Wednesday 26 October: Hope for a competent Government that remembers why it was elected

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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535 thoughts on “Wednesday 26 October: Hope for a competent Government that remembers why it was elected”

  2. Good Morning All. Still dark. Yet another delusional headline from the DT. The appointment of a PM put in place by a tiny cabal has been celebrated by our MPs who seem to be nothing more than a claque of sycophants seeking preferment.
    How deluded do you have to be to think that any good will come of this? Half our society, half or more of working Britons and their families, are about to experience a massive drop in their standard of living, It is most unlikely that anything will change that in the next five years let alone the next five months.

    1. Yesterday I noted that Fishi hadn’t got off to a good start by including Rhyming Slang and Shitts in his cabinet – I now see [DT] that he intends to “bring back” Gove to improve unity!! FFS every time I think it can’t get worse, it does.

  4. Hope for a competent Government that remembers why it was elected

    Hahahahahaahahahahaha, nice one

  5. Hope for a competent Government that remembers why it was elected

    Hahahahahaahahahahaha, nice one

  6. Good morning, everyone. Off to the Supervet to have the Springer’s leg x-rayed to confirm that the plate installed is still in the correct place and hopefully she can resume normal springer behaviour. She has been on restricted movement for two months.

  8. Good morning.
    the news is too depressing to even talk about. Ukraine, Oxford, Canterbury and Rishi’s CBDC…
    So, memes it is then 🙁

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ef5789e121d2ff298a8abca33a5a69d327bb1993be3c59cb09802bd788cd4107.jpg
    .
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/857739a6d6552f5151e7065e0b391348d2f7e41f555cf7ec08acf96c6eb11fa1.jpg
    .
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c82a17eef4ddc0eef382b6d078bc16f3033bb794624ed6e5cd2966ba10309e5e.jpg

  9. Good morning all.
    A very mild 9½°C outside, dry after last night’s rain, but still very dark.

  10. Rishi Sunak will act in the interests of every corner of the UK. 26 October 2022.

    The first priority for Rishi Sunak as the new Prime Minister will be to stabilise the economy, restore market confidence and to ensure that the UK Government does all it can to help people through the worst cost of living crisis for decades.

    I have every confidence that he is the right man for that job, and that he will deal effectively with the many global and domestic challenges which we currently face.

    His track record as chancellor, when he was able to provide transformative support to British households and businesses on an unprecedented scale during the pandemic, has already shown that he is capable of responding to extraordinary events.

    One doesn’t know whether to admire this man for this bare faced sycophantic drivel or recommend a psychiatrist for his manic self-delusion!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/10/25/rishi-sunak-will-act-interests-every-corner-uk/

    1. If Sunak works towards clear globalist goals e.g. CBDC then he will have to be defenestrated and cast into the dustbin of bad PMs and history. It has been reported that 160 Tory MPs supported his claim to be PM, that’s 45%, and if true, makes him a minority PM within his own party. That is not a mandate to do anything, let alone continue the globalist ruination of the UK.
      The Tories are in deep shit at the moment and must be confined there as they are unfit to run a whelk stall on Southend sea-front, let alone the UK.

        1. Morning, Elsie. My opinion from yesterday. It will not change for as long as the current political parties maintain the status quo in their thinking and actions.

          …Sadly, the obvious replacement government is equally as odious and lusting for control as this TINO rabble.
          The sooner the people wake up and realise that the leading political parties have declared war on the people, the sooner something may get done. Apathy will not change the situation, action is the only way. At the basic level the obvious action is to vote for anyone except the major parties.

          1. You are right, of course, Korky. But I think you are turning into ogga1, so I claim my five bob postal order. I personally will not make up my mind who to vote for until the next General Election is called and I know who the candidates are.

        2. Labour needn’t be the only alternative.

          If ‘Reform’ and ‘Reclaim’ get their separate, egotistical minds together and form an alternative right-of-centre party they might at best be a valid opposition to Tory (ino) tyranny. They’ll need loads of wonga to put a candidate in every seat. Force PR into elections, stop the illegals (dead in the water) etc.

          1. An alternative right-of-centre party at the next General Election might well attract enough of the current Conservative supporters to let Labour in, Tom. I suspect that this is why Nigel Farage stood down his troops at the last General Election.

          2. In their present forms, Elsie they shall remain just two, minor vote-splitting parties.

            Reform need to ditch Farage and his super-ego.

          3. Tom, we clearly have different views of Nigel Farage. I think we shall have to agree to differ. That’s what I like about the NoTTLe site; we don’t have to resort to name-calling if our views differ, as is so often the case in the “outside world”.

  12. Russian dirty bomb claims ‘feel like scare tactics’. BBC. 26 October 2022.

    Russia is standing by its claim that Ukraine is preparing to use a so-called dirty bomb – an explosive device laced with radioactive material. It made its case at the UN Security Council on Tuesday. But such allegations have been typical of Russia’s conduct during the war.

    Russia has never submitted any evidence to back up its claim about Ukraine’s alleged possession of a dirty bomb.

    That would be like the evidence that they sabotaged their own pipeline then? For obvious reasons no one is going to reveal the sources of their intelligence good or bad. There’s no doubt that the Russians have struck a nerve here otherwise why make such a fuss? They of course are exploiting it for all it is worth because that way it reduces the threat of the bomb actually being used. It could no longer be touted on a surprised world as yet more evidence of Russian perfidy!

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63390210

  13. Russian dirty bomb claims ‘feel like scare tactics’. BBC. 26 October 2022.

    Russia is standing by its claim that Ukraine is preparing to use a so-called dirty bomb – an explosive device laced with radioactive material. It made its case at the UN Security Council on Tuesday. But such allegations have been typical of Russia’s conduct during the war.

    Russia has never submitted any evidence to back up its claim about Ukraine’s alleged possession of a dirty bomb.

    That would be like the evidence that they sabotaged their own pipeline then? For obvious reasons no one is going to reveal the sources of their intelligence good or bad. There’s no doubt that the Russians have struck a nerve here otherwise why make such a fuss? They of course are exploiting it for all it is worth because that way it reduces the threat of the bomb actually being used. It could no longer be touted on a surprised world as yet more evidence of Russian perfidy!

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63390210

      1. So, our country is committed to it, and we had never even heard of it?

        You know, I think we need to forget about democracy, and think ourselves quickly into the mindset of people in a dictatorship. Survival, avoiding concentration camps, and overthrowing the barstewards.

      2. Well, I was totally lost by this gentleman’s speech. All I understood was “Consequently” and “Johnson”. And the sub-titles didn’t help me much.

    3. I think we should reduce foreign aid to India ..

      I can see what will happen , more Indian call centres .. even farming the NHS call centres out . We will have nothing left .

      1. Foreign aid to India is a joke. They are far richer than we are, and will be even more so when the BRICS commodity-backed currency gets going.

        1. Any country with a space programme and nuclear weapons does NOT need aid from British taxpayers. Full stop.

  15. Good morning, all. Slight improvement. Not much.

    TWO YEARS ago today, we were joined by tiny Gus and Pickles Doesn’t tie fly?

    1. Good morning Bill,

      My goodness time really does fly.

      I wonder if you could put your photos of the cats to good use .. a book for children ?

      1. How dare you.!! The other day you were extremely critical when I tactfully pointed out a type by Phil.

  16. Mornin’ all.

    First AM for the new PM.
    I wonder how many he’ll have. Although I didn’t vote for him, I donthink we need to keep hold of this one a bit longer – give him the chance that Bojo and Truss were not given.

    1. Absolutely, Stormy. I am sick to the back teeth of assaults on whoever is in power before they have been given the traditional 100 days to prove themselves. And sadly this is also shown on this site. But this is positively my last comment on this matter, or I shall risk turning into a broken record like ogga1. PS – I might post again on this topic after 100 days, which I calculate to be the 2nd of February, 2023.

  18. 366589+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Wednesday 26 October: Hope for a competent
    Government that remembers why it was elected

    And that has been the common denominator these past near four decades,HOPE.

    Hope can be a fickle commodity and in the case of supporting & voting for a party name only, when the party has a history of recorded treachery, is surely the height of
    dangerous stupidity.

    A new party ( mass build on fringe party base) is most
    urgently needed but caution is required in selection as in
    brexit party 2019 with first outing found to carry a strong strain of Stockholm syndrome in regards to the tory
    ( ino) party & johnson.

    Party leading hierarchy plainly at fault requiring a party name change.

    One thing for sure there is NO protection for either Country or indigenous peoples via the toxic trio coalition party, the morally wrong invasion carries on daily unabated, before you know it they will be entering private dwellings and demanding satisfaction for their immediate needs,

    1. It already happened the the other day, a man turned up at someone’s house demanding to use the phone.
      A serious point is, where will they be put up when the govt runs out of hotels (which will happen at this rate)?
      The Ukraine scheme paved the way for refugees in people’s homes.

      1. 366589+ up ticks,

        BB2,
        As I mentioned some time ago
        compulsory boardering would NOT surprise me in the least.

        1. It’s interesting that Wealden Council have recently been sending out questionnaires asking whether you live alone.

          Have you had one ogga?

          2. 366589+ up ticks,

            Morning J,lh,
            Glad to say not, in my book as with anyone of a decent nature veterans with concrete pillows would be the major concern.
            Councils are in power courtesy of the peoples, same as governing parties people power is a formidable force when used wisely.

        3. If they can’t force you to take in illegals, no doubt they’ll use emergency powers to force buy your home from you.

          Of course, the obvious situation is to just sodding well get rid of them and prevent any others coming here ever again.

          1. Instruct the Royal Navy to tell them to return whence they came or be shot out of the water.

            Keep Border Farce and the Rescue Numberless Lazy Illegals out of the channel.

      2. House them in the Home office buildings and employees. Especially those of young women with young children.

        Heck, even writing that is vile, but it is the only way this invasion will be reversed.

        1. They wouldn’t put young women with young children anywhere near my cottage. Safeguarding rules places me in the “Least Desirable” category of host. It is automatically presumed that I am an abuser.

        1. Would that be luxurious enough? Not what they are used to, surely!
          I’m probably letting my imagination run away with me, but what if they home in on older people living alone in properties with spare bedrooms?

  21. Good Moaning.

    Apparently we now have to worry about mutant mushrooms attacking us. Obviously monkey pox was a damp squib.

    The human race has been prone to fungal infections – particularly when run down – since the dawn of time. But hey, don’t let facts get in the way of triggering another panic. No comments allowed, of course.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk…

    2. I also need to worry about comments cloning themselves. We’re all dooooooooooooomed ………

    3. Funny, I’ve read two things recently about people dying from fungal infections in the lungs, or nearly dying. You’d almost think it was coordinated…

      We’re all doomed….again…

    4. Morning Anne

      The thing in the lungs that aids and abets COPD seems to be very common these days.
      I expect people who keep their windows closed, and when mould builds up are at greater risk of developing breathing/ skin problems etc .

      My +14 year old spannel has aspergillosis/fungal rhinitis.. it started about 5 years ago, was treatable , but kept returning .

      1. I expect they will say that everyone has mould because they turned down the heating, or something like that.
        On the Continent, they do insulation on the outside of people’s houses, and then they all get mould inside the house, I seem to remember being told. Not sure how that works though?

      2. We used to get mould indoors when I was a child because we had no proper heating. I’ve never been prone to chest infections.
        My poorly friend with COPD acknowledges that it was due to being a lifetime smoker, especially when she was in the RAF. Her husband has it too though not so severely.

  23. Good morning all..

    One of Britain’s top generals, who fought in the Afghan war, has been appointed to tackle the surge in Albanian migrants crossing the Channel.

    Lt General Stuart Skeates, who also served in the Gulf war and Bosnian war, has become the Prime Minister’s and Home Secretary’s special coordinator on illegal Albanian migration.

    He is expected to work with the Albanian government to help tackle the trafficking gangs behind the surge of up to 10,000 Albanians who have crossed the Channel this year in small boats.

    Britain has signed a deal with Albania to fast-track deportations of foreign criminals to the Balkan state and agreed under then home secretary Priti Patel for Albanian police officers to be stationed in Dover to help carry out ID and criminal checks on Channel migrants.

    His appointment coincides with the first fast-track deportation of Albanian small boat migrants who were removed from Britain within days of arriving across the Channel.

    The 12 Albanians were sent home on a charter plane after refusing to claim asylum in a move that the Home Office hopes will act as a deterrent to their countrymen seeking to come to the UK illegally.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/10/25/afghan-war-general-given-new-role-tackling-surge-albanian-migrants/

    Lt General Skeates has been advising Cabinet Office ministers since January on tackling human trafficking and protecting UK borders after Steve Barclay was asked by Boris Johnson to head a cross-government review of the Channel migrant crisis.

    He was previously deputy commander of Nato’s allied joint force command in Holland, and before that, was joint force commander at the UK’s strategic command in Northwood in northwest London.

    His military career also includes the command of the 19th light brigade, head of the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst and acting as deputy commander of the UK taskforce that supported the Afghan forces in Helmand.

    He is the second person with a military background to take a senior role in tackling the Channel migrants. Dan O’Mahoney, a former Royal Marine who then joined the National Crime Agency and Border Force, was appointed Clandestine Channel Threat Commander in 2020.

    Home Office officials say Albanians now account for between 50 per cent and 60 per cent of arrivals. More than 37,000 migrants have reached the UK this year across the Dover straits, compared with 28,400 for the whole of last year.

    A Government spokesman said: “The government stands united in its efforts in preventing dangerous Channel crossings, stopping exploitative criminal gangs and protecting those in genuine need. The Home Office and Ministry of Defence have a strong track record of working closely together to tackle this issue.”

    They confirmed Lt Gen Skeates was seconded to the Home Office on 12 October 2022.

    Hang on a second The 12 Albanians were sent home on a charter plane after refusing to claim asylum in a move that the Home Office hopes will act as a deterrent to their countrymen seeking to come to the UK illegally.

    Lt General Skeates has been advising Cabinet Office ministers since January on tackling human trafficking and protecting UK borders after Steve Barclay was asked by Boris Johnson to head a cross-government review of the Channel migrant crisis

    What about the huge volumes of Arabs and Africans who continue to cross the Channel and who cause mayhem?

    1. The best way to deal with the problem is to address the cause. Is for the Lt General to arrest everyone in the house of commons and make them sign a legal declaration to get rid of and stop the entry of all these unwanted uninvited illegal immigrants by the end of January next year. If they refuse to accept the contract. Sack them. They have no right to be paid by the UK taxpayers. The damage these people in politics are causing is an absolute disgrace.

      1. Yes, but those really culpable are the Home office officials. They need arresting first.

        Or, alternatively, ram 50 criminal gimmigrants in every one of their homes.

        1. Absolutely correct. I doubt if front benches or most politicians have much of a say in what the snivel service get up to.
          I think the fires back in the summer by the Thames in East London were arson, caused by illegals in the hotel nearby.
          None of it made any real sense.

    2. It doesn’t need a general. Go out on the call. See it’s a boatload of gimmigrants. Tell them to turn back. If they don’t, shoot them. Come home.

    3. I cause some bemused merriment down under when I compare Australia with the Isle of Wight. After all, they are both islands offshore of a much larger mass, and the Risk board only gives then two points, whereas Asia has seven. Melbourne to Cairns is about the same journey as Ventnor to Ryde, a nice morning day trip.

      Following this logic, I presume the threat posed by Albanian immigration is equivalent to that posed by illegals from Africa or Asia.

      1. The Albanians have excellent experience in bringing girls to this country illegally for immoral purposes.. They have well organised and heavily armed gangs in London and elsewhere. They control the drugs trade. Who better to run the immigration racket? Their involvement means that there will be no interference from the police who are terrified of them.

    5. A couple of boats mid-channel with machine-guns will be cheaper and get the job done more quickly.

  24. 366589+ up ticks,

    Sunak Surprises by Reinstating Mass Migration Sceptic Suella Braverman as Home Secretary

    The proof will be when a large wodge of illegal immigrants are landing elsewhere with a weeks welfare
    in the pockets ( humanitarian payment) and a don’t return
    notice in 7100 languages.

    Then and NOT until then trust braverman

    1. ogga, I do believe that Braverman is a real Conservative who would stop the invasion if she could. I am equally convinced that Sunak has no intention of letting the invasion be stopped, and neither have any of the civil serpents at the Home Office.

      1. The criminal invaders are being brought here deliberately by the state machine specifically out of spite for Brexit.

        1. If EU leaders regard the post-Brexit UK as little better than a toilet, can one blame them for disposing of their waste there?

      2. 366589+ up ticks,
        BB2
        Hear you loud & clear as in an innocent being used with only rhetorical power NO action content allowed, could very well be so.

        But I do err on the side of caution until they prove their worth in actions taken.

    2. I supported this re-appointment, and have written elsewhere about the rehabilitation of useful ministers who have transgressed, and that one needs to balance their offence with their usefulness back in post.

      Stemming the flow of uninvited violators of border control is a notoriously tricky business when these people are supported by some of the most able legal minds and contacts in high places that oil sheik money can buy. There is no hope in supporting our dwindling team of immigration officers unless there is a top lawyer at the helm on their side. As a former Attorney General, and fully understanding of the threat to national interest involved, I cannot think of anyone better than Suella Braverman to be charged with taking it on.

      I have also argued that this must not be tackled by imposing targets or caps on immigration arbitrarily. We would then end up simply with 10,000 fifth columnists and no plumbers, dentists or nurses and nobody to harvest the fruit and veg. Any competent civil servant can work out who we need to get things done here that cannot be done by native recruits, and how many. There are mechanisms through the visa process to see this is resolved speedily and efficiently, so that employers desperate for labour do not have to fight the system simply to keep their businesses running.

      1. 366589+ up ticks,

        Morning JM,

        Even the mighty fall to the cudgel, in a civil war
        (on course endgame) everyone is equal except those with a bigger cudgel.

        1. The “breach of security” was really a simple oversight. That the vile cabinet secretary Case is “lived” is a bonus!!

          1. I think it was deliberate, Bill, so that she had an excuse to resign from Truss’ cabinet.

      3. I just do not believe the lack of “native recruits”. We have half again as many people in the UK as we had just before the First World War. We have outsourced all of the industrial jobs that employed hundreds of thousands of people. If we need jobs to be done we have people in the country who can do them. People can be trained. Bringing in immigrants because “we need their skills” is way of bringing in immigrants.
        It must stop. Educate and train those who live here now. No one else. Stop Universities raking in money from scarce places in medical schools by bringing in foreigners who pay higher fees.

        My school chum was turned down for a place in medical school so he became a vet. He moved to the United States and is now a professor of (human) medicine.

    1. Rees-Mogg lambasts critics of EU laws bill after quitting government

      Former business secretary tells opponents of bill they are fighting a Brexit battle all over again

      Lisa O’Carroll Brexit correspondent

      Tue 25 Oct 2022 17.27 BST
      The former business secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg launched a scathing attack on opponents of legislation he has tabled to sweep away EU law, telling them they are fighting a Brexit battle all over again.

      Rees-Mogg quit his role after Rishi Sunak became prime minister, and less than two hours later returned to the backbenches to see a stand-in, the business minister Dean Russell, opening the second reading of the retained EU law (revocation and reform) bill.

      Rees-Mogg told MPs the proposals were aimed at “restoring parliamentary sovereignty” and helping remove rules and regulations that supposedly put business under pressure.

      In an extraordinary backbench spat, he accused a fellow Conservative MP of never accepting the result of Brexit, leading Richard Graham to demand the former minister withdraw the “untrue” statement.

      Graham had objected to the speed with which the bill proposes to get rid of 2,400 laws. Through a sunset clause, laws that have not been actively saved by a government minister will automatically be switched off on 31 December 2023 under Rees-Mogg’s bill.

      The shadow business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, told the house the bill was “not conducive to good laws”, saying the sunset clause “puts a gun to parliament’s head”.

      The Scottish National party spokesperson Brendan O’Hara urged the new prime minister to scrap the bill, describing it as the “unwanted puppy that no one would particularly want in the first place that no one really cares for” given as a present by a man who has “flounced” out the door.

      Rees-Mogg said the bill was about Britain taking back control, not about the process of law-making. “We are restoring parliamentary sovereignty,” he said. “This bill is first of all of fundamental constitutional importance because it is removing the supremacy of EU law.”
      *
      *
      https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/oct/25/rees-mogg-lambasts-critics-of-eu-laws-bill-after-quitting-government

      1. Holding a gun to parliament’s head. Sounds like a good thing. It should be operating in that manner all the time – by the public. Besides it’s a year. It’s 2400 bills. There should be an absolute cull of all law – including the 150,000 pages of tax code.

      2. ‘Speed’ !?! Courtesy of wreckers like Graham et al, by the time the Bill does its job it’ll have been it’ll have been SEVEN AND A HALF YEARS since we ungrateful proles voted in a way they didn’t like (and which they still petulantly refuse to accept).

      1. It’s a relatively polite “bread and butter letter” resigning his post.
        If you open the image in a new tab it is easier to read.

          2. I suspect that JR-M is pretty old school and was taught that such letters should be hand written.

  26. Good morrow, Gentlefolk, today’s funny:

    The Five-Minute Management Course

    Lesson 1

    A man is getting into the shower just as his wife is finishing up her shower, when the doorbell rings. The wife quickly wraps herself in a towel and runs downstairs. When she opens the door, there stands Bob, the next-door neighbour. Before she says a word, Bob says, ‘I’ll give you $800 to drop that towel.’ After thinking for a moment, the woman drops her towel and stands naked in front of Bob, after a few seconds, Bob hands her $800 and leaves.
    The woman wraps back up in the towel and goes back upstairs. When she gets to the bathroom, her husband asks, ‘Who was that?’
    ‘It was Bob the next-door neighbour,’ she replies.
    ‘Great,’ the husband says, ‘did he say anything about the $800 he owes me?’

    Moral of the story:

    If you share critical information pertaining to credit and risk with your shareholders in time, you may be in a position to prevent avoidable exposure

    Lesson 2

    A priest offered a Nun a lift. She got in and crossed her legs, forcing her habit to reveal a leg.
    The Priest nearly had an accident. After controlling the car, he stealthily slid his hand up her leg.
    The nun said, ‘Father, remember Psalm 129?’
    The Priest removed his hand. But, changing gears, he let his hand slide up her leg again.
    The Nun once again said, ‘Father, remember Psalm 129?’
    The Priest apologized ‘Sorry Sister but the flesh is weak.’
    Arriving at the convent, the Nun sighed heavily and went on her way.
    On his arrival at the church, the Priest rushed to look up Psalm 129. It said, ‘Go forth and seek, further up, you will find glory.’

    Moral of the story

    If you are not well informed in your job, you might miss a great opportunity.

    Lesson 3

    A sales rep, an administration clerk, and the manager are walking to lunch when they find an antique oil lamp. They rub it and a Genie comes out. The Genie says, ‘I’ll give each of you just one wish.’ ‘Me first! Me first!’ says the admin clerk. ‘I want to be in the Bahamas, driving a speedboat, without a care in the world.’
    Puff! She’s gone.
    ‘Me next! Me next!’ says the sales rep. ‘I want to be in Hawaii, relaxing on the beach with my personal masseuse, an endless supply of Pina Coladas and the love of my life.’
    Puff! She’s gone.
    ‘OK, you’re up,’ the Genie says to the manager. The manager says, ‘I want those two back in the office after Lunch.’

    Moral of the story:
    Always let your boss have the first say.

    Lesson 4

    An eagle was sitting on a tree resting, doing nothing. A small rabbit saw the eagle and asked him, ‘Can I also sit like you and do nothing?’
    The eagle answered: ‘Sure, why not.’
    So, the rabbit sat on the ground below the eagle and rested. All of a sudden, a fox appeared, jumped on the rabbit and ate it.

    Moral of the story:

    To be sitting and doing nothing, you must be sitting very, very high up.

    Lesson 5

    A turkey was chatting with a bull.
    ‘I would love to be able to get to the top of that tree’ sighed the turkey, ‘but I haven’t got the energy.’ ‘Well, why don’t you nibble on some of my droppings?’ replied the bull. They’re packed with nutrients.’
    The turkey pecked at a lump of dung, and found it actually gave him enough strength to reach the lowest branch of the tree.
    The next day, after eating some more dung, he reached the second branch. Finally, after a fourth night, the turkey was proudly perched at the top of the tree.
    He was promptly spotted by a farmer, who shot him out of the tree.

    Moral of the story:

    Bull Shït might get you to the top, but it won’t keep you there.

    Lesson 6

    A little bird was flying south for the winter. It was so cold the bird froze and fell to the ground into a large field. While he was lying there, a cow came by and dropped some dung on him. As the frozen bird lay there in the pile of cow dung, he began to realize how warm he was. The dung was actually thawing him out! He lay there all warm and happy, and soon began to sing for joy.
    A passing cat heard the bird singing and came to investigate. Following the sound, the cat discovered the bird under the pile of cow dung, and promptly dug him out and ate him.

    There are several morals to this story:

    (1) Not everyone who shïts on you is your enemy.

    (2) Not everyone who gets you out of shït is your friend.

    (3) And when you’re in deep shït, it’s best to keep your mouth shut!

    Here Endeth The Five-Minute Management Course

  29. Morning all 🙂
    High cloud and quite bright.
    We haven’t had a competent government for about 3 decades. They are an absolute shambles.

      1. It seems the further forward they get on the benches the more their self esteem becomes highly unbalanced. That’s the danger.
        There should be more emphasis on why they are there and not so much on ‘ME’. Shapps is a classic example.

    2. I don’t like the way he is blaming Lizz Truss for the state of the economy. He is the main reason. My opinion of my MP is dwindling at some speed.

      4. That is why Liz Truss was allowed to ‘win’. So that there was someone else to focus upon and blame for the state of the economy. Not the person who took the financial decisions taken during the covid fiasco, oh no no no no, perish that thought from your mind and shut the door on it.

        The thing is, was Truss in on it? I suspect she was and was rewarded handsomely.

  30. Just noteed that practically every story about Sunak is being heavily moderated, across all the traditional media.

    We know his installation was a stitch up, but the desperation to prevent any dissent and presentation of evidence for this is hilarious. It’s almost as if the MSM is afraid.

  31. Considering his well-known sympathy for the objectives of COP and how he used his authority in his previous role to bring the matter to global attention, why was King Charles III targeted for attack by climate protesters? Shouldn’t they be going for the villains here rather than friends?

  33. Russian newspaper brands Rishi Britain’s ‘premier from the slums’: Financial publication make family slur against man they dub ‘first black head of the British government’
    Kommersant, a Russian publication, used the slurs against Sunak in headline
    The headline was used for a photo gallery describing his rise to power
    Kremlin said despite new leader there is ‘no hope’ of ease in tensions with the UK
    This is due to damaged diplomatic relationship caused by Ukraine invasion

    Britain’s newly-elected Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has been called the ‘premier from the slums’ by a Russian newspaper.

    The financial publication Kommersant used the slur against the prime minister, 42, as well as dubbing him the ‘first black head of the British government’ – a term that is often used to refer to someone who is ‘dark-skinned’.

    Kommersant used sixteen images to document Rishi’s rise to power, and in the first wrote: ‘Both of Rishi Sunak’s grandfathers are Punjabis from the most disadvantaged regions of British India.’

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11354933/Financial-publication-make-family-slur-against-Rishi-Sunak.html?ito=push-notification&ci=Ly2BotdX2R&cri=t-6Xu6xCuA&si=xYJ0MlrMyMmf&ai=11354933

    1. That’s a bit naughty. Sunak is about as solidly middle class as you can imagine. Not a product of the slums.

        2. The whole race thing is a red herring. Some of the media can’t refer to Sunak as “the new PM”, it has to be “Britain’s first Asian PM”. Makes any criticism of him sound like the big R crime!

  35. Madeleine Grant’s take on our new PM:

    Since his stratospheric rise to the top of British politics, first as chancellor, then Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak has endured a familiar selection of criticisms. There’s “Fishy Rishi” — careerist, backstabber, snake. To some, he’s “Davos Man”; the heir to Blair or the British Macron, epitomising the triumph of style over substance. To others, he’s the ultimate Treasury flunky; a big spender or a Wet.

    All of this is not quite at the level of President Biden, who managed to get Mr Sunak’s name entirely wrong today, welcoming the arrival of “Rashid Sanook” to No 10. But there’s no doubt that a kind of identity crisis, or at the very least a set of paradoxes, accompanies the new PM — because in many ways his critics have things the wrong way round.

    As chancellor, he soon became the perfect dramatic foil to Boris Johnson. Taken together, they were reminiscent of Bialystock and Bloom from The Producers; the spendthrift theatrical agent and his nervous accountant; Rishi almost comically slick and well turned-out where Boris was scruffy. This applied in more substantive matters too. During the pandemic and afterwards, Sunak was notably more hawkish on the economy, and tried — often unsuccessfully — to rein in his boss’s big-spending instincts. Many, understandably, blamed Mr Sunak for the reviled national insurance increase imposed to fund social care and the NHS. But it also demonstrated that hawkish instinct; a belief that taxes will have to rise if the Government cannot cut spending, that there is no such thing as a free lunch. Recent events have certainly vindicated that view.

    Another source of chalk and cheese-ism was the lockdown itself. Sunak was one of the most lockdown-sceptic Cabinet ministers — yet another contradiction to add to the list, due to his synonymousness with lockdown and furlough in the minds of the public. But his interventions were a major factor in why Britain unlocked earlier than many other countries and avoided a fourth lockdown, contrary to what the Opposition and other Cabinet ministers were urging at the time.

    Many consider Eat Out to Help Out a colossal waste of cash. Perhaps they are right. But it is often forgotten just how controversial it was back then among pro-lockdowners, who attacked the policy for “subsidising people to spread the virus”. Some considered it a technocratic wheeze to inject money into hospitality; but it was arguably more than that – a psychological attempt to combat the Cummings fear project, recognising that many people were nervous and had to be prodded into returning to normal that summer while cases remained low.

    Unlike Liz Truss (and, dare I say it, Boris Johnson), Mr Sunak was a true believer in Brexit, even during the high-water mark of Cameroonism, when treading the other path would have been more politically advantageous. As Tim Shipman recounts in All Out War, Cameron and Osborne spent the run-up to the referendum campaign frantically tapping up MPs, sometimes inviting them to Downing Street in the hope of enlisting them for Stronger In. The pair had assumed that Sunak, then newly elected for Richmond and a rising star in the party, would be a pushover, but he shocked them with his obstinate refusal to engage. Both later cited this as the moment when it became clear they had a major party discipline problem on their hands.

    Why are these aspects of Sunak so often forgotten? Why is it that a Johnson-backer such as Jacob Rees-Mogg would describe Sunak as a “socialist”, while supporting someone with noticeably less restraint on the public finances? Why is this Brexiteer fiscal hawk so often spoken of as a “centrist”? Much of this relates to the new preeminence of “politics-by-vibe”; a topsy-topsy trend whereby politicians are increasingly judged by the general air they exude, as opposed to concrete beliefs and actions.

    But I wonder if Sunak’s inability to resist being pigeonholed also reflects a failure of communication, and perhaps, a certain indecisiveness. Indeed, contrary to the “ruthless regicide” stereotype, Sunak might well have brought down Boris Johnson much sooner had he resigned over his own — albeit absurd — Partygate fine.

    Our new Prime Minister now faces a Herculean task in uniting his party and stabilising the economy. But despite the in-tray from hell, there are already signs that the new Government could have a slightly easier ride than anticipated. Thanks to growing stockpiles and predictions of warmer weather, the price of natural gas is falling towards the level it was at before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine (though this won’t be felt by consumers immediately). Meanwhile, the chaos of the last 47 days has forced the Tories to unite as a matter of survival, meaning that Sunak now — somewhat paradoxically — inherits a more compliant party than if he’d beaten Liz Truss over the summer.

    We can easily imagine the attack lines the Opposition will now deploy: Partygate, Green Cards, Sunak’s family wealth. But there are dangers for Labour in pushing too hard on the class war angle. Many Brits will see success stories like Sunak’s, the son of immigrant parents who worked hard as a GP and a pharmacist to afford his school fees, as aspirational.

    In his first speech as Prime Minister, Sunak distanced himself from Liz Truss’s legacy — though not, it must be said, all of the sixth-former awkwardness we’d come to associate with his predecessor’s delivery.

    It’s certainly true that Truss made a fatal error in proposing to borrow madly while markets demanded caution, and beginning her free-market agenda with unfunded tax cuts rather than deregulation and supply-side reform. But Truss’s central diagnosis of the problem facing Britain — the anti-growth coalition — was correct. In a few years’ time, having tried out various economic models, with little reversal of our sluggish growth trends, I suspect that more people will acknowledge that she was correct in principle.

    As Ms Truss’s priorities were somewhat topsy-turvy, so many of Mr Sunak’s supporters and critics have him back to front. Having won on a technocratic ticket, his challenge will now be to demonstrate his principles in real life, not just on paper.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/10/25/pms-critics-supporters-forgetting-who-real-rishi/

    1. Good morning LD,
      It is the Green Card incident that lost me as a supporter.
      Top rate of income tax in UK: 45% plus 2% supplement.
      Top rate of income tax in the USA: 37% (IIRC)
      No wonder Chancellor Sunak wished to keep his Get Out of UK Free pass.

      1. For me – apart from his obvious cynical faux-ordinary man act and his false smile AND his WEF credentials – it is the fact that a man worth hundreds of millions cannot buy a pair of trousers the right length – and wears shirts two sizes too small.

          3. Oh good. If he looks up to Trudeau as a role model, you are in deep trouble.

            At least G7 meetings will be entertaining when the dubious duo compare their socks.

    2. So, he too, has bugger-all experience at senior level. Oh, good. That should go well.

  36. I have risen from my death bed. I’d like to thank all NoTTLers who wished me well. To those who urged me to seek medical advice…..Apart from the obvious…..I have no symptoms. No temperature; no fever; no sore throat. Just aching limbs, a hacking cough and an old fashioned heavy cold. A Dr would tell me to do what I have been doing – taking it easy and taking Lemsip (equivalent) regularly.

    I shall now go and light the fire.

    Cats oblivious to my suffering.

    This was them two years ago:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ce07fb3359e03badff27e2fcb959d15b4b5e1ef3beae50f93a3ea8913499e74a.jpg

          1. Thanks, I will. After two days in bed (something I loathe) I was worried about getting weak limbs and joints. Hence being up and dressed,

    6. Your symptoms were fatigue and a cough. Could have been any number of ailments.

      For me it was a low blood oxygen level – caused by a blood clot. When I pootled to the docs they packed me off to hospital before it went to my brain.

    7. It has to be covid, one of those pesky variants being sent to try us.
      Luckily they claim that a cold, flu and the lurgy share many symptoms which let’s them claim another pandemic.

      1. Thanks, Grizz. I had forgotten how unpleasant a cold can be, not having had one for over three years.

        1. I came home with a strong dose of lurgy on the past three occasions I visited the UK (or just simply left Skåne). I’ve decided it’s much safer to remain at home.

  37. Russian anti-war protesters blow up key railway line to Belarus. 26 october 2022.

    Russian anti-war protesters have blown up a railway line on the main link between Russia and Belarus, according to the UK Ministry of Defence.

    At least six incidents of sabotage against Russian military infrastructure have been claimed since June by the Russian group ‘Stop the Wagons’, including the attack near the village of Novozybkovo, the MOD said.

    They left their names and addresses no doubt.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/10/26/ukraine-news-russia-war-latest-kherson-putin-offensive-live/

        3. I first saw it in NI in 1982, where the punchline was on the reverse side, after a PTO…

  40. 366589+ up ticks,

    How to lose a nation without really trying.

    Gerard Batten
    @gjb2021
    ·
    10h
    Politics Latest!

    Sheffield voters may have a choice between an old fat Labour bloke who says he’s girl, a Tory who represents a party guaranteed to betray its voters, a Lib-Dem who can’t betray his country because he/she/it doesn’t believe in his/her/its country, a Green who wants to return us to the Stone Age, & various small Not A Hope In Hell parties.

    The stay at home Couldn’t Care Less Who Wins Party is predicted to win by a landslide.

    https://gettr.com/post/p1vkkc1069e

  41. I, like us all, have sat through the political wranglings of the last few months and come to the conclusion that it is the media who decides what policies they support and who will be held to account. Pretty obvious so far. There was an interview on R4 this morn in the usual aggressive style expecting answers on major policy areas from an administration that has barely been in office for 24 hours. Like Rishi, politicians might consider a period of absence from the media to be an excellent tactic. Truss was forced into presenting major policy changes almost overnight and mistakes were made. The MSM jump on story and dont give up until they force changes, thereby doing the job of the opposition. It would be nice if politics could work as it should, policy announced and debated in parliament, after a reasonable period of time, a spokesman could be offered to the media. Politics has become hysterical in the 24 hr rolling news world, a period of calm would be welcome.

  42. OT – we watched the first part of a beeboid prog about the first half of the 100 years. Quite interesting and it took one back. But the main thing was how impressive the head honchos (male and female) were back then – compared with the woke, insipid wanqueurs running the outfit today.

  44. The tide is turning.
    A judge in New York has ordered the reinstatement of all the people who were fired for being unvaccinated – with salary back payments from the date of employment termination.

  46. I am listening to Andrew Roberts’s latest book: “The Chief” about Lord Northcliffe. Fascinating. If you think today’s “government” is a useless pack of halfwits, liars and charlatans – just look at Asquith and Lloyd-George in The Great War…..

    1. Discovered just the other day that Lloyd George actually tried to have the Armistice delayed until 2:30 pm so that he could announce it in Parliament. Another three-and-a-half hours of soldiers dying just so he could strut his stuff.

      Spiteful as always, he later took his revenge on Admiral Wemyss (the originator of 11 am on 11/11) by denying him a viscountcy. This after all his other shifty and borderline traitorous war business since becoming PM. Pity Labour wasn’t up and running a few years earlier, as he’d have probably found a home there rather than in the Liberal Party, and never tasted power.

      Given everything about the man, it’s small wonder that he’s described in Saki as;

      “….an antelope, let us say.”
      “An antelope ?”
      “Well, not an antelope exactly…….but something with horns and hoofs and a tail.”

      All in all, he’d fit very comfortably with the current crop of spivs, sexual deviants and egomaniacs presently desecrating Parliament.

  47. To the title – if they forget the interests of the scoundrels who put them in place they will indeed be swiftly reminded why they were elected.

    1. In what way? The Right define society by virtue of not meddling in the lives of others. Lefty society is outright fascism.

        1. Gauke was one of the Tory MPs at the heart of the House of Commons guerilla movement 2016-19. He backed the Benn Act that caused so much trouble.

          1. Thanks. Explains why his name wasn’t familiar – one of the benefits of having a goldfish brain.

        2. He may be missing Truss, but I certainly haven’t missed him! How he could possibly claim to be a Tory is beyond me, but I could say that of many of the current TINOs

    3. ‘Economic credibility’ !?! Words fail me. Just who does Gawk think was the Chancellor thru all these self-inflicted disasters ?

    4. ‘Economic credibility’ !?! Words fail me. Just who does Gawk think was the Chancellor thru all these self-inflicted disasters ?

      2. Now that’s something I’d love to do! Imagine sticking prints of The Haywain all over Damian Hurst’s latest monstrosity!

      3. Don’t worry, Stephenroi, the tax payers will keep coughing up as they have no choice if they are PAYE…

    3. If they were serious about cutting spending they could have started with the podiums. I bet they get no change from £50,000.

    4. Not so sure about the zodiac signs. Fishi is obviously Pisces. Johnson thinks himself a ram, and May just must be virgo intacta. Cameron and Truss are as wet as anything could be and so Aquarius.

    5. Why don’t they have just one podium or is it the property of the PM (You’re PM, bring your own podium)

      1. If they were shown to scale, Rishi’s and Truss’s would be far shorter than Cameron’s.

      2. They are rented. Rentamob has a “Servetheblob” department. It rents out rostrums. podiums, loudhailers, security men, and on the spot reporters.

        1. 366589+ up ticks,

          Afternoon HP
          I got podium muddled up with Imodium an anti shite tablet.
          On this issue there could be a link.

  53. Anyone know why lotsa MPs were wearing little white badges?

    Incidentally, far fewer Ukrainian flags on show….

    1. The small white flower with a green centre is a sign of remembrance of
      the Srebrenica genocide which took place in Bosnia in 1995.

      1. Or not, as the case may be. The Serbs have always denied that it ever happened and believe that the NATO bombing of Belgrade had other motives.

      2. Nah – this is an oblong white badge with black writing that was too blurred to read on t’telly.

          1. Do they keep their gloves fastened to a length of elastic that goes up one sleeve, across the shoulders, then down the other sleeve?

  55. Charity founded by Jeremy Hunt paid 66% of income to chief executive. 26 October 2022.

    A charity founded by the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, paid more than £110,000 – two-thirds of its income – to his former political adviser Adam Smith, who lost his job over a lobbying scandal.

    Patient Safety Watch, which was set up to research preventable harm in healthcare, paid Smith as its sole employee and chief executive about 66% of its income in the year ending January 2022.

    Hunt part funds the charity but it also solicits donations from the public on its website.

    It was established in 2019 to conduct research, but appears to have produced no papers since then. A message on its website says: “We have an ambitious research programme looking into a wide variety of patient safety issues. We will publish details of our forthcoming research on these pages.”

    However, the page for reports says: “Our reports will be published here – please check back soon for our first piece of research.”

    Its main output appears to be a blog and publishing newsletters from Hunt in his capacity as founder and trustee of the charity. The annual accounts explain that the charity chose not to publish its research – some of which has been completed – while the NHS remained under significant Covid-related pressure and it would do so “when the climate is right”.

    You can’t tell from this article where the cash fed into it came from! My guess is that the “Charity” was set up to launder payoffs of various kinds though that does not preclude the possibility that some of it came from Government i.e. you and me!

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/oct/26/charity-founded-by-jeremy-hunt-patient-safety-watch-chief-executive-adam-smith

    2. I expect he has an enormous stack of paperwork from the Brussels mafia in his in-tray. “Orders that must be Obeyed”.

    3. All to please his Lefty masters. We can’t have the UK soaring ahead, can we? We can’t go against the globalist green agenda. We can’t grow away from big state, can we?

      Gods I hate these vermin. They’re supposed ot act in the national interest. It’s time they were strung up.

      This is where it is proof we do not live in a democracy, but a dictatorship run by failed autocrats.

  57. Yep, Sunak’s definitely a stooge who is Hell bent on wrecking the UK’s economy on the green sacrificial altar.

    https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/fracking-moratorium-restored-rishi-sunak-liz-truss-energy-b1035385.html

    The moratorium on fracking in England has been restored by Rishi Sunak, Downing Street confirmed on Wednesday.

    The Prime Minister’s official spokesman confirmed that Mr Sunak was committed to the effective ban on fracking set out in the 2019 general election manifesto.

    The Financial Times earlier reported that the Prime Minister was going to reinstate the England-wide ban on shale gas fracking, citing government insiders.

    2. Stupid fool. Sunak is truly a moron. But, what dd we expecct? Big state globalist, doing as he’s told.

  58. Mr Google answered my question about those white badges worn by MPs:

    “The rectangular badges were sent to MPs by the Stroke Association ahead of World Stroke Day, which falls on October 29.

    The charity works to help people who have suffered from a stroke – a life-threatening medical condition that happens when the blood supply to part of the brain is cut off – recover and rebuild their lives.

    It said there are a total of 1.3 million stroke survivors in the UK, with another person falling victim every five minutes.”

  59. One for Grizz(and others) on seed oils

    https://twitter.com/williambdamron/status/1584269307113984001?s=20

    Moe on a foodie theme

    Eggzactly

    https://twitter.com/ValaAfshar/status/1585069880914898946?s=20&t=NWy6eGT-uxldcVJHXN-GwA

    Pie Wars

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/89ac3925ce3f39f339ea86cd0d6727ef96eb0f5420744edd48dd77a4c3b52f69.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4ddcd3e56d78552557fd9efe37544fabad805351d40482e2a01240ff3d787ac5.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3ee740bfedc1fda10d7b3ec70b78878ffa2d9c7d61af877df8a4ce40f9b721c9.jpg

  63. Supervet update: Noel’s deputy, Mario, observed the Springer walking and examined and palpated the leg. He said everything is fine and no need for an x-ray. Four more weeks of minor restrictions. Lack of exercise means she has put on two and a half kilos. Reduced rations and no treats.

          1. Aye, this is true. You could always blend it a little into much smaller chunks as it’s easier to eat?

      2. Don’t tell me you’re a fatphobe too! Animal fat is a necessary component of a healthy diet for humans and animals. See Rik’s excellent post (below).

          1. Fried onions? Mustard? Ketchup? Gherkins? On a finger-roll? What’s not to like? You do keep calling her “hot stuff”. A hot dog? 👍🏻😉

    3. It’s weird how much bigger they get from doing almost nothing.

      At the moment Ozzie has a giant scratching cone on and has gained more than 4kg even with his controlled diet. It’s difficult as he’s not yet fully grown and needs more food.

      Glad to heard doggo is ok.

    4. Great news, Delboy! Patience is not a virtue normally associated with Springers, however!

      1. 366589+ up ticks,

        Evening BB2,

        By the same token I would put money on, there was an old Jewish chap in the 30s Berlin saying those very words to his German neighbour.

        1. ogga, when they try that on, the protection from the politicians will fall away and they will face everyone else in the British Isles, Christians, atheists, Hindus, Sikhs, Jews, ex Muslims, white, black and brown.
          Remember the terrorist problem in Algeria in the 90s? It started after elections were cancelled, and they were cancelled because the party that looked as though they would win started saying stuff very similar to the above quote.

          1. 366589+ up ticks,

            BB2
            There is no doubt that what you say is fact, what I am saying is it will not be for the want of trying on their behalf
            again & again.
            I do take a Quran resting between the two dispatch boxes in parliament as a warning of a dangerous element present.

    2. If it can be proven that that is what he said, then surely that is incitement to violence and possibly murder. Grounds for deportation.

      In order to prevent it, time for our version of Kristallnacht.

    3. If it can be proven that that is what he said, then surely that is incitement to violence and possibly murder. Grounds for deportation.

      In order to prevent it, time for our version of Kristallnacht.

  67. Here’s a paragraph from the Home Secretary’s resignation letter to the Prime Minister who, after the formation of the new Government, was reinstated as Home Secretary by the next PM:

    It is obvious to every one that we are going through a tumultuous time. I have concerns about the direction of this government. Not only have we broken key pledges that were promised to our voters, but I have had serious concerns about this Government’s commitment to honouring manifesto commitments, such as reducing overall migration numbers and stopping illegal migration, particularly the dangerous small boats crossings.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63320750

    This naturally became the subject of a clash between Sunak and Starmer in the House during PM questions today:

    https://youtu.be/Nx9wLvJhoUI

    1. We NoTTLers should join together, link arms, do a line dance, and kick the shit out of them en masse!

    1. What’s your point? That we should hire women just for the hell of it? To make up the numbers? How is that fair on the women hired? You want the best person, just not a set number.

      2. That is the point. hHre half men half women. Hire some blacks, hire some disabled. Competence is not the issue in the modern UK.

    1. No, they won’t. Energy prices in the UK are rigged at the highest most expensive producer. That’s usually wind. Which means that cheap nuclear and coal costing £20 per MW/h is being force sold at £250 /MW which is what wind costs. Therefore, until that hideous nonsense is abandoned the cost of electricity will always be artificially high.

      The state rigs the market.

    1. That is interesting. Her chums are busy filming her on the ground rather than giving first aid, or phoning for an ambulance. When I was working on a farm in Angus, the farmer intimated that he did not like “gyppos”. He used a van. The roads were narrow and even narrower in places. He said that when you pass a gyppo there was a risk that they would bang on the side of the van and throw themselves down. They would then claim that they had been struck by the van and demand compensation.
      From the clip shown the woman could have been playing that trick?

  72. Coal is crushed up jungle from long ago when the planet was warmer and jungles were lush. Oil is crushed up wee beasties and plants from long ago when the planet was warmer and wee beasties were plentiful in the seas and jungles were lush.
    They are natural materials. They are readily available. We know how to use them to advantage. We should do so. Attempting to extract a consistent supply of cheap energy from wind and sunshine is futile.

  73. I wrote to my hospital doctor on 4th October. I received a reply on 21st October. At the foot of the letter was the typed annotation, “dictated 7 October, typed 18th October”. My secretary would never have taken 11 days to type a letter as she would have become an ex-secretary by Day 3.
    But business is different to the NHS, I suppose.

    1. I heard him live and think he’s a star! Also the MP from Teesside, Matt Vickers. Both bright and straight talking with common sense! Perhaps all is not lost.

      1. Be interesting to see for whom he voted in the endless “elections”….

        Was he ALWAYS for Fishi?

        1. No he’s quite a rebel! Voted against Convid passes, rude about BLM and backed Kemi Badenoch, then Liz Truss!

  75. I remember the gangster’s moll, Ida Lupino.

    This was interesting (and surprising) reading at the weekend:

    he leading female filmmaker at the end of Hollywood’s Golden Age was English. Born in the London suburb of Herne Hill in 1918, Ida Lupino came from a theatrical family: her father was Stanley Lupino, a music-hall turn who became a major musical comedy star of the 1930s. The family affected European exoticism, but Ida’s great-grandfather had changed his name from the very English “Hook”.

    She went to Rada and by the age of 15 was a regular in cheap and cheerful British films, but her striking good looks propelled her towards America. Her career took off in 1940 when Warner Brothers asked her to act alongside Humphrey Bogart and George Raft in the drama They Drive by Night. The following year, she starred with Bogart again in High Sierra.

    However, Lupino never enjoyed the actress’s life, and complained routinely about the parts she was offered. As a result, Warner Brothers often suspended her so she used her free time to learn about other aspects of cinema – and realised that, all along, she had wanted to be a director. With her husband, Collier Young, and other friends she formed an independent production company, The Filmakers Inc, in 1948, to make a series of low-budget films, the most highly acclaimed of which was The Bigamist, in 1953.

    The same year Lupino became the first woman to direct an American film noir – The Hitch-Hiker, for RKO Pictures. Her greatest cinematic achievement, it is the story of two friends (Edmond O’Brien and Frank Lovejoy) who go fishing in Mexico and pick up a hitchhiker, Myers, who turns out to be a psychopath. (He is played with rare menace by William Talman, whom readers of a certain age will remember as the district attorney who lost every case he fought against Perry Mason). Myers is wanted by the police after robbing and killing other drivers who had made the mistake of picking him up, and he is desperate.

    He takes the two harmless men hostage; and the film shows the psychological games he plays with them, and their increasingly frenetic attempts to escape. Myers is the classic weak, pathetic man who exerts power by the threat of lethal violence and believes that “you can get anything at the end of a gun”. Towards the climax of the film we see the police, both American and Mexican, closing in on the criminal. Eventually he is caught and his two victims escape with their lives – just.

    The film’s deeply satisfying ending is sadly unlike the story on which it was based. In 1950, a criminal called Billy Cook embarked on an orgy of killing across the Midwest and into California using the same modus operandi as Myers: flagging down motorists, robbing and murdering them. Lupino’s film was finished several months before Cook went to the gas chamber in San Quentin in December 1952, and released shortly afterwards. Limited to just 71 minutes, it features a very tight narrative, every moment filled with tension and incrementally building to a climax in which it feels as though anything could happen. There is just plot, and no sub-plot: will the two men overpower their captor and escape, or will he kill them?

    Lupino had a long directing career, but, paradoxically after this film that won her extensive acclaim, almost all of her work was for television. She also returned to acting in numerous TV shows, finding her old profession more interesting when she could couple it with directing. She became an American citizen but, for The Hitch-Hiker especially, she deserves to be remembered as one of the great British film-makers.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/ida-lupino-hollywoods-best-female-film-maker-1950s-english-how/

  78. I notice, to my surprise, that many of the Bame male MPs are married to white women. Curious.

    1. Usual par 4 :-))
      Wordle 494 4/6

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

    2. It’s a three from me
      Wordle 494 3/6

      ⬜🟨🟩⬜⬜
      🟩⬜🟩⬜🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  81. Evening, all! I am ignoring all aspects of political theatre and getting ridiculously overexcited about dinner. Some wonky avocadoes had ripened to perfection in my absence (a miracle!!), so I have made guacamole, and I have a delicious-looking steak whose forebears I saw grazing in the Devon fields resting on the side, just waiting for dinner time. Which feels an eternity away! 🤣

      1. How are both you and your husband’s health issues progressing?
        I hope you are getting things sorted out;

        Without the need for blood pressure medications!
        }:-O

        1. OK- not great but not too dire. Could be a hell of a lot better if the NHS actually gave a damn. Thanks.

    2. “Shale gas is the new Ivermectin. You can’t have it, because it would prevent you from going through the crisis that they need you to go through.”

    3. If fracking went ahead it would be a hugely contentious issue in the next general election. Let people find out the hard way that we need it.

      1. It could go ahead under the North Sea. EasyPeasy. Just a fraction more expensive than doing it on land.

    4. It’s a bad decision strategically; fracking is under UK control.

      Since labour governments sold out our primacy in nuclear power generation, we are beholden to others in the short term; fracking provides a bridge.

      In the meantime, it is essential that we maximise domestic oil, gas and coal resources.

      Otherwise, we will feel chilly – and be starved of overseas industrial investment …

      1. 9 December 2021.

        Gloriously, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon pushed the button on a controlled explosion that reduced the decommissioned 600-foot Longannet chimney to rubble.

        Perhaps that gave her Sexual National Pleasure?

        Naively, she has inflicted a cruel and chilly investment-avoidance future for the once-proud, industrial, Scotland.

  83. That’s me for today. I feel quite a lot brighter. Must be the fairy dust from Davos….

    Have a jolly evening.

    A demain – possibly.

  84. Evening, all. I see nothing “competent” about this lot of chancers. Fishi has just ruled out fracking. That’s going to guarantee people freeze to death and the lights go out then. On a personal note, Coolio was a little star today. He did some very nice shoulder in and travers and then put it all together to do half pass! Extra Polos for doing what’s quite an advanced movement.

    1. He’s doing well, isn’t he! A year or so ago you were not so complimentary on his abilities.

      1. I’ve been schooling him for a while! He isn’t really put together right for dressage, but he does try, which is half the battle.

    2. Well done Coolio! I wonder why horses love polo mints?

      Of course the lights won’t be going out in No.10. Do you know the Wigmore Hall? The lights either side of the stage there are the original gas lamps. They give a soft slightly flickering light. We’re to be pushed back to candles or just sit in the darkness?

      1. I’ve stocked up on candlesticks. Need to get some more candles now for when the ones in the candlesticks burn down. I also have tea lights, including the battery version. I have paraffin lamps and have tracked down a source of paraffin. I just need to find a suitable container. Plus I have two wind-up torches and a wind-up lamp. I have plenty of books, but I shall miss Nottl. I think it’s the mint taste they love. Coolio looks forward to his mint before he works and his rewards afterwards. One day I forgot to bring mints and he sulked 🙂

          1. I knew I should have put “horses” instead of “they”, but then I thought, “what the heck?” and hit post anyway 🙂

    3. I remember seeing Jimmy Edwards at Petersham on a ‘Polo’ pony, and the language was very blue.

    1. They missed their vocation, they should have been in a temple in ancient Egypt with people worshipping them…

      1. The penalties for driving offences were set out long ago, when only the rich had cars. No question of sending Lord Snooty to prison for running over a peasant. Thr result is that thr most horrific crimes are barely punished. In this case, I’d suggest that the lorry driver was lying about not fiddling with the controls. Nor did thr judge consider “vicarious liability” of thr firm seeing a driver out in vehicle he could not use properly. (The oil companies were hit by “vicarious liability”for North Dead rig accidents and fined zillions.)

    1. I bet there were some Cornish involved with that. Lots of the mining here involved tunnelling beneath the seabed.

  89. Questions:

    1) How the Hell is Sunak getting away with blaming Truss for all the disasters that the British economy is suffering, thanks to his incompetence as Chancellor?
    2) Why is it taking so long for rhyming slang to prepare his budget unless it’s to protect Sunak?

    2. What on earth are you suggesting Sos ?
      Do we have yet another dodgy tory leader in the chair.

      1. “Cost of housing asylum seekers almost £7m a day.
        During the wide-ranging session, MPs heard that the government is now spending almost £7m a day housing asylum seekers in hotels and the cost could continue to rise.
        The committee was told £5.6m a day was being
        spent on hotels for people who have arrived in the UK and have submitted
        a claim, with an additional £1.2m paid to house Afghan refugees who
        fled the Taliban takeover while long-term accommodation is sought.”

  91. Cambridge faculty apologises for ‘distressing’ emails about gender ideology talk

    The head of sociology said staff were sorry for circulating ‘harmful material’ promoting a talk by author Helen Joyce

    By Ewan Somerville • 25 October 2022 • 10:00pm

    Cambridge faculty chiefs have apologised to students for “distressing” them by sending an email promoting a talk about gender ideology.

    An advert for the forum by Helen Joyce, an author and journalist, was sent to faculty mailing lists across the university to invite undergraduates. Ms Joyce, who believes that trans activists are eroding the concept of biological sex, was invited by Arif Ahmed, a Cambridge professor, to discuss trans activism at Gonville and Caius College on Tuesday night. She faced masked protesters, and the college’s master, Prof Pippa Rogerson, told all students she was boycotting the “insulting and hateful” speaker.

    Naï Zakharia, an attendee of the talk, said: “There were hundreds of protesters. They screamed and hit the door. It was hard to hear the speakers. In the middle of the talk a group of protesters got in to right behind the door of the auditorium.”

    Ms Joyce said the event went ahead with some “genuinely hostile” audience questions which was “great” for healthy debate. But the row escalated on Tuesday when the university’s sociology faculty apologised to students for distressing them with an advert.

    In the memo, seen by The Telegraph, Manali Desai, the head of sociology, said: “We are very sorry for the distress caused to you by the circulation of an email promoting the Helen Joyce event. We have looked at our processes and realised we need an authorisation route for circulation of events to ensure that administrative staff do not inadvertently promote potentially harmful material, as happened in this case.”

    https://twitter.com/HJoyceGender/status/1585003168722624512
    She finished by mentioning a “gathering” outside St Mary’s Church in response to the event and vowed to promote “LGBTQ+ inclusion” events instead. On Tuesday night, organisers were expecting 75 masked protesters to assemble at the church. Students rallied each other via other emails, seen by The Telegraph, to “bring pots and pans to make some noise” along with “banners, flags and signs”. Protest organisers added: “Facemasks are recommended for privacy reasons.”

    The sociology faculty said it would “raise concerns” with Gonville and Caius College over the event – with the college head and senior tutor already boycotting it. The University of Cambridge’s LGBT network has condemned the talk and Cambridge Students’ Union called for it to be axed. The college, Cambridge’s fourth oldest, ran a “welfare event” tearoom on campus for distressed students, held at the same time as the talk.

    Prof Ahmed said: “Senior figures in the University have expressed regret that this debate is even going ahead. The only response to that is to arrange another, bigger event like it. That is what I intend to do.”

    It is the latest in a series of free speech rows to hit Cambridge. Ms Joyce accused Prof Rogerson of “intellectual cowardice” by boycotting the talk while Prof Ahmed said it was a debate, not an endorsement. “Cambridge isn’t a primary school,” Prof Ahmed said. “Free speech is not negotiable.”

    A University of Cambridge spokesman said: “The Department circulated a notice notifying students about the talk. The head of the Department later received complaints from some students opposed to the views of the speaker. An email was subsequently sent out to make it clear that the Department was neither actively endorsing or promoting the contents of the talk. There was never any attempt to either persuade or dissuade people from attending.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/10/25/cambridge-faculty-apologises-distressing-emails-gender-ideology

    _________________________________________________________________

    The fear to speak freely stalks Cambridge

    I shouldn’t have had to smuggle frightened students into a discussion on transgender issues

    ARIF AHMED • 26 October 2022 • 7:25pm

    Call me naive, but I didn’t expect that being a university professor would involve people-smuggling. Yet I spent the last week planning, and then doing, just that. Not for profit mind you, but for free speech – or rather (as a student said to me) for the freedom to listen.

    I had arranged a public discussion between the journalist Helen Joyce and the eminent social scientist Sir Partha Dasgupta. I had booked a hall in my college, Gonville and Caius, Cambridge. But then several students, mostly women, told me that they felt afraid to attend. This was not necessarily because they were frightened of violent protests. In a way it was worse than that. They were afraid of ostracism by their student peers, and even by academic staff. I therefore booked unobtrusive spaces where they could stay for up to three hours in advance, so that they could enter the hall without being seen.

    It’s hard to convey the reality and the extent of this fear, which stalks the halls of academia. Many people will know what happened to Kathleen Stock, who was subjected to violent intimidation and harassment following her interventions on the Gender Recognition Act, starting in 2018. Her former employer, the University of Sussex, admitted as much in a statement in October 2021, though by that point the police had advised her to avoid her own place of work, to employ a bodyguard if she did venture onto campus, and to install CCTV outside her home.

    Her case, unfortunately, was not unique. And it was against this background that I arranged the Joyce-Dasgupta event. Helen Joyce, author of a bestselling book on sex and gender, has been the subject of repeated accusations of transphobia. She also faces protests, cancellations and blacklisting for her views.

    I thought it important to show that, even in British universities today, some places are prepared to defend free speech and open, robust debate, because those are the best routes to the truth, or at least reconciliation, on so many topics.

    It’s not as if Joyce lacks a platform. She is a famous writer and has a large following on Twitter. The point is the right to listen, to debate, and to disagree with someone directly, to their face. That is what the event was intended to achieve.

    But as soon as I started advertising, there was an immediate and powerful backlash at Cambridge. Open letters were circulated. Students wrote of their hurt and “disappointment” with the fact that anyone should even attempt to engage with Joyce. Senior figures in the university circulated letters that did not name me personally, but which expressed dissatisfaction that a lecturer should have tried to “platform” this debate, at this time, in this place.

    There were threats of protests, and even a surprise visit from a very helpful police officer, with advice about how to manage potential violence inside and outside the room.

    In the end, however, the event was a great success. There were protests – screaming, chanting and banging at the door – but we ignored them.

    Helen Joyce herself raised many interesting points. But the best thing was that she welcomed, and responded to, quite hostile questioning. I had hoped that it would be a chance for people to challenge her. I was delighted that some people turned up who plainly disagreed with her book, Trans, often quite forcefully. Everyone there was brave to show up, but perhaps especially those people were. My only regret is that there were not more.

    Because what the event revealed was the almost magical power of free, open debate. Nearly all animals would settle disagreements by force. But we have invented words, and by face-to-face verbal discussion we can come to agreement, or at least mutual recognition. Words are not a form of violence. They are an alternative to violence. Without that distinction we are lost.

    To those students who say that the event should never have taken place, I say: watch the video (when released) and see for yourself. To the senior staff who have said the same, I say: contentious debate on things that matter is literally the whole point of a university education.

    If you can’t do it here, where, and when, can you do it? And if you can’t do it here, why do we even exist?

    Arif Ahmed is a professor of philosophy at the University of Cambridge

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/10/26/fear-speak-freely-stalks-cambridge/

  92. What a busy day we have had. Our little 7 year
    old brother and younger sister, grandchildren came for the day today.
    They were awarded gold stars for their excellent behaviour. Nanny took them to Sainsbury’s to buy some pumpkins 🎃 and trick or treat bits and pieces. Daddy came to pick them both up when they had finished their ‘tea’. Boiled eggs soldiers toast, ice cream and chocolate flakes. After their lunch of cheesy pasta I don’t know how they managed all that. And took away a bag each of home made cakes they help with.
    Such a shame little grand (2 1/2 ) daughter trip on the front door step on the way out. But all was quite by the time Daddy got them both into the car. Lovely children. They’ll both sleep well tonight. God bless.

    And so will I and Nanny.

    1. Our two grand monsters are bottomless pits. I watch them in amazement at how much they can get down their necks;-)

    2. Sounds like a good day was had by all. A shame though that children these days all go trick or treating rather than bobbing for apples on bits of string and in buckets of water in the garage.

  93. There’s no such thing as bad publicity for Suella Braverman, the new queen of the Right

    Becoming the Left’s new hate figure is nothing less than a source of pride for Home Secretary

    By Gordon Rayner, ASSOCIATE EDITOR • 26 October 2022 • 7:44pm

    In a department whose mission statement appears to be ending the careers of its ministers, Suella Braverman’s resignation last week represented another satisfying coup for the Home Office.

    Imagine civil servants’ horror, then, when six days later they learnt she was back. The woman who had ordered them to step up the Rwanda policy and crack down on Channel crossings was once again their boss. They were not about to take it lying down.

    Almost as soon as Rishi Sunak reappointed Mrs Braverman as Home Secretary, the civil service was letting it be known that there were “concerns” about whether she could be trusted with sensitive information. Simon Case, the Cabinet Secretary and head of the Civil Service, was “livid” about her appointment, sources said.

    If the ultimate goal of the poisonous briefings by civil servants was to suggest the department cannot function with Mrs Braverman in charge, it will be a familiar scenario to previous holders of the post.

    Priti Patel only just survived a concerted campaign to force her out by civil servants who accused her of bullying. Amber Rudd lasted two years before she was forced to resign for misleading a Commons committee, having been wrongly briefed by her department on deportation targets. As far back as 2006 Labour’s John Reid declared the department “not fit for purpose”.

    Technical breach ‘a convenient excuse’

    Allies of Mrs Braverman say that her enemies in the Home Office, and on the Left, have used a technical breach of the ministerial code as a convenient excuse to attack a woman with whom their true battle lies over immigration.

    Mrs Braverman is the woman who told the Conservative Party Conference earlier this month that it was her “dream” and “obsession” to see a photograph on the front page of The Telegraph of a flight taking off for Rwanda carrying illegal migrants.

    She is also unashamedly patriotic, to the point of saying that the British Empire was, on the whole, “a force for good”, and that her parents had “admiration and gratitude” for what Britain had done for their home countries of Mauritius and Kenya. For the Left, there are few crimes more heinous than defending Britain’s past.

    One MP who backed Mrs Braverman’s summer leadership bid said: “The attacks on Suella are evidence of the fact that she stands for a position that the Left can’t tolerate but which they can’t oppose directly either because they know that the voters they need to win are on her side.

    “So they are attacking her personally as a proxy for their ideological objection to the idea of lower immigration. They know that she speaks for the mainstream opinion in this country and where the Conservative Party rightly needs to be.”

    ‘If I get Twitter trolled I’m doing the right thing’

    Mrs Braverman, 42, once said that “if I get trolled on Twitter I know I’m doing the right thing”, so the fact that she has become the Left’s new hate figure is nothing less than a source of pride.

    As the current “queen of the Right” in the Government, every carping comment from a Labour MP or BBC commentator simply reinforces her popularity with Conservative Party members and a significant chunk of MPs.

    Rishi Sunak reinstated her at the Home Office because he knows that to stand any chance of uniting his party, he needs a figurehead of the Right in a senior position, and in Mrs Braverman he has a former chairman of the European Research Group of Right-wing Eurosceptic Tories.

    If, as has been suggested, a return to the Home Office was the price she demanded for backing his leadership bid (and effectively killing off Boris Johnson’s attempted resurrection) it simply proves the clout she now has within the Party.

    “She is the decent and intelligent face of the Conservative Right, with respect across the party,” said her ally, “and Rishi knows he needs to bring the Right with him.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/10/26/no-thing-bad-publicity-suella-braverman-new-queen-right/

    1. If the ultimate goal of the poisonous briefings by civil servants was to suggest the department cannot function with Mrs Braverman in charge, it will be a familiar scenario to previous holders of the post.

      And those giving those briefings should be searched out and sacked.

    2. It would appear that civil servants at the Home office have breached the code of civil service impartiality. They should go.

  94. Palavar today.. washing machine packed in .. clothes stuck in there .. machine was grinding away.. 12 year old Bosch.. has been a godsend ..

    I retrieved the wet washing from the machine .. and the water was muddy looking and very dirty.. the wash had been a light wash .

    I wonder whether there was back flow from the drain , dunno, all very puzzling .

    Thank goodness I have a double sink .. however , my wrist wring action is not as strong as it was .. but I finished the pile , and bunged them on the line .

    Moh was playing golf .. and a pal had arranged to come over here so we could buzz off to the local garden centre ..

    We were quite unamused to see that Christmas has arrived early.. all the Christmas trees , glitter . lights, baubles etc.

    We were really shocked when we saw the price of Amaryllis https://www.dobies.co.uk/search/go?w=amaryllis

      1. My goodness , so you have Lotl.

        Will you remind me what you did about it .. or did you buy a replacement .. and what did you buy?

        Some one is coming on Monday to fix it .. don’t know how I am going to cope .

        1. Ours was “gently used” and the last one was a Bosch. New one is Hotpoint which brand I have had in the past and been OK with. So far so good with the newer one. It was replaced at no cost because the last one clapped out.

    3. Our very expensive Miele washing machine packed up last year. We were obliged to replace it. Evidently the excessively hard water in our area had been too much for the machine.

      We have a water softener but the damn plumbing apparently delivers mains water to the machine via a ‘rising main’ designed to deliver untreated potable water to sinks (keep taking the fluoride).

      We vs now dose the replacement Miele machine every three months with a powder potion bought from Miele in an attempt to to avoid further corrosion.

      2. When I lived near Catterick, I had to descale my kettle and showerhead about every 6-8 weeks. Since I moved back to Brums 24 years ago, I haven’t had to do it once.

    4. Our very expensive Miele washing machine packed up last year. We were obliged to replace it. Evidently the excessively hard water in our area had been too much for the machine.

      We have a water softener but the damn plumbing apparently delivers mains water to the machine via a ‘rising main’ designed to deliver untreated potable water to sinks (keep taking the fluoride).

      We vs now dose the replacement Miele machine every three months with a powder potion bought from Miele in an attempt to to avoid further corrosion.

    5. t’Lad bought an amaryllis a couple of decades ago and over the years the original bulb has reproduced its self so we have 3 on the windowsill behind my chair that blossom every year, one in the bathroom that is yet to flower and one at Dr. Daughter’s up in Newcastle.
      I’ve also, after manually transferring pollen to the stigma of the blossoms of one of the blooms, I also have several juvenile plants from the resulting seeds!
      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9c9c5b6fe1f6ba2a6ce5244161dc5ae295511197c627e785a2e951c32d9c9de7.jpg

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0a333d41f6009b8c9f5a23a8aa17046dba68334a27bbb762c3dc53685d9a4192.jpg

  95. Most children who think they’re transgender are just going through a ‘phase’, says NHS

    Doctors told not to encourage young people to change their names and pronouns

    By bHayley Dixon, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT • 23 October 2022 • 3:49pm

    Most children who believe that they are transgender are just going through a “phase”, the NHS has said, as it warns that doctors should not encourage them to change their names and pronouns.

    NHS England has announced plans for tightening controls on the treatment of under 18s questioning their gender, including a ban on prescribing puberty blockers outside of strict clinical trials. The services, which will replace the controversial Tavistock clinic, will be led by medical doctors rather than therapists and will consider the impact of other conditions such as autism and mental health issues.

    The plans, which are currently under public consultation, are for an interim service for young people with gender dysphoria whilst Dr Hilary Cass continues her review into the treatment offered by the NHS. They note that there is a need to change the services because there is currently “scarce and inconclusive evidence to support clinical decision-making”.

    NHS England says that the interim Cass Report has advised that even social transition, such as changing a young person’s name and pronouns or the way that they dress, is not a “neutral act” that could have “significant effects” in terms of “psychological functioning”. Parent groups and professionals have long raised concerns that NHS medics have taken an “affirmative” approach to treating children, including using their preferred names and pronouns.

    The proposals say that the new clinical approach will for younger children “reflect evidence that in most cases gender incongruence does not persist into adolescence” and doctors should be mindful this might be a “transient phase”. Instead of encouraging transition, medics should take “a watchful approach” to see how a young person’s conditions develop, the plans state.

    When a prepubescent child has already socially transitioned, “the clinical approach has to be mindful of the risks of an inappropriate gender transition and the difficulties that the child may experience in returning to the original gender role upon entering puberty if the gender incongruence does not persist”.

    For adolescents, social transition will only be considered when it is necessary for preventing “clinically significant distress” and when a young person “is able to fully comprehend the implications of affirming a social transition”, says NHS England. It adds that before medics change a young person’s name and pronouns, a teenager should have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria. The public consultation documents say that change is necessary against a backdrop of a sharp rise in referrals to the gender identity service, from just under 250 in 2011-12 to over 5,000 last year.

    In recent years there has also been a spike, with “the number of referrals currently at 8.7 per 100,000 population per year in 2021-22 compared to four per 100,000 in 2020-21 and 4.5 per 100,000 in 2019-20”.

    The health service first announced in July that it would be closing the Tavistock and replacing it with two regional centres based in specialist children’s hospitals. The move is aimed at taking a more “holistic” approach to treating children and looking at the reasons why they are questioning their gender. It is expected that the regional centres will be operating by the spring, whilst long-term plans for the gender identity services for under 18s, based on the final recommendation of the Cass review, will come into effect in 2023-24. Rather than being delivered by therapists and hormone specialists, the new clinical teams will include experts “in paediatric medicine, autism, neurodisability and mental health”.

    The proposals note that a “significant proportion of children” who are referred for treatment have neuro-development issues or family of social problems. The new treatment teams will be led by a medical doctor and the service will only take referrals from GPs and other NHS professionals. NHS England will also “strongly discourage” young people from buying hormones from private clinicians and will not accept clinical responsibility for the treatment of those who have done so.

    The consultation on the plans closes in December.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/10/23/children-who-think-transgender-just-going-phase-says-nhs/

    BTL:
    Sarah Preston
    Of course it is. I knew several girls in my primary school in the 70s, including my own sister, who were known by a boys name, even at school, dressed in boys clothes when not in school uniform, did boyish hobbies, etc. With one exception they had all turned into ‘traditional’ girls by puberty.

    Why else are nearly all the ‘trans’ people I know males wanting to be female, not the other way round? Girls grow out of it.

      1. I think you’re being too kind, perversions like that have a long history. Sorry if that makes me sound a bit Victorian.

        2. No, you are right. There have been cross dressers throughout history. In those days, gelding was a punishment not a choice

      2. The EU was keen to force water companies to remove female hormones from drinking water even though a lot of the hormones in sewage end up running out to sea after treatment. There has also been concern about the effect of many plastics in use today.

      3. I remember in the 80s, talk of male freshwater fish becoming sterile due to oestrogen levels in rivers.

        1. We were advised 30 years ago NOT to use cattle manure on the vegetable garden because of the growth promoters ad other things that had been fed to the cows.

    2. ‘NHS England says that the interim Cass Report has advised that even social transition, such as changing a young person’s name and pronouns or the way that they dress, is not a “neutral act” that could have “significant effects” in terms of “psychological functioning”.’

      Should that ‘that’ not be a ‘but’?

    3. “Why else are nearly all the ‘trans’ people I know males wanting to be female, not the other way round? Girls grow out of it.” Is it the preponderance of “single mothers?”

    4. “Why else are nearly all the ‘trans’ people I know males wanting to be female, not the other way round? Girls grow out of it.” Is it the preponderance of “single mothers?”

  98. I am appalled by the latest ‘Stop Oil Now’ horror.

    Perhaps there should be a ‘Punishment to fit the Crime’.

    Ideas, anyone?

    3. Tell them to surrender their shoes , socks , fleece jackets , travel cards , sandwiches ( grain harvest ) and so it goes on .. everthing we do has some oil history.

  99. From the Vatican via the Beeb:

    “Even nuns watch porn, Pope says, warning of risks”- (All except Sister Matilda – She donna like that sorta thing! )

    H/T The late great Dave Allen.

  102. Good night and God bless, Gentlefolk. Until the morning’s light and hopefully a Jolly jape to keep you laughing, for a while.

  103. Good morning to an other insomniacs. Awake and unable to sleep, it is currently 7°C outside and the air is dead calm.

    A bit of a knackering day in Derby and it seems I’ve dropped a bollock! I’ve just found a letter from Derby housing benefits office that had been mislaid asking for some information on Stepson’s benefit claim to be provided by the 22nd!

    Oops!

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