Thursday 22 December: Is anyone prepared to take ultimate responsibility for the health service?

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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595 thoughts on “Thursday 22 December: Is anyone prepared to take ultimate responsibility for the health service?”

  2. Good morrow, Gentlefolks. Sit back and watch

    Three bits of silliness to brighten the day:

    Theresa May as Darth Vader – Death Star Canteen by Eddy Izzard

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sv5iEK-IEzw&feature=youtube_gdata_player

    *********************************************************************************

    INVITATION

    We are hosting a charity concert for people who struggle to reach orgasm.

    If you can’t come, please let me know.

    *********************************************************************************

    My favourite chili sauce commercial

    http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=Yn0ey0vePwI&vq=medium

  4. Zelensky’s visit to Washington is cause for both celebration and alarm. 21 December 2022

    Were Western unity not beginning to fray, Ukraine’s leader may not have felt it necessary to leave his beleaguered country

    Zelensky’s country is facing an immensely challenging few months – perhaps the most challenging since the invasion in February. That its leader is having to leave the country in order to shore up Nato’s support alarms me.
    Vladimir Putin’s priority now is to fracture Western support by elongating the war in Ukraine. He guesses, rightly, that the “big dogs” in Europe may only have the stomach for one cold winter. With his complete disregard for civilian casualties and collateral damage, he is succeeding in putting the lights out in Kyiv and other cities during a bitterly difficult winter.

    One suspects that the fraying is not on the part of the Political Establishment but the General Public, hence this unnecessary Public Relations exercise. Agreement among European governments is pretty well unanimous; the only one that has shown any reticence for this war is Germany and they’ve been strong armed into compliance by the American destruction of the Baltic Pipeline.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/12/21/zelenskys-visit-washington-cause-celebration-alarm/

    2. ‘morning Minty, Zelensky’s grandstanding in front of the Senate is about more than just money for arms. He wants, and will be given, money to “secure democracy” and to repair Ukraine. (More $millions to be washed and recycled to Biden, the Democrats etc.).
      He has also now been given the Patriot missile defence system. This costs over a $Billion for a single battery. $400 million for the battery and $690 million for missiles to fill the battery. The US military train their soldiers for three years before they can use the system. Therefore US military are now putting ‘boots on the ground’ in yet another war in yet another country.
      What happens if Putin destroys one of these Patriot systems and takes out the US soldiers operating it at the same time? With Biden in the White House things could escalate in a way no sane person wants.
      The US end game is to remove Putin at all costs, God only knows what will rise out of the ashes to replace him if that happens.

      1. It was always all about regime change in Russia on the part of US and the West, as Russia appears to stand in the way of the WEF. Perhaps that is why Putin was reluctant to go into Ukraine to assist the ethnic Russo-Ukrainians, as the ‘problem’ came to the fore in 2014. He knew, of course. Putin has twice tried to broker peace, but Johnson told Zelensky under no circumstances.

  5. Is anyone prepared to take ultimate responsibility for the health service?

    Nope, because no individual possibly could.

    1. Reminds me of the Test Paper in 1066 and All That in which you have to write your personal details at the top of the page. One of the instructions concerns your mother : If Nun write None

      1. ! I was going to look out my “1066 and all that” after my tirade against John and Michael, who in yesterday’s Terriblegraph wanted to pull down the statue of Cromwell out of solidarity with our Irish friends.

        Then I got side tracked proof-reading my daughter’s essay on Company law. You know how it is. I am on holiday today and am about to clean the kitchen floor and blanch some carrots – for some reason Mr Tesco delivered double the amount on Tuesday but I wasn’t in when the delivery arrived. You just can get the staff etc etc.

        still, once I have done that I will look out my very well thumbed copy. Such a good book. The best quote imho is “Paris is rather a Mess”. Makes me laugh every time🙂.

        P.S. another Michael has responded to Johnanmichael (if I may pinch off 1066’s brilliant Williamanmary), but as I read his letter at least 15 minutes ago, I’ve forgotten what his letter said. But he was agin toppling the statue. Huzzah! (Oh -wrong book. Sorry).

        2. I still confuse pretenders and suspenders and don’t know whether Percy Warmneck and Lamkin Symbol were their real names or not!

  7. Good morning all. A tad above -1°C this morning and dry.

    I see BTL commentator Party Pauper has picked up on something that has been obvious to me for a long time:-

    Party Pauper
    14 MIN AGO
    Yes but that’s what they mean by “our NHS” – it’s “THEIR NHS”, it’s there to service them and their needs – not Joe Public’s. I’m glad I never joined in with the clapping charade during lockdown.

    1. He makes a good point, but I doubt they use it – really wealthy people will have comprehensive private health insurance.

      1. By ‘their’, I understand that it has been taken over by the bureaucracy, rather than the elite.

    2. I thought the NHS existed to provide jobs for the people who work in it. The patients are a by-product. I never clapped either.
      But I’m glad my OH is alive.

    3. It is there to service big pharma, to provide the market. The nhs is the market place. Without the nhs the vast profits for the pharmaceuticals would never have been available to them, the public would not have been able to afford their products. Which leads me to believe it was never set up primarily for the benefit of the public in 1948. We, the public, are cattle that passes through the doors of the nhs to be milked for profit.

  8. I’m starting to feel a bit sorry now for all those people on strike that use their position of semi importance with jobs that are once considered crucial to the running of a civilised country to blackmail the government into getting better pay and conditions.

    After all the madness of the pandemic lockdowns and all the loss of freedom their measures entailed, after all the insanity of the net zero carbon targets set to send us all back to a dark age standard of living and the mind boggling on going mass immigration / population change agenda, not forgetting all the gender madness set to become the norm.

    Then a few mildly inconveniencing strikes are just a bit of a nuisance really that the broken public just accept as another burden they must carry on with on their journey into globalist slavery.

    1. Covid, lockdowns, strikes, inflation, energy price rises etc. – all contribute to a feeling of depression, redolent of the 1970s. No wonder people wanted a change, which is the reason Margaret Thatcher was elected as PM in 1979 and the road to recovery. Unfortunately, I can’t see a similar improvement happening this time round – it will probably be more like 1997, when people (including me) were fed up with John Major and his incompetence and voted in New Labour and Blair. What a mistake that turned out to be. Starmer as PM in a couple of years time?

      2. I suppose the only slight consolation is the knowledge that it really doesn’t matter who is ‘in power’ – the agenda is the same.

    2. Yesterday, I felt it incumbent on me to personally thank everyone for their birthday wishes. However, from today onwards I trust that my basic “Good morning, everyone” post (see above) will be sufficient to save me from replying personally to each and every one of you. However, I will click on the upvote box as a reply to your individual good wishes. (See Bob3 below as an example.)

      1. I use the upvote as an individual thank you/greeting, I must admit. Otherwise there would be about 1000 posts saying “Good morning” every day, if everyone greeted everyone else with a separate post.

        I appreciated your thank you Elsie, and have noted the above post for future reference!

    4. Good morning Elsie, please accept my belated good tidings for your Birthday. I’m guessing it was your 21st?

  10. Scotland’s gender recognition bill became a lightning rod for wider issues. 22 December 2022.

    The proposals to bring in a system of self-declaration for individuals wishing to change their legal gender has led to multiple protests outside the Holyrood parliament, booing the avowedly feminist first minister as a “destroyer of women’s rights”. It has prompted the SNP’s biggest ever backbench rebellion and brought Sturgeon head to head with another of Scotland’s best-known women, the Harry Potter author JK Rowling, who on the eve of the final vote described the gender recognition reform bill as “the single biggest rollback of women’s rights in our lifetimes”.

    When Sturgeon spoke of removing the need for an intrusive medical diagnosis and streamlining the process for obtaining a gender recognition certificate (GRC), she was applauded by LGBTQ+ campaigners for recognising trans people as the experts on their own identities. Initial proposals were supported by the Scotland’s key women’s organisations including Rape Crisis and Women’s Aid.

    The real puzzle here; at least to sensible people, is what is Government doing meddling in something that is not their concern? If people wish to assume that they are female or for that matter Napoleon Bonaparte it is nothing to do with the State! The error is not so much with Sturgeon’s reforms but that there is anything to reform.

    This is really a religious matter. The religion may be secular and lacking a God but it is still a belief system seeking to proselytise and gain adherents. Nothing could enhance this process more than acceptance by the State which would allow for the prosecution of dissent and the enforcement of its tenets by both Law and Education. We have seen this before. It ends with the Inquisition and the Stake.

    https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/dec/21/scotlands-gender-recognition-bill-became-a-lightning-rod-for-wider-issues

    2. There is a lot of paperwork involved, plus rights to things that are for women only. I don’t think much is for men only….

      “experts on their own identity” – doesn’t give them the right to change a woman’s identity.
      Just as wanting to “marry” someone of the same sex doesn’t give you the right to change the legal definition of marriage.

    4. “If people wish to assume that they are female or for that matter Napoleon Bonaparte it is nothing to do with the State!”

      We would not declare ‘Napoleon Bonaparte’ the leader of France but send him to a psychiatrist for assessment of their danger to society and treatment. We should be doing the same for all those who declare they are something which they are not.

      Currently self identification is being used as protection by many, many perverts and pedophiles. It is absolutely crazy.

    5. Truly, Sturgeon is the most divisive person in British politics and will use any pretext to further her desire for division. Yesterday, over a very convivial lunch in a Suffolk village pub, two school chums from back in 1960 talked for three and a half hours covering many topics and when politics popped up they agreed that in today’s mad, mad World, minorities and their demands trump everything.

    6. Did some shopping at a M&S earlier and at the till the young person was wearing a name badge that said:

      “Jamie
      Pronouns: They/ Their /Them”

      I’ve absolutely no idea what sex it was – so that probably helped me not to burst out laughing…..

      1. A columnist I know uses those. I wrote in and asked if the article was a collaboration, or just one authors work.

        Just one author, the magazine replied.

        Then tell her to stop using plurals, I replied.

  13. 369147+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Thursday 22 December: Is anyone prepared to take ultimate responsibility for the health service?

    What a question aimed at a Nation that led the world the indigenous really should adoped a serious, eyes cast down stance, when in motion.

    The question,
    Thursday 22 December: Is anyone prepared to take ultimate responsibility for the health service?

    In my strongly held opinion the genuine UKIP under the Gerard Batten/ Richard Braine leadership was truly on course building a credible patriotic party in one year financially in the black, 13000 new members & building membership daily.

    This in the eyes of the tory weevils within the party NEC ( now leading ukip) & input from the farage chap it was seen as totally unacceptable hence
    the brexit party was triggered and the grand old duper nige went into very pro tory (ino)/ johnson action.

    The main problem are the family tree voters dating back to when decency was a strong element of voting, they the voters are still in evidence but the original parties supplanted long ago by political shite, the order of polling day currently is party
    before Country, whatever the parties pedigree.

  15. Morning all 😊
    Still in hospital after being told i was going and making arrangements to go home yesterday.
    Every person bar one is extremely pleasant and competent at their job. Breakfast is a bit late but hey ho.
    I still haven’t seen any one from the department I came here to see in the outset.
    I’ve lost count of the samples and test’s taken.
    But with reference to the headline today, there seems to be some sort of a phycological barrier installed somewhere and somehow between the patient welfare and the upper echelons of the staff.
    It’s obvious it filters downwards. Perhaps the management see themselves as too, more important than the patients to try and ease the flow and take the strain.
    Perhaps they see the problems as everyone else’s fault but their own.

        1. Tomorrow it is then?

          };-O

          Good luck; let’s hope everything stays stable for the foreseeable future.

        2. We had to wait five hours on Tuesday for the pharmacy to get his bag of drugs ready. I hope you manage to get home today.

          1. I’m in the ‘disposal lounge’.
            I was told it would be about half an hour in the time it took to wheel me to a seat. It’s now two hours.

          3. I did Ellie our eldest lives closer to the hospital my wife wasn’t capable of driving, she’s got a terrible cough due to the latest virus. I slept for nearly 10 hours last night, only interrupted by nature.
            Thanks for your kind thoughts 🙏 😊 I hope your hubby is getting better.

          4. Thanks Eddy – I’m glad you made it home. My OH is quite frail, but only to be expected after major open heart surgery only a week ago. I expect his recovery will be gradual and slow. At least he’s home and comfortable.

      2. If you end up in an NHS hospital, they seem to be very reluctant to let you, or your relative, regain their freedom.

        1. Bit like prison. It took me TWO DAYS to negotiate my escape. They kept taking my tunnelling shovel away.

        1. Colchester General does spiffing shepherd’s pie.
          Whenever it was on the next day’s menu, I chose it. I was most miffed to be discharged before lunchtime and someone else benefitted from my choice.

          1. OH had shepeher’s pie for his last hospital meal while we were waiting. He’d cancelled dinner as he thought he’d be gone by then, but they found him a Wiltshire Farm Foods one.

          2. NNUH did excellent baked potatoes. Very good sandwiches. Unfortunately the “healthy” yogurt was about 90% sugar.

    4. My OH was in for a month before he had his op. Then they chucked him out five days later. I’m very glad he’s home now though.

      He only saw the consultant once or twice and there was a lack of information about what they were going to do.

  16. I know this is a wicked thought, but I did wonder whether St Zelensky has couture quasi “military” outfits….

    Hush my mouth…

    2. The Prince Regent (later George IV) liked to dress up in elaborate military uniforms, even though he never served with the armed forces.

        2. Give him his due – he did serve for a few weeks in the Royal Marines before they kicked him out.

          1. The poor fellow was SENT to join the by his heartless father.

            He now has a complete wardrobe of “military” outfits – including a cloak!!

          2. Prince Edward spent three years in the Royal Marines as a University Cadet, but left the armed forces after graduation to pursue a career in theatre production.

            I think it took great courage on his part to tell the Duke of Edinburgh he wasn’t suited to a military life, I don’t believe they kicked him out, although I recall he may have failed one of the assault course tests which made him realise he wasn’t up to the Marines.
            I can’t help thinking that all the other Royals took easier/less physically demanding services options.

          3. I agree. I suffered the same experience – of discovering that I was definitely NOT cut out to be the leader of soldiers. I managed to get out of the army painlessly.

            My point about Edward is that, having been through all that and – courageously – opted for civilian life, he should not have then taken a ceremonial job requiring to dress up like a military gent. That’s all.

          4. I’ve never seen the point either, except that every branch, regiment, etc of the armed forces seems to require a piece of genuine Royalty as their honorary Colonel, or whatever.

            I think it’s because their allegiance is to the crown and not the clown (Government).

          8. Certainly in terms of concentration and coordination, but I doubt as much as being a commando.

    1. I’m sure there are plenty of people willing to help Boris turn off his illuminations as in punching his lights out.

    3. How does turning our lights off help Ukraine? I don’t really want to show my support. We have a group of powerful countries that should act together to prevent such conflict. Is that fact that one member is senile and has 2 mentally ill people in his cabinet (Biden), another is a hypocritical authoritarian nutter (Trudeau), a third is a demented communist (Arden), ours a demented globalist taking orders from his masters to ruin our economy?

      1. 369147+ up ticks,

        Afternoon W,
        We must not forget their hard core followers maybe a description of them is to horrendous.

  • Morning all, Another Xmas care home gig this afternoon – at the local care home where my late wife passed away, it’s going to feel strange going back there

    2. It will be lovely for them, and I hope you will feel better after it; deep breaths help. Good luck.

  • 369147+ up ticks,

    One should also bare in mind some mushrooms are much more lethal than others.

    Gerard Batten
    @gjb2021
    ·
    10h
    The USA, or rather the criminals running it behind the senile puppet Biden, is basically taking the position that if the Ukraine-Russia War escalates into WWIII that is fine with them. Indeed these moves can be seen as an escalation.

    Isn’t it odd that all the people who think Covid & Climate Change are threats to the existence of the human race seem perfectly relaxed about the possibility of a worldwide nuclear exchange. No outcry from the MSM or all the usual assorted groups of lefty agitators.

    Biden hands Zelenskyy a hero’s welcome – and Patriot missiles – The Times and The Sunday Times,
    Translate post
    Biden hands Zelensky a hero’s welcome — and Patriot missiles — The Times and The Sunday Times
    Biden hands Zelensky a hero’s welcome — and Patriot missiles — The Times and The Sunday Times

    President Zelensky arrived in Washington this evening for talks with President Biden and a meeting with Congress that is expected to secure billions of dollars’ worth of fresh military equipment for Ukraine. His first foreign trip since Russia’s inva…

    apple.news

    https://gettr.com/post/p22k5fm498c

  • ‘Morning All

    For those that missed it last night you can revert to “Classic Disqus”

    Click on your name by the red/grey dot and select classic disqus

    Meanwhile……

    Modern Life

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/42a95bae67d997fdda2398a82cdbc38456e2e6c149fbd9b0477cec0315e2981c.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7c1d5a159790b9c6da6c9298b946597e427a7bbb6dc3cce59ac88d7ae52ac886.jpg

    Silent Prayer??

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a4bf4dd908079cf1c1df65d9776477143ff3beb8754268ce4813667d692ad70e.png

    2. Yup. The last three years have been a revelation: a bad revelation.
      All too many Britons would have enjoyed life in the old GDR.

    3. Thank you Rik for the tip on reverting to Classic Disqus. Now I can see who is being replied to in the replies.

    1. Britain’s fine. It is the political class who are deliberately breaking it. They’re the problem. The solution is to get rid of them. Not change the sides, not elect the other bunch with the same policies, but to get rid of them completely. All of them.

  • Good morning all, well it’s trying to be. Almost balmy after the past two weeks. I’m off out to buy toys for the great nephews and nieces of my tribe. I may be some time…

  • I am not much interested in men’s football and even less in women’s football. I see that the winner of the BBC personality of the Year is a woman of whom I have never heard,

    I looked her up on the Internet and discovered to my surprise that she is white; she makes up for this by being LGBT but I thought it was de rigueur to be both homosexual and non-white to be a serious contender for such awards.

  • I’m sorry for those who will suffer, particularly the poor and elderly, but I really hope that as that lights go out and the country grinds to a halt because we can’t generate enough electricity people will eventually wake up to the crass stupidity that is net zero.

    I know the buffoons will still blame man made climate change and the use of fossil fuels, but for the love of God, please make them realise that nuclear is the best long term solution and that using our own resources in the interim is the only way not to cause irreversible breakdown of society.
    Assuming of course that irreversible breakdown isn’t the goal..

    Arctic blast is set to hit UK again with heavy snow, ice and freezing temperatures after Christmas as forecasters warn of ‘snowiest period in 12 years’ that will last for a month
    The UK could be hit with yet another cold snap after Christmas, forecasters say
    One warned it could be ‘some of the coldest and snowiest weather since 2010’
    The country has already been hit with snow storms and freezing weather

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11563995/Arctic-blast-set-hit-UK-heavy-snow-ice-freezing-temperatures-Christmas.html

    1. If you check te met office long term forecast it is not the same.

      5th Jan to19th Jan

      Confidence remains low at the start of the year. There is a signal
      for generally settled conditions though periods of wet and windy weather
      are still possible, and within this will come the chance of some snow.
      Temperatures are likely to be around or a little below normal, with some
      generally colder conditions perhaps developing again around
      mid-January.

      Updated: 15:00 (UTC) on Wed 21 Dec 2022

      1. The met office has not been covering itself in glory recently, it appears that this one is from a different group of forecasters.
        We’ll see

    3. Alf and I have written to our MP ad nauseam about this, in fact we had a ?aire from Con local party recently. We wrote back quite a long email directly to him listing some of the ills this government has caused, including the very major Net Zero policy. Actually received a reply about 2 weeks later in which he say he is “generally in agreement with much of what you say”. Trouble is there is no sign of any dissent within the Con party itself, or none that is publicised. Collective responsibility is not a help.

        1. Oh yes indeed. We know it’s pointless really writing to him but it makes us feel a little bit better. We’re too old to demonstrate or, really, too far away. It just makes no sense whatsoever that the MPs don’t get together and rebel big time. Do none of them have any sense?!

    4. Don’t be silly. The statists will say ‘We need more unreliables as climate change!’

      The solution will be irrational and bonkers, exacerbating both inflation, debt and energy scarcity. That is statist logic.

  • Good morning and Happy Christmas to you all. We are off to Solihull to spend Christmas with my daughters.

  • UK economy shrinks by more than first thought in the third quarter of this year. 22 December 2022.

    The UK economy contracted by more than first estimated in the third quarter of this year.

    Gross domestic product (GDP), the value of all the goods and services produced in the country, fell by a revised 0.3% against the 0.2% decline initially estimated from July to September, the Office for National Statistics said.

    This is just the beginning. The real bite is yet to come as the Sanctions begin to take full effect. Paradoxically these will have more effect on the standard of living here in the UK than in Russia. True poverty will soon make its appearance as the government progressively withdraws its support.

    What we are seeing is probably the greatest crime against the British People since the Norman Conquest! It has the same intention; their eradication as a threat to the ruling class!

    https://news.sky.com/story/uk-economy-shrinks-by-more-than-first-thought-in-the-third-quarter-of-this-year-12772950

    1. Good moaning all.

      “ Gross domestic product (GDP), the value of all the goods and services produced in the country, fell by a revised 0.3% against the 0.2% decline initially estimated from July to September, the Office for National Statistics said.”

      But but … all those immigrants – I thought they were essential to improving our GDP? We must need more!

    2. The ONS was giving the game away about the dangers of the gene therapy and have been neutralised. They can no longer be trusted on any statistics or percentages.

      The same with the Met Office.

          4. Little known fact: the Met office assumes climate change, and builds that lie into it’s models.

            That’s why it’s wrong so often.

      2. Our shared office space has a bill £2 million quid higher than last year. 2 million quid. They’re passing that costs on to the businesses in the unit. So we’re not renewing our lease.

        The government is populated by utter fools. The lot of them must go. All 650 wasters.

    3. I was out in the local town yesterday and noticed a number of closed businesses. Those lecee bills are beginning to bite.

    4. By more than first estimated…. by politicians and Treasury economists.

      Those fools seem to think we’ll just sit still and pay ever higher taxes. Have they never heard of the Laffer curve? Useless fools.

    1. I was in Morrison’s this morning. I noted that the background music was Christmassy. No carols!

    2. Our rectorette is always going on about inviting friends to church. My friends are either dead (recently), RC or too busy with work and family to be able to come. If the rectorette continues as she is, she’ll find the regulars are disappearing and not being replaced by the people she seems to be aiming at (had a conversation with another disgruntled choir member on Wednesday).

      1. Morning Bill. If you can see the picture in PM’s post, then to the left of the ‘Play’ arrow is what looks like a billboard with pictures on it. The ‘billboard’ is actually the side of a bus that moves left to right across the screen.
        The Pictures are of Gates, Schwab etc with ‘Wanted’ above them and the relevant name beneath.

          1. It didn’t get that far. The end of the video caught a glimpse of what looked like a HIMAR descending rapidly…

      2. Oh, it’s just a bus trundling through a US city with huge ‘Wanted’ posters down the side – Gates, Fauci, Jacob Rothschild and other culprits.I can’t remember who the others are withoit going back into it.

    1. Evil. Hopefully people will see through this. Children are quite good at spotting when they’re being preached at.

      1. True – but there is also peer pressure…if enough of a child’s chums are being “done” – that child may feel she ought to.

        1. Even worse, someone I know only got jabbed because the teachers had scared her small son witless at school, and the child thought his mother would die because she wasn’t jabbed. That, combined with the endless tests, and the doctor scolding her in front of her children, pressured her into getting the vaxx that she didn’t want.
          She had red rashes for months, and every time I see her, she seems to be getting over another ailment.

    4. Sorry, when Teresa Tam appears, I turn the recording off.

      She has been the leader on the government push on vaccines and masks. I don’t care if she is a tranny, she has done considerable damage to Canadians.

      Tam is not a health minister, she is some unelected doctor who leads public health canada.

      What was the question?

  • Back from the market. It was very busy. The MR had spotted an advert from Aldi (ugh – spit) for SELECTED VEGETABLES AT nineteen pence EACH. Not bad value….

    Morrisons also busy – lots of masks in evidence, I was glad to see….

    It is now quite foggy out. Cats sleep.

    1. J Sainsbury and Lidl also offer sprouts, carrots and ‘snips at 19p. Pre-Xmas loss leader.
      Aldi stores are not ‘ugh’!

      1. The one in Fakenham is. Badly laid out; badly lit; surly staff; only 2 out of eight tills open. UGH.

        1. Same where we live. Aldi has great quality products, but the staff are so snotty, I just don’t want to go there. Plus if they see a queue shorter than about ten people, they close a till.

          1. My local Aldi will open another till if the queue gets to more than half a dozen. Staff are very good.

        2. It does depend on the store manager.
          Sonny Boy complained about the one he uses in Colchester; boxes and detritus everywhere.
          The one I use is fine – apart from a carpark designed by ‘experts’ to enable 6 big retailers to share.

  • Thursday 20 October 2022 1 GBP = 1.1479 EUR GBP EUR rate for 20/10/2022

    Wednesday 21 December 2022 1 GBP = 1.1384 EUR GBP EUR rate for 21/12/2022

    And it’s still falling.

    Truss resigned on 20th October. She was ousted so that Hunt and Sunak could save the pound and safeguard the economy.

    The pound is lower now than it ever was when Truss was PM.

    What a good job Hunt and Sunak must be doing! Have they been given instructions by their masters to put the £ and the € at the same level?

      1. Means nothing. It’s a race to the bottom. They will all end up at their intrinsic value – zero.

      1. Oh yes, that’s why the road is clear of snow … a vehicle every 5 minutes is par for that road.

      1. No, not there this Christmas. It’s in SE Poland … but 100 km from Ukraine border (near. small town of Cmielow).

  • Headline News – Daily Fail 22 Dec 22

    Made In Chelsea’s Ollie Locke and his
    husband Gareth reveal they’ve
    suffered a second heartbreaking
    miscarriage – just days after their
    surrogate fell pregnant amid IVF battle

    My heart bleeds for them.

      2. Genesis Chapter 1

        So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

        And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

        1. “…and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.”

          And there, in that short passage, you have the reason why mankind is destroying the planet and all the wildlife upon it.

          1. “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth’

            As an aside: I’ve alway thought this a strange statement. Does it mean the Earth had been previously populated, if so what killed life off.?

    2. That’s just making a mockery of the agony of late miscarriage.
      If you lose a baby a few days after conceiving, you won’t even know you’ve lost it. Not that either of them physically lost a baby. The surrogate was in it for the money.
      Poor children born into this kind of situation.

      1. I have mixed feelings about the mother.
        Who would willingly give away / sell her baby? How would anyone think that way anyway?
        Poor lass has my utmost sympathy.
        As I said, mixed feelings.

        1. It’s not her baby though, it’s an implanted embryo that belongs to someone else and has the genetic material of strangers. The surrogate gets a life-changing amount of money.

          Now imagine you’re the child, growing up with the knowledge that the mother who carried you for nine months did so for payment and walked away from you; half your genetic material was chosen from a catalogue; that the woman who donated her egg did so either for payment or for a fee reduction in her own fertility treatment, in which case she left the clinic with your precious half siblings leaving your genetic material behind; that it was written into the contract that you would have been aborted had you not been perfectly formed ; and that you are growing up with no mother.

          That is not unconditional love. That is pure selfishness and wish fulfilment on the part of adults.

  • Princess of WHAT? Fox News gives Kate Middleton
    a very unfortunate royal title during spelling blunder

    A brutally awkward spelling error appeared during a Fox News broadcast referring Kate Middleton,
    The Princess of Wales, as the ‘Princess of Whales,’ a mammoth sea creature.

    A mammoth sea creature? How thoughtful of the Dreary Fail to inform us that a whale is a a large sea creature. We would have been floundering for weeks trying to fathom the difference in meaning without their help.

    1. So many of these caption clowns give away the growing huge holes in Anglo-American education in recent decades.

    3. And Prince Harry’s sainted mother, when she became both overweight and lachrymose, was referred to as the Princess of Wails as well as the Princess of Whales.

    1. Almost as good looking as Gus and Pickles, who, at their third Christmas, are ostentatiously ignoring the decorations!

      1. There is some low-hanging large material baubles which he’s had down and given them a cat mouth-and-legs pummelling.

  • Here is a reminiscence by a retired Bedfordshire policeman of working in the 1962–63 winter freeze up. I wonder how the cotton-wool wrapped, snowflakes of today would cope if faced with such working conditions?

    The big freeze.

    It was Christmas Day 1962 My crew mate Alan and I were on the night shift. At 10pm we left our base at Halsey Road Kempston and made our way to the M1 motorway to patrol the motorway in our Ford Zephyr Estate car.

    After a few hours patrol, now Boxing Day and we were at our motorway post at Toddington. We were on standby when at around 3am we received a call from HQ to leave the motorway immediately and return to Kempston.

    Very heavy snowfalls were forecast and all roads would become impassable. The motorway was now effectively closed to all traffic and would remain so.

    Making our way along the motorway heading home the snow became increasingly heavy I was driving and finding it extremely difficult to get any grip.

    With no fitted heater in the car, we were already feeling the cold. When on winter patrol in our unheated Zephyrs we would always be prepared and wear extra clothing to supplement our shorty overcoats, most would wear long johns, gloves and thick woolen scarfs.

    Usually this extra clothing would serve its purpose if dealing with an incident of sort duration as we could always nip back to the post for a cup of tea and a warm up.

    As we slowly made our way along the motorway the heavy snow was building up on the windscreen and the wipers were simply compacting it on the lower part of the windscreen shortening the wiper sweep making visibility very difficult.

    With thick virgin snow now completely covering the verge, hard shoulder and whole width of the carriageways and without a central crash barrier to provide a centre line it was difficult to see exactly where you were on the road. It was most weird and strangely disorientating.

    Because we had to travel so slow trying to get some grip very little charge was being put into the battery and as the headlights started to dim I had to switch them off, I kept dropping the clutch and revved the engine hard trying to put a bit of juice in the battery. I dare not stop to do this as the resulting build- up of snow I knew would prevent me moving off again.

    We then lost radio contact and finally the car just came to a halt. The battery was now completely flat.

    Despite our extra clothing we were both feeling extremely cold and in order to try to maintain some body heat we were finally forced to wrap ourselves in the blankets we carried in our kit.

    Using these unwashed rather smelly blood stained blankets was not a pleasant thought knowing that their main purpose had been to cover dead bodies recovered from accidents to shield them from public view.

    Without any radio contact the only way now to summon help was to use one of the emergency telephones, this would be anything up to half a mile from our position.

    After a great deal of deliberation, we finally decided to toss a coin, the loser to leave the car and make their way to the nearest emergency phone. I won the toss and my colleague Alan somewhat reluctantly left the car and headed off in the moonlight night stopping briefly to scrape some snow off a marker post to find the directional arrow indicating direction to nearest emergency telephone.

    He then vanished into a wall of falling snow and was quickly lost to my view.

    It was about 20 minutes later when a snow-covered figure with what appeared to be icicles hanging from his cap, came into view trudging through the knee-deep snow. Yes, it was Alan, frozen through and initially barely unable to speak. He was however able to convey the fact he had made it to the emergency phone and that help was on the way.

    Unknown to us at the time a land rover had been dispatched from HQ to rescue us. Despite being a four-wheeled drive vehicle and despite numerous attempts, it was unable to climb a steep snow covered hill on approach to the motorway and forced to return to base.

    Despite the cold and discomfort we did both manage to get a bit of sleep.

    We were later wakened by somebody knocking on the window asking for us to open the doors. Our car was completely covered in snow The doors were not locked but completely frozen up and our rescuers had to use a tyre lever to force the doors open.

    It was now 11am, some 8 hours after getting stuck when a snow plough and breakdown recovery vehicle and rescuers had managed to reach us and we were loaded and taken to our traffic base at Kempston where we were placed in front of a fire, plied with hot drinks and allowed to slowly thaw out.

    By this time,Alan and I having spent around 8 hours in freezing conditions trapped inside our patrol car had possibly begun to experience the early effects of hypothermia and as we warmed up both suffered from extremely painful hot aches.

    The winter of 1962-1963 which became known as the” big freeze” turned out to be the coldest winter in the UK for over 200 years. Temperatures’ plummeted to minus-16C. Snow blizzards swept across the country with reports of snowdrifts of over 20 feet. Even the sea in places froze over. Roads and railways were blocked and many villages were cut off.

    The thaw finally set in in early March 1963.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b51981e5360add04fe6de0ea8c0832c9357c749763d83fceba79c8e1305450ed.png

    1. On Boxing Day 1962, my mother and I walked to Gloucester Cathedral for the annual performance of the Messiah. As we walked home afterwards, it was getting dark and snowing. That was the snow that stayed on the ground for the next two months and more.

      I remember the school opened as normal, though the youth club was closed. I walked to school each day as normal.

      1. Standing at the top of Wormingford hill waiting for a bus that was two hours late was a character building exercise. Minus 20 (Farenheit) according to the thermometer I carried that day.
        But, the bus appeared and we got to work – eventually.

          1. Our sports field was on a hilltop plateau. The biting wind blew up the hillside and across to our bare legs, chapping them below our useless shorts.

        1. It wasn’t far from home to the Cathedral – about a mile. I used to walk to school as well – not much more than half a mile.

    3. I worked with a friend whose husband was one of the first daily commuters from Colchester into the City.
      She found that winter very stressful: the bitter cold and frozen water supply she could cope with.
      What stressed her out was hubby’s determination to keep warm on his commute. Under his City suit, he wore a pair of fleecy pink harvest festivals that had belonged to his aunt.
      Janet was petrified he would slip on the ice and be taken to hospital.

      1. Doctors and Nurses have seen it all. Doubt it would raise an eyebrow.

        What are fleecy pink harvest festivals?

      2. In winter, my dad wore ladies’ tights under his trousers down the coal mine.

        If you are near to where the ventilation shaft blows down fresh air (and it blows at quite a whack) in winter it is freezing. At the other end of the pit, where that air escapes back to the outside, it can be quite hot.

        1. Some squaddies used to wear a pair of the wife’s tights in Germany when on winter exercises. I remember our troop sergeant, RP, ex-airborne roughie-toughie, undressing in the back of a 4 tonner and about to climb into his sleeping bag: “Oh sh!t, I’ve laddered my tights!”

          1. Hated and still do, wearing tights. Like shrink-wrapping your legs, so it is. Baggy trousers and cold legs is preferable.

          3. Jockeys (and not just the women) wear tights under their britches; warmth without a lot of weight.

    4. A water main on a main road in Southport froze solid. it was 20 ft underground. It was the year I met Mrs N we managed to stay warm.

        1. No I was already in Germany with the RAF and this trip was a freebie as it was classed as survival training

    6. I remember that winter.well as I was going to apply to join the City of London police force as a cadet. I decided they could have me in the summer but not the winter. One of the best decisions I ever made.

    1. I hope you are not suggesting she turns to playing Pink (other colours may be available) Oboes……?

    1. For good’s sake don’t let HMG know it will be rented by Serco to house some poor refugee ……

    2. Just baled out of Sainsburys. So many zombies bimbling about in the way. What is this fascination with endless shopping at Christmas?

        2. Vogon constructor fleet spotted.

          People of Earth, your attention please.This is Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz of the Galactic Hyperspace Planning Council. As you will no doubt be aware, the plans for development of the outlying regions of the Galaxy require the building of a hyperspatial express route through your star system, and, regrettably your planet is one of those scheduled for demolition. The process will take slightly less than two of your Earth minutes. Thank you.

          Ps.
          There’s no point in acting all surprised about it. All the planning charts and demolition orders have been on display in your local planning department in Alpha Centauri for fifty of your Earth years, so you’ve had plenty of time to lodge any formal complaint and it’s far too late to start making a fuss about it now.

          2. Oh freddled gruntbuggly,
            Thy micturitions are to me,
            As plurdled gabbleblotchits,
            On a lurgid bee,
            That mordiously hath blurted out,
            Its earted jurtles,
            Into a rancid festering confectious organ squealer. [drowned out by moaning and screaming]
            Now the jurpling slayjid agrocrustles,
            Are slurping hagrilly up the axlegrurts,
            And living glupules frart and slipulate,
            Like jowling meated liverslime,
            Groop, I implore thee, my foonting turling dromes,
            And hooptiously drangle me,
            With crinkly bindlewurdles,
            Or else I shall rend thee in the gobberwarts with my blurglecruncheon,
            See if I don’t.
            Douglas Adams,

          1. I’m splitting the chores with friends. I’m cooking the bird, gravy, roasties and a spiced red cabbage. Which is why i could take delivery so early.

            Poor Margo.

      3. We are just about to go out and play at zombies in the supermarket. How many other shoppers can we obstruct while standing in front of the hot cross bun display and tut tutting about them being on sale at christmas?

        Well we are retired so there is no need to rush and get out of people’s way.

          1. Or where the debit card is and that’s after!! slowly packing stuff out of the trolley into bags …. grrrrr.
            Have card ready, put stuff back in trolley and after payment, move away.

          3. And then – having done all that, remember that you needed some item on the far side of the shop….AND dash off to get it.

          4. Smile nicely at the queue as you squeeze past their trolleys muttering ‘wont be a moment’ …….

          6. I had to do that Wednesday last week! Fortunately, I realised before I got to the checkout. I dumped the two items on an unused till conveyor belt, dashed out to the car (insasmuch as I can dash anywhere with my arthritis!), grabbed my wallet and then picked up the items and queued. I don’t think I actually held anybody up.

      4. We made the almost fatal [blood pressure!] error of going to our local Sainsbury today – car park almost full, lots of cars circling looking for a space and a massive queue to get back out – I didn’t realise there was an eighth ring of hell!

      5. It’s not the shopping, it’s the morons who go. The confused, the lost, the ignorant, the blind – even the sighted ones – who don’t look where they’re going.

          1. Still tastes all right.
            On the Yuk Scale, Danish D-in-L’s salted liquorice is definitely at the top (or bottom, depending which way you start).

          2. I love caramel and I love bananas; but putting the two together (‘Banoffee Pie’) is a crime against taste, humanity and common sense.

            Caramel and bananas should be kept well away from each other; preferably in separate counties.

          4. Get her to bring you some salmiak – wonderful!
            You can get it as ice-cream and sprinkles… vodka, gummi pastilles… Yum!

          1. My mum liked Baileys. The taste reminds me of the pink penicillin medicine I was given as a child.

          7. Last Christmas I made some Swedish snaps (aquavit) by steeping some caraway seeds and sugar in a 60% alcohol clear spirit. It smells and tastes like a powerful Nurse Harvey’s Mixture.

          1. You may have mine then. I’ll stick to a decent single malt.

            Or the home-made damson vodka that I’ve just decanted into a bottle.

  • The hunt for Putin’s war rapists: How a British-led team are tracking Russian perpetrators. 22 December 2022

    As the conflict in Ukraine continues to rage, a 20-strong group of lawyers and military analysts are racing to identify and prosecute Russian troops accused of rape and other acts of sexual violence.

    It’s the first time a unit of its type has been deployed in an active war zone.

    “Their identities can be found,” said Wayne Jordash KC, an English barrister from Scunthorpe who leads the team. “We will work to ensure that those who suffer these terrible crimes are supported and that Putin’s men are brought to account.”

    Sexual violence has long been used as a weapon of war but is rarely prosecuted as investigations come too late. The new Sexual Violence Mobile Justice Team aims to change that by striking while the iron is hot.

    There were 67,125 rapes reported in the UK in 2021 of which 1557 were prosecuted. Of these around 70% resulted in a conviction. Needless to say these figures make Ukraine look like Themyscira. Not only is there no evidence that rape is a part of Russian policy but the actual number of reported cases is miniscule which supports this view. What we have here is propaganda disguised as Judicial Inquiry.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/terror-and-security/hunt-putins-war-rapists-how-british-led-team-tracking-russian/

    2. I think its very good that they’ve included Military Analysts (I assume its to ensure the lawyers don’t end up in minefields…..?)

    3. 369147+ up ticks,

      Afternoon AS,

      Mores the pity the man from sunny scunny and team was not around 16 plus years prior to the Jay report.

    4. Why don’t you try doing a similar “identity hunt” for rapists in Rotherham and similar, Wayne, you pillock.

  • For anyone whose pussy needs a bit of TLC, I’ve just discovered this emporium:

    “Purrcasso Cat Grooming“…..based in Larkhall!

        3. Didn’t they meet in some caves in West Wickham – I seem to remember going down into them in the 70s

          1. There are caves in nearby Chislehurst dating from the Roman period but none that I know of in W Wickham (and I lived there for 35 years!)

          2. I definitely went into some caves in West Wickham in 1976. There was a tour of them and behind some bars, like a prison cell, was the alleged meeting place of the hellfire club

    1. We’d be a bit pushed without a car on our steep hillside here. In 2010 there was snow before Christmas – we were able to walk down the hill to the main road into Stroud, with two rucksacks, and get the bus. We just had time to get our Christmas food (including turkey) at Waitrose, and catch the bus back, then walk back up the hill with two heavy rucksacks.

    4. We turned down an application for an estate on a relatively small plot of land with no amenities nearby, no bus links and a dangerous road to walk for the children to get to school at least a mile away. It went to county (who have declared a “climate emergency”) and they gave it permission!

  • Train workers, postmen, ambulance drivers, nurses and others may or may not have genuine grievances. However, none are prevented from changing their employment situation, if they feel so disadvantaged.

    There were 1,187,000 job vacancies in the UK Sep–Nov 2022, according to ONS.

    2. My position exactly, Johnny. If you don’t like the pay or conditions, you’re free to get employment elsewhere.

    1. Stolen from the thread and translated into English:

      Don’t criticise Zelensky for arriving in casual clothes, one of Biden’s administration stole his luggage.

      1. Apparently he has had some flak for looking like he was on jankers.

        Had he arrived in suit, on the other hand, the same people might have wondered whether he was going to defect…..

        1. Instead, he opted for the Sam Bankman-Fraud T-shirt look.
          He has not realised that it has suddenly gone out of fashion.

          1. Oddly enough, the Zulensky “battle warrior” look appears to be catching on. I notice at least a dozen young men with that short beard, khaki top and combat trousers in Fakenham this morning. Several of them walking a dog – which sort of diminished the desired “look”…!!

        2. He was just checking his escape route.
          Could a Chinook take all his stash (in the 70’s sense of the word) not to mention those Dollar bills he’s accumulated from trading all that lovely stuff donated by stupid Western governments.

  • Well, that’s Step-son visited, t’Lad & Student Son picked up, a bit of shopping done and I’m bloody knackered!
    A busy morning all round.

    1. I’m here … just!

      I’d like to know, please. When did Aldi and Lidl open supermarkets in Fakenham?

    2. Nope. World still exists.
      I know this because Spartie’s inner clock has told him it’s supper time and I’m getting SIGNIFICANT LOOKS.

      1. Gus just looked from the rug in front of the stove and indicated that another log was needed…

    3. I’m intermittently here, but trying to check in some particularly worrying code before Christmas. Unfortunately, in the course of my tests I have just discovered another bug that must be fixed.
      Perhaps I should take lessons in testing from Pfizer – don’t ask the wrong questions and get the results you want.

          4. I’m having my first glass of red (rioja) at this very moment, the first glass, I mean, since I came down with this horrid bug. I went competely off alcohol…. ‘you’re not pregnant?’ asked poppiesdad….

        1. I’m quite strict with myself, otherwise things might get out of hand. The last 20 years of my working career were on ‘dry’ American vessels and so booze was either famine or feast and I was afloat a total of 6 months, minimum, every year.

  • Par Four today.

    Wordle 551 4/6
    ⬜🟨⬜⬜🟩
    ⬜⬜⬜🟩🟩
    ⬜⬜⬜🟩🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Same here.

      Wordle 551 4/6

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

      1. Remember to thank the Albanian (or Somali) driver. And, if your are Young Phil – give him a tip.

          2. Ha, Magirus-Deutz. I passed my RAFG driving licence on one of those – real bitches to drive – double declutch up and down the gearbox.

          3. Thanks for reminding me of the name Tom. I drove one full of ground equipment round Germany and Belgium on an exercise. I found I could get better gear changes on the move if I didn’t use the clutch at all – just match the revs. The squadron groundcrew had one at the barrack block for going to the hangar to work

          4. I had to know how to drive one for operation ‘Doffer’.

            In the event of a Russian invasion, I would drive a ‘Maggie’ full of Married Families to Knokke, Ostend or Calais for embarkation to UK.

    2. Nah nee nah nah nah! I beat them to it and deported myself.

      Since Brexit I have been declared as a foreigner. On Tuesday I had to attend an immigration centre to be ‘processed’ for a card which declares that I am now accepted as a fully-fledged Swedish citizen.

        1. Thanks, Paul. The migrationsverket office was a bit grim. It looked like a cross between a dole office and an airport departure lounge. I was the only white chappie in the place.

          The young chap who ‘processed’ me was a cheery little fellow who looked fresh out of school. He was extremely pleasant and friendly and wanted to chat about Cornwall! He took my photograph and index-finger prints on the same machine that they have in Swedish cop-shops to process Swedes for passports.

      4. How do you manage for health insurance, if you don’t mind me asking? Were you accepted in the Swedish social insurance, or did they make you get a private one?

        1. I was given a personnummer (equivalent of a UK National Insurance number) as soon as I arrived here in 2011. I pay SEK200 [£16] for each GP or hospital appointment up to a maximum of SEK1,100 [£87] each calendar year. When that amount has been reached all other appointments are free for the rest of that calendar year. I also receive governmental help with dental fees on a rising scale. I still pay for prescriptions but they are cheaper than in England and I get three months’ worth of drugs instead of the measly one month in the UK. I am certainly well looked after by the Swedish system. No waiting long for appointments and a free health check up annually.

          1. Do you not have a personal health insurance then? I thought no other country had implemented the insane socialism of the NHS.

          2. I don’t have a personal private health insurance. I do not need one.

            Contrary to popular belief, Sweden is not a socialist country. They flirted with a form of socialism for a good number of years after the 1970s but then realised that only a free market economy would provide then with the wealth they needed.

          3. And then they discovered unrestricted gimmegration for too many years, which they are now “benefitting” from?

          4. Public health insurance can also be personal. The point is that you have a contract that guarantees you certain treatments.
            In the UK, there is no such guarantee, and also from what you describe, in Sweden.

        2. I was given a personnummer (equivalent of a UK National Insurance number) as soon as I arrived here in 2011. I pay SEK200 [£16] for each GP or hospital appointment up to a maximum of SEK1,100 [£87] each calendar year. When that amount has been reached all other appointments are free for the rest of that calendar year. I also receive governmental help with dental fees on a rising scale. I still pay for prescriptions but they are cheaper than in England and I get three months’ worth of drugs instead of the measly one month in the UK. I am certainly well looked after by the Swedish system. No waiting long for appointments and a free health check up annually.

      5. How do you manage for health insurance, if you don’t mind me asking? Were you accepted in the Swedish social insurance, or did they make you get a private one?

  • That’s me for today. I know it is all imaginary, but the darkness seem to arrived later this evening!

    Successful market trip – no more shopping until the end of next week.

    Have a smashing evening – we are going to risk the Wagathon court case on t’telly, despite the poor reviews. I quite like to see that oily, smug, fa-left git Sheen playing himself!!

    A demain.

        1. So sorry, Tom. I hsve a few elderly cousins. Not having any siblings, I can barely imagine your situation. But this Christmas, I’ll do all the services, then go home to a solitary Christmas Dinner. I have two frozen turkey portions from cookfood.net. The trimmings will follow.That will cover Boxing Day as well.

          2. Geoff I’m sure those that regularly inhabit these threads will, like me, raise a glass to you on Christmas Day!

          7. I shall do similar, but I’ve been invited to have lunch with a friend on Boxing Day, which will be fun. The three of us will be eating turkey for weeks 🙂

          8. Looks like a surfeit of Christianity, but a shortage of Christians in your area. Not one invitation to a hot meal?

    3. Wonderful. Have a wonderful time. From my experience it is as nice to see them as it is to see the back of them.

    4. Our Christmas is somewhat up in the air as we are supposed to be going to the daughter’s but with snow on the ground, freezing temps overnight we shall have to see if a thaw sets in. Still, I’ve done sausage rolls, mince pies and just taken a French Apple cake out of the oven sp we shall not starve! Enjoy your time with the family.

  • Diesel generators ready to power NHS and military as blackouts loom
    Data centres prepare for the worst as National Grid warns of winter power failures
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/12/22/diesel-generators-poised-power-nhs-military-blackouts-loom/

    But everyone knew from the beginning that wind generators and solar panels would not be reliable.

    Many years ago I suggested that Chris Huhne, the disgraced and imprisoned former environment minister in Cameron’s government, went and stayed on my boat in the Med for a week in December and use only the electric power provided by the solar panels and the wind generator.

    But of course when I spent the winter on Mianda I had a good little petrol powered generator and a Volvo diesel engine to give me power because my ‘renewables’ which were excellent on a good sunny summer’s day with a pleasant breeze but almost completely useless between October and April.

    1. I’m sure everybody knows as you say, including TPTB. So, how have we ever reached the point where we’re all cutting down on energy use and economising on food if possible and bracing ourselves for another hike in costs. How did the MPs vote for net zero, etc. etc? I’m prepared to believe the higher ups accepted bribes but what about the HoC and the Lords, they surely can’t all be in on the scam?

      1. Bought and paid for, the whole lot.
        One possible exception was that bloke who got stabbed by a diversity specialist in Southend, and even he was past retirement age.

  • 369147+ up ticks,

    0
    Gerard Batten
    @gjb2021
    ·
    3h
    The Tories are panicing as the prospect of a Labour landslide draws ever nearer.

    Reform is nothing more than Tory Lite. It is made up of the type of Tory homeless refugees as personified by Farage.

    We need a radical patriotic party that represents ordinary people & small business owners. Unfortunately they are the groups least inclined to donate to or organise for a political party.

    Reform may take a small % of Tory votes but it won’t make any real difference to the outcome of the next GE: a Labour Globalist puppet govn to replace the Tory one we’ve got now….more
    C as Cameron-era centrists prepare to fight for soul of
    CDO is ‘doomed’ claim Reform UK opponents as Cameron-era centrists prepare to fight for soul of

    The new grassroots group on the party’s right says it is seeking to hold off Reform UK, which has dismissed the ‘delusional’ movement

  • From an article in King World News:
    “December 21 (King World News) – Simon Mikhailovich: Feels like something big in the works. All these “in person” consultations can’t be coincidental:

    * Putin & top ministers visited Belarus
    * Medvedev visited Xi w/Putin’s “personal message”
    * Putin attending Defence Ministry’s board meeting
    * Zelensky visiting DC

    Something is up…”

    I really hope not. Effing warmongering elites, trying to throw dust in people’s eyes as fiat currencies collapse.

  • ‘Night All
    The “Envy of the World” has struck again last friday (at the insistance of the diabetic nurses) actually got to speak to a doctor after 3 weeks trying to get a replacement for Metformin and was told said replacement was prescribed I asked about my other meds and was told they would be prescribed automatically
    Monday ring pharmacy to check new prescription sent no not only no but NONE of my repeat meds have been prescribed
    Tuesday ring surgery to find out what’s going on,eventually got a phone call back meds must be ordered every month no such thing as autorenew but of course we can’t do this over the phone(why not) you must use the website or appear in person at the surgery
    That’ll be the website I tried to use for 3 weeks to get a response from you?? I’ll be right over,I arrive an hour later having calmed down,very helpful receptionist pulls up records note Dr has mentioned new drug in notes but has forgotten to prescribe it,”other meds??” Ah yes I’ll put those through for you and put an urgent note on the Dr’s file about the new one
    Finally I think all sorted……….
    Very luckily I had another Dr’s appointment today a referal to check a potentially cancerous mole and almost as an aside asked him to check my new drug was now prescribed
    Nope,not the new drug NOR any of the rest of the meds had been prescribed which looking rather embarrassed he proceeded to sort out right in front of me
    Back to the Pharmacy,hooray prescriptions all now arrived “I’m signed up to your delivery service when will they arrive?”
    The answer came Bob Hope and No Hope before Christmas matey 3 day wait once scripts arrive,after much [pleading I MAY be able to pick up some of my meds on Christmas Eve
    What a total clusterfuck,one of the meds is to reduce blood pressure I may need to double the dose…………

  • Schadenfreude and poetic justice, but sadly the perpetrators themselves, at the top, won’t suffer.

    China faces ‘thermonuclear’ wave of Covid: Warning virus may kill up to ONE MILLION people as the sick overwhelm hospitals and dead bodies pile up outside morgues – after Beijing reversed its draconian restrictions
    Projections suggest up to one million people could die in coming months
    Experts warn of ‘pandemic tsunami’ and WHO says it is ‘concerned’ about surge

    The really sick aspect of this is that I have little doubt it will be used around the world to lock people down again.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-11561611/Chinas-Covid-capitulation-draconian-hermit-strategy.html

    1. Weasel words alert: ‘up to’.
      Chatted recently with a friend who knows something about China; he was a bit of a doomster like the Mail, but the Chinese people he knows seem to be recovering OK.

      1. Quite

        Every time I see the word “experts” nowadays, attached to such reports, I wish I had the facility to throw them into an oubliette when they turn out to be wrong.

        1. Yep.

          Thing is, their ‘expertise’ is at telling the government what it wants to hear – not the truth.

        2. I did read somewhere that the Chinese from time to time deliberately let loose a flu virus during the early winter months, that it is the only way that they can cope with their increasing elderly population. It would explain why most of these bugs seem to originate in the far East/Asia. Perhaps our govt decided to take a leaf out of that book in view of our increasing numbers of elderly/’useless eaters’ requiring govt pensions.

          2. That observation rings true. Trump called it the China Virus whereas it would appear to have been a joint venture developed by Fauci and the Chinese.

            The latest German science reports that the famed ‘spike protein’ is not found in autopsies of the unvaccinated but is found in every tissue of the vaccinated. This proves that the ‘vaccines’ are poison.

            We already knew that the PCR testing regime was fraudulent; its inventor told us it was not a diagnostic tool before he died prematurely.

    3. Yet… China has a population of billions – 1.45, apparently. That’s one thousand million. That makes 1 million dead less than 0.1%. That’s lower than OUR weekly death rate.

      1. Quite, very small percentages of very, very large numbers produce large and frightening numbers to scare the masses.

        1. I was wrong – we had half a million people die in the year 2018. Given the mass genocide the state is set on, that’s risen to 650,000 in 2019, no doubt another increase so maybe 700,000 in 2022.

        2. When ever I see percentages quoted, I alway try and find the base number.
          As you say: frightening numbers to scare the masses.

  • Sad stuff today. I had delivered a box of chockies to our chum Vera, 94, yesterday; she is amazing and a feisty lady, I like her. Then I went round to another chum, the lady with the doggy. I had some chockies for her and a toy for the pooch. She invited me in and gave me some flowers, which was nice, and immediately I asked where was Toby. She had to have him put to sleep- he was 12 and had had poorly legs for a while and other issues. I was so sad. Gave her the gift and said that there was one for Toby. She gave me a hug and asked if she could keep it in his memory- of course.
    He was the sweetest little guy and now she is alone. Her husband is gone and I don’t think she has any children.
    Walked home and bawled my eyes out for some time.
    There is never a good time for any loss but it always seems more poignant around the holidays. RIP Toby.

    1. Loneliness can be a killer, Ann. I hope your chums survive.

      Could you invite them for Christmas – lunch even?

      1. Have asked the doggy lady to come on Xmas Eve for a drink. Vera has family which she is dreading;-) She’s a hoot. We don’t have space for a huge feast.

          1. I do care and I try and do what I can but home must come first and it ain’t always easy.

          2. Family and home must always come first: but a kind and thoughtful heart for others, will always be recognised.

    2. William Blake
      This poem was published in Songs of Innocence in 1789.

      Can I see another’s woe,
      And not be in sorrow too?
      Can I see another’s grief,
      And not seek for kind relief?

      Can I see a falling tear,
      And not feel my sorrow’s share?
      Can a father see his child
      Weep, nor be with sorrow filled?

      Can a mother sit and hear
      An infant groan, an infant fear?
      No, no! never can it be!
      Never, never can it be!
      And can He who smiles on all
      Hear the wren with sorrows small,
      Hear the small bird’s grief and care,
      Hear the woes that infants bear —

      And not sit beside the next,
      Pouring pity in their breast,
      And not sit the cradle near,
      Weeping tear on infant’s tear?

      And not sit both night and day,
      Wiping all our tears away?
      Oh no! never can it be!
      Never, never can it be!
      He doth give his joy to all:
      He becomes an infant small,
      He becomes a man of woe,
      He doth feel the sorrow too.

      Think not thou canst sigh a sigh,
      And thy Maker is not by:
      Think not thou canst weep a tear,
      And thy Maker is not near.

      Oh He gives to us his joy,
      That our grief He may destroy:
      Till our grief is fled an gone
      He doth sit by us and moan.

    3. To lose a pet, especially one that’s in double figures, is like losing one of your family, a part of your life. I haven’t had a good day, either. One of my racehorses was fatally injured at Ayr.

        1. I haven’t had the race report yet, but he didn’t fall. He did finish (7th), so I assume it happened either just after the line or on the run in (adrenaline would keep him going until the race was over – I had that happen to a homebred on the flat).

          1. It seems it was a heart attack. Could have happened at any time – on the gallops at home, in his stable … He’d had a wind op because he didn’t finish his race off last time (when I saw him at Bangor and he finished second), so perhaps it was a dicky ticker not his wind all the time.

        1. It will be worse for his lass. Going home with a space in the lorry to face an empty stall is heartbreaking.

      4. Sorry about that, Conway. Race horses are some of the most beautiful animals I’ve seen. My brother in law has just bought into a new one.
        Where is your trainer based?

        1. As he finished, it was probably a catastrophic break after the line. That happened to one of the homebreds on the flat. He pulled up lame and that was it. These things happen, but he was a relatively young horse with a lot of potential. I’ll get a report shortly. I didn’t go up to Ayr to watch – just as well in the circumstances.

          1. I’ve just had the report. He seems to have had a heart attack. There will probably be a post mortem. At least it was quick.

    4. All I can say is I sympathise. Losing Wiggy was awful. To wake up and find that wet nose was dry, the usual rasping tongue to the face, those daft eyes.

      Even now if I mention his name, Mongo leaps up to look out the window, wondering when his Dad is coming back.

      1. I have had 4 dogs and a cat…I was not there when my ex had to put Henry to sleep but losing the others was awful. My dear Fred, a large Golden who was a total ham and goof, was the hardest for me. I still miss him dreadfully. It shows how caring we are in that our animals become a true part of our family.
        Give Mongo a hug from me.

        1. I can’t see how they can be anything but. While Beast (the cat) isn’t ours, we are feeding him/it? and he has slept indoors on occassion, but is soon off.

          The dogs though, even when Ozzie has to be reminded who is boss. Even when Mongo decides, half way on a walk, in the cold; to sit down and not move are a delight every day. The Warqueen is right. they make me a better person. They teach us all to enjoy the moment.

          1. And they love you unconditionally- no judgement ( unless dinner is late) and delight when they see you.

        2. There is something about Goldens, my daughter is on her second, the first one Chester, was a lovable goofball and the current one, Bentley, is the total ham and goofy with it, sheer delight to see the grandkids with either of them.

      1. I just wish that posters would proof-read before pressing the ‘Comment’ button or the ‘Post as…’ button

        1. It’s a depressing truth that the majority of folk commenting are american, and thick. They seem to struggle with basic grammar and spelling. Some just throw a picture up because writing a short, pithy comment is beyond them.

          1. Many Americans, and I have a lot of American friends, are not thick and are grammatically correct and spell well also.
            Edit-And it was I who had to edit for an sp. 😉

          4. Listen when they try to pronounce the letter T. They can’t manage it. Ask them what a router does. Usually they devolve this to ‘rowduh’.

        2. We see so much incorrect spelling on line that I have self-doubt and look at a word I have just typed and think is that actually right? Mind you my phone keyboard that I am typing this comment on has a mind of its own and requires constant correction. (Edited before posting).

          1. Well done, Rusty but I don’t rely upon a minuscule ‘phone keyboard.

            I prefer the full gamut of the laptop keyboard.

      2. Many kids born and living in UK now, especially those who B(l)AME) us Brits for everything, do not even know their own father, let alone their Grammar

  • Evening, all. Our LD MP says it will need “brave” MPs to tackle NHS reform. Not going to happen then, is it?

      1. ‘Twas conceived between Scylla and Charybdis:

        A Tory concept ‘implemented’ by labour government, ’twas ever condemned to mediocrity.

        On average, our NHS has achieved a world ranking of seventeenth.

        Socialists prefer ‘personal control’ to ‘personal care’.

        The party concepts are forever irreconcilable …

    3. All MPs are pathetic cowards with no interest in doing what needs to be done.

      The NHS is in a mess – and will remain a mess because for the Left it is a solid voter block of heavily unionised state employees, a whipping post to scare the public and thanks to idiocy is increasingly just another failed government department.

      The Right want it to work as a health care system, but the Left have made sure it doesn’t function that way and do everything they can to sabotage it.

    4. Re: “Is Anyone prepared to take ultimate responsibilityfor the health service?”

      I will, if they’ll let me. I know exactly what needs to be done.

  • It’s not what you know, it’s always who you know….

    “Former FTX boss Sam Bankman-Fried will face home detention while awaiting trial in the US on charges that he defrauded customers and investors of the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange.
    A US judge said the 30-year-old former billionaire could be released to his parents on a $250m bond.”…..

      1. Of course! Difficult to rerun the Guards were asleep and the security cameras weren’t working…..

    1. Night NotoNanny. If you’re looking for reading material, go for The StormLight Archive. It’s been a while since I re-read it and it was a bit emotional.

  • 369174+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Let the green tranny, poofter,political heretics kick Olly into touch and the remaining remnants of political decency may as well be cast aside in total
    as we embrace repress,replace, RESET with submissive open arms.

    The Civil War was a decisive factor in the evolution of our constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy, to the profound benefit of this country and much of the world. Cromwell’s statue must be kept, not only to mark his greatness, but also as a warning against the folly of republicans along with today’s intemperate prigs and zealots who are so keen to order our lives for us.

    • Comments are closed.