Saturday 2 July: If GPs are paid more, they will work fewer hours, making it even harder to see one

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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552 thoughts on “Saturday 2 July: If GPs are paid more, they will work fewer hours, making it even harder to see one”

  5. Good morning all.
    A dry, overcast start with 9°C outside and the DT & myself have both received a £25 consolation prize off ERNIE.

  7. The Second Coming of Tony Blair? 2 July 2022.

    That doesn’t mean a return to electoral politics for the former New Labour prime minister himself. He’s realistic enough to know that’s never going to happen.

    The scars of his misbegotten war in Iraq are too deep, the security risks to him of campaigning in public too grave.

    He once told me in the safety of his suitably anonymous London office that his permanent security detail wouldn’t even let him cross the road to have a coffee in the local cafe, such was the visceral hatred of him that the Iraq misadventure had instilled among so many.

    It must always be a matter of regret that no one ever availed themselves of the opportunity to rid us permanently of this most evil of men!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-10974801/The-Second-Coming-Tony-Blair-ANDREW-NEIL-inside-track.html

    1. 353800 + up ticks,

      Morning AS

      And when he asked to visit the local park toilet was met with a chorus of you gotta be -ucking joking, and put that whip away.

    2. And we the British public are paying millions every year for his 24/7/365 armed personal protection. And the 8ft high brick wall that has been built around his country estate in Buckinghamshire.
      There should be no such prizes for being an political ars* h*le.

  8. 353800+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Saturday 2 July: If GPs are paid more, they will work fewer hours, making it even harder to see one

    When you have an arson fire fed by petrol ( pricy) you surely shut off the petrol supply.

    What is being set up now & has been in the construct seriously since the political cottaging bog man PM latch lifted the mass uncontrolled immigration door, is a parallel society nearly completed, the new five mill
    mosque being part of it.

    The indigenous electorate is rapidly becoming defunct
    mass self inflicted political suicide is being successfully practised & the political lemmings are good at it.

    Dover, Dungeness etc,etc, feeding more potential patients into the system on a daily basis 13000 this year alone, when you join the telephone queue ponder on who you voted for at the last 3/4/5 General Elections.

    The overseers are now in the process of setting up mass uncontrolled immigrants ghettos with inbuilt medic staff , do lab/lib/con core member / voters feel good about that ? whilst indigenous family members are growing old waiting in the surgery queue.

  9. Vladimir Putin’s popularity in Russia rises despite Ukraine war and crippling economic sanctions. 1 July 2022.

    Vladimir Putin’s approval rating among Russians has shot up since the start of the Ukraine war, polling by a Kremlin-owned unit has said.

    The VTsIOM poll said that 78 per cent of Russians now think that their president is doing a good job, compared with 70 per cent in February.

    The improved ratings for Putin will frustrate Western strategists, who designed tough sanctions to make life in Russia harder after the invasion of Ukraine, as well as to turn ordinary Russians against their government.

    Of course it has. I’d vote for him myself! Lol!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/07/01/vladimir-putins-popularity-rises-despite-ukraine-war-crippling/

    1. For as long as there are not the independent energy suppliers willing to flood the market to bring down prices, and there is not the co-operation of the two most heavily-populated nations by far – India and China – the engineering of sanctions are about as useful as a dam made by stacking rubber ducks.

      The only thing that will turn ordinary Russians against Putin is if he is seen to be weak. That will only happen by defeating his forces in battle. Realpolitik where Might is Right.

      We did not make the rules of engagement on 24th February 2022. Letting loose the dogs of war would only benefit the civilised world if these dogs can return to bite their owner hard.

      So we are down to military strategy as to how best to fight the enemy. Sometimes the obvious solution is not the best one, and we need to be flexible and adaptable should fate throw up surprises. Nobody could have guessed just how good fighters the Ukrainian resistance turned out to be. Vietnam taught us though that the best way to tackle brute force handed out by the Americans in the 1960s and the Russians now is through very nimble guerilla activity.

      The moment Ukrainian forces get holed up immobile defending what will inevitably be ground to dust by Russian artillery is the moment Putin gains popularity back home. Better for Ukrainian partisans to abandon lost causes, nip fast out of trouble, and then harry the blundering Russians from behind.

      As for winning a war by sending in vast numbers of missiles from well into Russian sovereign territory, any attempt to take these out would invoke a state of war, and is far too risky for NATO to attempt. Ukraine itself has resisted, if only because they do not have the factories to supply the ammunition needed to keep it going. Therefore the bombs keep coming for as long as the Russians have the money and the resources to keep making them.

      There must be other ways though to deal with these missiles. Reagan once suggested firing on them from space, an idea modified by the Israelis on a more modest scale to guard them against incoming. It is the equivalent of the castle wall. No doubt the Russians have their own version of this.

      I have remarked on the similarity between Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and Germany’s of Czechoslovakia in the 1930s. Since Russia is so determined to emulate the Third Reich in so many ways, maybe we need to consider what defeated Hitler then may defeat Putin now. Opening up a second front on the other end of the country seems worth trying. This then splits the fire power, reducing both to a manageable scale, or forcing a collapse of the enemy’s economy as it diverts more and more resources to missile production, The most convenient trouble spot I can think of is Sakhalin, but Japan is understandably not terribly keen on the idea.

      1. Interesting comment Jeremy.

        We’ve got a better idea.

        Let’s keep our nose out of Europe.

        The hostility shown to us by Europe should discourage us from spending our money or our young men’s lives protecting it.

        Most European countries have not contributed to the security of the Ukraine. Why should we?

          1. You may then ask why so many European countries have not offered assistance to Ukraine?

          2. I think that before 24th February 2022, they considered there was an argument for the partitioning of Ukraine between those lands that have long been orientated towards Poland and Lithuania, and to a lesser extent other Visegrad EU nations such as Austria, and those lands that are closer, culturally, financially and emotionally, to Russia.

            The ideal might have been for closer trade links with Russia, especially as the USA was distancing itself from Europe and the UK cast itself adrift from the continent, making any partitioning of Ukraine no more crucial than partitioning Belgium.

            I still think there are those in Europe that hope and pray Russia will come to its senses and normal trade can resume, but the more the brutality persists, smashing up the breadbasket of the world and sending its people into traumatised exile, the more distant this prospect.

            Already Finland and Sweden have seen the writing on the wall as to how reliable Russia really is.

          3. Your comment is entirely reasonable, but we must point out that Sweden and Finland now want to join NATO because they

            want free protection, NOT because they want to contribute to Ukraine’s security

            Previously they had no intent to contribute to NATO

          4. Indeed. I made the point a couple of days ago that a cynic might suggest that for as long as Russia is busy “pacifying” Ukraine, they are less likely to venture forth into the Baltic, or into Moldova, or for that matter take on Scandinavia. With any luck, even Catherine the Great’s city might be spared total destruction.

            Ukraine’s security is alas a lost cause; containment is now the game.

          5. We both think containment is the game now, however we object to Britain spending large amounts of taxpayers’ money

            on it, whilst the majority of Europeans pay little or nothing, and quietly snigger at the wasteful British.

            If containment is important to the Europeans, let them pay for it.

          6. Quite – last time the Maginot line was perfectly adequate until some damned fool British ex-king told von Ribbentrop where they’d forgotten to join it up.

          7. The cost of the ‘free’ protection for Sweden and Finland will be paid by the PKK on the Turkish border. Erdogan has managed to have them classed as a terrorist group, whilst also having the embargo on his military sales lifted. The ‘price’ NATO was willing to pay him to drop his protest at the two new members.

          8. If I understand your comment correctly:
            substitute ‘Jews’ for Russians, and that would explain why Ukraine is a thorn in the side of the Russian bear.

          9. No, the Jews in this case (and have you forgotten that Ukraine is currently being led by one) are the Ukrainians.

            The charge of nazism by Russia is pure projection.

            The bear is enraged; I can understand that. Sometimes a mad, angry bear smashing its way through the town, killing all in its way, needs to be shot.

          10. Don’t you find it strange that Ukrainian history, politics and corruption, seems to have magically disappeared since February 2022.
            I know he’s a Jew but what’s that got to do with it.

          11. It’s not our war. We’re funding more deathh and destruction. We did not give our consent to this.

          12. Simply by buying Chinese goods made by slaves and powered by subsidised Russian fuel, we are funding more death and destruction. Let’s not kid ourselves that we can avoid the world just because we are an island.

            At the moment, it’s not our country being invaded. But do we know where or if they’d stop if allowed to keep going? Genghis Khan marched quite a long way before someone took an effective stand. Likewise a dozen or more other tyrannies through history.

            King Arthur stopped the barbarians in Dorset, but I would prefer it if they were stopped at the Dnieper.

          14. Morning all.

            I just read your comment … “at the moment it’s not our country being invaded. “. I beg to differ. Our own government is helping gimmegrants and, at the same time, meddling in an affair in the Ukraine which should be of no interest to us. Instead we are borrowing billions more £ and sending munitions. Why are there no diplomatic moves? Why have there never been diplomatic moves to calm things down? And, in any case, the Russians are or were trying to protect the Russian speaking people in Donbas. If they had truly been invading Ukraine why on earth would the Prime Minister of one country go and visit that country? Not once but twice. Who would do that?

          15. …and we don’t remember Parliament giving their approval for this expenditure

          16. Putin is not coming for the Jews. He is not even coming for the Ukrainians. He is intending to destroy the Ukraine’s military capacity, to render the Ukraine incapable of causing more trouble in the Donbas. Russia may annex the Donbas, but so what? It is full of Russians.
            The Ukraine as a country has only existed for around 30-odd years.
            We in the West have promoted the war by supplying the Ukraine with war materiel. The reasons for that have nothing to to do with promoting democracy, or protecting the integrity of the Ukraine. (The borders of European states have historically been very fluid. Czechoslovakia had only been in existence for 20 years the there was all that bother about the Sudetenland.)

      2. “Opening up a second front on the other end of the country seems worth trying.”

        Who are you taking with you to try doing that?

        2. I don’t the Japanese want to play.

          Maybe we could send a few dozen Texan gunsmiths along with the clientele of California’s mental health operatives over to Alaska and Sarah Palin could have a pop at the Russians from there?

      3. Ah, that will be the Ukrainian resistance that holes up in and fights from apartment blocks and shopping malls and claims war crimes when they are shot at.

  12. I don’t know if anyone posted this yesterday, but it bears repeating. Miriam Cates doesn’t only hit one nail on the head, she hits several and drives each one of them home in one swipe.
    https://youtu.be/4JH35P5oWBg

    2. Instead of dividing into menstruators and non-menstruators, why does the trans lobby not divide into sperms producers and non-sperm producers. After all, that is something lasts through whole life, doesn’t stop during pregnancy or after menopause.

        1. Indeed, Grizz. There’s male and there’s female. Gender identity is another thing completely, however, if the trans train can’t be stopped, sperm/non-sperm would be a more encompassing term.

    3. The Left are stupid. the trans lobby is trying frantically to pretend a man is a woman. They aren’t and never will be. The sooner this tripe is abandoned and trans treated as the mentally ill the better.

    1. 353800 + up ticks,

      O2O,
      I could be wrong but do I detect she / it has a hair lip Og ?

      I also believe the startled look came about at the chopping block when the sword was introduced to willy.

      1. 353800+ up ticks,

        Morning S,
        Coud it be the untrimmed beard you find off-putting ?

  14. ‘Morning, Peeps.

    Nice sunny day so far, and according to the Met Office it should stay that way.

    Today’s leading letter:

    SIR – I have owned several practices during my career and employed many associates in my 44 years as a dental practitioner.

    With some certainty, I can assure you that an increase in pay to doctors would simply result in them reducing the number of hours they must work in order to maintain their current high income levels.

    This would result in a further deterioration in the currently inadequate level of manpower.

    Dr John Derbyshire
    Farnley Tyas, West Yorkshire

    Do you know, I think he has a point if the increasing scarcity of GPs is any guide

    1. It’s why most of them work part time. Also they don’t want to be taxed further by exceeding the pension limits.

  15. Good Morning one and all, I noticed that there’s a remake/sequel of the Railway Children on the way, set in the WW2 with the children being evacuees into the country.It was with some trepidation that I sought out the official trailer fearing grievous miscasting but as the trailer unfolded I relaxed , all seemed right and proper until the main thrust of the narrative became the children discovering and trying to protect a black G.I. on the run from the evil racist Yank M.P.s

    pffft

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6IsUeWO2Yw

      2. Oh JK, I laughed at that article.
        IIRC several of the Friends cast are Jewish, so they are technically BAME. And once you head down the skin road, trouble follows.

    2. Jenny Agutter is in it so sequel, I suppose. No mention of Bernard Cribbins but it would be nice to see him pop up somewhere in it.

      2. She was in the last remake on Channel 4, which had Richard Attenborough as the Old Man.

        I actually preferred Dinah Sheridan as the mother, even though Agutter played a blinder as Bobbie.

        I’m uneasy about a sequel whose period is Edwardian, not WW2. They should not copy the same characters, but come up with a fresh story. I had the same unease about setting the remake of ‘The Italian Job’ in Los Angeles.

        I myself once thought up a sequel to the Chronicles of Narnia, inspired by a derelict railway station in my village. However, I wanted to make it consistent with the original stories, as well as their heavy Christian messaging.

        With a working title of ‘The Lost Queen’, I would revisit Queen Susan of Narnia in the 21st century, now very elderly and a great-grandmother, who had long dismissed the games she once played as a child.

        The great-grandchildren discover a portal to Narnia close by the railway station, where there was a horrific accident in the 1950s that led to the line’s closure. But it was not the Narnia of old, but rather the land described as where good things happen for ever and ever, as in both ‘The Last Battle’ and the Book of the Apocalypse in the Bible.

        What we know in this century is that history does not stay still after the last word has been written, but is ongoing, with fresh problems and fresh magic to resolve them. The new Narnia is the realm of the scientist, the engineer and high technology that threatens to make humanity itself obsolete, and reality a figment of the imagination…

        … I edited that last bit after a thought about how Alma Deutscher (currently 17 years old and a director of music with her own chamber orchestra in Vienna) inadvertently in her 2015 opera ‘Cinderella’ created in herself a fictional character, but real to the audience, in an imaginary kingdom that was real on stage, but to the audience a fantasy. In the original production, it opens with the overture and a mime by two young sisters, aged 10 and 7. “Let’s play Cinderella” the elder one announces, but they argue about who is to play Cinderella and who is to play the wicked stepmother. In the end, one of them says “I know, I have a better idea” and goes off-stage to bring on the actress actually playing Cinderella, bringing the whole fantasy to life and beyond the realm of two children playing make-believe.

        As with the Virgin Birth, which in biblical times was a legend with Christian mythology, but is now technologically feasible, and the preferred choice of many feminists, what was once fantasy has a habit of becoming reality, and is not always a good thing. Virtual reality, cyberspace and bitcoin were science fiction as recently as the year 2000.

    3. Cultural misappropriation. When are they going to remake Porgy and Bess with Scousers?

  16. SIR – Surely Christopher Pincher, the disgraced deputy chief whip (report, 
July 1), should be removed from the Privy Council. He is lucky to be on it. Ministers outside the Cabinet, and ordinary backbenchers, have only been appointed to it in recent years.

    Boris Johnson seems especially keen on this particular form of patronage, which passes largely unnoticed by those monitoring political corruption.

    At the Queen’s accession the Privy Council had some 200 members, including important Commonwealth dignitaries; the total today is over 700. A start could be made in reducing it by weeding out those who have brought discredit on themselves.

    Lord Lexden
    London SW1

    Blimey, 700?! Yet more evidence of jobs for the boys (and girls) in an already over-stuffed Houses of Parliament. Patronage runs far and deep. Time for a massive clearout…sorry, I was dreaming for a moment there.

    1. We understood that Tony Blair had recently been appointed to the Privy Council.

      He is neither “a Minister outside the Cabinet, or an ordinary backbencher”.

      Does Lord Lexden think that Tony Blair has brought discredit upon himself?

      1. Good morning Janet and all Nottlers.

        A commoner who is a Privy Councillor is referred to as the Right Honourable. I am surprised that drunkenness or non/violent behaviour on private premises should be grounds for losing the Whip, let alone becoming un-PC.
        Perhaps the people who were allegedly ‘groped’ were homophobic?

          1. The word ‘honourable’ should be removed from all forms of address in the HoC and Lords

    2. Good morning ,

      I must admit I giggled abit when the news about Pincher appeared , I mean how funny that the alleged gropings were carried out in a Private Members club..

      The mind boggles .

      1. Consenting adults in private…who knows? A spot of revenge perhaps? Pure invention, even?

      2. I might have heard this wrong, but wasn’t there a Pete Buttcrack, gay Mayor of Back End running for presidency once? I think he was a Democrat.

  17. SIR – Is it not astonishing that Olaf Scholz, the German Chancellor, who has been very reticent in his support of Ukraine and the imposition of sanctions, should now be suggesting that they might be lifted if Vladimir Putin “accepts that his plans will not succeed”?

    Surely sanctions should not be lifted until Mr Putin is despatched to the Hague and Russia agrees to significant compensation for Ukraine.

    Colin Hamilton
    Chichester, West Sussex

    It’s not at all “astonishing”, Mr Hamilton. Germany’s reliance on Putin’s gas is such that keeping the lights on is more important than seeing him in the Hague to answer for his crimes.

    1. Were it to happen that Putin ‘answered’ for his war crimes, I would expect to see Zelensky standing by his side, to answer for his crimes from 2014 onwards.

      1. And the likes of Blair, Cameron & the other war mongers who set on Syria, Libya …

    2. Oh dear Colin – try doing some research into what is really happening!

      1. True. There was an item on the racing programme about the racing industry sending provisions, etc, to the Ukraine and rescuing Ukrainians, horses, dogs, etc. I thought callously that they’d all been listening to Bbc propaganda rather than finding out what was really going on.

    3. Neither Russia or the USA signed up to the ICC. Therefore, neither could care a jot about the minions in The Hague.

        1. Had a partial denture fitted. Just getting used to it. When i put it back in after cleaning i find if i am looking in the mirror i can’t do it.

          2. Good morning.

            Not suitable in these circumstances. I was going to have an implant but it was over £3,500+.
            This partial is costing me £95. It will settle in after a couple of weeks.

          6. I think it’s the going rate now. That quote was from a year ago. I know of a place in Solihull that will do the top and bottom sets for £9000 each.

          8. I have a partial denture but I’m not comfortable eating with it so I take it out to eat – I must have Irish ancestors

  19. SIR – I have been a building surveyor for more than 40 years. When in practice, I advised clients about subsidence insurance claims.

    I have been interested by the report (June 30) on the decision to fell an ancient oak tree in Bretton, near Peterborough, which was said to be 600 years old. This decision had apparently been taken on the advice of an insurance company, which said that the tree roots were causing damage – presumably by subsidence – to a relatively house.

    The ground around a tree of this age would have established a state of relative stability – with respect to its effect on the moisture level and associated shrinkage of the subsoil – many years ago. While the ground moisture level would have reduced in the years before the tree reached maturity, this reduction should have stagnated hundreds of years ago.

    If the subsoil is shrinkable clay, the removal of such an old and established tree would be to cause the subsoil to rehydrate, thus increasing in volume. The effect of this on the ground – and therefore the house and its foundations – will be that they suffer “heave”, which is when the building is lifted up by the swelling of the subsoil as it rehydrates.

    David Simmonds
    Midsomer Norton, Somerset

    The risk of ‘heave’ is well known as the moisture content of clay subsoil rises after a tree is felled. However, in this case we don’t know whether it is on clay or not; if it isn’t then heave is less likely, although physical damage from the roots is still possible, even if a root barrier is installed. What is far more disappointing is that a house was permitted to be built sufficiently close to such a fine old tree, and that will be down to the local authority who gave consent in the first place.

    2. These insurance assessors are promoted on their capacity to negotiate for themselves hefty remuneration. Ignorance is no barrier to advancement, so long as they have the sales skills to persuade hapless marks that this a fait accompli and their only option is to cough up. I have been lied to and cheated by professionals, exploiting my apparent lack of knowledge, too many times to have much confidence in their advice or expertise. It is a scam, pure and simple, but made legal by the lawyers.

      The tree – just a green thing that gets in the way and is expendable when jobs are at stake.

      We were told by an economist this morning that inflation is a good thing, since it raises more in tax revenue and not a problem when economists are getting good pay rises.

      1. And they’ll probably be ‘matey’ with the people who are employed to remove the tree.
        And the recycling of the timber.

      2. Good morning, Jeremy. As someone who spent the first years of my career in the insurance claims business I’m afraid I don’t recognise your view in such cases. There is a world of difference between assessors and loss adjusters – the former act solely for the claimant, the latter usually but not exclusively for insurers. Adjusters have to be professionally qualified and part of their work is to give independent advice to their clients. There are some very fine experts in loss adjusting and no less so in the often complicated circumstances of tree root ingress. Any loss adjuster who acts in the manner you have described would soon find themselves looking for a new career!

        1. Not in this case. They were allowed to get away with it.

          I have experience of a genuine case involving tree roots. The house in question was built on London clay in 1853. The trees were a willow, planted next to the house in the 1970s and a self-sown beech tree from the 1960s and were quite large by the 2010s. Both had got their roots into the drains, the willow was sucking so much of the moisture out of the ground, large cracks were seen in the house, and the beech tree if toppled in a storm, it would taken much of the house with it. Both had to go.

          However, the insurance company also wanted a large protected plane tree, at least as old as the house, taken down. This was resisted on the grounds that removing it would cause heave. The compromise reached was to thin its crown in summer to discourage growth, but then leave it be.

    3. Spot on Hugh
      The most obvious question is why was the house built next to the 600 year old oak tree.
      Who ever was responsible for the house being built in the proximity of an ancient and probably magnificent tree obviously ticked the wrong box.
      I’ve worked on many building projects where one of the first considerations has been the proximity of trees.
      A few times piling had to be carried out which takes the tree roots out of consideration. The new building doesn’t have the normal footing type of foundations. It’s built on a raft.

      1. How many people take out expensive insurance only to find that when they make a claim, there is some subclause that renders it an “uninsurable risk” and therefore refuse to honour the claim?

        It’s happened to me twice in the last year in my mother’s flat – one was when a water leak from the neighbour upstairs was un-noticed for five years because the developers had boxed the downpipe in with plasterboard. It was after the ground was saturated and damp started creeping up the walls that it was stripped back and investigated. The insurance company said it was down to the bad structure of the house and therefore not covered.

        Now, the neighbour in the flat alongside, was stripping out his bathroom when his builders discovered dry rot in the floor. Now the whole ground floor of the house needs to be investigated. You’ve guessed it – dry rot is an “uninsurable risk” and repairs must be covered entirely by the householders, not under buildings insurance. If it turns out bad, it would wipe out the reserve accumulated (at a current real loss of 10% pa) to pay for painting the outside, and probably push the Service Charge way beyond the current £210 per month per flat.

        I’m just thankful we never got round to putting polyurethane insulation on the walls!

        1. I worked on a house in North Finchley that had dry rot. It spread from the basement to the roof behind the plaster work on the walls. We had to strip the whole of it out.
          Worse still was an elderly victorian house I bought with two colleagues in North Adelaide. Termites had destroyed most of the timber structure. Some of the architrave was nothing but many coats of paint.
          But we fixed it up between us.

        2. We didn’t bother claiming when a burst pipe flooded our bedroom four years ago – all they wanted was a photo of the wet carpet – so when the floor had dried out we bought another. It needed changing anyway.

      2. If it was built on a raft that means the area is known to be subject to subsidence.

        1. I was a contacts manager for several years Conners. Were Extension were built near Rivers and close to large trees it was essential to pile (one job went down to 18 mtrs) the area and use pre stressed or cast reinforced beams across the top of the piles to avoid any subsidence. It was very costly.

          1. Tell me about it; my house was built in an area where shifting sand is a known problem (only not known to me at the time). My house has had to be underpinned (thus making specialist and therefore expensive insurance the only option). The fact of its underpinning was also unknown to me – there was absolutely nothing in the deeds to indicate it.

    4. To late the idiots have come out on top again.

      https://www.bing.com/ck/a?!&&p=30b27d6c49f05a45b6d99b5e2478cf997eec9622fd79888d9f0e07368fda6fe7JmltdHM9MTY1Njc1NzYwNyZpZ3VpZD00NDNmZDU5Yy04YmJkLTQyMDEtOTRiZi1jMDY4MWNmYzllNjcmaW5zaWQ9NTQwNg&ptn=3&fclid=79d06766-f9f1-11ec-bf7c-80888e85b683&u=a1aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYmJjLmNvLnVrL25ld3MvdWstZW5nbGFuZC1jYW1icmlkZ2VzaGlyZS02MTk3NzcyNz9hdF9tZWRpdW09UlNTJmF0X2NhbXBhaWduPUtBUkFOR0E&ntb=1

  20. SIR – I wonder how many others were struck by the absence of antics from John Isner in defeating Andy Murray on centre court (report, June 30).

    There were no histrionics or ugly snarling gamesmanship. Isner was calm, quietly going about his business while faced by an overwhelmingly partisan crowd, and stunningly modest and generous when interviewed after his gigantic performance. With that impressively old-fashioned approach, 
I hope he wins the tournament.

    Andrew Shouler
    Grays, Essex

    Well said!

    SIR – What has happened to sportsmanship? Of course we all wanted Andy Murray to beat John Isner, but some of the rowdy element in the crowd were not real tennis fans and were cheering Isner’s mistakes.

    Hilda Ball
    Flackwell Heath, Buckinghamshire

    Did ‘we all’ want the grumpy Scot to win, Hilda? Bit of an assumption there! (Love the surname, by the way.)

    1. Murray has a terrifying snarl , he always looks sullen and angry .Very spoilt and unsporting behaviour

      The camera kept panning over to his mother who was also mee- moing , her facial expressions were quite ugly.

      I really don’t like to witness angry behaviour anywhere .

      1. I stopped supporting him years ago when he put on an Argentina football shirt when England were due to play them.
        It’s probably his upbringing.

      2. Me too, Belle. All this snarling, clenched fists and racket-bashing is such an awful example to our youngsters.

    2. I once worked with a lady called Anne Ball. I could never say her name without adding ‘Ref’ at the end.

    3. I like Isner, Murray not so much. Isner has a terrific serve, but his all round game is not good enough to win the tournament, I think*. I like one on one contests, bu that does not mean I always cheer on the Scot or the Briton. Well, I used to watch sumo.

      Total viewing time of Wimbledon so far, 17 minutes.

      1. Glad to see some more esoteric sports have fans here – I spend far too much time in winter watching biathlon; not many British individuals to support, so [courtesy of 4 years in Bavaria] I support the Germans!

        1. Leverage. The advantage is significant. Tall players are often lithe whereas shorter players need more muscle mass to generate the same power. I was lithe but not tall, got clobbered mostly.

    4. John Isner is an example to all the other competitors at Wimbledon. Let us hope he has won many supporters in the British public and will go on to win the championship.

  21. Re all the Covid news , and knowing that testing stations have been removed , how are statistics being gathered ?

    My GP surgery has just issued a warning .. alot of staff are off with Covid , you can imagine what that means !

    A golfing pal and his wife have been very ill with Covid within the past 2 weeks .. so called healthy bods .. yet the husband ended up in hospital for 3 days ..

    All have had their fourth jab .. I gather a new variant of Covid is causing havoc .

    2. Two neighbours of mine went on a week’s cruise back in early May. On return they both went down with whatever the latest ‘covid’ is purported to be. Both were fully jabbed i.e. series of two followed by a booster (too young for second booster, I believe). The pair were audibly coughing for weeks and one was still coughing up to a week ago. Breakthrough infections within the inoculated cohort were predicted by experts, ignored by governments and their tame health institutions, and here we are.
      Going after the children, especially the very young is the final nail in the herd immunity’s coffin (Dr Geert Vanden Bossche has warned of this wanton act of health destruction). That of course is the whole point of the jabbing exercise: no possibility of herd immunity linked to a destroyed immune system is the holy grail for the pharmaceutical industry and why captured governments have been advocating that all must be jabbed, to save humanity, of course. Total dependency on big pharma, mega bucks for them as a consequence and total control for the government/WEF/NWO is the plan. The non-vaccinated are the thorn in the side of those executing this health crisis as this cohort will attain herd immunity whilst the ‘boosted’ will never will.

      1. They can’t suppress the truth about Covid ‘vaccines’ for ever. But they will do their best to lie for as long as they can think they can get away with it.

        Bob Dylan probably did not have vaccines or gene therapy in mind when he wrote Blowin’ in the Wind but these lines seem appropriate:

        How many Deaths will it take till he knows
        That too many people have died?

    3. I’ve just had to turn off the TV because the bbc have reinstalled their two ‘medical experts’ who really only spread and broadcast woe. There is never a single word of reassurance in their boring propagandist rhetoric.

      1. Compare and contrast the government and media attitude in WW2 when we were being bombed and strafed.

    4. The more jabs you have the more chance of becoming ill or dying. Google Dr Malone who was involved in the invention of mRNA technology.

    5. It isn’t covid. The jabs cause the illness. I’ve had a couple of bad colds and awful digestive and colorectal problems in the past year but just normal illness and nothing comparable to what jabbed friends and colleagues have experienced.

      1. The only people close to me I know of who have had covid are my elder sister and her hubby both in their 80s and ‘fully protected’ and all jabbed up. Both christian church goers……….

          1. They also wore mask every time they left the house. And once at a family gathering. 🤔😷

          3. They are just enjoying the latter years as much as they can.
            We’re next……
            But we really need to get back to Oz to see our friends again. It’s been nearly 7 years.

          4. Alas, most of my Aussie friends have passed away for various reasons. I doubt I shall ever go back.

    6. ……… how are statistics being gathered ?
      The same as it always has been, Belle, it’s a made up figure to try and frighten you and is called gaslighting. People have an amazing ability to continue to believe lies even though the experimental injections make a lot of people I’ll.
      How many injections are people prepared to have before the injections kill them?

      It is easier to fool people than to convince them they have been fooled.

    1. Unfortunately it is the same old continuing story which is leading to the now onviuosly deliberate destruction of our culture and social structure. A head shaking Everything our politicians and civil service comes into contact with they eff it up.

  23. Have to do things before the weather forecast becomes reality .. rain or no rain .

    I have a brilliant idea though ..

    Why doesn’t someone sow the seed of doubt in the minds of those who wish to float their boat to Britain is .. no passport , no entry.. they will be sent back to France .

    So many chancers are getting rid of their passports .. set a trap to catch a rat.

    1. Yesterday our local forecast was no rain and on three occasions it chucked it down.
      Leading to Tumble dried washing unfortunately.

      1. Can’t you just hang it on a clothes horse? Tumble driers are the devil’s invention.

          3. What abaht your grandfather – did he complain that none had invented a tumble dryer yet and that his shirts weren’t soft and fluffy and smelling of jasmine?

          4. I doubt it – one died many years before I was born and the other died when I was very young.

  24. Just put my washing in the laundry across the road and they have a laminated poster/flyer propped up on the counter declaring, “How to overcome Lust”. The laundry is owned by an Afghan couple. The Englishman they bought it from had allowed it to become very run down and to be fair to the Afghans, they’ve improved it 100%.

      1. Am I turned on by wet washing going round and round. Nah. Made me smile though.

  25. 353800+ up ticks,

    Don’t think it will be to popular in the United Kingdom either when it comes into being, may one ask,
    will lab/lib/con member / voters & islamic followers be exempt ?

    Gerard Batten
    @gjb2021
    ·
    12h
    Just seen this news from Ukraine.

    The Ukrainian Parliament has decreed that all women who don’t have a child below the age of three will be eligible for military call up from 1st October.

    I don’t think this will prove very popular with Ukrainian mothers, or fathers, still less children over three.

    It doesn’t look like the War is going their way.

    1. Is there an upper age limit on that or will there be a Babusya Platoon?

      1. 353800+ up ticks,

        Morning SiadC,
        Any age (in UK the older the better) reset / replace with dover intakes.
        Any gender kiss or cuddle the enemy to death or take a ” move along the bayonet please room for one more
        stance”.

  26. JPMorgan Sees ‘Stratospheric’ $380 Oil on Worst-Case Russian Cut. 2 July 2022.

    Global oil prices could reach a “stratospheric” $380 a barrel if US and European penalties prompt Russia to inflict retaliatory crude-output cuts, JPMorgan Chase & Co. analysts warned.

    The Group of Seven nations are hammering out a complicated mechanism to cap the price fetched by Russian oil in a bid to tighten the screws on Vladimir Putin’s war machine in Ukraine. But given Moscow’s robust fiscal position, the nation can afford to slash daily crude production by 5 million barrels without excessively damaging the economy, JPMorgan analysts including Natasha Kaneva wrote in a note to clients.

    For much of the rest of the world, however, the results could be disastrous. A 3 million-barrel cut to daily supplies would push benchmark London crude prices to $190, while the worst-case scenario of 5 million could mean “stratospheric” $380 crude, the analysts wrote.

    “The most obvious and likely risk with a price cap is that Russia might choose not to participate and instead retaliate by reducing exports,” the analysts wrote. “It is likely that the government could retaliate by cutting output as a way to inflict pain on the West. The tightness of the global oil market is on Russia’s side.”

    Oh what a tangled web we weave when we practice to deceive!

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-07-01/jpmorgan-sees-stratospheric-380-oil-on-worst-case-russian-cut

    1. O what a tangled web we weave
      When first we practice to deceive
      But when we’ve practised quite a while
      How vastly we improve our style
      [J R Pope?]

      1. Thank you, Bleau, you got the second line right, even if Bloomberg didn’t.

    2. So we need to scale up UK production of oil and gas so we’re not reliant on supplies from elsewhere.

      1. Strange then that so recently Boris banned exploitation of the Cambo offshore gas and oil field.

    3. Err, if world crude prices continue on that trajectory, all it means is that Russia merely has to raise its prices to those who are still buying their product, India China et al.
      And Russia won’t even need to sell as much to be getting a lot more money.

    4. It is particularly galling as we know that the world is awash with oil. The pump price of petrol in Venezuela is about 40p a gallon*. Whatever happens to pump prices here, or the introduction of rationing, it will not hinder our politicians from flying around the world after being driven to the airport in limousines.
      *Yes, Venezuela is an oil-producing country, but so are we.

  27. As if the BBC will ever own up…

    BBC takes stock of Countryfile amid complaints about impartiality

    Show faces accusations of pro-Remainer bias and has received criticism over its coverage of issues including hunting and the environment

    By Anita Singh, ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR • 1 July 2022 • 8:02pm

    The BBC is to scrutinise the impartiality of Countryfile as part of a review into editorial standards. The BBC One show has been at the centre of impartiality rows over farming, fox hunting and environmental issues. In its review, to be conducted in-house, the corporation will assess the programme’s impartiality, freedom of expression, diversity of voices, accuracy, fairness and trust. BBC Breakfast News and morning radio news programmes will also be subject to review at the same time.

    The BBC said other programmes would follow and insisted that Countryfile had not been selected “because of particular impartiality concerns”. However, sources acknowledged that it was a show which regularly prompted complaints.

    “Countryfile has to deal with some contentious issues that bring out differing views. This is the first of many programmes we’ll be looking at as part of our review process, but the kinds of issues Countryfile covers make it a good barometer for impartiality,” an insider said.

    The show has been accused of pro-Remainer bias over warnings that restrictions on seasonal migrant workers from the EU would have a detrimental effect on Britain’s fruit growing business. Its coverage of issues from hedgehog decline to badger culls and fox hunting have also drawn complaints, with some viewers believing that the show scapegoats farmers, and others claiming that it prioritises the voices of farmers over environmental and wildlife concerns.

    The programme has also earned the nickname “Towniefile” amongst some farmers who think the show is aimed at urbanites who go on day trips to the countryside, rather than the people who live there.

    James Rebanks, the sheep farmer and author, said last year that Jeremy Clarkson had done more for farmers in his Amazon series, Clarkson’s Farm, than Countryfile had achieved in three decades. Rebanks said farmers had been “frankly p–– off with Countryfile for about 30 years because the whole logic of Countryfile is that you can’t make a mainstream, prime-time TV programme about farming”.

    The review of Countryfile, BBC Breakfast and local news is part of a wider plan to “enhance standards”, the corporation said. In an update, the BBC said questions about impartiality had been included in the annual employee survey for the first time and that 94 per cent of staff who took part said they understood why impartiality is important.

    “There is now clearer promotion of the editorial guidelines on the BBC’s internal website to further understanding of them, and there is ongoing work with content teams to support more open discussion around editorial issues,” the BBC said.

    The corporation has also published details of its whistleblowing policy, providing staff and freelancers with a “confidential mechanism” to raise concerns. It follows Lord Dyson’s scathing report into the circumstances surrounding Martin Bashir’s 1995 Panorama interview with Diana, Princess of Wales.

    Earlier this week, the BBC agreed to pay “significant” damages to Mark Killick, the former Panorama journalist who first raised concerns about Bashir’s methods. Mr Killick first alerted the BBC to the existence of forged bank statements used to entice the Princess into sitting down with Bashir. Mr Killick said he was sacked for “disloyalty” as a result and then smeared by the broadcaster.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/07/01/bbc-reviews-countryfile-fairness-amid-impartiality-row/

    BTL:
    Ann Wheadon
    Brexit is a disaster for British farming…get over it Brexiteers. Fascist suppression of free speech will not change the facts. Brexit is not a religion.

    Andrew Cameron
    Yes, farms were only invented here in 1973.

      2. I’ve watched it occasionally when Help a Hedgehog has featured, but not on a regular basis.

      3. As usual by vastly over doing diversity the bbc are losing viewers.
        The only presenter I admire now is Adam. He’s a farmer, probably puts in long hours and knows what he’s talking about from experience, not from reading a script.

      1. I doubt she farms. Most people in agriculture and horticulture I know are fed up with EU meddling and telling them what effective materials they can no longer use.

    4. ‘Morning WS. I gave up on ‘Blue Peter in a Field’ long ago. Besides, if the BBC is marking its own homework then the old motto of ‘We are never wrong’ will surely apply.

    5. There are far more interesting programmes than Countryfile put out on youtube by farmers and other workers who know what they are talking about.

      2. Five letter word, starting with L and has an A as the third and/or fifth letter.

        Other letters that can be used are QWYUPSFHJZXBMLA

        So far I’ve tried
        Lucky, Lumpy, Lymph, but can’t think of anything else that will fit. I expect a Nottler will get it in no time.

  29. Morning coffee and wordle..

    Wordle 378 4/6

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

    1. Wordle 378 4/6

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

      1. Wordle 378 6/6

        ⬛🟨⬛🟨🟨
        ⬛🟨🟨🟨⬛
        ⬛⬛🟨🟩🟨
        🟨⬛🟩🟩🟨
        ⬛🟨🟩🟩🟩
        🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
        Phew!

    2. Another tough one for me.
      Wordle 378 6/6

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

  30. From Lew Rockwell.com

    In Austria the massive harm done to human life and health done by the
    Covid “vaccines” has resulted in the Austrian Minister of Health
    shifting responsibility to doctors who betrayed their medical
    responsibility to inform patients of the risks of the vaccine.

    Of course, had doctors done so, they would have been punished for
    “spreading misinformation.” It was the Austrian government that tried to
    mandate coercive vaccination of every Austrian.

    In truth, the “Covid pandemic” was an exercise in massive
    disinformation by “health authorities,” aka marketing agents for Big
    Pharma, incompetent, mindless politicians, and a whore media that lied
    through its teeth and continues to do so.

    Now that the Austrian Health Minister has shifted responsibility to
    medical doctors, how much longer can the utterly corrupt US “public
    health system” deny that there are massive “vaccine” injuries?

    1. The British and the French politicians and medics are still a long way from coming clean about the inefficiency of the vaccines gene threrapy and the severe dangers of having it.

      As I reported six months ago our lovely doctor, Françoise, lost her job for not having the jabs herself and warning people of the dangers she quite rightly saw in them.

      Caroline and I said “Thank God we haven’t been jabbed,” when we got Covid and we were over it in less than a couple of days; Caroline’s sister, who is a Doctor of Biology said “Thank God, I have been quadruple jabbed so I won’t get it too badly,” and was ill in bed with Covid for a week.

      I think our God is the better one!

    2. We’re all running around like headless chickens….waiting for the next jab.
      Make the people frightened they are easier to control…

          1. I only had them because it was a requirement to be let into Kenya. It’s coercion but I wanted to go and it may be my last trip anywhere if they don’t stop this nonsense. I’m not having any boosters.

          2. I had the first two, so MB wouldn’t be lectured by the medics after his heart attack. I can imagine them pressurising him and obliquely suggesting that I was pure evil.
            Not having any more.

        3. I have a good evasive answer when I am asked directly if I have had the Covid jabs. I reply, quite truthfully, that I am not going to have the third jab – but I omit to mention that I am not going to have the first and second ones either!

        4. Ditto. It’s been about a year but, fingers crossed, the red spots seem to have come to an end. Not having anything else and not wearing a mask ever again- even though we didn’t anyway.

          2. Yes, that’s dreadful. I am sure that MH’s blocked stent wouldn’t be blocked had it not been for the AZ jabs and I don’t think my face would have been so bad had I been able to see a doctor last year even.
            This government has caused so much damage, ill health and unnecessary fatalities. But they are never going to let it go or admit they were wrong.

      2. People should stop and think about the No1 priority when all this kicked off – it was ‘to protect the NHS’. Everything else was second to that aim. I had Covid right at the start – mid-February ’20 as I recall. It was sufficiently mild for me not to realise initially what it was until it was over. Three jabs later and our experience of a month ago when it paid a return visit that turned out far worse than the first, convinced me that the jabs are not a good idea.

        1. The “protect the NHS” mantra always annoyed me. The NHS is supposed to protect us! I possibly had something in January 2020. I do not believe a proper vaccination can be produced within 8 months of a “new” disease making an appearance. It has all been so convenient for HMG to introduce disgracefully draconian measures. And it will all be happening again quite soon what with the £2 BILLION contract out for more lateral flow and PCR tests.

          1. I went down with what I am sure was Covid (I ticked all the boxes) in February 2020 after I’d got cold, wet and very stressed trying to get back from Haydock Park during Storm Brian. It put me in bed for a week and that takes some doing! I refused all attempts to jab me on the grounds I had natural immunity.

        2. We are sure as you can be – without a test – that MB had covid in January, 2020. He recovered and jogged along quite happily.
          The following year, he had his first AZ jab and had a heart attack a fortnight later. Now the clot may have been hanging around before February 2021, but did the vaccine give it a final push? It does seem rather a coincidence.

    3. If a politician is attempting to shift blame on to the practitioners who administered what politicians decreed had to be administered then that’s a sign that the politicians can see a storm approaching. Too many videos/tweets/statements of politicians and their lackeys claiming, “…safe and effective,” remain cached on computers around the World for the politicians to be able to claim that others lower down the food chain are solely responsible.

      The problem the recipients of the “vaccine” had with giving informed consent was the fact that there was no accurate information contained in the inserts that come with the vials: the inserts were either completely blank or had something along the lines of, “This page has been intentionally left blank,” printed on them. Dr Richard Fleming demonstrated this fact in a lecture he gave re the “vaccines”. Other doctors have mentioned the lack of accurate information and hence the lack of ‘informed consent’ being possible.
      The ubiquitous, “sore arm, headache or feeling a bit under the weather for a day or so,” claims cannot be held up as being sufficient for true ‘informed consent’ seeing as the serum is experimental and being administered under emergency conditions.
      IMHO I do not think that doctors who injected this serum into the masses had any idea about what they were actually putting into people.
      When attempting to convince one of my sisters not to have the booster, she replied, “I believe in the experts, including my GP,” when I followed up with claiming that her doctor had no idea of what was in the serum and was following a government diktat, her response was rolled eyes. I have given up with all attempts to convince family members of the dangers of the serum. When I attend family events I know that of all the adults there I am the sole person who has not had the “vaccine”. Of the children and teenagers? I do not know and I do not ask. Life is too short.

      1. As I posted just a few days ago, Korky, Alf and I are the only people we know of amongst friends and acquaintances who have not been jabbed with an experimental gene therapy. And at our bowls club yesterday people are all excitedly talking about “cases” being on the rise again.

        Also one of them phoned Alf yesterday to say that he “felt a bit sniffly and had a bit of a cough” and had taken a test (doh!) but it was negative. However, his daughter, “who was more experienced in these things (?)” told him it was probably his second day with Covid. (Give me strength). He was warning Alf that he maybe should self-isolate blah. Leah blah. U nbelievable. Why do people do these ridiculous tests, having stocked up on them once the freebies were ended, when they are so unreliable? Alf told him it was probably just a summer cold and he said he’d thought of that but spoken to his daughter and …

        1. vw, this my opinion and it may seem somewhat daft but I believe some people, and I’m certain that I know a few, both family and friends, who appear to see having ‘covid’, even after a sequence of jabs, as something akin to a badge of honour. Why else would they mention it so frequently?
          If you haven’t had it, must be verified by a test, of course, then there is something not quite right with you. I haven’t heard one of these people question why, after being jabbed, and especially after boosters, they remain prone to re-infection. Having an active bodily immune system is so yesterday, isn’t it?

          1. On those lines, I have a friend who’d had meningitis; I had had glandular fever.
            Both conditions meant that for several years we did not catch colds, presumably because our immune systems had been well and truly boosted.
            We agreed that after several winters, we began to feel like freaks and were pathetically grateful to have colds so we didn’t look odd.

          2. I had glandular fever when I was in the lower 6th. I have rarely had a cold and only had flu once- after a flu jab. Explains a lot.
            MH had a pile of bumf today about an endoscopy his consultant wants him to have. Covid BS ramped up to the max.

          3. I also think that being able to say they’ve had covid makes people feel important.

          4. In the field of psychology, cognitive dissonance is the perception of contradictory information. Relevant items of information include a person’s actions, feelings, ideas, beliefs, values, and things in the environment. Cognitive dissonance is typically experienced as psychological stress when persons participate in an action that goes against one or more of those things. According to this theory, when two actions or ideas are not psychologically consistent with each other, people do all in their power to change them until they become consistent.
            The discomfort is triggered by the person’s belief clashing with new information perceived, wherein the individual tries to find a way to resolve the contradiction to reduce their discomfort.

            From the big Encyclopædia in the sky.

  32. Why should GPs be paid more, they are already paid by the amount of patients registered with the practice. Some of them are now running registered private business i suspect it van include expenses such as vehicle costs and lots of other etc’s. They are paid extra for administering flu jabs and other mass injection bouts. Perhaps they should be paid per face to face appointment.

    1. Perhaps we should reimagine our health to exclude the public health corruption that has enslaved those working for it and damaged so very many of us. The abandonment of the integrity of the doctor-patient relationship, the imposition of Evidence Based Medicine as a key to central control, and the intimidation of NHS-paid medics, have polluted both the system and the community.
      Public health as a filthy pharma profit centre is no health at all. Medical treatments are now one of the greatest causes of death – since even before the jabs.

      1. I found a website were you can list all of your medication and it explains if you might have a problem with medications and adverse reactions between your prescription drugs. It’s quite interesting to see how it pans out. I pointed out I had problem with something and I was represcribed a different type of medication.

        1. Link please, Eddy. I have a raft of medication. 4 in the morning and 5 or 5.5 in the evening + 2 puffs morning and evening

    2. Perhaps we should reimagine our health to exclude the public health corruption that has enslaved those working for it and damaged so very many of us. The abandonment of the integrity of the doctor-patient relationship, the imposition of Evidence Based Medicine as a key to central control, and the intimidation of NHS-paid medics, have polluted both the system and the community.
      Public health as a filthy pharma profit centre is no health at all. Medical treatments are now one of the greatest causes of death – since even before the jabs.

    3. Perhaps we should reimagine our health to exclude the public health corruption that has enslaved those working for it and damaged so very many of us. The abandonment of the integrity of the doctor-patient relationship, the imposition of Evidence Based Medicine as a key to central control, and the intimidation of NHS-paid medics, have polluted both the system and the community.
      Public health as a filthy pharma profit centre is no health at all. Medical treatments are now one of the greatest causes of death – since even before the jabs.

    4. Big Pharma always have new drugs ro sell across all areas, even niche areas such as asthma. Do they approach GPs to test* these on their patients?
      Do they offer GPs incentives?

      The drugs will have met the statutory requirements re testing, but this is sales.

    5. Change it to the Canadian system. No money for having a patient on the books, they get paid for seeing and treating patients.

      1. I believe that the plan is to slowly destroy the NHS and free treatment on demand.

  33. Garden is has had a good watering .. I got the hose out because there is a very drying wind .

    It has been quite chilly recently, breezy and with a nip in the air .. I don’t mind really.

    Arriving back home after giving the dogs a run on the heath, my car temp said 22c, when motored to the heath not far from me the temp was 19c.

    I have noticed this before , we have a concrete driveway. and a proper front garden . you can feel the heat coming off the driveway.. Look how hot large carparks become .. or anywhere where there are masses of buildings

    Are global warming twerps on the right track?

    1. I used to drive from Lincoln to Central London each weekend. The temperature rose by 3 degrees between South Mimms services and where I parked behind Westminster Cathedral..

    2. Raining here now after blowing a gale earlier on. Good job our event today is indoors!

    3. The climate change people take the temperature on hot tarmac at Heathrow and then say it’s a record high – they are just lying towrags out to brainwash tthe masses.

    4. The global warming temperature is taken from a thermometer embedded behind the start line of takeoff runway 27L at Heathrow which is consistent with your driveway observatons. 😉

      1. It is twinned with the thermometer at Toronto Airport. They make a big deal of the temperatures being higher now than back when the airstrip was surrounded by green fields, not endless acres of paving and buildings.

    5. The twerps know exactly what they are doing. They deliberately use the readings from sites with plenty of buildings and concrete around them.
      On a more local note, there are concrete roads and pavements outside nearby schools built in the 1950s. Even on warm days I don’t take Spartie for walks round that area, as the heat bounces off the bare concrete and makes for a hot, unpleasantly glaring time.

    6. It’s well documented that buildings create “urban hot spots”. Something studiously ignored by the greeniacs.

  34. All these people at the Airports even though they know about all the problems are modern day slaves and nothing more. They just keep turning up and moaning. The governments have decided there will be less flying for the masses but not them of course.

    1. 353800+ up ticks,

      Afternoon JN,

      Them very same peoples are a segment of the electoral majority again,again,& again, the vote & whinge brigade.

      It will be curtailed shortly due to their polling booth actions over the last four decade, and the fact the
      imams /mullahs will have NONE OF IT.

    2. Nothing expresses your concern for the environment more than turning up to an international conference by private jet.

      1. Especially if the jet also contains your fleet of gas guzzling, armoured limousines!

  35. Bought a litre of Sunflower Oil this morning at Marks and Spencers. £2.55. I guess the price fixing is over!

    1. Did you not see my many warnings about seed oils, Araminta? And how they are responsible for most modern diseases?
      I would take it back and buy some lard instead.

      1. I read your post on this some. time back and dutifully researched the info. Shallow frying, excuse me, sauteeing is now done in butter or olive oil. Deep fat frying is in lard or goose fat.
        Is that OK, sir?

        1. If you put the same amount of Olive oil as butter in the pan the butter doesn’t burn.

          2. I put the oil in first, allow it to heat and then add butter. The butter melts more quickly in hot oil and doesn’t burn.

          3. We use quite a lot of olive oil- cooking and MH likes it with red wine vinegar to dress a salad.

  37. Modern Life……

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/51eec12fbb69945ee77868ceff2ea78c4e02ffc37cf54a7d576928f7de22b3b1.jpg

    https://twitter.com/cook1962cook/status/1542540542214643714?s=21&t=mCteR00w4sFlpsAhrGNSLQ

    https://forum.theatheistconservative.com/uploads/default/original/2X/e/e0e4b9c6e0c2aa50e12f25941470e4b3976212f9.gif

    No Shite Sherlock……..

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8165d618dce74b6d24bafec376561b60cb76b14cb1a3cf14c71c107d191996a5.jpg

    1. Well, that may be the case but surely correlating these two facts is misuse of statistics? (Falls about laughing.)

  38. 353800 + up ticks,

    Would not surprise me if true,that due to syphoning off medical staff to pacify the illegal “guest’s” in the ghetto’s
    from having their human rights abused.

    To compensate ALL current member / voters of the lab/lib/con mass uncontrolled immigration, ongoing / paedophile umbrella, ongoing, coalition party will be issued a signed photo of their local GP as they last remember him / her / it.

    This is a vow wrapped in a promise & encased in a pledge by the top political DONS, you can’t get no lower than that.

    The tax payer will of course be duly billed for
    photo / postage.

    2. By the time our stupid politicians have finally finished there won’t be any soil or access to it available. It’ll all have been built over.

    4. Of course it does. These days I constantly wear gloves when gardening and I thought I did that to keep my hands, and especially under my nails, clean-ISH. Now, at 73yo and heart disease free, as far as I can tell, I’ve been saving myself from a fate worse than…
      Clown world 🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡

  40. Oooh er , whatever next

    ‘People want to get their clothes off’: naturists catch eye of UK businesses
    From skinny dips to naked karaoke, firms are recognising the financial opportunity of the ‘buff pound’

    Justine Drury did not want to upset the fishers, but her customers wanted to swim naked.

    “And if that’s what the people of Nottingham city want – if that’s their way of connecting with nature – then who am I to stand in their way?” said the co-owner of the WholeHealth swimming club. “But we did have to think of the fishermen. They are quite old school.”

    Accordingly, the first ever skinny dip at Colwick Lake last year was held before the fishers arrived for the day. The 5.30am event was, said Drury, awash with enthusiastic naturists.

    “We’re now thinking of having an event every month,” said Drury, a former headteacher. “We held the first event because we’re a socially responsive company, but we’re going to make it a regular thing because it makes good business sense; when we hold these skinny dips, we’re inundated.”

    Mainstream companies are increasingly realising that catering to the “buff pound” makes sound business sense. Andrew Welch, from British Naturism, said venues now regularly hold their own naturist events after having hosted a one-off occasion with his organisation.

    “The buff pound is definitely something that businesses are increasingly aware of,” said Welch, who is busy organising this weekend’s annual Great British Skinny Dip.

    https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/jul/02/people-want-get-clothes-off-naturists-catch-eye-uk-businesses

    1. Presumably won’t appeal to the burkini brigade. Then again, nothing much does.

  42. Couple of things….told my friend in GA that I have a follow up appointment at the Frankenstein Unit on Monday July 4th. Told her that if the bat out of hell is there, she will get a few rockets. Friend suggested a large sparkler, strategically placed might be more effective.
    Also, her husband, who owns his own surveying business, has just moved offices. They bought pizza for the movers for lunch who returned the kindness by stealing 4 cell phones. How appreciative.
    There are so many kind and generous people in the world and so many absolute bastards.

    1. Time for the friend in GA to leave a creative review on Gurgle. Something along the lines of “This removal firm goes far beyond the call of duty, which must be why their employees needed extra cellphones… “

      1. Knowing her husband and my friend, I am certain action has already been taken. They don’t put up with any nonsense. Maybe why we get on so well.

  43. Talk about the Undead. The Blair creature again:
    “Behind the scenes HBJ has been active in cultivating establishment figures to secure a cloak of legal protection and enhance his influence in the Foreign Office. As chairman of Qatar Holdings, he was instrumental in using Sir Tony Blair as a middleman to negotiate the purchase of Claridges, the Connaught and Berkeley Hotels. He has also recruited Sir John Scarlett, former Chief of MI6.”

    The entire Spekkie article:

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/how-prince-charles-s-1m-bagman-infiltrated-the-british-establishment

    “How Prince Charles’s €1m bagman infiltrated the British establishment

    The Queen rarely – if ever – accepts invitations to dinner at private houses, no matter how grand. But in the summer of 2014 the oil and gas rich Gulf state of Qatar became the first ‘official partner’ of Royal Ascot and secured branding rights for the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth II stakes. The Qataris also agreed to pay for the upkeep of the Castle of Mey which is owned by the royal family.

    And so breaking with tradition the Queen accepted a dinner invitation and joined the ruling family of Qatar and assorted guests. The Qataris had just spent an estimated £75 million on their London mansion at Dudley House, Park Lane, and so were delighted. As she walked into the gilded hallway resplendent with gold and priceless antiques and paintings, the Queen paused, looked around and reportedly remarked that the property was more grand than Buckingham palace.

    One of the honoured guests that historic evening was Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber al-Thani, known as HBJ, a prime minister and foreign minister of Qatar. While the Queen’s courtiers were aware of his political power, few knew the extent of his wealth and influence. He has accumulated an estimated fortune of $1.2 billion, although private assessments are adamant that it is closer to $50 billion. As the former Emir of Qatar once reportedly remarked: I rule Qatar but HBJ owns it.

    In the Middle East that level of wealth is not unprecedented. But HBJ is unique in how he has used that fortune to cultivate and influence the most powerful pillars of the establishment in Britain, notably the royal family, arms manufacturers, banks, a former MI6 chief and a former prime minister.

    And so, while the story of Prince Charles accepting €1 million in cash in a Fortnum and Mason carrier bag from HBJ for his charity is bizarre and grubby, it is consistent with the ambitions of Qatar to use their vast wealth to buy influence and status in Britain. And HBJ has been at the forefront of that campaign.

    While the Queen’s courtiers were aware of HBJ’s political power, few knew the extent of his wealth and influence

    The former Qatari prime minister personifies the influx of Middle East petro dollars into London. He has been the pivotal figure in the buying up of properties for exorbitant prices which has so distorted the London property market, notably as joint owner of One Hyde Park with the Candy brothers. As head of Qatar’s $250 billion sovereign wealth fund, he oversaw the Qatari acquisition of London’s most prestigious trophy assets, notably Harrods, the Shard and Claridges, Connaught, Berkeley Hotels and London’s Olympic Village. And he owns UK-listed companies like Heritage Oil.

    All this wealth has been accumulated despite the fact that the Qatar constitution states that ‘ministers shall not use or exploit their official posts in any way for their own interests.’ HBJ has suggested, in an interview, that ‘the wealth which I have – like any Qataris have – might be some of it legitimate but by your standards, you will say that there is a question.’

    In foreign affairs HBJ represents the growing power of Qatar as a strategic ally of the UK and USA in the Middle East. Its bilateral relationship with the US is regarded as crucial in the war against Islamic terrorism. In return for a security guarantee, Qatar allows the Americans to use its land for military and air bases and access to its intelligence to such an extent that the Gulf state rivals Saudi Arabia as the USA’s most valued ally in the region. And HBJ remains influential in cementing that relationship via the Qatar Ambassador in Washington DC. This is despite allegations that Qatar sponsored terrorism under his watch. He once said that Qatar ‘maybe’ financed the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda.

    A rare glimpse into HBJ’s private deals emerged in 2001 when documents revealed his role in an arms contract. After a coup in 1995 to overthrow the Emir (in which HBJ played a crucial role) Qatar awarded a £500 million arms deal to BAE. The secret role of HBJ to choose the British bid rather than the French was revealed when Jersey reluctantly released documents which showed that BAE had made payments into Jersey bank accounts which had HBJ listed as a beneficiary. In response to these claims, HBJ admitted that he was paid by BAE but denied that there were bribes and said they were ‘commission’ payments. Intense political pressure by Tony Blair’s government was then placed on the Jersey authorities to drop their investigation and they complied. The attorney general in Jersey admitted that the reason for closing down the inquiry was for international relations. Remarkably, HBJ then paid the Jersey authorities £6 million ‘for any damage perceived to have been sustained’, although he denied any wrongdoing. There was later a twist in this tale when Julia Aldridge, a former senior BAE executive, was interviewed by the SFO during their investigation into BAE. She recalled that BAE’s advisor in Qatar had been a company called Euromoga. But when she visited Euromoga’s office in Switzerland to withdraw documents while terminating a contract, she was shocked when their lawyers told her that they had a mandate to destroy files about Qatar.

    At the height of the financial crisis in 2008, Barclays Bank received a total of £6.1 billion from Qatar Holdings, a subsidiary of the Qatar Investment Authority, and Challenger Universal, a private investment vehicle. HBJ was head of all three entities and Challenger was used to hold Barclays shares for himself and his family. The bank was desperate for more capital but not from UK state funds. And so Qatar bailed them out in the form of injecting capital.

    After the crisis was averted, it was alleged that Barclays had not disclosed £322 million in secret fees that it had paid to the Qatar Investment Authority when the Qataris bought shares in the bank. Despite the transactions raising more flags than a Communist party parade, the enhanced due diligence required was overlooked by the bank. The Qatar investment prompted several regulatory and criminal investigations. There was no suggestion of wrongdoing by HBJ who later expressed regret that ‘no one thanked us for it’ (the bailout).

    Like any oligarch, HBJ has parked hundreds of millions of dollars in property in London via offshore companies. Indeed, it was his investment in One Hyde Park that first triggered the debate about the use of offshore entities to buy London property. He paid over £100 million for an apartment at One Hyde Park. He has also spent another £80 million on a townhouse off Belgrave Square using a BVI company and two houses on Trevor Place in Knightsbridge.

    One Hyde Park is the visual symbol of foreign money which has flooded into London over the past 20 years. Billionaires like HBJ have paid exorbitant prices for houses which experts say has inflated the property market in the capital for the vast majority of its residents and denied them the opportunity to buy their own home.

    Behind the scenes HBJ has been active in cultivating establishment figures to secure a cloak of legal protection and enhance his influence in the Foreign Office. As chairman of Qatar Holdings, he was instrumental in using Sir Tony Blair as a middleman to negotiate the purchase of Claridges, the Connaught and Berkeley Hotels. He has also recruited Sir John Scarlett, former Chief of MI6.

    Later this year the vast wealth and influence of Qatar will be on full display when they host the World Cup. Unsurprisingly, HBJ was at the forefront of lobbying to win the vote and hold this prestigious event. But it will be the new revelations of the former Qatari Prime Minister handing over three installments of €1 million in cash in suitcases to the heir to the throne that will revive claims of the Middle East trying to buy influence. It is a safe bet that the Queen will not be accepting any more invitations to dinner at Dudley House.”

  44. We are on track for a currency crisis – and bankruptcy. 2 July 2022.

    Jeepers! We may be all tightening our belts in response to the cost of living squeeze, but as a nation, we are still spending far more than we are earning. Indeed, we are doing so in record amounts.

    Living beyond our means has long been a national habit, so it shouldn’t perhaps come as any surprise. The sheer size of the addiction is nonetheless quite a shock.

    According to the latest national accounts, published last week, Britain’s current account deficit widened in the first quarter of this year to an astonishing 8.3pc of Gross Domestic Product, easily the biggest such deficit ever.

    I personally think we are heading for the Grandaddy of all recessions; in all likelihood something to rival, if not exceed, the Great Depression. This said one of the most irritating aspects of its reporting is the use of the Royal Prerogative when talking about it. Whatever WE may be doing I have never lived beyond my means. Even when I have borrowed I have made certain, as far as it is possible to do so, that I will be able to repay it. Similarly the running of a National Economy is not some Great Mystery that only one person in a million can comprehend. It is simply to ensure that your expenditure does not exceed your income and that Taxes are as low as can be permitted while maintain the infrastructure of a Modern State. Beyond that it is unnecessary to do anything more, except in the most dire emergency.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/07/02/track-currency-crisis-bankruptcy/

    1. Who has made all the big financial decisions? Government. That’s who is the cause of this.

      1. It’s probably the snivell serpents and the ‘government’ rolls over every time.

    3. It pisses me off that the government borrows money to give to other people and WE have to pay it back

    4. All fits in nicely with the great reset. All dependent eventually on basic state income and entirely under government control. The plans are coming together nicely.

    1. Another skin of my teeth job 6.
      Wordle 378 6/6

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

    2. Birdie Three for me …

      Wordle 378 3/6
      🟨⬜🟩🟩⬜
      ⬜🟨🟩🟩🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
      Should have been a two, but I chose headgear before the bird word …

    2. Angels and ministers of grace- defend us. Ye gods, this country is in the abyss.

      1. It has been a long time since any police were taken seriously as a crime fighting organisation.

    9. In one word – feckwit! [Actually a complete and utter feckwit, but that’s not 1 word!!]

    10. I would happily risk getting arrested for the opportunity of slapping the twat.

    2. Is that because you’ve forgotten where you are, or who you are, or why you are?

    3. I can’t say I ever have. That must be a lapse of memory, though, because when I regained consciousness in the Royal Brompton Hospital in May 2019, I had no idea I’d been rushed there the week before, so I should have been puzzled about where I was. I just have no recollection of being confused. It must have been the effect of the sedatives I was on. They must have ensured a gradual reawakening, preventing a jolt of dissonance between reality and expectation.

      What did happen, though – although it doesn’t really answer your question – was that I had trouble sleeping whilst there. I was offered an eye mask to help but, when I woke up, I had a momentary panic attack wondering why my eyes were open but all I could see was utter darkness. I’d never wear such a thing ever again.

    5. No, but when I came home after a week sleeping in the camper, I got confused and thought I was still on holiday. It was only when I groped my way around in the darkness looking for the (camper) light switch and found things that were only in my bedroom that I realised where I actually was.

  49. My word I’ve heard all now. The bbc news department have a LGBT and Diversity correspondent. That’s something else I have absolutely no interest in. I’ll ask for a refund of part of the licence fee.

    1. Their were police in Hyde Park this afternoon with rainbow stripes painted on their cheeks. Impossible to maintain any respect.

      1. If I was younger, I think I would ask Mr Putin could I escape all this crap and find a nice civilised place in Russia.
        At least there, my cultural norms and moral values would fit in and be respected.

    3. Rainbows are not so prominent when you watch programmes on a black and white TV and there’s a significant licence discount.

    2. It’s the Halifax Effect: “Don’t want to pay so much tax? Well, b*gger off then!”

    4. Don’t worry, they’re being replaced by non tax paying gimmegrants, all is well…

    1. She’s in no danger. It’s only the male homosexuals they throw off tall buildings.

    2. 353800 + up ticks,
      Evening TB,

      Shouldn’t that mob be holding
      individual number plates also with side views, Anne Marie Waters
      would gladly do the camera work I’m sure.

    2. I used to say: “As I died in the crash, can I still claim?”

  54. We had a full house this afternoon for our swift event – standing room only at the back and the excellent talk was very well received. The book stall did some business and people had tea & cake or something stronger as they mingled afterwards.

    1. The swifts are a family, Apodidae, of highly aerial birds; was this the subject of your ‘swift event’. Ndovu ?

      1. It was indeed. We have three breeding pairs nesting in boxes on our house – the most recent pair moved in two weeks ago and laid two eggs. The other two pairs have two chicks and one chick. If these latest birds can manage to raise their young, they will be with us till late August, which will have extended the normal three month season. We’re founder members of Stroud Swift Group. I just posted some photos of the event on the group facebook page if you want a look.

        Edward Mayer, the speaker is an expert and a very good speaker and his talk was very well received.

    1. I also went through a phase of wanting a pony. But I was only ten at the time.

        2. What ingredients, Grizz? Horseradish, mustard, to give it some bite?

          1. 500g stewing beef, trimmed and cut into small dice; 100ml beef stock; 125g butter; salt; pepper. I put mine into the pressure cooker and cook on low pressure for 30 minutes. I then placed it all into the food processor and whizzed it into a paste. Scooped into ramekin dishes, cooled then covered in clarified butter to preserve. I’ll pop some in the freezer. Apparently it works well in a slow-cooker for several hours too. Nice on fresh bread or toast, with pickled gherkins (or what you will). https://moorlandseater.com/homemade-potted-beef/

    5. Ah, the fascist who locked up New Zealand with draconian laws and well, I couldn’t care less. A Labour waster.

      What I don’t get is why they complain about Conservative policies. They’re the same as theirs.

    6. I would have thought more like a nightmare but then, look at the two of them.

      Provokes the question, “What does your village do for an idiot, while you’re away?”

  56. Jacob Rees-Mogg is banning all “absurd” wellness and diversity courses run in Whitehall.

    In an attack on “wokery” in the Civil Service, Mr Rees-Mogg said only “intelligent, sensible” courses would be offered to officials in future.

    He cited the example of a course run by his own department the Cabinet Office called “Check Yo’ Privilege” as an example of “ridiculous” diversity training. The course teaches mandarins to be aware of their own privileged position whenever making pronouncements about wider society.

    Mr Rees-Mogg, the Cabinet minister in charge of government efficiency, also questioned the motives of civil servants who took courses in their lunch hour, saying it was a “little bit cynical” that officials then went straight back to work rather than taking another hour to eat.

    The minister has now ordered the Government’s learning and development hub to scrap any courses that “are subject to mockery” and replace them with only training useful to the actual job. Mr Rees-Mogg believes that “bad, mockable courses undermine our efforts to promote equality”.

    Advertisement

    Mr Rees-Mogg cited a further example of courses that should be blocked including a diversity training workshop run by the government legal department where mandarins were told to imagine a “Japanese gay grandfather” in an exercise on empathy and understanding.

    Mr Rees-Mogg has no power to cancel training run by individual departments but he will now write to secretaries of state asking them to review the courses being offered.

    ‘There is work to be done’
    In an interview with The Telegraph, Mr Rees-Mogg said: “There will be a new [training] curriculum coming which will stop these absurd courses being available. And they are particularly in diversity and wellness areas.”

    Mr Rees-Mogg said that while the Civil Service was struggling to deliver public services – he cited problems at the Passport Office, the DVLA and the Office of the Public Guardian – then the luxury of “fancy” courses could not be afforded.

    “There is work to be done, and there are only so many hours in the day and we want people using their hours productively,” he said. “Work is a serious place of business to deliver things for taxpayers who are paying politicians and civil servants for their time. We’ve got to be very careful when this time is used to do fancy courses, or not working at the office.”

    “All I’m saying is that you need courses to actually help people in their daily work. And this is professionalism, it is identifiable skills. It mustn’t be wokery.”

    He complained that a course offered by the Cabinet Office on communication skills – called Check Yo’ Privilege was “in its very name a politicised course”, adding: “It has a view of the world that is not shared by all political parties. I think the course was to explain to people how they’d had an unfair advantage in life and wasn’t that awful?

    “But try and think of the opposite. What if you had a course, let’s say: “Celebrate your inner Eurosceptic?” which perhaps we should ask Nigel Farage if he was willing to do. The Civil Service would be outraged. But it’s comparatively a political subject.”

    Central skills curriculum to be re-written
    Civil servants sign up for courses – or else are mandated to do them – through the learning and development platform, run through the Cabinet Office.

    Mr Rees-Mogg has now ordered its central skills curriculum be re-written.

    He said it was “hard to see any economic value to the taxpayer” in courses called Check Yo’ Privilege “or indeed, particular value to the people doing them”, adding: “If a lot of the courses are open to ridicule, then nobody will want to do the sensible courses because it damages the whole reputation of civil service learning.

    “So it’s not just about getting rid of courses because they are subject to mockery, although that mockery is deserved. It’s about getting rid of courses that damage the whole ethos of the Civil Service, and cost taxpayers money.”

    The Civil Service is facing stark cuts with the Government committed to shedding 91,000 jobs – about a fifth of Whitehall – over the next three years.

    He said training programmes on topics such as detecting fraud or improved procurement were vital going forward.

    He said Check Yo’ Privilege was offered “over lunchtime” but warned: “Assuming that people take their lunch break to do it… Dare I say I’m a little bit cynical that when people do a course in their lunch hour, do they then not eat any lunch, or do they get back to their desk and take another lunch hour?”

    It is unclear how many diversity and wellness training courses are available through the Civil Service and aides nor which ones will be ditched in the future.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/07/01/jacob-rees-mogg-scraps-absurd-civil-service-diversity-training/

    1. I had to do a diversity course back in 2005 – it was a complete waste of time then and I’m sure they are even more ‘woke’ and useless now. It was a two day skive out of the office, coming home with a “Diversity wheel ” mousemat and drinks coaster.

    2. Mr Rees-Mogg, the Cabinet minister in charge of government efficiency, also questioned the motives of civil servants who took courses in their lunch hour, saying it was a “little bit cynical” that officials then went straight back to work rather than taking another hour to eat.
      Norway has 30 minutes for lunch, not 60.
      I don’t get time for lunch at work, I don’t remember the last time I wasn’t in meetings.
      Maybe if the sniver srpents actually did some work, then there would be a great excess of them and 60% could be fired.

    3. Maybe that should read, “Mr Rees-Mogg, the Cabinet minister in charge of government efficiency effrontery…”

  57. “If GPs are paid more, they will work fewer hours, making it even harder to see one”.

    I suggest a very simple solution – let’s pay them less and they will work longer hours? LOL 😂 👅 tongue in cheek.

    2. If GPs want to be call centre workers, they should be paid accordingly. A friend who does that kind of work gets about £14 an hour, approx £25k per annum.

  58. Evening, all. Apropos the headline letter, it wouldn’t matter if GPs were paid more if they were only paid for the number of patients they saw. At the moment, they’re paid according to the number on their books, so the incentive is to accept as many patients as possible, even if they couldn’t possibly cope with seeing them. Last night’s concert was excellent. A varied programme, mainly Vaughan Williams, but others as well. Prosecco and nibbles in the interval.

    1. My au pair and niece are still on the local doctor’s books but neither have lived in the Uk for five years (one German; the other Australian)

  59. Going through my LP library looking for music I’d not listened to for quite some time.
    Roberta Flack: YouTube has a couple of remastered versions.

    https://youtu.be/qk-T9rRBTEU

    I still prefer the LP/SME3/ShureV15IV sound.
    But a remastered version is nice to have when just listening on headphones.

    1. I wrote to my Swedish penfriend as a schoolboy between the ages of 13 and 16 in the 1960s but never met her. We then lost contact for 35 years until I traced her in 2002. We resumed writing for a year and then I travelled to Sweden to meet her face-to-face for the first time. We flew to Stockholm and as we disembarked the plane, this wonderful song was playing on the radio. It was a surreal moment.

  60. Fabio Jakobsen won the sprint in today’s stage of the Tour de France. In the interview afterwards he responded politely to the interviewers questions. He was calm and smiling and thanked all those who had helped him to get there*, it was worth it”. He was very modest. So different to so many other sportsmen, no grimacing, no jumping, no screaming, no punching the air. He is lucky to be alive.
    *In August 2020, he crashed on the finish line of the Tour of Poland that resulted in him being placed in a medically induced coma for two weeks. Injuries included brain and lung contusions, skull fractures, a broken nose and the loss of 10 teeth. So a pretty brave man also.

    1. Being modest and polite is the standard for jockeys being interviewed; praise the horse, thank the trainers and owners, play down one’s own accomplishments, thank the interviewer for kind remarks or praise. No wonder I don’t watch any other sport.

      1. He is professional, and yes he is obsessed as it is a necessary part of the job which requires travel around Europe and elsewhere.
        I too am fairly obsessed by it. I’ve followed professional cycling for 60 years.

    2. Oh, goody, BLM pride riders prove their stupidity.

      An accident waiting to happen, the drver should have accelerated!

    1. Proof positive that a tosspot of a politician will do anything to try and garner votes. Is that the Rayner woman beside him?

    2. Starmer got down on one knee for BLM. I wonder if he is going to get down on both knees and bend over for Pride?

    2. Sweeping the chimney of the underground bunker in preparation for WW2.5…..

      PS Belated Happy Birthday Richard!

    3. Sweeping the chimney of the underground bunker in preparation for WW2.5…..

      PS Belated Happy Birthday Richard!

    6. Aliens plant a landing beacon so that the mother ship from planet Sooturn can safely touch down on Earth.

    8. Perhaps it’s Richard, testing the periscope on his Birthday submarine, Caroline …

      1. It’s been posted I don’t know how many times on Nottle.

        Greatest of all time.

        Pay attention.

        1. Sometimes, I’m glad I don’t. TLAs and FLAs without explanation get on my TITS.

  67. Just watched a programme, part one on I-Player about Queen Victoria’s letters and journals and bloody good it was- Saving the next episode for tomorrow. Rather confirms my opinions from other books etc I’ve read about her- I think she was completely neurotic.
    Or inherited some of the Hanoverian madness….

        1. That question did give me a chuckle, I was just lifting a glass of whisky.

          1. Good man yourself;-))
            edit- I must say that sometimes the only stuff that has got me through some of the pain has been a few glasses of Pinot. Paracetamol doesn’t work and it makes me a bit hyper. Some wine calms me, relaxes me and then, quite often I have been able to get some sleep.

          2. I have always found plain aspirin (as long as taken with milk – or a biscuit) helps with pain.
            Wine is a good alternative 🍷but….

          3. Good man yourself;-))
            edit- I must say that sometimes the only stuff that has got me through some of the pain has been a few glasses of Pinot. Paracetamol doesn’t work and it makes me a bit hyper. Some wine calms me, relaxes me and then, quite often I have been able to get some sleep.

    2. We have it seems, been fortunate in having two Elizabeths, because almost all of our other Royals have led questionable lives.
      Looking at future holders of the title, it’s back to mediocrity and that’s being kind.

      1. I agree but some of the Plantagenets were pretty good. Although, too many of them sloughed off into debauchery and other stuff.
        Far too much emphasis on the Tudors- there are other dynasties;-))

  68. I went to see the F1 GP.
    He said my tread was too heavy and that I waa overtyred.

      1. Thank you, Ann. I had a slightly better night but only because a) I took a co-codamol before I settled down and b) I got up really early 🙁

    2. The country is doomed BoB. We sink further and further down the drain as the Stupidity Pandemic spreads unabated.

  72. Goodnight sweet princes and princesses.
    Am off to bed at this early hour yet again. I wish you all sweet dreams and a pain free night- personally, I’d settle for the latter.
    See Y’all at some point tomorrow.
    Try and behave ;-))

    1. I’m afraid my misbehaving days are long gone.
      Good night to you and I’m off to bed myself!

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