Tuesday 21 March: Who will benefit from this ludicrously drawn-out, costly Covid inquiry?

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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534 thoughts on “Tuesday 21 March: Who will benefit from this ludicrously drawn-out, costly Covid inquiry?”

  4. ‘Morning All

    Major Medley

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      1. Of course not they voted for Brexit and got mass illegal immigration which will dilute the ethnic purity of the Anglo Saxon race.

    2. What I find hilarious is that people were told that government was lazy, inept, greedy and stupid and that the whole farce was driven by fear mongering, yet they haven’t put 2 and 2 together to realise that everything big government has done is to keep people afraid and scared and crucially, paying higher taxes.

    1. With regards to the post of footage of “Spring Breakers” (whatever that may mean) you should count your blessings – at least the crowds are not “hideously white”.

    2. An unmanageable crowd? That’s just a lack of discipline in the police force to maintain order.

    1. 372283+ up ticks,

      O2O,
      When in total disarray, fall back, reform, carry on
      as was .

      You seriously fooled us once “nige” 2019 no more.
      Your thanks to those that for years worked to give you a platform,

      https://youtu.be/Fc7iuUHk3Yk

        1. 372283+ up ticks,

          Morning W,
          .Shame on me a, laying out the hurtful rhetorical truth.

    2. To get anywhere, they need to set out four simple policies that have been properly costed. They need to hold to those in the face of every attack. They must resonate with the public and actively resolve some problems the UK is having.

      If those 12 people are not household names and those 4 strategies not public knowledge by the time of the election then there’s no point to them. They can’t keep flying under the radar. There needs to be a confirmed, open vulnerability where each person has gone through the statist mill and come out the other side.

  8. The pointlessness of prosecuting Putin. Spiked 21 March 2023.

    Now you don’t have to be a fully signed-up member of the Vladimir Putin fan club to think there’s something a little off about the ICC’s move. There is more than a whiff of a PR stunt about it. The ICC seems to have issued this arrest warrant, for the sitting head of a permanent member of the UN Security Council no less, in the full knowledge that it will not be acted upon. It feels like an attempt to grab headlines, like a ruse to justify the ICC’s near €150million-a-year existence. Indeed, it’s probably no coincidence that the ICC is currently begging for €30million in extra funding from its main state backers, France, Germany and the UK.

    Like most high level ICC prosecutions that of Putin is politically motivated but it’s not pointless. It has valuable propaganda assets attached to it and it diminishes (we cannot negotiate with a War Criminal) the likelihood of negotiations. This is important, even though the United State has no intention of allowing a settlement, because there is the possibility of a Republican President in the near future and both candidates have refuted the War. It will provide political leverage in the election itself and in the event of De Santis or Trump winning, make a withdrawal on any terms more difficult.

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/03/21/the-pointlessness-of-prosecuting-putin/

  12. Nicola Sturgeon bows out with bra-less banter at the coffee morning from Hell

    The First Minister seems determined to have fun in her final days in office, but carries a wistful air over things left undone

    TIM STANLEY 20 March 2023 • 7:34pm

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/politics/2023/03/20/TELEMMGLPICT000329638084_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqN05hgUdTukjrM6SIwr4YZ-J3DMkjqrkxTfy5hRgePUk.jpeg?imwidth=680

    Nicola Sturgeon steps down in a week, and who doesn’t deserve a good time in their last days in office? Hop on a coach; go to London; give a speech; see Cats.

    Oh, and there was a special guest appearance on Loose Women, where she was treated with the reverence usually reserved for Ginger Spice. One has to admire the way daytime chat shows move seamlessly from a contest to win a Mercedes, to interrogating Sturgeon on SNP policy, to asking if she’s tempted to go bra-less on a Monday.

    “Who’s to say it can only be a Monday?” replied the First Minister, trying to be game.

    “When I do that,” said a fellow panellist, “they drag on the floor.”

    Nicola had found herself at the coffee morning from Hell. Not that she showed it.

    Consider her composure, her clothes, her air of Puritan authority. Isn’t this the Scottish Thatcher? Later at the Royal Society of Arts, she said that if she met “the 16-year-old” Nicola, she’d tell her to “have a bit of fun … don’t leave it till you’re 53.” Alas, one suspects her idea of fun is chairing an EU inquiry into the subject – that after all these years of being so disciplined, letting go will be hard.

    For now, she seems wistful. Sturgeon regretted how bitter politics has become – nothing to do with the SNP! –and how stressful is the job of running a country into the ground. She had watched Jacinda Ardern step down and thought “I wish that was me,” which proves she is human after all. Who among us didn’t watch Jacinda resign and think, “I wish that was Nicola Sturgeon”?
    *
    *
    *
    ************************

    SZ Clark
    11 HRS AGO
    How nauseating to see her being given a softball platform to pretend to be a decent person.
    I might add that she has flatly refused to appear before the Scottish Affairs Committee in Westminster as part of her departure, and also didn’t tell the UK PM before her announcement, but did tell various non-entities.
    Sturgeon is vindictive, poisonous, spiteful, hypocritical, dismissive, high-handed, patronising, sanctimonious, bigoted, low-information, low-empathy, deceitful, thick as mince, unbelievably incompetent, instinctively authoritarian and staggeringly anti-democratic.
    Other than that, she’s great!
    It is simply wonderful that she is finally going. Now, if only she could finally get a proper comeuppance…

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/03/20/nicola-sturgeon-bows-bra-less-banter-coffee-morning/

      1. This is not a charitable thought, but the past few years have turned me into a cynical old bat.
        How convenient that the Krankie was suffering from a miscarriage while attending the Ibrox memorial service.
        Bingo: rumours that include words like ‘beard’ and ‘lavender’ are quashed and the trauma is linked to a Scottish tragedy.

        https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11881883/Nicola-Sturgeon-reveals-attended-public-memorial-event-having-miscarriage-2011.html

      2. This is not a charitable thought, but the past few years have turned me into a cynical old bat.
        How convenient that the Krankie was suffering from a miscarriage while attending the Ibrox memorial service.
        Bingo: rumours that include words like ‘beard’ and ‘lavender’ are quashed and the trauma is linked to a Scottish tragedy.

        https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11881883/Nicola-Sturgeon-reveals-attended-public-memorial-event-having-miscarriage-2011.html

      1. Was drizzly and grey here, but there’s a strange yellow thing appeared in the sky half an hour ago.
        It does keep coming and going though.

  14. How they broke the banking system. 21 March 2023.

    In both UK and US yields have more than doubled, which has had a very negative impact on bond valuations. For this to happen in the (allegedly) safest, strongest elements of any bank or investor’s portfolio is worrying. For those investors who were always planning to hold the bond to maturity it’s tiresome, as is the fact that the principal might be worth less than they thought it would be. But that’s a future problem.

    For those investors who purchased the bond as a safe haven for their or their customers’ capital it’s a disaster. Their assets no longer meet their liabilities (unless they have managed to hedge the position – although hedging brings its own costs and risks.) Even if shareholders invest to cover the loss, nervous customers may wish to withdraw their funds, in cash.

    Banking Crashes For Dummies.

    https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/how-they-broke-the-banking-system/

  15. The UN’s ‘scientific’ climate report is nothing more than confected hysteria

    Net zero is turning into an ideology that will waste resources on an epic scale

    MATTHEW LYNN 20 March 2023 • 5:37pm

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

    Carpe Jugulum
    12 HRS AGO
    I retired from teaching chemistry and biology, including the mechanisms of climate change, in a sixth form college. The more I have read since retirement the more sceptical I have become.
    The science of climate change is not ‘settled’, not even close, and will not be until a model marries together historic data, projections and current data. At present every single model predicts warming that does not happen. That suggests that there is a mitigating mechanism that we do not know about.
    What is truly worrying is that climate dogma is now being defended by a complete ban on sceptical research. THAT is NOT science.
    Wouldn’t it be sensible, before we spend $trillions and enforce lifestyle cuts, to fund sceptical research? Wouldn’t we be more effectively persuaded by true scientific debate and scepticism rather than models we know are faulty?
    At the very least we need a Red Team input. We all now know what happened when SAGE became the sole arbiter of scientific truth. Lies, deception and debacle.
    Blind acceptance of climate dogma may yet kill even more.

    1. Wouldn’t it be sensible, before we spend $trillions and enforce lifestyle cuts…

      Dear Carpe Jugulum,

      Enforcing lifestyle cuts, purloining trillions of pounds and changing the people’s lives for the worse is the whole point of the climate change scam.

      You’re welcome.

    2. The ‘science’ of climate change is not science at all. It is ‘this is what we want to find, this is the data we have found it in. Therefore, this is the data we will use to prove our unfounded hypothesis.

      The whole thing is simply designed to enforce socialism.

    3. “Better the questions that cannot be answered than the answers that cannot be questioned!”
      Richard Feynman, scientist.

  16. Tice rowing back on his stance re the jab. Once supporting mandatory jabs for healthcare workers he is now all for bodily autonomy and people’s freedom to choose. The presenter piles in on Andrew Bridgen. Expect Tice to come out against the jab when evidence, that already existed when he made this statement, miraculously appears. Not a good look for a politician who claims to be different from the herd.

    https://twitter.com/i/status/1618997270581743623

    2. He’s already shown his true colours and as a result, I’ll never trust him not to revert to the authoritarian, left-wing approach of focing people to take untested medicines and the like. I don’t hear what he says, his actions spoke too loudly.

      1. And he seems to have bought the climate change con and is infavour of Net Zero.

        We need an alternative to the Conservative Party, the Labour Party, the Lib Dems and the Greens but if Tice agrees with Sunak on everything he is not the alternative for which we are looking.

  17. Good morning all. Getting slightly less cold with 5½°C outside. A bit of a dull & damp start, but the rain appears to have stopped after last night’s precipitation.

  20. 372283+ up ticks,

    The truth will out,

    Gerard Batten
    @gjb2021
    ·
    13h
    And this is preciesly why Brexit was & is being betrayed: Because Farage & his Tory mates think Brexit will be delivered by Tories.

    This side of a genuinely radical patriotic populist party it will never be delivered in full. Tories always betray, & Tory Lites will never have the stomach for the job.

    Reform UK calls on Tory MPs to defect as Nigel Farage insists ‘Brexit is not completely done’ – inews,
    Translate post
    Reform UK calls on Tory MPs to defect as Nigel Farage insists ‘Brexit is not completely done’ —
    Reform UK calls on Tory MPs to defect as Nigel Farage insists ‘Brexit is not completely done’ —

    Reform UK leader, Richard Tice, suggests he would welcome defections from Tory MPs and claims there is a ‘huge appetite’ for his party at the next election

    2. The Windsor Agreement is a clear betrayal of the intent of Brexit. The civil service is determined to undermine both the spirit and the principle of the vote.

    1. Along with many others from diverse backgrounds. They never seem to stop effing moaning about something.
      I can remember taking our well mannered lab for a local walk. And along a narrow footpath was confronted by around 20 people mixed ages of ethnic origin walking towards me. My dog was only interested in her ball. But they took it upon themselves to cower and protect their children and I even heard a suggestion the obedient well behaved dog should be on a lead. FFS
      As I said they never stop.

  23. 372283+up ticks,

    One politico / one pharmasuitico must surely be dragged into court on corporate murder charges before the victims cool, and
    lest we forget ,for the good of the party, bloody treacherous, dangerous idiots.

    Tis no longer believable even by the electoral fools “twas the sheep that did it”

    Dt,

    New forensics data puts raccoon dogs and other exotic species at the origin of Covid pandemic
    Explosive preprint published late on Monday night by an international team details the data China suppressed

  24. Good Moaning.
    Current To-Do List.
    1. Blind for my playroom.
    2. Check that this week is paper and cardboard (heap of dead boxes beside back door and I’m not bloody booking to go to the tip).
    3. Clear kitchen worktops for new cupboards to be fitted.
    4. Recognise that tempus is fugitting and throw myself in front of Rupert Murdoch; then we could afford a “garden room”.

  25. I bit the bullet last night and booked the annual gas safety inspection for my tenants.

    Last year, after shelling out £90, I was told that the boiler was on its way out and I need a new one. In fact, any boiler out of its warranty needs to be replaced with new, according to professional opinion. My own boiler, a Halstead Combi, was installed in 1994. It is temperamental, and all I get from the professionals is “you want a new one, mate”, but I’ve nursed it over the years, and still heats the water if I press the Reset button. I’ll know when it has reached the end of its life, but hopefully it will be about the same time I do.

    This year, I was drawn towards a firm based in Dudley called ‘Inspectify’, who charge £50 for the inspection, and do everything online. They suggested that a lot of local tradesmen will use the inspections to make work for themselves, and the ideal is a boiler replacement. Much like the MoT for cars then. This firm only does inspections, and therefore has no interest in making work. So I am told.

    Anyone had experience of this?

    1. Indirectly.
      In France the equivalent of the MoT, the controle technique, must be done by an independent assessor.
      I follow the same routine here as I did in the UK. I get the car serviced in accordance with the manufacturer’s recommendation and checked over by my garage. They take it to the CTA who does the inspection.
      Without tempting providence, I have never been failed in France.

      In the UK the garage did the service then MoT tested the car, failed it almost every time, usually on a relatively minor issue and then did the repairs and charged me and then I had to have a retest.

      The CT lasts two years as opposed to one for an MoT and the CT provides something called an advisory list, which is things to watch out for and consider dealing with before the next CT.

      In your place I would use the independent assessor every time.

      1. Indeed. That is something that the French have got right.

        Do you have a septic tank, and have you had it inspected? About ten years ago we were sent a letter by the local authority telling us that our two septic tanks were going to have to be inspected every five years, at a cost of 125 € per tank. In order to do this, they had trained up some unemployed people and set them up in their own company (easy, running a private company when you don’t have to go out looking for clients!).

        The first lady turned up when there was snow on the ground. She wanted to look at the septic tanks and I suggested a nice cup of coffee in the warm kitchen might be a better option, which she gratefully accepted. The tanks passed the inspection.

        The second time, an enthusiastic chap turned up with a spade. He dug up the lids (and wasn’t able to put them on properly again) and told us to add unsightly breathing tubes (stainless steel, about three metres high, in front of a listed building!!!).

        It turned out that there is no legal obligation to carry out the work advised by these chaps, until such time as the property is sold.

        So this has, effectively, turned into a tax on septic tanks.

        The one good thing that has come out of Covid is that these inspections seem no longer to be happening!

        1. Yes, we have three, they’re normally OK and we had an inspection done a few years ago which they all passed. The slope on the pipes isn’t as steep as it could be so sometimes they get clogged when guests use their own paper or they put wipes down, even though they are warned not to.
          Clearing a blockage is usually only a matter of putting down the suitable chemical.
          We use eparcyl powder weekly on the main one.

          We were told by the chap that did them that they should be OK almost ad infinitum and shouldn’t even need emptying. I am not tempting providence!

    2. We had a new combi just over two years ago. I used a gas fitter/plumber I’ve known for years. He also works directly for the boiler company and carries out the annual inspection/maintenance.
      Shame you don’t live near St Albans.

    3. We had a fire risk assessor take a look at our blocks. He recommended something entirely unnecessary which would have cost us £15.,000. Rat duly smelt!

    4. Yo All

      18 months ago, my Disco was MOT’d by the local garage and I was given a warning that the Brake Discs needed to be replaced.

      I booked the car in for a service, down Bob of Bonsall’s way, with a Land Rover Service Centre, for Routine Service and brake sorting.
      They said Brakes were OK. No further action required

      Jazz goes to Local Garage for MOT, brakes reportedly have a problem………

      1. Morning OLT. When I had a car I used to regard these minor repairs as a tip for passing the MOT!

      2. Yes, I had mine replaced last year. I also remember them being done the year prior.

        So I’m going to go to a different garage next time.

    5. Oh engineers suggesting you give them money to replace a working part? Fairly common, especially amongst the disreputable ones. I don’t blame them, but it means you don’t go back to them.

      One bloke did tell me that the boiler’s fine, you probably need to replace this and this, and the cost is this. I suggested that’s about the same as a new one and he rather agreed. As it is, a newer boiler will be more efficient than an older one.

    6. The French are far more sensible as far as MoT inspections go.

      Car inspections for roadworthiness have to be done every two years by specialist inspectors who are not allowed to do any work on cars themselves. Their premises are not equipped to do repairs as they have to be totally independent so that there is no advantage to them whether they pass or fail a car. The test result in two categories – i) a fail and the repair work has to be done at a garage of your choice within two months and the car is then inspected again when it has been done; ii) a pass but with a list of things that are faulty or may fail in the future – these things you are advised to repair but not obliged to do.

    1. That’s a dreadful state of affairs. The police are failing in so many important aspects of upholding the long established laws.
      But they’ll nick anyone who is suspected of so called ‘hate speech’. They need to seriously sort themselves out.
      Oh hang on someone is banging on my front door………

      1. The blame lays squarely with the two previous incumbents. Hogan Howe and Cressida Dick. He became a Baron and she became a Dame.

        1. It goes back much further than those two. The last two commissioners of substance were Robert Mark and David McNee. Since then there has been a sorry parade of incompetents, including: Kenneth Newman, Peter Imbert, Paul Condon, John Stevens, Ian Blair (in particular), and Paul Stephenson; none of whom did anything about ridding that sorry organisation of corruption. Each and every one of that pathetic bunch, though, was awarded a knighthood.

        2. More than that – it would be interesting to see who the rapists are. It’s always disguised, but the simple fact is that since London was made a toilet of third world welfarists crime has soared. Theft, mugging, knifing, rape, rampant drug use – all because Labour imported the third world to live there to create a voting bloc.

  27. Morning all 😉 😊
    Rain again supposedly brighter later. “I don’t believe it” !
    More government crap and money wasting, I expect a few bungs are taking place on the quite. Otherwise the is not much point in all these enquiries especially this latest covid BS if they don’t know what actually by now they never will. Unless of course ‘cash transfers’ take place.

  28. Festival reviews motto over fears it is racist

    A music festival is reviewing its motto over fears it could be deemed racist.

    Llangollen International Eisteddfod’s Welsh motto, from a verse by the poet T Gwynn Jones, translates as: “Blessed is a world that sings. Gentle are its songs.”

    However, “gwyn” means “blessed” and “white” in Welsh, so the motto could be translated as: “White is a world that sings.”

    A festival spokesman said: “The intended meaning is not clear enough.”

    Elfyn Llwyd, a former MP and ex-westminster leader of Plaid Cymru, said he was “furious” and “lost for words”, adding: “T Gwynn Jones was one of our best-ever poets.”

    Can anyone, who is schooled in the ancient discipline of Common Sense, explain to me, lucidly, how the name of a colour (or, to be precise, a complete lack of colour) can be, per se, a symbol of hatred towards people of various racial stereotypes?

  29. Good moaning all,

    Another dreich start at McPhee Towers, 10℃, moderate SW breeze. Yesterday’s promised bright spell didn’t materialise so I’m not holding out much hope for today’s. They tell us the planet will be several degrees warmer by the end of the century but they can’t forecast the weather from one day to the next with any reliability.

    Just when I thought the Lineker distraction was over I’ve learned that he is of the ‘chosen’ tribe. That explains it.

    1. The weather will be colder/hotter is presented as fact when it is sheer scaremongering.

    1. From the BBC website–

      A Home Office spokesperson said the government was “committed to making every effort to reduce hotel use and

      limit the burden on the taxpayer”.

      Not true !

      Recently Serco advertised for hotels and housing for “asylum seekers” offering up to a seven year contract.

      1. I don’t understand. If Serco are hiving off the contract, what’s the Home Office for? What do those 150,000 people do?

    2. Isn’t that the town, that the locals lined the streets, to pay homage to our
      fallen soldiers,about a decade ago?

  31. Bacon placed in Muslim police officer’s boots as racist behaviour ‘dismissed’ by Met
    Casey review highlighted numerous instances of appalling racism and discrimination faced by serving members at the hands of some colleagues
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/21/casey-review-bacon-placed-muslim-police-officers-boots/

    BTL

    When we were children worms or other creepy crawlies were put under our shirts and down our backs and we did the same back to those who did it to us. Why don’t Muslims learn to put up with things being put in their shoes?

    3. A whole industry has been constructed around taking offence. It provides potential benefits and leads to positive discrimination for those who declare themselves as victims. The movement has become a juggernaut and in our woke world, you’re not going to beat it so you may as well join in. White males need not apply!

      1. I have a feeling that the whole problem is the civil service having a list of things it wanted to find and went ahead and found them.

        If the review were honest, it would be able to differentiate office humour with genuine problems. Considering the job plod do, I imagine there has to be a degree of banter just to stay sane.

        2. Site humour is different to office humour, and also more physical, sweary and crude.

    4. There would be a regular ‘bacon run’ at my old place. Our resident muslim, poor Imran, would always be offered one, but would always politely refuse.

      He took it in good humour and grace. He didn’t demand special treatment or somewhere to pray. He just took us bunch of idiots as we were. It wasn’t harmful, it was just jesting.

      1. Used to invite a teetotal nutter on the team to the pub on a Friday with the rest of us, and he’d get all upset until I explained that pubs also served non-alcoholic drinks, and the invitation was intended to include him in the group, rather than just bugger off without him, and he was free to come or decline as he wanted.

  33. As people who read my posts here know I have been banging on for some time that the only way to sort out the Conservative Party would be a mass defection of disgruntled and disaffected Conservative MPs to either the Reform Party or a newly established proper conservative party. Anyway, as it is now extremely unlikely that Labour can be stopped from winning the next election, it would surely be better to start the work on the renaissance of conservatism now rather than later?

    I heard on GB News last night that Anne Widdecombe, Belinda de Lucy and Ben Habib – all former prominent members of the Brexit Party – have just joined the Reform Party because they are outraged by the total betrayal of Northern Ireland in Sunak’s Windsor Framework Surrender. But if the Brexit Party has a hope in Hell they are going to have to win over a significant number of current Conservative MPs.

    Richard Tice will continue to be a problem for the Reform Party if he continues to support Net Zero and does not want to consider the harms that the Covid gene therapy has done and is still doing.

    4. I don’t think any political party is the answer. They are all led by pyschopathic narcissists, they are all compromises, they are all corruptible, they are all a part of the revolution. We cannot compromise when our history, our culture and our people’s place in our own ancestral homelands are all under threat.

      https://www.commonlawconstitution.org
      https://www.edward-fitzgerald.com/smoke-and-mirrorshttps://static.wixstatic.com/media/eea6af_c26b5da5673f417383d043aa3be96379~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_300,h_370,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/Smoke%20%26%20Mirrors%20(Thumbnail).jpg

    5. I don’t think any political party is the answer. They are all led by pyschopathic narcissists, they are all compromises, they are all corruptible, they are all a part of the revolution. We cannot compromise when our history, our culture and our people’s place in our own ancestral homelands are all under threat.

      https://www.commonlawconstitution.org
      https://www.edward-fitzgerald.com/smoke-and-mirrorshttps://static.wixstatic.com/media/eea6af_c26b5da5673f417383d043aa3be96379~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_300,h_370,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/Smoke%20%26%20Mirrors%20(Thumbnail).jpg

  34. 372283+ up ticks,

    If it is carried out with common sense & integrity hardly any politico’s / pharmaceuticals will benefit, but the peoples
    witnessing the loss of love ones and those seriously injured must surely be seeking closure.

    Tuesday 21 March: Who will benefit from this ludicrously drawn-out, costly Covid inquiry?

    Far better to ask who benefits from the thousands of morally illegal immigrants filling up hotels , and for what purpose are they being given succour via dangerous / treacherous fools.

  35. Good morrow, Gentlefolks, today’s story

    The Dark Side Of Women

    A woman was in town on a shopping trip.

    She began her day finding the most perfect shoes in the first shop and a beautiful dress on sale in the second.

    In the third, everything had just been reduced by 50 percent when her mobile phone rang.

    It was a female doctor notifying her that her husband had just been in a terrible car accident and was in critical condition and in the ICU…

    The woman told the doctor to inform her husband where she was and that she’d be there as soon as possible.

    As she hung up she realized she was leaving what was shaping up to be her best day ever in the boutiques. She decided to get in a couple of more shops before heading to the hospital.

    She ended up shopping the rest of the morning, finishing her trip with a cup of coffee and a beautiful chocolate cake slice, compliments of the last shop. She was jubilant.

    Then she remembered her husband. Feeling guilty, she dashed to the hospital.

    She saw the doctor in the corridor and asked about her husband’s condition. The lady doctor glared at her and shouted, ‘You went ahead and finished your shopping trip didn’t you! I hope you’re proud of yourself!

    While you were out for the past four hours enjoying yourself in town, your husband has been languishing in the Intensive Care Unit! It’s just as well you went ahead and finished, because it will more than likely be the last shopping trip you ever take!

    For the rest of his life he will require round-the-clock care. And YOU will now be his carer!’

    The woman was feeling so guilty she broke down and sobbed.

    The lady doctor then chuckled and said, ‘I’m just pulling your leg. He’s dead. Show me what you bought.’

  36. Reforming the Met is now long overdue

    Over the years, the Metropolitan Police has been on the receiving end of a number of damning assessments. In the 1960s, an investigation into rampant corruption in the CID led to a clean-up operation under Sir Robert Mark. The Scarman report into the 1981 Brixton riots criticised the Met’s use of stop and search powers, while the Macpherson inquiry into the murder of Stephen Lawrence accused it of “institutional racism”.

    Today, Baroness Casey’s review joins this ignominious litany. Arguably, it is more excoriating than anything that has gone before, not least because it seems that nothing has been learned. She was commissioned to review the culture and standards of London’s police following the murder of Sarah Everard by a serving officer. Since then, other scandals have shattered public confidence in the force.

    Lady Casey’s report finds that the Met is failing women and children, is beset by racism, sexism and homophobia, has degraded front-line activities and is unable to police itself. She questions whether it is any longer in a position to fulfil the contract between the Met and public. “Policing by consent in the capital is broken,” she says.

    There could hardly be a more devastating critique. But why should her proposed reforms prove any more successful than those the Met’s leadership had pledged to implement in the past? Lady Casey said the biggest single barrier to fixing the force “is the Met’s culture of defensiveness and denial about the scale of its problems”. Some sections were essentially laws unto themselves.

    Lady Casey concedes that her proposed changes may not make any difference, in which case more radical options should be considered, including breaking up the Met into national, specialist and London responsibilities. The force is not just responsible for crime fighting, which sometimes seems low on its priority list, but for counter-terrorism and has the seat of government to protect, as well.

    Strong leadership is needed and yet may not be possible to provide in such an unwieldy organisation. The last four commissioners have left office under a cloud, with the incumbent, Sir Mark Rowley, desperately trying to keep the force intact. But, given the scale of the task and the failure of past reforms, a restructuring of the Met into more manageable units is long overdue. It is clinging to legitimacy and only major surgery will suffice.

    How many more times, over the next few decades, are we going to hear this same old lament? Those running the show have had more than ample opportunity to put things right over the past half century and they serially fail to do so. While ever we continue to have execrable politicians employing not-fit-for-purpose police chiefs, then the pitiful status quo shall remain

      1. It needs a very strong person to sort it out. Remove the Home Office from interfearing and let them get on with it.

      1. Good morning, Maggiebelle

        On our travels in Mianda we met a Dutch woman who married a Turk. She returned to Holland with her husband and baby and he got a job in the fire service. However he was instructed that he would lose his job and have to return to Turkey if he did not pass an exam in Dutch in 18 months time. He was a very affable chap; he worked hard at his job and his Dutch lessons, passed the exam and he, his wife and family are happily living in Holland.

          1. Delving into pre-history, in my youth, air hostesses had to be fluent in at least one other language besides English. And, I think, preference was given to those who were also qualified nurses.

          2. My father had to take the civil service Arabic exams before he served in the Sudan. The funny thing was that even though my father passed out top of his year my mother, who had no academic qualifications at all, could communicate far better with the native servants who worked in the house than my father could.

      2. If you have a Danish passport, you cannot keep it unless you are fluent in Danish by the age of 22.

    3. The more woke the Mets leadership has become the less woke the rank and file have become. Strange that.

  37. 372283+ up ticks,

    Farage: ‘Getting Our Entire Country Back on Track’ Much Bigger Than Brexit

    You sure ?

    1. Brilliant honest and accurate speech.
      Look at all those AH running out, the absolute scum bags.
      And when it came to voting for the end of the rubber boat invasion a lot of them didn’t even turn up.

        1. He did not deny that he swore at Mr Plod but denied having said that Mr Plod was a Pleb!

          It cannot be denied that Mitchell is an extremely nasty piece of work.

      2. A fish rots from the head downwards so I would not want to stand anywhere near either Sunak or Hunt as the suffocating stink would be beyond endurance.

        1. I expect the house with 650 plus stuffed in there all at once has its problems.
          Imagine the smell in NSW now. One million or more fish found dead in the Darling River. Supposedly caused by lack of oxygen. Due to too much recent rain and heat. Hard to believe.

    2. Dr John Campbell compared the MPs behaviour in this clip with a recent clip where the MPs were debating their pay rise. Needless to say the clip shows the House of Commons Chamber full to the gunnels. In my view none of the current house except Bridgen and Chope should be re-elected at the next general election.

  41. Any day now these acts of provocation, from both sides, will result in an incident and yet further escalation.

    Dramatic moment Russian SU-35 fighter jet intercepts two US B-52 nuclear bombers over Baltic Sea days after downing of American Reaper drone
    Russia said it detected ‘two air targets’ flying towards Russian air space
    Incident came as Russia flew two of its own nuclear bombers over Sea of Japan

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11885091/Dramatic-moment-Russian-SU-35-fighter-jet-intercepts-two-B-52-nuclear-bombers-Baltic-Sea.html

    1. We already know DH Biden is demented, but surely others around him can stop all this stupidity.

    2. Reminds me of the film ‘The Bedford Incident’ with Richard Widmark as the captain of a USN ship playing cat and mouse with a Soviet submarine somewhere in the Arctic ocean. It didn’t end well.

  42. Watch out Mr wibbling, your hound’s antics might be pricey.

    Estimated fine: £5,000
    Another area that many motorist may not be aware can see them slapped with a fine is pets in the car.
    Ms Rennox says that the Highway Code states animals should be restrained in the car to avoid distractions.
    She said: ‘Watch out for your furry friends! They may seem like the ideal traveling companion, but they can cause many distractions for the driver. The Highway Code states that animals should be suitably restrained so they cannot distract you while you are driving or injure you or themselves if you stop quickly.
    ‘Your pets won’t want to cause you any inconvenience, but if they are not restrained with a seat belt harness, pet carrier, dog cage or dog guard, you could receive an almighty £5,000 fine ‘

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/cars/article-11884925/Five-ways-passengers-pet-land-6-250-fines.html?ico=mol_desktop_home

  45. FFS

    Premier League referees ‘are asked to pause night matches for Muslim players to break their fast during Ramadan’… with the holy period due to start tomorrow
    The holy period of Ramadan, which is observed by Muslims, starts tomorrow
    Ahead of Ramadan beginning, referees have been asked to pause night matches
    This will allow Muslim players to break their fast once the sun has gone down

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-11885073/Referees-asked-pause-night-matches-Muslim-players-break-fast-Ramadan.html

    2. In the 1924 Olympics, Eric Liddell refused to run in a race on a Sunday because of his religious convictions (See the film ‘Chariots of Fire’). If these Muslims feel so strongly, perhaps they should follow Liddell’s example and not play in the match at all.

    3. In the 1924 Olympics, Eric Liddell refused to run in a race on a Sunday because of his religious convictions (See the film ‘Chariots of Fire’). If these Muslims feel so strongly, perhaps they should follow Liddell’s example and not play in the match at all.

    4. For goodness sake. Why do we have to accommodate them? Why is it we always bend to their beliefs and requirements!

    5. Time the sun went down on all of this nonsence. Are they going to stick their bums in the air instead of kneeling as well?

      1. One would have thought that most teams had sufficient strength in depth to use the affected players as substitutes, bringing them on after their religious observations are complete. It seems to me to be yet another excuse to aggrandise the Muslims while ignoring other belief systems. I very much doubt that any committed Christians would be mollycoddled if they refused to play on Sundays.
        As Aeneas has noted, they could always be conscientious refuseniks, like Liddell

      2. Grizzly had a good idea yesterday on what to place in the seemingly vacant parking spaces.

  46. 372283+ up ticks,

    Benny boy is on the ball but sadly in my view supporting the very party that has no intentions of obliterating the tory (ino) party more like reshuffling it in a RESET manner.

    The ukip party after the great 2019 treachery actions via their own nec / with farage input is now to be considered to be a segment of the odious lab/lib/con / current ukip coalition.

    https://youtu.be/_AgNuAbNIZk

      1. There is much we could do, but it would mean a wholesale reform of parliament to remove the ability of these fools from making our lives miserable.

      2. Like women’s pensions being raised from 60 to 65 (which to be honest I thought was fair) and now the increases to 66/7/8.

        1. I was lucky and got mine at 60, but it’s the basic one, not the newer, higher rate one which came in in 2016. It will always be lower than the post 2016 one. Swings and roundabouts.

      2. We are told that it is pensions (delaying the age at which it can be claimed, which is handy as it is specific to France at this time, handy for our consumption, that is), but I have seen eu flags being burned and banners telling NATO to get out of Ukraine. ‘They obviously don’t want us to get any ideas

        1. Poor frenchies, fancy having to think about retiring at 62 instead of 60! NATO/USA should never have gone there in the first place – but that doesn’t help. The USA and U.K. need to think of a way to extricate themselves from this ridiculous war. Worst thing is it seems our lot are all for it and have been all along.

    3. Yet – forgive my ignorance here – while they shout scream, burn cars, set off fireworks… the state still gets what it wants.

      1. Hopefully they are working themselves up to a state where they drag their oppressors out on to the streets. And deal with them in the time-honoured fashion.

        1. Omegawd, so we’ll get a load of Froggie politicos coming here like the aristocracy during the French revolution.

  48. There seems to be some ‘redaction’ going on here. A couple of my posts have disappeared.

    1. It happens sometimes. Normally when there have been lots of comments. Might reappear with a refresh. Or log out.

    3. Disqus tends to hide your own comments when numbers go above 200 or so. They are still visible to other people and it doesn’t mean they’ve been removed.

  49. I am off for the afternoon. A lecture at the Arts Society on the building of cathedrals.

    Back in time to see if the World has ended. Play nicely.

    PS I expect that the Perlice will tell us that “lessons will be learned”……

      1. Yes, I have. I like Edward Rutherford’s books. London and The Forest are also good reads.

  51. Here’s a good one for election fixing.

    The Canadian government are planning to put electoral roles online. The data will be held offshore but they will not say where. When announcing this move the chief electoral officer denied knowledge of possible Chinese interference in elections. This is despite the security services warning of the problem for years.

    As long as the Chinese don’t release the election result before polls close, I see a lot of people believing that all is fair and above board.

    Probably a confidence vote in parliament today, just for once we hope that a few MPs will vote for country not party.

      1. I suspect the Chinese leadership regards Canada (and indeed the rest of the World) as Lebensraum…..

  52. DO NOT PANIC!

    Killer fungus rampaging through the USA. Is this true or is it another ‘frightener’ or possibly a cover-up for the other rampaging health problem, ‘Died Suddenly’?

    Apologies, link will not copy across.

      1. God I hope the link comes back. How can I panic about this if I don’t know I am supposed to panic about.

      1. Disgraceful to attach the name of ‘Windsor’ to this and associate this witch’s cauldron of deceit with the RF…. oh, just a minute, it may be more relevant than I first thought. I’m relieved they waited until HM The Queen had passed, though.

          1. She’s doing all right at the moment, Alec. She doesn’t like this cold, damp, gloomy weather that we are having in the east, it’s a quick walk for the necessary, about half an hour and then much lolling about. She expects me to loll about with her so not a lot gets done – that’s my excuse, anyway! Her lymphoma is growing but not causing difficulties for her yet. Her heart condition, the leaky mitral valve is, for the time being, stable on her three lots of medication and she is doing well on it. Her hearing is deteriorating, though, and we do have a sense that she is very slowly winding down.

  54. Afternoon good people. My next door neighbour is adjusting the bonnet of his rather beautiful car by fetching it one with a chunky rubber headed mallet. For those who know about these things the bulge in the bonnet denotes it to be a MGC (in lovely condition) The 3 litre engine sounds quite sporty!

      1. A friend (plumber by trade 50+years) has an original Mini Cooper and a Mk1 Ford Escort RS….

    2. Early 70s I use to own a BGT I went to a cousin wedding in Berkshire he had a V8 version. Gutted.
      We went to Sandringham a few years ago and there was an immaculate Blue MGC in one of the garages. It was Charlie’s car.

    1. A husband was getting tired of sex with his wife.

      “You just lie there” he said “can’t you show some enthusiasm, moan or something?”

      So next time they had sex, as he was getting down to business she started: “you should have seen the queues at Tecos today – slow and the parking was awful…”

  57. Net Zero (repairs)

    It’s a surprise that Reuters has published an article revealing that the electric vehicle revolution might not be as environmentally friendly as automakers claim. Furthermore, a scratched or slightly damaged battery pack could lead insurance companies to scrap the entire car.

    “We’re buying electric cars for sustainability reasons,” Matthew Avery, research director at automotive risk intelligence company Thatcham Research, said.

    Avery pointed out, “an EV isn’t very sustainable if you’ve got to throw the battery away after a minor collision.”

    A Tesla battery pack costs tens of thousands of dollars and represents a large percentage of the vehicle’s price tag. Insurance companies have found that it’s uneconomical to replace battery packs if damaged.”

    1. Have they only just noticed? Gosh…all these well paid people…and all they had to do was ask a Nottler.

    1. Well done, Bob!

      No ‘hints’ till my fourth throw – and a Bogey Five for me.

      Wordle 640 5/6
      ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨
      ⬜🟨⬜⬜🟨
      🟨⬜🟨🟨⬜
      ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

      2. I managed a par
        Wordle 640 4/6

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

        Probably beats my scores on the golf course this afternoon.

    2. I obviously start off from a completely different premise from you, Bob!

      Wordle 640 3/6

      ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
      🟩🟨🟨⬜🟨
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    3. Well done! A 3 for me today.

      Wordle 640 3/6

      ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨
      🟩🟩🟩⬜🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    4. Par for me
      Wordle 640 4/6

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

  59. Deep breaths
    Ha ha ha ha ha:

    So how DID Prince Harry get a US visa? Campaigners demand to know if Duke admitted ‘multiple’ drug use on application – and call for the royal to be deported if he lied about taking cocaine before moving to California

    I do hope he is found to have lied and gets deported, it would serve the stupid fool right.
    I can’t see Meagain being too happy about moving from the USA.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11884759/So-DID-Prince-Harry-visa-despite-drug-use-Campaigners-demand-know.html

    1. We don’t want him back either.

      Wouldn’t they be happier in some African country such as Rwanda? I hear that is where all of the unwanted go.

    2. She would stay where she is and Harry would have to return alone to the UK.

      What’s not to like for Harry with this arrangement?

      1. I suspect so and claim the children.
        If they divorce and she gets custody will their titles be revoked, I wonder.

    3. It would have to be if he lied on his application, as he doesn’t have a prior conviction. Remember John Lennon, having his visa revoked, that was for a conviction back in the late 60’s I think, in London.

      1. It seems quite possible or even probable that he “omitted” his usage and/or was “economical” with the truth.
        I wouldn’t be particularly surprised to discover that he hasn’t even applied.

  60. Latest news from the home front.

    The most left wing (and that takes some doing) party just announced that they would support all other parties voting for the Conservative party motion demanding that Trudeaus Chief of Staff appear before a committee investigating Chinese election interference.

    After months of delay and refusal to allow this testimony, Trudeau has backed down and his chief of Staff will now appear at the committee.

    Bummer. No confidence vote at this time, the despised emporer carries on as before.

  61. It seems we will be required to show one (of 21 forms) of Photo ID in use across the UK to be able to vote in person in the forthcoming local elections. Folk can still apply for a postal ballot (something which I regards as a bit of a chink in the armour of voter integrity – given the potential for widespread abuse).

    1. Of course – how else are the begums going to vote?

      To add to your joy, a NoTTLer yesterday posted that ID showing face must be produced unless face coverings required by religion.

        1. We all know that – but the far-right slammers demand that their women hide their faces (whatever islam says or doesn’t say.

        3. The use of full face coverings is a political gesture, an “up yours” given the tradition in this country of not covering one’s face.

      4. If we had any spunk at all, we’d all turn up in a full-face veil and insist we were followers of the religion of peace.

    1. Now that i have found you………..you’re lunch ! It’s why they look so happy. Dolly agrees.

      1. No – it would be more like “It’s no use hiding under all that snow – walkies!”.

  63. Why are Ireland’s anti-refugee protests erupting now? Look across the Irish Sea. 21 March 2023.

    Ireland is currently housing about 74,000 asylum applicants, 49,227 of whom are Ukrainians. A year ago, the total number was 7,500. Hotels, emergency shelters and improvised accommodation centres across the country are practically full. And what is sometimes forgotten is that the number of non-Ukrainian applicants is also the highest in decades, mirroring a Europe-wide trend of rising asylum claims.

    As seen during the water charges revolt and through the popularity of the policies of Sinn Féin, mass anger has, in recent memory, largely been directed at the ruling parties, which bailed out the banks and the bondholders on the backs of the Irish working and middle classes before unleashing austerity under the guise of a post-crash recovery. Now anti-refugee sentiment has exploded amid a devastating housing crisis, made worse by the destabilising effects of public sector cuts and stagnant wages.

    With the asylum system at breaking point and fury building at these national maladies, anti-refugee protests and the febrile discourses that swirl around are potentially signalling the birth of a new political energy that could impose itself on future elections in Ireland. On closer inspection, they also demonstrate the importation of anti-refugee arguments from across the Irish Sea.

    Yes it’s all our fault! Neverthless it’s worth a read to get a grasp of what’s really happening in Ireland!

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/mar/21/ireland-anti-refugee-protests-far-right-uk-politics

    1. “On closer inspection, they also demonstrate the importation of anti-refugee arguments from across the Irish Sea.”

      The last thing the Irish would do (or be seen to be doing) is copying the English.

          2. Oh, no, no, no, no – it won’t have ended by then. Sorry. They know you are on the way and they are biding their time. They haven’t even got into gear yet.

            I’m just envious, that’s all. I miss France. 😩😩😩

  66. Wonderful, (sarc) a phone conversation today with the cardiology secretary. I confirmed my choice to go ahead with a catheter ablation.
    Problem……could be at least a six month wait.
    That will two and a half years since it all went wrong.

    3. Local anaesthetic or general anaesthetic?
      When I had mine general was a long wait and local was 3 weeks. I chose the shorter wait.

        1. I’d had 11 episodes in 9 months the shortest lasting 2 hours and the longest 17 hours. Blue lighted to A&E on 2 occasions but all of the self corrected. However when the AF started it was as much as I could do to get to the lavatory and back. Speed was of the essence.
          Not brave just practical.

          1. Was yours like mine was ruined by the Covid jabs. I returned to normal after the first jab. But soon after the second jab the afib returned and became worse after the subsequent flu jab. I had a cardioversion last August but it only lasted three months. I’m so fed up, it’s ruining my lifestyle. We were going to Oz again but are stuck.

          2. I feel for you as it’s not pleasant when you have an episode.
            We decided right from the beginning that we wouldn’t have any of the experimental injections as they couldn’t have been tested properly in only 9 months and therefore your question doesn’t apply to me. I was caught out once with a government diktat with statins, from which I don’t think I’ve ever recovered, and have vowed never again to have anything that isn’t prescribed personally for me by my doctor.
            I’m sorry you’re in this predicament and hope when you do have another ablation it is successful and long lasting.

          3. I had a local friend late 60s fairly fit and still active. After all his jabs and boosters, he had a heart attack, they took him into A&E were he had a fatal stroke.
            One can only guess at what had caused it. But the terrible irony is, he use to be a research chemist in the medication industry.
            Thanks for your kind thoughts.
            I just wish I didn’t have to wait so long.

      1. 372283+up ticks,

        Afternoon NtN,

        Not by kindness as many of the politico’s & followers would do.

    2. Simple solution. Try that here and you’ll get an arrow through the eye. As will your pyjama wearing wasters.

      Then I’ll shave the beard off your corpse and stick you on a spike and cover you in pig fat.

  68. The lecture, I am told, was extremely good. The problem was that the speaker, a lady, spoke quietly, frequently turned her head away from the mike, and dropped her voice at the end of sentences (when – often, to judge from the laughter, she was making an amusing remark).

    I did hear some bits – and they were excellent. She knows her stuff. Just not how to use a sound system….

    Pity, really.

    1. Push your way to the front. Tell them you are hard of hearing and if they don’t speak up you will beat them over the head with a Trombetti. Don’t be such a wallflower!

      1. The hall was fuller than anyone had ever seen before. There were a dozen people STANDING. We managed to get seats – but a long way from the front.

        As for your suggestion – I am glad to say that we are not like you…..

  69. That’s me for today. Dentist tomorrow to look forward to…{:¬(( Still quite a number of the seeds I sowed last Thursday are already germinating – such a thrill every year.

    Have a jolly evening.

    A demain

  70. He didn’t see that one coming…

    Gwyneth Paltrow’s husband Brad Falchuck and kids Apple, 18, and Moses, 16, WILL testify along with their mother in $300,000 civil lawsuit over 2016 ski crash which left Utah optometrist, 72, with a brain injury and four broken ribs
    Gwyneth Paltrow appeared in court today over a 2016 ski accident in which a retired Utah optometrist claims he was left with permanent injuries
    During opening statements, Paltrow’s lawyer confirmed her husband and two children will take the stand during the eight-day trial
    Terry Sanderson, 76, sought damages in excess of $3.1 million but a judge dismissed his original claim of hit-and-run

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11886151/Gwyneth-Paltrow-arrives-Utah-court-stand-300-000-civil-lawsuit.html

        1. A joke for naughty Spoonerists everywhere:

          Q. What’s the difference between a counterfeit American dollar and Gwyneth Paltrow?

          A. One’s a phony buck and the other’s a bony f*ck!

          1. Schoolboy joke back in 1963:

            Q: “What’s the difference between Christine Keeler and the M1?”
            A: “The M1 knackers your tyres.”

          2. That’s the woman with the splinters in her thighs.

            Half the Cabinet had been through her.

    2. No government department should ever be flying anything but the union flag. What people fly in their own homes is up to them.

      Anyone displaying another country’s colours must, of course, be returned there.

  72. MoH being interested in sewing likes to watch a TV programme called Curvy Brides in which women (average size and weight of Two international rugby props are squeezed into white satin and lace wedding gowns until one fits the bill and displays the admirable collection of tattoos and metal piercings. I only mention this because it occurs to me that the Government should commission photographs of these brides to be and display them on giant posters on the Cliffs of Dover to highlight the delights that await any refugee foolish to risk life and limb to make the Channel crossing in a rubber boat and if successful with the crossing to potentially be suffocated during any conjugal activity that they may be lucky enough to find…..

      1. One would be very lucky to find ‘booty’ amongst the amount of flesh quivering under the acres of satin!

          1. If the rumours are true about African men then it might just be possible – but I very much doubt it….!

  73. 2 Germans in a bar in London:
    – 2 Martinis, please.
    – Dry?
    – NEIN! ZWEI!
    😀

  74. No 2 son has had a noticeable lipoma right in the middle of his forehead which grew from a pimple to a small nob sized lump for a few years.

    The Nhs said he would have to wait a couple of years for removal .. kids were quite cruel to him calling him a unicorn etc , and his confidence has been knocked somewhat

    Today he and his partner travelled up to London by train ( he still has bad limp due to the nasty fall he had before Christmas when he fractured his ankle and fibula )

    Son was booked in to see a private consultant re removal of the lump .. This afternoon the lipoma was removed by local .. 4 stitches required and that was it .

    The bill was a hefty sum .. just over £700.. nice work if you can get it if you are a doctor for 30mts work !!!!!

    2. Think of the astronomical overheads. Insurance, premises in London, CPD costs, Congestion charge, VAT, NI, Tax. I’ll daresay he probably won’t have made more than 1/6 profit!!!!

    4. Something the NHS coud have done much sooner, if only they weren’t on strike demanding more money

      It truly is a hideous, useless organisation.

      1. Or if loads of people, many of whom have never contributed to or paid for the NHS, hadn’t come before him.

    5. If you value health over other spending, its money well spent. If you can get into the NHS, all the better, but you have to make a choice in the end.

  75. Well, here we are, empty-nesters. Both lads now living away.
    Bolloxed up the portion size when I cooked supper tonight (far too much food), couldn’t find the sharp knives to cut the onion (Second Son has had a set since forever that we used), and the place is very quiet. Second Son moved Sunday, I miss him already.

    1. You’ll get used to it, but you’ll never get over it.
      You don’t realise how much a part of your life they are until they move on.

      1. That’s my problem, Maggie, Children long since left home (eldest is 58 on the other side of the world) but no-one to cuddle up to.

        Small wonder, I get depressed sometimes.

        However, I’m trying to get involved with the local Moffat Community.

        Let’s see what that might produce.

        1. Have they made you an offer you can’t refuse?

          Oops Sorry Tom. My bad. I read that as Local Mafia Community……

          1. Read what you wish, Stephen, I’m just looking for a sweet, older lady who wants some compatible companionship.

          2. There must be loads of them, Tom, there are always more ladies than men at our age – you’ll be snapped up before you can say ‘get offa me!’

          3. There’s hundreds in the care homes I play in – they’re all after my body but can’t remember why

      3. Great water sharpener. I sold mine, an earlier version, to a carpenter associate. I included the accessories, parts for sharpening scissors and the like. He is chuffed with it.

    5. I still do it, and the eldest has been away since 2004, and the younger left 2014!

  76. Utterly off topic.

    The first orchid flower of the year has appeared, I very nearly mowed its head off, but saw it just in time.
    About a month earlier than usual.
    I have been doing my usual spotting and marking of potential orchids by the leaf shapes, and the lizard orchids are proliferating as well as numerous potential bee orchids, And that’s beside the ones I get in their hundreds.

    The most exotic one has produced six new plants, but the really good news, from my point of view, is that there appears to be a new one growing away from the clump. Once they break away from the central point the numbers increase rapidly, so fingers crossed…

    They are strange plants, they appear to have a symbiotic relationship with fungi and as the various fungi spread around the garden so do the orchids. What is interesting for me is that as I have tried to nurture them the number of varieties has increased; I now have over 20 species, from an original four or five
    Sadly, no matter how hard I try, I can’t entice the giant lady’s orchid growing further down the valley to take up residence. Some selfish bastard cuts it every year before it can go to seed, and always before there is any chance of harvesting the seeds, which are tiny. I spread mine and if I get one in a million to reproduce it’s a result, you would not believe how tiny the seeds are.
    If we were in the UK our plot would be a SSSI

        1. Yes if it grows to that size it will be special. It is a new tri colour variety. I’ve planted it facing west protected from the rising sun in the East by a fence so that if the buds get frosted the rising sun won’t cause them to wilt.

          1. My problem is that the little bastards put the contrary in contrarian.

            Very, very rewarding when they appear but as far as I can see they won’t split, they won’t seed where expected, they appear one year and then not again for five.

            I think they are trying to drive me mad (der)

      2. This is the first garden we have had that we can grow Camellias. and boy do they do well.

    2. Would taking a leaf cutting and hormone rooting powder do the trick?
      I am no gardening expert, so I’m just throwing out a suggestion for discussion.

      1. I would be surprised but might be worth a try
        They aren’t like the big blousy things one sees in garden centres. Part of my pleasure comes from discovering new ones that appear. looking at the seed they could blow miles, they pod and the pods contain extremely fine dust which blows away when they ripen and split.

    3. Would taking a leaf cutting and hormone rooting powder do the trick?
      I am no gardening expert, so I’m just throwing out a suggestion for discussion.

  77. Ooops.
    Does anyone else think there might be a conspiracy here?
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11886691/DeSantis-nightmare-scenario-Florida-governor-faced-signing-Trump-arrest-warrant.html

    Ron DeSantis’ nightmare scenario: How the Florida governor could become the man who signs Donald Trump’s arrest warrant if former president refuses to go to New York voluntarily to face charges
    New York grand jury is expected to hand down Trump indictment in coming days
    Prosecutors would most likely work with his legal team to arrange his surrender
    But Trump could refuse to come to Manhattan, piling pressure on Ron DeSantis

    The GOP has a remarkable ability for shooting itself in the foot!

    1. That seems to go for most Americans when it comes to choosing their representatives!

    3. Trump has already agreed to comply with any warrant or indictment. He has Secret Service Protection so the precise details are yet to be arranged as they are required to ensure his safety at all times.

      Trump is a lot smarter than DeSantis and the rest of the Deep State operatives.

    4. The Democrats are truly desperate to destroy Trump. That’s the extent they’re frightened of him. But it’s not just the Democrats. It’s the entire state machine. The terror it has of democracy, of being cut down to size, of being made to work is staggering.

  78. My son said that he didn’t understand cloning.
    I said “That makes two of us!”

  79. Tuesday 21 March: Who will benefit from this ludicrously drawn-out, costly Covid inquiry?

    Lawyers.

    1. And all those complicit in the disastrous / deliberate decisions taken which were not based on scientific evidence. By the time the enquiry completes its work it is said 7 years will have elapsed and many of the key players will no longer be with us….

      1. Johnson should have done far more for us but he just nodded things through. He is a very weak man not fit to be an MP.

    2. It ain’t over either….I get a job alert just in case I am ever fit enough to get a small job. One of the jobs posted today was for a Covid-19 vaccinator. Just posted today. It’s all going to be ramped up again. This govt are never going to let it go!

      1. As people line up for them like sheep. These people are so sad and foolish. There was no pademic it was just a new flu type virus.

        1. A virus created in a laboratory, via gain of function research, itself relatively harmless to most excepting oldies about to succumb to seasonal flu or common colds and those on the verge of dying with other co-morbidities.

          The real killer was the vaccines.

          Initially these vaccines were saline solution, making billions for Big Pharma but after Trump lost the Presidency they were escalated to include toxins and God knows what else.

          The intention remains to cause harm to all recipients of the vaccines whether by causing infertility in men and women, killing people outright with blood clotting, promoting cancers, causing mobility disorders even in the young, disabling the armed forces and those mandated to take the jabs, weakening the NHS in a similar manner and generally poisoning the rest of us.

          We are subject as a Nation to some of the most vile anti-human forces on the planet and they have bought our politicians wholesale and made inroads into buying our judiciary and its law officers.

        2. A virus created in a laboratory, via gain of function research, itself relatively harmless to most excepting oldies about to succumb to seasonal flu or common colds and those on the verge of dying with other co-morbidities.

          The real killer was the vaccines.

          Initially these vaccines were saline solution, making billions for Big Pharma but after Trump lost the Presidency they were escalated to include toxins and God knows what else.

          The intention remains to cause harm to all recipients of the vaccines whether by causing infertility in men and women, killing people outright with blood clotting, promoting cancers, causing mobility disorders even in the young, disabling the armed forces and those mandated to take the jabs, weakening the NHS in a similar manner and generally poisoning the rest of us.

          We are subject as a Nation to some of the most vile anti-human forces on the planet and they have bought our politicians wholesale and made inroads into buying our judiciary and its law officers.

    1. Denies the murder and injury. Who else did it then? For bloody hell’s sake. Flay him alive, flog his skinless corpse, cut off his limbs and throw the still screaming remains into a lime pit.

          1. I think in his excitement he forgot the ‘Innocent until proven guilty bit…’

          3. Agreed. And if as in the Philippines Drug Dealers are executed there would be a lot fewer of them in the UK and fewer innocents would suffer.

      2. Er, I posted the above to wind up Professor Grizzly. Incredibly, ‘prosecutation’ is a word used in foreign countries.

  81. Goodnight and God bless, Gentlefolk.

    No promises but, going to bed now, might allow me to battle with Elsie for first slot in tomorrow morning’s light.

  83. If you use a lot of stamps buy now.

    Stamp prices to rise up to 16% on 3 Apr – beat the hike. 1st class stamp prices are set to rise to £1.10 (from 95p), 2nd class stamps to 75p (from 68p). Yet buy 1st or 2nd class now and they will still be valid after, so stock up. For more help, including what to do with non-barcoded stamps that soon become invalid, see stamp on price

  84. Evening, all. As to the headline question, the answer is certainly not the taxpayer, who will end up funding it. Probably the guilty parties, who will be exonerated in the white or black wash.

  85. 40 leading historians battle to block plans to turn Dambusters’ RAF base into migrant camp

    Sir Antony Beevor, Sir Max Hastings and Dan Snow write open letter to Suella Braverman urging her to abandon plan to use RAF Scampton

    Not only is Guy Gibson’s dog personna non grata, in UK 2023, so are the memories of the people who died, so we might live as we wish.

    Why do we not convert Mosques into accommadation?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/20/40-leading-historians-battle-block-plans-turn-dambusters-raf/

    1. Why do we not convert mosques into accommodation?

      The arabs have enough comfortable accommodation for around one million people at mecca. And whilst all the people were fleeing war in the other adjacent areas of the middle east, they flatly refused to take even one single refugee. But they rub their hands with glee at the cultural and social damage their fellow muslims inflicted every where they go.

  86. Off to bed, bored, I might grab a book and start a read. Haven’t read anything for about three months.
    Good night all. 😴

    2. Get hold of a copy of ‘Master and Commander’ by Patrick O’Brian. First in a series of 20 novels. I’m on my 5th read.

  89. Well that’s me for the day, chums. I slept badly on Monday night, so got up at 3.15 am on Tuesday, back to bed for a couple of hours at around 8.15 am, then found myself unable to keep my eyes open at around 2 pm when I went back to bed – this time without an alarm clock and I slept soundly for four hours in time for a Full English Breakfast type of meal, then watched a film by the Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu (AN AUTUMN AFTERNOON, highly recommended). All of the above means that my waking/sleeping hours are now up the creek, so I will see you tomorrow but I have no idea when.

    1. I empathise, Elsie, I went to bed around 22:00 and was awake again at 23:59 then saw all the follow times:

      0:01
      0:12
      1:23
      2:34
      3:45
      4:56
      and got up at 05:50 in disgust and made myself some tea while I wait here for Geoff.

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