which is why pointing it out might be in the world’s best interests.

    3. Harris is counting down the days until she qualifies for just under half a term and then two full terms.
      It’s a pity Biden might have started WW3 in the meantime.

      1. Actually, they are desperate to keep Joe in there because he can be controlled. Harris would be a real danger because she may be dim-witted but that is no reason to prevent her from being President and dragging us all into war with here sheer stupidity. And, if somehow you were able to get rid of her the next is the addled and hate filled Nancy Pelosi. So the best thing to do is keep him there until the midterms when the house will become Republican. Then they will be able to do something about it.

        1. We’ve discussed this before but if Harris gets the job she will appoint her own V-P and I doubt very much that that individual will not be confirmed.
          I also doubt that Harris is any less “controllable” than Biden

          1. Well we are back, as it were, where we started because as I have also said, the Republican would not allow it and, frankly, I don’t think the more rational Democrats would either.

          2. Just look at the appointment of Ketanji Brown Jackson. If she can get through then any VP appointment by Harris will too. Harris will be “advised” as to her selection. The Democrats control both houses and unless the mid terms change that she would be able to get her nominee through.

          3. In the mid term elections, it is 100% likely that both houses will become Republican. The Whitehouse will thus be rendered impotent until the next general election, which will also put a Republican in the Whitehouse.

          4. I hope so, but we’ll see.
            I still don’t think they would prevent a VP nominee from being passed, it sets a VERY dangerous precedent.

  80. ‘Night All

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b7d9adab085ddf29aa51b78a1a3f9f49bed86c73f416b574d3c71572491d787a.gif

    https://i1.wp.com/www.powerlineblog.com/ed-assets/2022/04/Screen-Shot-2022-04-07-at-7.44.26-AM.png

    Stocking Up??

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2413e5e14f73dbad6b8aa3a5d9208a515ea2b91b3f1ab91d9258ba7db845fe56.jpg

    https://scontent-man2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/278327911_541792753973123_5994986155821405755_n.jpg?stp=dst-jpg_p552x414&_nc_cat=108&ccb=1-5&_nc_sid=8bfeb9&_nc_ohc=DYMNQvgRF7QAX_eVgKT&_nc_ht=scontent-man2-1.xx&oh=00_AT9MW82l-o-mNm9G6BcpgvVXwAvCoI5uXor2VpxB01y2oQ&oe=625BE6CA

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/08b37103a5b683a383a2816b131e17b46b64c1665fc903ed1eea603da600eb6d.jpg

    1. The Lego one is hilarious. As a parent who has stepped and knelt on a Lego brick….it’s a sort of exquisite agony.

    3. When I went shopping this afternoon, I was struck by the amount of space on the shelves, goods sold out and not replaced.

  81. I try , I really try, to be a decent human being, affable and non judgemental to all regardless of race, creed or disposition and yet my BP required a very large G+T after visiting The National Theatre Home website, I quite fancied a theatre night at home and they offer a streaming sub/rental service and a nice restoration comedy took our fancy. The site was awash with brown faces and the trailers showed actors of many hues with the very occasional white face , also depicted were a nice mixed race couple settling down in front of their TV. This would not be too much of a problem for me if the bl88dy activists didn’t bang on about lack of BAME representation. Hmm rant and G+T seems to have restored my equilibrium somewhat. T’missus in downstairs doing something interesting with salmon and chorizo – time for dinner I think

    2. I know you wanted to be home but provincial theatres haven’t been as badly affected. I’m off to Bournemouth Pavillion in late May to see Barry Humphries. ‘The man behind the mask’ is touring. Dame Edna And Les Patterson have been retired and it’s just him and a pianist. At least i think he said a pianist.

    4. Salmon roasted in olive oil with artichoke hearts and Mediterranean vegetables works well.

          1. I know it is anathema to many but i have never liked that kind of strong paprika flavour. It masks all the others for me. If someone said…hey let’s have a Chorizo stew i would be fine with that. But fish?

          2. It was you holding the sausage that I was wondering about. {:-((

            I enjoy chorizo with chicken and it also makes a good soup with butternut squash. I like paprika.

            I suspect that real gourmets have much more sensitive taste buds than most people.
            I knew a chef who could sample a dish and create it exactly without a recipe,.
            Extraordinary talent.

          3. That chef isn’t me. I do like paprika in goulash. I just don’t wave my big chorizo sausage around any more. Choking hazard !

        2. I’ll have to find the recipe (MH cooks it :}). we use tinned artichoke hearts from Sainsbury’s.

    3. Show us your wares, Bob3…
      Wordle 298 3/6

      ⬜⬜⬜🟩⬜
      ⬜🟩⬜🟩⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  86. One “Minister” gone. How many others will follow?

    My bet is on “zero”.

    A demain (The “mime” talk was brilliant – I could hear every word.

    1. I agree with your ‘zero’ but don’t understand the guff about “mime” that you are gushing on about. PLEASE SPEAK LOUDER

      1. No idea; he was never elected to the House of Commons. He entered politics via appointment, less than two years ago, so I expect he will settle back into his career as a barrister.
        Lord W took his seat in the Lords AFTER Partygate.

    3. More? They probably drew straws to decide who was the scapegoat resigned – to receive a nice lucrative position in six months.

    5. It’s not the ministers on the front bench that interests me.

      It is those on the back benches.

      If enough of them resigned from the Conservative Party and re-presented themselves as members of the Reform Party in the resulting by elections that might move things i the right direction.

    1. Hell they are destroying Canada because actions over one hundred years ago fail to meet today’s progressive standards so what is a fifty year old joke

      Sorry, make that supposed actions, they cannot even tell the truth

  89. Not being a user/player of wordle I’m not sure what it’s about.
    But, if I understand it correctly, I would be more impressed if people could get four sets of blanks using different letters.

    1. That would be difficult, perhaps very very difficult when your guesses have to be acceptable words and 5 of the letters left out are vowels and y the only alternative (I can think of, maybe possible in some languages). So 4 words without vowels or y.

      1. That shows I don’t do it.

        Let’s use Phizzee, it’s similar to Klingon

        Grnsh
        Qmckx
        Snfdz
        Bjlkn
        potty
        There, I’ve done it in five

        1. Thinking about it and it is doable. You’d just have to come up with words with combinations of your first incorrect guess and a bit of variation. Totally down to luck and repeating letters you know are wrong as it allows that, which I know to my detriment after too many wines.

    1. And note that nearly all of those listed who have adopting female identities are cocks in frocks.

    2. This is the public face of trans bullying. It’s the tip of the iceberg of all the bullying done by people with this mentality, and the law behind them.
      They want to control not just other people’s speech and women’s sport, but EVERY aspect of family life. In private, they can be terrible bullies and abusers.

        1. Madam, you will be pleased to note that the good behaviour portion of the day is over!

  91. Dear God! And we wonder why so many countries are laughing at the West:-

    Ex-soldier exposed her penis and used wheelie bin as sex toy in public

    Jordan King
    Tuesday 12 Apr 2022 9:14 pm

    A trans sex offender lifted her skirt and exposed herself three times in one day.

    Chloe Thompson, 42, was caught rubbing herself on a public wheelie bin before using a sex toy on herself in an alley in Middlesbrough, Teesside, on August 13 last year.

    A couple shouted at her and she ran away.

    On the same day, she exposed herself on the street where she lives and thrust her hips into a fence.

    A witness said Thompson looked at her and the group she was with ‘as if Thompson wanted them to notice her’.

    Once she was inside her house, she exposed her bum and thrust against her window – which three children saw as they were in a car driving past.

    Thompson was already on the sex offenders’ register before she had come out as trans when she was legally named Andrew McNab.

    She has 17 convictions for 22 offences, including sexually assaulting an underage girl in 2011.

    https://metro.co.uk/2022/04/12/ex-soldier-exposed-her-penis-and-used-wheelie-bin-as-sex-toy-in-public-16454386/?ito=article.mweb.share.top.twitter

      4. With two bricks, preferably. Of course, a woman wouldn’t worry about two bricks…

    2. I’m not making fun of PTSD.

      In this creature’s case is it post truss sex disorder?

    3. And they want these …er…people access to girls changing rooms and women’s refuges? I think there is little difference between Body Dysmorphic Disorder and total fucking perverts.

      I beg pardon.

          4. Oh, it’s back;-) My computer has been playing silly buggers today or maybe it’s discusting. Your little mod logo had gone.

      2. At best, they are mentally disturbed. At worst they are predatory perverts. In either case, I would not want my wife, daughters or granddaughters placed in a vulnerable position with these people.

        1. Every one of these creature should have a “sponsor” who is totally in favour of what they are doing.

          If the animal then attacks a man/woman/child, the sponsor should receive double the prison sentence given to the perpetrator.

    4. That is not a woman. It can call itself what it wants but it’s a man and a perverted one at that!

    6. Having a bin job is a new one to me – however, when brought to court it will be an open and shut case particularly if the defence is rubbish!

      1. Just inevitable given our stupid government policies and acquiescence in the promotion of repulsive deviants.

        Understandable when you consider so many of our representatives at all levels of government are also deviants and mostly dishonest, self interested and corrupt.

    1. Must be something in the water. Though it may be because of a Demoncrat Mayor. Crime rate up 50% The apple is rotten.

        1. There is a strong argument for a no tolerance policy in policing and law enforcement.

          When you consider the relaxation of police enforcement in the States where yobs are allowed to arrive by the bus load to empty high end shops of their product, where anyone with a mind to rob can take stuff from any store provided it is less worth than $1000 and walk away without fear of reprisal, you have a very sick society or rather a very sick government.

          Biden is of course a sick man. Obama is the puppet master and that Kenyan bastard should have been jailed years ago along with both Clinton and their accomplices.

        2. There is a strong argument for a no tolerance policy in policing and law enforcement.

          When you consider the relaxation of police enforcement in the States where yobs are allowed to arrive by the bus load to empty high end shops of their product, where anyone with a mind to rob can take stuff from any store provided it is less worth than $1000 and walk away without fear of reprisal, you have a very sick society or rather a very sick government.

          Biden is of course a sick man. Obama is the puppet master and that Kenyan bastard should have been jailed years ago along with both Clinton and their accomplices.

      2. Not at all. The two are not remotely related. In any way. The massive increase in shop lifting `because paying for things is racist’, the explosion of crime – because most crime is committed by blacks – is racist. As is expecting blacks to sit the same tests as everyone else – because education is racist.

        Perhaps the problem – just perhaps – isn’t education, the police, or the cost of living – perhaps the problem is blacks.

          6. Aah! I take your reading of the comment, it was not obvious to me. Two years of shite politicos has made me unduly suspicious and paranoid, another gift from Johnson and his shite government.

            I often feel that I am a foreigner in my own country.

          7. I no longer trust anyone (other than Nottlers) and disbelieve anything in the MSM. I have become cynical and suspicious. I don’t particularly like what I have become 🙁

          9. I don’t really know – perhaps because he is so very different from the absentee fathers that we were talking about. Sowell is an exceptional person.

      1. Not quite yet, Ann, but on Friday I may have time to make my first rhubarb crumble of 2022. See you (and others on here) tomorrow.

    1. And they’re off to Rwanda in a couple of days, according to the Telegaffe. Boris’ last throw of the dice to avoid having to resign.

    1. Stephen Kinnock travelling from Scotland to London to see his parents is yet another.

  96. I’m off to bed- wiped out. Early start to tomorrow as MH heads off for another procedure.
    Sleep well Y’all and may flights of angels wing thee to thy rest.

  97. Evening, all. I sympathise with the writer of the headline letter. I am being offered a telephone consultation for my SIJ problems. Fat lot of good that will do (the person ringing has already identified the seat of the problem – she made me leap 6″ off the couch when she prodded me in the offending area). On a more cheerful note, Coolio went really well today; he did some really nice transitions to canter and we almost managed tempi (where you have one or two strides of canter on one leg then change to the other and repeat that the length of the school, rather like skipping).

    1. Glad to hear he’s going well. I’ve no idea how you can teach horses to do dressage.

      1. You practise the movements separately then put it all together (after many years). Most of the dressage movements are based on things that a horse would do naturally in the field (turns on the haunches when they get to the fence and don’t want to jump it, changes of leg when they turn corners, going faster or more slowly when they are trotting or cantering, etc).

          1. That’s what the aids are for. When horses are trained they learn to respond to pressure from your legs (one or both, together or alternately, on the girth or behind the girth) and pressure on their mouth (half halts – gentle pressure then release) and your seat (weight distribution – lighter or heavier).

          3. They are truly wonderful animals. The outside of a horse is good for the inside of a person (paraphrased from Winston Churchill).

  99. Goodnight, or should I say Good morning, to my NoTTLer family, either way, God bless and we meet again in the morning’s light.

  101. The Food Chain, BBC World Service – Norwegian vineyards at 61° N

    Just finished listening to a programme about the effect of climate change and global warming on grape cultivation around the world and their effect on wine production methods and wine quality.

    The conclusion was that the combination of geographical location and climate extremes has given wine growers the opportunity to adapt viniculture to create some of the best wines in the world that sommeliers have ever tasted. This is partly due to the acquisition of notes in the wine derived from the midnight sun and pruning techniques to guard against frost damage.

    Altogether these global climate changes present not only a challenge for humankind but also an opportunity to adapt our behaviour and the way we live to create something better than we had before..

    I’d be interested to know if any Nottlers have tried any Norwegian vintages and what they think of them.

    Cheers 🍷

    1. Morning Angie. One of the unremarked (for obvious reasons) side effects of Global Warming would be to turn Siberia and Canada into temperate zones with massively increased fecundity. In previous epochs with vastly greater levels of Carbon Dioxide and much higher temperatures the planet swarmed with botanical and thus animal life!

      1. Recently a scientist pointed out that for every degree the Earth warm, the limit for growing cereals moves 300km north.

        Great for Canada and Russia !

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