Friday 4 November:The short-term thinking of lockdown has brought the NHS to the brink

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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655 thoughts on “Friday 4 November:The short-term thinking of lockdown has brought the NHS to the brink”

  1. Good morning all. A colder start, it’s a tad above -1°C according to the yard thermometer this morning.
    Still getting light, but looks a bit hazy with a light overcast.

    1. ‘Morning BoB! Clear as a bell here! Mars as red as a red thing! And Orion shining brightly!

      1. 367152+ up ticks,

        Morning SM,
        Busy centres, adults meeting children ,then who thinks otherwise but innocent.

    3. 367152+ up ticks,

      O2O,

      May one ask,
      Could ir be that many authorities are working as procurement officers for PIE ?

    4. 367152+ up ticks,

      May one point out that could it be the resident down voter

      is seemingly a PIE fan / member,& I don’t mean Billy Bunter.

      He offends me not as I use it’s input as an ” on target” gauge.

  6. The short-term thinking of lockdown has brought the NHS to the brink

    We all thought lockdowns were insane, we all predicted what would happen and now it is happening.

    There more one looks at what the worlds governments are doing to their people the more it becomes apparent that they are at war with us.

    1. 367152+ up ticls.

      Morning B3,
      ALL the more reason to send lab/lib/con /current ukip membership cards back to base ….in pieces,

    2. That is true here and among a few of the people. I’ve forgotten who said: common sense ain’t so common…

      But they were right.
      Most people run for cover if everyone else is. They simply could not believe our “leaders” would screw us over so outrageously.

    1. Hamlet’s chancellor, Polonius, wouldn’t have got anywhere in today’s political system! He may have been a wretched, rash intruding fool as Hamlet said after stabbing him behind the arras.

      Polonius’s advice to his children may have been a bit sententious – but there was much common sense in it!

      Neither a borrower nor a lender be,
      For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
      And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
      This above all: to thine own self be true,
      And it must follow, as the night the day,
      Thou canst not then be false to any man.

  8. Why the West is losing support. 2 November 2022.

    Ten days before this UN meeting, I was in Qatar attending the Doha Forum, which brings together political leaders from all over the world. One of the panels discussed how to react to Russia’s invasion. The American and European speakers emphasised the fact that Russia had crossed the red lines of international law and that it should therefore being sanctioned.

    The former foreign minister of Pakistan, Hina Rabbani Khar, had a different perspective.

    She reminded the public that in 2003 the US and a coalition of the willing had invaded Iraq illegally. The reasons for the invasion appeared to be lies. Nevertheless, the world was asked to support the United States, not to sanction it.

    So, Rabbani Khar wondered, why should the world first support an American illegal war and now sanction a Russian one? The room, mostly filled with Arab, Asian and African people, seemed to agree with her..

    It’s probably much worse than this. They are losing support internally from their own populations. I myself once used to follow the broad intentions of the West but this, as in the quote, took a serious blow with the Iraq War and as they say it’s been downhill ever since. The destabilisation of Libya, the attempt to overthrow the Syrian government etc. were not simply illegal but geopolitical catastrophe’s. The EU is an antidemocratic polity in almost every sense. The US now pursues its aims without concern for the General well-being of the West and both have domestic agendas that are antithetical to the interests of their own people. Mass immigration the suppression of traditional rights and the use of propaganda to mislead and conceal policies that they know would not be acceptable.

    https://euobserver.com/opinion/156364

    1. Saudi Arabia has joined BRICS. The petro-dollar is dead – everyone is just waiting for the BRICS reserve currency to launch, together with the Moscow Metals Exchange, which together with Shanghai presumably, is supposed to take the metals price fixing away from the US and UK.

  9. I see that Restore Trust is on the warpath again, this time over the Disneyfication of Sudbury Hall, Derbyshire. It sounds positively awful:

    https://www.restoretrust.org.uk/media-and-press/sudbury-hall-turned-into-theme-park-for-children?ss_source=sscampaigns&ss_campaign_id=636380583aa70134ec407a6b&ss_email_id=636443a70c7a065ca677da8c&ss_campaign_name=Sudbury+Hall+travesty%2C+Guardian+misinformation+and+upcoming+AGM&ss_campaign_sent_date=2022-11-03T22%3A42%3A13Z

    1. Morning Hugh. The National Trust is typical. It has been taken over by the Wokey’s who have no real interest or understanding of its function and are running it into the ground.

  10. Read and weep:

    SIR – I am a retired consultant anaesthetist who has stayed on, first during the pandemic and now to help deal with the backlog of NHS patients.

    I recently provided cover for an orthopaedic list at my former place of employment – of which I had fond memories, not least for its efficiency.

    The first half hour of the list was spent trying to find out why the equipment requested more than a month ago was nowhere to be found. The next half hour was spent trying to find out why there was only one radiographer for six theatres, which needed support for all or part of the day.

    While another radiographer was sought, a pattern of disorganisation emerged. One list was cancelled as there was no surgical assistant; another because the head support for the operating table could not be found; another because the kit for a six-hour operation did not arrive until mid-afternoon.

    Meanwhile, we managed to get a radiographer from a nearby hospital on the grounds that our patient had been cancelled three times, and his only twice. When he arrived we discovered that our patient had not stopped taking her blood-thinning tablets – and so, as her blood would not clot, she was inoperable that day. Our last patient got her operation, but it took two hours instead of 30 minutes because we lacked the correct toolkit.

    Staff and colleagues alike seemed completely demoralised and said that this was little different to any other day. I had two clear impressions: first, that no one was in charge (at no time were any management figures seen). Secondly, I am wasting my retirement.

    Dr S D Jones
    Manchester

    1. Not surprised, Dr Jones.
      May years ago, when my late Father was in a local Cardiff hospital, he complained that the nurses stripped everybody in their beds for a bed-bath, then started the bedbaths, but were called away half-way through, leaving half the patients uncovered and naked. They came back hours later… what kind of organisation is that? A precursor to Dr Jones’ chaos… in the 1980s.

      1. In 1982, when I was in Treliske, The Royal Cornwall Hospital, having my appendix removed a nurse went off duty not telling her replacement that she had left me on a drip which needed to be removed. This was not a desperately serious matter but it left me with a very swollen, stiff and sore arm for several weeks which was extremely off-pissing because I was trying to learn how to sail a windsurfer.

  11. Good morning, all. Sunny. Chilly.

    I see Miss Braveheart went to Manston and the despicable, disease-ridden invaders BOOED her. What a marvellous opportunity for her to address them: “We didn’t as you to come; we don’t want you; if you don’t like the FREE accommodation, food, health care and money we provide – SOD OFF.” But she didn’t.

    1. She might have wanted to, but she’d have been at risk of being ‘cancelled’ a bit more!

    2. At the moment, she is watching her back.
      Remember we have a Cabinet herd of sewer rats looking for an excuse to bow to MSM outrage and give her the push.

      1. If the MSM and the political establishment manage to get rid of her then she must resign from her seat and stand in the by election as a candidate for the Reform Party. Who knows – this could start an avalanche of right of centre Conservative MPs resigning!

    3. Why don’t you follow your own wise advice and drive down to Manston and do it for her, you big wet pussy. You haven’t the guts – all mouth and nothing else, as always.

        1. He either got out of bed the wrong side; or is attempting “humour”; or is on the booze already.

      2. This is a bit unfair – most of us here are not politicians.

        I think it is high time a few prominent politicians had the testicular strength (or ovarian strength?) to say what most of us think about the invasion.

    4. Morning Bill ,

      If those invaders had been waiting in France /Spain /Italy for months , how come they haven’t succumbed to all the Covid variations ..

      Was this virus manufactured entirely for whitey?

    5. Ms Braveheart arrived by twin-rotored helicopter whereas the Manston mob had to make do with outboard motors and a blanket, no wonder they are envious.

  13. Interesting.
    Illegal resident to the USA involved in an incident with VIP Democrat and is up for being deported, whilst thousands of illegals commit numerous crimes and are allowed to stay.
    I suspect the Biden Regime have made arrangements with PM Justin Castro Trudeau to keep DePape safely away from journalists.

    Illegal Immigrant Charged with Pelosi Attack Faces Possible Deportation, Biden Admin Says
    https://www.westernjournal.com/illegal-immigrant-charged-pelosi-attack-faces-possible-deportation-biden-admin-says/

    2. There is a lot of smoke, but if I wished to alert the Police whilst not provoking an attack from a crazy man with a hammer, the word ‘friend’ might be appropriate.

  14. SIR – The Governor of the Bank of England failed to diagnose the problem of emerging inflation last year, and to administer an early dose of monetary medicine, which might have helped to suppress its upward curve.

    He now belatedly administers ever greater doses of medicine, when the illness is out of control. It seems inevitable that he will compound his errors and administer dosage levels likely to kill the patient. He predicts the worst recession in a century, and I suspect that forecast is correct.

    The fundamental economic error is that our inflation is supply and disruption driven, not demand driven.

    Ross Ellens
    Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire

    Bailey has been asleep on the job yet again.  The writing was on the wall many months ago and yet his sloth-like response has allowed inflation to rip away. His bumbling performance yesterday should have removed any lingering doubt that he has, as predicted, turned out to be useless in pursuing his 2% inflation target.  His previously disastrous stewardship of the FCA should have scuppered promotion to such a hugely important job, and yet the government appears to be content to keep him in post.  Indeed, it isn’t easy to find any criticism of his time at the B of E.  I wonder why?

      1. I spent a happy half hour commenting on the DT last night. I was amazed at the idiots who consider themselves to be ‘financial experts’!

        1. Most people really don’t get what’s coming – they think tomorrow will be just like today.

          1. Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, George Soros, the Rothschilds, Mark Zuckerberg. All Jews. Intent on the NWO.

          3. Not forgetting Goldman Sachs, GSK Pharma, The directors of the IMF. Hollywood.

            I saw a meme the other day showing Mel Gibson speaking to Kanye West. Both of whom have ranted about Jews. Gibson said ‘They called you antisemitic…They didn’t call you a liar !

    3. I don’t follow these things – too complicated for my pore brane. But he seems unfamiliar with the concept of running a state bank.

    4. He is doing what he was supposed to do, remember he is not working for the Government nor us and we all know who that leaves.

      Manners, morning H J

    5. Second useless clunker in a row.
      Surely the events of the past three years made it obvious that there would be financial problems. (In addition to social, psychological, health and educational problems.)

      2. 3687152+ up ticks,

        Morning Anne,
        First the political overseers construct the problem
        then they fix it rhetorically,
        no actual action taken.
        prime example, the invasion, the political overseers input seems to satisfy the party supporting fools.

      3. It would surely be quicker and easier to list those areas where the government and the public sector is working to a satisfactory standard.

        Erm…….oh…..

    6. If we had had annual increases in the interest rate of ½% for the last ten years we might now have a sensible rate of interest, appropriate control of house prices, and no inflation. The disaster that is hitting us now is due to the fact that the BoE and our politicians have destroyed our money.

  15. Good Moaning.
    One to go with your breakfast.
    I worked with a nurse who had been a refugee from what became Yugoslavia. Her description of the beneficial effects of maggots (which had infested the wounds accidentally) certainly made us think beyond antibiotics.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/11/03/nhs-turns-maggot-tea-bags-fight-against-antibiotic-resistance/

    “The gruesome WWI treatment that’s making a comeback on the NHS

    Data show the use of larval therapy to treat hard-to-heal wounds has been rising steadily, despite the ‘yuck factor’

    3 November 2022 • 3:52pm

    Maggot therapy on the NHS has surged by almost 50 per cent as the treatment becomes a key tool in the fight against antibiotic resistance.

    Data from NHS Digital show the number of treatments given in England increased from 886 in 2008/9 to 1,305 a decade later in 2018/19.

    Modern use of medical maggots dates back to the First World War, when a surgeon discovered soldiers’ wounds healed faster when they were “colonised” by maggots.

    But use of the treatment dwindled in the 1940s with the rise of antibiotics.

    However, because the rise of antibiotic resistance has made wounds harder to treat, medics are being forced to return to the out-of-fashion approach.

    Previous research has shown maggot therapy is effective in treating hard-to-heal skin wounds, while other studies have shown it is a cost-effective method.

    Maggot therapy was accepted for use by the NHS in 2004 and one UK firm – BioMonde, based in Bridgend, south Wales – rears thousands of green bottle blowflies every year to sell to the NHS and across Europe.

    The firm sells 9,000 tea-bag style “biobags” full of larvae to the NHS every year.

    ‘Natural aversion to creepy crawlies’

    The NHS Digital data show the technique has been gradually increasing since 2007, when records began. The figures dipped in 2019/20 to 1,190 treatments and 776 in 2020/21, likely as a result of the pandemic.

    To treat wounds that won’t heal with antibiotics, or as a “last resort” in a patient’s treatment, the “tea bag” full of larvae, which are no bigger than 1mm, is placed on top of the open tissue, covered with a dressing and left for up to four days.

    The maggots then feed on the dead tissue and, as some research suggests, secrete antimicrobial molecules which disinfect the wound.

    Yamni Nigam, professor of healthcare science at Swansea University, told BBC Radio 4 Today: “Then they drink all that slurry and soup back up, through the bag, and then you remove the bag full of all the process of the wound.”

    A survey of nurses’ attitudes towards the treatment, carried out by Prof Nigam, found that specialist wound nurses are highly in favour of the therapy after seeing its benefits and effectiveness.

    “Whereas non-specialist wound nurses, and general staff nurses, don’t really want to use maggots,” she said.

    “Certainly everybody, I think, has a natural aversion to creepy crawlies and most people tend to have an inherent disgust as far as maggots are concerned,” she added.

    A previous survey, cited in her study and published in the Journal of Wound Care, found that health professionals were more likely to be disgusted by the thought of using maggots than their patients.

    There was a “lack of confidence” on the part of professionals, which could be alleviated by training and education, she said.

    “The yuck factor can be overcome through the enthusiasm of the innovators and early adopters who, as influencers, are championing the use of maggots,” the study concluded.”

    1. Maggots also inhabit significant echelons of NHS management, but these maggots are detrimental to the health of the NHS.

        1. There were no flies on John Fowles, who wrote The French Lieutenant’s Woman, The Magus and The Collector and also wrote a novel called A Maggot!

          1. Ha, A Maggot, is a very strange and convoluted book.
            The two versions of The Magus, equally so.

          3. In some of his books, yes.
            His need to almost (justify?) his thought process at the end of ‘A Maggot’ seems to imply that he didn’t have confidence in the readers ability to understand the book.
            The question and answer sections I found a bit annoying as well.

            Not a book I would read again: on the other hand, The Magus and French L Woman I found most enjoyable and have read a couple of times.

      2. It’s being slowly dismantle to force people into private practice.
        If only the government’s had worked out the NHS could not be made available for people who had never paid in, or walked away after treatment for free.
        It wouldn’t be in the mess it’s in now.

    2. The great thing about maggots treating and cleansing wounds is you can have them for lunch after they have done the job.

      Good morning. I hope your breakfast remains in your stomach.

    3. ‘Moaning, Annie. Are leeches now redundant, I wonder? (Yes, I know, they now infest Parliament…before any wag pops up to remind us.)

    4. And then, of course, after the treatment, the maggots provide a healthy, nourishing meal….

    5. I have heard about maggots and wound care .

      I have witnessed leech wound care .. once you overcome the faint feeling when you are observing the treatment for massive bruising etc , you then marvel at the old fashioned medical remedies that brought US all to where we are now .

    6. My first cousin, Dr John Church, was a pioneer in using maggots in surgery.

      My grandfather, Henry Eugene Tracey was a Devon GP who had eleven children; the tenth of these, my aunt Decima, was one of the many doctors in our family and she married another doctor, Joe Church, and they went out to Rwanda and became medical missionaries. Their oldest son, John, became an extraordinarily inventive surgeon.

      This video has too much of the yuck factor in it for most delicate Nottler sensitivities but if you go to 2.22 on the video you’ll miss most of the gore and hear John explain how it works. I am sure that you, Anne, will find it interesting.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnIqlC73XI8

  16. SIR – One often overlooked aspect of the migrant traffic in small boats across the Channel (Letters, November 3) is the use of Border Force vessels and crews, originally deployed to tackle drug smuggling, to deal with the situation.

    As a former operational head of the small fleet of repurposed Customs cutters, I worry whether the move will lead to an open season for drug traffickers.

    Michael Gough Cooper
    Chiltington, West Sussex

    I reckon we can guarantee that, Mr Cooper. Ferrying hundreds of invaders ashore day in, day out, surely cannot permit the pursuit of drug-runners at the same time.

      1. Not really, they are the new Line Managers. The Afro-caribbeans expect their ganja and benefits and someone (Albs & Albion) has to meet their requirements; other idiots want a constant supply of nose powder, but want it delivered safely by scooter etc.

  17. Been hearing that those immigrants in Manston are to be offered £ 6000 compensation for not getting five star accommodation.

    Well I’m all for it really as long as it is collectable in person in Albania or wherever they came from.

      2. I’m afraid so Eddy a “charidee” (funded by the usual suspects) is currently launching a legal case for 6k per head for every illegal migrant that isn’t processed within 24 hours

    2. This should be the beginning of a necessary revolution.

      If the indigenous British population is prepared to put up with this without dramatic fight-back then we might as well just surrender and open our borders completely and let the invasion continue unchecked.

    3. Migrants could get £6,000 payouts over alleged unlawful …
      https://www.telegraph.co.uk › news › 2022/11/03 › mi…
      54
      12 hours ago — If successful, Channel migrants at the centre could get £6,000 compensation for being unlawfully detained for 24 hours under the legal precedent …

      1. He reminds me of his predecessor Teraita May who made the same absurd dance moves.

    2. The sooner he gets put in a sarcophagus and placed alongside his chancellor the better.

  19. SIR – James Bibby (Letters, November 2) is fortunate if he can find a morsel of kidney in a steak pie. It is almost impossible nowadays. Usually there is a surfeit of onion, which I have to pick through and remove before eating.

    David Bell
    Knowl Hill, Berkshire

    It depends where you buy yours, Mr Bell.  The pies from our local deli, all baked on the premises early in the morning, are bursting with s and k, and if you give her a day’s notice she will add some mushroom, too.  Not good for the waistline of course…

    2. How about making your own pies and puddings with meat from a local butcher? My butcher will add as much kidney as required to his steak and although more expensive than buying inferior pies the home produced item is well worth the effort.

          1. Thank you: that’s very thoughtful.

            When I saw “great british chefs”, my heart leapt, assuming it was St Jamie of Essex…..

      2. Slight problem there, Grizz. Mrs HJ is GF (or glutton free as we call it) and all of the deli’s pastry is, conveniently, GF. It is so good that I defy anyone to spot the difference. Until she became increasingly gluten intolerant some years ago her s and k pies and puds were top notch. She has yet to find a reliable recipe for GF pastry and after several failures has reluctantly given up on this quest.

  20. What a poignant letter.
    I doubt the DT will receive a better one this month, let alone this week.

    “SIR – Bryony Gordon (“Addiction is still misunderstood”, Features, October 31)describes an addict’s problems vividly, but does not mention the terrible effect that addiction has on the family.

    I was married to a charming and intelligent professional man for 27 years. However, lovely as he was, he was an addict – first with drugs and later with alcohol. In the end it killed him. I cannot begin to describe the humiliation and the pain I suffered – always trying to cover up for him, having to take night shifts as otherwise our family life was not secure, and never being able to develop friendships for myself.

    As well as trying to keep the show on the road I had to care for three children, who definitely suffered at times. Now they are adults they understand more but there has been an effect on my long-term relationship with them. Their friends had to accept that the dad in our house was a bit odd, but as he was different from everyone else’s dad it didn’t seem to be a problem; and now, looking back, they can see the funny side of some of the strange things that happened when they were young.

    There is, of course, much greater understanding about the nature of addiction today, but the cost is far greater than just one ill person.

    Juliet Richards
    Bristol.”

    1. Morning Anne

      That letter moved me as well, it was a kind honest soulfull description of a long term marriage that was a painful committment.

  21. Morning all 🙂
    I’ve not been out side yet but what a lovely bright start to the day.

  22. I spotted this amongst the BTL posts:

    J McMenemy59 MIN AGO

    “Migrant traffic”. Nigel Farage has played a blinder.

    His GBNews programmes, ably assisted by fellow presenters and reporters, have been highlighting the illegal immigrant invasion for months. This has been so successful that MPs and the media have been unable to ignore the subject any more. They even took to discussing it in Parliament this week, including Opposition parties.

    Well done Nigel, just keep on broadcasting the truth.

    Mrs M

    Hear, hear Mrs M.  And let’s not forget Mark Steyn’s exposure of the Pakistani rape gangs and how the authorities connived to let them get away with it.

    These two programmes are much to the credit of GBN and, for me, are unmissable live or on catch-up.  And the fact that Steyn’s programme is being investigated by Ofcom as a result of complaints against him and GBN tells us all we need to know…

    1. As Corporal Jones puts it:

      The MSM and the politicians don’t like it up ’em.

      And this is just where GB News shoves it.

    2. As Corporal Jones puts it:

      The MSM and the politicians don’t like it up ’em.

      And this is just where GB News shoves it.

    3. It looks as if Brexit is doomed.

      If only Nigel Farage hadn’t caved in to Johnson and withdrawn his Brexit Party candidates from contesting seats held by remainer Conservative MPs!

      If only Farage had remained firm Johnson would have had to have come to an accommodation!

      The consequence of this lack of nerve by Farage is that the House of Commons is still packed with Conservative remainers who want to scurry back into the EU under far worse terms than before.

      Farage is proving to be an excellent if rather too smug and self-satisfied journalist. He needs the humility to address the consequences of his failure of nerve at the crucial moment before the 2019 general election.

      1. A couple of days ago on Sky Business News it was stated that all our problems would cease if we rejoined the EU.

          1. No, a “respected” businessman.

            …………..but then Sky has always had a strong Remainer policy.

        3. That’s the intent. Always has been.

          When the state gets it’s way, all these problems will be dealt with. Until they get what they want, we’re just being abused.

      3. Brexit isn’t doomed. The Conservatives are doomed. Hunt’s Budget will finish them off if BBC Radio News 4 predictions are are correct Delay in Nuclear Power station at Hinkley point, delay on Northern and Eastern HS2 extension, more taxation on Dividends etc. Brady ‘s admission that Boris Johnson had enough support to compete in the PM selection but withdrew and Lizz Truss’s decision was easy as she appears to have quitted as PM without protest. So much for her ” I’m not a quitter.” What pressure did Brady inflict on BJ and LT. Was he in the conspiracy to get Sunak as PM?

        1. Hunt is a determined Remainer.

          If he can force Britain back into the EU with a punitive budget he will certainly do so.

    4. To stop the ongoing investigation into the government sponsored illegal invasion. AKA, A higley Treasonable offence. The government moved the landing area from the previous harbour facilities to a beach below the white cliffs. Where the media especially Nigel could no longer be present on arrival, or to film the thousands arriving on our shores.

  23. Oh happy days.
    Genuinely disgraceful actions by the British Empire may well be rebounding on the USA today.

    The result of this war on America is a trail of death and human suffering across the nation unmatched since World War II. In the most recent 12-month period, the CDC recorded more than 100,000 fentanyl overdose deaths. The year before it was 75,000, up from 56,000 the year before that. Fentanyl is now the No. 1 killer of Americans ages 18 to 45. The toll on the nation’s productivity and human costs to America’s families and communities are incalculable.

    To put it in context, the most reliable estimates of the number of civilians and combatants killed, on both sides, in the Ukraine war appears to be approximately 50,000. Yet, America’s ruling elite have sent over $60 billion to defend Ukraine’s territorial integrity, while refusing to spend another dime to complete Trump’s border barrier to slow the tsunami of fentanyl.

    Despite the Chinese Communist Party’s Total War on the U.S., America continues to import hundreds of billions in Chinese goods, while Wall Street invests hundreds of billions in China’s economy—including the retirement funds of our federal and state employees. It’s utter madness and it supports the widely held belief that Joe Biden, as well as other high-ranking U.S. politicians, has been compromised by the CCP.

    The First and Second Opium Wars ultimately contributed to the communist takeover of China. History may well record America’s ongoing fentanyl crisis as the Third Opium War, with similar results.

    And who can forget the aftermath of Fentanyl Floyd?

    https://www.takimag.com/article/the-third-opium-war/

    1. For goodness sake. America has real world immediate issues now and they’re looking to blame us for their failures?

          1. The Chinese attitude to “total war” on the USA using the methods the British did, but the writer did not blame the British for America’s experience but rather the American’s themselves.

  24. 367152+ up ticks,

    The black odious beauty of it is these so called elite are counting on the mass stupidity of the herd ( they could have a valid point there ) when telling us their intentions.

    erard Batten
    @gjb2021
    ·
    15h
    The Agenda of the WEF is to depopulate the planet. Watch the 9 min video in the article.

    They believe that technology will make the vast majority of people ‘redundanct’ & surplus to requirements. With AI & bio-engineering the Globalist elite think they can make themselves immortal gods.

    No need to make this stuff up – they are telling us themselves. Laughing in our faces because they know the media they own will never pursue them.

    Evil WEF Leader Caught Planning ‘Mass Extinction Event’ to Inner Circle – News Punch
    Evil WEF Leader Caught Planning ‘Mass Extinction Event’ to Inner Circle – News Punch

    Another week, another leaked video from the World Economic Forum featuring Klaus Schwab’s advisors casually discussing their plans to depopulate the planet.

    newspunch.com

    https://gettr.com/post/p1woiai9220

    1. AI would do away with the globalists in a heartbeat. What possible value do they add to society? None. Therefore, erasure.

      I read Neal Asher’s polity books and the Polity sounds just about ideal a society to live. No stupid people ruining things for others and if they do, they’re dealt with swiftly. A recent Salvation series by Peter Hamilton has scum pootled off to another planet where they’re left to fend for themselves.

      Imagine that. All the ecomentalists, Lefties, criminals, gimmigrants, annoyances all sent off to another planet and told ‘get on with it’. Force them to live their ideal society away from everyone else.

      Give Muslims their own planet too. Just ensure they can’t get off it.

  25. ‘Morning All
    Oh Bugger,awoke yesterday with my left side completely numb,no improvement by today so online form submitted for a doctor’s appointment now the wait begins
    I generally avoid doctors like the plague but needs must…….
    Please excuse a higher than usual numbert of mispronts my one finger tryping ain’t what it was

    2. Good luck, I think you should consider trying to talk to someone at your Doctor’s surgery and if no joy there do as T_B suggests, 111.

        2. Friend had post hip operation complications – possible thrombosis. She is a cynical old bat (hence why she’s a friend!) but she was impressed by the instant attention and care that she received after phoning 111.

    3. TIA or possibly a back problem. Urgent attention needed in order to check which it is, A&E ASAP.

    4. Please get onto 111 or A&E asap. Sounds like an emergency to me, so hope your GP practice is one of the good ones in responding promptly.

    5. Call an ambulance, mate. Don’t hesitate. Get your sorry arse to A&E pronto, not passing go & not collecting the £200.

  27. Article in today’s DT.  My thoughts are unprintable:

    Greta Thunberg takes aim at her ‘heterosexual, white, privileged, middle-aged’ critics

     4/5

    While on the last stop of a promotional tour for her new Climate Book, Thunberg says it’s mostly “white, privileged” men who send her hate

    From the many – mostly hostile – BTLs:

    Paul Stevenson56 MIN AGO

    I am a white heterosexual middle aged man.

    State educated hard working self employed business owner which I set up.

    I pay a fortune in tax, staff wages NI etc etc. and a massive net contributor to society.

    I am demonised by an uneducated young lady with no life experience who is promoted by the media and establishment.

    Great!

    (I think ‘lady’ might be pushing it.)

    Nicholas Chuzzlefield2 MIN AGO

    Why is so much attention paid to an ignorant, uneducated, mentally unstable, narcissistic individual like Thunberg who has no scientific or economic knowledge or understanding? Answer, because most people are lazy and cannot be bothered to do the research and then think for themselves. Hence this noisy moron gets attention far beyond her meagre intelligence and capabilities.

    (That’s more like it.)

    Andy RoadKing3 HRS AGO

    Seems like the scowling Swedish Goblin of Doom is being given a new public image to give her the attention she craves.

    Quote:

    ““It would be nice not to spend all my time fighting the possible destruction of our civilisation as we know it,” she sighed.”

    How ironic she is a puppet being used to bring about the possible destruction of our civilisation as we know it.

    She has been used to brainwash and frighten a lot of children but there will be a backlash eventually, as the green weirdoes crash the economy and destroy the quality of life these children expect.

    * * *

    There will be plenty more of the same, so long as an ignorant and lazy media continues to fawn over her.

    1. I don’t hate you Greta. I pity you. You are an ignorant, stupid, confused, used, spoiled, egotistical, indulged, arrogant berk who knows nothing of the real world.

      2. Worse, she was always a greedy fame-hungry teenager seeking to launch an international media career. Her image is carefully cultivated. Look at the latest photo of her – she’s dressed as a scruffy, idealistic teenager who doesn’t care how she looks, but her eyebrows are carefully shaped. I have two daughters, Greta’s image doesn’t add up.

  28. Convid Amnesty,I dont think so……….

    “It is utterly disingenuous for those who made such catastrophic and

    reckless mistakes during Covid to now say that ‘they didn’t know’ about

    such-and-such an outcome because of the ‘fog of uncertainty’ and that

    the alternative to their authoritarian overreach and draconian measures

    was ‘millions of dead bodies’. These same individuals deliberately and

    ruthlessly suppressed anyone who did try to shed some light on potential

    risks, problems or alternatives to the orthodoxy. Many people were

    horrified by the police brutality, by the obfuscation and lies

    surrounding vaccine mandates, and were repelled by the QR codes and

    having their kids being forced to stay home or wear worthless masks all

    day long. But the censoring of them and the humiliation meted out to

    them was merciless”

    .https://spectator.com.au/2022/11/covid-amnesty-anyone/

    “We didn’t know” Oh yes you did and so did we because we looked at thje perfect petri dishes The Diamond Princress and the Yank Carrier We listened to eminent virologists like Didier Raoult who you demonised

    The likes of Penis Moron Jeremy Swine and Andrew Neil need to answer for their crimes

    as for the likes of Handcock words fail me

    Never Forget Never Forgive

    https://i.imgflip.com/4z4pgz.jpg
    Edit
    This is hilarious shoves it right up em
    https://twitter.com/TheOGAllison/status/1588031745382924288?s=20&t=DnPvfs2f6TEJZWN6-HHelA

    1. Makes you wonder how they’ll approach the endless lie of climate change. ‘No one told us it wasn’t real!’

      1. In the seventeenth century the Stuarts talked about The Divine Right Of Kings. This has been replaced by The Asinine Blight of Kings and now another Charles – the idiot Charles 111 – thinks that man-made climate change is true so it is probably false!

        A line from Peter Cook which I enjoyed: Everything I have ever told you is a lie including this.

      2. heh heh that’s a good put-down for anyone claiming they didn’t know.
        “No-one has told you that the carbon scam isn’t real either.”

    2. 367152+ up ticks,

      Morning Rik

      Good factual post, they knew alright about the testing out of a herd suppressing campaign, I do believe most strongly that we can go no further regarding other issues until this lock down & odious consequences is settled.

      They are reducing us NOT only in number but in self respect, etc,etc.

    3. Apt pic of the sinister minister – reminds me of the masturbating bird in The Wild West Show.

      But you omit Piers Morgan from your list. he should be very high on it along with many more politicians.

  29. I sympathise with Dalrymple re such noise. It seems to be ubiquitous.
    One of the joys of living here is the long spells of silence, only broken by birdsong.
    Even at the busiest times any mechanical noise is fleeting.

    The English have always taken their pleasures sadly, but now they take them first noisily, then antisocially, then forgetfully. Several times I have heard young people claim to have had a wonderful time the night before, the evidence for which is that they can remember nothing whatever of it. On this view of things, death is the final, eternal nightclub.

    https://www.takimag.com/article/making-a-hell-of-heaven/

      5. If I’m awake at dawn in the summertime, I could murder the first smug bird that tunes up.

    2. We’re about 3 miles from the motorway. It is still a dull roar. The insistence children these days have of playing musak through their telephone speakers rather than putting headphones in is also disgusting.

      1. Tanks rolling along on the army ranges in the Purbecks , a familiar sound .

        Skeins of geese honking in flight , crows wheeling around , and skylarks rising high .

        Reassuring actually.

    3. It’s odd, when I used to live in Richmond, I never noticed the perpetual roar of Heathrow traffic to add to the general traffic noise. Playing videos I shot then it’s quite apparent. But then I was much younger… I’ve been watching the excellent Public Eye repeats, shot mainly on location around Eton, an area I also knew well. The noise is also quite obvious there,

      1. Whenever we return to the UK I am very aware of all the noise.

        This place has spoiled us and I will miss the silence when we inevitably have to move. Many of our repeat bookings for the gite comment that it is the silence that they love, they sit in the garden for hours just looking at the view and savouring the peace.

        1. There are quiet places – I’ve been hunting them out on my travels – but they’re few and far between.

          1. And generally miles from anywhere. Therein lies our problem, to be close enough to buses/shops in the UK almost inevitably means that noise is a factor, which we will have to learn to live with.

  30. 367152+ up ticks,

    Friday 4 November:The short-term thinking of lockdown has brought the NHS to the brink

    Are you thinking what I’m thinking ,NO governing body could get it consistently wrong without purpose, which then begs the question do the electorate realise a covert agenda is being followed and that it is finding their consent,

    1. The vast majority of the electorate have no powers of critical thinking – they just do as they’re told and believe what they’re told.

      1. 367152+ up ticks,

        Afternoon N,

        That I can understand for the first maybe second term of governmental office but not three plus decades later.

        1. It’s ingrained. They vote left or right without realising they’re both the same. They follow totalitarian rules without a peep because they think they’ll be safer.

  31. Morning all, I am very glad to be with you today. Yesterday afternoon I was videoing part of the village. I wanted a shot of the seafront so took my camera plus tripod to the end of the pier. I did one panoramic shot then decided to do a 360 deg pan shot so positioned the tripod near the edge. I did the shot walking round the tripod with my eye to the eyepiece as I panned. When I stopped and looked down – the edge of my left foot was just over the edge of the pier (there’s no guard rail) and there’s a 20ft drop to the water and I can’t swim. Shitty death! that was close. I shall be more wary in future

    1. Good morning all, and Lucky Alec.
      Presumably Mrs Murrell would have blamed the lack of a safety rail on English Tory Cu ts.

    3. It is so easy to do, Alec. I did almost the same in the Pyrenees, removing a rock from just in front of the back tyre. It is so easy to get so engrossed in what you are doing that you momentarily lose concentration on other aspects. Except my foot wasn’t over the edge, I was about two feet away. You lose sight of where you are. So pleased you made it to today.

        1. Hello Alec, thank you for asking after her. I thought I would wait until the conversation had moved on.

          Poppie is actually doing very well on her medication, she is a happy little dog and has started playing with her ball again for a minute or so; her toys, and inviting us to play for a few minutes with her toys with her. However, we got a phone call from the vet last Monday to say that tests they had done on a lump in her neck which was found on her emergency examination showed that she has also got a lymphoma, a cancer of the lymph gland. This has been such a set back emotionally for us. I feel as though I have been hollowed out. We had an appt for yesterday morning (Friday) to discuss the way forward and yet more tests (another arm and a leg!). I spent all night Thursday thinking and worrying about would we be bringing her home after the appt, or would this be IT, that moment we know that must come one day. However, it was not to be, thank the Lord; the vet said she is not in any discomfort at the moment and she is still very alert, but she mustn’t be stressed in any way at all. She has started to stride out on her walks again, only half the distance now, about half a mile but it is an interesting and familiar walk for her, with hedgerows, quiet lane and village green. She is, however, a fair weather dog! So that’s it for now, we have to assess the situation on a day-to-day basis.

          Look after yourself, we are none of us getting any younger. On our return from the vet yesterday https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/12947c1c001f9d235bdb64eb04d876a5f193eb92c2d597f19d215ea8644dafbd.jpg and a quick farm shop I fell asleep in the afternoon – after my sleepless night – and I awoke to find the temperature had dropped and I was shivering and my teeth were chattering. It is so easy as one gets older to fall foul of conditions. I have attached a photo of Poppie taken a week or so before her collapse, it may not show if you are reading this by the red button Notification. You may have to access it by the ‘Read in Discussion’ button. All the best, and take care. xx

          Edit: photo in text by accident, should have been at the end! Operator (me) error!

          1. Thanks for the update PM, I’m glad she’s still active, think positive and take things a day at a time – above all you must look after yourself. x

    4. 367152+ up ticks,

      Morning FA,

      The RNLI would have picked you up in between shepherding duties………………..eventually.

      1. Only if he had resurfaced with his face covered in old engine oil. They aren’t paid to pick up whities.

    9. Thank God that the Blind Fury was not on duty and you survived. Milton put it rather well in Lycidas, his lament for a friend of his who lost his life at sea.

      “Comes the blind Fury with th’abhorred shears,
      And slits the thin-spun life.”

      1. Which reminds me …
        Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
        The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
        The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
        The best lack all conviction, while the worst
        Are full of passionate intensity.         W B Yeats

    11. Oh my goodness, what an awful fright. Glad all was ok. I have a great fear of big drops and wouldn’t have dared get close! I hope the photo was worth it!

  32. Modern Life……

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ce3a3885ffa16ec820f8418a2455618cde97618d9d04418fef0c601002e6b8e8.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/38a831d20fef89b0742abcf7af818a0a397668e05f9d33bf88a6a9431370b9ff.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e2b24ce8b3aff1b40f0cfc0db1716251096b963758d26a3d33a69caeda59e98e.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/aad29b0cb0402b2ea80a38b1fe740df646ca4675db3d9b2639950ccc288b67d1.jpg
    Edit
    Level 3 vterrorist you say………
    https://twitter.com/Resist_05/status/1588340814328913920?s=20&t=et906MmIQl-McxRWL43rsA

    1. I think you will find that energy prices have risen by very much more than 4% in France.

      1. 17% of gas from Russia – that might be 17% of a very small volume, thus explaining why the price rise seems moderate.
        From https://www.climatescorecard.org/2022/06/natural-gas-consumption-and-production-in-france/, France consumed 40,7 billion cubic metres of gas in 2020.
        Germany – 90.5 billion cubic meters in 2021 (https://www.statista.com/statistics/703657/natural-gas-consumption-germany/)
        UK – Natural gas consumption in the United Kingdom nearly reached 77 billion cubic meters in 2021
        https://www.statista.com/statistics/265393/natural-gas-consumption-in-the-united-kingdom/

      1. It is a mistake to think that just because somebody is often wrong that he or she is always wrong!

        Please could someone tell me how to copy the Icke video clip that Rik has posted above about Rutte and farming in Holland – I can’t find it with google. I would like to send it to my boys and also Caroline’s family in Holland.

  33. Russia threatening to shoot own retreating soldiers, says UK. 4 November 2022.

    Russia’s forces are now threatening to gun down their own retreating soldiers to drive forward Moscow’s military objectives, the British defence ministry said today.

    “Due to low morale and reluctance to fight, Russian forces have probably started deploying ‘barrier troops’ or ‘blocking units’,” the British MoD said in its latest intelligence update.

    These units are threatening to shoot their own retreating soldiers in order to compel offensives and have been used in previous conflicts by Russian forces, the ministry added.

    Probably? So they don’t actually know this for a fact? So the whole thing is in fact an invention? A piece of propaganda?

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/russia-ukraine-putin-nuclear-war-uk-news-b2217414.html

      1. Morning Bob. Of course, you can be shot in any army for legging it on the battlefield.

        1. Certainly in WWI on the Western Front. The French Government has never released the numbers of their own soldiers shot during the 1917 mutinies!

          1. Looking around the museums and fortifications around Verdun one can sympathise with those fleeing.
            If you have never been to that area and you have an interest in such things it is well worth visiting and is extremely sobering seeing what the French went through.
            I believe there were examples of the British doing similarly when the soldiers were sent over the top on yet another forlorn attack.
            After two years my grandfather swapped the trenches for the RFC as he thought he would have a better chance of his survival being down to his own skills. He then survived a further three years without serious injury. A very lucky man.

          2. My paternal grandfather was in the RFC. He owned a garage, and I would imagine at that stage there was little difference between car and plane engines.

          3. Still isn’t……..!!

            The MR’s grandfather did the same – after the war he started a shop selling wirelesses – and other state of the art electrical goods.

          4. A wireless, now that takes me back: The Home Service, a tuning dial with countries I’d never heard of and waiting for the valves to warm up.
            A good refurbished (capacitors changed – they can dry out and go bang) wireless can be quite expensive these days, a good one has a wonderful warm tone

    3. The Coldstream Guards (2nd Bn, I seem to recall) were used in a similar role to ensure the defensive forces held their ground against the advancing German forces around Dunkirk long enough for the troops to be lifted from the beaches.

  34. 367152+ up ticks,

    Make Batten / Braine an offer they cannot refuse ( unlimited funding) as a duo they ran building a new UKIP with great success for a year.

    That was terminated in 2019 via the parties nec ( still in power) and farage treacherous input.

    Dt,
    New Ukip-style party could form to ‘nick’ Tory votes over migrant crisis
    Craig Mackinlay tells Chopper’s Politics podcast that Conservatives risk losing dozens of seats unless ministers take action over crossings

    1. Good morning, ogga

      Shouldn’t Batten and Braine start a new party rather than join UK again?

      Such a new party would clearly need to make some alliances with other parties – it would be unrealistic, impractical and futile not to do so.

      If you read my posts you will know that I think that Farage’s great mistake was in not forcing Johnson to make an electoral pact with the Brexit Party The sort of Brexit Johnson gave us, with the EU still in Northern Ireland and EU fishing boats still ravaging our waters, is almost worthless when the Conservative Party has done so little to exploit the many advantages that Brexit could and should bring.

      As you frequently remind us you abominate Farage and have complete contempt for him but, whatever you and I think of Farage, surely getting free of the monstrous EU is more important than our views on personalities?

      1. I can understand Farage’s actions at the last election.
        Most of us knew Johnson was pretty flexible, but we’ve now learnt just how bendy he and his fellow “Conservatives” really are.

        1. Morning Anne – Just finished killing the moss on my green this morning. Nigel needs to be in the mix if the potential new parties get together. He is getting a lot of support through GBNews and has world wide contacts. He is off to the USA next week to report on the USA elections.

          1. Yes, but Farage would need to hold his nerve which he failed to do in 2019.

            But I am beginning to fear that the MSM and the financial world have got us so firmly by the short and curlies that if a party with Farage at its head won power they would do to him what they did to Truss – force him out of office before he could achieve anything.

            Let’s face it : Democracy in the UK is dead. What the plebs want and need is completely irrelevant.

        2. I think the MSM – and especially the BBC – were desperate for Farage to fail.

          The fact is that if Farage had held firm then Johnson would have had to give some ground. If, for example the Conservatives had not stood in the red wall seats these would have gone to Farage’s Brexit Party and this would have given us a proper Brexit rather than the shambles we have got.

          For Johnson the thing to ponder was: “If Farage stands in remainer Conservative seats I may well lose the election”.
          The thing for Farage to ponder was “If I don’t remove my candidates in Conservative held remainer seats then the Conservatives may lose and we shall fail to get Brexit.”

          I think that Johnson’s lust to remain as prime minister was just as strong as Farage’s desire to get Brexit at any price.

          Farage blinked first – lost his nerve and didn’t get a single quid pro quo from Johnson; Johnson got his massive majority but with a party still stuffed with remainers and the odds are that the bungled Brexit in name only that Johnson and his party lumbered us with will not last long and we shall soon be back in the EU.

      2. 367152+ up ticks,

        Morning R,
        You do NOT trust peoples of the farage
        self proven character twice.
        To amalgamate with other parties with dubious name change in there recent past is a definet NO NO.
        The last attempt by brexit was blatant
        “nige”manipulation.

        How many members did the brexit party have , in bulk NONE only a couple of the hierarchy & farage Bordering on a dictatorship one could say.

        Finance is the reason, funding a new party.

        I repeat Gerard Batten in his year leadership asked the membership for £100000 & received in return £300000 that is long term trust shown in the short term.
        when in 2019 treachery struct, the party was financially in the black & daily gaining members, it was MOST assuredly
        a threat rapidly building and NOT to be tolerated.

        Peoples will continue to follow lab/lib/con/current ukip and “nige” until
        they personally receive the order of the knife

          1. 367152+ up ticks,

            Afternoon R,
            An unfair assumption I worked for many a year as did many, the butt of abuse and much sneering rhetoric from people who were putting, at the same time, firmly in place via the ballot booth the reasons for today’s suffering
            Just what did farage achieve in 2019 apart from vote splitting & topping up the tory (ino) party in a very pro johnson manner.

            In my book the tory (ino) party & “nige”
            have been a danger to Brexitexit since early doors post referendum.

    1. I was invited to join a local ‘Men’s shed’ repair shop tryp of thingy. I met the other guys at the school building, but decided not to join as it would have been too similar to a bus man’s holiday. Because it was part of a still functioning school, i would also have had to take an ID and criminal records test at the police station. for what doing some wood work in my spare time ? Obviously it was because of the school, which has many youngsters with problems under supervision and general observation. But the police are sadly letting us down again, as they do not trust elderly established members of the public who want to fill in their spare time by being helpful to the community. And the government have allowed thousands of people into the country, who they will never know the origin of.
      This is such a direct insult to the people of the UK

      1. My Mother volunteered to drive old folks to hospital, medical appointments and the like, but when the flurry of forms, investigations, permits, records checks etc etc arrived, she gave up in frustration and unvolunteered. There went another useful pair of hands willing to help out people less fortunate than herself and who could no longer get around easily.
        When we cleared her house this summer just gove, I found all the paperwork… strewth! You’d have thought she was applying to keep all the world’s secrets.

        2. That was such a shame Obs. I’m sure there have been many others who have unjustly suffered the same ridiculous issues. It makes sense to avoid it if you can.

        1. or play keyboard in care homes – I still haven’t received my volunteer accreditation

  36. I wonder if it’s possible to investigate how much each MP takes home each year in salary and ‘expenses’ claims. And any other income from outside of their parliamentary connections/duties and incomes from rental properties. Surely the public are entitled to know all this.

    1. It is Eddy but unsurprisingly the MSM is reluctant to do any such thing except when it benefits them!

  37. Well, who’s been hoist on her own petard?
    I have designed this year’s Christmas card. A (I hope) quiet weekend beckoned; ideal for printing off the cards.
    I have plenty of blank cards in sto ……………… um, somewhere.
    Looks at the piled boxes in the packing station – formerly known as the dining room – decides to place another order. And, This Time, Do Not Pack Them Away.

  38. The real reason the Right lost – and surrendered Britain to technocrats

    The Tories have achieved almost nothing because they failed to grasp the strength of their opponents Allister Heath.

    Winning a mandate isn’t enough, as Brexit showed. It doesn’t mean ministers are actually in control of the government

    What has been the point of the Tory-led governments of the past 12 years? Yes, there was Brexit, and salvation from Ed Miliband and Jeremy Corbyn’s class warfare, which made it all worthwhile. But what else? Even leaving the EU has only really happened de jure; we have so far made little of our new freedoms. The school reforms reversed the decline of state education, though this has now stalled. What else? Universal Credit hasn’t cut numbers on out of work benefits, with today’s 5.3 million exactly the same as in August 2005.

    The truth is that the Tories in general, and the Right in particular, have failed to shift the country in a conservative direction, defeated by incompetence, the power of the dominant Left-wing ideology and vested interests, and some bad luck. Far from standing athwart history and yelling stop, as William F Buckley demanded, the Conservatives have succumbed to the tyranny of the status quo.

    The Right has, inter alia, been routed on crime, tax, the NHS, pensions and welfare, regulation, immigration, the family, higher education, wokery, the environment, economic growth, housebuilding, monetary policy, debt, pandemic management, defence, the constitution, devolution and individual freedom (with one or two exceptions). It’s been a disaster, with the rapid implosion of the Truss experiment the final, abject humiliation.

    Why did the Right fail? There is nothing wrong with its world view. But it can only win when it grasps the extraordinary strength of its opponents, realises that politics is downstream from economic conditions, technology and culture, and carefully works out how to change a world and a system deeply hostile to its ideas.

    It must start by smashing the Left’s near-total intellectual hegemony. The Right whines that the OBR, the IFS and the Resolution Foundation dominate economic discourse, making it impossible to break away from today’s high-tax, easy-money nightmare. But why not fund a genuine, top-notch alternative to these groups that nobody can ignore, with supply-side effects and sound monetary concepts embedded in its analysis, all endorsed by Nobel-level economists? Why is there no alternative to the mainstream human rights lobby, one that explains how to humanely reform immigration policy? Creating many more such campaigning organisations would massively reduce the Left’s grip on the public debate.

    Models are the new weapon of the technocratic Left, from the environment to disease prevention. Some of these constructs make sense, but many are scientistic, contingent on manipulated assumptions, and deliver catastrophically poor forecasts. They empower elites who understand a little maths, or possess basic coding skills, and allow the establishment to control the parameters of the debate. It is easy to knock together a model that “proves” that HS2 will bolster the economy of northern cities, or that immigration is the main driver of productivity, or that Brexit will wreak havoc. Actual empirical evidence is irrelevant.

    Truss’s destruction was partly caused by her inability to wheel out her own alternative constructs. The Right needs its own models on everything from urbanism to reforestation; crucially, they must be honest, thorough and of the highest quality, unlike some of the Left’s. Longer term, the Tories must ensure that universities are genuinely ideologically diverse. Populism doesn’t imply anti-intellectualism: the Right must fight the Left on its own terrain.

    Yet ideas aren’t sufficient. Radical political change requires democratic assent, followed by the reform of bureaucratic institutions, legal changes, brilliant management and great communications. The Tories should become more comfortable with bypassing elites, and directly consulting the public via referendums: this will probably be the only way that the NHS or planning will ever be reformed. Truss should have immediately pledged local plebiscites for fracking.

    But winning a mandate isn’t enough either, as Brexit demonstrated. It doesn’t mean ministers are actually in control of the government. Many home secretaries have tried and failed to deal with crime or immigration, defeated by hostile and incompetent officials and a shocking lack of power and levers.

    The Civil Service must be reformed; democratically elected politicians should be allowed to appoint hundreds of outside specialists, as is the case in France and America. The Home Office must be liquidated, and a new ministry reconstructed from scratch. Ministers need to hire managers who understand how to push through change. Quangos must be absorbed into ministries, and no part of the Government must be allowed to campaign against it.

    The Blob thrives on bad or misunderstood legislation: the Right needs better lawyers. Out of cowardice or ignorance, the Tories have allowed key legislation relating to equalities, net zero or migration to remain unchanged, even though they undermine their other policies. Tweaking the ECHR or the Modern Slavery Act won’t be enough: the entire legal framework governing migration needs to be rethought from first principles.

    The need for unity is another imperative. The Right’s two wings, the cultural conservatives and libertarians, need each other. Without free-market reforms, there will be no growth; without the cultural conservatives, there will be no majority. Yet the latter trashed Truss in abominable fashion, and the former are often uninterested in the cultural conservatives’ worries. A coalition on the Right is essential.

    Lockdowns were a catastrophe for freedom, inflation and the national debt, and a boon to collectivists. To avoid the temptation of shutting everything down again next time, the Tories should prioritise a plan to beat the next pandemic while preserving as much of normal life as possible. We need the facilities to test, invent, manufacture and distribute a new vaccine in days and weeks, not months or years.

    Last but not least, the Right must grow its base by encouraging culturally conservative behaviour. This would include homeownership in new suburbs, a pro-consumerist attitude centred around achieving the “British dream”, the encouragement of selfreliance, choice and a renewed savings culture, stable and larger families, more technical and vocational education and fewer graduates, and environmentalism centred around technology, not puritanism. If the Right doesn’t get its act together, the Left will be in power for a generation.

    2. She does have form though doesn’t she for tweeting about things she has absolutely no knowledge of the actual facts about?

    1. Nice to see the police actually in action! I wonder if someone said a naughty word?
      PS – look at the size of that [expletive deleted] dog.

      1. Why don’t they just let the dog go – it’ll save them feeding it back at the nick

    3. They are possibly in the sh*t… one of them deliberately miss-gendered a policewomthing/he/she/it. He brazenly and outrageously said ‘What time is it missis’? Probably get off with usual ‘I’m a protected species and I didn’t realise it was offensive, man!’.

  41. Welcome to the FSU’s weekly newsletter, our round-up of the free speech news of the week.

    Partial victory over online censorship bill

    Yesterday brought news that the Government is due to remove the ‘legal but harmful’ clause from the Online Safety Bill, a major victory for all the free speech groups that have been campaigning for this, including the FSU (i, Sun, Guido Fawkes). As Fraser Nelson points out in the Spectator, Rishi Sunak and Culture Secretary Michelle Donelan deserve credit for having made good on their pledges to look at this clause again.

    However, the battle is not over. As FSU General Secretary Toby Young makes clear in today’s Telegraph, there’s a little-known flaw in the Bill that risks making Nicola Sturgeon the content moderator for the whole of the UK.

    The FSU highlighted this flaw in discussions with Chris Philp, then the Digital Minister, earlier this year. The definition of illegal content in clause 52 (12) of the bill states that the content social media platforms will have a legal duty to remove in every part of the UK will be content that’s illegal in any part of the UK (“offence means any offence under the law of any part of the United Kingdom”). Failure to remove such content could result in those platforms being fined up to 10% of their annual global turnover.

    The obvious difficulty with that is it means the big social media companies like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter would have to remove something it’s unlawful to say in Scotland in every part of the UK — hence the claim that the Bill will effectively appoint Nicola Sturgeon as content moderator for the entire population.

    That’s particularly concerning given that last year Scotland’s Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act received Royal Assent. Among other things, this “authoritarian mess” of an Act (as the FSU’s Scottish Advisory Council member Jamie Gillies describes it for Spiked) makes it a criminal offence, punishable by up to seven years in prison, for a person to behave in a threatening or abusive manner or to communicate material considered threatening or abusive to another person with the intention of “stirring up hatred” against people on the grounds of: age; disability, religion, sexual orientation, transgender identity, or variations in sex characteristics (intersex).

    In effect, if a feminist says in Scotland that she doesn’t think transwomen are women, she could be prosecuted for stirring up hatred. And because of the clause in the Online Safety Bill that states that “offence means any offence under the law or any part of the United Kingdom”, the big social media platforms would also then have to remove any such content across the whole of the UK.

    Having been made aware of this problem, the Government attempted to address it last July by making the following amendment:

    Clause 52, page 49, line 13, leave out paragraph (d) and insert —

    “(d) an offence within subsection (4A).

    (4A) An offence is within this subsection if —

    (a) it is not a priority offence,

    (b) the victim or intended victim of the offence is an individual (or individuals), and

    (c) the offence is created by this Act or, before or after this Act is

    passed, by —

    (i) another Act,

    (ii) an Order in Council,

    (iii) an order, rules or regulations made under an Act by the Secretary of State or other Minister of the Crown, including such an instrument made jointly with a devolved authority, or

    (iv) devolved subordinate legislation made by a devolved authority with the consent of the Secretary of State or other Minister of the Crown.”

    We think this will probably mean the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act won’t affect what people can and can’t say online in the rest of the UK, since that was passed last year by a devolved authority without the consent of the Secretary of State. The amendment is still unsatisfactory, however, because it creates a loophole whereby a future minority Labour Government, knowing it wouldn’t get some draconian new anti-free speech law through the House of Commons, could simply approve that law after it’s been passed by Nicola Sturgeon’s devolved government in Holyrood. In other words, despite this amendment Sturgeon could still become the de facto content moderator for the whole of the UK with the consent of whoever the Culture Secretary is at the time.

    The other difficulty with the amendment is as follows. On the recommendation of the Law Commission of England and Wales, the Online Safety Bill, as written, will repeal s127 of the Communications Act 2003 (which makes it an offense to say something “grossly offensive”), as well as the Malicious Communications Act 1998, and replace those offences with a new harmful communications offence, whereby it becomes an offence, punishable by up to two years in prison, to say something that causes another person “serious distress”.

    As you might imagine, the FSU has reservations about this new harmful communications offence. The critical issue here, though, is that the Online Safety Bill will only repeal the above communications offences in England and Wales, not Scotland or NI, thereby creating a risk that social media platforms within scope of the new online regulatory regime will not only have to remove content that is unlawful under the new harmful communications offence, but content that’s unlawful under s127 of the Communications Act, since that will remain on the statute books in Scotland and NI, as well as the Malicious Communications Act, since that will remain on the statute book in NI. (It was never applicable to Scotland.)

    Does the Government’s amendment address that? We don’t think that it does. The Malicious Communications Act was passed in 1998, and so meets the tests set out in the amendment, as does the Communications Act, since the Communications (Scotland) Act 2003 applied to the whole of the UK.

    ‘So what?’, you might think. And yet given there’s a chance that Labour will form a minority government supported by the SNP after the next general election, here too the Online Safety Bill, as written, seems capable of granting Nicola Sturgeon the power to determine what everyone in the rest of the UK is allowed to say online.

    Let’s hope the Government does more to address this little-known flaw in the legislation when the Bill comes back before Parliament.

    Preacher Franklin Graham wins free speech legal victory

    Back in 2020, Christian activist Franklin Graham – son of the famous preacher, the late Billy Graham – hired Glasgow’s Hydro arena for a large evangelistic rally. Following protests regarding Mr Graham’s allegedly “hateful” views, however, the booking was cancelled, and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) then sued the body which runs the Hydro arena – the Scottish Event Campus (SEC) – for financial losses arising from that cancellation.

    As FSU Scottish Advisory Council member Murdo Fraser points out, “one does not have to be sympathetic to Mr Graham’s opinions on any matter, or to be an enthusiast for his style of mass evangelism, to see that the cancellation of the event by the SEC was an afront to free speech” (Scotsman). “In a free and liberal democracy,” he adds, “there should always be a presumption that people are free to express their opinions even when they may cause offence to others.”

    Sheriff John McCormick apparently shares that sentiment. Last week he ruled that the SEC had discriminated against the BGEA and ordered the venue to pay almost £100,000 in damages. The judgment handed down (and available here) ruled heavily in favour of the pursuers (BBC, Christian Today, Mail, Scottish Legal, Scottish Daily Express, Times), with Sheriff McCormick delivering something of a judicial slap-down to the protestors – or “censorious moralising prigs” as Alex Massie called them (Times).

    The media narrative surrounding this case has always been that the SEC cancelled the event following protests by Glasgow’s LGBT+ Interfaith Network and several individuals, including two Church of Scotland ministers, who alleged that views expressed by Mr Graham in the past were “hateful, Islamophobic, and homophobic” (Mail, Scotsman, Times). Scottish Greens MSP Patrick Harvie – now a government minister – also lobbied the SEC seeking to have the event cancelled. Graham, he argued, peddles “a toxic and dangerous agenda” that is “utterly at odds with the values of a civilised society”. But did the SEC need much persuasion before pulling the plug (Glasgow Times)? The body’s major shareholder is Glasgow City Council, and as the documents referenced in Sheriff McCormick’s judgement make abundantly clear, Mr Graham’s event was ultimately cancelled because senior local government officials didn’t wish for it to go ahead – they were, in the Sheriff’s words, “searching for a reason to terminate the agreement”.

    The minutes from a council board meeting claim “it’s about ‘doing the right thing’ notwithstanding the contractual position”. As Alex Massie translates, “doing ‘the right thing’ here means discriminating against people on the grounds of their presumed beliefs and suppressing their speech rights” (Times). According to her own testimony, Glasgow City Council’s leader, Susan Aitken, felt that the event had to be cancelled because “the expression of [Graham’s] views” might have unspecified “real-life consequences for people in Glasgow”. As Adam Tomkins points out, the “real-life consequences” of having to tolerate those with whom we disagree is entirely positive for grown-up citizens, but the Ms Aitkins of the world seem to believe that views and opinions that fall beyond their own, narrowly drawn moral boundaries are irredeemably oppressive, exclusionary and – literally – harmful (Herald).

    The BGEA’s legal case was that the cancellation of the event contravened the Equality Act 2010, which protects religious or philosophical beliefs, and free speech. What’s particularly heartening about Sheriff McCormick’s judgement is how comprehensively he found in favour of the BGEA.

    The Equality Act is “designed to protect cornerstone rights and freedoms within a pluralist society”, and “it does not exist to protect or privilege one section of society over others; it applies to all”. By terminating its contractual agreement “SEC directly discriminated against BGEA in that it treated them less favourably than it would have treated others”. The judgement continues: “for the purposes of this decision” it was irrelevant whether others “agree with, disagree with or even, as was submitted on behalf of the pursuer, find abhorrent, the opinions of the pursuers or Franklin Graham”. Why “irrelevant”? Because the Court “does not adjudicate on the validity of religious or philosophical beliefs”, and in relation to a characteristic with existing protection under the Equality Act – “religion or philosophical belief” – it is a simple matter of law that “no section of society can discriminate against those with whom he, she, or they disagree”. In other words, Mr Graham’s beliefs are protected in law regardless of what Ms Aitken might think of them.

    Sheriff McCormick also observes that “a theme amongst those seeking cancellation of the event included prefacing their remarks with a professed belief in free speech, while denying that right to others and denying third parties their choice to attend”. Ouch.

    Isn’t it the case, reflects Alex Massie, that “the real bigots here are those who seek to suppress lawful speech simply because they disapprove of it”, and that “a better country would be ashamed to have people who think like this in positions of such authority”? On the point about “the real bigots”, Murdo Fraser would almost certainly agree. But you get the sense he’d prefer a little less of that “better country” stuff. Perhaps he’s got a point – after all, wasn’t it Sheriff McCormick who played the starring role in this courtroom based free speech thriller? “Thank goodness,” the Conservative MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife sighs patriotically, “we have Scottish courts defending free speech.”

    ‘PayPal amendment’ to the Financial Services and Markets Bill gains traction!

    We want to thank all of our members who’ve written to their MPs, urging them to support Sally-Ann Hart’s amendment to the Financial Services and Markets Bill which would make it illegal for a payment processor like PayPal to deplatform customers for political reasons. (You can watch Sally-Ann speak about the importance of her amendment on TalkTV here.)

    Following discussions with Andrew Griffith, the Bill minister, Sally-Ann has now withdrawn the amendment because he has promised to come back with a constructive proposal about how to address the problem. The fact that the Government is taking this issue seriously is testimony to how many MPs have told their whips they want something to be done – and that’s thanks to all the emails they’ve received from our members.

    But we need to keep up the pressure, so if you haven’t done so already, please send the slightly revised version of our template email to your MP, letting them know how opposed you are to this new and sinister form of censorship. It only takes two minutes to fill out the form.

    This is a critically important battle. If we don’t pass a law to rein in companies like PayPal, we will soon see the emergence of a Chinese-style social credit system in the UK, except instead of ideological dogma being enforced by the Communist authorities it will be enforced by woke capitalist corporations.

    The FSU ranks payment processors and crowdfunding platforms

    The FSU has published a briefing paper in which Carrie Clark, our Research Officer, has looked at the terms and conditions of the major payment processors and crowdfunding platforms and given them a score out of 10 according to how friendly towards free speech they are.

    It’s not good news. Only two of the seven get a score of more than 5/10, with the remaining five scoring 4/10 or below. The only payment processors we recommend for users concerned about protecting their free speech are Worldpay (8/10) and Stripe (7/10). We don’t recommend any of the crowdfunding platforms.

    The difficulty Carrie identifies is that most of these companies include subjective, ambiguous words and phrases in their policies, prohibiting things like ‘misinformation’, ‘hate speech’, ‘offence’ and ‘intolerance’. Many say they won’t simply cancel users who engage in these activities on their platforms (and in some cases retain the funds in their accounts), but also cancel those who commit these sins more generally on social media and the like. Most go even further and retain the right to demonetise their customers for any reason whatsoever at their sole discretion.

    You can read Carrie’s report here.

    The FSU would love to hear from you!

    Thanks to your support, we have been helping to defend our members’ free speech rights for more than two and a half years! But we rely on direct feedback from you to gain a deeper understanding of who are members are and where we should be targeting our support. We have put together a short survey to gather your thoughts and to tailor what we offer in the future. Please follow this link to complete the survey. We will share a summary of the results in a future FSU newsletter.

    Joe Kelly fundraiser – show your support

    Joe Kelly was convicted and sentenced in Scotland for contravening the Communications Act 2003, section 127(1)(b), which makes it a criminal offence to make an electronic post which is “grossly offensive”. Joe was at home on 3rd February, 2021 when he tweeted “the only good Brit soldier is a deed [i.e., dead] one, burn auld fella buuuuurn” along with a picture of Captain Tom, who’d just died. The tweet was only visible to his handful of followers for 20 minutes before he began to receive threats directed against him and his family and deleted it. It wasn’t fast enough, however: someone had already reported Joe to the police. So began a long legal process.

    Scotland’s prosecution service decided to throw the book at Joe, and despite his counsel’s attempt to defend his right to free speech (which includes, as Lord Sedley stated, the “heretical, unwelcome and provocative”) he was convicted and sentenced to a community payback order. Having had his appeal denied by the Scottish Courts and having been labelled an “example case” to deter others from “pressing the blue button” and posting allegedly offensive content, Joe is now seeking to take his case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. And we’re supporting him.

    Yes, Kelly’s tweet was offensive. But the right to offend is a crucial element of free speech, and it certainly shouldn’t be the business of the police or the courts to protect people from hurty feelings. That’s why this case is about more than just Joe Kelly’s tweet. It’s about ensuring this “deterrence” (i.e., “chilling effect”) on free expression does not materialise. And it is about ensuring Scotland is not left behind as the only country in the UK in which it’s illegal to say something “grossly offensive”, which it will be if the Communications Act is repealed in the rest of the UK.

    It’s on these grounds that one of Scotland’s most senior legal figures has now backed Mr Kelly’s appeal (Times). Roddy Dunlop KC, dean of the Faculty of Advocates, this week Tweeted: “The tweet was disgusting, in my honest opinion. But we are at the very sharp edge of where the merely offensive becomes an actual offence. A case to watch for sure. Fred Mackintosh will argue it convincingly.”

    The “Fred Mackintosh” Mr Dunlop alludes to is Joe Kelly’s counsel. If the appeal process goes ahead, Mr Mackintosh and Joe’s lawyer, Cameron Smith, will argue that statements made by means of a public telecommunications system, like Kelly’s tweet, do not need to have artistic or political meaning for them be protected by the right to free speech laid down in the European Convention on Human Rights. If applied in the way that the Sheriff did in Kelly’s case, the term “grossly offensive” is far too vague and his conviction will have a chilling effect. A person’s right to freedom of speech should not be subject to interference on this basis.

    We know this is a tough case and not all our members will support us. But if you do, please consider donating to the crowdfunder. Any donations made are to fund the legal expenses associated with preparing an application to the European Court of Human Rights. If permission to hear the case at the European level is granted, we hope the remainder of the case will be funded by the Court’s own system of legal aid.

    Pledge your support here.

    The FSU’s packed schedule of events

    Don’t miss the chance to join our Online Speakeasy with historian and television presenter Neil Oliver on Wednesday 9th November at 6.30pm. Please register here to receive the Zoom link.

    In addition, it’s time to round up your comedy-loving friends and family for The FSU Christmas Special, a one night only extravaganza of comedy with a fabulous line-up, organised in association with Comedy Unleashed – the home of free-thinking comedy. The event takes place on the evening of Monday 12th December at the Backyard Comedy Club in Bethnal Green.

    Comedy legend Bobby Davro is our Master of Ceremonies and Bobby will be joined by stand-up comedian, comedy entrepreneur and star of They Think It’s All Over Lee Hurst, as well as Comedy Unleashed favourite Mary Bourke and comedian and GB News presenter Simon Evans.

    These tickets are about to go on general release, so please book now to secure tickets at your special discounted member-rate. You can do that here.

    Sharing the newsletter

    As with all our work, this newsletter depends on the support of our members and donors, so if you’re not already a paying member please sign up today or encourage a friend to join, and help us turn the tide against cancel culture. You can share our newsletters on social media with the buttons below to help us spread the word. If someone has shared this newsletter with you and you’d like to join the FSU, you can find our website here.

    Best wishes,

    1. I am beginning to loathe the word “hateful”. What does it even mean? (Rhetorical question)

  42. Off topic
    I didn’t notice if he had posted, but I was pleased to see Hopon had been looking in.

  43. Good morrow. Gentlefolk – today’s funny :

    Prayer Mats

    A British Engineer just started his own business in Birmingham.

    He’s making land mines that look like prayer mats.

    It’s doing well…

    …He says prophets are going through the roof.

  44. Greetings one and all. Haven’t been here in a long while, seem permanently disorganised, wasting days and weeks achieving nothing. ‘Footling’ is my husband’s term.
    So much depressing news everywhere, along with relentless propaganda.
    From a ‘local’ rag – ‘Net Zero: how can Lincolnshire businesses benefit?’ Short answer, they can’t, pandering to such nonsense will simply bankrupt them. I suspect similar/same article will appear in every ‘local’ rag.
    https://www.lincolnshirelive.co.uk/special-features/net-zero-how-can-lincolnshire-7726832?fbclid=IwAR2rrT-3DPHtsBSt2aiGz2O-EpqlXr2_XTyN6ZAoE0Bl4hOmKz0KcgEMx8s
    On another note, I am currently being bombarded with text messages, emails and letters to get my convid booster and flu jab. While I will probably take the flu jab, I have decided firmly against the con jab.
    The only reason I took the first lot was to enable us to visit family in Canada. (At times, I wished we hadn’t bothered, especially for 4 weeks) Husband went for his flu jab recently, and was offered the convid jab at the same time. He complied; I won’t. Once son in Canada discovers my ‘rebellious’ behaviour, he too will add to the pressure to succumb. Him and his ‘boss’ have had 4 jabs, 5th booked in. & year old has had 2, plus booster, 4 year old has had one and, while we were there, displayed considerable anxiety as to when the 2nd one and booster were coming. The 2nd one is now done. That anxiety has surely come form the parents; shame on them.

    2. Sounds awful 🙁

      I can so relate to the permanently busy, yet achieving nothing state. Constantly running on the spot. But what did I actually achieve….

    3. You cannot directly blame the parents.

      The government and its paid media are all shamelessly pushing the covid scare. Doubters are harassed by the morally superior and repercussions are still being felt by those that will not comply, their viewpoint certainly receives no publicity. We have weekly announcements of the latest “most dangerous variant” and regular calls to bring back mask mandates.

      It would be a very brave parent who can stand up and tell their kiddies thar the kindergarten staff are talking bollocks.

      1. From what we observed in Toronto, it would seem their ‘project fear’ was/is considerably more heavy duty than here as well as having longer lasting restrictions.
        I was shocked at how many people were still wearing muzzles in the streets and parks in August and September, a far higher proportion than we ever had here. Maybe Canadians are a more compliant bunch.

  45. Speaking the truth is now a revolutionary act
    One day, Cambridge students will not have to hide in the shadows to listen to a speaker the intellectual cowards would like to ban

    Allison Pearson: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/11/03/speaking-truth-now-revolutionary-act/

    A very interesting BTL comment which obviously had to be submitted under a pseudonym:

    I’m a teacher. A girl in my class decided she was a boy. I was instructed to use He and Him when referring to this girl and use the boys name she chose. She is now investigating irreversible gender re-assignment surgery. Aged 16. Point is, as an adult I am not allowed to disagree or advise this girl to think again before she does irreparable damage to her body . To keep my job I have to play “lets pretend” with this child so the school doesn’t get accused of transphobia. The management are running scared or agree with it. The point I am trying to make is that this culture of silencing opposing views not only kills free speech but will also produce genuine casualties. I hate it but I have bills to pay. The left have taken over education and we are worse off as a nation.
    (p.s. The “boy” is now going out with another boy who proclaims he is gay. You can’t make it up)

    1. As I suggested yesterday transgender women should be classed in two sections:

      WILLIES AND WOOMIES

      and an automatic scanner which can detect the difference should be set up at the entry of all public conveniences.

      1. Those transwomen should have their ‘tackle’ removed and stitched to their forehead in case they change their mind. The only trouble with that is that the various BBC studios scattered around the country would begin to look like safari parks with hundreds of baby pygmy elephants milling around.

      2. I’d love someone to explain this one to me:

        A young woman/girl decides she is a man/boy; how the hell does she manage to urinate, standing up at a urinal, in the mens/boys’ bog?

        1. She doesn’t.
          She does what she always has and uses a cubicle.
          If there isn’t a cubicle in the men’s she uses the women’s.

      3. A man dressed as a woman is still clearly and obviously a man. You don’t need a detector.

        What would be more useful is one who is honestly convinced they are and wants a quiet life with their choices (as anyone is entitled) and the rabid nutters who want to force ideology.

        It’s a bit like being gay. It’s your flipping choice. Just don’t demand I accept it as normal. Don’t force your views on me, I will reciprocate. We all live together happily because, fundamentally it’s *none of my business how you live your life* but equally *it’s not your right to demand I hold the same opinions as you*.

        This is something the Left seem to struggle with. They can’t cope with merely tolerate.

        1. The problem, as I understand it, is that most women do not like having people with penises who identify as women in their lavatories and changing rooms.

          Rather than worrying about what gender a person thinks that he/she/it is, perhaps it would be more sensible to make the rule on which lavatory and changing room facilities you have to use be determined solely by whether you do or do not have a penis. Ergo – men with vaginas (Woomies) use the Women’s facilities and women with penises (Willies) use the men’s.

    2. A ‘phobia’ is a fear [as claustrophobia is a fear of enclosed spaces]. If I am a ‘transphobe’, ergo I am scared of trannies. Does that mean that I may now be liable to be arrested because I fear something?

      2. Certainly. If I THINK you might have said something that MIGHT offend me – you are in the dock. It need not be wrong or unlawful or defamatory. The simple fact of me POSSIBLY being offended = 20 year hard labour.

        See how much progress has been made since you left Blighty…..

    3. Yet schools are told to waste a fortune in ‘safeguarding’, yet over this issue have lost their minds completely. Much stems from the department of education who won’t stand by a teacher (or any adult in school) refusing to obey the orthodoxy.

      On the one hand you have common sense, child safety and rational behaviour. On the other the force of the state to destroy you, child abuse and mental illness.

      Government, it seems, likes mental illness and child abuse.

  46. The base rate is some 3%. Why are savings accounts not reflecting this? They put up mortgage interest rates very quickly, but leave savers with that ‘oh, we have to see if they go down… for six months). Banks are easy targets for the ignorant to dislike. When they toss about like this they do themselves no favours.

    1. I have often thought there should be a normal practice that governs bank interest paid and bank interest demanded. For example – when BoE interest rates are at 5% banks standard lending rate should be one percentage point higher (i.e. 6%) and the pay out rate should be one percentage point lower (i.e. 4%).

      Bankers would undoubtedly tell me that this would be a crazy idea for a multitude of reasons!

    1. Because his parents were very, very poor and impoverished and terribly poor – they bought him one pair of trousers to “grow into” (we’ve all been there…)

      As Fishi is very, very poor and impoverished – he STILL HAS those very trousers.

  48. In search of clothes that actually fit – the reality of finding clothes as an XL man

    The size of the average British man is growing – but there are few clothes to fit him. No wonder we find fashion so challenging

    In 1967 Mr Average was 5ft 7ins and weighed 11st 8lbs. He had a 14.5ins collar, a 38ins chest and a 34ins waist. Today he has grown to 5ft 10ins and 13st 3lbs. His neck is 16ins, his chest 43 ins and his waistline has expanded to 37ins.

    Most men’s fashion retailers, however, have failed to keep up. Consequently, a medium is no longer a medium. In some cases, it is an extra large.

    Not that sizing up to XL or XXL necessarily means you are overweight. For many clothing brands the XL label is used for men who are well-built, taller, broader and generally beefy, like the model in this shoot who is 6ft 6in. And for every man who’s embarrassed that he now only fits in an extra large, there’s another who dreams of being XXL. No wonder men find fashion so confusing.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/fashion/shopping/why-cant-xl-men-find-anything-fit/

    Good interesting article , worth a read ..

    1. I sometimes wear XXXL – this is because of my girth more than my height which used to be 6’2″

    3. But when is Large large? I have a couple of comfortable M&S jumpers, one large and one medium. The latter is only slighter smaller in the length of the arm. They’re both getting on a bit, so when I went to buy another L recently, it was smaller than the old M, with short and narrow sleeves and a narrower chest. I tried an XL which was too big.

      The decline of M&S in the last 15 years mirrors that of the UK.

      1. It is a masochistic game I like to play occasionally, pop into M&S to look for well made, good fitting mens clothes for me to buy for myself.
        Complete and utter waste of time on nearly every visit these days. The place is so bad I have stopped staying for coffee and walk on down to the pub for a pint instead.

    4. How can I put it. Large in Asia would be Medium in UK but Small in the Netherlands.
      And where do they make these clothes?

    5. Buying clothes online is a gamble with the sizing. I find ‘Fatface’ has a pretty good factual sizing regarding fit. Mostly made in India.

  49. ‘I am weird and I don’t have any friends’: first ever Liz Truss biography reveals warnings ignored

    Out of the Blue by Harry Cole and James Heale offers a masterful, behind-the-scenes perspective on a political farce that affected us all

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/what-to-read/blue-review-first-liz-truss-biography-reveals-warnings-ignored/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr

    No sooner had the authors of Out of the Blue submitted their “inside story of the unexpected rise of Liz Truss” to the publisher than its subject had resigned in chaos. One assumes their first edit was to add “and rapid fall” to the title.

    But Harry Cole, political editor of the Sun, and James Heale, diary editor of the Spectator, have proven that hacks do our best work under pressure, adding two chapters on her 44-day premiership and cleverly turning a story of surprise victory into a well-researched tragedy of warnings ignored.

    Even Ms Truss had her doubts about her suitability for No 10. I think I’d make a great PM, she once told a visitor to her office, the only problems are: “I am weird and I don’t have any friends.”

    It’s Liz’s honesty – she really does tell you what she thinks – that makes her so darn likable, and history might recall her as one of our more human PMs. Most of her early career was dull, door-knocking stuff, but for a whiff of scandal when she had an affair with a married MP, and the association that adopted her as its candidate in 2010 considered de-selection (Jeremy Paxman said it was “the most momentous thing to have happened in Swaffham since a cardboard box blew down the high street.”)

    Entering Parliament off the back of a scandal surely had an effect. On the one hand, voters had heard of her; on the other, the gossip wasn’t demeaning, and Truss was dogged by the reputation of a “Cameron Cutie” – promoted beyond her talents because she generated headlines.

    2. “she really does tell you what she thinks” Surely a contradiction in terms. She does’t THINK anything.

    3. The Peter Principle seems to be the base standard in politics and public life these days.

      Everyone you think about, who holds some form of senior position, has been promoted to the level of their incompetence.

  50. Radio 4 – 100 Years of the BBC

    Archive on 4 Our Archive Century Episode 1 of 3
    James Naughtie and Helen Lewis present the first in a series celebrating a hundred years of the BBC arsechives, looking today at what it tells of the gathering and delivering of News… or how propaganda and lies were ingrained in British broadcasting.

    1. It’s interesting that during WWII the BBC television service was shut down completely from September 1939 until summer 1946. Now, right across the mainstream media, you get archive footage of NATO forces bombing Serbia and Iraq, Arab bombs in Gaza, video games passed off as actual bombing raids and more, all offered as proof of the Russians bombing the Ukraine.

  51. One for Rastus.

    The Canadian government just announced that they are eliminating interest payments on student loans. Well not all of it, only the federal component of the loan interest (there had to be some small print) .

    Just part of the multi billion spending spree that is part of yesterday’s inflation fighting budget. Well if you use the word inflation a hundred times in your speech, isn’t that enough?

      1. Hmmm. You may think so, I could not possibly comment…!!

        Any of your work been made into puzzles?

          7. Now’t wrong with my eyes, young lady! Just can’t be doing with paintings of credit cards////mobile phones!!

          8. When you see the real thing, you hardly notice the phones because you get distracted by the detail of the river bed. I found them a bit disharmonious myself although there is a serious narrative to them, but I am now doing another one with rock formations and a stream and no technology, and it’s all looking a bit Arthur Rackham. So the technology holds the whole thing together actually.

          9. Thank you, Waldemar!! I still don’t understand why the brown bit isn’t at the top of the painting.

          13. One of our faves. It faces a long (ground to ceiling) window – south – and on a sunny day, thy light, shade and dark change – and the snow changes – as the sun moves across the sky.

            It was an enormous extravagance – at a Sotheby’s sale – and we never regret a penny.

  53. 367152+ up ticks,

    breitbart,

    Breaking Point’ — No Room for ‘Local Children’ in Schools Amid Migrant Crisis, Say Local Officials

    What truth in those with double beds MUST be prepared to roll over as the need arises, to comply with a mandatory order in the pipeline.

    1. Deserved, but it’s horrible to learn you’ve been sacked when your door pass or laptop password doesn’t work.

      1. After an argument over a very rude but rich customer my pass was disabled at a club i worked at. I gained access through the cellar when they were having a delivery. No keeping me out ! I retrieved all my equipment and left them without a kitchen. Bastards.

  55. It appears o lot were rigt,i should ave ct ot te middleman,spoke to doctor and off to A&E I go
    Wish me luck report back as possible

      1. Or even better.

        It is a mistake to think that just because somebody is often wrong that he or she is always wrong!

        Please could someone tell me how to copy the Icke video clip that Rik has posted about Rutte and farming in Holland – I can’t find it with google. I would like to send it to my boys and also to Caroline’s family in Holland.

  56. I have just come across the series ‘White Lotus’ on HBO. Series 2 is being aired now. I find it utterly compelling viewing. Nudity, bad language, sex and drugs. Very glossily made.

    1. Intended as a six-part limited series, The White Lotus premiered on July 11, 2021, to critical acclaim and high ratings. The first season was the most-awarded series at the 74th Primetime Emmy Awards, winning ten awards in the limited series categories, including Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series, Outstanding Writing and Outstanding Directing for White, Outstanding Supporting Actress for Jennifer Coolidge, and Outstanding Supporting Actor for Murray Bartlett. Wikipeda.

      I’m watching Lucifer Phizz. Not a masterpiece but it appeals to my sense of humour!

      1. There isn’t any nudity in series one and Theo James does a full frontal nudity in season two. There is nothing gratuitous about the sex and swearing. All relevant. Not done just for shock.

      1. Not a lot. The location is a luxury spa resort hotel. Lots of bikinis. I would say it’s right up your boulevard.

          2. Alpha male? Now I am offended…..I have just rung the police. A rainbow car is on its way to you………….

          3. She was one of the worlds finest actresses, which is fortunate really because she never had any other redeeming features. 🤡

    1. Predictable response from the Covidians
      “How dare you compare yourselves to real victims of witch-burning/Nazis/anything else!”

  59. Do you speak extra-terrestrial? Scientists say Earth needs to prepare for an alien encounter NOW before it’s too late
    Scientists say that we must be prepared for what we do if we detect alien life
    They have set up a dedicated research hub at the University of St Andrews
    The group will focus on analysing evidence and developing potential protocols

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-11389643/Scientists-say-Earth-needs-prepare-alien-encounter-late.html?ito=push-notification&ci=KBAy_O3-Ex&cri=vRr5HIKpiG&si=xYJ0MlrMyMmf&ai=11389643

    Are they looking out for more translators in case they request sanctuary in the UK or are they here already ..

      1. Yes I do.

        Scary film .

        I wonder whether aliens are here .. there are some weird thinkers .. Jeremy Hunt and Gove and Williamson fit that category.

          3. He certainly looks very reptilian.

            Could we get David Icke to eliminate him altogether?

          4. 367152+ up ticks,

            Afternoon AL,
            extra little finger that which I considered handy seeing as you could pick both nasal canals with one hand.

          5. Ukky, but I can see your point for those who indulge, but wouldn’t it be confusing when reaching their mouth.

          7. Good afternoon, or should I say evening, it’s dark enough.
            🙄 I don’t want to think about it.

      2. All John Wyndham’s books are scary. I read them at primary school and then my parents wondered why I was having nightmares.

    3. So the aliens are up next, then. We’ve had the ‘pandemic’, the ‘war’, monkeypox pandemic, let’s-scare-em-to-death with a combination of ‘flu and covid…. and now we are being primed for aliens. They always, always, tell us in some way before an event. It’s amazing what they can do with holograms these days. I can see it now – lockdowns to prevent us being beamed up by little green people.

      2. Given the sh*t that’s going on in this country, I think I would prefer to be beamed up;-)

    4. My response:
      1m
      Replying to
      @last_chance_dz
      Abbot is the one with the twisted mind. Braverman is just trying to do her job and Abbot (and the snivel serpents) just want to prevent her.

      I expect to be banned on “Twatter”, Maggie

      1. WEF, Go home – we neither need nor want you. The English have always been independent and thought for themselves.

    1. 367152+ up ticks,

      O2O,

      Ere Og, do think there is a great many demonised immigrants in rotherham then ?

  61. Landlords face £8,400 capital gains tax squeeze
    Property investors to lose thousands of pounds in Government’s proposed tax blow.
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/buy-to-let/landlords-face-new-tax-squeeze-sale-profits/

    I always thought that Hunt was very nasty – but I never fully appreciated just how excrementally stupid, nasty and sadistically destructive both Hunt and Sunak are.

    BTL

    This government seems determined to destroy all small businesses completely.

    When you take into account the fact that 80% of those working in the private sector are working for companies with fewer than 20 employees what the Non-Conservative government is doing is extremely sinister.

    2. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/buy-to-let/absolutely-done-landlord/

      “‘I’m absolutely done with being a landlord’

      Industry veterans are shutting up shop amid soaring costs and increased regulation

      4 November 2022 • 10:00am

      Anita Parkinson has been a landlord since 2009. The 62-year-old used to own six properties but she started selling them off three years ago. She is now waiting for her remaining tenants to move out so she can get rid of her last two.

      Ms Parkinson, who asked for her last name to be changed, said the “final straw” was a proposed change that would require all newly rented properties to have a minimum Energy Performance Certificate rating of C by 2025. She said upgrading her properties to meet the standard would cost between £14,000 and £17,000.

      “It got to the point where there was so much legislation that it was just becoming untenable,” she said. “I’m absolutely done.”

      Ms Parkinson is part of a growing wave of landlords selling off rental properties, hit by increased regulation, soaring mortgage rates and spiralling upfront energy efficiency costs. Some 16pc of all property sellers this year were landlords, according to estate agents Hamptons. In London, the figure was 19pc. These are the highest levels since 2018.

      Even those heading for the exit face punitive charges. Landlords will lose thousands of pounds in sale profits under proposals. Thousands who cashed out reaped the benefits house price growth, but the Government is now poised to take a bigger slice of their profits.

      The number of rental properties on the market is at its lowest level in three years, according to research firm TwentyCi, indicating landlords are divesting – with a knock-on impact on renters. The total number of rented homes fell by 258,000 between 2016-17 and 2020-21, equal to 5pc, Hamptons found.

      Ms Parkinson initially became a landlord to supplement her income, but said she is no longer making any money because of the Government’s crackdown on buy-to-let. She started selling her properties after requirements were brought in for new electrical checks. She had to spend nearly £6,000 upgrading the wiring on one of her properties, which wiped out her profits.

      “I have a small pension but this was my income,” she said. “In the last two years, unfortunately, there has been nothing because every single penny that’s gone in has come back out in costs.”

      Ms Parkinson, from Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, is also terrified of plans to ban no-fault evictions which would make it difficult for her to remove troublesome tenants. She said she is fed up with the demonisation of good, responsible landlords like herself, whom she describes as “social pariahs”.

      “I just feel as if the Government’s out to destroy me,” she said. “I feel incredibly upset.”

      For other landlords, it is rising interest rates that are proving to be the final straw.

      Karen Smith, 36, from Esher in Surrey, bought a second property with her husband during the pandemic and started letting out their first home. They had secured a fixed mortgage rate of 1.75pc, which has ended recently. They have now moved on to a variable rate.

      “It’s going up and up and up,” she said. Ms Smith, who asked for her last name to be changed, said her payments have been increasing by £100 a month because of soaring interest rates. Her tenants are moving out in December and she is anxious to find a buyer before they leave. She cannot afford to keep paying the mortgage if the flat is empty.

      “I can’t be in a loss situation; it’s really stressful,” she said.

      Another reason she decided to sell was because she feared that new tenants would end up in arrears. Ms Smith, who works in PR, said she has been lucky but has heard “horror stories” of tenants owing thousands because they cannot pay.

      “Because of the rights that tenants have, it’s very difficult to take action,” she said. “I’m not a property portfolio person – I have a job, I just happen to have a property that I rent out. I simply would not be able to afford two mortgages just because somebody can’t pay their rent.

      “I know that means that a rental property is being taken off the market in a housing crisis, but it’s not fair that everyone is expecting landlords to have deep enough pockets to pay mortgages endlessly.”

      David Fell, of Hamptons, said landlords selling up is likely to mean higher rent payments as the same number of tenants chase fewer properties.

      But for those first-time buyers who can get the money together, the buy-to-let exodus is paying off – in part by design, because of the Government’s crackdown. More are getting on the property ladder by buying low yielding properties sold by landlords, according to Hamptons.

      A fifth of properties sold off by landlords this year were purchased by first-time buyers, the highest level in five years. In London that rose to nearly a quarter of properties.

      Its research also found that first-time buyers were benefiting from landlords’ sums no longer adding up: the average yield on homes bought by first-time buyers was 4.7pc, down from 5.3pc in 2017.”

    3. They are all init together – so called leaders will jump on any excusebto increase taxes.

      Our mobhave just announced a taxon share buyback programs. Apparently the Oil and Gas industry is not investing in the liberals green infrastructure. Instead of making it easier to get permits, they are just taxing more.

    1. Thank you, Sos, nicked and posted on Ar5ebook with the caption, “Wake up FB. Guess who’s coming for you.”

    1. Reminds me of the Irish Govt’s plans to solve the drought….

      ….by diluting the water supply

    2. “Examples include offering the trans-abled surgery to sever spines or amputate limbs to better match their identity, or give people who identify as disabled the same right to priority parking as the actually disabled. ”

      Alms for the trans-beggar?

          6. That was the only decent play he wrote and then he wrote two endings; one for how he wanted it to end and the other for the soppy public. The rest of his plays are, in my opinion, trivial nonsense. If you hadn’t guessed, I am not a fan of Shaw.

          7. I think I read most of GBS’s plays when I was at school and I rather enjoyed them.

            I also read through them and watched videos with some of my English classes.

          9. He certainly had an inflated view of his own importance. He lacked Shakespeare’s insight into the human soul and Wilde’s brilliant repartee and epigrams.

          1. Should you kill a Muslim hate preacher if you know they really mean what they are preaching because of the suffering they cause to other human beings?

          5. Not where slammers are concerned. Remember that a substantial majority of “moderate” ones applauded the many killings done by their “brothers”.

  67. Par Four today.

    Wordle 503 4/6
    🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
    ⬜🟨⬜⬜🟨
    ⬜⬜⬜🟩🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Me too.

      Wordle 503 4/6

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

      2. I’m with you, Bob, just done it.
        Wordle 503 3/6

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

  68. Here’s a programme to watch this evening.
    Bbc 0ne 7:30 We Are England.
    First remove all portable heavy objects within easy reach.
    It’ll set you all up for the weekend. 😉🤗

      1. You might be right Bill. The advert for the programme had a 25 stone black chap moaning that he was brought up and a council house 20 years ago and almost starved to death. His mother had to work to make ends meet etc etc.
        Just like so many of us did when our fathers came back from saving the nation from being over run by nazis.
        Now it’s overrun with useless fat lazy imported turds that think they deserve everything for doing absolutely sweet FA.
        And have never stopped moaning.

          1. He looks like a blic ‘king Gary.
            I’ve recorded it, I’ll look at it tmz. Probably delete it straight away.
            Those ‘king idiots don’t a have a clue what we went through in the late 40s 50s.

    2. Agreed. Let us hope he is not on a trolley waiting and waiting for someone to get round to seeing him after they have dealt with all the asylum seekers.

      1. Poor guy, he probably has another 20 hour wait, at the behest of our National Hate Service,

  70. Good evening from Saxon Queen with blooded axe .

    Husband and I seem nearly better from Chinese bat flu… its taken over 4 weeks, still both of us have a bit of a cough still, but much better, missed lovely walking weather in October .

    Dreadful wind and rain over the past few days. It’s all of a sudden got cold too .
    I’ve just placed the 10. 5 tog duck feather duvet on the bed ( it’s not cold enough for the 15 tog) or the heavy Norwegian on the bed ,

    1. “Dreadful wind ” – charcoal biscuits.

      How lucky you are to have a husband AND a heavy Norwegian….!!

  71. Good evening from Saxon Queen with blooded axe .

    Husband and I seem nearly better from Chinese bat flu… its taken over 4 weeks, still both of us have a bit of a cough still, but much better, missed lovely walking weather in October .

    Dreadful wind and rain over the past few days. It’s all of a sudden got cold too .
    I’ve just placed the 10. 5 tog duck feather duvet on the bed ( it’s not cold enough for the 15 tog) or the heavy Norwegian on the bed ,

  72. Thank goodness. The MR has just brought me a glass of medicine – to keep me going until the next glass in about two minutes time.

    Signing off for today. Chilly – despite the sun. For anyone with BP isshoos – DO NOT look at this week’s Spectator… Especially an “interview” with the left-wing “tory” Robert Fuckland.

    We are going to watch the first of seven episodes of a series on beeboid i-player about yer Russia from Peretroika to 1999. It gets good reviews – which prolly means it is crap. I’ll report tmorrow.

    A demain

        1. A few years ago there was an excellent radio documentary about his early life as a soldier/secret service controller/politician on the BBC, explaining how he came to think as he seems to, how he came to power and what they thought he hoped to achieve.

    2. I have been saying for many years before Covid that when somebody has done a wrong forgiveness is meaningless unless the person who has done wrong repents and wants to be forgiven.

      There must be both a forgiver and a forgivee.

      1. It occurs to me that unless one forgives the person who has wronged one the issue will gnaw away at one indefinitely.

        That having been said those culpable of insisting on draconian measures and continuing to promote the ineffective therapeutics deserve to be castigated. and publicly shamed. Where there is evidence of corruption – the highest penalties should apply especially in the light of the harm that lockdowns and indeed the jabs appear to have caused

        1. Bitter experience has taught me that those who are the most vociferous in seeking forgiveness are also those least likely to forgive and bury the hatchet, unless they are burying it in their enemy’s head, particularly if it’s the head of the enemy from whom they are seeking the forgiveness.

    3. Well said, Neil Oliver and people like Matt Hancock and Emily Oster need to be afraid, be very afraid because we, Justice seekers, are coming for you. You have a great burden of responsibility to bear and now a burden for accountability.

    4. Hancock eat kangaroo balls? He should be made to eat his own.

      As for amnesty, if they confess their sins honestly and their remorse is genuine, the Good Lord may forgive them. Absolution is not mine to give.

  74. Pro-lockdown fanatics don’t deserve an amnesty
    It’s not just in retrospect that we know the Covid measures were a disaster. We were vilified for pointing it out at the time

    CAMILLA TOMINEY : https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/11/04/pro-lockdown-fanatics-dont-deserve-amnesty/

    What do my fellow Nottlers think?

    BTL

    For there to be an amnesty there needs to be an admission of guilt and and a request for forgiveness. Neither has been forthcoming (with one or two exceptions) from the pro-Lockdown advocates, much less those who actually orchestrated and imposed the restrictions that have caused so much harm.
    If one takes a step back we see (i) no consistency between countries/ states which imposed strict/ long/ well observed lockdowns and better health outcomes; and (ii) the appalling harms of lockdown including, but not limited to, persistently higher non-covid excess deaths (running at close to 200 per day), ruined educations, a mental health crisis, stagflation and crippled public finances – all of which will result in further public health harms.
    Lockdown was the single greatest policy catastrophe in modern British history. The economic, social and health outcomes have been catastrophic.
    Worse, it was entered into under false premises, without proper scrutiny, with all checks and balances of our state and constitution absent or suppressed and when people, often highly credible and well qualified, tried to point out the dangers they were smeared, silenced, vilified.
    Asking for an amnesty is the equivalent of unprovoked attacking someone going about their business with a baseball bat and then saying “well, there’s fault on both sides, let’s just shake hands and move on with our lives”. Worse the people so keen to “move on” are those who suffered the least from what they implemented, cheered on or facilitated.
    No amnesty, no forgiveness, no forgetting.

    1. Isn’t it strange how the people now asking for amnesties are the very people who wanted the most Draconian punishments meted out to those who questioned “the narrative”.
      To Hell with them all.

    2. Mere words cannot express what fate I would like to visit on pro-lockdown fanatics.
      To me, they are evil subhumans and may they rot in hell – preferably by next week at the latest.

      1. Read about an American mafia hit-man whose favourite punishment killing was to tie the victim down in a cave and let the rats eat them alive.
        He has a point…

    2. Chuck the pair of self-serving little a-holes out into the cold and wet, to sort themselves out and find out how much they matter in today’s harsh world.

          1. Not so in this case.

            The cats provide comfort and pleasure in exchange for food and shelter and the very last thing they are is sycophants, they act with disdain and are treated with respect but not unctuousness.

            It is a mutually satisfactory arrangement.

    1. Dear Lady, I can understand your reluctance, having seen that which you shared. However, I would be delighted to serve you my own beef, lamb, or turkey curry, (I won’t use chicken as it shreds too easily and quickly).

      But – we are many miles apart, how do we overcome that?

      Je ne sais pas.

    2. A few years back, my brother contracted typhoid fever. He was hospitalised for about 3 weeks. Given the incubation period of the disease, and also given the fact that he hadn’t been abroad for over a year, he worked backwards and formed the opinion that he had been infected during a trip to an Indian restaurant in the Lake District. He remembered asking for a glass of water, and noting at the time that the waiter who brought it had this thumb in the top of the glass…

      Edit: Most Indian restaurants in the UK are actually run by Bangladeshis, who of course are – Muslim.

      1. I can believe that ..

        All diseases like that are terrible . I hope he recovered properly.

        These migrants arriving in the UK will be carrying goodness knows what , including worm infestations .

        1. My brother reckoned that the waiter was probably an illegal immigrant, and a “Typhoid Mary”.

          2. Typhoid Mary was a real person. She lived and worked in NYC as a maidservant and a cook. Many of the people she worked with became infected with typhoid. She was believed to be Irish American and infected many people, some of whom died. She had no symptoms of typhoid at all. She was detained and spent the last years of her life in isolation.

      1. My cousins are farmers in that area .. Northallerton and Thirsk are wonderful towns .. and I think Sunak is MP for Northallerton as well as Richmond, isn’t he ?

        1. Sunak’s office is in Northallerton T-B. He lives in a village near Northallerton, a short distance off the A19.

  79. Dr. Simon
    PhD in biotechnology. Sharing insights about health, nutrition, vitamin D, permaculture, and COVID madness. Banned on Twitter for stating that viruses usually get weaker over time.

    The Nocebo Effect: How fear and panic have led to a higher mortality rate.
    Spoiler: They pulled it off on purpose.

    Dr. Simon
    Oct 5

    Avicenna was a Persian scientist who lived 1000 years ago. Legends say that he put two lambs in separate cages with the same health conditions. But only one lamb could see a wolf that was put in a third cage. The observations were astounding.

    Both lambs were provided with the same feed. Also, the weight was exactly the same when the experiment started. However, several months later, the lamb, with the sight of the wolf, became cranky, restless, weak, and showed significant weight loss and signs of poor development.

    The lamb that was under chronic stress as it was placed in a situation of constant apparent danger died eventually. 🐑🪦 In fact, the wolf did not pose a danger at all, but this was beyond the lamb’s perception. Nowadays, this phenomenon is known as the nocebo effect.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/761b2eddfbb5fbcc1c367bdb85f9571c126f94c2e85b88a9e385bccdbfae8b3e.png

    https://drsimon.substack.com/p/the-nocebo-effect-how-fear-and-panic

  80. Goodnight and God bless my gentle NoTTLefolk. I shall see you all again in the morning’s light.

      1. A bit more comfy and I shall move from my flat in the top of the house to a more convenient one in the basement less stairs and a stair-lift to the ground floor.

        As for eating, suffice to say that while I’ve been here I’ve shed 15 kg.

        No, I can’t be bothered cooking for one and never mind the electricity prices. It’s all down to me.

        Thank you for caring, Maggie.

          6. Sod ’em All, Sod ‘ em All, the left and the right or not at all
            Sod all the Servants and WEF ones,
            Sod the Dieu Soros and his blinkin sons,
            ‘Cos we’re saying goodbye to them all, as back to Bill Gates they crawl
            They’ll get no promotion this side of the ocean, so cheer up my lads, Sod ’em All

    4. Being denied the Right to Freedom of Speech by an Act of Parliament,
      After Enochs Rivers of Blood Speech in the sixties!!!!
      That was the start of it “All going wrong”…..

      1. Here is the often misquoted section of his speech:
        “As I look ahead, I am filled with foreboding; like the Roman, I seem to see the River Tiber foaming with much blood.”

        Here is another section that he foretold:

        “But while, to the immigrant, entry to this country was admission to privileges and opportunities eagerly sought, the impact upon the existing population was very different. For reasons which they could not comprehend, and in pursuance of a decision by default, on which they were never consulted, they found themselves made strangers in their own country.”

        I wonder how many have actually read the full and as it happens, prophetic speech?

        1. As a Brummy, although not from Handsworth, I remember Enoch Powells speech at the time, and yes, I have read the full speech, thanks to sources on line.

  83. BOYS as young as 12 might be asked if they are PREGNANT in latest woke language storm to engulf health service
    NHS poster says everyone aged 12-55 will be asked if they are pregnant
    This could include teenage boys undergoing distressing cancer treatment
    Poster refers to biological women as people with ‘internal reproductive organs’
    Experts said the poster’s vague language also implies men can get pregnant
    The hospital says is being run as a trial and insist it follows best practise guides

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-11390103/12-year-old-BOYS-asked-PREGNANT-bizarre-NHS-poster-says.html

    1. I have to go for an X-ray at the end of the month for my arthritic knee. If the technician asks if I am pregnant (and I’m only 68) my answer will be yes, and it’s triplets. Stupid sods all of them.

      1. When I went for my second covid jab – the jabber was the now senior partner at our GP surgery. It was the first time I’d seen him, althhough he’d been there for a few years. He rattled off a long list of questions including “are you or could you be pregnant?” At (then) 72 I just laughed.

          8. New-born hedgehogs don’t have spines – they are soft and just under the skin. They start to appear very soon after birth.

          1. It’s the name of a poster on the DT and it’s taken me about 6 months to finally see what it said! I laughed out loud when it finally dawned on me!

  86. I’m Back,twas a microstroke treatment a game of two halves details tomoprrow I’m knackered and off to bed

  87. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/11/04/local-children-turned-away-schools-amid-influx-migrants/

    On Thursday, Tory MPs questioned why the Government housed asylum seekers in hotels in their areas without telling them.

    Maggie Throup, a former Tory minister, was among the MPs asking why asylum seekers had been placed in hotel accommodation in their constituencies without prior notification from the Home Office. She called for an urgent meeting with Mrs Braverman to discuss the “immediate closure” of two asylum hotels in her area.

    The MP for Erewash in Derbyshire added: “A recent Home Office decision to house 400 asylum seekers in two hotels in Erewash, just 50 metres apart, is a prime example of where Members are routinely cut out of the decision-making process by government departments.

    “Had I been asked, I would have opposed these accommodation centres due to the unacceptable pressures on the local services in my constituency.”

    PH

    Paul Hannon
    3 HRS AGO
    Chris Philp is right he merely states what EVERY decent honest Joe Public thinks. As for the school places this is the SAME UP & DOWN the country in ALL major cities NORTH of London.
    Now because all the do gooder brigades complained on overcrowding Braverman comes along and moves them to 4/5 star hotels improved food and clothes and Beds! AND first class access to NHS Health care in ALL areas!!.
    YES this certainly send the message Don’t Come. Dear God is NO ONE capable of getting this Illegal invasion Stopped. It is a Criminal Activity and EVERY one Knows that VERY few IF ANY are True asylum/refugees. They have ALL come via the European continent. There are NO wars or Persecution there.
    Whilst ALL this fiasco cost the taxpayer upwards of £7mill A DAY working families cannot get the £20 universal credit! Pensioners on basic state pension cannot get a decent rise (NO not ALL pensioners are millionaires that’s a Cop out).
    Child poverty HERE in our OWN country is Endemic! Countless decent honest folk born and raised worked /work HERE will be unable to feed clothe or keep a roof over their heads through NO fault of their own. Cannot GET access to a GP are added to a 7 million waiting list! NONE who were Elected GIVE a Rats Behind.
    But YET let’s Do the Right thing For those who have NO right to be here.
    YET this blatant insult and discrimination is apparently acceptable.
    Some Country THIS.

    1. Well, if government told/asked anyone about the gimmegrants, they’d be tod to eff right off, get in a car and eff off some more. Why should MPs be any different?

  88. Very off-topic, but I am worried about Ben Archer and yes, I do know the Archers isn’t real.

          1. 40 odd years for me, although I did catch the odd episode while on my adventures abroad.
            Only to confirm that It had become a soap opera rather than advice and information for country folk.

    2. Then don’t worry about him (her?), it’s now just like any other opiate for the masses.

  89. That’s me.
    Enough ginger vodka for one night, I’m off to bed. Slayders!
    Remember the Para psalm: “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death
    I fear no evil.
    For I am one mean bastard from (enter battalion of choice)”
    Be strong, folks.

  91. That was a pleasant evening.
    Walk up to the Kings Head, a couple of pints chatting to some visitors, including 5 young ladies all celebrating their 30th birthdays, then over to the Barley Mow for another pint, no song session going, so headed back home.

    A not QUITE clear night, 3°C when I got home and JUST enough light cloud to stave off a frost.

      1. Pleasant.
        Sadly, the landlord of the Kings head is a gogglebox addict which is a bit of a distraction there.

  92. Trip to the UK booked, 20 to 29th December, staying with in-laws between Bideford & Barnstaple.
    Any NoTTLers fancy a beer/cider one evening in that period?
    Need rescued form MiL… 🙁 who hates pubs… 🙁

    1. Had a magic evening with @KayPea in Penarth in the summer… a repeat would be excellent!

    3. I did my first teaching job in Bideford and I went to the Lobster Pot in Instow from time to time where there was live music and people could take their own instruments and join in.

  93. Thats a good night from me and may your God go with you, to quote Dave Allen

    A late night for me, I’m going to watch Waterloo: 1970 film about the Battle of Waterloo. A co-production between Italy and the Soviet Union and stars Rod Steiger as Napoleon Bonaparte and Christopher Plummer as the Duke of Wellington. With 15,000 Soviet foot soldiers and 2,000 cavalrymen as extras.

  95. Bother, if I forget to save a meem, it disappears for ever.
    Please could someone remind me as to when that chart of Covid Deaths from Feb 2020 until December 2021 was posted on NTTL, source the ONS?

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