Wednesday 8 February: Overpaid managers have sapped the NHS of morale and expertise

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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580 thoughts on “Wednesday 8 February: Overpaid managers have sapped the NHS of morale and expertise”

  1. Good morrow, Gentlefolks & a wideawake Geoff. Here is today’s story
    Motivation

    A popular motivational speaker was entertaining his audience. He said, ‘The best years of my life were spent in the arms of a woman who wasn’t my wife!’ The audience was in silence and shock. The speaker added, ‘… And that woman was my mother!’ Laughter and applause.

    A week later, a top manager trained by the motivational speaker tried to crack this very effective joke at home. He was a bit tipsy after a drink, and he said loudly, ‘The greatest years of my life were spent in the arms of a woman who was not my wife!’

    His wife went red with shock and rage.

    Standing there for 20 seconds trying to recall the second half of the
    joke, the manager finally blurted out ‘… And I can’t remember who she was!’

    Moral of the story: Don’t copy if you can’t paste properly!

    1. ‘Morning, C1. This cartoon is saying much the same thing as Farage did yesterday evening: this department’s title is a complete oxymoron.

      (Furthermore the SoS appointed to run it is also a moron!)

      1. Nay lad – far better to flatten the self-important bullshitting puerile windbags such as DylanLeClair who want to grab all the limelight so that the real job of stifling CBDC can be addressed.

    2. Having been struck by the self-important vacuous crap of Dylan LeClair’s ignorant bollocks pronouncement about ‘first order derivatives of human living standards’ I looked him up on Wiki

      Here is something about his advertised background

      “Dylan LeClair is a 20 year old with a passion for Bitcoin and economics. Aside from his work with media operations at Bitcoin Magazine, Dylan operates a consulting business, 21st Paradigm, which aims to assist businesses and individuals to incorporate Bitcoin into their capital allocation and business strategy.”

      Wholly reminiscent of the fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried.

        2. The Climate Change Committee and everyone in government when it comes to the Eco-Brat’s utterances?

    3. Good morning BB2 and everyone.
      There once lived a man who was baptised with the name Richard Buckminster Fuller. He was a futurist. He was a prolific user and developer of graphs, which at some stage showed him that growth in the economy depended on (or was correlated with) growth in the energy supply. That is why the concept of Net Zero is disastrous for the individual.

      1. Buckminsterfullerene – an allotrope of carbon:
        The discoverers of the allotrope, Carbon 60, named the newfound molecule after Buckminster Fuller, who designed many geodesic dome structures that look similar to C60 and who had died in 1983, the year before discovery. This is slightly misleading, however, as Fuller’s geodesic domes are constructed only by further dividing hexagons or pentagons into triangles, which are then deformed by moving vertices radially outward to fit the surface of a sphere. Geometrically speaking, buckminsterfullerene is a naturally-occurring example of a Goldberg polyhedron. A common, shortened name for buckminsterfullerene is buckyballs.

        Just thought you might like to know that.

  6. Good morning all.
    Another chilly start today with -4½°C on the yard thermometer.
    Looks fairly clear outside with the moon setting through the trees opposite.

  7. Vladimir Putin is about to make shock gains. Richard Kemp. 8 February 2023.

    Until now, the narrative in the West has been that Ukraine is comfortably winning this war, albeit while facing heavy bombardments on its major cities. The reality is more complex. The latest estimates suggest that each side may have taken upwards of 120,000 casualties already – hardly indicative of a triumph for Ukraine. And there may be worse to come: the truth is that recent promises of new combat equipment for Ukraine – especially longer range missiles, tanks and other armoured vehicles – are unlikely to be fulfilled in time to have an impact in this battle if Putin launches his offensive on the timetable Kyiv predicts.

    With so many more men and resources at its disposal, Moscow will be able to sustain higher casualty rates. This is why Russia tends to do better in wars the longer they go on – it can bring more to bear over time. Even today, Putin does not fear high casualties: disproportionate numbers of his troops are recruited from distant provinces rather than cities such as Moscow and St Petersburg, where a stream of body bags could have some effect on what still remains rock solid support for him and his war.

    Oh dear! Unwelcome truths raising their ugly heads? Kemp, along with Tugendhat and Boris, has been one of the main cheerleaders and liars for this war. If he’s suddenly got religion things are going seriously awry!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/02/07/vladimir-putin-make-shock-gains/

    1. What a daft Synod. God isn’t a person; for want of a better pronoun, he is bigger than us.

        1. Mark 5: 9.
          “And he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many.”

  10. Tories will regret surrendering power to the ‘experts’

    You can’t take the politics out of politics – as the investigation into Dominic Raab surely demonstrates

    DAVID FROST • 2 February 2023 • 8:00pm

    I’m not here to defend Nadhim Zahawi. I’m here to look at what his brutal political execution last weekend tells us about how Sir Laurie Magnus carried out his duties as the Prime Minister’s new ethics adviser.

    The Ministerial Code and guidance say that Sir Laurie has a role in “advising” the Prime Minister about adherence to the code. It is the Prime Minister who “determines” whether a breach has occurred, and who may ask Sir Laurie for “confidential” advice on the appropriate sanction. It is crystal clear that the decision on whether a minister remains in office is for the Prime Minister.

    Sir Laurie’s January 29 letter to the Prime Minister pushes this to the limit. He doesn’t advise. He “considers” there has been a “serious failure to meet the standards set out in the Ministerial Code”. His final sentence concludes: “My overall judgment [is] that Mr Zahawi’s conduct as a minister has fallen below the high standards that, as Prime Minister, you rightly expect from those who serve in your government.”

    That doesn’t leave the Prime Minister a lot of choice. It isn’t advice. It’s Sir Laurie’s judgment – take it or leave it. And his parting words hardly allow any room for “confidential” advice about the “appropriate” sanction. Only one outcome is possible.

    Now, maybe this time round this suited the Prime Minister, who, not having acted decisively the first time round, was looking for a way to move Mr Zahawi out. But a precedent has been set. The Prime Minister effectively outsourced this decision. It wasn’t Rishi Sunak who “determined” whether the breach of standards had happened: it was Sir Laurie. It won’t be easy to roll this back even if the next case is much more ambiguous. Gradually, the Prime Minister’s right to determine the members of his own government, and defend them, is being eroded.

    Unfortunately this is part of a pattern – and not just with the current government. All sorts of decisions are outsourced to supposedly neutral experts. Regulating the City? Leave that to the regulators and keep the elected government out. Want to change fiscal policy? Only if the Office for Budget Responsibility says you can. Pay rises for nurses? Leave that to the pay review bodies. Or, most absurdly, do you think there is a problem with English football? Then bring in an independent regulator to tell them how to run things.

    This happens because too many people believe that independent figures do things better. Many people now seem to hold the Institute for Government’s world view, that all kinds of judgments are best made by an official caste of Platonic guardians, people who know best and intuitively understand the correct standards – a new establishment setting the tone just as the old one did.

    I’m sure readers can see the obvious problem with this. It’s that independent figures and bodies do not come down untouched from on high. They have their own views and those are generally the conventional wisdom of our society. Unfortunately, that conventional wisdom nowadays is highly collectivist and highly judgmental regarding “woke” values.

    So when our regulators take decisions, you will find all kinds of unexamined assumptions about the right distribution of income in society, how to improve social inclusion, or even just how best to live your life. When it’s a question of standards, it is a brave minister who will feel happy in letting the great and the good decide whether they were guilty of “inappropriate or discriminating behaviour” (paragraph 1.2 of the Ministerial Code) or had taken a decision “without discrimination or bias”.

    This isn’t just a theoretical question. There is, of course, another ongoing inquiry – the investigation by the barrister Adam Tolley into the bullying allegations against Dominic Raab.

    If this investigation was intended to take the heat out of the question, it has clearly failed. It has allowed any civil servant with any animus against the Justice Secretary to pile in to this secret process, prolonging it for who knows how long and creating a sense of “no smoke without fire”. Certainly the Prime Minister and the No 10 machine are not exactly rushing to defend Mr Raab.

    I don’t know whether Mr Raab is a bully, and neither do you. So a lot rests now on Mr Tolley’s ability to assess the evidence and be careful about value judgments that not everyone may share. The definitions applied by Civil Service HR may not be ones that others would endorse, and Mr Raab may want to defend himself accordingly. One person’s bullying is another’s determination to get the job done.

    And after all, government is serious. It isn’t a game or a play. The actions of officials who work in it affect many people’s lives and sometimes even the honour and reputation of the country. Personally, I think they should feel under pressure to do their jobs properly.

    The truth is that you can’t take the politics out of politics. Outsourcing decisions just allows others to shape them – and sometimes take them for you. The most successful governments are those which work out what the right action is and get on with it. That’s what we need to see more of.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/02/02/tories-will-regret-surrendering-power-experts-dominic-raab-nadhim/

    BTL:
    Margaret Lomas
    40 years of outsourcing or blaming decisions on the EU has left us with a generation of politicians incapable of independent thought.

    1. Good morning, all. Misty and frosty here.

      I’ve just finished reading the Path to Leadership written by Field Marshal Montgomery. The author ranges over military, political, civil service and business leaders: IMO, on the political front none of the ‘leaders’ of recent times come close to meeting the FM’s criteria for true leadership. He also had doubts about the political class back in 1961.
      The real surprise for me was Montgomery’s opinion of De Gaulle whom he thought to be a great man. Of course, he knew De Gaulle well both in wartime and peace. The FM’s opinion re De Gaulle that stood out for me was that the latter worked for France and not for himself: he had placed himself in to the ‘wilderness’ for 12 years until his time came.
      How we all must wish that the current crop of politicians posing as ‘leaders’ would work for the UK and not the globalist oligarchy that they so clearly support.

    2. Unfortunately this is part of a pattern – and not just with the current government. All sorts of decisions are outsourced to supposedly neutral experts – viz the Covid lockdowns and all that crap. Government was only taking expert advise by people who had many axes to grind and many unexamined skeletons in cupboards – yes, you shitforbrains, Ferguson. I’m looking at you.

      1. And as I have said before, Paul, the Government created SAGE to take the blame if things went wrong. This backfired when SAGE saw how they would be forced to take the blame for any decisions they made, so they made sure that they played it safe with endless lockdowns and instructions to wear face-masks.

    3. It is clear that large sections of the civil service will always act against any Tory Government. Especially in the case of illegal immigration, they will slow-walk any new proposals, leak things to the press etc.

      Now we are giving them another weapon – accuse their Minister of bullying; even if they do not depose the Minister in question, he cannot make any real changes whilst ‘under investigation’, once the investigation is completed he is forever weakened. Very few, if any, minister will risk ‘upsetting the snival servants.

    4. As I read Frosty’s article, I halted at the word ‘judgment’. My Oxford dictionary is elsewhere, but the web suggests that ‘judgement’ is for everyday usage, and that the spelling ‘judgment’ is reserved for legal matters.

    1. Where is the morality in saying that the 3rd, 4th or 5th child in a family is less important than the 1st or 2nd child?

      There isn’t! We shouldn’t be paying for any of them!

    1. Millions of jobs – both in the pubic and private sector – depend upon mouthing this b’stard version English.

  14. Moscow may target Kharkiv or Zaporizhzhia in new offensive, says Kyiv. 8 February 2023.

    Ukraine national security chief Oleksiy Danilov said in an interview with Reuters on Tuesday that the Kremlin is expected to target the north-eastern Kharkiv or southern Zaporizhzhia regions in a new thrust.

    Russians in full retreat! Ah! Those were the days!

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2023/feb/08/russia-ukraine-war-live-updates-russian-offensive-kharkiv-or-zaporizhzhia-says-kyiv-joe-biden-to-stand-with-ukraine?filterKeyEvents=false&page=with:block-63e32f888f0827de5748f8a8#block-63e32f888f0827de5748f8a8

  16. Good moaning all,

    The clear, frosty starts continue at McPhee Towers, -3℃ today. Windmills will be useless again but the sunlight reflectors might do a little bit for a few hours.

    The latest idiocy from our joke of a government is something called, oxymoronically, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero. Where does one begin with this?

    First, you can’t have energy security if any part of our energy supply relies on imports. If these clowns are still going to minimise drilling for oil and gas in the North Sea, stop fracking, not re-start coal mining and fail to get Rolls Royce mini reactors built and integrated we will never have energy security.

    Second, Net Zero, as we all now know (except our politicians and civil serpents) this is unachievable without taking us right back to a pre-industrial economy.

    I have no more words to describe these fools.

  17. ‘Morning, Peeps. Another heavy frost here…

    SIR – Rishi Sunak’s creation of several new government departments, with more civil servants and bureaucracy, bewilders me. Since when has the creation of a government department generated innovation? It shocks me that any Conservative could think this will aid growth in this great country.

    Conservatives need to have faith in business people and innovators and give them freedom to create wealth. They should do this by providing a low-tax environment in which the frontiers of the state are rolled back, not extended even further.

    This latest gimmick sadly leads me to one conclusion: the Conservatives are now more Left-wing than Labour.

    Daniel L Smy
    Weymouth, Dorset

    I probably wasn’t alone in waiting for the reporter or presenter to tell me that other departments had been closed, only to realise pretty quickly that big government has just got even bigger, and I am the mug helping to pay for it all. The Conservative death wish trundles on.

    1. Daniel Smy has always been a passionate Tory supporter, I remember him when he was a very young man , sadly here the local Tory base is diminishing , and the next election will create tears before bedtime .

      2. With the TPINO behaving as it does, no wonder the Tory base is diminishing. Where’s the Tory policy and actions? I haven’t seen any for a long time now, not since the days of Margaret and Norman Tebbit.

  19. Getting ready to head down to t’Lads and thence to London to pick up another motorbike he’s bought.
    Stopping at the Prince Regent at Woodford Bridge for the night and going to the RFH tonight for Prokofiev and Scriabin.

    Logging off now so I don’t get distracted! TTFN all.

    1. Part of my old stomping ground. The railway bridge to Waterloo also.
      So many concerts at the RFH and a wonderful harpsichord recital in Queen Elizabeth Hall.

    2. Well, you won’t read this until you get back, BoB. But I must ask this: why does t’Lad need two motorbikes? Is he intending to crash one of them and have the other as a standby? Lol.
      PS – I hope you enjoyed the concert at the Royal Festival Hall.

        1. You need to introduce him to 14 RAF motorcyclists, then, BoB. 5 of them could ride the 5 motorbikes, with another four standing on their shoulders, 3 on their shoulders, 2 on theirs and then ‘tLad on the top. It would make a great triangular formation as they rode down the motorway. Lol.

  20. SIR – Good dress adds to the sense of occasion.

    My grandmother was standing on a street corner in Gloucester in 1909. She was a girl of 15. A gentleman’s carriage passed by. The gentleman raised his top hat politely at the pretty girl. It was King Edward VII, on his way to Cheltenham races.

    His old-fashioned good manners would have been out of place today.

    Isabel Wood
    Kelbrook, Lancashire

    Ms Wood, your 15 year-old grandmother had a narrow escape: this was none other than Dirty Bertie – or Edward the Caressor if you prefer – thanks to his insatiable sexual appetite!

    1. Droit de Seigneur, perhaps?
      All the same, it’s rather a charming letter, echoes of a bygone age.

  22. Good morning Nottlers, grey and breezy out, around 7°C. It’s forecast to get breezier around noon and wetter later on. Thankfully, I’ll have done my weekly shop by then.

      1. 370860+ up ticks,

        Morning FA,

        That is the overall aim, yes, and they are achieving it via the input of fools via the polling booths.

        The clearly seen political piss taking is they are having the fools finance their
        own oncoming DOOM.

  24. Morning, all Y’all!
    Getting warmer – for the first time in ages, I have taken my jumper off indoors! Yaay! Nearly summer!

        1. Nor I. Bloody freezing here and frost. Just taken 15 mins to get my husband into the cab but, again, a very nice and helpful driver.
          Will go down this afternoon and stay until they release him. I really do think this drain will make his recovery re leg go much better.
          Little moan; the recycling bin has just been emptied and they always put it back on the wrong side. I like it beside the door- much easier for hurling the empties in;-)
          Going to be a day filled with jollity- huh!

          1. Morning, Ann.
            I don’t know which is more aggravating; the petty inconveniences themselves, or being pathetic enough to be annoyed by them.

          2. Exactly! I do find that some things annoy me now more than ever before. Age? However, the bin men have never been on strike- they worked all through the lockdowns etc so my grumble is a minor one.

    2. Ayup, How do and Na’ then.

      I’ve just looked out of t’window and … yep … there is still weather out there. In fact I’ve yet to discover a day sans weather. 👍🏻

    3. Morning Paul, lucky you – blowing a hooley up here, trees down on access roads. Left garage door open last night so garage full of leaves now

  25. Good Moaning.
    Foggy, but the sun’s breaking through.
    Must be man-made climate change.
    Throw another peasant taxpayer under HS2’s wheels to mollify Gaia.

  26. 370860+ up ticks,

    May one ask,will monies for the Ukrainian war effort be diverted to Turkish / Syria earthquake aid, could not the hotel costs for the morally illegal immigrants be better spent on
    temporary accommodation within the disaster hit country ?

    One this occasion what is of more importance

    TANKS or tents ?

    Killing or kids ?

    1. Parts of NYC are super, well maintained and Central Park is lovely. Other parts are not so good, rather like tenements. And, from what I have read and heard, parts of it are no go areas if you want to be safe. Same with any big city, I guess.

  28. Good morning Ladies & Gentlemen.

    Joining the Dots

    There is enough misery in the World (political ineptitude, corruption, wars & natural disasters) so I was a tad reluctant to post this report on Global Food Crisis Scenario Planning which took place in 2015:
    https://www.worldwildlife.org/magazine/issues/spring-2016/articles/how-a-new-game-helped-us-understand-the-future-of-food

    The conclusions can be read in full here:
    https://files.worldwildlife.org/wwfcmsprod/files/Publication/file/676trii9ow_food_chain_reaction_findings.pdf?_ga=2.135024242.2089470124.1675838397-120316429.1675838396

    On reflection I can see how the concerns identified tie in the fear of a ‘Climate Crisis’, their desire to reduce CO2, to rush headlong for ‘Net Zero’, and the promotion of insect based foodstuffs. I can also see why very wealthy individuals are keen to amass farmland.

    Oh, is the water sweet and cool,
    Gentle and brown, above the pool?
    And laughs the immortal river still
    Under the mill, under the mill?
    Say, is there Beauty yet to find?
    And Certainty? and Quiet kind?
    Deep meadows yet, for to forget
    The lies, and truths, and pain? . . . oh! yet
    Stands the Church clock at ten to three?
    And is there honey still for tea?

    Rupert Brooke

  29. Good morning, chums. I do hope you enjoyed a good night’s sleep – I certainly did!

  30. Yo all

    Time to kill off violent idioms, says author

    Why do people want to keep on impoverishing the English language and have us talking in nonsensical euphemisms?

    A self hand operated sexual mechanic, come to mind

  31. Morning all 😉 😊
    Today reminds me of one of the bedtime stories we use to read our sons when they were little.
    “From her little cottage window Mrs Downey Duck looked out, said what a frosty Morning, what a lot of ice about”!.

  32. Sixty years after Beeching’s axe fell, the railways are dying all over again
    Renationalisation isn’t the answer to a massive fall in revenue. We have to decide if rail is still worth saving.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/02/07/sixty-years-beechings-axe-fell-railways-dying/

    Moh and I love armchair travelling and we really enjoy watching the Michael Portillo train journeys on the continent , and marvel at how efficient, cheap , clean and comfortable many of the train routes are .

    I have had some horrible train trips here in the Uk, cramped noisy, oppressive .. and what a complicated way to buy tickets , and no station masters , ticket offices or clean toilets .

    1. I see in today’s Telegaffe that the plan now is for HS2 to have fewer trains running on the line, and for them to go more slowly! Remind me of the rationale for this appallingly expensive white heffalump.

    2. Some of the problems with our overcrowded trains TB are caused by the very old and original bridge’s and tunnels. Continental trains are often double decked and more airy.
      Ours are all single decked to fit under the ancient ageing infrastructure.
      But the old and most obvious story is, the country is vastly over crowded. And disorganised.

    3. I use to catch the 7:03 at St Albans into London, change to underground to Tower Bridge.
      I can’t ever remember getting a seat.
      Although of course that is what I had paid for.

      1. 1965- 1972 8.03 up to London Bridge to go to school. Packed in like sardines, pinched on the bum by sleazy businessmen and never once got a seat. Such fun!

        1. Decades ago in the early 1980’s , I took my sons and a couple of their friends to London from ‘ere in Darzet by train .

          We did the tube thing and usual touristy things .

          I hate the tube , crowds and being squashed in .. there we were hanging onto the straps as the tube lurched and squealed along the tracks and tunnels .. hideous … the boys noticed a chap pressed into my back, I was wary off pickpockets etc, but son’s friend noticed the chap behind me doing funny things with his hand … I was wearing a nice Barbour jacket, but I felt pressure against me , and I couldn’t move apart from jabbing him with my elbow..

          What a pervert .

      2. A boring legal pedant writes: There is the fallacy. Your ticket gave you the right to TRAVEL – no part of the contract between you and BR mentioned a seat…..

        1. Yes I know that, but it was a bit annoying at the time Bill.
          I’m sure it has happened to all of us.
          I use to go south on the way home to Blackfriers. It made sure I had a seat after spend most of the day on my feet.

      3. When I first started work in the West End I was living in Bromley and got very used to having to stand on the trains to and from Victoria. In the evenings going home I’d hang on to the strap above and fall asleep like that before the train crossed the river to Brixton. I always woke up at Bromley South.

      4. Yet in Sweden, every journey and train was treated like an air-liner. You bought the ticket AND a numbered seat. If the train was full, then no more tickets sold – simple and effective.

        1. Not on the daily commute Tom. One of our sons and our daughter in-law still have to go to head office in London occasionally they hate it.

    4. What I always find odd is that British trains are expensive, inefficient, cramped and slow. In Switzerland trains are , well, not.

      Yet the Swiss trains are nationalised – yes, under a spun off company which handles every element of the network. This company isn’t bloated, wasteful and muddled.

      Is it because we built ours first? Thus are rails are narrower? That the ideal of competition has created a complete farce of knotted mess over the franchise? The fundamental problem is the state’s desperate need to meddle, regardless. Only when it is told how useless it is and kicked away from practically everything will this country improve.

      1. We are not alone in ineptitude. Yer Spanish have invested a quarter of a BILLION euros to build new trains ….and, after signing the deal, they discovered that the planned rolling stock will be too large for the many tunnels they will go through…

        1. France‘s national railway operator SNCF has ordered 2,000 new trains that are too large for many of the stations they are due to serve.

          The train operator has admitted failing to verify measurements it was given by the rail operator before ordering its new rolling stock.

          The costly mistake has sparked an urgent €50m operation to modify 1,300 platforms on the regional network. In the worst cases it has discovered two trains can no longer pass each other on adjacent lines.

    5. From the age of 8 at the end of term unaccompanied I had to take the train from Bath Spa to Bristol Temple Meads to Exeter to Plymouth and thence to either St Austell or Truro depending on whether my parents had time to collect me from the station. If they could not I had to take the branch line down to Falmouth from Truro and then walk from the station about a mile to the Prince of Wales Pier whence I took the ferry to St Mawes.

      At the time I used to find train journeys incredibly boring but in the last few years I have taken the Eurostar a couple of times and quite enjoyed the journeys.

    2. Pre covid our dog walking group volunteered to take some of the rescue dogs out with us – we’re all experienced owners and there’s a range of dogs from the giant breeds down to a pointless Bischon Frise.

  34. Ukrainian president Zelenskiy visits UK for first time on Wednesday since Russian invasion. 8 February 2023.

    Volodymyr Zelenskiy arrives in the UK today on his first visit since Russia’s invasion to address parliament and meet with prime minister Rishi Sunak and Ukrainian troops being trained by British armed forces.

    My mother used to hide under the stairs when the rent man was due.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2023/feb/08/russia-ukraine-war-live-updates-russian-offensive-kharkiv-or-zaporizhzhia-says-kyiv-joe-biden-to-stand-with-ukraine?filterKeyEvents=false&page=with:block-63e35c568f08f78448b03ce2#block-63e35c568f08f78448b03ce2

      1. He’s moving in with Mr & Mrs Bore-us.
        But why is he coming in the first place. Agitation propaganda they use to call it. We owe him nothing.

      2. He’s coming to demand more money. He needs to establish how hard he can squeeze before the UK is totally bankrupt and has no more to give..

    3. The bbc news seems to be wetting their pants over his arrival. They have been filming the aircraft at Stansted for half an hour.
      And getting excited about him having a meeting with king Charles.
      Sounds like a scrounging feat.
      I’m surprised he didn’t take the opportunity to arrive in a boat at Dover.
      It’s a huge transport aircraft, perhaps he’s taking some of our surplus male hotel occupants home with him.

      2. Perhaps the aircraft contains everything he would need to live comfortably should there be a coup whilst he’s on his begging trip. A tote bag with wings?

  35. Only a few years ago the Government placed seven new regional managers into the NHS system. A guess either way would be either to fix it, or slowly reduce the available services to drive patients towards now rapidly growing private outlets.
    At the time I believe they were paid around 250 thousand pounds per year each. Since then its been pretty obvious that the NHS has been in decline. During my two battle to get something positive carried out with my long term ailments. Quite a few professional people have agreed with my observations. Especially the administration. All of course blamed on covid.
    I can’t remember who was responsible for these sly backhanded manoeuvres, was it Gove ? They all seem to move around so much and never take responsibility for their actions.
    It’s just another old established method of shifting the blame for their continuous effing mistakes.

    1. Covid has provided the NHS with the ideal excuse. It simply is not fit for purpose. It couldn’t order PPE quickly enough, it didn’t properly advise on preventative measures, it was exposed as an inefficient, lumbering behemoth that cost a fortune and returned very little value.

      Now, despite having a plunge in workload, it suddenly cannot cope.

      1. And the amount of people who had to be rushed to A&E because of complications after being jabbed was unprecedented. And still it goes on.

        1. Some one I know lost his father over 2 weeks ago .. Pneumonia .. .

          The poor man will be cremated in 2 weeks .

          I have heard there were 20% more deaths this January than there were the same time last year..

          He will be cremated in Oxfordshire .. The poor chap lived in Tilbury. The family don’t have a choice.

          1. Terrible.
            During the ‘pandemic’ I had three old friends die, it was never discussed or discovered what they actually died of. But they all hadong term underlying health issues. One of the friends’ wife died shortly after he did.
            A local friend usualy fit as a fiddle, also had a massive heart attack, followed by a fatal stroke. My elder brother in law has spent weeks in hospital with cardiology problems. Both he and my sister have had every jab and booster available.

          2. It is a great dissapointment to me how many people just did as they were told insted of checking for themselves. So many people will just not take resposibilty for themselves and believe what the government tells them. When it all started I took time to investigate the issues and smelt a rat. It was not dissicult and sadly have been proved more that correct. Still so few appear bothered about it all.

          3. I smelt that same rat as soon as I read the “vaccines” were based on an mRNA platform. I have read a bit about genetics and evolution and I most certainly didn’t want anyone meddling with my unique genetic set-up. Further, the Astra-Zeneca was being touted as a more traditional vaccine. Again, doing a bit of research exposed that its objective was the same as the mRNA jabs, it worked by organising cells to generate the virus’s pathogen. The difference being the delivery system.
            So, a BIG NO from chez Korky.

          5. My elder sister and B i L wont have a word d said against the covid jabs they done accept his hospitalisation was due to the boosters and further jabs. They are in the 80s and well educated and quite ‘well to-do’.

          7. It was the deceit of ‘died from’ covid, as opposed to died with covid. All to push the statistics up.

  36. 🎵 Sisters are doing it for themselves…🎵

    When the Daily Mail ran an investigation last month into the chaotic governance

    of Sistah Space, the charity founded by Ngozi Fulani, the woman who

    accused Prince William’s godmother Lady Susan Hussey of racial ‘abuse’

    at a Buckingham Palace reception, a spokesman insisted its affairs were

    now in order.

    The charity said: ‘In our March 2021 trustee report, we were open and

    transparent about the staffing problems we have faced since the start of

    the pandemic, which led to some issues with the reporting of our

    accounts, but we have since engaged an independent accounting firm with

    the aim that won’t happen again.’

    So I am surprised to learn that Sistah Space is late filing its latest

    accounts. ‘Charity reporting is overdue by seven days,’ confirms the

    Charity Commission.

    No one at Sistah Space was available for comment. Probably preparing for their next palace reception . . .

    2. A woman who goes miked up to a Royal bash obviously wanted to cause trouble. As for late filing – where’s the fine?

      Frankly it stinks. I think this sort of person has seen an easy way to scam the tax payer of their money from a lazy government and is doing so.

    3. “...we were open and transparent about the staffing problems...”

      The phrase is normally, “open and honest”. But here there is no hint of honesty – it becomes transparent that there is no shred of honesty about this organisation, or its founder, particularly after her ‘racist’ smears of Lady Hussey, when she, Ngozi Fulani, is also dishonest about her original background.

      There is something rotten in the State of Denmark Sister Spare.

  37. Morning all,
    Something unexpected happened yesterday when I hooked up the ‘Spitfire’ to the ‘Trolley Acc.’:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0d6613a292e253bded6cad17cbfdc36d93de23cc7c140ed1ab444e0339c60c53.jpg

    A light on the Hyundai badge lit up now and again to signify that this Kona variant of the Spitfire was now charging its auxiliary battery from the incoming 240 volt a/c supply.

    This of course would give the Spit a boost charge to its auxiliary battery which would be visible on the instrument panel

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1fa745d443a035c0ca3246abf2aae452805fb426056abb7ae498e59355292776.jpg

    Early EVs like the Leaf are starting to have trouble with their auxiliary batteries and this video explains why Leafs are failing to start because of dead batteries:

    https://youtu.be/fq57zOKaZeA

      2. I certainly could do that.

        Thankfully I have a record and photos of what I did in disqus comments so I can retrace every step to verify that I was taking thr most logical approach to analysing this machine’s complex behaviour.

        More impotantly I should write a manual on how to use it for a particular purpose right from the start.

          1. Yes you are right.

            We already had two cars – MOH’s is a petrol, mine was a diesel..
            MOH said we didnn’t need two cars and told me to get rid of the diesel because its DPF was full.

            I decided after seeing this video that I would like to have some fun.
            Even if didn’t work as a mobility scooter, which now have a range of 50 miles, I could have it as a project as this reviewer points out in her summary:

            https://youtu.be/emcZlJ45oVE

  38. Tthe impact of the Covid and Wokism on the Mental Health of (our) children

    Many of us just lived through WWII and the ensuing years.
    Parents were Mum & Dad, NOT Mum & Mum or Dad & Dad.
    There were many single-paent families though, Dad (predominently) not returning from overseas duity, not multi dad’s with One Mum

    Our Advantages:

    No Mobile Phones
    No computers
    Coal fires
    Boys could be boys, girls could be girls
    We had a family life and took that value forward
    No 24/7 indoctination by MSM
    Food was (initially) rationed.
    No high rise ghettos
    Christianity was our Religion
    No mass unwanted immigration
    Everyone spoke English

    Get the plot

    1. The mobile telephone and computer have been the greatest inventions mankind could manage. Portable communications? Instantaneous comms with people around the world? I’ve an uncle in Australia that I regularly speak to now – I’d only know him as ‘Joe’ before.

      Heck, you guys: none of us would be here if we didn’t have computers and networks. The rest I rather agree with, but not sure about coal. Gas central heating is a wonder that we need more of.

      1. If you find any child (dare not say Lad or Lass) in UK over the age of 5, who does not have a mobile phone, glued to their ear, I willbe surprised

        1. Junior has one, but he doesn’t live on it. As it is, the only people who ca call him on it – and the only people he can call – are us and his gran.

          He has friends on whatsapp, but we talk to him about that and say if you’re uncomfortable, put it down.

    2. The powerful sulphur stench of grossly over-boiled cabbage served up as ‘food’.
      Rusty cars dropping to pieces and failing to start in damp weather.
      Short trousers in the middle of winter.

  39. It’s been advertised that Fawlty Towers is making a comeback. Has Basil been employed to sort out the hotels where the illegals are living it up at taxpayers expense. ?

    2. Basil got well rinsed in his last divorce, so he needs to take in some washing in his old age. Sad.

    3. Good grief, can you imagine it in this Hard Left nutcase world? The permoffended would faint dead away at a waiter being slapped about and shouted at women being groped? A major in the army? A white major?

      Mr Cleese, please don’t. You deserve better than to be pilloried by the demented ravings of insane, spiteful adult children.

    1. Unfortunately, I could not understand what the lady was saying. Was it in English? The sub-titles didn’t help!!

      1. You must have got the gist, Bill, that her father was killed in hospital with remdesivir but blamed this woman and her mother for not being jabbed.

          5. I second your taste in beer, Bill. I’ve just taken delivery of 10 litres of Affligem blonde, in order to charge my beer machine.

        2. Remdesivir causes the lungs to fill with fluid, doesn’t it? Then put the patient on a venitlator and it’s certain death. US hospitals were paid for each corpse they delivered.

      2. It’s perfectly audible, but you have to turn the volume down lest the raspish voice be too much. She would do better being British and not getting hysterical.

    1. He should know, when he was a member of when his member was in the ‘Egg lady’ he never once thought of pulling out prematurely.

  42. MPs deserve £162,000 package and a medal when they lose elections, committee suggests
    Report by cross-party group points to more generous German system as a potential model for UK Parliament
    Amy Gibbons: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/02/08/mps-deserve-162000-package-medal-when-lose-elections-committee/

    BTL Warfarin and a silk scarf from Mr Percival Wrattstrangler

    What do people who run their own small businesses deserve when the Covid rules imposed by the politicians have wrecked their incomes and destroyed their capital investment? They received no furlough, they received no other benefits, they cannot go on strike.

    Maybe they should get a tax holiday for two years to enable them to get back on their feet? Trouble is that the Conservatives no longer understand business which is why the country is in such a dire mess after 12 years of Conservative government.

    But the politicians do not understand that if all businesses go broke there will be no more tax income.

    1. The political class do not care. As far as they’re concerned every penny we earn is theirs, and they permit us to keep a small amount of it.

      The whole lot need to be chucked in stocks and kicked repeatedly.

    2. Well they cannot all get a nice sinecure in the Lords can they. Although I would have thought that there were enough NGO directorships available.

      Not as good as Canadian governor General. They get about $150,000 a year pension plus expenses.

    3. You know, we could adopt the Swiss system. Most MPs there are not MPs full time because the public instruct them in how to vote.

      That stops politician becoming a career choice, it prevents them from picking up cushy after office jobs in exchange for abusive legislation while in office.

      We could almost call this democracy. Might be an idea to try it.

  43. 370860+ up ticks,

    Yes it has a touch of farage about it

    Gerard Batten,·
    17h
    Katie Hopkins talking about GB News after Mark Steyn forced to quit. She says its a form of ‘performance art’. Only Mark & Neil Oliver were worth watching.

    I said when it started out under Andrew Neil that it would just be a sop for those who have deserted watching the MSM. That it would be a controlled safety valve.

    Katie says most of the presenters are ‘controlled’. I totally agree.

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sNY3…more
    Katie Hopkins: The truth about GB News — I have been keeping this to myself…until now.

    https://gettr.com/post/p27mgy41908

  44. 370860+ up ticks,

    Yes it has a touch of farage about it

    Gerard Batten,·
    17h
    Katie Hopkins talking about GB News after Mark Steyn forced to quit. She says its a form of ‘performance art’. Only Mark & Neil Oliver were worth watching.

    I said when it started out under Andrew Neil that it would just be a sop for those who have deserted watching the MSM. That it would be a controlled safety valve.

    Katie says most of the presenters are ‘controlled’. I totally agree.

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sNY3…more
    Katie Hopkins: The truth about GB News — I have been keeping this to myself…until now.

    https://gettr.com/post/p27mgy41908

  45. I have just sent this email to each of GB News’s evening presenters. The more people who send such messages the better in my opinion.

    Now that Mark Steyn has gone, will it be you who picks up the baton and continues to bring Pakistani rape gangs and those damaged by the Covid vaccines to the attention of those who watch or listen to GB News?

    2. My input to them:

      Since Mark Steyn has highlighted and refused to sign his new contract, it seems that GB News is now in thrall to Ofcom.

      Oh well, that’s another news channel I won’t be watching.
      Regards

  48. Afternoon all. First post, there’s another coming on a totally different subject.

    I was, like most people I suspect, disappointed to learn that Mark Steyn has left GBNews. I have actually been watching GBN much less since he has been absent. Now, all I watch is Neil Oliver although I was intending to return to watching more of the station with the return of Steyn. But now the news comes that GBNews is just another MSM lackey diligently promoting the facade that it is a real alternative to the rest of the MSM. Here is the full story about what GBNews is up to, what a disappointment!

    Katie Hopkins: The truth about GB News — I have been keeping this to myself…until now.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNY3z_ZpWHI

  49. Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit is a major coup for Brexit Britain. 8 February 2023.

    In Brussels, officials have been boasting that the Ukrainian president would, of course, choose the EU for his second overseas
    visit after the US.

    It is, after all, an economic superpower that was ready one day to welcome Ukraine into the fold of its 477 million-strong trading bloc.

    Instead, Mr Zelensky picked the UK and Rishi Sunak.

    He chose the UK because it’s as far from the Russian Army as you can get without jumping into the Atlantic!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/02/08/volodymyr-zelensky-visit-britain-ukraine-brexit-europe/

        1. The West could send a thousand tanks it is not going to make a difference. For all this equipment being thrown at the Ukrainians they don’t have the people who know how to use them. It is all for show to fool Westerners into thinking that we are doing something meaningful for Ukraine.

          1. It would be cheaper to send inflatable tanks – all they would need to use is an air pump to blow them up and then the Russians could waste an awful lot of ordnance in blowing them up again!

          2. Sending arms to the Ukes will increase the death toll but have zero impact on the outcome.

      2. The MSM have gone silent about the fighting at the front so I guess things are not going well for Zelensky, which explains the sudden unnanounced visit

      3. The MSM have gone silent about the fighting at the front so I guess things are not going well for Zelensky, which explains the sudden unnanounced visit

      4. The MSM have gone silent about the fighting at the front so I guess things are not going well for Zelensky, which explains the sudden unnanounced visit

        1. As I have said before Johnny this is a civil war. The equivalent of the UK fighting Yorkshire. It can’t, if you know the history, even be elevated to the status of a fight between England and Scotland. The Ukrainians after their appalling treatment of Russian speaking Ukrainians while they pretend to speak a language rather than a Russian dialect do not deserve to win.

    3. “He chose the UK because it’s as far from the Russian Army as you can get without jumping into the Atlantic!.”

      His geography must be crap – try Ireland.

      Or is this more errors by the DT Junior Editors?

      1. Very Churchillian – Boris’s an idiot

        Boris Johnson urges UK to offer ALL its fighter jets and tanks to Ukraine: Ex-PM says the ‘best use’ for military kit is battling Russia after Zelensky issues plea in emotional speech to MPs and peers – but No10 warns training pilots could take YEARS

        https://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/index.html

  50. Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit is a major coup for Brexit Britain. 8 February 2023.

    In Brussels, officials have been boasting that the Ukrainian president would, of course, choose the EU for his second overseas
    visit after the US.

    It is, after all, an economic superpower that was ready one day to welcome Ukraine into the fold of its 477 million-strong trading bloc.

    Instead, Mr Zelensky picked the UK and Rishi Sunak.

    He chose the UK because it’s as far from the Russian Army as you can get without jumping into the Atlantic!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/02/08/volodymyr-zelensky-visit-britain-ukraine-brexit-europe/

  51. For reasons I have explained before, Tibet is a particular concern of mine due to my brother and his long involvement with Tibet. Here is an update on the ongoing genocide being committed there by the Communist Chinese. Some may not be aware that as far back as the 1970’s the Communists were convicted at the International Court at the Hague for carrying out a systematic genocide of the Tibetan people. This is just the latest phase in their despicable efforts.

    Gravitas: 1 Million Tibetan children separated from their families
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4zGhnkNPFU

  52. Digital currency paper

    Link to the currency paper above. If you read it, its horrifically Orwellian. public private partnership – just control by any other word. Restrictions on how much can be used, by whom.

    It is just a system of control – by the state to easily take whatever it wants without permission or consent. Maybe i am cynical, but the aims could easily be achieved through changing existing legislation. This is simple theft of private property, wealth and privacy.

    1. The Government already has powers to sequester one assets but this is a way stopping big money moving about outside its control thus keeping the BoE relevant in this digital age.

      1. Once started it won’t stop HMG or others deciding where you can spend your money and how much. The nudge unit will be expanded exponentially.

        1. Yes. I can see this tying in to heating – you’ve used too much gas this month, you can’t have any more, or you’re eating too much meat, you’ll not be allowed to spend any more.

          The treachery, deceit and sheer malice of the state is endless.

    2. “ As part of the wider landscape of money and payments it would sit alongside, not replace, cash – a digital counterpart to familiar, trusted banknotes and coins, subject to rigorous standards of privacy and data protection “.

      Another oxymoronic statement.

      1. At least, I would imagine, Neil has money to survive if he is ostracised like Tommy Robinson. But I have noticed TR popping up on You Tube lately, much to my surprise. I saw a video a week or so ago, since then, there have been more.

    2. Anything at odds with the MSM’s (and in particular, The Guardian’s) perception of “conspiracy theories” will be attacked by them without mercy … and certainly without proper, thorough and impartial investigation.

  54. Just had a power cut thanks to the gales, so lit the woodburner, made some coffee with gas hob and got the generator out and plugged in – just about to fire it up and the effin electricity came on again. I’ll leave it plugged in ready and leave resetting the clocks until the gale goes

    1. My EV may be of little use on the road because of its likelihood of needing a recovery truck but at least I know how to put it into UTILITY (also known as CAMPING) mode and then I have 64kW of power available as12 volts DC at up to 20 amps.

      1. Does that mode give your motor a limp steering wheel and the voice command end each sentence with love/ducky/ oooh errr ?

        1. Yes, and just after setting up CAMPING mode and exiting EV it says:
          “Now shut that door!”

    2. That’s why we switched to an automatic backup. Five seconds after power went out ou the generator would kick in and bring things back to normal. Apart from the clocks that is, they still had to be reset.

      Helpful at Christmas when roads were impassable and power wax out for over a day.

      1. My gennie is a pull start so I don’t have that option, I also have to isolate from the mains and turn off the solar panels.

  55. Basil Fawlty and the new ‘Fawlty Powers”

    Don’t mention

    The EU
    The WEF
    Adverse comments about Net Zero
    That Males have Willies
    That Women have ….. (choose medical or slang)
    It is not a sin to be White
    It is still legal to have children and the parents stay toogether
    etc

    2. Staff and clients will be black apart from the occasional white male who will be the butt of all jokes.

  56. I see the Great Hero was welcomed at Stansted by Fishi – who embraced him, No tongues…but almost.

    The corrupt millionaire is to address both Houses of Parliament – and then have a chat with the woke, joke “king”. I wonder what he’ll find in common – apart from a shared interest in corruption.

    The Grimes is all in favour of everything the Ukes want – including all BTL comments. If you even hint BTL that there could be, er, another view – you are denounced as a “friend of Putin”, “Kremlin troll” etc etc.

    What a strange world we live in…..

    2. It’s now disappeared down the memory hole but I recall Robert Mugabe being invited to address the HoC, if not both houses?

        2. Not exactly feted by EIIR and co. HM was merely doing what the government wanted.
          Apparently anything of value that wasn’t nailed down was removed from the palaces that the Evil Pair were visiting.

    4. The corrupt millionaire is to address both Houses of Parliament –

      Surely Sunhat only does HoC

    5. I was denounced on Twitter as a ‘Stooge of Russia’ and ‘put on a list’! – whatever that means.

      1. Zelensky has a ‘kill list’ which includes children. It comprises images of dissenters gleaned from social media. Those killed by Zelensky’s mafia are featured with a diagonal red line across their image.

  58. ‘Strong indications’ Putin approved supply of missile that downed MH17 flight. 8 February 2023.

    “There are strong indications that the Russian president decided on supplying the Buk TELAR to the DPR (Donetsk People’s Republic) separatists,” the joint investigation team of six countries probing the crash said on Wednesday.

    Of course he did along with the Whitechapel Murders and sinking the Titanic!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/02/08/putin-missile-mh17-flight-ukraine-war-approved/

    1. Strong indications, Sources say, Unconfirmed reports say………oh, you mean gossip ! I don’t pay heed to that rubbish.

  59. I have just received a parcel from Saville Row. A beautiful Lambswool jumper in mustard yellow. Matches my eyes.

    An early birthday present from a mystery Nottler.

          2. If you do get in touch please give her my very best wishes, she knows me indirectly outside Nottle.

  60. Ukraine-Russia war latest: ‘Give us planes,’ Zelensky tells Parliament. 8 February 2023.

    “Two years ago, I left Parliament thanking you for the delicious English tea. Today I will leave Parliament thanking all of you in advance for powerful English planes,” said Volodymyr Zelensky in an address to MPs.

    PINNED AT THE TOP OF THE COMMENTS.

    David Birchall

    Zelenskiy’s story is all the more extraordinary because it was completely unpredictable. When faced with the opportunity to go into exile, his “I don’t need a ride, I need ammunition” has changed the course of human history. We now know what Russia is and who Russians are, having looked away from their brutal genocides for too long. Zelenskiy forced us to look, and inspired us to act. The 50 nation free world alliance – with the UK front and centre alongside the US and Poland – needed a figurehead and a symbol of hope. For many of the countries who now hold the line, they needed Zelenskiy not just to show defiance but also show that victory was possible.

    It helps that he stands opposite a cowardly and stupid shrivelled twitcher, as the contrast highlights Zelenskiy’s qualities, but from day 1 Zelenskiy has been a beacon to guide the free world. It has been a tragedy to end all tragedies, every day, but one day it will be over. As Zelenskiy has shown, Ukraine fights for us all, and it does it well.

    The rest of the comments are so hostile that they’ve had to fix this in place! The only people who support this shyster are (surprise, surprise) Westminster and 77 Brigade.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/02/08/ukraine-russia-war-latest-news-zelensky-uk-visit-parliament/

      1. Birchall is as stupid and corrupt as the politicians cheering a scoundrel at Westminster Hall.

        Zelensky is a fraud and a clown. We should not give him anything.

        1. In plain (scuz the pun) our uselss political classes eff up once again. What particular point are they trying to emphasis.

    3. How long before this outrageous request is granted? it is quite likely this outrageous request will, sooner or later, be granted. What are the chances that any of OUR fighter jets will survive once Zelensky gets his hands on them?
      Just the other day, I read that we cannot afford to strengthen or fully modernise our armed forces or equipment. In which case, we simply cannot allow any of our planes to be given away.

      1. Tanks and aircraft being set up to become burning wrecks from Russian Munitions, meanwhile, Zelensky scarpers with pockets full of OUR dosh.

        1. Ukraine does not have sufficiently long runways for Typhoons or F16s.

          Bunter and a great number of politicians have obviously been bribed to support Zelensky with our taxpayer pounds.

          As with other notable tyrants Zelensky will eventually escape retribution in Saudi Arabia having destroyed Ukraine.

      2. No worries, Mum. It was reported taht the UK is short of ammunition, so no point in the planes.

    4. Put your own house in order buddy, we’ve got enough people scrounging in this country already, who couldn’t be bothered to do that.

      2. Perhaps he identifies as Jewish? Retired and lives much of the year in Benalmádena, Spain, IIRC.

    7. A bunch of twaddle. I was reading that it takes three years to train a pilot for the jets he wants. There would be no Ukrainians left if Zelenskyy got his way. Still, as a stooge for the American military industrial complex, he will, eventually go into exile sitting very pretty, thank you. That is if he isn’t killed before then an eventuality that would be better for the Ukrainians if that happened sooner rather than later.

      1. Fingers not being supported by eyes checking the words. I was too busy changing semesters back into sexes.

        I love my spelling checker.

    3. Freedom is the ability to state 2+2=4. From that, everything else stems.

      When you are no longer allowed to state the truth, there is no hope. When you’re punished for doing so, then the world has gone insane.

    1. …and which is the bigger clown?

      Zelensky (who made his living at it) or Johnson (who was a clown in office).

      1. Even bigger clowns in the press and Conservative Party who are trying to get Boll*ck Johnson re-elected. Idiots all.

    2. Give them all our politicians and un-civil servants, that should stop the Russian advance. Who would want to get involved with that bunch of t*ssers?

      1. I suggested to my old man that they could train the soldiers on the dinghy invaders! Moving targets and all that!

    4. What a bombastic Boris we have. This after we have just been told the the UK army is totally inadequate to defend our islands if a war broke out. People want this guy back as Prime Minister!!! God forbid that we would be so foolish.

          1. And don’t forget the odious John Major opining about things EU. You ain’t PM anymore, duckface, so shut yer trap.

          2. Exactly, don’t you just hate them all. He did enough damage when he was slid into place by the Thatcher hater.
            And then AH Bliar got job.
            You have to ask,……what has happened to this country over 3 decades.
            Politicians deliberately wrecked it.

          3. I hold Boris and his cohorts responsible for the poor health my husband and I are currently experiencing. Last year was hell and this year hasn’t begun any better.
            You and many others are in the same predicament.

          5. Ah yes, the conveniently troublesome wisdom teeth that kept him out of the bloodletting.
            Well, removing them certainly worked.

        2. Boris as PM in the first place was a catastrophe. And you know Einstein’s definition of insanity…

      1. You would have thought that the scenes of devastation resulting from the recent Earthquakes in Turkey would have given them pause for thought about the devastation that would be brought about in a major conflagration – but apparently not….

    8. In the Telegraph article on this topic, a BTL commenter says “Why send Typhoons when one could send a buffoon?”

    10. In 1940 the French demanded that the RAF be committed in the air to reinforce their failure on the ground, a request against all the correct management of warfare. Fortunately Churchill had good and firm military advisors who were opposed to such folly and the squadrons were retained to fight the Battle of Britain. The attrition of the Spitfire squadrons would have been a disaster that would have changed the course of the War.
      Johnson a latter-day Churchill? Only in his mind.

  64. Anyone noticed the vast increase in background music and noise effects on Radio 4 in the recent past? Some of it is really irritating – tinkling and bonging during news items, documentaries and even live reporting. I suspect it is a new-found ruse to provide employment and large amounts of money to the friends and associates of BBC controllers and other staff. A scam, in other words. While I’m at it, the BBC must have spent half a £million+ on the dozen or more programmes promoting the Isis bride. Something is seriously wrong with the Guardian Broadcasting system. Sack the lot!

    1. Yes, why they insist on having loud background music when advertising programs is beyond me – it detracts from hearing the announcement and is effin annoying

  65. Just had notification of a £200 donation to the FA retirement fund from our generous government to help towards the cost of oil for the CH. How generous!

  67. Britain investigates what fighter jets it could send to Ukraine after Zelensky plea
    Ukrainian president urges UK to provide warplanes in impassioned speech to MPs at Westminster
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/02/08/rishi-sunak-british-ukraine-support-fighter-jets-weapons/

    It seems the the British government is keen to reduce the UK population and their current plan of using plague and vaccines is working too slowly so why not get Putin to use some of his nuclear subs which are patrolling the English Channel and start pitching a few nasties on the Kent coast and then move systematically westwards to Sussex, Hampshire and Dorset. Devon and Cornwall will probably escape because Putin will have finished the job by the time his fleet has reached Portland Bill.

    1. If all GBNews presenters are forced to sign a similar contract to Mark Steyn, then the end of GBNews is nigh; if not, then Steyn has a good cause to pursue GBN in the courts for major compensation.

  71. Par Four again.

    Wordle 599 4/6
    🟨⬜⬜🟨🟩
    ⬜🟨⬜🟩🟩
    🟩⬜🟩🟩🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Bogey 5 today. So near but so far.

      Wordle 599 5/6

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

    3. I do the Solitaire daily event.
      Today I did reasonably well, the people in front of me are almost certainly cheats.
      They have scores that in Wordle would be the equivalent of predominantly 2’s, then mainly 3’s and then the odd Four, but more 1’s than 5’s.
      Pointless to play, if you have to cheat so blatantly.

      1. There is a web site with today’s answer so ego can always be satisfied

        I don’t think that I have ever scored a one or a two, four attempts is my norm.

        1. I once came in fourth, in a group of 50.
          One is always allocated to a group of 50 on joining the competition.
          I was very surprised as I had not made a single error in any of that day’s challenges and was expecting to be first by a good distance.
          The next day I discovered I had come in the top 2,000 out of well over half a million.
          Does it matter? Not really in the great scheme of things, but it’s bloody annoying.

    5. Me too.
      Wordle 599 4/6

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

  73. Just when you think things could not get any worse: What stupidity is this?!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/02/08/rishi-sunak-british-ukraine-support-fighter-jets-weapons/

    We don’t have enough for our OWN defence!

    “Analysts said it was not clear whether Mr Sunak intended to send Ukraine Western-standard jets from Britain’s own arsenal or is planning to use its simulators to train Ukrainian pilots on F-16s”.

    We do not have F-16s in the RAF’s inventory and very, very few RAF pilots will have flown the F-16 operationally on 3-year exchange tours with other NATO air forces.

    “Efforts to train Ukrainian pilots on Nato-standard fighter jets would be likely to focus on simulation to bring them up to scratch with tactics and cockpit procedures, according to military aviation experts”.

    This ‘expert’ says simulation could be used to train them in basic aircraft handling and emergency procedures but nothing advanced and certainly no tactics. You need real jets for that and real ‘top-gun’ instructors.

    “Britain is also set to pledge weapons with “longer-range capabilities”, which Ukraine has said it desperately needs to target Russia’s fragile supply chains, including ammunition depots, warehouses and other infrastructure critical to supporting its invasion.

    “The “long-range capabilities” could refer to the Storm Shadow cruise missile, which is launched from warplanes and is designed to be hard to spot on radar, making it difficult to shoot down. It also carries a 450kg warhead, twice the size of the one on a US ATACMS ballistic missile.

    “Storm Shadow missiles have a range of approximately 200 miles and their intended targets include command posts, ammunition depots and bridges”.

    Storm Shadow was a missile developed for the Tornado which is no longer in service ( the clue’s in the name – Storm, geddit?). It is used on Typhoon but it almost certainly won’t be compatible with F-16s without modifications and other development work and test-flying (and firing).

    1. It’s not just the hanging arrangement, but the targetting and arming computers that are also needed. Complex…

      1. Oh, I don’t know, how complex could it be to hang Zelensky, Sunak and Johnson on the same gibbet?

  75. That’s me for today. Chilly all day but nice and sunny. Cut back the amazing raspberries – which are already beginning to bud.

    I am glad that I do not follow “news” otherwise I would be creaming and yelling. There are fuckwits who are clearly determined to start the Last World War. Quite why is beyond me.

    Have a restful evening – while you can

    A demain.

  77. Final thought for the day: I wish I were 30 years younger for there is a war to fight and win. I was born for this time and I hate growing old and weak.

    1. I’m rather glad that I’m too old – and disabled – to resist. Four weeks today, my State Pension kicks in. My new Director of Music contract with the Parish expires in October 2025. When I was Verger of one of the churches, there was always the danger that I’d be forced up the bell tower by the invaders to ‘sing’ the Adhan.

      1. Come now Geoff – where’s the bulldog spirit? Douglas Bader managed to fly a Spit – I’m sure you could too with half an hour of the Johnson Flying Tutorial….

        Enjoy your state pension! The really good bit is that it arrives every 4 weeks so there are 13 payments per year!

        1. MOH will start to receive her OA pension next December, 6 years after the ‘old’ OA pension used to be dished out for the ladies.

      2. Come now Geoff – where’s the bulldog spirit? Douglas Bader managed to fly a Spit – I’m sure you could too with half an hour of the Johnson Flying Tutorial….

        Enjoy your state pension! The really good bit is that it arrives every 4 weeks so there are 13 payments per year!

      3. Me too, Geoff! Exciting isn’t it? And I got a letter from HMRC today with a tax refund of £50, so that was nice! Unfortunately, I tried to get it online through the Government Gateway but because I only one of the three options(passport) for ID, not having a photo driving licence, or a credit score, I’ll need to wait 6 weeks for a cheque!

    2. Me and all, mate. I hate the infirmity that has come with age…and after sodding lockdowns. I was a very strong swimmer and was fit. Now I have to use a bloody stick to walk which infuriates me.

    3. That there’s a war to fight is very true, but it ain’t a conventional one. The younger population of our country don’t even know there’s trouble ahead.

  78. Final thought for the day: I wish I were 30 years younger for there is a war to fight and win. I was born for this time and I hate growing old and weak.

    1. Hi, Sue. How on earth did you survive your lunchtime meeting with three toxic males in Moffat the other week? 🙄

      It’s lucky that neither Tom, Richard or myself came ‘packing heat’…

      1. Ah but I’m a proper grown up now and not a pathetic loser like her! I have already fired off my thoughts to the GDST and my old girls guild! I expect they might stop asking me for ‘donations’ now!
        And anyway, I don’t know what you were ‘packing’ in those feet of yours!

      1. I see it as a retrograde and simplistic remark. My teachers and headmistresses would never have said such a negative and pathetic thing to us girls, and bear in mind, I loathed school. The ethos was that we were capable, sensible? and thoughtful people with independent minds and great futures! Not this drivel!

      2. Thank you Belle! I adore and respect my lovely husband, but it is a partnership and not a power struggle!

    3. Many of our friends are or were teachers in schools not dissimilar to Epsom College – indeed one of our colleagues at Allhallows went on to teach at Epsom and we have had students from there on our courses.

      How much is known about the poor woman’s murdering husband? He was born in Jamaica and a chartered accountant whose business seemed to have disintegrated. He is obviously of mixed race – but what is the mixture? I wonder how they met? (Caroline and I met in the MCR (Masters’ Common Room) at Allhallows which was a rather strange place to fall in love.) He clearly could not cope with his wife’s success in her profession – inadequate men do resent intelligent and competent women as they feel they highlight their own inadequacies.

      It is very, very sad – but you cannot conclude from this that all men are a danger to woman teachers!

    4. A pathetic ‘sexist statement that just encourages the old white male vilification.
      Edit: Apparently he wasn’t very white.

    2. Rishi is just another complete liar since frontex a decade ago. This swarm was known and they encouraged it. This year many thousands more. Next year…?

  84. The bombing of the Nord Stream underwater gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea was a covert operation ordered by the White House and carried out by the CIA, a report by a veteran investigative journalist claims.

    Seymour Hersh, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, has claimed that US deep-sea divers, using a Nato military exercise as a cover, planted mines along the pipelines that were later detonated remotely.

    In September, a series of powerful explosions destroyed the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines that run through the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany and provide cheap gas to mainland Europe. The attack was soon revealed to have been a deliberate act but no culprit has yet been identified.

    Nord Stream is run by a Swiss-based company whose major shareholder is Gazprom, the Russian energy giant. Russia has spent about $20 billion building the pipelines. Nord Stream 2, which was completed in 2021, was not yet operational at the time of the sabotage.

    Hersh notes that Biden and his foreign policy team, which includes his national security adviser Jake Sullivan, his secretary of state Antony Blinken and under secretary of state for political affairs Victoria Nuland, had spoken out against Nord Stream 2, which would have yoked Europe to Russian gas for decades. It would also have increased the Kremlin’s political influence over the continent at a time of heightened tensions between Moscow and the West and significantly boosted revenue for Russia. Nord Stream 2, alone, would have doubled gas supply already provided by Nord Stream 1.

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/us-bombed-nord-stream-gas-pipelines-claims-investigative-journalist-seymour-hersh-s730dnnfz

    1. I get the impression that the newspapers will be rather keen to fan the flames – after all nothing sells more newspapers than a war!

  85. 370860+ up ticks,

    May one say,

    The price of a couple of war planes plus would certainly go down well on the Turkish / Syrian disaster front and save lives, then again I do believe that is against the UKs politico’s intended agenda.

  86. I am very ashamed to say that the experiences of a certain community in the UK had me wondering what this brave little girl meant by:

    The seven-year-old called Mariam, and her younger brother Ilaaf were trapped in the debris for some 36 hours.
    In the clip, she told the emergency worker: ‘Sir, if you rescue me and my brother, I’ll do whatever you want.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11727683/Little-girl-protecting-brother-rescued-beneath-earthquake-rubble-Syria.html

      1. My fault.
        Out of context, mistranslation, anything; but I did wonder what she had been asked to do in the past that would have triggered that response.

          1. My first thought when I read the article.

            What a dreadful world we live in, and/or what a callous suspicious shit I have become.

    2. I must admit, I thought that was an unsettling thing for a child to say, particularly in those circumstances.

  87. UK Prevent strategy review is ‘failing to understand Islamist terrorism’
    Braverman pledges training overhaul and accepts all recommendations
    Matt Dathan, Home Affairs Editor
    Wednesday February 08 2023, 4.00pm, The Times
    Law
    William Shawcross said that the government could be proud of the programme, but identified a culture of timidity when it came to Islamist terrorism

    Britain’s main counterextremism programme is “out of kilter” with the rest of counterterrorism policy because it fails to sufficiently understand Islamist extremism, a review has found.

    William Shawcross’s review of Prevent said that terrorist attacks had too often been committed by people previously referred to the programme. “Prevent apparently failed to understand the danger in these cases and this review demonstrates how such failures might be avoided in the future,” he added.

    Ali Harbi Ali, who killed the Tory MP Sir David Amess in October 2021, was cited as an example of this.

    Shawcross blamed the failure on a lack of training on how to manage “controversial issues” regarding Islamist ideology and a lack of confidence about recognising Islamist behaviour. He warned that a failure to strengthen understanding and boost the number of Islamist extremists referred to Prevent would lead to further terrorist attacks.

    “I am concerned that a culture of timidity exists among practitioners in the round when it comes to tackling Islamism,” he said. “If left as it is, potentially fatal blind spots will emerge and grow.”

    Huge article ..I have left out chunks …. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/prevent-uk-strategy-review-braverman-overhaul-2023-2pt3kc6pn

    Prevent has faced significant criticism from civil liberty groups, who claim it is used as a cover for state surveillance of certain communities. The revelation in 2019 that the details of all individuals ever referred to Prevent had been retained on a database, managed by counterterrorism police, did not help the government reject this argument.

    There have been claims that Prevent discriminates against the Muslim community and hinders the freedom of Muslims to air controversial views.

    Groups such as Cage, the campaign group that once described the Isis executioner Mohammed Emwazi, also known as Jihadi John, as a “beautiful young man,” have spread an anti-Prevent narrative.

    Moazzam Begg, Cage’s outreach director, toured university campuses encouraging students to “sabotage” Prevent. He argued that the duty to report any individual for signs of extremism had restricted political opposition and constrained room for vital dialogue and freedom of speech in schools, colleges and universities.

    It was criticism from Muslim groups and civil liberty organisations that forced the government to announce the review, originally due to be led by Lord Carlile of Berriew KC. He was forced to step down after a legal challenge by Rights Watch UK over claims he was not an independent figure, given he had declared strong support for the programme.

    Until recently statistics regularly showed that Islamist extremists made up the largest number of referrals, which aided the narrative that Prevent was disproportionately targeting Muslims. However, in the year to March last year 1,027 Islamist extremists were referred to Prevent, 16 per cent of the total. Only 156 were adopted as a Channel case.

    This suggests either that the threat of Islamist extremism in the UK has fallen or that individuals are slipping through the net because of a growing distrust in Prevent.

    The statistics and findings by the independent reviewer of terrorism, Jonathan Hall KC, suggest it is the latter. In his 2021 report he concluded Islamist terrorism remained the principal threat in Britain. Two thirds of the 229 terrorists in prison are Islamist extremists. About 90 per cent of the 43,000 people on MI5’s terrorism watchlist were jihadis in 2020, according to reports.

    1. “Failing to understand Islamist terrorism”? It’s quite simple:-
      1. Islam’s aim is to dominate the world – their ‘holy book’ says so.
      2. Their prophet told his followers to convert people forcibly if necessary.
      3. All Muslims know this, therefore they must follow his orders.
      4. Therefore terrorism will be used to achieve their aims.

  88. 370860+ up ticks,

    I’ll just bet it is, and their covert agenda has been supported ALL the way in the guise of party before Country the beauty of it was the WEF were financially kept afloat in many respects …..by the victims.

    Gerard Batten
    @gjb2021
    ·
    7h
    The WEF’s vision for a ‘Neo Feudalistic Post Industrial Society’, decades in the making.

    It took this long to bring to fruition because to make it work it needed the control of individuals made possible by digital technology.

    https://gettr.com/post/p27pimu5604

    Resist any way you can.

    CIA Agent’s 1992 Confession Unearthed: ‘WEF Will Kill 4 Billion by 2030’
    CIA Agent’s 1992 Confession Unearthed: ‘WEF Will Kill 4 Billion by 2030’

    A 1992 book, “The Conspirators Hierarchy, the Committee of 300,” written by ex-CIA agent John Coleman is gaining renewed attention as its predictions about a “post-industrial” world controlled by glob

  90. Round and round and round it goes . Where it stops? Nobody knows……

    Given the UK government clearly said it is “exploring” the possibility of sending fighter aircraft to Ukraine, namely its Typhoon jets, upon a visit by Ukraine’s Zelensky to London, Russia has responded fiercely. Prime Minister Sunak earlier explained:

    “The first step in being able to provide advanced aircrafts is to have soldiers or aviators that are capable of using them. That is a process that takes some time. We’ve started that process today,” Sunak said at a news conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, after announcing Britain would train Ukrainian pilots.

    “Nothing is off the table and our leadership on this issue is something that we all collectively should be very proud of.”

    Russia’s embassy to UK quickly warned of “military and political consequences for the European continent and the entire world” in response.

  91. If the cretins in charge commit us to supplying fighters, I presume all our fighter aircraft will be flown to the Ukraine, which would probably put them at the edge of their range unless they have refuelled in transit.
    If I was the Russian commander I would be tracking them in and the instant they arrived over Ukrainian airspace I would attack.
    1. Will the pilots be British and would shooting the planes down be a declaration of war against Britain?
    2. If they were shot down, would we then send replacements?
    3. And most important, if Russia decided “to Hell with this let’s bomb Britain”, how would we defend ourselves if we’ve given away all our armaments?

    1. In the kindergarten posing as the UK government’s Cabinet I doubt that question three, let alone its answer, has occurred to those who are colouring-in their picture books.
      Apart from Andrew Bridgen, is there a serious politician remaining in the HoC?

    4. According to the Great Funster, he will accept them at 21/2 years trained….! What a guy!!

    5. If the pilots are British, and are asked to fight for a foreign country’s cause, will they have the right to say, “No thanks.”, with no repercussions?

    6. Who is pay for the fuel? Where will the missiles come from? What about the ground/air support? Mechanics for maintenance? Spare parts? These planes cost $80 million each. Add in the irreplaceable pilots, armaments and that’s heading toward over 100m.

      Zelensky is asking for our entire fleet, or about a billion quids worth of the most expensive, advanced long range bomber we have.

      1. Don’t worry about the cost of the fuel, wibbling. Rishi will just put a tax on our breathing to raise the money.

      2. Meanwhile a substantial proportion of the materiel gifted the Taliban by the dolt Biden and his moronic generals has already found its way to Russia and will be deployed against Ukraine.

        We are witnessing the result of the installation of a demented puppet in the White House, the installation of a comedic clown as President of Ukraine and the whole farrago run by idiots in the US who could not fight their way out of a paper bag.

        We need President Trump to restore sanity and order, urgently.

    8. You really mustn’t ask relevant questions. Our government is confused enough already.

    10. More to the point:

      If we are training Ukrainian pilots, are their aircraft and their base, legitimate targets for Russian missiles?

  92. I haven’t a clue what started this latest attack on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez but it has its funny side.
    The first is being claimed as a spoof.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e6e44e1ceec8cd0af471c90fa8ecf9e8e5dbedbb79401d783e2147d9b6592d0b.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6589488c827c021430f2ef8fc511eb42497cd68badefc956bc0d14e5d09316d8.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3be4b67908e9972811a6718aeaa95032be7f8c83f4d09e21c3662159e76ff7c3.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c1c37953a18ccaa4a1ff60af451d8216c0e8d4a1b0edca1f931ba6367c7f7bd0.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/71c3858b8299406756aad59ae9015a412aaea1a747cbae5e5c4057f82935c810.png

  94. My husband is home…I did not go down and accompany him home as after my trip to the supermarket, my knee was very sore. It didn’t matter as he was home before 7.30 with another very helpful and caring cabbie.
    They took almost 9 litres of fluid off him. That will surely help with his leg recovery.
    He was pleased with the care in the hospital and also our terrific cab company.

    1. Glad to hear it Milady. Sometimes the system works. I wish you and your hubby good health.

    2. Good news Ann. Look after him.
      I’m sure he’s in safe hands.
      Good night to you both. 🤗

        1. By the way I’ve also got a terrible knee problem. Are you on the waiting list yet ?
          I’m pushing continually for an answer from my orthopaedic department. But the NHS brick wall is getting even higher.
          Good night. 😊

  97. 370860+ up ticks,

    Sodome,tis not hard is it,
    Get oneself a young chap and settle down,

    Archbishop of Canterbury: MPs won’t tell me what to do on gay marriage
    Tearful Justin Welby took a defiant stance at General Synod during a crunch debate on proposals to offer blessings to same sex couples

  98. Going to bed now. Very tired but happy that my husband is home. He has eaten and seems to feel more comfortable.
    I wish you all well and hope you sleep well.

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