Thursday 13 April: Skimping on junior doctors’ pay will gut the NHS of its future leaders

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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505 thoughts on “Thursday 13 April: Skimping on junior doctors’ pay will gut the NHS of its future leaders”

  1. Good morrow, Gentlefolks, today’s story

    Catch As Catch Can
    An Old man is sitting on his front porch down in Louisiana at six in the morning watching the sunrise and sees the neighbour’s kid walk by carrying something big under his arm. He yells out “Hey boy, whatcha got there?”
    The boy yells back “Roll of chicken wire.”

    The old man says “What you gonna do with that?”
    The boy says, “Catch some chickens.”

    The old man yells “You damn fool, you can’t catch chickens with chicken wire!”

    The boy just laughs and keeps walking. That evening at sunset the boy comes walking by and to the old man’s surprise he is dragging behind him the chicken wire with about 30 chickens caught in it.

    Same time next morning the old man is out watching the sunrise and he sees the boy walk by carrying something in his hand. The old man yells out “Hey boy, whatcha got there?”
    The boy yells back “Roll of duck tape.”

    The old man says “What you gonna do with that?”
    The boy says back “Catch me some ducks.”

    The old man yells back, “You damn fool, you can’t catch ducks with duck tape!”

    The boy just laughs and keeps walking. That night around sunset the boy walks by coming home and to the old man’s amazement he is trailing behind him the unrolled roll of duck tape with about 35 ducks caught in it.

    Same time next morning the old man sees the boy walking by carrying what looks like a long reed with something fuzzy on the end. The old man says, “Hey boy, whatcha got there?”

    The boy says, “It’s a pussy willow.”
    The old man says “Hold on, I’ll get my hat.”

      1. I’ll refrain from posting a photo, but on the highway nearby there are the remains of a mallard which has been completely ducked/duct.

        By a motor vehicle earlier this morning.

        1. “Duck tape” is recorded in the Oxford English Dictionary as having been in use since 1899. Duct tape since 1965 (It was used for sealing warm/hot ducting.

          The first material called “duck tape” was long strips of plain non-adhesive cotton duck cloth used in making shoes stronger, for decoration on clothing, and for wrapping steel cables or electrical conductors to protect them from corrosion or wear.

        2. “Duck tape” is recorded in the Oxford English Dictionary as having been in use since 1899. Duct tape since 1965 (It was used for sealing warm/hot ducting.

          The first material called “duck tape” was long strips of plain non-adhesive cotton duck cloth used in making shoes stronger, for decoration on clothing, and for wrapping steel cables or electrical conductors to protect them from corrosion or wear.

  2. Morning all.

    I liked the letter from Robert Beeson today but although i can remember his name i cannot for the life of me remember what his letter was about. I’ll look it up later. Off to work but before I go, i noticed today’s obituaries all wrote date of death in the American style – April 6, 2023. I’ve never noticed this before.

    1. I’ve given up ‘refreshing’ until I can run Ccleaner, Minty, and clear out the dross.

        1. I’ll still log out of everything until I just have the raw browser page and then click on ‘History’, select all (Ctrl + A) and delete them.

          Only then will I run Ccleaner and get rid of trackers and other dross. Then I analyse the browser, run ‘Cleaner’, once that’s clean, I’ll scan the registry for any other problems.

          I end up with a clean and sweet Windows 7 professional.

  7. ‘Huge honour’: Ireland breaks out the bunting for Joe Biden. 12 April 2023.

    Joe Biden has started a three-day personal and political pilgrimage to the Republic of Ireland, receiving a rapturous welcome despite heavy wind and rain.

    I actually caught this on the news. People stood alongside the road cheering and clapping. It seemed so strange. What is the motivation? It is something I would never consider doing myself. This is not a snipe at Biden. I wouldn’t do it for anyone else, particularly a politician. Is it me? Is this some hidden flaw in my character?

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/apr/12/huge-honour-ireland-breaks-out-the-bunting-for-joe-biden

    1. No, Minty, the flaw is in the Irish character. They so want to be loved by anyone outside the accursed EU.

  8. Remainers have captured the Bank of England. No wonder it’s so second-rate

    The entrenchment of Treasury orthodoxy in the Bank all but ensures the stagnation of policy

    MATTHEW LYNN
    12 April 2023 • 6:46pm

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/business/2023/04/12/TELEMMGLPICT000331798202_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqDo1PhbPPiB1HBZscUHLBE0ikPYR0xYwuEBLwP9UFqPg.jpeg?imwidth=680

    Megan Greene is to begin her term on the Bank’s monetary policy committee in July
    Based on its latest appointment, there are a series of boxes which prospective Monetary Policy Committee members should tick. Do they believe the UK would be better off inside the European Union?

    Have they ever described the mini-Budget as putting the government in a “horrible” position, and used the tired trope “trickle down economics”?

    Megan Greene appears to fit the bill. And she is viewed by some as the safe choice, who will replace Silvana Tenreyro when her term ends in July.

    Sure, Greene is bright and personable. She has an undergraduate degree from Princeton, a post graduate one from Oxford University, and is currently a Senior Fellow at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs.

    She is the global chief economist of Kroll, the firm best known as a corporate investigator.

    Greene writes commentary for the Financial Times, which will give her plenty of connections, and she will be able to articulate the major issues facing the MPC and the Bank in the media.
    *
    *
    *
    **************************

    Anthony Smith
    11 HRS AGO
    Her CV is very odd.
    No PhD or research experience.
    Lasted 5 months at JP Morgan, and then drifted through her 20s, with odd jobs and a 2 year employment gap in her CV. Did not even start working as an economist of any sort until she was 29. So she only has about 15 years of experience as an economist.
    A number of job moves have involved inexplicable jumps in experience/seniority levels.
    Started her own company that makes very grandiose claims about the economic advice that she gave, but this seems to have made little money and Companies House threatened to close it down. It lasted less than 2 years.
    Seems to me that there are only 3 possibilities:
    1. She is brilliant but very erratic
    2. Her career is built on connections, hubris and BS (she did get to work for the Luxembourg Royal family).
    3. She took full advantage of tokenism in a period when companies were desperate to get women into senior positions.

    Ivan Opinion
    11 HRS AGO
    Reply to Anthony Smith
    The entire MPC are lightweights. They are put there by Treasury to do exactly what HMT wants which is generally keep money loose and inflate away the debt

    Blogstalker Sixty-two
    11 HRS AGO
    Reply to Anthony Smith
    I imagine those inexplicable jumps were due to box ticking.

    retired banker
    10 HRS AGO
    Reply to Anthony Smith
    Or she is a lying counterfeiter
    Like all the others?

    Lee Bradshaw
    7 HRS AGO
    Reply to Anthony Smith
    Is it really to much to ask a conservative government to actually appoint a conservative to run something?

    2. I’m developing a serious allergy to the name “Megan” – in all its various spellings.

  9. Zelenskiy urges world leaders to act over PoW beheading video. 13 April 2023

    Volodymyr Zelenskiy has urged international leaders to act after disturbing video emerged on Wednesday of Russian soldiers apparently beheading a Ukrainian prisoner of war lying on the ground.

    Ukraine’s president said the world could not ignore the “evil” footage, which has not been verified by the Guardian.

    “How easily these beasts kill. We are not going to forget anything. Neither are we going to forgive the murderers,” Zelenskiy said. “There will be legal responsibility for everything. The defeat of terror is necessary.”

    Do terrible things happen in wars? Well yes they do. There are probably worse things than this happening on the front lines every day. So why the singular shock/horror here? Even this presumes that the incident is genuine. Such stuff is the very essence of False Flag operations. An action designed not to provoke a response but to justify it. Bearing in mind that this is the Ukies, there must be considerable doubt as to its authenticity, not simply because they have a history of fabrication but because of its singular nature. If there really is such a culture in the Russian army one would expect to see more. I haven’t seen this footage myself and I haven’t looked for it. If it’s real I will have saved myself an unpleasant experience and if it’s fake I assume that it will be so well done that there will be no perceived difference.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/12/ukraine-zelenskiy-urges-world-leaders-act-over-russia-pow-beheading-video

  10. Zelenskiy urges world leaders to act over PoW beheading video. 13 April 2023

    Volodymyr Zelenskiy has urged international leaders to act after disturbing video emerged on Wednesday of Russian soldiers apparently beheading a Ukrainian prisoner of war lying on the ground.

    Ukraine’s president said the world could not ignore the “evil” footage, which has not been verified by the Guardian.

    “How easily these beasts kill. We are not going to forget anything. Neither are we going to forgive the murderers,” Zelenskiy said. “There will be legal responsibility for everything. The defeat of terror is necessary.”

    Do terrible things happen in wars? Well yes they do. There are probably worse things than this happening on the front lines every day. So why the singular shock/horror here? Even this presumes that the incident is genuine. Such stuff is the very essence of False Flag operations. An action designed not to provoke a response but to justify it. Bearing in mind that this is the Ukies, there must be considerable doubt as to its authenticity, not simply because they have a history of fabrication but because of its singular nature. If there really is such a culture in the Russian army one would expect to see more. I haven’t seen this footage myself and I haven’t looked for it. If it’s real I will have saved myself an unpleasant experience and if it’s fake I assume that it will be so well done that there will be no perceived difference.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/12/ukraine-zelenskiy-urges-world-leaders-act-over-russia-pow-beheading-video

    2. As propaganda this isn’t very sophisticated: brutality in war. Who would have thought that?
      Believing anything Zelensky announces re the conflict requires a stretch of the imagination.

    3. Didn’t something very similar happen to a Met policeman the other day in Leytonstone/Walthamstow?
      Machete Man wasn’t quite skilled enough to actually total his victim.

  11. Good morning, all. Bright with a light breeze at the moment.

    Moderna ordered to release 24,000 documents re their “vaccine”. Bearing in mind that >13,000 of these documents deal with adverse events what the hell were Sunak and his TINO government thinking when they agreed to support this company setting up a base here in the UK? More money, that we don’t have, disappearing into the ever open maw of Big Pharma?

    Aaron Siri, the lawyer who sued Pfizer, and won, over the 75 years lockdown of their data, also has a case against Moderna.

    Safe and effective?

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/526647da0e2d3fce583d4f7702bea29163ca6e6076e32819045f8c7ffd6ef0ff.png

  12. Good morning all. A dull start after the overnight downpours, but the rain has ceased for now and the grey sky is shewing patches of blue. Still a bit chilly with 1½°C outside.

  13. Good morning, all. Couldn’t get into Discurse earlier. “504 ” GCHQ, I suppose… Sunny now after rain. About to go to market.

    Ne news, again, I see.

      1. The story opens with Grant flat on his back in hospital, under the thumb of bossy nurses,

        1. Nowadays, bossy nurses tip you out of bed the moment your eyelids flutter; and then hand you over to the physioterrorists.

    2. Thanks for the tip, sosra. I’m always interested in what Peter Hitchens recommends so I’ve just popped The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey onto my Kindle – £0.45 for those who use such devices.

      1. Just bought it as well, Fiscal, for the same price.

        I had already commented under Anne Allan’s Link to the Daily Fail.

    4. My nephew went to Mount House near Tavistock before moving to Kelly College and thence to BRNC Dartmouth. Tony Wortham was the headmaster when he was there and would have been there when Peter Hitchens and his brother Christopher were there. I wonder if it was he who recommended the book?

      Tony was a very energetic and competent headmaster who made Mount House one of the best prep schools in the country. Unfortunately it declined after he retired and finally it had to merge with Kelly College, a small public school nearby. It now goes under the name of Mount Kelly.

    5. The BBC will be on to this very soon. Expect Colin Salmon to star as Alan Grant and Ramon Tikaram as Richard III…

  17. G’morning all,

    Lovely day at the McPhee ranch, wind westerly, a bit chilly at 5℃ but the met office promise double figures by 1100. Off for a spot of trout fishing today.

    Dr Rob Laurenson, privileged doughty leader of the junior doctors’ righteous and entirely understandable strike sends his best wishes to all struggling to get seen by their GPs or at their local A&E while he’s having an enjoyable time at a mate’s wedding.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9fcaebf00327769df97189218f183cf7b22cc53d2128237e59ba26553ea41900.jpg

  18. G’morning all,

    Lovely day at the McPhee ranch, wind westerly, a bit chilly at 5℃ but the met office promise double figures by 1100. Off for a spot of trout fishing today.

    Dr Rob Laurenson, privileged doughty leader of the junior doctors’ righteous and entirely understandable strike sends his best wishes to all struggling to get seen by their GPs or at their local A&E while he’s having an enjoyable time at a mate’s wedding.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9fcaebf00327769df97189218f183cf7b22cc53d2128237e59ba26553ea41900.jpg

    1. The book that made me think and question was Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged and deals with what happens when America goes socialist.

      First printed in the early to mid 1950s. “Who is John Galt?”

    2. Yes. Read it at school. Morning Anne. If it wasn’t Dick. Who did murder the Princes?

      1. All too many people had a vested interest in wiping out the obvious line of succession; Richard III and Henry VII both benefitted. We are looking at a society that had been wearied by years of conflict under a mentally feeble monarch; a state of affairs that was no longer acceptable to the entrepreneurial who needed stability to establish their families and businesses. Strife between monarchs and their would be replacements was soooo High Mediaeval and thoroughly out-dated.
        Snobbery plus religious doubts about the validity of the royal marriage entered the equation; the princes’ mother, Elizabeth Woodville was a widowed commoner who caught Edward IV’s notoriously roving eye.
        (That’s ‘commoner’ as in still posh but not royal.)
        The disappearance of the boys was a useful propaganda tool when the time was ripe; I doubt their vaporised inconvenient presence would be mourned by anyone in the dynastic struggles of the late Plantagenet period.
        Unlike their big sister who was convenient breeding and legitimising material, the boys would have been the continued cause of a divided country.
        So the answer is ‘dunno’; both sides benefitted from their possible deaths.

        1. Google Richard of Eastwell- interesting. Said to be either a bastard son of Richard III or Richard Duke of York, younger brother of Edward V- the Tower princes.

    3. Just bought it on Kindle for the lofty price of £0.45

      The Daughter Of Time by Josephine Tey

    4. Not much has changed. It never does.
      I wonder if we might see this book in discussion on the TV programme with Sara Cox. Between the Covers.
      In terms of AH Bliar’s period in office the population was under the sheets.

  20. Rather similar to so many people calling themselves Jedi on another census I would not be surprised to find.

    Trans population may have been ‘significantly overestimated’ in 2021 census – raising fears focus on transgender issues is being ‘exaggerated’
    The ONS suggested there are 262,000 transgender people in England and Wales
    Carl Heneghan said the ONS findings could be ‘biased’ based on validity tests

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11966765/Fears-transgender-issues-exaggerated-trans-population-overestimated-census.html

    2. ‘At last’? Con Coughlin is a fool.

      Col. Douglas McGregor and Scott Ritter are the only reliable commentators on Biden’s war.

    3. ‘At last’? Con Coughlin is a fool.

      Col. Douglas McGregor and Scott Ritter are the only reliable commentators on Biden’s war.

    1. 373372+ up ticks,

      O2O,

      This issue to me shows the power of the people
      via the polling booth, supporting parties that have orchestrated these daily repeated odious situations, they are as big a bastard as the reptile doing the kicking.

    2. In an imaginary country, populated by intelligent beings, scum — such as that — would have been immediately shot through the head and then life would quickly return to normal.

      The problem is, there are no real countries on this planet that are populated by intelligent beings. This is just the start and we are complacently permitting it to propagate.

      1. 373372+ up ticks,

        Morning G,

        “complacently permitting it to propagate”.

        Precisely,even down to voting (knowing the parties pedigree) for more of the same.

      1. 373372+ up ticks,

        Morning M,

        From top political rankers to their lowly supporters, there is a great deal of aiding & abetting going on.

    4. A long time ago a chap turned up to pick up my Dad’s stereo. He was black. I invited him in while I looked for the wires – never did find them). I remember the look of confusion on the chap’s face as if ‘Really? You don’t think I’m a robber?’

      The problem, as Chris Rock said – is that there’s black people – who are simply a different sodding skin colour – and there’s ‘niggers’, who are the violent, offensive, anti social bunch who are also black. Sadly, they’re the ones who get the publicity.

      Perhaps we should stop thinking of this thug as black and just think of him as another sodding criminal who needs a kicking. The problem with that attitude is that the Left *won’t* stop thinking of him as black and thus somehow attribute this armour of racism to his actions.

  23. He really is a senile old twat

    ‘He beat the hell out the Black and Tans’: Smiling Biden invokes British militia in ‘slip of the tongue’ as he tours Ireland
    Joe Biden on Wednesday addressed a crowd at the Windsor Bar in Dundalk, a town just south of the border with Northern Ireland
    Biden referenced Irish former rugby player Rob Kearney, a distant cousin, who earned 95 caps for the Irish team from 2007-19
    He said Kearney ‘beat the hell out the Black and Tans’ – an apparent attempt to reference the All Blacks, but instead naming an infamous 1920s British militia

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11966857/Smiling-Biden-invokes-defeated-British-militia-slip-tongue-tours-Ireland.html

    2. I know many razor sharp 80 + year olds … brilliant clever bods …

      Biden is an OLD man … he hasn’t aged well.

      I think he is way out of his depth.

      1. It’s time the fools in US politics reeled him in, if they are not all embarrassed by now, they should be. Or maybe they are as thick as he is.

        2. The Demonrats have always been, as Glaswegians put it, “As thick as shite in a bottle.”

      2. Many people become senile quite early. The current King was past his sell-by date as soon as he left Gordonstoun.

        1. Mr T, you are welcome to insult the French President but please leave our King alone.
          God forbid, but it would only take five well aimed bullets for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex to become King & Queen.

      3. That’s what the US oligarchs want in a President. The country is now a kakistocracy. So is ours.

      4. Biden is clearly ill and suffering at this point. He has amassed his millions from corruption, fraud and theft at the tax payers expense and should now be retiring – forcibly but respectfully.

        Put the Harris woman in as a temp and see the US economy completely fall apart under the socialists.

        1. Granted, it comes across as an insult to the Brits, but you may be giving him too much credit – I’m surprised he can remember his own name.

    4. Frightening to think he is the leader of the free world and is manipulated by Obama.

    1. Akshally, the Spanish realised the Aztecs were cannibals and determined to put an end to it by arming the local tribes who’d been farmed as sacrificial fodder, and teaching them siege warfare. The victim tribes were more than happy to oblige and bye bye Aztecs.

        1. The Aztecs gave the Spanish gold in the belief that they could be paid to go away. The Spanish of course kept the gold but didn’t go away.

    2. Yes, the sort of rocket scientists who work tirelessly on behalf of the Palestinian people.

    3. I was watching The US Masters golf last week on Sky TV (via a VPN) and all the adverts were from the Republic of Ireland!

    4. I don’t get any commercial Ads on GB News, just their own boringly annoying puffs for the programmes, which you know by heart and which seem to go on for a tedious amount of time.

      1. Could be because I go to their website on my laptop – I got rid of the TV months ago.

  28. Morning all. Nightmare this morning. Water dripping through the ceiling into the downstairs office. Dripping all along the lines in the ceiling it’s a 1930a house so not your modern materials. Plumber on his way in about an hour and in the meantime the old towels that I retired into the garage over the years will come in handy!

    I suppose the timing could have been worse as we’re going away on Sunday.

    1. That is a nightmare.
      In 2018, the Beast from the East froze our pipes while we were away. We came home to find a cold damp house and no power. Our lovely neighbours had done their best to mop up and turned off the water. The bedroom carpet was a write off but at least it was a good reason for a new one.
      Not something you want – not frozen pipes in April though – it’s been chilly but surely not that bad?

      1. Not frozen pipes luckily, leak in something to do with ballcock. So new one installed and hey presto, 3 holes poked into ceiling to help drain the water into two buckets, now filling nicely. Must have been leaking for ages.

    1. 373372+ up ticks,

      O2O,

      ” it is now very apparent” to many of us in a very pro UK party it had been “very apparent” for bloody years.
      One major obstacle we had was combating the eyes tight shut, party before country brigade.

    2. Then surely the solution is simple. Send our own warships out there and refuse the criminal horde.

  30. The Met Office forecast of Storm force 10 never happened but it made frorce 7 & 8

  31. The Met Office forecast of Storm force 10 never happened but it made frorce 7 & 8

      1. Crusty is wrong. From my provider, ID Moblle

        “An Emergency Alert looks and sounds very different to other types
        of messages such as SMS ‘text messages’. You’ll know if you get
        an Emergency Alert because you’ll hear a loud, siren-like sound
        and your phone will use a distinct vibration. You have to
        acknowledge them before you can use your phone’s other
        features        . They appear as a notification and will include a link to
        gov.uk/alerts, where you’ll also be able to check that an alert
        is genuine.”
        I

      2. Crusty is wrong. From my provider, ID Moblle

        “An Emergency Alert looks and sounds very different to other types
        of messages such as SMS ‘text messages’. You’ll know if you get
        an Emergency Alert because you’ll hear a loud, siren-like sound
        and your phone will use a distinct vibration. You have to
        acknowledge them before you can use your phone’s other
        features        . They appear as a notification and will include a link to
        gov.uk/alerts, where you’ll also be able to check that an alert
        is genuine.”
        I

    2. Make sure you switch off your ‘dumb’ phone at 2359 hours on April 22nd and keep it off until 0000 hours on April24th.

    3. The state won’t, the telephone companies will. All they’ll be able to collate is who responded to the event. They don’t know whose devices were off – if you’re working nights, for example – or have disabled emergency alerts.

      In short, the information for so many devices is largely useless. It’s when they want to track an individual that it gets noticed.

  33. I’ve had a cold this week! Quite modest. In fact very modest by past experience. One day sneezing and a little more of a runny nose. Here’s the thing. I’ve had hardly any sleep and it’s left me absolutely pooped!

    2. That is due to a lack of sunshine and fresh air after a long wet winter. Might sound a bit hippyish, but IMHO (non medical etc) it is your immune system that is absolutely pooped.

  34. A few days ago , I hosted my elderly ex service veterans lunchtime meet up .. I have been doing this for over 20 years ..

    Sadly my group is shrinking .. and aging .. now late eighties and nineties .. but still blessed with humour and debate .

    One of them , single late eighties ex Para.. the gentleman I looked after for 6 months here at home, when he caught pneumonia in his own cottage , then his farm cottage was condemned, rats had chewed through everthing, and he kept a gun by his arm chair to kill them .. he had several dead ones under a very heavy old sofa.. and the property was a happy house of horrors … that all happened 6 years ago..

    I managed to get him into an OAP bungalow after he had recovered from his illness, after a wait of nearly 6 months .

    Sorry to have warbled on , but the gentleman is a petrol head , and goes through cars like a pick and mix.. from MGBs to Range Rovers , Bugatti, you name it .. but his last new car only had 300 miles on the clock after 18 months , because he doesn’t go anywhere .

    So imagine the suprise when he showed me his new Lexus all singing Hybrid . .. gorgeous car . it is HUGE with screens and gizzmos .

    We know he won’t even switch the radio on nor the aircon , because he hates things like that.

    During lunch he was telling every one on about the keyless button gadget .. and he fiddled around with it .. I suggested he shouldn’t ..

    After lunch and our raffle , it started to rain , one of the others went out to check on their car and came back in to say that the Lexus boot was open .. quite a kerfuffle arose .. and modern technology was cursed ..

    I said , you should have stuck to your MGB.. (of course not practical when he had bouts of gout , and getting in and out of it !)

    He said the car was a pre birthday present to himself .. Neither Moh and myself feel confident when he is driving though .. Grand Prix!

      1. Hello mola

        Oh yes , deaf as a post as well.. He strolled in to the room where we were meeting with a rather snazzy hat on .

        One of our nearly ninety year olds , some one who had some rank when he was in the army, apparently pulled our ex para to one side , by saying to him ” a quick word please” … “I am not being disrespectful, but PLEASE REMOVE YOUR HAT when you enter this room “…

        ‘Nuff said .. and quite right too.

    2. Sounds like a proper PEBKAC – Problem exists between keyboard and chair. Computers are annoying. Modern software isn’t tested anywhere nearly enough – Cisco’s IOS has been known to brick devices, Android is awful, iOS is a blobby nonsense that requires you to set it up each time after an install.

      However sometimes the problem is human. All too human.

      Best wishes for the group get together. I think you guys keep me sane.

  35. Bluss – it was cold at the market. A biting wind. Most unpleasant. Back home – stove going….trying to get feeling back in my fingers.

    1. No disrespect, but wouldn’t it be easier to offer for sale your excess horticultural produce from a stand outside your front gate? (at least during the winter months)

    2. No disrespect, but wouldn’t it be easier to offer for sale your excess horticultural produce from a stand outside your front gate? (at least during the winter months)

  36. Pentagon leaker reportedly worked on military base. 13 April 2023.

    The man responsible for the leak of hundreds of classified Pentagon documents is reported to be a young, racist gun enthusiast who worked on a military base, and who was seeking to impress two dozen fellow members of an internet chat group.

    The Washington Post interviewed a teenage member of the group, who described the man, referred to by the initials “OG”, from their online correspondence, and shared photographs and videos. The Post also viewed a video of a man identified as OG at a shooting range with a large rifle.

    “He yells a series of racial and antisemitic slurs into the camera, then fires several rounds at a target,” the report said. OG told fellow members of the same internet group that he worked on a military base, which was not named in the report, where his job involved viewing large amounts of classified information.

    The ideal Federal Employee Lol! They forgot to add that he’s homo and transphobic!

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2023/apr/13/russia-ukraine-war-live-pentagon-leaker-reportedly-worked-on-military-base-world-bank-to-fund-ukraine-energy-repairs?filterKeyEvents=false&page=with:block-643783d78f0891526bb41688#block-643783d78f0891526bb41688

    1. Has the Guardian stopped to think that by saying all these things about an individual they are simply being as racist as they call him?

    2. Naughty cartoon character! Go for the man and sod the substance. What was in the leaked documents?

    1. Horrific. They probably keep the calves in veal crates as well. Another good reason for not having to import American food.

      2. On the one hand, it’s probably another attack on the food chain. On the other hand, the food chain shouldn’t be like this. Mr Global seems to have decided that the only answer is depopulation – there would be a less evil way forward if there was the will for it at the top.

      2. My thoughts exactly. Funny how everything always works out to “prove” their scams true.

  38. Belated Morning All

    Seems late arrival missed the server hassles straight in

    Medley Time

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3fb0008c44d7ab0938af5f3add74082986d036f84fa3e0333dfa4d2dd7d93b51.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b4e350cc40e3f0759ebe274c857d4e5a5dcf848dc2a61e20093bf222a4f6e80c.jpg

    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d8aada2c0a9c5d0e061499a504b5ee800213d6f947c5442b61d0c6eac5a94c4b.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/20837212dad89fcbeb17a4584d69df4c853d276487ee7da344e2e2b8a6fbf281.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c9cae76de78a8c9907620ee385250951a3d8b09c581025b4d7e5877846e27237.gif

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e6dd5d855bb1b8839a2a26f7bb236be47e94d4bb67a50e62b854f1c15fe42a62.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f3c7155b50c92e35dd4fd113c8f6368681833ec5b1712532614d5ff5f643aeac.png

    2. Just the ticket. Nasty game, anyway. Now British Bulldog, on the other hand….

  40. The strange bromance between King Charles and Spain’s ex-King Juan Carlos
    The former Spanish monarch may be our own sovereign’s third cousin, but for over a decade has been plagued by controversy
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2023/04/13/spain-juan-carlos-ex-king-charles-bromance/

    BTL Percival Wrattstrangler

    There were rumours in Spain that King Juan Carlos had an affair with the late Princess of Wales. Apparently when she and her husband stayed with the Spanish royal family the chambermaids reported that the Princess of Wales’s underwear was found in Juan Carlos’s bedroom.

    1. I don’t think Diana would have been interested in that old charmer. He probably stole the knickers himself.

      2. Apparently this happened at the time of the Olympics in Barcelona. Caroline’s father was a close friend of the owner of the hotel where both royal families stayed so that’s where we heard the news.

        Of course rumours were rife in Spain at the time.

        Of course Charles was more than glad that somebody would take his wife off his hands for a bit!

          1. What with Carling, Hewitt, Dodo, King Juan Carlos, Hasnat Khan, Squidgy James Gilbey, Old Uncle Tom Cobley and all she seems to have entered the second hand darts-board category!

        2. “…FOR A BIT??” You mean Spanish practices? Or Ugandan??

          I’ll get me sombrero.

    2. The old fart who broke his hip while shooting elephants? Shame the elephant didn’t finish him off.

  41. Just back from the horsepickle. The lump is benign. Gynaecomastia. Probable cause…the medicines i’m on.

    Oncology Unit fully staffed. Nice people.

      1. Thanks. I wasn’t worrying though. I am sanguine about these bouts of illness nowadays. Seeing as one thing gets better and another turns up to take its place.

      1. If you’d already had a few at the bar, you probably wouldn’t have noticed anything.

        1. That’s one of the things they’ve put OH on. Never any medication before his recent heart troubles.

        2. Phizzee,

          My doc took me off that, and put me on this rosuvastatin, and I feel even more terrible than before . I have developed a lump on my clavicle .. and it is actually on the bone .

          Moh and I are on Statins and we are wonderin whether we have early stage dementia .. I am sure the statins are giving us brain fog .

          1. My ex was put on a statin- Simvastatin if I recall. He suffered from muscle cramps and short term memory loss until I told him to stop taking the stupid things. He did and gradually improved, healthwise anyway.

          3. MOH had insomnia and brain fog when on statins.

            He gave them up despite blood curdling warnings from his then doctor.

            Eight years later he is in much better health than when he was on Atorvastatin

          1. Drugs affect people in different ways. I wouldn’t worry about it unless you have symptoms.

    5. Good news and I hope you will celebrate ;-))
      We had an unexpected raid from a district nurse- finally- to draw some blood from my husband. No notice she was coming and I was still in my jammies pre shower. She’s rather rude and unpleasant; still at least it’s finally done.

    6. That must be a relief.

      Now, if you stop the transitioning you can stop the medicines…
      }:-O

      1. I wasn’t worried. It comes back occasionally. I had it looked at 12 years ago at the Spire. They said it wasn’t cancer. My GP was a bit concerned this time because there was pain so sent me off for a check up. The antibio’s took care of the swelling and pain in just a few days.

    1. Sunak must be the worst negotiator Britain has ever had. Why have the British people become so stupid that they let him get away with it?

      Not only has he negotiated a brilliant deal with the French to give them £500 m for nothing in return but he has also allowed the EU to have superior legal authority over British Law in the UK territory of Northern Ireland.

      Is the man a total nincompoop or is he under instructions from Soros and Schwab to emasculate and bankrupt Britain?

      2. 373372+ up ticks,

        Afternoon R,

        No matter who the head honcho is, could be bloody umpty bloody dumty tis the PARTY NAME.

        You gotta vote tory(ino) party keep out lab (ino) party.

        It’s a bloody COALITION, the electoral majority are well practised
        SHITE GRADERS.

  44. On my mind today since I read John Lydon’s wife’s obituary earlier and I’ve just booked a day off to attend a school-friend’s funeral in early May (she was 55).

    I gave up my Speccy sub in December but did catch one edition at the end of March where “low life” Jeremy Clarke really seemed to be close to the end.

    Do any Nottlers have any news of him?

    1. Still with us – just. From today’s magazine (headline of his article)

      “My world has shrunk to my bed – The new, narrower perimeters mean no more chemotherapy, no more radiotherapy”

      1. Thank you Bill. It is clear he doesn’t have long (and I suspect we are a month behind anyway). Poor man. I enjoyed his columns.

      1. Reminds me of the limerick:

        There was an old queer from Khartoum
        Who took a lesbian to his room
        They argued all night
        As to who had the right
        To do what and with what to whom.

        But where do you begin with a trans person?

      1. Not a jot. We have a very poor standard of puppets these days! Previous puppets were capable at least of pretending to be leaders!

    3. He doesn’t even have the demeanour of a Head Boy. Winchester must have put him in the slot as an exercise in virtue signalling advertising.

      1. Over the years 30 boys from Winchester have been to us on our French courses some would certainly have been there when Sunak was head boy. Last year there were six.

  51. Relief peeps. Plumber found leak in bathroom above office, something to do with plastic connection to ballcock. I had visions of having to lift the floor in the. bathroom or pulling down the ceiling in the office. Plumber advised making a hole in the ceiling to help things dry out a bit quicker.

    OMG. Goodness knows how long it’s been leaking. We now have 3 holes in the ceiling with water filling a couple of buckets up nicely. Think the ceiling would have come down if it’d happened Sunday onwards.

    1. One ought to have the grace to accept things as they happen, even when one doesn’t like it; but I can imagine myself doing the same as she has.

    2. She has deliberately deprived the baby of the support of her father. And at the age of 68, she will not have not have the energy to raise a child (and maybe not enough years left, either).

  54. Have received a pay slip for a small pension I paid into for nearly 10 years with a private hospital. Precisely £95 a month so, added to my state pension, I have now been taxed for the firstly time since 2010. Bastard government thieves have taken £7.40 tax.

    It wouldn’t be quite so bad if HMG spent our money wisely.

    1. They don’t, and never will. This is why to control the state it must first have the ability to raise taxes removed.

  55. What a morning. Water dripping from the ceiling into our office, from the bathroom above. Called plumber who turned up in 30 minutes and found the plastic thread on the ball cock assembly had failed. Repaired within 90 minutes.
    Had to poke holes in the ceiling to let the water out. About 3 pints, I estimate.
    Lucky it happened now as we go away on Sunday.

    1. That’s not what vw told us. Her tale was far more dramatic. Now Alf, you know that I would never be one to promote domestic strife and dissent…{:*))

  56. Here’s something to raise a smile, made me laugh out loud. My husband had a phone call from one of the specialist nurses, despite the letter saying they wouldn’t be calling anymore.
    He was explaining to her about an ongoing issue with his left nostril which is a recent thing. The problem, not the nostril 😉
    Here’s what he said, ” I don’t know how far your nursing background goes and what other areas you may be expert in but I’ve got two nostrils, right?” I audibly choked and luckily heard laughter coming from the phone. Bet that little pearler has been regaled at nurses’ lunch break.
    Honestly, what can you do with them?

    1. That’s the only reason there were black Africans in the Roman Empire. The Romans had no interest in conquering Sub-Saharan Africa but of course they conquered the Middle East and many Africans had been bought by the Arabs.

    2. And one reason ones sees relatively few blacks in those slave owning societies compared with the N American side is that they generally castrated the males.

  58. Postponed shopping until today because of dreadful weather yesterday, guess what? Sun out all morning and pissing it down now. Hey ho. Cab booked and monsters confirmed for Saturday so I have to go.
    Next time I post I will be a somewhat damp and bedraggled Lady. Grrr.

    2. Aye, don’t get close to that.

      I know folk here are sensible but for relatives who may not be do tell them to say thank you and then hang up. People are scared of computers for sometimes rational reasons. Having someone put the frighteners on doesn’t help.

      If in doubt, hang up. And ask someone who does know.

    3. I always reply about them not being what they say they are and that they are liars and thieves and that their mothers would be ashamed of them.
      They usually dry up entirely and put the phone down.

  60. Sad news Mary Quant has died peacefully aged 93. She set some wonderful fashion trends.

    1. Not least the Mini-skirt.

      Unfortunately that saw the demise of suspenders and stockings and heralded in the awful tights.

      Yes, I was a child of the 60s and of an age to appreciate it.

      1. Suspenders and stockings might have turned blokes on but they were most unpleasant to wear. Tights were better but I haven’t worn them or a skirt for many years now.

        1. Amen to that. I wear a dress on a warm summer day so that I can keep my bare legs. Last time I wore tights was on our wedding day 4 1/2 years ago.

          1. Our wedding day was 26 years ago in July…….I did wear tights that day – can’t remember if I’ve worn any since. My outfit was a green floral two-piece – a hand-me down from a colleague. I wore shoes from Oxfam, OH’s suit came from there as well. Also my little hand bag, which I still have.

            My bare legs don’t bear looking at now!

          5. Bikers don’t shave, excpt for their heads. And drive humungous motorbikes, wear scary leathers and tattoos…

          6. I tried women’s tights, under trousers, on a really cold day when I was to be outside a lot, standing around. SWMBOs suggestion. They were awful – tight-fitting, really unpleasant. So, I see why you prefer bare legs, Ann. Never again!

          9. It is said that Cary Grant wore ladies’ silk panties under his trousers when making a movie. No visible underpants line, I guess.

          10. Used to know a guy from Essed, whose name was Eddie but we all called him VPL…

          11. Jockeys wear ladies’ tights under their breeches; lightweight and warm(ish). Can cause embarrassment if they are taken to hospital after a fall.

      2. I have to admit Tom that mid to late 60s I did rather enjoy travelling into London each day on the underground.
        Keep that to your self though eh.

  61. 37337 up ticks,

    Dt,

    Politics latest news: Tories ‘starting to see fruits of what a united party can do’, says Sunak –

    Make no mistake that is clear to see appertaining to
    repress, replace, RESET.

  64. Today, I’m not all that well so in bed. Not unusual for me but, since people started this nonsense about the Dalai Lama. I thought I would post a link today about what Tibetans actually say about the “incident”. So excuse me for not answering everyone individually, I hope this will do.
    Tibetans Say the Dalai Lama’s ‘Suck My Tongue’ Viral Video Is Being Misinterpreted

    https://www.vice.com/en/article/n7evaw/dalai-lama-suck-my-tongue-video-tibet-china
    I could elaborate on the issue but I simply can’t muster the wherewithal right now

    Having known Tibetans since at least the 1970’s when most people had never heard of them I get quite angry when they are criticised. Especially when the Dalai Lama is attacked because this is to do with the Communist Chinese attempting to blacken his reputation and character because, their aim, is to bring him down, as leader of the Tibetans so they can instal a puppet in his place. They want him out of the way so they can continue with the systematic genocide of the Tibetan people that is going on right now. Since we are indifferent to that, in the West, he is, currently, the only person who speaks for them. If you think”genocide is an exaggeration please read the following articles.

    China: UN experts alarmed by separation of 1 million Tibetan children from families and forced assimilation at residential schools
    https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/02/china-un-experts-alarmed-separation-1-million-tibetan-children-families-and
    By the way, there are 3,180,000 Tibetans left. So a million children kidnapped spells eradication of the Tibetans.
    Cultural genocide? What China is doing in Tibet today

    https://www.foxnews.com/world/cultural-genocide-what-china-tibet-today

    And, if people would like to watch rather than read. The Tibetan Prime Minister Penpa Tsering speaking at the Oxford Union.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDHDPKzOTWY&t=2222s

    By the way, a slightly amusing issue. The students were given Kata, a sort of scarf. Not only are they wearing them wrong, you are supposed to put give them back by putting it over the givers neck as soon as it is presented to you, not keep it.

    1. The current Dalai Lama gave a talk about peace and the difficulty of courage in the face of pain some years ago and I was privileged to be there – ok, I’d gone because a girlfriend was a hippy but hey. He was very, very good. A calm, rational speaker who made small jokes without derailing the gravity of his discussion. He gave a lot of examples and did not blame.

      1. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/10039748ca00bace40cd9b3fcb7cee697d9c0c3a048315f1709c4cf4fa01f740.jpg

        The Llama is a woolly sort of fleecy hairy goat,
        With an indolent expression and an undulating throat
        Like an unsuccessful literary man.

        And I know the place he lives in (or at least- I think I do)
        It is Ecuador, Brazil or Chile- possibly Peru;
        You must find it in the Atlas if you can.
        The Llama of the Pampasses you never should confound
        (In spite of a deceptive similarity of sound)
        With the Lama who is Lord of Turkestan.
        For the former is a beautiful and valuable beast,
        But the latter is not lovable nor useful in the least;
        And the Ruminant is preferable surely to the Priest
        Who battens on the woeful superstitions of the East,
        The Mongol of the Monastery of Shan.

        1. The one L Lama, he’s a priest,
          The two L Llama, he’s a beast
          And I will bet a silk pyjama
          There isn’t any three L Lllama.

    2. I didn’t think there was anything going on though i didn’t understand it at the time. Thank you for clarifying.
      Hope you feel more comfortable soon, JR.

    3. Sorry to hear you’re not well today, JR – I hope the rest will do you good and you feel better tomorrow.

      As far as the D L is concerned, misinterpretation is a very likely cause for the concern about him.

    4. Re your last para. Hopefully the Tibetans will forgive our lack of understanding regarding the scarves.

      BTW hope you feel better soon Johnathan.

      1. One might wonder why the students were not briefed as to the correct protocol or whether the opportunity for a souvenir proved irresistible.

  68. The scandalous Moll Frith
    Mary Frith was born sometime in 1584; she was nicknamed Moll from a young age. Moll was a common pet name of Mary in the 16th and 17th centuries, but it was also used to describe a young woman, usually of disreputable character.
    It’s hard to separate the fact from the fiction of Moll’s life, which was immortalised in a sensationalised biography in 1662, three years after her death.
    Mary was born to a shoemaker and his wife, and was in trouble from a young age, smoking, something that was reserved only for men at the time, and honing her skills as a pickpocket. Her paternal uncle, who was a minister, tried to reform her, and even tried having her sent to New England, but Moll jumped overboard before the ship set sail and swam back to shore.
    Moll’s scandalous behaviour also included her dressing in men’s clothing, smoking a pipe, acting in a ‘vulgar’ way, and swearing. At the time, women who dressed in men’s attire on a regular basis were generally considered to be “sexually riotous and uncontrolled”
    Her first recorded crime was in 1600, when she was indicted in Middlesex for stealing 2s 11d. The common punishment for thieves at the time was to have their hands burned; she is recorded as having suffered this punishment four times. Despite her penchant for dressing as a man and acting boldly, she had three maids and lived in a rather feminine home, full of mirrors, where she kept parrots and bred mastiffs.
    Her very public actions often led to reprisals; she was arrested for being dressed indecently on December 25, 1611, and accused of being involved in prostitution. In 1612, she was sentenced to do penance while standing in a white sheet at St. Paul’s Cross during the Sunday morning sermon; this did little to tame her.
    She supposedly performed on stage dressed as a man, bawdily engaging with the audience, singing vulgar songs while playing a lute. Another legend has her challenged to ride from Charing Cross to Shoreditch dressed as a man, which she did, carrying a banner and blowing a trumpet the whole way; she won twenty pounds. Two plays were written about her and her exploits during her lifetime.
    By the 1620s, according to her own account, she had moved on from pick-pocketing to working as a fence. She later added p!mp to her list of occupations. She procured young women for men and male lovers for middle-class wives. A more sympathetic story has her coercing the lover of one of her female clients, who had passed, to send money for the maintenance of the children that were probably his.
    She was briefly held in Bethlem Hospital, after being found insane (probably a ruse to avoid prison), she was released on June 21, 1644. It was said that to escape the gallows and Newgate Prison, she paid a £2,000 bribe. Whichever stories of her life are true, Moll certainly enjoyed an unusual amount of freedom in a society that so frowned upon women who acted unconventionally.
    She died of dropsy on July 26, 1659.https://scontent-cdg4-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/340127033_1233020580674063_646703664208240689_n.jpg?_nc_cat=106&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=ZkY_nWwsRgcAX-6LD_z&_nc_ht=scontent-cdg4-1.xx&oh=00_AfAXjzAPfQH9fhyN3NqNHhtqGpcnBh2ZmD5LhBa7Jf_fNA&oe=643D4928

    Today she would be a politician or a BBC executive – with a regular TV show of her own.

  69. Putin’s rival being ‘slowly poisoned’ in painful assassination as he loses 18lbs in days and suffers seizures. 13 April 2023.

    Kira Yarmysh, a Russian public figure and supporter of Navalny, has shared concerns over his welfare.

    She said: “No one knows the cause of his stomach ache. He has never had this before.

    “And precisely this makes us suspect that perhaps he is being poisoned all this time, with small doses, so that he dies slowly and painfully, but attracting less attention

    That’s obviously working well! It’s in all the newspapers! With Navalny the suspicion must be that he’s doing it to himself. Self-harm in prisons for a variety of reasons has a long history.

    https://www.gbnews.com/news/putin-news-alexei-navalnyl-poisoned-assassination-weight-loss-seizures

    2. Swiftly outgunned by tax hikes elsewhere, but hidden.

      They think we’re stupid. The problem – the real, screaming miserable problem – is that people are.

      1. Inflation (i.e. currency devaluation) is stealing more from people’s pockets than any tax cut will give back.

        1. Yep, but they don’t like to admit that because ‘they’re tackling inflation by putting up taxes’.

          Not that taxes are the prime cause *OF* inflation at all.

      2. The fact that the overwhelming percentage of the people thought that Sunak had achieved a victory with his abject surrender giving the ECJ superior power to British Law in Northern Ireland shows just how stupid people are.

  71. Bogey Five today.

    Wordle 663 5/6
    ⬜🟩⬜⬜⬜
    ⬜⬜⬜🟩⬜
    ⬜🟩⬜🟩⬜
    ⬜🟩⬜🟩⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. A par 4 for me.

      Wordle 663 4/6

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

      1. Par four here

        Wordle 663 4/6

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

    3. Par here.
      Wordle 663 4/6

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

  72. Well, THAT was a surprise. Glanced out of the sitting room window to see something large, wet and black (apologies) lying on the terrace. One of the wall mounted water butts had fallen off – doesn’t 150 litres of water go a long way…..??

    One of the supporting brackets had come away… Now trying to work out how to resurrect it. I WISH I had the sort of skills that Eddy and Paul (and others) have. Me, I am hopeless with my hands.

    Will keep cogitating.

    Gus and Pickles were fascinated by it all…..!!

    1. Stick the rawl plugs back into the wall with a big plug of epoxy putty. Works a treat. Sets like concrete and sticks like chewing gum on the pavement. Our walls are very crumbly, but I have managed to attach shelves with the help of this stuff.

      1. The wall is old and crumbly and far too far gone to hold any bolts. I shall purchase some foundation blocks, rest the tank on them and then try to attach a band about a foot from the top to two eye bolts.
        (Arrange the words “Robinson” and “Heath” to form a well known phrase or saying…!)

        1. Sounds good.
          How about finding a couple of pieces of roofing slate and then resting them on the foundation blocks away from the wall side. The aim would be to incline the water butt, or barrel, ever so slightly towards the wall. Slate is solid, unlike a piece of plywood or a thin coat of cement.
          Avoid trying to fill the barrel with bricks.

          1. Thanks. Not quite as simple. The butt is over 4 ft high… And in yer Narfurk – we don’t have slate! Pantiles, Bor!!

    2. Reading the first line of your post I thought that Diane Abbot had dropped in on you for a visit.

    2. I had some beautiful purple velvet trousers and a bright floral shirt which a girlfriend had made for me. With hindsight I must have looked a right prat but at the time I thought I looked rather dashing.

  74. The dismembering of the BBC hack by Elon Musk has generated a great deal of mirth and Allison Pearson has revelled it.
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/04/13/the-bbcs-liberal-bubble-has-finally-burst/

    My favourite BTL by a poster who calls himself Andy RoadKing:

    I like Musk, he is mostly a breath of fresh air.
    I look forward to when he starts putting a decent V8 petrol engine in his Teslas and joins the real world fulltime.

    The latest diesel engines are even cleaner!

    1. There was a very po-faced and biased article about it in the Mail. Not reading the room at all! We’ve all had it with being patronised by squawky intellectual pygmies on the BBC.

  75. Moh and I have just returned from the funeral of one of our dear neighbours who died unexpectantly nearly a month ago whilst overnighting for an early morning flight with her dear husband to pastures warm for a holiday.

    The funeral was a Humanist farewell, and many many people .. more than a hundred attended .

    So beautifully conducted and delivered.

    The nonsense currently infesting the C of E is shameful .

    The Humanist delivery was adult , tender , wise and honest.

    1. My husband’s father’s funeral was Humanist and ditto. Nicely conducted and superb and apt music.

    2. Having been to at least three humanist send off’s, I was also quite impressed. I was at a C of E School.
      Having being forced to attend monthly church services along RE or RI lessons i found it all frustrating and it drove me slightly nuts. But I still respect the believers.
      Apologies to all believers.

      1. Most of the ones at the Crem these days seem to be humanist, but I think I’d still prefer a Christian send-off, with music of my own choosing. My son said I better let him know what I want.

        4. I want the Oxford Movement equivalent of a requiem mass. I’ve chosen my readings and my hymns, including God is our strength and refuge to the tune of the Dambusters March. Hopefully, they won’t be needed quite yet.

          1. I don’t go to church any more……..so the Crem will do. But I’ll need to have a hymn and the Lord’s Prayer. I’ll have to give my elder son a list of music – he’s my executor. I hope it won’t be needed for a while yet, either.

  76. That’s me for today. Funny old day. Bitterly cold – then much milder and sunny – then sudden heavy showers (well, it IS April, after all). And the drama of the fallen water butt (sounds like a Greek tragedy).

    Have a spiffing evening.

    A demain.

    2. Cold wind while playing golf this morning then hailstorms this afternoon

      This global warming is getting me down

  77. That was rather a nice dinner.
    Fried onion & red pepper, 1lb of mince, couple of spoonfuls of plain flour, tin each of chickpeas and butterbeans, 3 x dried chilis, jar of pasta sauce, left over gravy and some stock I needed to get rid of.
    Gently stewed for a couple of hours and served with a baked potato.

    Not a lot done outside. Did make an attempt but rain stopped play. Might have a trip to Nottingham tomorrow, driving to one of the Park & Rides and getting the tram in for a lunchtime concert.

      1. One of my favourites.
        😀
        Needs a tiny bit of chilli in the sauce, though, and masses of black pepper before adding the grated cheese.

        1. My sauce is made from mince, tomato soup, chopped tomatoes, Branston Pickle, mixed herbs, garlic salt and black pepper

      1. I only had a bowl of sauerkraut soup. Can I nip round for a plateful? I’ll bring a bottle…;-)

        1. It was a good one – always enough for four portions, and I covered the rest to deal with later. This morning, OH found some of it on the floor, and Lily looking guilty………. she may have been disappointed as it had no meat in it, apart from some bacon bits. I’ll have to salvage the rest.

    4. Cheeseburgers here but I will be preparing food tomorrow for the grand monsters visit on Saturday.
      Got them a comic with toys each and a bat and ball set to play with outside. The balls are soft, if you’ll pardon the expression 😉

      1. I envy you, Ann. Wish we had grandchildren. 🙁
        I love to be childish, and having a wee one around is the perfect excuse and cover.

        1. They will turn up once your lads find the right girls. But beware, my husband and I can be night owls but the day the little guys visit, we are usually in bed rather early. 9 and 7 now but still wear you out.
          I usually read to them or try to teach them some AA Milne rhymes.
          Hopefully the weather will be dry and sunny so they can go and bat the ball about outside.

          1. Unless there is a family prohibition, they are at a perfect age for proper card games.
            Everything from gambling to competitive to skill to speed.
            Poker, blackjack; whist, sevens,; happy families, snap; bridge, bezique: the choice is huge and my children and grandchildren loved them.
            Get yourself a Hoyle’s. They’ll love the games.

          2. I have thought of teaching them pelmenism with about a dozen cards to start with. The slight problem is the boy, who is older, hates to lose at anything and can get quite petulant. His younger sister is very sharp and would take to it easily. Will see what happens on Saturday.

          3. We started that type of game with picture cards, it was literally known as the “memory game”

            When we have young children in the gite we often entertain the children with similar games so that the parents can have time to themselves.
            We really enjoy the time and the parents are happy too.

          4. Force the boy to play and teach both to learn to win and to lose gracefully – one of life’s lessons.

          5. I’m only the step grandma but they do mind me. As I said, will see how it goes on the day.

          7. As a father I wanted my sons to beat me at things but I didn’t want them to beat me because I let them beat me. So that when they finally could beat me I was genuinely delighted and so were they because they knew I had done my damnest not to let them win!

  80. Ha ha ha
    Deep breath
    Ha ha ha.
    Go broke woke

    ‘No one at a senior level’ was aware Bud Light had made the ‘mistake’ of partnering with trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney – as parent company Anheuser-Busch loses $6BN in six days
    Partnership with trans influencer Mulvaney has proved disastrous for Bud Light
    Sources claim the company’s senior executives were unaware of the campaign
    READ MORE: Woman sets her Nike sports bra alight in ‘Burn Bra Challenge’ on TikTok as the gymwear giant faces boycott over Mulvaney partnership

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11967949/No-one-senior-level-aware-Bud-Light-partnering-trans-influencer-Dylan-Mulvaney.html

    Someone was having fun on the front page;
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ushome/index.html
    my bold and underline:

    The partnership unveiled on April 2 saw Mulvaney (pictured), a biological male who began transitioning in 2021, promote America’s bestselling beer to 11 million followers on social media in a series of partnered posts. Mulvaney’s posts showed the influencer sitting in a bathtub and swigging from custom cans sporting her face and pro-LGBTQ language. But the posts, which were never shared by Bud Light or Anheuser Busch social media profiles, sparked widespread fury with several high-profile celebrities swearing off the swill in protest. The backlash has shaved $6billion off AB’s total share value (inset bottom) in the past 10 days, and the company continues to remain silent save for a short statement confirming the partnership (Bud Light VP Alissa Heinerscheid inset top)

    1. Yet the woman in charge, making the disastrous decision, was a VP. Isn’t that senior enough?

          1. It might well be the effect on the share price, so it isn’t quite what it appears to be.

          3. Just had a quick look at the A-B share price. Up from $59.5 to $64.3 in the past month Highest price was %66.7 on March 31st. That is what you would call suffering

          4. Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc. is a huge company in terms of stock market capitalisation.
            It’s worth is in the order of $130Bn, annual revenues in the $60bn PA range.
            A drop in share price to $124Bn is nowhere near as bad as dropping 10% of your annual sales revenue.
            I doubt they will have dropped 6bn in a week on revenues.

      2. These companies are similar to banks.
        Everyone is granted a fancy title to put on their business cards, by and large they mean nothing, a VP is actually quite far down the pecking order

          1. Hell, I was Head of Audit.
            Absolutely meaningless.

            If there were 20 layers of title, I might have been towards the top of the bottom half.

            In terms of fear factor in the business areas, well that’s a different tale!

      3. Pal of mine was a bank clerk for a Yank Bank. The chap who sits behind the glass and deals with your banking.

        HE was a vice-president.

      1. Quite
        One of the many responsibilities of senior management is to ensure that the channels of communication are such that all potentially significant issues can be raised quickly to the appropriate managers. At its most basic that might mean someone should be asking “Are you sure this is a good idea? Perhaps we should get more senior sign-off”

      1. To be strict, Ann, it’s piss IMHO.
        Crap is too stiff…
        I’ll get me bar towel.

        1. Maybe I am being unfair as I have only ever had two mouthfuls- ’twas more than enough.

          1. Nope, it’s awful. Your taste buds are 100% correct.
            Budvar, now that’s good beer.

    1. They’ve become very woke. My elder son used to help organise beer festivals in Swansea, but he’s left them now.

        2. From June 2021. He cancelled his direct debit.

          Dear Member,

          You may have been following news and discussions in recent weeks about discrimination in the beer and pub industry. [Er, no…]

          In
          response to this, and in recognition of CAMRA’s responsibilities as a
          leading consumer group, this week we launched an Inclusivity, Diversity
          and Equality Review to ensure members and non-members do not suffer
          discrimination and feel safe and welcome within CAMRA and at our events.

          This
          work will be led by a Review Group that will be tasked with looking at
          our existing equality and diversity policies and processes to identify
          any gaps, weakness or improvements that can be made. The Group will also
          review our Disciplinary processes and policies to ensure nothing is
          discouraging people from reporting discrimination, harassment, or abuse –
          and that when it is reported, it is being dealt with appropriately.

          We
          have invited some members to join the Review Group already, but we are
          also holding an open application process to appoint more volunteers to
          the Group – which is why I am emailing you today.

          We would
          particularly like to encourage people from under-represented groups
          within CAMRA, and those who are not currently “active” volunteers to
          apply to bring a different perspective to the Review Group.

          If
          this is you, or you have relevant experience that you would be willing
          to volunteer to CAMRA, please consider applying to join the Review
          Group. Applications are open until Friday 25 June.

          We expect that
          one of the first tasks for the Review Group will be to launch a
          ‘discovery process’ to invite members and non-members to share their
          experiences, to assess the scale of any issues and identify where action
          can be taken.

          If you are not successful in your application to
          join the Review Group, or you want to contribute but do not want to
          apply to join the Review Group, you can still take part through that
          process.

  82. 373372+ up ticks

    To me this smacks of state organised mass poisoning will it be inclusive of babies and will it cause any upsets in the voting pattern if proved to be lethal.

    Seemingly the electoral majority cannot get enough of a bad thing.

    https://youtu.be/7Nvm8P0txjg

  83. How soon will it be before the Pentagon leak is linked to Trump? Even the BBC reports that I’ve heard haven’t suggested it…

    1. why would someone in the national guard have access to high level intelligence about foreign countries? Is the Massachusetts National Guard about to invade Taiwan?

      As far at the Daily Mail article goes, at least in my day a document labelled five eyes was not much above Nato Classified – you certainly wouldn’t have information on active deployments in such documents.

  84. The Trudeau Foundation board resigning was mentioned here yesterday and at that time, political interference was quoted as a reason for the resignations.. Despised leader even made a statement blasting the press for interfering with the good work of the supposed charity.

    The fun continues as truth is uncovered. There was a big bust up at the board level when the chinese donation was discussed. Some board members wanted an investigation into the source of the money, however, longer term members who has been around on the audit committee at the time of the donations refused to support the review and would not recuse themselves from discussions on the affair. End result, the whole crooked bunch resigned!

    How low can these crooks go?

  85. Ah well we are into seeing what this covid thing is all about. Dearly beloved has a cough/cold that tested positive on the shove it up your nose covid tests.
    I phoned the doctor yesterday, his response was to keep her away from him but to pick up some of the anti viral medicine paxlovid for her.

    She is already feeling a bit better, just tired but there again if I had to ram six of those horse pills down my throat every day, I would be tired and grumpy as well.

    Bah, good golfing weather this week, even though they are talking snow on Saturday.

    4. Depending on where she is in the illness – still viral – Vit C, D, Zinc+quercetine.
      Ivermectine won’t do any harm and could do a lot of good but hard to get now.

  86. I shan’t be long before I’m away.

    I’ve been nodding for the last two hours but, as soon as I get into bed, wham, I’m wide awake again.

    1. Works like that for me, Tom.
      The effort on waking up enough to walk upstairs, get undressed and into bed, is enough to wake me up.
      Then, I need to read a while, then wake up at about 03:00 to pump bilges.
      Some effort required to NOT START THINKING, so I can resume zedding, and it seems to work.

  87. Delicious!
    https://12ft.io/proxy?ref=&q=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/04/13/the-bbcs-liberal-bubble-has-finally-burst/
    The BBC’s liberal bubble has finally burst
    In one stroke, no-nonsense Elon Musk exposed the Left-wing prejudices at the heart of Auntie’s reporting
    Allison Pearson

    Every so often, there comes along a piece of car-crash TV so deliciously excruciating that it affords hours of harmless fun. Think of Prof Robert Kelly in the middle of a solemn live interview on North Korea when his gleeful toddler, pursued by her horrified mother, came crashing through the study door to say hi to Daddy.

    Even better for sheer comic embarrassment, I reckon, is the interview the BBC’s North America Technology reporter, James Clayton, did this week with the world’s second-richest man and Twitter CEO Elon Musk. Generally, when a journalist is preparing for an encounter of that importance, you really do your homework. Young Clayton thought it was sufficient to turn up with a bunch of lazy, Leftist assumptions which probably quite accurately represent the groupthink in the BBC newsroom. Elon Musk had other ideas.

    Clayton pointed out that Musk had sacked a lot of “content moderators” at Twitter. “There’s not enough people to police this stuff, particularly around hate speech,” he chastised.

    “What hate speech are you talking about?” asked Musk amiably. “You use Twitter. Do you see a rise in hate speech? I don’t.”

    “Personally, on my For You [page], I would get more of that kind of content, yeah, personally,” burbled Clayton incoherently.

    Musk pushed back: “You see more hate speech personally? Content you don’t like, or what?” The Twitter boss challenged the man from the Beeb to “describe a hateful thing”.

    Clayton: “You know, just content that … may include something that is slightly racist or slightly sexist.”

    As flies to wanton boys are junior reporters to tech titans. They kill them for their sport. “So, you think if something is slightly sexist it should be banned?” Musk mused lethally.

    “No, I’m not saying anything,” protested Clayton, by now dimly aware (very dimly, no John Simpson he) that prey had turned predator.

    Musk challenged the journalist to name just one specific example of the content he claimed to have been offended by. Panicking, the reporter executed a screeching U-turn. Clayton had stopped using the Twitter For You page for the past few weeks, he said.

    “So, how could you see that hateful content?… Sir, you don’t know what you’re talking about. You can’t even give me a single example … not even one tweet and yet you claimed the hateful content was high. That’s a false. You just lied!”

    Oh, wow. Checkmate, Elon Musk.

    I was intrigued to see what came next. Unable to provide a single example of “hate speech” on Twitter, James Clayton lamely protested, “There are many organisations that say [such] content is on the rise.”

    Ah. In other words, it is the received wisdom in woke circles and the BBC (spot the difference) that, since Musk took over six months ago, Twitter has become a cesspit of hate speech and disinformation. Even though it really hasn’t, Clayton’s “lived experience” (the preferred fiction, that is, of a media elite who don’t like the fact that alternative, sometimes Right-wing views are no longer suppressed by the social media giant) trumps objective reality.

    With what devastating intellectual rigour and free-thinking levity did Musk pop the self-satisfied bubble of Beeb-think. It was a joy to watch.

    And he wasn’t finished. Challenged by Clayton over Twitter no longer flagging up so-called Covid “misinformation” (aka, things posted by lockdown sceptics like me which usually turned out to be true), Elon inquired mischievously: “Does the BBC hold itself at all responsible for misinformation regarding masking and side-effects of vaccinations and not reporting on that at all?” You could cut the silence with a knife.

    “And what about the fact that the BBC was put under pressure by the British government to change the editorial policy, are you aware of that?” Musk taunted.

    “This is not an interview about the BBC,” spluttered Clayton.

    Oh, dear deluded reporter, it was about the BBC, and how. Huge thanks to Musk for exposing the corporation’s groupthink with such forensic, dancing wit. Elon, I could not love you more.

    Should Clayton ever secure another encounter with the Twitter titan, may I suggest he ditches the affronted liberal assumptions and tries arming himself with some facts. It’s called journalism

    1. I did see the BBC report on this interview which had taken place, in San Francisco I believe , they showed some clips of the interview and the reporter was interviewed as part of the report.
      Prior to this I did read about the fact that Clayton and the BBC had their arses handed to them by Musk, although the BBC never presented it that way, what a surprise, NOT!
      Musk was far to clever for the reporter, even more so as the request for the interview was made the same day it was carried out, no preparation needed or required by Musk to put the BBC and their boy in their place.

    2. I did see the BBC report on this interview which had taken place, in San Francisco I believe , they showed some clips of the interview and the reporter was interviewed as part of the report.
      Prior to this I did read about the fact that Clayton and the BBC had their arses handed to them by Musk, although the BBC never presented it that way, what a surprise, NOT!
      Musk was far to clever for the reporter, even more so as the request for the interview was made the same day it was carried out, no preparation needed or required by Musk to put the BBC and their boy in their place.

    3. It was a joy to watch Musk in action! So calm and rational…and deadly! I loved it!

    4. What was notable about Musk was that he simply gave himself time to think before speaking. We live in an age where a failure to answer a question instantaneously is considered to be an indication of stupidity, ignorance or evasiveness. Look at the televised debates of the 70s and 80s and compare them with today. It truly was another world.

      2. Ration It? I would go a step further. Deprivation would be the name of the game.

        Night night Tom.

      3. Perhaps someone should have a word with Vlad. He’d have the means to deal with all of them.

    2. I would be very wary of this one.
      It smacks of quotes being taken completely out of context.
      I can easily see them believing such things, but it seems too good to be true as a means to attack them.

      1. I have seen other articles in support of this whereby the ‘double flush’ is to be removed on lavatory cisterns, presumably to make it weaker than the weaker flush already in existence. For years we have heard rumours that the future war(s) will be caused by the need for water rationing. Bear in mind that these WEFfers want to control every aspect of our lives.

        1. All true.
          The flush one is the one that really winds me up.

          How is it possibly sensible to have to use three lots of 5, without total success, where one lot of 10 does the job properly?

          By way of explanation for those on mains drainage: we have septic tanks where if the crap doesn’t flow through in one or two hits the lines clog. To unclog them requires chemicals and yet more water!
          Idiocy.

    3. They should be obliterated.
      Who do they think has funded the water supplies……the customer’s of course.

    4. The WEF is right, it’s not a ‘human’ right. It’s an INALIENABLE right which Schwab and his two-bit organisation CANNOT touch.

  92. Off topic
    I enjoy Portillo’s railway programmes, he seems to have a genuine empathy with those he interviews and the scenery is magnificent.
    And (at a probably superficial level) they are very informative.

    1. I used to enjoy his polite way of talking to Dianne Abbott, but at the same time showing what an idiot she was on the ‘This Week’ programme.

    1. It’s a great shame that he can’t sue them to beggary You know what I really mean and back again.

  94. Biden criticises Sunak for not trying harder with Dublin to break Stormont Brexit deadlock
    The US president says the UK should be working more closely with Ireland to restore power sharing and boost investor confidence.
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/04/13/biden-criticises-sunak-brexit-deal-stormont-dublin/

    BTL Percival Wrattstrangler

    My sympathy for Rishi evaporated when he surrendered to the EU and allowed the EU’s ECJ to take precedence over British Law in Northern Ireland which is part of UK sovereign territory.

    And most people – even people on this forum – will accept and even approve of what he has done.

    What a shameful disgrace! Imagine Corsica – the land from which Napoleon came – having to accept that Italian law took precedence over French law?

    Thank God the people who had to confront Germany in 1939 were made of sterner stuff than Sunak and today’s British capitulators.

  95. All gone quite out there.
    I think I’ll slip off up the wooden hill.
    Night all.

    1. I was watching Neil Oliver’s history podcast and cooking burgers. That’s where I’ve been except for a very tiring trip to the store earlier.

      2. The Lone Ranger to Tonto…..Injuns Tonto we’re surrounded. Tonto…….watchoo mean we kimosabi ?

    1. I much prefer to throw away or eat rotting food. I’m contemplating switching off both refrigerator and freezer so as to save the planet and consume food on the day I buy it. That way I have the pleasure of shopping for food every day rather than only twice a week.

    2. Every plant on Earth has a peel that protects it. The top layer of the peel is called the cuticle layer, which keeps moisture in while allowing the plant to breathe without drying out. Apeel protects fresh produce by forming a thin edible “peel” on the fruit’s surface, similar to the plant’s cuticle layer.

      Our product, Edipeel, is a thin, edible postharvest coating made from plant-derived materials, designed to be consumed, that meets the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requirements for qualification as Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) in the United States.

      https://www.apeel.com/how-apeel-works

    3. Is this what they used to call ‘irradiated’ food but that was abandoned because people didn’t like the idea of radioactive apples.

      1. 373399 + up ticks,

        Morning Atg,

        Probably yet another replay, such apples
        would be an asset in a blackout though.

  97. The rain stopped before I went out which was good. Spent a long time looking for gluten free desserts because granddaughter is gluten intolerant. In the past I would have found recipes and done it myself but lack the stamina right now. So a big shop done and will do all the food prep tomorrow. Daughter in law is a sweetie and wants to help but she kind of interrupts my rhythm in the kitchen, so I’ll do it all tomorrow and just heat it on Saturday.
    Weather looks good too so fingers crossed.
    Busy day tomorrow but it will be nice to see the family- my husband is looking forward to it, of course questions will be asked when they see the crutches, walker and my stick. Oh well, c’est la vie.

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