Wednesday 24 May: Does Labour really have what it takes to solve the crisis in the NHS?

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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616 thoughts on “Wednesday 24 May: Does Labour really have what it takes to solve the crisis in the NHS?”

  1. Good morrow, Gentlefolks, today’s story. A particularly sniffy one for my birthday.

    Sexual Preference

    A woman takes a man home one night. When they get to her apartment, she suggests that they try a 69.

    “What do you mean?” he asks.

    Not knowing quite how to explain, she says, “you put your head between my legs and I’ll put my head between your legs!”

    Unsure but willing, he agrees. Unfortunately, as soon as he gets his head between her legs, she lets rip with a horrible, ghastly, rotten-egg type of fart.

    “What the hell was that all about?!?” the man gasps.

    “Oops! I’m so sorry! Let’s try again” she replies.

    But the man, who by this time is already dressed and half-way out the door, replies, “If you think I’m sticking around for 68 more of those, you’re out of your fucking mind!

        1. Happy birthday Tom .

          A Birthday toast for you xx

          You are still a youngster , a lot of the veterans who I host every2 months are nearly ninety , and one lady will be 99 net month , and they are all sprightly happy positive people , still driving cars , and Ray who is a real petrol head 88 year old has bought a huge Lexus , and then 3 weeks after buying it caught something on his offside wing , huge dent which he filled in clumsily, because he is scared of losing his licence https://media4.giphy.com/media/3o6UBfUacnJGd2Esuc/giphy-downsized-small.mp4

    2. Happy Birthday, Tom. That ranks as one of your less cringeworthy ones. I hope you get into some Birthday mischief in Moffat or nearby.

  3. Good morning, chums, and once again a very Happy Birthday to Sir Jasper.

  5. I was told ‘call her a him’. I couldn’t go along with it. 24 May 2023.

    Some will have little sympathy with the preacher’s son who openly admits he believes biological sex is immutable and that homosexuals are “sinners”.

    His personal website lists “abominations” which include abortion, homosexuality, pornography and Islam. In his online preachings, he describes abortion as “genocide” and calls Mohammed a “false prophet”, arguing: “So long as the Quran is around there will never be peace on earth.”

    Describing homosexuality as going against creation, he claims: “A homosexual gene does not exist, you cannot be born gay,” a view that will strike some as incompatible with teaching children in the 21st century.

    The author of this piece is careful to walk around the identities of those who would approve of his dismissal and the lack of comments prevents those who oppose it supporting him. A young man with a family has lost his job; no small matter in itself, leaving him also open to the possibility of personal attack as well as affecting his future prospects outside education. Where is the justice in this? He has been sacked for holding views that are common to the great majority in the UK. That is his crime. It is also a warning to them.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/05/23/teacher-sacked-misgendering-pupil/

      1. And still are by the majority but of course they’re afraid to say so.

  6. 372598+ up ticks,

    Morning Each, (2)

    Letters: Does Labour really have what it takes to solve the crisis in the NHS?

    There is NO WAY on this, Gods green planet that ANY of these current political lying,deceitful, treacherous rabble the lab/lib/con
    mass controlled/uncontrolled immigration mass paedophile umbrella coalition party are out to solve anything appertaining to the NHS,they are purely a facade for the WEF/NWO RESET agenda.

    Anyone believing otherwise especially after witnessing these past two plus years of their odious actions, are seriously mind sick and with a second opinion thick as hogs shite.

    Please ,please,please adjust your mindset to ” The political overseers / pharmaceuticals do NOT HAVE the peoples / herds
    welfare first & foremost at heart, far from it”

    1. We’re assuming that any rewards from a lifetime of working, raising two more tax slaves and keeping our noses clean will be spent trying to keep painfree and mobile.

    3. Well Al, you better get spending some of that $300 million you made off this scam.

    1. Thank you, Bill, I miss not having the National Anthem played on my birthday.

      1. It would have been my paternal grandmothers 123rd birthday today! 🌹

          2. I slept through most of it. A bit like Christmas when you’re alone – just another day.

  11. Does Labour really have what it takes to solve the crisis in the NHS?

    Crises what crises, there it’s solved.

    1. Those coppers were quick off the mark whan it came to him! They should all be sacked!

      1. Who is giving them their instructions to persecute ordinary working people in order to help the effluent who break the law by blocking the King’s Highway.

  13. To my taste, The Times is just getting worerser and worserer, not merely in its chosen cartoons but in almost every print piece, article or opinion.

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/imageserver/image/%2Fmethode%2Ftimes%2Fprod%2Fweb%2Fbin%2Fb6cc8ad4-f99d-11ed-bc7a-1444acf8fa38.jpg?crop=2847%2C1898%2C536%2C162&resize=900

    The Civil Service leadership think they can defenestrate the last vestiges of any Conservative tendencies in the nominally ‘ruling party’, relying on the new King to back them up.

    1. It’s because it’s Top Down. All the MSM are merely propaganda outlets.

    2. I agree. Political cartoons have never been noted for their tastefulness, and I would not censure them: but this effort says more about the current Times than perhaps its editor realises.
      In effect, it is saying that trying to run a country with any degree of efficiency is inhuman.

  14. Government sets up world-first Whitehall anti-fraud squad. 24 May 2023.

    Risk, Threat and Prevention Service will inspect spending plans to protect taxpayer’s money from hackers and scammers.

    All major government spending plans are to be dissected for fraud risks under plans to stop scammers from hoovering up taxpayers’ cash.

    A new team within Whitehall will “stress test” big funding pledges and check them for loopholes before the cash can be disbursed to the public.

    The reform has been introduced after the Treasury lost £4.5 billion to fraud during the Covid-19 pandemic, much of which is yet to be recovered.

    Another meaningless and pointless reform. The real threat to taxpayer’s cash is the Government!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/05/23/government-scammers-fraud-pandemic-risk-threat-public/

    2. Look at MPs friends and family who benefited from Covid. It’s not too late to bring them to justice except that justice has been abolished.

  15. Government sets up world-first Whitehall anti-fraud squad. 24 May 2023.

    Risk, Threat and Prevention Service will inspect spending plans to protect taxpayer’s money from hackers and scammers.

    All major government spending plans are to be dissected for fraud risks under plans to stop scammers from hoovering up taxpayers’ cash.

    A new team within Whitehall will “stress test” big funding pledges and check them for loopholes before the cash can be disbursed to the public.

    The reform has been introduced after the Treasury lost £4.5 billion to fraud during the Covid-19 pandemic, much of which is yet to be recovered.

    Another meaningless and pointless reform. The real threat to taxpayer’s cash is the Government!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/05/23/government-scammers-fraud-pandemic-risk-threat-public/

    1. Why are Pirates called Pirates?

      Because they Aaarrgh!

      What do Pirates call their Mothers?

      MothAaarrgh…

      What do Pirates call their Fathers?

      Dad!!!…………….

    3. And this idiot may well be deputy prime minister – as Clegg was – when Starmer forms a coalition government with the Lib/Dems!

  19. Russia ‘deeply concerned’ as citizens evacuated from nine Belgorod villages. 24 May 2023.

    The Russian Volunteer Corps and the Free Russia Legion, two units of Russian nationals fighting on Ukraine’s side, released footage of their fighters in and around the village of Graivorona, about three miles inside Russia, on Monday.

    “The Russian army could do nothing to oppose a group of patriotic volunteers who took up arms and were not afraid to openly go against the Moscow regime for the free future of Russia,” the Legion said on its Telegram channel. “There is panic in the Belgorod region.”

    Russian Volunteer Corps leader, Denis Nikitin said his fighters used US-made Humvees and M1224 MaxxPro armoured vehicles during the attack.

    The US state department said it was “sceptical” about reports that US-supplied weapons were used in the attack, adding that it does not encourage or enable attacks on Russian territory.

    Well that settles it then! These two groups are CIA organised and funded. If I were them I would remember what happened to Andrey Vaslov and his collaborationist Russian Liberation Army in WWII.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/05/23/ukraine-russia-war-latest-bakhmut-belgorod-live-updates/

    1. Just look at all the rubbish and squalor around the tents. Are these the kind of standards that need to be imported?

      1. It’s going to be interesting to see the state of the hotels that are full of them when (and if) they leave

        1. Rubble and ashes.

          I think as part of the contract Serco will undertake repairs.

          2. Winston Churchill must be doing 1000 rpm in his grave. What a pr*t his close descendant is.

    3. Who is supplying the blue tarpaulins being used as tents?

      The French authorities do nothing but can you blame them? Would the British want to stop such scum leaving UK to go to France?

  22. ‘Morning, Peeps. The forecast for this part of yer sarf coast is wall-to-wall sunshine for at least a week, no doubt to be accompanied by yet more drought warnings…

    A good letter in my honest opinion:

    SIR – The Tate Britain rehang has, among other things, sought to put our colonial past in the spotlight – and not in a good way.

    I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before we see the renaming of this institution, since it was founded on the profits of the evil sugar trade. In fact, it would be a double victory for the woke brigade: an exploiter of slaves and a cause of obesity attacked in one move.

    Mike Tugby
    Warminster, Wiltshire

    Anything that attacks the wokery sickness is to be welcomed!

  23. The truth about the BBC’s war on ‘disinformation’. Spiked. 24 May 2023.

    The new BBC Verify project reflects the cultural elites’ paranoid fear of free speech.

    The BBC has launched yet another project to fight what it sees as the great evil of our time – so-called disinformation. Introducing the new ‘BBC Verify’ project, BBC News CEO Deborah Turness says that ‘audiences are constantly bombarded with mis- and disinformation… noise and sensationalism’. This, she adds, has led audiences to doubt what they see and hear, including when it comes from the BBC.

    But this Mis- and Disinfromation if it exists must come from the MSM including the BBC. It can come from nowhere else! There is no other source for the masses to watch! What they really object to is that audiences refute what they are made to listen to! They shouldn’t be surprised. The Soviet State tried for seventy years to try and get the Russian people to believe what they were told. It didn’t work there either!

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/05/23/the-truth-about-the-bbcs-war-on-disinformation/

    1. Presumably this replaces their much-derided Factcheck silliness, which achieved precisely nul points. This is just another attempt to mark their own homework. It won’t alter my motto for this shower – ‘We are never wrong’.

      ‘Morning, Minty.

    2. Presumably this replaces their much-derided Factcheck silliness, which achieved precisely nul points. This is just another attempt to mark their own homework. It won’t alter my motto for this shower – ‘We are never wrong’.

      ‘Morning, Minty.

    3. Presumably this replaces their much-derided Factcheck silliness, which achieved precisely nul points. This is just another attempt to mark their own homework. It won’t alter my motto for this shower – ‘We are never wrong’.

      ‘Morning, Minty.

  24. SIR – Most people caught speeding try for a speed awareness course instead of points, and it would be wholly reasonable for someone as busy as Suella Braverman, the Home Secretary, to ask her subordinates to try for her (report, May 23).

    Anyone who has run a large enterprise will understand that. If Ms Braverman has breached the ministerial code then the code is insane. One suspects, however, that this is not about the code but just another of the regular attempts by the Civil Service blob to get rid of a minister it dislikes.

    It is profoundly undemocratic for ministers in elected governments to become subject – as is increasingly the case – to dismissal at the whim of a faceless, unelected and self-appointing Civil Service. It was an outrage that Dominic Raab, who is now standing down as an MP (report, May 23), was toppled apparently just for ruffling the feathers of civil servants whom he found incompetent or dilatory.

    Government is a tough, high-pressure business, and ministers deserve considerable latitude in their behaviour – not this constant, petty sniping.

    Gregory Shenkman
    London SW7

    Bravo, Mr Shenkman. I even heard Gina whatshername say, live on GBN, that Mrs Braverwoman had suggested she should avoid any sanction for speeding because she was on government business at the time. She was immediately pulled up by the interviewer who pointed out that this had not been reported and that there was no evidence that SB had ever made such a suggestion. That the leader of some rag bag political party called Truth and Fair (oh the irony!) did not challenge her telling-off says a lot. I trust that GBN will deny her any further ‘oxygen of publicity’.

    1. I didn’t get a choice – 3 points and £100 fine – and when I told the insurance company they stung me for an extra £56 on the policy I’d just paid for

    2. If Braverman goes then Sunak and his non conservative Conservatives must be voted out of office for ever.

      If even the so-called conservative Conservatives such as Redwood, Rees-Mogg, Cash and the others who claim to be conservative stay in the party should Braverman be forced out the they are hypocrites who should be spurned and reviled.

      1. Speaking of Redwood, did you see him on GBN/Mogg yesterday evening? Buckets of common sense and still a real Conservative. His time on the back benches represents many wasted years of a talented politician.

  25. Good morning all ,

    Nice blue sky and sunshine .

    The hawthorn and blackthorn blossom looks magnificent ,as do the banks of cow parsley .. looking out of my bedroom window to the fields beyond, the hedgerows look as if they have been topped off with a blanket of snow . The countryside smells delicious , and the skylarks are soaring as they sing… Truthfully., I am not being poetic , I wish you could hear them .

    Browsing through Twitter , saw this . https://twitter.com/ElishaFlowers7/status/1661259860141543426

    1. Good morning Belle – the hedgerow here is covered in blossom too.

      I tried out your Greek cod bake recipe last night. It was good, though I did leave out some of the spices. There’s a bit of the potato left to finish off for lunch. The tomato I used was some from last year’s crop preserved using the MR’s recipe.

      1. Good morning J,

        Britain is so beautiful at the moment , and whilst I am thinking about it , I loved your F/B pics of the swifts in your nest boxes .

        We are all quite concerned by the absence of our little summer migrants , lack of insects etc. Have heard and seen 3 cuckoos.

        1. Haven’t heard a cuckoo here for many years. Did you see my pics of the hedgerow?
          There are chiffchaffs here but we found a young Robin drowned in a bucket yesterday.

          1. Yes, everywhere seems to be swathed in white .. and the tree blossoms , especially the Chestnuts are stunning , it is almost as if the countryside is saying .. keep us safe , don’t destroy us .

    5. “The hawthorn … blossom looks magnificent…”

      It’s a 10-minute walk from my house through parkland to Sainsbury’s. There are great hawthorn thickets which are as you describe, the flowers in such enormous and dense clusters that the leaves and branches are invisible. The wild apple trees were a treat as well although their petals have now fallen. Even if I had a digital camera it wouldn’t be possible to do justice to it all. It’s enough to stand and stare, though most of the dog-walkers ask me if I’m feeling alright. They seem oblivious to the splendour of it.

      This year’s weather has certainly helped, with no wind or rain to damage the blossom.

    7. All too often it’s the same sort. Promoted based on ethnicity, incompetent, corrupt and abusive.

  26. Europe wants Latin America on side against Vladimir Putin. Good luck with that. 24 May 2023.

    In the struggle for hearts and minds against Russia, Europe has it sights on a new target. Unfortunately for them, Latin America’s not listening.

    An extended charm offensive by senior diplomats from major European nations and institutions has sought to win over neutrally-minded Latin American nations to their cause as part of the broader geopolitical battle with Russia and China.

    U.K. Foreign Secretary James Cleverly is the latest to try his hand, visiting Brazil on Wednesday for the final day of a week-long tour of Latin America which has already included high-level talks in Colombia and Chile.

    Unfortunately most of Latin and South America has personal experience of the US Hegemony. They were in fact with the Munroe Doctrine among its first victims. Invasion, repression, War Crimes. Sound familiar? This is why it’s been handed over to the Europeans.

    https://www.politico.eu/article/south-america-to-resist-british-appeals-for-collaboration-on-russia-china/

  27. Re the Cardiff riot. Why were little young scrotes causing mayhem on the motor scooters.

    We have a few mad bad lads in this area who do the same .

    Sadly people are fearful of them due to repercussions , and the police are busy doing other things .

    The public are quite scared of feral youths .

      1. The fact that the Police so often take the side of the hoodlums has not only encouraged the hoodlums but it has made people who should intervene fearful of doing so because they will find themselves in trouble.

        Not only is the chap trying to get to work tackled by the police for trying to remove from the highway those deliberately and illegally blocking his way to do so but the PTB take the side of the teacher in Batley who is still in hiding because of serious death threats from Muslims. And what about the case reported this week of the Christian teacher who has been banned from teaching for refusing to call a girl in his class by male pronouns.

        Should MPs be deselected for refusing to call Ms Abbott a hippopotamus if that is what she self-identifies as?

        1. Sadly she doesn’t have the self-awareness to self-identify as Abbotopotomus. Or anything that is not skin-colour related. I wonder how her semi-feral son is doing, having completely undermined her “West Indian mothers are best” boast.

    2. escooters are a curse upon the earth, implicitly good, but its the riders and way they are ridden which cause the problem. In this case though it was an ebike with two on board. They cost about £2k plus, not a thing the average yob in Ely would be able to buy, and the go like the wind.

      1. as I understand it only e-scooters which are hired are allowed on the road – privately owned ones aren’t

        1. e scooters are only permitted in public as part of an authorised scheme, e bikes are treated in law as normal bikes.

    2. Happy Birthday, Tom! Singing with good cheer and a lot of energy – sorry if it’s a bit loud!

      Katy

    5. Grattis på födelsedagen, Lord Rayne.

      Hope it’s a good ‘un. 👍🏻🥃

      1. Tacks a mycket. Pardon my spelling. I’ve forgotten more Swedish than I knew.

      2. Tacks a mycket. Pardon my spelling. I’ve forgotten more Swedish than I knew.

    6. Happy birthday, dear. I hope you are treated; if not today, then treat yourself! Lots of good wishes flying to you….

  29. Police tell lies – shock. “No police vehicle in vicinity” – then CCTV shows there were… Oh dear; there’s not lovely isn’t it?

    1. The vid was from 4 mins previous to the accident and some way away. I think that the statement that there was no police presence when and where the accident happened is correct. The little scroats had obviously outrun the tail, which eventually caught up with the miscreants plastered against a bus. How sad…

  30. SIR – I was interested to hear the BBC’s interview with Sir Keir on Monday morning.

    It was never suggested that one of the biggest mistakes on the NHS was made by the last Labour government, which pushed through the new GP contract. Since then general practice has deteriorated.

    I worked for 30 years under the old contract and accepted night and weekend working as part of my job. Indeed, while I was at medical school I knew that, when I qualified, I would have to expect this. I wonder if the Labour Party will recognise or learn from its error.

    Dr John Bennett
    Newick, East Sussex

  31. The other day I posted that I’m aiming to be moored at Devizes Wharf on Sunday, and that afternoon tea would be available to any passing Nottler. I will post confirmation that I have arrived in Devizes early on Sunday morning so if anyone can make it would you kindly reply on Sunday morning to let me know so I can secure adequate supplies of scones, jam, clotted cream, & fizz, etc etc.
    Just as a reminder this is what the boat looks like:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/176f5c68e1bca8832c59509a0b4621e43e09fb6fca963103fdf8b9e56edaaa60.jpg

    1. Very generous of you. Too far for me but i hope you get a good turn out. Have a great day !

          9. He’s about to pass under the new Severn Bridge with the old one, between Aust & the Beachley Peninsular in the distance.
            Of course the last time I sailed up the Severn, there was only the one bridge.

          10. I wish I was closer as well.
            Did you ever come across Terry and Monica Darlington ?
            ‘Narrow Dog to Carcassonne’.
            After some alterations they took their narrow boat from Stone via the Thames and Margate, across the channel and down to the Mediterranean. Quite a venture.
            Then by a cargo vessel across the Atlantic to explore the east coast. Two decent and amusing reads from and about both trips.
            I like watching Robbie Cumming with his Canal boat Diaries.
            It’s not all as straightforward as one might expect.

          11. Never met ‘Tits Magee’ but have his books.

            Met an 82 year old in Hungerford last week who told me that he’d been touring the European Waterways in his boat. He hired a safety boat and he and his son crossed the Channel from Belgium all the way into the River Thames. The crossing took 24 hours and involved sea sickness! Incredibly brave / foolish!

          12. I’ve also seen the series where Tim Spall and his wife go sailing in a Dutch Barge.
            Not as easy as it looks. I remember they hit a small boat anchored in the harbour at Padstow.

            https://www.bing.com/ck/a?!&&p=967a60ddefebcf4cJmltdHM9MTY4NDg4NjQwMCZpZ3VpZD0yODdhZTMzMy1lM2IwLTZkNWUtMjJlZi1mMDI5ZTI4ODZjNDImaW5zaWQ9NTI2MA&ptn=3&hsh=3&fclid=287ae333-e3b0-6d5e-22ef-f029e2886c42&psq=Actor+who+buys+a+boat+and+sails+it+with+his+wife+&u=a1aHR0cHM6Ly9lbi53aWtpcGVkaWEub3JnL3dpa2kvVGltb3RoeV9TcGFsbDpfLi4uYXRfU2Vh&ntb=1

    2. We have walked that part of the canal several times, but unfortunately not when you are there. Kind offer though!

    3. Thank you for your kind invitation, but unfortunately I shan’t be able to make it. Hope it’s a pleasant gathering.

  32. No M.Thomas this morning?

    I hope the MR isn’t having trouble scraping him off the mattress after my suggestion that he considers using a wound dressing liberally coated with honey…..

  33. Morning all 🙂😉
    Not a cloud to be seen, excellent……so far.
    The NHS is in such a mess behind the front lines it’s going to take a lot more than labour’s ‘we always know all the answers in hindsight’, to fix it.
    A decent evening at the local with two old friends last night. Good to see a crowd of youngsters in as well. Thankfully all around the other side of the bar, my word they can be a bit noisy. I enjoyed 3 pints of Abbot ale. Still a decent flavoured beer. Tribute was one of the alternative ales but it had just run out.
    The bar lady brought the two Tribute’s to the table.

      1. Cloud here as well.

        Moh golfing again , despite waking up at 0300hrs screaming his head off with leg cramp, and then me manipulating his toes to ease his cramp .. I feel exhausted , all I want is a decent night’s sleep on a nice comfy mattress.

        I wonder if I should book into a hotel or B and B ust to have an undisturbed sleep?

    2. I’m fully expecting Sir Kier to announce that he can solve the NHS crisis by using AI.
      Quite honestly I can’t see how Artificial Insemination will solve the problem! 🤔

        1. Not Guff. You can already buy a programme that you can use for narrating documentaries and is indistinguishable from a real human voice. It actually learn proper intonation as it goes along and, it has been caught lying in order to gain information. The below is a short. But there are much longer videos on You Tube that explain it.
          Journalist had a creepy encounter with new tech that left him unable to sleep
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f24JL0nnhcA

          1. If Kevin is a journalist why is he not using proper grammar? Der life, if that were published I’d die from shame.

          2. Heard on a programme about the Euphrates. “The Euphrates fertiled the civilizations of….”
            How is that for grammar?

          3. Try speaking to the NatWest automated helpline, you’d be better off trying to talk to your dog, it didn’t understand a word I said, and I speak very standard English.
            Their CORA bot is little better if you have a problem even slightly out of the ordinary; once you actually get through to a proper agent they are professional and helpful.

          4. If I see the advert again for the AI programme on You Tube. I will make a note of it and send the link. It will give you the creeps. Unfortunately I don’t recall the name because it wasn’t pertinent to anything I do.

          5. We will have to go back to face to face meetings then, and that would be a good thing. Human contact will have to return.

      2. Solving the problem of the NHS doesn’t need a super computer. It’s obvious: it’s a government department. Everything wrong with government departments applies to the NHS:

        Overmanning
        Inefficiency
        Waste
        Other people’s money
        Paid regardless outcomes
        No consequences for failure
        Oversight is self interested, not selfless.
        Targets instead of outcomes

        1. One of the most prolific and out standing problems in the finance side of the NHS is treating anyone who turns up. Irrespective of whether they have ever contributed a single penny to the kitty. Or paid for their treatment. This has been going on for many decades.

      1. Those were the days…… Long ago I was once in my old local The Adam & Eve NW7 when a bar maid from NZ chucked a pint over Terry Downes the Boxer, not quite sure what he had said to her but……… It shut him up.

    4. Labour’s answer is always to throw more taxpayers’ money at the problem.

    3. I wish that more of the few conservative Conservative MPs in the HoC would not just say they won’t be standing in the next election but resign from the party NOW to make the point that the Conservative Party no longer represents conservatism in any way.

      By not doing so aren’t they aiding and abetting fraud?

      1. Do they care? As long as they get their 30+ pieces of silver and pensions.

    4. That’s fine, I’ve no intention of voting. They’ve wasted every opportunity gifted them on infighting, bickering, back stabbing, petulance, undermining the nation, favoured groups and other total nonsense.

    3. There have always been sex pests and he seems to have been a crotch- grabber mainly.
      There were plenty of those around when I was a teenager as I found out.

      1. I didn’t like him at all and I detested that bloody song, Tie me kangaroo down sport, irritated me to bad temper and beyond. But I can’t help but feel that he is being pursued beyond death and it is a little obscene, as if being a pedophile was the only thing he was noted for.

        Looking it up I see his victims were two teenage girls, one 14 the other 16. You would be lucky now to find virgins of that age. I’m not being cynical, I have a daughter and she would tell me what here friends, cohorts, of both sexes were up to. Not the sort of thing my generation contemplated of girls that age. So frankly, I think there is an element of sanctimonious self righteousness being meted out here. His behaviour was on an entirely different level to Jimmy Savile who was a professional predator.

        1. It’s as if he’s been made a scapegoat for Savile, who got away with all his crimes and died instead.

      1. It may well be other Conservative MPs behind this. Remember: “sitting on the benches opposite are the Opposition: your enemies are behind you “.

    4. From another post elsewhere:

      Rachel Reeves’s husband, Nicolas Joicey, works in the Cabinet Office. As
      does Guardian journalist Pippa Crerar’s husband, Tom Whitehead. As does
      ITV News Editor Paul Brand’s husband, Joe Cuddeford. Coincidence, I
      think not.

      1. Look at a picture of the Passport Office – I haven’t got one but I have seen one and it perfectly coincides with my experience when I was last there – 23 years ago!

        All foreigners, or not very far descended from foreigners.

  37. ‘Morning All

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/460cdbe6e880f404065418b227be9416d38cf8486c7ad250e4771113b7a6c400.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/89fc9fa9b99d35ba13085b351ec58124f74da25e608da172d1582adc6672b842.png

    Rest………

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f532102cd9134dac227a6238b7a63744ee64c924491853308d461fed7a58b72b.jpg

    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/eb9efe691a5bb30883381623762b5ae66bb0c05651012e3e353910c800c99806.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c8538fe3a6e065deaa53bebd41a9d2cd53dc25e984f16ea078f3d990adbd00ad.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ce810305949d55469c29d21035cafc9b86c4b5251391c6cb632ea6a9eeb8df1d.jpg

  38. Must be heartbreaking for Philip Schofield trying to get used to normal
    life, getting up, making breakfast, getting his boyfriend ready for
    school…

  39. Morning all! Nice day again.
    I have thanks to make
    Oberstlentnant suggested blue tack on a stick to pick up pamphlets and other flat objects off the floor so I ordered some with my groceries which were delivered yesterday. Have a long stick that was used for protecting a clematis in transit and on one end it has a flat disc. So put the blu tack on that and it works. So thanks Ober for a great suggestion.

    Also phizzie suggested Vicks because I’m having a hard time breathing in this weather, cold and wet is definitely better for me. His suggestion reminded me of something that is extremely popular in California, few households don’t have it, Tiger Balm, it is somewhat similar to Vicks and is used in the same way as well as being put on your forehead for headaches. Also used for aches and pains. Forgot all about it because it wasn’t available here for years that I could see. Anyway, looked it up on eBay and there it is. So have ordered some. So thanks Pip!
    Can’t recommend Tiger Balm highly enough, well worth buying.
    Here is a link
    https://www.ebay.co.uk/str/personalisationworld

    2. I think Tiger Balm comes from Singapore. I used it a lot when I worked out there.

      1. Yes, great stuff. Using Vicks as Pip suggested but looking forward to the Tiger Balm arriving.

  40. Anyone else having trouble reading anything on TCW this morning? I’ve tried different links and all get an error message.

          1. Just logged out and back in to see if that clears it. If not will have to try a shutdown but that takes a bit more effort retrieving everything I want.

          4. Just logged out and back in to see if that clears it. If not will have to try a shutdown but that takes a bit more effort retrieving everything I want.

      2. Secure Connection Failed

        The connection to http://www.conservativewoman.co.uk was interrupted while the page was loading.

        The page you are trying to view cannot be shown because the authenticity of the received data could not be verified.
        Please contact the website owners to inform them of this problem.

        Learn more…

        Report errors like this to help Mozilla identify and block malicious sites

  41. Re Stephen’s honey trap tip yesterday. I told the MR – who was very impressed. It also appears that the dressing applied by Nurse yesterday contains some honey… We are hoping to buy a tube of “medical honey” in Boots tomorrow.

    1. Manuka (leptospermum) honey from New Zealand. Though I do have a woolly manuka in my garden which only flowers spasmodically.

    3. manuka honey

      Research has found manuka honey
      to be the best for medical use, given its unique antibacterial,
      antioxidant, and apoptopic properties. Medical grade honey products
      don’t always contain much honey, and sometimes have other ingredients
      too.16 Aug 2022

          3. I wouldn’t buy it. I also wouldn’t buy any of the adulterated rubbish the supermarkets sell. There are local producers here. I support them.

    4. The best honey for wounds, expensive. One of my wives was treated with it in hospital for a persistent wound that went to the bone, it worked. This was an American hospital and they look dimly on any unconventional medicine, no cranks or alternative medicine, so this is mainline medication in the USA
      Manuka Honey 525+ MGO, Certified, Pure Gold, Premium Manuka Honey, 500g
      https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/125936861073?epid=12024345032&hash=item1d526bff91:g:6ZgAAOSwb6BkLX0n&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA4OGQm2TFNlhCJ64lNOASBOhMK59jkwFMtRPVl1Ru%2Bfpl0K5OxWp1TXKa%2FPgdVJtGwPxXglDSVfQyaXUlDrZMm1r6fVQHorg9O2VMyS4d%2FzE9qldHAahHw88PiF1m1zsNiDTGsbWIr6whfFvzwSN4DQK7VmrH1tLNM2GMO0gAkHJo7VEUw2N5DQRXXOOkuGXeeUDXfKC9LIO07v4KoKqe2wqPec7u8aZPvcDgn%2FHPtTwwMeLxa2VJjhzlgMhl5sQmpRinhSWhNHsuGUIqDn2ifIxmy3e7jx3mx1yemSnrvrcZ%7Ctkp%3ABFBMpvfO14li
      It’s expensive £31.79 You will find cheaper versions that are adulterated or purport to be Manuka Honey when it isn’t really. It is not cheap to produce hence the expense. But it’s your health and that is worth a lot.

        1. First two died, one cancer, the other massive heart attack. The last was an evil bitch I refer to as The Daughter Of The Anti-Christ, divorced and fled to the UK. She would have had me in jail if I hadn’t. Psychopathic woman officially diagnosed with ‘Borderline personality disorder of the Narcissistic kind.’ Even then, the court system being what it is in California, she got custody of our son and I got barely two days of visitation per week and no holidays with him. She wasn’t happy with that and tried to put me in jail via various scams she created to get me arrested. Accused me of assault on her when I wasn’t even in the same town. Accused me of child molestation when I had my son., kidnapping was another one. She got her wish to have our son 100% of the time. After fighting her in the courts for 5 years and getting no where I left. Things were not good for fathers in those days. Actually knew a father who went to court constantly because he was afraid that his ex-wife was putting his children in jeopardy, they always turned him down. Eventually the daughter was killed in a boating accident due to the ex-wife’s irresponsibility. He went to court after the incident to sue for custody of his son. Judge decided that she should keep the child because: “She had not been found guilty of any crime.” She was on bail waiting for trial. For one other father I knew, a good friend, he hung himself in despair. I still feel his loss and feel guilt because I didn’t see it coming.

          1. Oh dear……….unlucky fella then. so sorry to hear about the losses you suffered.

          2. Having faith, as an Orthodox Christian, I believe it is all for a purpose.

        2. Or very unlucky?

          It took me a long time and much testing before I finally found my one and only lovely wife.

          In the address I gave at our wedding reception I quoted from Chaucer’s naughtily ironic Merchant’s Tale which mocks the old man who takes a young wife;

          And certeinly, as sooth as God is kyng,
          To take a wyf it is a glorious thyng,
          And namely whan a man is oold and hoor;
          Thanne is a wyf the fruyt of his tresor.
          Thanne sholde he take a yong wyf and a feir,
          On which he myghte engendren hym an heir,

          Chaucer wrote with considerable irony but I have always loved the lines from the old song, A Bachelor Gay from which I also quoted:

          When he fancies he is past love,
          It is then he meets his last love
          And he loves her as he’s never loved before.

          1. Unlucky indeed, I envy you. I was successful, my first wife. But… After the third I had enough I have not been in a relationship since I was in my 40’s. You only find the right one once.

    5. The best honey for wounds, expensive. One of my wives was treated with it in hospital for a persistent wound that went to the bone, it worked. This was an American hospital and they look dimly on any unconventional medicine, no cranks or alternative medicine, so this is mainline medication in the USA
      Manuka Honey 525+ MGO, Certified, Pure Gold, Premium Manuka Honey, 500g
      https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/125936861073?epid=12024345032&hash=item1d526bff91:g:6ZgAAOSwb6BkLX0n&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA4OGQm2TFNlhCJ64lNOASBOhMK59jkwFMtRPVl1Ru%2Bfpl0K5OxWp1TXKa%2FPgdVJtGwPxXglDSVfQyaXUlDrZMm1r6fVQHorg9O2VMyS4d%2FzE9qldHAahHw88PiF1m1zsNiDTGsbWIr6whfFvzwSN4DQK7VmrH1tLNM2GMO0gAkHJo7VEUw2N5DQRXXOOkuGXeeUDXfKC9LIO07v4KoKqe2wqPec7u8aZPvcDgn%2FHPtTwwMeLxa2VJjhzlgMhl5sQmpRinhSWhNHsuGUIqDn2ifIxmy3e7jx3mx1yemSnrvrcZ%7Ctkp%3ABFBMpvfO14li
      It’s expensive £31.79 You will find cheaper versions that are adulterated or purport to be Manuka Honey when it isn’t really. It is not cheap to produce hence the expense. But it’s your health and that is worth a lot.

    6. Our cleaner also looks after an old lady who has diabetes and clapped out circulation.
      Her leg ulcers were not improving with conventional treatment, so D*** applied manuka honey.
      The ulcers healed.

      1. I just ordered some based on that advice. My leg ulcers are not healing.

    1. Link still not working so I’ll have to bite the bullet and try a restart. What a timewaster!

      2. Done that and it’s still not working. Have to go outside and do something else.

    1. We all knew that.

      Celebs can ask for “one on one” training, so why not a minister of the crown?

      However it has been made quite plain to her that in future there will be every hindrance to her by the Civil Service.

  45. We need a serious conversation about seagulls

    Wildlife is being destroyed by a predator imbalance and the Government has made it worse

    JAMIE BLACKETT • 22 May 2023 • 5:48pm

    We need to talk about gulls. If you are reading this in an estuarine city or seaside town, or perhaps near a municipal tip, your ears will be pricking up and there may already be steam coming from them. Soon the papers will be full of summer stories of toddlers having ice creams snatched and pet dachshunds being savagely attacked.

    Complaints to councils have doubled in recent years – usually for noise, guano-spattered pavements and damage to buildings. Gulls, particularly of the lesser black-backed and herring variety, are becoming a big problem.

    As a country bumpkin with gulls soaring placidly above the Solway Firth outside my window, I have no great axe to grind on their anti-social behaviour, except perhaps to make the jibe that there is something about the urban condition that seems to make both humans and gulls behave badly. But I do mind a great deal that the gull population has reached damaging levels – because they now pose a huge threat to more vulnerable British birdlife.

    Farmer-conservationists spend this time of year obsessing about the nests of waders and meadow birds. We are a close-knit brotherhood, sharing stories of success and failure of curlews, lapwings, skylarks and other increasingly rare and very beautiful birds. The odds are stacked against them. They nest out in the open on the ground, often in short grass, and rely heavily on the camouflage of their eggs for safety.

    Their list of predators is formidable – badgers, foxes, carrion crows and misguided right-to-roamers with dogs. But just lately, one of the most lethal killers of lapwing chicks identified by conservationists from the North Pennines to the North Kent Marshes has been the gull, and especially the immigrant Mediterranean gulls in the South East.

    These gulls are not by any stretch of the imagination rare, while curlews and other waders may be facing extinction. Until very recently the problem was not so great. There was a general licence to cull gulls and some other birds until 2019, when, under pressure from the Chris Packham-backed Wild Justice activists, the regulations changed.

    This has resulted in severe injustice for ground-nesting birds, and also for distressed citizens in gull blighted towns. The RSPB, which, before its unwise entry into the culture wars, might have been expected to take an empirical view of bird protection, says of gulls: “We question the appropriateness of lethal control on a declining, red-listed species and highlight the need to comply with European bird protection law.”

    Applications to Natural England for special licences to cull gulls highlight another problem. By the time the usually knowledgeable landowner on the ground has submitted a request to the frequently ignorant civil servant in an office and they have “followed a process”, the damage has been done.

    Usually that process, which always trumps outcomes, involves the precautionary principle – the precaution being, seemingly, to ensure the civil servant is not held accountable for making a decision. Then, if a token number of licences is finally issued, it tends to be too late for the chicks.

    We need to have a serious conversation, not just about gulls, but about our wildlife being destroyed by a predator imbalance that the Government has made much worse.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/05/22/let-farmers-deal-with-the-pesky-gulls-ravaging-british-bird/

      2. The chip-stealing, avian dive-bomber for which the 12-bore was invented.

        Or, as one BTL commenter described it, an acid-bath with a hole at each end.

        1. I have gulls which feed in fields and on waste ground … inland … and than they fly to roost on ponds, lakes and reservoirs. They repeat this pattern every day of their lives from birth to death and never go anywhere near the sea,

          Also, they never bother me nor try to steal my food. My most common gulls are Common (or Mew) Gull Larus canus, Black-headed Gull L. ridibundus, Herring Gull L.argentatus, and Lesser Black-backed Gull L. fuscus.

          2. If you could get past your obsessive indignation, you’d notice that the author refers exclusively to gulls. It’s only the headline that uses the word that so offends your rage for order.

          4. Chill!

            Calling a gull a ‘seagull’ is exactly the same as calling a cow a ‘moo cow’ or a horse a ‘gee gee’. It is childish, superfluous and nonsense.

          5. It’s not the same, not by any stretch. It’s childish of you to suggest it is.

            The article is about pest control, conservation and the effect human activities have on both yet you quibble about the headline. Did you even read the piece?

          6. I have no need nor wish to read it. I only read erudite ornithological literature about birds and have contributed to such as a field ornithologist of long standing.

            It seems you are outnumbered on here about your love for ‘seagulls’.

          7. “…your love for ‘seagulls’.”

            A gross misrepresentation of what I have written. Grow up.

    3. We have a serious problem with the overbreeding of humans .

      Woodland and hedgerows are destroyed , yes , to build rabbit hutch developments for expanding families , single mothers , and asylum seekers .

      Our countryside is being dumped on , as well as being flytipped .. and I forgot to mention the nitrates in our rivers and harbours .

      Poor old gulls and other sea birds are missing their sand eels because sand eels are being sucked up to be used for fertilisers etc.

      We are a small island .. have people forgotten that ?

      When I was a child and when my sons were growing up , we saw birds nests , roads , frogs , spawn , stag beetles, butterflies, little fish in rivers , freshwater crayfish , when was the last time you saw a ladybird , me, years ago .

      Gulls congregate at tips, or follow the plough on the fields , they are probably confused by fields and fields of solar panels , which look like lakes .

      People should not eat food on the hoof , it is bad mannered and likely to attract a hungry gull.

      Why do the British whine so much , have they always moaned?

      1. When I was young, walking down the street while eating something was definitely frowned upon. At school, we were given order marks for being seen out in school uniform without the obligatory beret, or eating something like chips. My mother wouldn’t allow it either.

          2. “Manners maketh man” – well our species have degenerated – even animals have accepted modes of behaviour.

      2. “People should not eat food on the hoof , it is bad mannered and likely to attract a hungry gull.”

        Indeed, but they will be attracted by any outdoor eating – cafes and pubs with outside tables etc.

    4. Is ‘Jamie’ Blackett a sexchanged version of Nancy?. I always thought those Amazons were a bit suspect. The Swallows were clean navy types.

  46. Top mathematicians warn curriculum being ‘politicised’ with diversity guidance

    Over 50 leading professors claim the Quality Assurance Agency is trying to make students ‘pay for their own indoctrination’

    Louisa Clarence-Smith, EDUCATION EDITOR • 23 May 2023 • 9:00pm

    More than 50 of Britain’s leading mathematicians have accused standards bosses of politicising the curriculum with new diversity guidance.

    Academics at top UK universities have signed an open letter criticising guidance on academic standards that states that values of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) “should permeate the curriculum and every aspect of the learning experience”.

    The guidance was published in March by the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA), an independent body that receives membership fees from more than 300 UK higher education providers and distributes advice on courses.

    In an open letter, the mathematicians write: “We reject the QAA’s insistence on politicising the mathematical curriculum. We believe the only thing that should permeate the mathematics curriculum is mathematics. Academics should teach from a perspective informed by their academic experience, not from a political perspective determined by the QAA. Students should be able to study mathematics without also being required to pay for their own political indoctrination.”

    ‘A skewed view of the history’

    Prominent signatories include Prof Geoffrey Grimmett of the University of Cambridge, who is widely known for his work in probability theory and statistical mechanics, and Prof Johannes Ruf, an expert in mathematical finance at the London School of Economics. The academics have warned that the QAA does not identify which of the many contested interpretations of EDI should permeate the curriculum.

    The QAA guidance suggests that professors should note that “some early ideas in statistics were motivated by their proposers’ support for eugenics, some astronomical data were collected on plantations by enslaved people, and, historically, some mathematicians have recorded racist or fascist views or connections to groups such as the Nazis“.

    Maths professors said that the agency wanted to teach “a skewed view of the history of mathematics”. They noted that the QAA did not recommend teaching “the universality of mathematical truth, the use of statistics to disprove historical racial theories or about the Jewish mathematicians persecuted by Nazis”.

    In the latest QAA guidance for degree subjects, universities have been told to incorporate EDI into courses in maths, economics, engineering, business and management, biosciences, languages, law and politics, and international relations.

    The agency also recommends incorporating teaching on “sustainable development”, which the QAA defines as “an aspirational ongoing process of addressing social, environmental and economic concerns to create a better world”. The maths guidance states that the subject has “a vital role to play in achieving the UN’s sustainable development goals”.

    ‘Encouraging’ student activism

    Dr John Armstrong, a reader in financial mathematics at King’s College London, and a signatory of the letter, said: “Education for sustainable development may sound like a positive thing, but when you look into what that is, what they are promoting is encouraging all students to become activists on issues of social justice. It’s really quite a remarkable thing to change education from goals such as understanding, learning and appreciating art and shift everything towards consideration of social justice.”

    The QAA was the official quality body in England until the end of March this year, when it became independent.

    Dr Armstrong said that even though they were no longer the official standards body, they remain influential as no other organisation has been set up to take their place.

    “This is part of a general pressure that’s being applied to universities, whether it’s coming from the QAA, the UN or students,” he said. “Maths departments are coming under severe pressure, whether it’s legally binding or not.”

    Toby Young, director of the Free Speech Union, said: “The QAA is supposed to be a politically impartial body that upholds standards in higher education, not an instrument for ensuring compliance with progressive orthodoxy. Under the rubric of EDI, it is trying to force mathematics departments to embed critical race theory in their curricula.”

    A spokesman for the QAA said: “Subject benchmark statements are written by groups of academics from the relevant discipline. Institutional autonomy and academic freedom are crucial principles, and therefore the statements do not mandate academics to teach specific content – they are a reflective tool to support course design and are not compulsory. We agree with the letter’s assertion that course content should be taught by academics in line with their own expertise and academic judgment.”

    Susan Lapworth, chief executive of the Office for Students (OfS), said: “The OfS no longer works with the QAA on the regulation of quality in English universities. We do not expect universities to follow the QAA’s benchmark statements and we do not endorse or support the content of those documents.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/05/23/maths-professors-accuse-politicising-subject-diversity

    1. It certainly permeated the curriculum at the school where the young maths teacher ‘misgendered’ a misguided child. I’m glad my children aren’t being indoctrinated at school nowadays.

      1. So am I. It’s pathetic, ridiculous, and ultimately dangerous. Who and what the heck ever allowed a child to decide what their teacher calls them in terms of pronoun? Perhaps the children (or their parents more like) would like to teach the 3 Rs – if they even know what those are.

        1. It’s all part of the current obsession with subverting children with ‘Pride’, drag acts, ‘pronouns’ (if they even know what they are), instead of just teaching them maths, English, history, etc. All subjects, whatever they are, lead back to this ‘social justice’ obsession. Everything looked at through a distorting mirror of race and sexuality.

    2. Hear, hear! I’m all for equality in mathematics. Why should 1 not be equal to 2? That’s so unfair.

    3. Of course Richard Lynn’s world IQ stats leave the social justice warriors apoplectic because regardless of the evidence, they really can’t cope with the claims of evolutionary biologists.

      1. About 20 years ago I read Andrew Brown’s ‘Darwin Wars’. It’s about the clash of ideas of sociobiologists – kinship theory, altruism, determinism – that were so controversial that they appear not to be discussed any more. Scientific explanations for human social evolution became too political and controversial. Theories on the basic unit of human existence – the tribe – and its actions revealed aspects of behaviour that so terrified one man (George Price) that it drove him to suicide.

        Here’s a good review of the work:
        https://dreamflesh.com/review/book/darwin-wars/

  47. Top mathematicians warn curriculum being ‘politicised’ with diversity guidance

    Over 50 leading professors claim the Quality Assurance Agency is trying to make students ‘pay for their own indoctrination’

    Louisa Clarence-Smith, EDUCATION EDITOR • 23 May 2023 • 9:00pm

    More than 50 of Britain’s leading mathematicians have accused standards bosses of politicising the curriculum with new diversity guidance.

    Academics at top UK universities have signed an open letter criticising guidance on academic standards that states that values of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) “should permeate the curriculum and every aspect of the learning experience”.

    The guidance was published in March by the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA), an independent body that receives membership fees from more than 300 UK higher education providers and distributes advice on courses.

    In an open letter, the mathematicians write: “We reject the QAA’s insistence on politicising the mathematical curriculum. We believe the only thing that should permeate the mathematics curriculum is mathematics. Academics should teach from a perspective informed by their academic experience, not from a political perspective determined by the QAA. Students should be able to study mathematics without also being required to pay for their own political indoctrination.”

    ‘A skewed view of the history’

    Prominent signatories include Prof Geoffrey Grimmett of the University of Cambridge, who is widely known for his work in probability theory and statistical mechanics, and Prof Johannes Ruf, an expert in mathematical finance at the London School of Economics. The academics have warned that the QAA does not identify which of the many contested interpretations of EDI should permeate the curriculum.

    The QAA guidance suggests that professors should note that “some early ideas in statistics were motivated by their proposers’ support for eugenics, some astronomical data were collected on plantations by enslaved people, and, historically, some mathematicians have recorded racist or fascist views or connections to groups such as the Nazis“.

    Maths professors said that the agency wanted to teach “a skewed view of the history of mathematics”. They noted that the QAA did not recommend teaching “the universality of mathematical truth, the use of statistics to disprove historical racial theories or about the Jewish mathematicians persecuted by Nazis”.

    In the latest QAA guidance for degree subjects, universities have been told to incorporate EDI into courses in maths, economics, engineering, business and management, biosciences, languages, law and politics, and international relations.

    The agency also recommends incorporating teaching on “sustainable development”, which the QAA defines as “an aspirational ongoing process of addressing social, environmental and economic concerns to create a better world”. The maths guidance states that the subject has “a vital role to play in achieving the UN’s sustainable development goals”.

    ‘Encouraging’ student activism

    Dr John Armstrong, a reader in financial mathematics at King’s College London, and a signatory of the letter, said: “Education for sustainable development may sound like a positive thing, but when you look into what that is, what they are promoting is encouraging all students to become activists on issues of social justice. It’s really quite a remarkable thing to change education from goals such as understanding, learning and appreciating art and shift everything towards consideration of social justice.”

    The QAA was the official quality body in England until the end of March this year, when it became independent.

    Dr Armstrong said that even though they were no longer the official standards body, they remain influential as no other organisation has been set up to take their place.

    “This is part of a general pressure that’s being applied to universities, whether it’s coming from the QAA, the UN or students,” he said. “Maths departments are coming under severe pressure, whether it’s legally binding or not.”

    Toby Young, director of the Free Speech Union, said: “The QAA is supposed to be a politically impartial body that upholds standards in higher education, not an instrument for ensuring compliance with progressive orthodoxy. Under the rubric of EDI, it is trying to force mathematics departments to embed critical race theory in their curricula.”

    A spokesman for the QAA said: “Subject benchmark statements are written by groups of academics from the relevant discipline. Institutional autonomy and academic freedom are crucial principles, and therefore the statements do not mandate academics to teach specific content – they are a reflective tool to support course design and are not compulsory. We agree with the letter’s assertion that course content should be taught by academics in line with their own expertise and academic judgment.”

    Susan Lapworth, chief executive of the Office for Students (OfS), said: “The OfS no longer works with the QAA on the regulation of quality in English universities. We do not expect universities to follow the QAA’s benchmark statements and we do not endorse or support the content of those documents.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/05/23/maths-professors-accuse-politicising-subject-diversity

  48. Top mathematicians warn curriculum being ‘politicised’ with diversity guidance

    Over 50 leading professors claim the Quality Assurance Agency is trying to make students ‘pay for their own indoctrination’

    Louisa Clarence-Smith, EDUCATION EDITOR • 23 May 2023 • 9:00pm

    More than 50 of Britain’s leading mathematicians have accused standards bosses of politicising the curriculum with new diversity guidance.

    Academics at top UK universities have signed an open letter criticising guidance on academic standards that states that values of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) “should permeate the curriculum and every aspect of the learning experience”.

    The guidance was published in March by the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA), an independent body that receives membership fees from more than 300 UK higher education providers and distributes advice on courses.

    In an open letter, the mathematicians write: “We reject the QAA’s insistence on politicising the mathematical curriculum. We believe the only thing that should permeate the mathematics curriculum is mathematics. Academics should teach from a perspective informed by their academic experience, not from a political perspective determined by the QAA. Students should be able to study mathematics without also being required to pay for their own political indoctrination.”

    ‘A skewed view of the history’

    Prominent signatories include Prof Geoffrey Grimmett of the University of Cambridge, who is widely known for his work in probability theory and statistical mechanics, and Prof Johannes Ruf, an expert in mathematical finance at the London School of Economics. The academics have warned that the QAA does not identify which of the many contested interpretations of EDI should permeate the curriculum.

    The QAA guidance suggests that professors should note that “some early ideas in statistics were motivated by their proposers’ support for eugenics, some astronomical data were collected on plantations by enslaved people, and, historically, some mathematicians have recorded racist or fascist views or connections to groups such as the Nazis“.

    Maths professors said that the agency wanted to teach “a skewed view of the history of mathematics”. They noted that the QAA did not recommend teaching “the universality of mathematical truth, the use of statistics to disprove historical racial theories or about the Jewish mathematicians persecuted by Nazis”.

    In the latest QAA guidance for degree subjects, universities have been told to incorporate EDI into courses in maths, economics, engineering, business and management, biosciences, languages, law and politics, and international relations.

    The agency also recommends incorporating teaching on “sustainable development”, which the QAA defines as “an aspirational ongoing process of addressing social, environmental and economic concerns to create a better world”. The maths guidance states that the subject has “a vital role to play in achieving the UN’s sustainable development goals”.

    ‘Encouraging’ student activism

    Dr John Armstrong, a reader in financial mathematics at King’s College London, and a signatory of the letter, said: “Education for sustainable development may sound like a positive thing, but when you look into what that is, what they are promoting is encouraging all students to become activists on issues of social justice. It’s really quite a remarkable thing to change education from goals such as understanding, learning and appreciating art and shift everything towards consideration of social justice.”

    The QAA was the official quality body in England until the end of March this year, when it became independent.

    Dr Armstrong said that even though they were no longer the official standards body, they remain influential as no other organisation has been set up to take their place.

    “This is part of a general pressure that’s being applied to universities, whether it’s coming from the QAA, the UN or students,” he said. “Maths departments are coming under severe pressure, whether it’s legally binding or not.”

    Toby Young, director of the Free Speech Union, said: “The QAA is supposed to be a politically impartial body that upholds standards in higher education, not an instrument for ensuring compliance with progressive orthodoxy. Under the rubric of EDI, it is trying to force mathematics departments to embed critical race theory in their curricula.”

    A spokesman for the QAA said: “Subject benchmark statements are written by groups of academics from the relevant discipline. Institutional autonomy and academic freedom are crucial principles, and therefore the statements do not mandate academics to teach specific content – they are a reflective tool to support course design and are not compulsory. We agree with the letter’s assertion that course content should be taught by academics in line with their own expertise and academic judgment.”

    Susan Lapworth, chief executive of the Office for Students (OfS), said: “The OfS no longer works with the QAA on the regulation of quality in English universities. We do not expect universities to follow the QAA’s benchmark statements and we do not endorse or support the content of those documents.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/05/23/maths-professors-accuse-politicising-subject-diversity

    2. Yes, but that was not NI’s fault. It was politicians in the the rUK, viz. Downing Street’s fault.

  50. Yesterdays report into Chinese interference in Canadian politics contains a few howlers.

    Apparently the public safety minister did not receive emails from the security service detailing interference because he does not have access to the top secret email system used.

    Surprisingly the report does not begin with “Once upon a time in a land far, far away”.

      2. In Japan they keep records that go that far back. They do the same for Bonsai too. They were doing things like making paper cherry blossom and attaching them to trees in the snow, so it would to please a sick empress when she woke up in the morning. This is recorded by Lady Sei Shonagon in her diary 1000 years ago. I recommend it and The Tale of Genji , also 1000 years old. While we were mucking about in the mud and wattle, they were living lives of utter sophistication in the royal court of the time. This is how the ladies of the court dressed in that period
        https://i.pinimg.com/originals/ab/07/23/ab07234d7e1cef0280dd9c08a1dbbac8.jpg

        And the men
        https://i.pinimg.com/736x/11/eb/21/11eb2161fc94fc0e02e49d10a5b6af3a–japanese-costume-heian-era.jpg

        1. IIRC there are several family owned businesses in Japan which are over 1000 years old.

      1. Beautiful! One thing that you don’t see much of now a days is Camellias which are also as attractive. Out of fashion?

        1. Have just planted two Tri-colours.
          (Also had to leave behind a magnificent Williamsi)

          1. Good, pictures when they are in flower. Also like tree peonies, have you seen them? Absolutely spectacular. In Rochester there are two old plants in a front garden very close to where I lived. People would stop in their tracks to look at them. Stunning plants. Was going to plant three of them in my front garden. Had to abandon that since I became ill.

        2. I have a couple of camellias in the area outside the back door. They are shelted there. One is red, the other is candy-striped.

          1. It used to be, Conrad, that they were everywhere, almost a standard plant in every garden. They have disappeared in the meantime. Plants go in and out of fashion, who knows why.

          2. There are lots of them round here (North Shrops, Cheshire) because the soil is quite acidic. Rhododendrons, azaleaa and camellias abound.

          3. That is a very good reason why they would be more common where you live. A case of me forgetting the obvious, i.e. they like acidic soil.

            Of course here in the South Downs it is mostly alkaline. Although you do find wild Rhododendrons, which are a pest , an invasive species and not terribly attractive. I have noticed they seem to be particularly abundant near the river here along with that god awful Himalayan Balsam, which chokes out the other flora and is very dense here.

  54. Labour would renegotiate Brexit deal within months of election, says shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves. 24 May 2023.

    Labour would open talks with Brussels on renegotiating the Brexit trade deal within months of entering government, Rachel Reeves has said.

    The shadow chancellor criticised the “chaotic” agreement Boris Johnson reached with the EU and said it needed a significant overhaul.

    Yes it needs “overhauling” out of existence. Who in their right mind would vote for any of these people? They are liars, thieves, perverts and traitors!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/05/24/labour-renegotiate-brexit-rachel-reeves-election/

    2. I agree that the agreement Boris Johnson reached with the EU was chaotic.

      Lord Frost was holding firm on both Northern Ireland and UK fishing waters and then, on the eve of the agreement bring struck, both Boris Johnson and Michael Gove arrived in Brussels and suddenly the UK had surrendered on both Northern Ireland and fishing.

      Will the truth ever come out? With what did Johnson and Gove threaten Frost to make him abandon his firm position at the last minute and lumber the UK with an unbelievably bad Brexit deal?

    1. I’ll bet he had “services to diversity”, not to humanity. A lot of these diversity-awarded people are actually blinkered and often quite evil. Just look at the horrible Markle mattress actress for one.

  57. Just had the smart meter man on the phone,
    wanting to upgrade my smart meter to the latest hokey cokey mark 2 model.
    I said i don’t have a smart meter,
    He said if I have one I will get the benefit of not having to read the meter each month,
    I said, its no hardship, really,
    Then he said when can I book you in,
    I said I didn’t want one,
    He said why not,
    I said I don’t have to give a reason.
    He said by law you will have to have one in the future.
    I said I will wait until then, then.
    Goodbye he said, a bit huffily

    1. I’m with British Gas. I read my meters quarterly and pay in arrears by direct debit. They tell me I could save all of £16 pa if I paid monthly.

      1. That’s how we always used to pay bills – but they want your money in advance before you’ve used the gas.

    2. I gave in a year ago and now have a smart meter. The little box is away in a cupboard but it does have the advantage I can watch my daily consumption on their website but no real advantage. I was on SSE at the time then they decided they didn’t want my quarterly payments in arrears and gave me a silly monthly direct debit prediction that bore no resemblance to what they already knew I used. Moved away to EDF who still offer the payment in arrears (but monthly, not quarterly). Took them three months to move the gas meter over and another three months before they billed me for any electricity and gather their customer service based in the Philippines is one of the worst but seems to be doing what it said on the tin.
      This forcing of monthly huge direct debits which only benefit the supplier is the sole reason why so many people are crying foul that they can’t pay. They should be banned and have proper real consumption bills for all. Will they listen, no.

      1. I have one too. Ended up paying less, Octopus Energy. My bill has not increased at all, despite all the dire warning’s to the contrary. Thought, like most, I would be plunged into energy servitude. No such thing. Most outrageous thing is grocery bills which seem to increase every week. They are definitely putting a dent in my income.

        1. We are waiting until we have been living at the Dower House for a year so we have a clearer consumption pattern.
          What with it being a rental for a couple of years, then we rented it for 6 months to make sure we got it but didn’t actually live there, the power usage records are somewhat spotty.

        2. We are waiting until we have been living at the Dower House for a year so we have a clearer consumption pattern.
          What with it being a rental for a couple of years, then we rented it for 6 months to make sure we got it but didn’t actually live there, the power usage records are somewhat spotty.

      2. I’ve moved my direct debits to Scottish Power to a Standing (Banker’s) Order, which they cannot mess with.

    4. EDF are forever sending me emails to make an appt. to have a smart meter.
      Filed under ‘Z’ for zap.

      2. That’s what I like about Thunderbird. It has a learning filter system so after a bit, that sort of email is automatically junked.

  58. Gardening calls – sunny but still a cold edge to the wind. Play nicely.

  59. Latest Breaking News – Dianne Abbott says that inflation is still in double figures at 8.7%

    1. I’d never head of her either, but an interesting piece about a remarkable woman.

  61. https://twitter.com/BFirstParty/status/1661303627292585984

    Our big cities are NOT coping with the challenges of multi diversity .

    700,000 + supposed migrants arrived last year, not counting the illegals .. another 1,000.000 will arrive this year according to predictions .

    Dare I mention that since Mandela came and went , the financial centre of Jo’burg is wiped out , a no go area , Khartoum , Lagos , and all the other capital cities in Africa are wasted .

    Did you hear about New Orleans .. wasted .. a city of culture no more , gangs have taken over, drugs and murders ..

    Look at Paris ,poor Paris .

    Now we have darkies spreading their nonsense to our university towns and sea side places , and the bugbear is the Black Broadcasting Company embraces a different culture as do the advertising companies .

    The generation younger than mine will never know how life was before the great Black intrusion and take over .

    1. They seem to have wrecked the whole country.
      Robbery is rife now. Our neighbours sister and elderly mother live in Simmons Town near where the old naval base was. She said robbers are boarding the trains to Cape Town. Threatening the driver and telling them not to react if someone pulls the emergency cord.

    1. Ed Divvie thinks there are ‘clearly’ women who have a penis – no – they are men who are deluded.

      2. Surely this was posted on NTTL the other day: most women have a penis, but they usually return it when it is finished with.

    2. Ed Divvie thinks there are ‘clearly’ women who have a penis – no – they are men who are deluded.

    3. This was doing the rounds during student nurse days . I expect the twerp Davey hasn’t a clue !

      The Doctor’s Lament

      The portions of a woman that appeal to Man’s depravity
      Are fashioned with considerable care;
      And what at first appears to be a common little cavity
      Is really an elaborate affair.
      Now doctors of distinction have examined these phenomena
      In numbers of experimental dames
      And given to these ornaments of feminine abdomena
      A number of delightful Latin names:
      There’s the vulva, the vagina and the jolly perineum
      And the hymen in the case of certain brides;
      And there’s lots of other gadgets you’d just love if you could see’em
      The clitoris and Christ knows what besides
      Now isn’t it a pity that when common people chatter
      Of the mysteries to which I have referred
      That they give to this so vital and so elegant a matter
      Such a very short and unattractive word.

      The Layman’s Reply

      The eminent authorities who study the geography
      Of this obscure but interesting land
      Are able to indulge a taste for feminine topography
      And view the graphic details close at hand.
      We ordinary people, though aware of the existence
      Of complexities beyond the public knowle
      Are usually content to view the details from a distance
      And treat them, roughly speaking, as a whole.
      Moreover when we laymen probe the depths of femininity
      We exercise a simpler form of touch
      And do not cloud the issue with superfluous minutia
      But call the whole concern a such-and-such.
      For men have made this useful but inelegant commodity
      The subject of innumerable jibes
      And while the name they call it by is something of an oddity
      It seems to fit the object it describes.

      The Woman’s Retort
      You erudite philosophers are really rather comical
      Despite your pseudoscientific facts,
      For all your heated arguments on matters anatomical
      Have very little bearing on your acts.
      You may agree to differ and make learned dissertations
      On the relative importance of a name,
      But we women find that when it comes to intimate relations
      You reactions are essentially the same.
      Moreover when you analyze, in phrases too meticulous
      Our relatively simple little vent
      You overlook the verbiage, so rude and so ridiculous
      Which designates the gadgets of a gent.
      But then perhaps it’s ’cause you find the emblems of virility
      So very, very difficult to hide,
      That your jealousy induces you to scoff at our ability
      To tuck away our privacies inside.

  63. The 95 year old lady who was tasered by police in her care home in Australia has died.

    1. zNot surprised. They really went to work on her. Hope there is a prosecution for culpable homicide.

      1. The piece in the Telegraph also linked to a similar event in the UK when a 93 year old diabetic man with only one leg was tasered to death. What is wrong with these trigger-happy people? Old people with dementia are liable to do strange things. My grandmother smashed a window with a poker, but at least the police didn’t kill her.

      2. Was she black like George Floyd? It is only a crime for a policeman or a police woman to kill a person if that person is black. If a policeman kills a white person then it’s just bad luck and nobody should be punished.

      1. Agree. Much as I dislike the terrible two I believe this is utter rubbish.

    2. Utter tosh.
      Much as I dislike the pair of them this kind of thing should be halted.
      It’s not an issue of free speech this is just fabricated bile and spite.

      1. This conspiracy theory was fuelled by Migraine’s objection to the hospital where Archie was to be born. When the birth occurred in another hospital very little information was given and it was suggested that Migraine had not given birth at all and the hospital of her choice had been prepared to lie. Another bit of ‘evidence’ was that the baby bulge bounced about when Migraine walked , did not look real and was smaller 2 months later than it had been before.

        This is probably completely fabrication – but as we told our children when they were little : if you tell lies people will not believe you when you are telling the truth.

        1. The value of the story is such that if it were true it would have been sold together with DNA evidence to support it.

          1. Was the spurious allegation that Hewitt was Harry’s father conclusively proved to be false by the production of DNA evidence?

            A strong indication that Harry is the king’s son is that they both have a very similar petulant, arrogant and churlish nature.

          2. NO, and that is exactly the point; had he been, the evidence was worth a small fortune and would have been produced.
            Agree re the character assessment.

          3. Charles and Harry are very similar facially and Harry seems to be developing rosacea, in a similar manner to King Charles.

    3. Similar to the ‘warming-pan baby’, son of James II. That was complete and utter nonsense (and malicious), too.

    4. There are many rumours that these children are children for hire (for ‘acting’ purposes). There was something really odd about the first pregnancy – it lasted for 10 months, the bump swayed dramatically from side to side when she was walking across a road, it changed its shape and size and position more than a few times within a matter of days, and she almost lost the bump when she was visiting Birkenhead – there is a look of horror on her face as she feels the fastenings (velcroe) give way (almost to her knees). I suppose it is still on the web somewhere. There is no smoke without fire and I keep an open mind on most things. Everything is possible in this mad world without boundaries which we now inhabit.. And how will the RF and Harry get out of all this, for going along with it? I expect if it ever comes to light they will say they had to go along with it as MM was mentally unstable and they feared for her life otherwise. Poor Queen Elizabeth.

  65. The Spectator
    Brendan O’NeillBrendan O’Neill
    We need to talk about Just Stop Oil’s class privilege
    It’s easy to work out why these protesters are treated with kid gloves by the police

    have never felt such a strong desire to buy a man a pint as I did when I watched that builder clear Just Stop Oil protesters off the road. The clip has gone viral. We see an irate bloke take direct action against doom-mongering posh irritants. They were doing one of their funereal marches on Blackfriars Bridge in Central London, to raise awareness about the coming eco-apocalypse or some nonsense, when the man appeared out of nowhere, fuming.
    He ripped their daft banners from their hands. He pushed one of them off the road. He looked furious, and why not? A man being prevented from getting to work by the upper middle-class retirees of the green death cult – we should all be angry about that. My WhatsApp has been buzzing all day with friends and family sharing the clip and cheering the heroic builder, the man with no name, the productive member of society who finally said to the road-blocking End-is-Nigh nutters: ‘Enough’.

    The police, however, see things differently. They won’t be buying him a pint. In fact, they arrested him, roughly. One swore at him. It was a surreal scene. The builder was only doing what the police have flat-out refused to do – clear the public highway so that citizens can go about their business. And yet the police manhandled, cuffed and arrested him. Disgraceful behaviour by the state, if you ask me.

    That builder should know that if he needs funds for a trial, there are many people out there who would be willing to help. The public has had enough of the road-blocking antics of eco-doomsayers. There have been many instances over the past couple of years of working-class people angrily confronting these self-indulgent disruptors of daily life. We’ve seen builders, truckers and busy mums stand up to the time-rich hysterics and tell them to stop making life harder for ordinary people.
    few months ago, on the Strand in London, I saw some very young men in paint-stained workgear pleading with a gaggle of Just Stop Oil activists to get off the road. ‘Let us go home’, one said. One of the very plummy eco-agitators mumbled something along the lines of: ‘We’re doing this for you, and for everyone.’ Their paternalism and arrogance was astounding.

    What have the police done about all this? Nothing. Actually, it’s worse than that – they’re providing protection to the green road-blockers. We’ve seen cops offering Just Stop Oil water, and in one case feeding water to an eco-vicar who had glued himself to the road. The arrest of the heroic builder of Blackfriars Bridge is confirmation that the police are putting a forcefield around Just Stop Oil, to protect them from the plebs. They’re not policing these marches – they’re stewarding them.

    We need to talk about Just Stop Oil’s class privilege. It isn’t hard to fathom why these protesters are treated with kid gloves by the cops and fawned over by the liberal media. It’s because they are ‘nice’ and well-to-do. It’s because they are adherents to the grim climate-change ideology that is supported by every wing of the establishment. Do you think Brexit voters, if they were to block the roads to register their frustration with the latest UK-EU deal, would be given such soft, cuddly treatment? Not a chance. They’d be truncheoned off the street and the Guardian would laugh.

    Just Stop Oil and its mother-ship movement – Extinction Rebellion – are famously upper class. They’re all called Edred or Tilly. Harry Mount calls them ‘Econians’, a green spin on Etonians – the ‘public school boys and girls who rule the wokerati world’. A survey of the 6,000 XR people who brought London to a standstill in April 2019 found they were ‘overwhelmingly middle-class [and] highly educated’. The establishment likes these people because they look and sound so familiar. ‘They’re just like us.’

    An unspoken class war is unfolding on the streets of Britain. The intermittent run-ins between working-class people and comfortably-off greens speaks to a deeper disagreement over the future of the country. Working people tend to want more growth, more wealth creation, decent jobs, and cheap and abundant energy. Greens, meanwhile, want less of everything: less development, less driving, less coal, less nuclear, less energy. The clash between that builder and the road-blockers was really a clash of competing visions, competing values, and I know whose side I’m on.

    Isaac Foot, the Liberal MP and father of Michael, was fond of saying that he judged a man by one thing – which side he would have fought on in the Battle of Marston Moor during the English Civil War. We can do similar today. Are you on the side of the self-righteous peddlers of fact-lite doom, or ordinary people who want to keep earning a wage and keep the country running? We can tell an awful lot about you by your answer.

  66. South Africa could become a “failed state” but has yet to reach that point, a senior official of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) has said.

    The admission by ANC secretary general Fikile Mbalula comes as South Africa experiences power cuts, known as load-shedding, of up to 10 hours a day.

    “This load-shedding has just made a mess of our country,” he told the BBC’s HARDtalk programme.

    The power cuts have worsened South Africa’s economic crisis.

    The country is also battling high levels of corruption, all of which has damaged confidence in the ANC government.
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-65683674

      2. And Earl Montgomery of El Alamein on African countries can’t rule themselves because of corruption.

    2. South Africa could become a “failed state” but has yet to reach that point…

      No it has failed. States do not disappear. Even when they have become fully dysfunctional they still maintain an existence. Haiti is very probably the most miserable place on the planet but it is still here!

    3. Didn’t take long for it to become a third world country. Do you wonder about your siblings’ safety?

      1. I have a niece living near Cape Town she has three teenage daughters.
        One of them in still at university and one working in England. She’s recently divorced. I can’t see them staying there much longer.
        Shame it’s a beautiful country.
        The government are stealing the people’s money and are crooks. And wrecking the country as Mugabe did.

  67. A Birmingham abattoir has been fined thousands of pounds for mistreating animals. Lambs, sheep and cattle at Leansale Limited at the back of premises on Stratford Road in Sparkbrook suffered ‘pain, distress and suffering’ according to an investigation by the Food Standards Agency.

    The company, which trades under the name of Roopyal Laham Halaal Butchers, was found to have committed a number of animal welfare offences. The mistreatment was caught on camera and was uncovered when a vet working for the FSA was told a lamb had ‘escaped’.

    https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/birmingham-abattoir-fined-10k-causing-26978192?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=sharebar

    2. Before I’d finished reading, I was about to add … “or, as it’s otherwise known – halal slaughter”.

    1. Brilliant. He has nailed it. But it hasn’t (and won’t) stop UK museums and the stupid morons which run them.

  70. Double Bogey Six today.

    Wordle 704 6/6
    ⬜🟨⬜⬜🟨
    ⬜⬜⬜🟩🟩
    ⬜🟨⬜🟩🟩
    🟩⬜⬜🟩🟩
    🟩⬜⬜🟩🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Whoa! I did OK today. Luck of the opening word.

      Wordle 704 3/6

      ⬜⬜⬜🟩🟨
      🟨🟨⬜🟩🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

      1. Great minds

        Wordle 704 3/6

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

    2. Birdie here.
      Wordle 704 3/6

      ⬜🟨⬜⬜🟨
      ⬜⬜🟨🟨🟨
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  71. An annoying article. Doesn’t mention the fact that there are two types of bamboo, clumping bamboos are perfectly safe, not invasive. Poor journalism, they should have consulted a horticulturist before writing.

    ‘Tomorrow’s Japanese knotweed’ causes £10,000 damage to woman’s home as warning is issued over invasive plant that can grow 5ft in a year
    Isobel Chetwood’s garden was soon overrun by her neighbour’s bamboo shoots
    Her neighbour’s landlord paid £10,000 to fix the problem in Knutsford, Cheshire

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12120095/Landlord-given-10-000-bill-bamboo-invaded-garden-warning-issued-plant.html

  72. Oh dear! I don’t suppose anyone saw that coming:-

    CEO of biggest carbon credit certifier to resign after claims offsets worthless
    David Antonioli to step down from Verra, which was accused of approving millions of worthless offsets used by major companies

    The head of the world’s leading carbon credit certifier has announced he will step down as CEO next month.

    It comes amid concerns that Verra, a Washington-based nonprofit, approved tens of millions of worthless offsets that are used by major companies for climate and biodiversity commitments, according to a joint Guardian investigation earlier this year.

    In a statement on LinkedIn on Monday, Verra’s CEO, David Antonioli, said he would leave his role after 15 years leading the organisation that dominates the $2bn voluntary carbon market, which has certified more than 1bn credits through its verified carbon standard (VCS).

    Antonioli thanked current and former staff, and said he was immensely proud of what Verra had accomplished through the environmental standards it operates. He did not give a reason for his departure and said he would be taking a break once he left the role. Judith Simon, Verra’s recently appointed president, will serve as interim CEO following Antonioli’s departure on 16 June.

    “The trust you placed in Verra and myself in my role as CEO has meant a lot, and I leave knowing we have made tremendous strides together in addressing some of the world’s most vexing environmental and social problems. Working with you on these important issues has been a great highlight of my career,” he said.

    The announcement follows a difficult period for Verra, which has seen the environmental integrity of their carbon standard satirised by the comedian John Oliver and journalistic exposés about the integrity of their carbon credit certification process.

    In January, a nine-month investigation by the Guardian, the German weekly Die Zeit and the investigative group SourceMaterial found Verra rainforest credits used by Disney, Shell, Gucci and other big corporations were largely worthless, often based on stopping the destruction of rainforests that were not threatened, according to independent studies. It also found evidence of forced evictions at a flagship scheme co-operated by Conservation International in Peru.

    Antonioli strongly rejected the findings of the investigation and defended Verra’s impact on the conservation of rainforests. The organisation is in the process of introducing new rules for generating rainforest carbon credits, with all projects set to be using the new system by mid-2025.

    Some firms are moving away from offsetting-based environmental claims, such as Gucci, which has removed a carbon neutrality claim from its website that heavily relied on Verra’s carbon credits.

    Scientists have called for the unregulated system to be urgently reformed to finance climate mitigation and forest conservation despite current concerns about integrity.

    Diego Saez Gil, the CEO of Pachama, a carbon offsetting firm that uses AI and remote sensing to verify and monitor carbon capture by forests, said he would like Verra to update its programmes with the latest science and techniques to improve integrity.

    “This is a pivotal moment for carbon markets. In order to scale the critical funding required for carbon sequestration at a planetary scale, we must ensure integrity, transparency, and real benefits for local communities and biodiversity. A new generation of innovative players is collaborating with standard bodies, academics, corporates, and communities, creating a new era of carbon markets that gives me hope,” he said.

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/may/23/ceo-of-worlds-biggest-carbon-credit-provider-says-he-is-resigning

      1. Yep.
        I dig up coal, you pay me, I bury the coal again, you’ve a pile of carbon credits.
        If that’s not a scam, what is?

  74. Well, that was most agreeable. After two hours slaving (the in-thing, these days), I sat in the sun for two hours and finished the novel I began a week ago. I am continuing what I started in Laure – re-reading some of the hundreds of book we have accumulated. Although one ought to remember the plot etc – I find that I don’t – and it is like a new book. And I removed my pullover – the sun was that warm.

    Last night we watched a film called “Supernova” – about one half of a couple with increasing dementia who wants “out” and his partner who wants to keep him going. Quite moving – and beautifully acted. A film to make one think.

    Anyway, I am logging orf – have a smashing evening.

    A demain.

    1. Very occasionally I look at some of my old university textbooks.

      It is surprising how often things that were “settled and irrefutable” at the time, (unless you wanted to be failed) turn out to have been completely incorrect.

      It’s why I am such a sceptic over anything when I am told the science is settled: climate change and the like.

      1. I have been very slow today- two busy days in a row and a combination of fatigue and pain. The weather did somewhat improve my mood and I sat outside an enjoyed the aroma from the herbs. Sunny enough to put the umbrella up.
        Driven indoors by a stiff breeze which seems to aggravate my mush.
        6 tubs of homemade chicken stock made and frozen -stock is always useful.

          3. Can you get fish and chips delivered? Simpler than more complicated deliveries like curry and a bit cheaper, in an emergency.

          4. We just had some cold- husband had a cheese and pickle sarnie and I have had a small plate of salami, cheese and baby plum tomatoes. Just right. Will cook tomorrow.

          5. Good for you – sometimes small and cold is just what’s needed, but I would still consider looking into Parsleybox (see above) just to have for the future…

          6. There is quite a good company called Parsleybox – those are meals that can be kept in a cupboard and heated up in the microwave in a couple of minutes. They are not bad in an emergency either – they last for about 6 months and some are actually quite tasty!

            We have some for when we have been away or I’m feeling ill and just can’t be *rsed to cook – they have proved invaluable in the past. Especially good because you can store them in a cupboard and some of them are quite tasty. Worth keeping a couple for emergencies.

        2. Got a chicken stock on the go at this moment. An ingredient for many meals.

    3. For many Nottlers, me definitely included, I imagine this is a subject extremely relevant but one that is not to be entertained by one of the partners.

  75. Why did the scientist have his doorbell removed?

    He wanted to win the no-bell prize.

  77. Did BBC Verify misrepresent what actually happened in Cardiif by showing a police van appearing to be travelling closely behind two kids on a bike?

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-65687785

    I watched another videocam recording tonight on BBC News at 6 which showed the police van travelling on the same route as the the two lads on a bike but after a delay of thirty seconds as opposed to the BBC Verify recording of one second.

    1. I don’t suppose those people whose cars were burnt and streets trashed could afford to lose them. It looks like a poor neighbourhhood. What gets into people to cause such damage? It’s not going to bring those boys back.

    2. Imho, the original video was not recording in real time but a frame every quarter second or so, thus speeding up the action when played at normal speed.

  79. Spring risotto tonight.
    This is one very happy and satiated glutton!
    Asparagus, broad beans, spring garlic, mint and many other delicious in-greed-iants and al dente rice.
    Yum yum said my tum!

      1. The wine in the dish itself was Le Jardin de Lila, a dry Bergerac (Montravel) white. It would be an ideal accompaniment.

        BUT, I’m a heathen and I drink boxed Bergerac red.

        1. Must admit, I would have preferred pairing the risotto with a white rather than the red Bergerac but that’s me, I find reds tend to keep me awake too much!!

          1. As I wrote, I’m a heathen.

            The white is a much, much better match to the dish.
            I doubt that you can ever get them where you are but the Montravels are absolutely delicious and quality for price are very good value, even if they are more than we usually pay for a bottle of everyday drinking.

          2. Unfortunately, with acid reflux/IBS for which I’m on prescription tablets, I can only drink white wine in very small quantities. I do indulge in bubbly very rarely, but have to be careful. Another of life’s little pleasures (almost) gone, but heigh-ho there’s still enough to enjoy!

          3. Unfortunately, with acid reflux/IBS for which I’m on prescription tablets, I can only drink white wine in very small quantities. I do indulge in bubbly very rarely, but have to be careful. Another of life’s little pleasures (almost) gone, but heigh-ho there’s still enough to enjoy!

        1. I’m guessing that the bottled wind and piss you drink would float, my bottles don’t!!!

        2. PS
          Being as you is one wot lives at the bottom of a lake, swishing a sword, I suppose you could make anything float…

          3. Woooooh! I used to be PETRIFIED of skeletons when I was a child – and even that cartoon still made me feel a bit…a bit…WAAAAH!

          4. You would have hated my 5th form home room at grammar school then! It was a biology lab and there was a skeleton hanging on a frame.
            Friday lunchtimes were a bit of a free for all and we posted a lookout at the door. Music playing, one girl dancing with the skeleton and the lookout shouted that the head was on her way. Skeleton hastily hung back up and we assumed innocent and demure poses.
            She stuck her head in, nodded and went. Then we noticed that, not only were the skeleton’s legs on backwards, but it also had an iced bun in its mouth.

          10. Woooooh! I used to be PETRIFIED of skeletons when I was a child – and even that cartoon still made me feel a bit…a bit…WAAAAH!

          12. The music’s better, but it’s too structured as a song, I prefer the light-hearted cartoon version.

          15. You have a medical appointment or something, Ann? If so, all the best to you and hubby.

          16. Yes, Friday afternoon finally I go to the so-called consultant. Husband is coming with me, I suspect to make sure I actually go and don’t do a runner;-)
            Thanks for the good wishes.

          20. Best wishes to you for Friday, Ann! I won’t be here then as we are leaving the country tomorrow for a fortnight in the sun! It’s our Ruby Wedding when we’re away!
            So I wish you and your husband a good day and a great outcome! You deserve it! 🌹

          25. And you only 35 years old, too! How does that work? Some kind of tardis?

          26. …and the so-called consultant will make another appointment, rather than get down to the problem in hand – bastards. They need taking down a peg or twenty-seven.

          27. Very, very best for Friday. I’m sure many NoTTLers will be thinking of you and sending positive thoughts.

    1. The solution is in the hands of women athletes. Refuse to compete against these cheats. Organising bodies would soon come to their senses and ban ‘transgender women’ from participating in competitions if the only entrants are men pretending to be women. But it seems to me that women are more supportive of this transgender nonsense than men, or have I misinterpreted the signs I see from pro-transgender activist demonstrations?

      1. I almost totally agree.

        They need to accept that there will be loads of abuse initially, but if women’s sport becomes tranny only it will die and the trannies will go down with it.

        Then, like Phoenix, it will rise from the ashes, I hope!

        But until the real women face down the bullies the trannies hold the whip hand.

      4. But they shouldn’t have to! The dumbos in charge of these organisations need to think very seriously about what they are doing, and realise that they are as monumentally stupid and wicked as Ed Davey!

    2. Every day a celebrity seems to pass, I’m guessing that the increase is in direct proportion to the time that mass media ensured so many could be heard and seen.

      1. I don’t remember so many famous people popping their clogs on a weekly basis before the pandemic hit

        1. I think that in part it’s because the publicity is greater now, more channels having to fill airtime and that the 60’s/70’s era had far more well known people who are now in their 80’s and 90’s and shuffling off the coil.

          3. Politicians?
            Really, who cares apart from people who follow politics closely?
            Most of those bastards are constantly on the take for themselves, they don’t provide any real entertainment or genuine benefit for anyone.

          4. The ‘decent’ ones are all already long gone. Who gives a shit about the current mob?

        2. It’s because we grew up in an eara of outstanding and memorable talent.

      2. Yup, the best songs and singers, with record vinyl sales reaching a peak in the late 60s and 70s are all up there in whatever gods might exist waiting room.

    3. Sad, great performer fabulous voice, we went to see her 2017 tribute show in London it was excellent. She was so badly treated by Ike. I think later she married an Australian guy and lived in Switzerland.
      It was said Tina was descended from the American Indian culture.

  82. Booked a delivery from Morrisons for Brother’s birthday – cake, nice things, cider. Received an email this morning, saying order is on it’s way, card debited. Just received another email from them saying the order has been cancelled, no explanation, and none to be had from the so-called “Help”.
    My response to them is below. I’m not a happy bear. I hope they die.
    So, after taking the money, you cancel the order. What kind of half-arsed operation do you shit-for-brains operate? You better bloody well refund me, and in any case, I will never use your services again. Cancel any kind of membership, and I hope you all go bankrupt and get terminal haemmorrhoids.

    Fuck off.

    1. A company’s worth is not measured when things go well, but when things go wrong.

      I had my Waitrose shopping nicked by the scum neighbours. I asked where it was and they said.. ah, bugger, and got the shop out to me the same day, even calling to confirm a time.

    5. Thank goodness I’m not the only polite person on the planet, I was starting to worry…

      1. As I mentioned, Monday I bumped into a guy I use to work with about twenty years ago. He’s had similar health problems to mine and with the same cardiology department, the same doctor and his secretary. A total Lack of interest and disdain.
        I had the feeling he thought I was being rude to him and his elevated position.
        All I was doing was begging for treatment. Still waiting for the appointment. They were supposed to get back to me today. But not a word.

    6. Blimey, Paul! You should have told them what you really thought! They’ll never get the message, otherwise! 😱

  84. Evening, all. The question is, does Labour have what it takes to avoid completely wrecking the country, never mind solving any crises. Answers on a postcard.

  85. That’s me for today, I’ve n been over doing it in the garden I had to take a seat around three-ish and dozed off for an hour, Our grass needs cutting again, I might have to get some one in and i’ll send the bill to the cardiology department. Or Astra Zeneca.
    Night all.

          1. Yes, send it up or get a muslim to fly it up here
            Couple of photos for you of the road side, taken a few years ago – trees are a lot bigger now https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/30d57a18f0807e56c02da1fd8576332dc57b71bbc27710709c9394f912464520.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/433d189c9be8161c0a2b02df70b203b02d6c5890660806967830f1e926bd7d15.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f2f7d5ce3b5c132ddcaa2830b611b8cbf0428b58f9a2b4917bb90adf3efd8c72.jpg

          7. Sigh, what a lovely place. How fortunate you are to live somewhere like that- the privacy and the scenery.

        2. I did that yesterday, but a much smaller area, a tucked away little sunny terrace. But I’ve been refilling the joints where the grouting was washed out. Sweating buckets in the sunshine, but mustn’t grumble. And making four loaves as well. Two large white bloomers and two small wholemeal.
          I’ll be in bed by Ten.

        3. Alec, what is the purpose of the rectangle marked with a white line?

          1. We used to have a pond there and the white line was so you could see where the edge was, pond got overgrown so I filled it in and flagged it over

  86. Mizzy laughs at the law: TikTok troublemaker uploads new video saying police will NEVER get him just minutes after leaving court with a slapped wrist (and a ban from filming the public) over ‘pranks’ that left victims terrified

    A smack across his gob with a rounders bat might make him more contrite.
    https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/05/24/17/71365867-0-image-a-10_1684946559844.jpg

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12120709/TikTok-prankster-Mizzy-BANNED-uploading-videos-social-media-posting-idiotic-clips.html

    1. He will just get one of his other mates to film it. And I wish the press would stop referring to him as a “prankster”. He is not; he is an out of control thug.

    2. “Bacari-Bronze O’Garro, 18, known on social media as ‘Mizzy’, is behind a series of spoofs including stealing a woman’s dog, ripping up library books and jumping into strangers’ cars.”

      I saw that one with the the old lady’s dog. I’d be happy (not very happy) to do a spell in jail if I’d been there (and could have stopped him) and shoved his face onto the path until it was a bleeding mess.

      1. Ideally while his girl/boyfriend watches him being humiliated and the video goes viral.

      1. No, he knows precisely what he’s doing and why he’ll get away with it.

  89. Goodnight and God bless, gentlefolk. Although I slept most of the day and have imbibed no alcohol, I have taken two sleeping capsules and hope now to get a further 8 hours un-interrupted.

    See you in the morning.

      1. Thank you, Sue, as you can see the sleep regime didn’t work – this was posted @ 01:04 – still stark, staring wideawake

        1. I’m still here as well, pet! We’re going away on holiday tomorrow to Cuba. Flying from Manchester in the morning so we’re planning to leave about 2.30am!

  93. Going to bed very soon. Thanks for supportive comments.
    The skeleton tale is completely true. (Just to freak Herstlass out!)

  95. Ed Davey might be the worst politician in British politics
    When asked whether women can have a penis, the Lib Dem leader replied: “Quite clearly”. He may soon regret his words
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/05/24/ed-davey-might-be-the-worst-politician-in-british-politics/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr

    Clearly we need to have a revolutionary approach, scrap the conventional logic and do some lateral thinking?

    Instead of concentrating on banning women with penises from ladies’ lavatories perhaps we should ban women without penises from using them and offer alternative lavatories for those unfortunate women without penises!

    1. Ed Davies is a fatuous prat. He is one of the foremost of those zealots and idiots whose supposed ‘belief’ in the Net Zero nonsense has rendered the implementation of such useless government policy.

      Ed Miliband is the other pure cretin responsible for this ruinous Climate Change Act, or whatever the damnable thing is named.

      I just wonder which bodies are paying this prize idiot to spout his nonsense. Then again, he might just be so thick as to believe that white is black and vice versa.

    2. I am wondering when Ed Davey received the revelation that insists that women can have a penis or has he always held this view? Does evidence of his earlier conviction re penis equipped women exist or is Davey, as Ray Davies of the Kinks wrote, “A dedicated follower of fashion”?
      A couple of lines from the song stand out re Davey, the first relating to his eagerness to pursue all the latest fads and trends i.e. extreme woke, and the second that refers to pulling up his frilly nylon panties tight.
      Davey, like so many modern politicos, is a fraud: clearly, he sees woke as a vehicle to success even though it’s doubtful that a majority of people believe that a penis belongs to a female body.
      Words fail me.

  96. I found it interesting to view the (audio only) launch of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ presidential nomination announcement.

    A complete shambles. DeSantis can only speak from a script to camera and even that device failed. President Trump, who made DeSantis, will eat the upstart alive. However the event speaks to the influence of powerful donors. Many of DeSantis’ donors previously supported Jed Bush and other imbecilic politicians including the Obamas (evil incarnate) and the Clintons (almost as evil).

  98. 372625+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    The majority supporter,member, voter want, and a major concern in their needs is a good rhetorical robust lying,deceitful, treacherous partially plausible manifesto that is the current requirements to gain the seat of power.

    Get RESET up and running that is the obvious aim of the majority voter, the slave labour are already in situ ( the decent indigenous)
    and the political in-house overseers have organised a daily top up of foreign overseeing minions via Dover

    Letters: Parties and speeding fines are low on the list of voters’ concerns

  99. 372625+ up ticks,

    Morning Each, (2)

    The majority supporter,member, voter want, and a major concern in their needs is a good rhetorical robust lying,deceitful, treacherous partially plausible manifesto that is the current requirements to gain the seat of power.

    Get RESET up and running that is the obvious aim of the majority voter, the slave labour are already in situ ( the decent indigenous)
    and the political in-house overseers have organised a daily top up of foreign overseeing minions via Dover

    Letters: Parties and speeding fines are low on the list of voters’ concerns

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