Wednesday 5 July: World-class doctors and nurses thwarted by a failing health service

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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662 thoughts on “Wednesday 5 July: World-class doctors and nurses thwarted by a failing health service”

  4. World-class doctors and nurses thwarted by a failing health service

    That’s the problem it became a world health service, with only the working UK taxpayer funding it.

    1. Spot on, and everyone who turns up here uses it.
      Totally and utterly wrong to allow this to happen.
      Can’t or won’t pay Go Away.

  5. Morning all 🙂😊
    Bright yellow ball in the sky lighting up the countryside this morning.
    I wonder what’s in store for us today.
    It’s been clear that many doctors and nurses probably fully trained by NHS resources, have now moved over to the private sector.
    Perhaps they should all do this and reduce their demands for such huge payrises.
    There’s bound to be an overflow, NHS could then rent them as needed. Cut price.

    1. And I see in the Mail that the Prince and Princess of Politics were leading celebrations for the 75th anniversary of the NHS. Perpetuating the myth that we’ve got to put up with it because without it we wouldn’t have any healthcare.

      1. Not the sort of thing that bothers people in their position.
        If the ‘They’ had to wait more than a day to see a doctor it would all change.

  6. Morning folks.

    Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist who was a foreign correspondent for fifteen years for The New York Times, where he served as the Middle East Bureau Chief and Balkan Bureau Chief for the paper. He previously worked overseas for The Dallas Morning News, The Christian Science Monitor, and NPR.

    Here’s his take on Ukraine:

    They Lied About Afghanistan. They Lied About Iraq. And They Are Lying About Ukraine.

    https://scheerpost.com/2023/07/02/chris-hedges-they-lied-about-afghanistan-they-lied-about-iraq-and-they-are-lying-about-ukraine/

    1. I’ll read it later but since I saw the well known ex British army general interviewed on the bbc when it all kicked off. He explained to journalists what he thought was going on and what was probably planned to happen. He’s never been seen on the UK media since.
      Because he was ahead of the game as it were.

    3. The piece exposes the lie that the war started in Feb 2022 and attributes the invasion to the political change in 2014 and the killings in the Donbas.

    5. Took that for granted.
      Anyone remember the “Common Market”?
      Lying isn’t just confined to Uncle Sam.

      1. Edward heath filled his life with lies.
        That was the start of the demise of Britain. And so it goes on.

        2. A pity Edward Heath went into politics. He could have been one of Britain’s finest conductors noted for his interpretations of Mahler.

    6. I had to sit and wait for our car to be serviced yesterday and was joined in the comfy coffee machine and TV waiting area by a nice couple, we conversed most of the time two hours.
      But it’s strange how so many people seem to have been sucked into to the media version of the Russian conflict with Ukraine. Everyone blames Putin.
      I managed to change the subject.

  7. Good morning, all. Just passing through. The MR, bless her, set the alarm on her phone for 7 am – forgetting that it was still set to French time. So we are in very good time for our outing.

    At least there is no news to worry about. Have a nice day.

    A demain.

    PS – Useful rain throughout the night. Stopped now and no more forecast for a week…..

    1. You’re being outed? Is no one allowed a private life any more? 😉

  8. Sexual harassment of girls is a scourge at schools in England, say MPs.
    5 July 2023.

    Sexual harassment of girls is “a scourge” in England’s schools, according to MPs, who have called for a government-led strategy to focus on boys who are failing to engage with relationship and sex education.

    MPs on the women and equalities committee said in a report that there should be training for all teachers to help them hold conversations with boys and young men about sexual harassment and gender-based violence, in a way that challenges prevailing gender norms and ideas of masculinity.

    The “prevailing gender norms and ideas of masculinity ”have existed for thousands of years and across all human cultures. Since they are intrinsic to the human condition one would imagine their suppression would not only be difficult but impossible.

    https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/jul/05/sexual-harassment-girls-scourge-schools-england-mps

    1. One has to wonder why previous generations thought it was a good idea to have single sex secondary schools?

      1. Research shows that boys do better in languages in single sex schools (and girls do better in science without the boys).

    2. “…and gender-based violence...”

      Boys getting really stroppy with Masculine, Feminine and Neuter?

    3. But surely, it just boys expressing their sexuality just as the rainbow mob do. And who would criticise them, indeed we must celebrate such behaviour with flags and parades. When you destroy social norms and evolved morality, young adults have no guidance from society so its not that surprising that they behave in the way they do.

    4. Are these the same MPs that support the ‘trans’ lobby that in turn supports the idea that males of any age who believe they are female should be entitled to use the facilities once provided solely for biological females? If so, it’s about time that they learned to think through the consequences of their ‘woke’ beliefs and subsequent actions.

    5. How odd, that after three generations of sxual freedom, feminism and frankly disgusting pornography being taught to children, that sxual harrassment of girls has increased!
      Who could have predicted that, eh?

      2. I’d imagine there’s a direct link between being taught these things and incidence.

    6. Righty, but I’ll bet the guardian didn’t bother – or deliberately hid – where this harrassment occurs, and who carries it out.

      I’ll lay money that it’s in inner city schools, and carried out by blacks and muslims. The Left can’t whinge – they’re the ones who set about preventing teachers from reprimanding pupils and twisted the school system into another miserable, failed government department.

    7. It’s a pity they don’t turn their attention to the horrendous “sex/health education” lessons being rolled out across the country. Mandatory, too. (Except for muzzie schools I expect).

    8. It’s no surprise, really; sex education is a how to manual with no reference to morality.

  9. Cultural Enrichment – A new definition:

    France has suffered €1 billion in damage due to widespread rioting, said Geoffrey Roux de Bézieux, head of France’s largest employer federation, the Movement of the Enterprises of France (MEDEF), during an interview with French newspaper Le Parisien.

    “More than 200 shops were completely looted, 300 bank branches destroyed, 250 tobacconists affected, with operating methods of absolute violence. Everything was stolen, even cash registers, before setting fire to destroy. The insurers are mobilized to go as quickly as possible, I am quite confident that the businesses concerned will be compensated,” he said. Despite Bézieux’s claim that businesses will be paid out, insurance companies often raise premiums on businesses due to increased risk of future riots.

    However, according to Bézieux, this tremendous figure does not even factor in the effect on tourism, and also does not include damage to public institutions like schools, libraries, police stations, as well as the hundreds of vehicles torched during the nationwide riots. The rioters, for example, targeted one of the biggest libraries in the country, the Marseille Alcazar library, with arson damage likely costing taxpayers millions alone to restore.

    (https://rmx.news/france/french-riots-already-cost-e1-billion-in-damage/)

  10. 374176+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    There are a set of decency rules laid down long ago that surely must be adhered to, as there are only two of the human species
    MALE / FEMALE at birth, any others in the main are twisted
    human created products, victims of the “look at me” syndrome.

    Many of these issues are encouraged by the political governing overseers / party members and the vote count, everyone outside the Ville (Pentonville) has a vote and that vote, all inclusive of child abusers, paedophiles, wanna be felons, counts.

    Courtesy of the lab/lib/con coalition politico’s, supporters, members, voters our children have been at risk from when receiving the slap on the arse, Lest we forget rotherham plus, for the good of the party.

    By making school toilets gender neutral, we have put our girls in danger

  11. Morning all,

    You too can be a world class doctor.

    Let’s start by looking at some of the latest smart watches and see if they can show you if you’ve got Atrial Fibrillation (AF)
    A doctor giving you an ecg should be able to detect AF by looking at a ten second strip of an extended record of lead II at the bottom of your ecg printout as shown in the video below.

    There are limitations of such an AF diagnosis because this lead II record is only a ten second record and it is limited to the electrical activity of your heart. This may not tie up however with the way your blood flows through your arteries. That can only be shown on the plethysmograh waveform of a pulse oximeter https://www.amperordirect.com/product-display-health.html as illustrated in my avatar.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HxOWCw4hEU

    So realistically a doctor will not necessarily have the full facts from just lead. II or from lead I for that matter particularly with respect to AF.

    1. I’ve a watch that does Sp02 testing, ECG, heart rate monitoring, calorie counting, sleep tracking – all whizz bang stuff.

      It just doesn’t work. Data isn’t recorded, the ECG never works properly, the Sp02 has never worked, it doesn’t eep the bluetooth open, no data is recorded, the heart rate is off by a good 10 beats – it’s pap.

      I replied to an article espousing it with these facts and I said ‘while these may be on the feature list, they simply don’t work’.

      1. Smart watches aren’t that smart.
        Anything with smart in it is unlikely to work and is why doctors tend to ignore smart patients.

        They prefer to give the impression that they know what they are doing. That’s why it’s better to ask to see your ecg printout.
        If there is an issue about AF then your ecg should have at least a 10 second lead II printout.

        1. Smart means neat and tidy.

          It’s universal application as a colloquialism for intelligent is beyond abysmal.

    3. The stunted runt is now blaming fixed rate mortgages for inflation. I understand he cannot accept that it is his borrowing, tax hiking, Left wing greeniac, tax and waste ideology that is to blame, but someone, somewhere needs to take him aside, thump him soundly in the belly and tell him sternly to stop talking utter bilge.

      1. Of course – this is how they will get people out of their homes ‘you will own nothing’ by abolishing the fixed mortgage rate. It is government expenditure and the ‘money printing’ that goes with it that is to blame for inflation – the eye-watering expenditure on and around the illegal immigrants that is devaluing the currency, not the fixed mortgages. Expect the fixed mortgages to be abolished when they come up for renewal. Sunak has had his orders from the WEF.

  14. Ukraine’s counteroffensive aiming to drain Russian army, not take territory. 5 July 2023.

    In its latest update, the US-based thinktank said Kyiv’s strategy “conserves Ukrainian manpower at the cost of a slower rate of territorial gains, while gradually wearing down Russian manpower and equipment”.

    It evidences the words of Oleksiy Danilov, a senior Ukrainian defence official, who said yesterday his troops were performing their “main task” of destroying Russian units and assets amid accusations of a stalemate and slowed Ukrainian advance.

    “Danilov’s assessment underlines the prioritisation of Ukraine’s ongoing campaign to attrit Russian manpower and assets over attempting to conduct massive sweeping mechanised maneuvers to regain large swaths of territory rapidly,” it said.

    This is of course a direct contradiction of the original counter-attack plan which was to sweep the Russian Army aside and seize the Donbass and Crimea. Reality has intruded. The counter–attack has failed catastrophically and Kiev has realised that they can never defeat the Russians. It is possible that the Americans, to whom this news must be unpalatable to say the least, may require one last demonstration. That would be to amass the remaining bulk of the Ukrainian army and attempt one massive attack to break the Russian lines. We don’t know how likely this is because we actually have no real idea of the Ukies morale. We can only guess at it! If the Ukies feel themselves unable to comply with such a scenario then the US will probably go along with the alternative Ukie plan for the False Flag attack on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. With plenty of propaganda for public consumption they could probably persuade the rest of NATO to interfere directly in the War. The consequences of this do not require much imagination.

    https://news.sky.com/story/ukraine-russia-war-latest-counteroffensive-putin-prigozhin-wagner-live-updates-blog-12541713

    1. A risky strategy is easy when your country is 4000 miles from the centre of the action and any concentrated fall-out.

    1. Good morning SOS,
      Sheer lunacy. Not a single reason to support such a ridiculous policy.

        1. Yes, thank you. Earlier, I tried to remove the temporary dressing the practice nurse applied on Monday. Felt I was pulling on the wound so went back. Nurse succeeded without disturbing the stitches. But what a mess – all ready for Halloween!
          Compared to Lottie, my problems (and appearance) are trivial.

          1. Console yourself that in the appearance stakes you’re way, way behind me at being an ugliphant.

          3. Let’s put it this way: on the seven year rule re mirrors, I avoid them…

      1. “Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble.
        Fire burn; which doctor killed you?”

    3. Qualifying as a doctor could be due to an hereditary defect; like having a good brain and working.
      I was chucked out of ‘O’ level maths, therefore I’m a natural to become Governor of the BoE; however, it seems a shame to interrupt someone whose making an even greater financial hollyhocks than I could manage.

      1. I only marginally failed my 11 plus because my teacher at junior school use to punch me if I had a problem in maths. She was a horrible a frustrated ugly old limpy spinster. I can sometimes still feel her presence now.
        An old school friend told she lived into her mid 90s.
        But clearly you need to be an habitual and pathological liar to succeed in the world today. Something I could never be or have ever been.

    4. When I read nonsense like this I go away and watch a Thomas Sowell video where he talks about inequality and taxation.

      I remind myself that the Left are nutters, determined to destroy everything.

  19. Just when you thought things couldn’t get worse:

    “Biden eyes van der Leyen for NATO chief….”

    1. Broom handles for all!

      That would cause a riot in Germany! When she was defence minister, I saw in that country, an altered military sign. It used to read something like “Caution, tanks ahead” and it had been changed to “Caution, Defence Minister von der Leyen ahead.”

    1. The state will make it impossible to exist without it. Then they’ll say ‘you were not forced’.

      1. 374176+ up ticks,

        Morning W,

        Then change the state foreign political overseers.

      2. They will make it necessary for things like getting a passport or a driving licence.
        Digital ids have been going in Turkey for years, according to my Turkish colleagues. You need them for everything, insurance etc.
        I also foresee that suddenly, due to theft from cashpoint machines, digital ids will be required to withdraw cash.
        Also, we already know that the lizard elites want people to pay with chips implanted in their arms, which presumably will include your digital id, aka mark of the beast.

        Yes, it might not be possible to live without it – AS LONG AS you want to stay in your comfort zone.
        You might need car insurance and a driving licence, however, perhaps now is the time to start looking at how to get out of the system where possible.
        For example, you can buy food directly from a food producer with small gold or silver coins.
        Think of a side hustle that you can sell for similar.
        Some shops sell silver jewelry in small plastic boxes, marked with the exact grammes of silver content on the box – that’s potentially a bartering material if you leave the boxes sealed.

        The bottom line is that in order not to comply, start thinking outside the box now, before it’s too late. Tomorrow is not going to be the same as yesterday and today, and those who adapt will survive best.

  22. Good morning all.
    9°C with a dull and damp start after overnight rain, though it is brightening up as I type.

    2. For such a plan to work, the ZNPP would have to be blown well in advance to give it at least a few days lead time to shape the proper narrative of ‘fall out’ and nuclear consequences which can be used as the catalyst to bring reluctant NATO members to heel and cement their solidarity with Ukraine, as well as ideally issue some major demarche like the fabled activation of ‘Article 5’ Ukraine so breathlessly dreams about.

      They will probably wait for a reliable Westerly Wind before blowing it!

  25. Weren’t these regulations the reason for the Levi Jeans furore some years ago when Tesco were banned from selling “grey Imports” cheaper than the identical official product?

    The reason British shoppers are unable to bag US bargains
    Controversial EU law bans firms from selling legitimate branded goods if they are already on the market in a country outside the bloc

    By
    Nick Gutteridge,
    POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT
    4 July 2023 • 8:59pm

    British shoppers are being denied cheaper goods from the US under a controversial EU law that Brexiteers are urging ministers to scrap.

    Eurosceptic MPs have been calling on Downing Street to include European trademark rules in a planned bonfire of Brussels red tape over the summer.

    British businesses are banned from selling legitimate branded goods such as clothing, cosmetics and electronics if they have already been placed on the market in a country outside the EU.

    The rule means that a UK shop cannot source stock from wholesalers in countries like the US and Canada even though prices there are typically cheaper.

    It effectively turns Europe into a protective bubble for global companies, meaning they can charge British customers more than those elsewhere in the world.

    Rishi Sunak is now facing another Tory revolt, with Brexiteers set to table their own backbench bill in the Commons calling for the law to be scrapped.

    Kemi Badenoch, the Business Secretary, is understood to be sympathetic to their argument and believes Britain’s markets should be as open as possible.

    An impact assessment drawn up for the Business department last year found ditching the rules would lead to lower prices and increased consumer choice.

    But The Telegraph understands the newly created Department for Science, Innovation and Technology is set to advise that the current regime should be kept.

    An internal Government assessment found that scrapping it and opening up to the world “may put downward pressure on existing domestic supplier prices”.

    “A move to an international regime may positively impact on consumer welfare in terms of increased availability of goods, competition and lower prices paid,” it said.

    It listed one possible downside as consumers finding products confusing, such as books written in US English or branded alcoholic drinks that taste different.

    The dossier also said scrapping the rules would negatively affect big firms as it would “reduce or constrain their ability to increase prices” in the UK.

    Senior Tory MPs expressed dismay that the regulation is set to stay and urged Mr Sunak to rethink the decision given the cost of living crisis.

    The influential European Research Group of backbench MPs is now planning to table a Private Members’ Bill which aims to strip out the regulation.

    Mark Francois, its chairman, said: “The Prime Minister vowed to halve inflation, so post-Brexit measures like this which might help reduce prices should be encouraged, not resisted.

    “It always comes back to the same question – who actually runs the country, the Cabinet or the Blob?”

    ‘Competition is the customer’s friend’
    Sir John Redwood, a senior Eurosceptic, added: “Competition is the customer’s friend and now we’re free of restrictive rules we should be on the side of the customer.

    “Particularly now when we want every bit of help to get inflation under control. People have been suffering for long enough and we need to relieve the pressure.”

    The current rules are derived from Brussels’ Trade Marks Directive, which was introduced in 1989 and has been backed up by EU court rulings.

    In a landmark 2001 ruling European judges blocked Tesco from selling Levi’s jeans that it had imported at a lower price from a wholesaler in the US.

    Their verdict overturned a previous decision by the British courts which had concluded that brands did not have the right to block the sale of genuine goods.

    Other countries including Canada, the US and Singapore have international regimes in place that allow parallel imports from around the world.

    A Government spokesman insisted no decision had yet been taken and it was still considering the responses to a public consultation on what to do.

    “Given the complexity of assessing the economic impact of any potential change to the rules, it’s vital that the Government takes the time to get this right,” he said.

    “A decision on this matter will be announced in due course.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/07/04/british-shoppers-denied-us-bargains-eu-laws-brexit/

    1. I am still confused as to why people don’t know this. The EU is a protectionist dictatorship. It makes everything expensive.

      Sunak keeps pretending otherwise, but the simple truth is by pushing the Windosr farce on us he is also forcing higher prices. Be nice if remoaners were made to pay the difference.

  27. Good morning all,

    Well that was a lot of rain yesterday. Clearer skies overhead McPhee Towers this morning but there is still a chance of a shower from midday to early afternoon. Wind Westerly, 11℃ with 18℃ forecast as a maximum.

    Since it’s a pretty cool start to July I thought I’d look again at the historic 30-year average temperatures for weather stations near me – I had been looking at Marlborough (Wilts) and Middle Wallop (Hants) for April/May historic data – but the pages are no longer available. Funny that, isn’t it? What is the Met Office up to, I wonder. Instead we have a page offering historic station data for only 37 stations 19 of which are RAF/RN airfields or civil airports. The data used to be presented in an easily readable table but now its a long list of the monthly numbers of Tmax (mean), Tmin (mean), days of air frost, total rainfall and total sunshine duration from the date on which data collection began. It will take some wading through. I’m going to use Oxford which is just 30 miles up the road. It doesn’t say so but the data I assume comes from Oxford Kidlington airport (aka London Oxford).

    In the meantime, joke of the day: Ursula Fonda Lyin’ as Sec-Gen of NATO.

    2. Warmest day in the world ever, so say some bunch of scaremongers. I cannot believe that reliable measurements of global temperatures have been available until recently, even if that is possible. As I sit here wearing a jumper in July and browsing the DT, I see that your comments are allowed to be seen!

      1. #Me too- back in sweaters as I am freezing cold. Global warming? Bring it bloody on!

      2. Really? I haven’t commented on the DT since they shadowed banned me in January ’22 apart from one a couple of weeks ago when I put up a ‘can anyone see this?’ post but I can’t remember when I did it. Can you put a link here?

        1. Ahh, there was a comment by a Jim Mcphee or similar yesterday and I thought it might be you! I’ll have a look back.

          1. I shouldn’t bother, KP. I didn’t think. I post under my real name in the DT, not FMcP.

  28. Good morning all,

    Well that was a lot of rain yesterday. Clearer skies overhaed McPhee Towers this morning but there is still a chance of a shower from midday to early afternoon. Wind Westerly, 11℃ with 18℃ forecast as a maximum.

    Since it’s a pretty cool start to July I thought I’d look again at the historic 30-year average temperatures for weather stations near me – I had been looking at Marlborough (Wilts) and Middle Wallop (Hants) for April/May historic data – but the pages are no longer available. Funny that, isn’t it? What is the Met Office up to, I wonder. Instead we have a page offering historic station data for only 37 stations 19 of which are RAF/RN airfields or civil airports. The data used to be presented in an easily readable table but now its a long list of the monthly numbers of Tmax (mean), Tmin (mean), days of air frost, total rainfall and total sunshine duration from the date on which data collection began. It will take some wading through. I’m going to use Oxford which is just 30 miles up the road. It doesn’t say so but the data I assume comes from Oxford Kidlington airport (aka London Oxford).

    In the meantime, joke of the day: Ursula Fonda Lyin’ as Sec-Gen of NATO.

    1. HELLS BLOODY BELLS!
      No problem with the fag in his mouth, but holding it like that to start the bloody thing looks like an attempt at the Darwin prize!
      I hope for his sake that the chain brake is on and working!

        1. There was an old Man of Madras
          Whose balls were made of brass.
          In stormy weather
          They banged together
          And sparks flew out of his ar5e!

      2. I think that’s the joke, Bob! I sincerely hope that it was just a joke!

  30. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1f72551013af7fc3504178de3d09205b59fc4f94776297346394fb51335701bf.png
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/07/04/nigel-farage-coutts-claims-bank-account-insufficient-funds/

    BTL Percival Wrattstrangler

    The problem is surely that if Nigel Farage did not have adequate funds in his accounts then the bank should have notified him privately and warned him that he would lose his accounts if he did not restore his balances to the required levels.

    To behave as Coutts did was surely a serious breach of client confidentiality and I would like to think that this will not only do severe damage to Coutts but that the bank will be successfully sued for a large sum of money.

    1. Politically Exposed Persons (PEP) are high-risk clients with more opportunities than ordinary nationals to gain assets through illegal means like bribe-taking and money laundering. The potential risk of using titles for criminal activity makes them high-risky individuals.

      This apparently more or less gives banks and other large firms the right to ban “PEPs” from using their services without needing to give any warning or justification or to prove any guilt.

      One of the main objections to the EU was that it did not comply with the British habeas corpus – but one of the extremely foul things about many of our politicians is that they don’t care much for habeas corpus either. This is why the PEP rule originating in the EU came into British law without any serious scrutiny or debate.

      If I were a conspiracy theorist (perish the thought!) I might think that the promised bonfire of EU laws never materialised because at heart British legislators are just as tyrannical as their EU counterparts and they do not wish to give up draconian control over ordinary people if they can get away with not doing so.

      1. So presumably no member (!) of the Commons or House of Lords has a bank account.

        1. I really must read posts before I wade on and repeat said posts…

      2. But if they don’t want Nige because he’s a PEP, they can’t have any of the others either. You can’t pick and choose.

    2. Just went to Coutts website to have a look. These are their preliminary requirements.

      “Clients are required to maintain at least £1m in investments or borrowing (mortgage), or £3m in savings.”

      This is for a private account. So Farage obviously has done very nicely for himself over the years.

    1. Well, Obama is getting away with a third term, so I guess Blair thinks he should have a fourth one!

    2. 374176+ up ticks,

      O2O,

      Check out one anthony charlie lynton, late of Bow Street court.
      He could even double as a current tory (ino) party member.

      1. Unfortunately, the records of Bow Street Court were reportedly destroyed in a fire some decades ago so that claim can not be verified.

        1. And during his time in office he used more ‘D’ notices than any other PM.

        3. 374176+ up ticks,
          Afternoon Bob,
          Did those that recorded the odious issue also die in the fire one must ask?

    3. And three of the nastiest people in politics.
      At least two and others wanted to close the HOL they couldn’t wait to get in there are soak up the sauce.
      Prescot, Kinnockio many other labour and of course tory POS. Now coining it in, for turning up and sitting down to do absolutely nothing.

    4. Gosh. Wouldn’t it be nice to be surprised.
      What a shame Sturmer doesn’t have a favourite horse, then a bit of sense would be injected into the HoL.

  32. Off to Turtle Bay in Bournemouth to have a bottomless brunch with chums. Unlimited cocktails !

    Play nicely.

    1. Better than becoming a bottomless brunch of chum. RIP to any recently drowned mariners.

    2. Turtle Bay is our grandson’s favourite place.
      He goes for unlimited ‘Ting’; we’re all waiting for him to enjoy the happy hour with cocktails.

      1. I went for the strawberry daiquiris. I only managed 8. It’s definitely the place to go if you like spicy food. They also do vegan and gluten free which suited my heavily pregnant friend.

        1. I had two 007s on a voyage to Norway a few years ago. I nearly fell over when I tried to get off the Bar stool. I wouldn’t be any good as Bond would I. 😉🙃

          1. Oh, I don’t know. How are you with the ladies? :@)

            The proper cocktails are all alcohol so two is enough.

          4. Given that a Vesper is three Gins and one Vodka plus Lillet i’m not surprised !

            There is a classy hotel in the west end that won’t serve more than two of those. Their view is after two you should be going to dinner !

    1. There are absolute corkers; real Carry On stuff.
      I was surprised they evaded the DT bots.

  35. I am working in my office with the door locked to prevent incursions from unemployed family members.
    I have just been hearing “bubble crackle bubble crackle” from the kitchen as something fries.
    Now I am hearing loud cries of “Fk fk fk” from unemployed son and loud hissing steam noises.

    If I emerged to deal with such things every time they happen, my son wouldn’t bother to watch his cooking at all “mum will do that.”
    I wonder what he has just burned…

        1. I had a (girl)friend who was a dentist in a hospital many years ago and she told me at the tome that they loved it when the fire brigade had to bring people in as the firemen were all really hunky.

          I know, i know. Different times.

    3. Not too many years ago, my sister’s teenage boy decided to cook up an explosive brew, with the recipe and ingredients sourced from the internet, as they do… Whilst stirring the concoction in the family kitchen, the mixture did indeed perform as advertised. The blast knocked pictures from the adjoining wall of the house next door and the fire brigade turned up alerted by concerned passers-by. Surprisingly, the boy was unharmed and sis got a new kitchen, albeit at her own expense.

        1. Hi Ann. If you posted yesterday after going to the doctors I missed it. Spent most of the day in bed. So how did it go and any date for operation?

    4. Not unusual BB2, my ex used to use the smoke alarm as the kitchen timer

  36. Good morning all! On Monday I posted the following question:

    What do you consider to be uniquely English culture, what is it that defines us as a race and distinct people?

    Thanks for all the answers they were all very helpful apart from the ludicrous diatribe of an outstanding troglodyte who isn’t English.

    I would appreciate more answers if possible because I am not trying to impose my ideas on some formulation that answers the question but making an effort to be more ‘neutral’ and, that ghastly word, inclusive. But on to question two.

    Can a foreigner become an Englishman/woman regardless of origin, race, or religion? Does colour matter? I have caveats concerning religion but…

    1. Its attitude that matters if you want to become one of us. So many white people that have been here for generations are not one of us . like the BBC. Colour or race has nothing to do with it. You have to love this land and our history.

      1. Thank you Johnny. I agree with your answer. I’m saving all the answers and eventually will post a response that will be compiled from the responses that I get.

        1. I spent many years tracing my family history and have found nobody born outside these islands in my direct and indirect lines. I have some Welsh ancestry but nearly all are English, from Gloucestershire, Norfolk and London areas. I had a theory that some might have been descended from Hugenots but was unable to prove that. They were weavers and lacemakers in Norfolk.

          I am English and part of this land and our history.

          1. Same here. On my birth fathers side English/Welsh, the Welsh some generations ago, thank God! My mother is English?French but the French is from the conquest, some minor person who was given land in Norfolk. But there is one recent French relative on my mothers side who was kicked out of his French family for being an alcoholic along with his sister. He is a great great something or other that we knew nothing about until an aunt, inspired by Alex Hayley’s ‘Roots’, started rummaging around the branches of the family tree. She was so shocked by this individual that she ceased looking and that was that. Aunt Cis, was a proper Edwardian lady as straight laced as you could imagine.

          2. I’ve been meaning to do this for years, apparently I can access these records at our local library but I would need help. I have a family tree that goes back to the early 1700s but all from Yoarck-shire, ay oop. Scarborough.
            My maternal side is the name Stevens you’ll never get the bottom of that. Grand mother possibly born in New York her maiden name was Eastman.

      2. Problem we seem to have in the UK is so many people who arrive here ‘to start a new life’ can’t adapt to our culture and social structure. Too many of them are forced into corners by their peers and probably banned from or not allowed to change their habits. Many never have never held down any form of employment which would mix them with ‘the indigenous’ and make no efforts to speak our language. Of course religious beliefs have a lot to do with all this. But in the majority of cases being adverse, It simply does not fit in. I have known and worked many people from India and their culture has grown along side ours including the language. They usually fit in well and work hard. African and Caribbean cultures are again, especially African separated by language. But people from Caribbean backgrounds are more adaptable. (as long as stop moaning about slavery) the fact are that they wouldn’t be here at all if it had not been for that mistake carried out by our long passed ancestors. As in, it is not our fault. And of course they have the choice as all of these people do of returning to where they came from. But seemingly never do. Perhaps we are too easy going and have been for decades. It all seems to be getting out of hand now. I’m perfectly sure that we do not need the vast majority of the people who have taken it upon themselves to arrive here on the off chance they might scrounge a living out of our tax payers who are currently being pushed to their limits with such interest rate rises. This is probably the main reasons why their is now so much resentment to people arriving-on the shores of our small island (by comparison to the size of the countries they all come from) in rubber boats supplied by the French government.
        It’s pretty obvious that our collection of past governments have made many errors. And this needs to be rectified ASAP. They talk about it a lot but do absolutely nothing at all.

          1. It’s NOT all about attitude, I’m talking about “Love of…”

            After all, language is the medium of idea exchange.

          5. Anyone when they have done their research and found it to be true. Truth is always preferable to prejudice, no matter where the truth comes from.

          6. As a linguist, Johnny, I have to dispute that language is the least important. Language embodies the culture; manner of expressing oneself, jokes, everything comes down to language. That’s why the Welsh and the French Canadians are so insistent about the language that’s used.

    2. Maybe we have to look back a generation or two to see what English culture was because great swathes of the country do not hold those values any more. We could look to old fashioned morality which would guide behaviour, the value of work and providing for oneself rather that millions being now dependant on the welfare state. The stiff upper lip, although some relaxation may be welcome, we seem to have a generation who have mental problems, real or imagined. The compassionate socialised state gave us a country where there were very few who were truly uncared for, although now society is littered with dropouts and crime. A hard drinking culture and pubs were driven by our weather that precludes cafe society much of the time , but again, drinking to excess seems to be much in evidence in wealthy countries. Maybe the wealth that still remains in parts of out cities and particularly rural areas colours our identity as opposed to a poor country. Much has changed and I think that Englishness will slowly erode accelerated by those arriving or indeed born into different cultures. Ramble over…

      1. I can look back 50 generations on my Mother’s side to Uppsala in Sweden 530 AD.

        On my Father’s side it is pure English since 1580 AD.

          1. It took a lot of work, not just by me, but with the help of many genealogists

    3. My father was quintessentially English though he had not a drop of English blood in his veins. He identified his parents as Russian though they were not Slavic either. Another legacy of empire – just not the British one.

      1. A lot of people of Jewish origin arrived here in the C19th – they settled in and became English. One of my close old schoolfriends is from this origin and she and her family are English.

        The problem with some more recent arrivals is that they don’t integrate, keep their own language and culture and never become English, even if they are British.

        1. …and want us to change and respect their ideology.

          I won’t because it’s not a religion, just the mutterings of some mad cave-dwelling paedophile in the 6th century AD.

        1. Yes. We figure more likely Ottoman Jewish than Khazar Jewish, as the original name was Greco-Turkish and the Black Sea coastal region was under Ottoman rule for 300 years. Of course family names were imposed on the Jews, as there isn’t any such thing in the Hebrew tradition.

    4. I spent too much of my working life in foreign lands and seas. England, when you fly back is coming home, seeing the green countryside, a different shade of green from anywhere else in the world.

      3. Our green countryside, soon to be built over if the globalists and their useful idiot liberals/greens and all our main political parties (to the extent not already covered) get their way.

      4. That was what always struck me when I came back to England; its green quality and the smallness of the fields (often occupied by horses!) and proliferation of hedgerows.

    5. My Native Land.

      Breathes there the man, with soul so dead,
      Who never to himself hath said,
      This is my own, my native land!
      Whose heart hath ne’er within him burn’d,
      As home his footsteps he hath turn’d
      From wandering on a foreign strand!
      If such there breathe, go, mark him well;
      For him no Minstrel raptures swell;
      High though his titles, proud his name,
      Boundless his wealth as wish can claim;
      Despite those titles, power, and pelf,
      The wretch, concentred all in self,
      Living, shall forfeit fair renown,
      And, doubly dying, shall go down
      To the vile dust, from whence he sprung,
      Unwept, unhonour’d, and unsung.

      Sir Walter Scott.

    6. My Native Land.

      Breathes there the man, with soul so dead,
      Who never to himself hath said,
      This is my own, my native land!
      Whose heart hath ne’er within him burn’d,
      As home his footsteps he hath turn’d
      From wandering on a foreign strand!
      If such there breathe, go, mark him well;
      For him no Minstrel raptures swell;
      High though his titles, proud his name,
      Boundless his wealth as wish can claim;
      Despite those titles, power, and pelf,
      The wretch, concentred all in self,
      Living, shall forfeit fair renown,
      And, doubly dying, shall go down
      To the vile dust, from whence he sprung,
      Unwept, unhonour’d, and unsung.

      Sir Walter Scott.

    7. People can integrate, especially over generations, as long as they are not pulled back into their native culture by a very large group of their fellow countrymen. English-Indians have their own separate sub-culture that is a mixture of English and Indian.

      Some religions can’t integrate because by definition, they tell their followers not to mix with non members of their own religion.

      I would say that religion matters, for the reason above, but everything else doesn’t matter, as long as the migrants are below a certain percentage of the population. Above a certain percentage is the tipping point, at which there are too many foreign cultures for it to be clear what people are integrating into, and the migrants will never become English.

      I have another question for you by teh way, that I will post separately!

    8. Is English a race? If you tested DNA of a Dutchman, German and an english man would you see any difference?

      1. The English are mainly a mixture of Celt and germanic, aren’t they? Only the Bavarians are Celts in Germany.

    9. Being English is a matter of being British but not Scottish, Welsh or Irish.

      1. Thanks for your answer David. That is actually a useful point to make.

    10. The English, whatever their origins (I have Welsh and Dutch ancestors), are Europeans. Does that answer the colour question? In my view, foreigners can become British, but not English.

      1. So to your way of seeing things, non-Caucasians cannot be English. Does that include such people as Mahyar Tousi who was born in Iran? I certainly do not regard our present PM as English, I don’t think of him as truly British but a creature of internationalism.

        1. Is Mahyar Tousi (never heard of him or her) a European? I would add Christian to that qualification as well.

        1. But if you did it as an edit it doesn’t show to anyone else till they refresh the page.

          2. Yes – because you see your own edits straightaway. I had to refresh the page to see your link and the AfD man nailed it, didn’t he! But not everyone wants to keep refreshing their page all the time.

          3. Exactly.
            If I miss out a link I add it as an appendix to the original comment rather than editing.

    3. “I’m not done with my introduction yet” ha ha
      The only way to treat this juvenile nonsense.

  39. The attack on Nigel Farage, the former UKIP and Brexit Party leader (and former leader of a faction in the European Parliament) by the banks of Britain which have denied him a commercial bank account is a classic case of unaccountable, politicised, corporate power which is the hallmark of Fascism. (After complaint he has been permitted to retain his personal bank account with his bank of 40 years!). No reasons were given other than these were “commercial decisions”.
    Surely Fiction

    https://freenations.net/i-warned-farage-about-the-fascism-that-has-attacked-him-but-he-attacked-me%ef%bb%bf/

    1. An old one, but one that bears repeating every now and again on American holidays.

  41. An update for those who may have missed my moaning yesterday. Surgery is NOT an option, the other two are radiation at the far away hospital 5 days a week for 6 weeks. The other is a drug therapy at the close hospital which seems more likely. I have paperwork to read and another sodding appointment on Friday at the far away place to see the oncologist. Why can’t these people co-ordinate? The oik I saw yesterday was a facial surgeon- why when it was decided that was not an option? Why couldn’t he call the oncologist and ask her to stop in then?
    I am beginning to despise the NHS for what they are putting us through and people like Eddy who has been dealing with it longer than us.
    My wonderful husband is making a Belgian Carbonnade for tonight.
    I have not begun the morphine yet…need to read labels etc.

    1. I don’t blame you for being angry – particularly when you could have had it treated and done with last year. But see what the oncologist has to say.

    2. Obvoiusly a doctors time is valuable whereas your time costs them nothing.

      It is like when I went to an eye clinic, accurate appointment scheduling was too hard for the poor dears so they just had two appointment times at 9AM or 1PM. You arrived on time then just sat there for hours as the doctors worked their way through the masses.

      Does either treatment option prevent your pinot self medication?

        1. Maybe with the nhs, our hospital clinics still use it.

          E shall see next week. Ths boss is getting a new hip and the instructions are to arrive at 8AM.

        2. As far as I could see, they were still going a couple of years ago. My contact with the NHS always makes it clear that patients’ time counts for nothing.

          1. I suppose it’s a bit like being asked to turn up at the airport 2 hours before your flight time…..

          2. I suppose it’s a bit like being asked to turn up at the airport 2 hours before your flight time…..

        3. No, it happened to me not long ago at the Western Eye Hospital in Marylebone. 9.30 am and 12.30 pm appointments, on the principle Richard describes.

          1. I think it was probably the case at the JR in Oxford when we went for the follow-up appointment in February. Appointment time 1.30pm, we were seen by the Doc at 3.30pm. There was an ecg with a nurse beforehand.

      2. I don’t give a sh+t. It feels my time is limited so will do what I bloody want.

        1. God I pity any attendant when you make it to an old age home, you will be as belligerent as I will be.

      1. Disclosure- we live in Bournemouth; Poole is the far away one. We are ten mins from RBH and for much of this BS I have had to go to Christchurch…also a distance but not as far as Poole.

        1. Sorry, I didn’t mean to pry – just that if it was close to a NoTTLer who either owns a property or has somewhere they let out that is close, perhaps something about accommodation could be sorted out.

          I know what you mean about living 10 minutes from one hospital and being sent miles away – it is all part of the NHS Trusts’ money-saving “consolidation” carp.

          1. We had, what has been described to me, as a perfectly useful hospital here in Moffat.

            Now it just an adjunct to a not too clever surgery and A & E is over 25 miles away in the awful Dumfries.

            Reluctant to provide patient transport home after discharge, recommends taking a taxi which has already cost me £43 the first time and £40 the second time.

            I avoid it like the plague.

          2. It isn’t even necessarily about “money saving”. My nearest hospital is in Wales; as my former GP remarked, “it might as well be in Mongolia”!

        2. It’s difficult when you don’t run a car and the bus service is rubbish.
          I was able to visit my OH in Gloucester Royal for three weeks most days (30 mile round trip) – but Oxford where he had the op just before Christmas is 50 miles away. When I was having radiotherapy that was in Cheltenham (34 mile round trip) and driving there five days a week left me exhausted.

        4. Have you asked if there is a volunteer group that will drive you to and fro? We have one here and the people are great.

          Searched around and found this.

          https://www.bcpcouncil.gov.uk/Roads-and-transport/Travel-and-transport/Accessible-transport/Volunteer-community-cars-scheme.aspx

          If they wont do it I’m sure they will know who does.

          Here:
          https://www.bcpcouncil.gov.uk/Roads-and-transport/Travel-and-transport/Accessible-transport/Christchurch-NeighbourCar.aspx

    4. Is there any way you can swing the radiation therapy, is it Radiotherapy? Have you talked to Macmillan Cancer Support? They are incredibly helpful. I assume the morphine is Oramorph. It’s pretty OK and not addictive.

      1. Right now I can barely cope with anything.Googling MacMillan is on my list.

        1. Macmillan Cancer Support
          https://www.macmillan.org.uk/

          I’m not nagging but😊😊❤️you should have started to talk to them weeks ago. There is a whole cancer sub-culture out there, it’s quite astonishing because under normal circumstances you are not aware of it and it is an incredibly together community.

    5. It seems each department, surgeons, oncologists, radiotherapy and so on just do not communicate with one another. Passed from pillar to post. They should watch old Holby City episodes for a few pointers in how to coordinate their approaches.
      Nobody seems to have overall responsibility for each patient’s treatment plan.
      Did they give any indication as to which of your options offer the best outcome?

  42. Does anyone know anything about icons? (johnathan rackham, maybe?)
    I bought two small ones in a car boot sale recently.
    The painting style is seventeenth century by western European standards, but could be later if from the East. Probably Russian or Balkan.

    One depicts what appears to be an angel (halo, wings) holding a severed head with a halo, so the head of a saint. There is also a staff with a cross on in the background. What would this scene be illustrating?
    Head of John the Baptist? but in western art, that’s usually depicted differently.

    1. The one with the halo and wings and severed head could be me;-) I feel like killing someone right now;-)

    2. Doesn’t sound like it could be Judith and Holofernes if the head has a halo. Could be St John the Baptist and Forerunner – that shows John with wings and a severed head, usually on the ground, though.

      1. The figure with wings is definitely a man (bearded) and looks like John the Baptist!! He is painted very realistically as a human, not an idealised figure. He is also making that hand symbol O between the thumb and third finger. What is the story and whose head is it?

      2. Ah, wait a moment – would it be John’s own head?
        The head is also bearded, and has the same hair…

      3. Yes, it’s definitely John the Baptist – I just looked, and there are loads of similar depictions on icons! He always has disheveled hair too.
        Thank you Conway – I would never have got that by myself!

  43. Something important coming from Glastonbury that people should hear and take time to assimilate the information that the lady is presenting.
    12 minute video explaining what our political class are up to and how the ‘Green’ agenda has been captured and green activists have been duped and used for the nefarious globalists’ programme.

    https://twitter.com/djlange/status/1676320793481838592

    1. Wow. Excellent. Everyone should watch this and send it to as many people as they can.

  44. Are flies cleverer than they used to be?
    They never seem to go to the windows now, where I would be able to kill them – they just fly endlessly round the room or hide somewhere.

    1. Get an “Executioner” racquet. I had actual fun swatting the pests – actually we hardly have them indoors now as you can get a pot with some nasty-smelling stuff in which attracts flies who then drown (Fly Max fly catcher, bought in our local garden centre), and put it in the garden. Those pots are brilliant – no fly bothers to come inside any more! When they are full you can bag up the flies or dig them into the garden – they are full of protein (but don’t tell B. Gates…).

    2. I open the doors and wave a tea towel around they usually get the message.
      And clear off.

        1. Problemo being, they drop dead and you don’t always see where they are and yuk.

    3. We have stickers on the window and when the fly come in contact they die .

  45. ‘Morning All

    Uff Da!! Explains a lot

    https://twitter.com/calvinrobinson/status/1676227767254302720?s=20

    Rest of the medley

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/45c25bb3aa8ec0eb8fc7fb4c984c78dc04e28e9267842a1b3f7862e63d3b0737.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a3759bc80e47b65765f81cb397d9048a730132c110ff47ff93c1fe70ab246658.jpg

    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f1567d88df731dcd556dedda2c0b18f26e4d0fe43b3bbedcfa84fbbf43859c2d.jpg

    https://twitter.com/misspaulalondon/status/1676300527871619073?s=20

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/926f9dc56b5ef07c215d5e11ce154c6c74e8d8ea0b467c702e7482c0fdce044d.png

    https://media.greatawakening.win/post/r6TOyKN6RN2D.jpeg

    1. For the two years I have suffered from heart problems everytime I gave my opinion of what had probably caused it to any medical practitioner. Not one of them ever really disagreed. But didn’t discuss it any further.
      This had to come out eventually. And I hope that the people who forced all these problems on so many unfortunate people in this country will be brought to book on this.

      2. My son told me on Monday that his uncle (my ex brother in law) died suddenly following his covid jab two years ago. He thought I knew already but it was the first time I’d heard.

  47. Apparently there’s just been a huge storm in the Netherlands, trees uprooted etc. Seems to have blown up the Channel – Britain got off lightly with just rain and normal winds, I think.
    Sunak had better rush quickly down to Dover so that he can claim that his policies have stopped migration again.

    2. A rather innocuous warm front crossed the UK yesterday and then rapidly curled up into a vicious little storm over the Low Countries. Unusual but not unknown.

    3. It blew our rose arch over the short gusts were very strong. It was a inexpensive arch at £11 from Amazon.

  48. So how do you get to become world class in any discipline?

    Dr Waku discusses AGI and what this means in the context of attributing intelligence to current artificial intelligence platforms used in applications such as Microsoft’s Bing AI that uses OpenAI’s GPT-4 in the background.

    GPT-4 has now passed an advanced level in law exams and I have already used Bing AI in this forum to throw some light on the answer to some questions that I know some doctors will find difficult to answer.

    Could the doctor of the future be Dr Bing?

    https://youtu.be/gZro8-EwWYQ

  49. Having taken a look at met data for Oxford going back to 1990, over 34 years the average maximum temperature in June was 20.70℃, July 22.49℃. The hottest years in June were 2023 (23.8℃) followed by 2006 (23.1℃), in July 2018 (27.4℃) followed by 2006 (27.1℃). The coolest in June were 1991 (16.8℃) and 1990 (18.2℃), in July 2012 ( 20.5℃) and 1993 (20.8℃).

    So that seems to back up what the Met Office says about June but July so far is cool with temperatures here below 20℃ as against the long term average of 22.49℃.

    A cursory glance at 1868, for which the data cannot have come from Oxford airport, shows 23.6℃ for June, 25.8℃ for July but there are cool years as well. A more detailed look is in order.

    What I need to do is examine the solar cycles. Back later ( or tomorrow).

    1. In other words, our climate is variable. It doesn’t mean we’re all going to fry. It’s just normal weather in this country.

    2. But in the greater scheme of things, 34 years of Oxford in June is as meaningful as claiming today is the hottest since last week. To the Almighty, it isn’t even the wink of an eye.

      1. True, but 30 plus years of weather data isn’t just weather data, it’s a climate. That’s why I chose it.

    3. There is so much fiddling going on that you can’t take anything at face value. I’d want to know whether the measuring point or anything in its vicinity had changed, and how much re-calculation was being done to compensate for various factors.

      1. Or more to the point, how do you measure the average temperature of a country that stretches 600 miles north south. Did anyone actually measure the global temperature a century ago and is the data comparable to a value today. I would say its probably done by satellite measurements these days. I heard a news reader blurt out that we had had the hottest day in history, I doubt she was referring to entire 4.9 billion years of the globe’s history but it sounded like it. The met office would give Paul Daniels a run for his money in the art of deception.

      1. That’s very interesting since we are now supposed to be in a Grand Solar Minimum.

  50. Just off to play in our local care home
    Was booked to play in another care home yesterday but when I got there it was shut down because of an infection – wasted journey, they could have rung me – not well pleased

          1. All I got was a cuppa and a biscuit – I only play from 2 – 3.30 😘

    3. No consideration, Spikey, after all, why should they contact you, you are only the pleb piano player (they thought).

    4. I quite understand. It’s bad manners not to let you know, especially as you do this voluntarily. If you were paid, there would have been a cancellation fee to cover your expenses.

  51. Ursula von der Leyen is failing upwards – again. Spiked. 5 July 2023.

    Now the useless EU president is being tipped for a plum job at NATO.

    Strikingly, none of these failures, none of these scandals, has ever slowed her meteoric rise. Von der Leyen has become part of an untouchable, international aristocracy. She is shielded from democratic scrutiny and political accountability, even as she bungles every new brief she is given.

    This is what happens when the public gets frozen out of politics, when key appointments are made via backroom deals and horsetrading. You end up with the worst possible candidates, at the worst possible time. You end up with Ursula von der Leyen – a politician who has only ever failed upwards.

    How true.

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/07/05/ursula-von-der-leyen-is-failing-upwards-again/

    1. How quaint. Alex is still under the impression that test matches always include Fridays and Mondays. The Lord’s match last week ran from Wednesday to Sunday.

        1. The reason for this shuffling of test match days is the introduction of the minimum of three rest-days between the fifth day of one match and the first of the next. While some matches still run from Thursday to Monday, others are played Friday to Tuesday or, as at Lord’s , Wednesday to Sunday. Traditionalists grind their teeth, perhaps forgetting that test matches used to span six days with a rest day on Sunday.

          The longest test match I’ve found was that in 1939 between South Africa and England at Durban. It spanned twelve days, including two rest days, yet still ended up as a draw, although there was no play on day eight.

          https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/england-tour-of-south-africa-1938-39-61688/south-africa-vs-england-5th-test-62657/full-scorecard

  53. That’s the guttering at the back of the house cleared out, an easy one as I can put a small ladder in the “garden” to get up to it, with a decent amount of moss compost gathered.
    The front gutter is a different matter as I need my big 3 section ladder extended to the maximum to clear it. Will wait until S@H is in to assist.

    Whilst doing the clearing I realised how overgrown that bit of the “garden” had become, so I’ve just done 40 minutes strimming.

    Now off to pour my well deserved mug of tea!

    1. Sounds like you have earned a refill too.
      I thought moss was unsuitable for home composting because the bins don’t reach sufficiently high temperatures.

    2. I hope there is no overhang on the eaves. Just a thought, but before you even think about climbing up your ladder, why not ask Bill Thomas to fasten a few ‘ stainless steel pad eyes with hook and circular base plate’ just below the gutter? Alternatively, a couple of screw-in steel hooks with eye. Just something to steady the top of the ladder if it’s windy when Mr T is cleaning out that pesky moss; he probably has his own kevlar cord. https://www.s3i.co.uk/round-hook-pad-eye.php

    3. I hope there is no overhang on the eaves. Just a thought, but before you even think about climbing up your ladder, why not ask Bill Thomas to fasten a few ‘ stainless steel pad eyes with hook and circular base plate’ just below the gutter? Alternatively, a couple of screw-in steel hooks with eye. Just something to steady the top of the ladder if it’s windy when Mr T is cleaning out that pesky moss; he probably has his own kevlar cord. https://www.s3i.co.uk/round-hook-pad-eye.php

  54. The cipher in space that aliens could use to end mankind. 5 July 2023.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/54c94d918c00f4c746b6a7afb259c09d86599e0a102af4f5b9c0c97445d2cab7.jpg

    Then there are the Pioneer Plaques: two panels attached to the Nasa spacecrafts Pioneer 10 and 11 in the 1970s. To life forms in space that are intelligent enough to understand them, they give Earth’s precise location, and explain human life. Pioneer 10 was heard from 20 years ago, when it was over seven billion miles into space. But as we wrestle with the threat of artificial intelligence, we do not really know if the Pioneer Plaques were a good thing or not. You have to hope that, if something out there discovers them, it is a force for good. Otherwise, human enjoyment of a good riddle could go from being a question mark to a full stop.

    Obviously they are already here and have penetrated Westminster and the EU prior to destroying the human race!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/radio/podcasts/charles-spencer-rabbit-hole-detectives/

    1. 374176+up ticks,

      Afternoon AS,

      There are two certain forms of recognition they either wear pin stripe or burkas.

    2. OMG! How politically incorrect can one get. Didn’t the creators of these ciphers realised there are at least 60 genders! How dare they!!

      1. They’re sizeist, too. It’s fat-shaming not to show the differently waist-sized.

    3. I can see two immediate problems. First, Pluto has since been downgraded and is no longer regarded as a true planet. Second, the depictions of the two homo sapiens are clearly racist as only Caucasians are shown.

      2. They could only illustrate the Solar Sytem as it was understood at the time. The figures are not racist by intention. Efforts were made by Carl and Linda Sagan to produce panracial figures but there was little time. Oddly enough, Whites, Blacks and East Asians have all assumed that it is they that are depicted. Even then there would be nothing racist in using a Caucasian figure. It was after all a Europeanised people that built and launched the probes.

    5. A small blue and green planet, mostly harmless….according to the Vogons?

    6. Third rock from the sun 🙂 Mind you, there are only two sexes depicted …

    1. There are some impressive photos of fallen trees and vehicles on t’internet.

  59. Just renewed my DT sub. (£29 for a year) and this caught my eye:

    It has become popular in recent years, in certain circles, to decry how rubbish or “broken” things are in Britain compared with elsewhere in the world. Our housing, our manufacturing, our religious bodies, our supermarkets, our policymakers and politicians are supposedly an embarrassment – a reflection of our “clown country” status.

    Yet, despite how terrible we are at everything and despite how the world is supposed to have moved on and passed us in almost every other regard, in one area apparently the UK policy adopted many decades ago is absolutely perfect, unquestionable, and so vastly superior to everyone else in the world that we must never even consider learning from them: the NHS.

    Does that not seem surprising – paradoxical, even? That our European peers would be vastly better than us in every other respect, but their health systems so enormously inferior to ours that we obviously have nothing to learn from them? That it is not even worth considering how they do things? Do we assume that Europeans just don’t care about their citizens’ health? Do we assume that, although they are vastly better at everything else than us, they don’t apply their wisdom, skill and organisation to health?

    It is all the more remarkable that, despite our European peers apparently having such little interest in the health of their citizens that they choose vastly inferior healthcare models, they somehow (presumably as a result of pure luck) end up with consistently better health outcomes. This, despite spending less on health, on average, as a percentage of GDP than we do in the UK.

    Surely anyone can see that both of these things cannot be right? We cannot believe that Europeans do things better than we do in the UK apart from the sole and only case of healthcare, where they do things so much worse that when, in the UK, we debate healthcare the only models we ever consider are the NHS or the “American system” (which we probably don’t characterise correctly – but that’s a whole other story)?

    Now I’m not saying that we ought to adopt the French or German or Swiss health system in the UK. As it happens, my own preferred reform would be like none of these. But I do say that we ought to see the workings of the NHS in mundane operational terms, not as some kind of spiritually significant phenomenon.

    It is the 75th anniversary of the NHS’ “founding”. What “founding” means here is: the nationalisation of a sector. It’s like the founding of British Rail or the creation of the National Coal Board. Or it’s like the privatisation of British Telecom. Think how weird it would be if cooking shows were devoted to the nationalisation date of British Rail (as the Great British Menu devoted a season to the 70th anniversary of the NHS in 2018), or if kids sang songs to celebrate the date of the rail sector’s nationalisation on the BBC (as kids sang “Happy Birthday NHS” on a Newsnight special recently).

    The NHS is just an organisational model. Other countries do things different ways. We don’t necessarily want to do exactly what they do, but we should regard these things dispassionately, trying to find an organisational model that works best for patients, medical staff and taxpayers. And if that means learning lessons from Switzerland or France or Germany, we should be able to do that without being denounced as blasphemers or heretics.

    The NHS is just a nationalised industry, and the date it was founded has no more significance than that of the nationalisation of other industries. It wasn’t when medicine was invented. It wasn’t when compassion for the sick was invented. It was just when we decided to have the state run things instead of charities, religious groups and businesses. We should stop “celebrating” the NHS’ birthday as if that mattered. Let’s instead celebrate new ideas for how to organise the NHS differently so as to make it better.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/07/05/remainers-dont-love-europe-as-much-as-they-pretend

    1. Our foreign dwelling Nottlers seem to think the French health service is certainly better than the NHS.

      1. I am living here now, but my experience of the French health system was certainly better than what has been dealt out by the NHS.

    3. Aneurin Bevan, the promoter of the NHS, was delighted to hear they’d named a disease (Aneurism) for him.

      After hurrying to a medical dictionary to look it up, he was somewhat less delighted at the definition…

      “…a bloody clot that ought to be removed immediately.“

      2. He meant well, he just didn’t think it through. In fact, I remember that he had said it wasn’t sustainable.

    4. The NHS is another government department, with all the flaws and failures of those – bloat, inefficiency, waste, apathy and devoted to statism rather than the customer because the money flows in regardless of competence.

  60. https://twitter.com/DrJBhattacharya/status/1676383238863077376?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1676383238863077376%7Ctwgr%5E05be2fe08e08323a6fdef9f2f9095d0c26f553cd%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fpolitical%2Fjudge-bars-biden-officials-agencies-contacting-social-media-companies

    In an order fittingly issued on Independence Day, a federal judge in Louisiana has forbidden multiple federal agencies and named officials from having any contact with social media companies with the intent to moderate content.

    The preliminary injunction arises from a suit filed by the states of Missouri and Louisiana, along with individuals that include two leading critics of the Covid-19 lockdown regime — Harvard’s Martin Kulldorff and Stanford’s Jay Bhattacharya — and Jim Hoft, who owns the right-wing website Gateway Pundit.

    “If the allegations made by plaintiffs are true, the present case arguably involves the most massive attack against free speech in United States’ history,” wrote US District Judge Terry A. Doughty. “The plaintiffs are likely to succeed on the merits in establishing that the government has used its power to silence the opposition.”

  61. A reasonably bright sky has erupted with quite a squall, heavy rain blown along by a strong gusty wind. We need rain but I prefer the steady prolonged rain of yesterday evening.
    Fortunate that I’ve picked and made jelly, 26 jars, from the garden’s fruit before the wet weather arrived, any remaining fruit will be stewed with a little sugar and then frozen. Summer puds on the menu later in the year when the blackberries ripen.

      1. And it’s the front line staff who are doing so, seldom the tens of thousands of very peripheral support staff.
        I fully acknowledge that an organisation the size of the NHS needs support staff, but only keep the “need to have” as opposed to the “nice to have”

        1. They could ditch all the equality and diversity wastes of space for a start.

  65. I thought very strict bag searches on everyone were being carried out at Wimbledon. Yet play has stopped because of the lunatic stop oil mobs.

    1. They threw jigsaw puzzle pieces onto the court, isn’t Bill Thomas in London?

      1. So much for thorough bag searches. Why on earth would the security staff think that was normal to carry into a tennis tournament….. unless those ‘security’ staff sympathise with the yobs.

    2. In the current climate, the first does not necessarily preclude the second…

      1. Indeed it is. My ignorant device presumably doesn’t recognise ‘Scampton’ as a word.

      1. Just imagine trying to post anything naming the poor dog correctly. Waits for front door to be kicked in…..

    3. Frankly ferck the asylum seeker’s, if it hadn’t been for people like Guy Gibson and all the heroes who saved our nation from the original nazi invasion, this mob of scroungers wouldn’t have wanted to come here.

    4. It already has railings round it. Best option is to keep the unwanted ferals well away from Scampton (and preferably the UK).

      1. Unfortunately, we know that isn’t going to happen. The invasion (and that’s just the ones caught) will continue unabated. Those railings need to be reinforced and electrified.

        1. With a minefield, tripwires, machine guns firing on fixed mounts, fierce dogs running on running lines.

    5. Or, if the grave is disturbed, flog the savages. Drag 10 out and beat them senseless.

      1. There would be a long queue waiting to carry out the punishment. And unlike those cowardly, subhuman savages who flog victims in backward slammer holes (whoops, I meant countries), these wouldn’t be wearing disguises & masks.

        1. The wretched welfare shoppers must be removed. Every single one, driven out. Then we need to start cutting off welfare to any immigrant here within 20 years.

          1. Virtually every sane person knows that if the free accommodation, healthcare and money, along with virtually guaranteed leave to remain were all stopped, it would immediately stop the problem.

    1. No mention of blood-thinners – to prevent clotting – e.g, Warfarin or Clopi- doggeral?

      1. Our local hospital was using heparin to deal with patients admitted with COVID. My ongoing prescription for what was deemed to have been AF includes an anticoagulant.

        As long as I can keep things stable I just carry on taking what I was prescibed even if I should think unnecessary. Four pills a day keeps the doctor away.

    2. I take bisoprolol and cadesartan apixaban.
      Hopefully I will be able to stop the first two after the 26th of July.
      If I make it of course ablation is a tricky op. 😊🤞

      1. OH is on bisopralol – increased doses in stages up to 10mg failed to control his heartrate. He’s now on 5mg along with amiodarone. He’s been four weeks on the new regime, so we’ll see in a few weeks’ time.

          1. His heart issues only became apparent last autumn – when he collapsed while playing table tennis. This time last summer he was still playing tennis.

  68. Par Four today.

    Wordle 746 4/6
    ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜
    🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
    ⬜⬜🟨⬜🟨
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Par here, too.
      Wordle 746 4/6

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

    2. Birdie three today. Making up for my run on fives.

      Wordle 746 3/6

      ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜
      ⬜⬜🟨⬜🟨
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    3. No way will I spend half the rest of my life going through all these cookies

    2. No way am I going to allow all those cookies – it’d take me an hour to switch them all off

    1. I wonder if they target children because children say what they see, “emperor’s new clothes” and they don’t like to be called out for what they are: lying, and generally ugly, freaks.

      1. My personal observation is that they appear often to be people with many psychological problems going back into childhood.
        If you look at who they target, it is almost always people weaker than themselves.
        Whatever the answer is, it seems that forming a political movement and practicing as professional victims is NOT it….

        First thing I would do is stop childhood vaccinations, and then see how many autistic and trans people there are in the next generation…

        1. I would certainly NOT do that.
          I might be more selective in what is offered, but a blanket vaccine ban, particularly when one considers what the enrichment is adding, would be very foolish.

          1. The details are negotiable, which I think is big of me considering that I would be Dictator of the Universe in this scenario 🙂
            I once posted a graph showing that the death rate from a particular disease was declining, and didn’t change significantly when vaccines were introduced. There are similar graphs for most of the major diseases against which people are vaccinated.
            You might lose a few people to measles, but you’re losing people anyway, to severe autism, gender dysphoria and vaccine damage.
            I think if we had all the facts, they probably wouldn’t show an advantage to vaccinating.

          2. Polio for example?
            Diphtheria for example?
            Meningitis for example?
            Tetanus for example?
            Hepatitis, for example?
            Pneumococcal, for example?

            I agree that hygiene and clean water have made a difference in the developed world but when the UK and Europe are importing millions of people with God knows what, until the whole world no longer has carriers, we should be cautious

          6. That is true.
            BUT
            The point you are missing, I suspect deliberately, is that she could carry the disease and spread it, as can any of those appearing on our shores with diseases that had to all intent and purpose been eradicated in the UK.

          7. If they’ve got the diseases, then they’ll get ill, so they won’t be going around like Typhoid Mary.

          8. Really?
            And do you truly believe that asymptomatic carriers don’t exist?

          9. We’re going round in circles! The transmission is limited, because people get ill.
            Do we really need another excuse to avoid the London Underground??

          10. Stop avoiding the issue.
            Answer my question:
            do you truly believe that asymptomatic carriers don’t exist?

          11. They only exist for about five minutes if someone is going down with the bug.

          12. The whole point, I thought, about Typhoid Mary was that she DIDN’T get ill.

          13. I have a theory that my gt grandmother was a TB carrier – she lived to be over 90, but nearly all her many siblings died young from TB, as did three of her four children.

          15. I agree, but what about (yeah, yeah I know, whataboutery) those who bypass controls?

          17. The vaccinated can also spread those diseases due to ‘shedding’ – prevalent especially with the ‘flu vaccine, and Gates’s ventures into polio vaccination in Africa and India have now produced a fiercely resistant strain of the virus due to shedding. ‘Shedding’ is another reason why one should never vaccinate during an epidemic.

          18. Covid showed that “in spades”.

            BUT, my issue is not with the fake stuff, it’s with the people who would ban vaccines that have clearly been shown to work.
            If you are happy for your grandchildren not to be vaccinated for anything, good luck.
            I’ll hope my children look at the facts and make their own decisions re such things as polio and meningitis etc.

          19. My children were never vaccinated for meningitis. It wasn’t available in those days and scarcely a consideration. Not only did I have a bad reaction to the smallpox jab ‘this has been a very poorly baby’ said the doctor – I also suffer from permanent physical adverse effects to the polio jab. I was ill for a week after my first tetanus jab. It cannot be good for a body to have heavy metals injected it – thimerasol (mercury), aluminium, and the covid jab, anti-freeze. The covid jab was designed to enter every cell in the body and to cross the blood brain barrier. This, to me, seems to be a form of biological rape. My mother had the pneumonia jab, a one off inoculation. The cause of death on her death certificate was – pneumonia.

          20. An unfortunate set of circumstances, but there will always be instances of allergic reactions.
            I try to weigh the risks of doing or not doing something.
            I believe the Covid one has been a widespread disaster, I believe the small pox and others have been widespread successes.

          21. Yes, all of them.

            Even tetanus is curable, according to Dr Peter McCullough (I haven’t researched that one fully yet).

            We have been sold an enormous amount of propaganda about vaccines over the years.
            Perhaps your family has not suffered damage, but the health of my generation in my family has been catastrophic, so much so that one of my children is now veering towards not vaccinating the next generation.

            My children went to an alternative school where many of the children weren’t vaxxed.
            I regret believing the conventional, pharma-driven industry wisdom and putting my own children through the childhood vaxx program.

            The latest thing I discovered recently, is that the Vitamin K injection, given to babies the moment they are born, can be carried in alcohol. One of my babies, who had this thing (it was sprung on me with no warning at birth), was very sleepy, wouldn’t feed, and the midwives said that if he didn’t feed within a day, he would have to have a bottle. Fortunately, he woke up and fed after about 12 hours.
            Apparently, this is a known side effect of injecting babies with alcohol the moment they are born.

          22. We will have to agree to disagree.

            I’m old enough to have seen the effects on unvaccinated children/friends to know that many of those diseases I referred to ruin lives and can kill.

          23. I don’t mind disagreeing. The rates of those diseases were on a dropping curve anyway in the west, due to nutrition and hygiene. Of course, the lizard elite now want to reverse those gains.

            It would be nice if everyone has the freedom to choose childhood vaxxes or not, and if research studies weren’t suppressed or howled down if they don’t promote the vaxxes.

          24. those diseases were on a dropping curve anyway in the west, due to nutrition and hygiene

            AND vaccinations.

          25. No, that’s the whole point. The dropping curve started long before the vaxxes did. Really.

          26. Of course it was, that’s, to quote, the whole point of improved hygiene.

            But without the vaccinations there would still have been pockets where the diseases resided. It’s the combination of vaccination and improved hygiene that eradicates the disease.

            Sadly, small pox is the only one that has truly been eradicated, and even there I would never be surprised if some maniac released it from a laboratory.

          27. The data doesn’t seem to support the idea of vaccines playing a large role. I was also surprised when I first saw that.

          28. American children apparently have over 70 jabs of all kinds of stuff – the incidence of autism there is very high. In the UK now, children have far more than mine did. I had most of the usual childhood diseases and survived them.

          29. Read ‘Dr Mary’s Monkey’ regarding the polio vaccine. I haven’t read it yet, but apparently the polio vaccine was contaminated with cancer cells, deliberately so, by Salk who was a eugenicist. My husband read it muttering ‘this is scandalous’ from time to time, he is not given to hyperbole. It has been revealed that the smallpox jab dished out in Africa during the 1970s was contaminated with HIV which started the AIDS epidemic. All of the vaccine roll-outs occur as the disease has reached its peak within the population and is on a downward trajectory, in other words it was starting to burn itself out. TPTB also tried to take advantage of the effect of seasonality to prove that the covid vaccine was ‘working’ when they produced the vaccine – with questionable and suspect rapidity.

            Vaccines for respiratory infections (‘flu, pneumonia, covid) make one more vulnerable to any other respiratory tract infection going around. It seems at best the ‘flu jab is only 26% effective and the covid jab 12% effective for one week only whereupon it drops to 0.84% effectiveness.

            I am now more wary than I can say of vaccinations – yes, smallpox was deemed a success but there is no real mention of the number of people who were killed in its early days unless you are prepared to dig deeply, (the same with the polio vaccination) – as a one year old baby I was extremely ill with the gp coming round of his own volition twice to check on my progress post vaccination. Vaccines, being injected, bypass one’s first line of defence and are taken on the trust that no harm is intended. Unfortunately we have the most corrupt govt in my lifetime and probably my parents’ lifetime, and an nhs that is hand-in-glove with that corrupt govt.

            For more information read ‘Dissolving Illusions’ and ‘Turtles All The Way Down’.

          30. Forgive me, but I’m not entering this debate, been there, seen it, rejected it.

      2. What was that you were saying about an ugliphant? I bet none of us here is anything remotely as bad as that mentally deranged creature.

          2. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. You can get it out with Optric! ( S. Milligan).

        1. I refuse to answer that question on the grounds I might incriminate myself 🙂

          2. That’s £640 return, squire. More than the cost of return airfares to Rome for two.

          3. Let you in to a secret. You order them regular they reduce their rates massively. In Malta they dropped down to the price of a taxi. Forget transfers in a minibus. Last time i was there, there were so many limo’s because there was a concatenation of events with the Grand Master arriving.
            The only downside was men in dark suits and sunglasses taking a peak.

    2. Been a long time since I visited a ticket office to buy a ticket. All done on an app these days.

      2. Coming back from my last visit to London in 2019, I missed my booked train, due to Khan having changed the bus routes. I arrived in Paddington in time to see it depart. The guy in the ticket office was very helpful and rebooked me on another that was already in the station.

    3. Been a long time since I visited a ticket office to buy a ticket. All done on an app these days.

    4. Ah, there are a few advantages to being so close to Wales, look you! TfW (Transport for Wales) operates our trains and our ticket offices. Those few which are currently manned (or womanned) will continue to stay open.

    2. What happened to taking sandwiches?
      One of my childhood memories is eating sandwiches in Trafalgar square, and then playing on the lions.

      1. How hard-hearted of you. Don’t you realise, the poor brats are ENTITLED to a free hot meal? Otherwise, they may starve. Anyway, their mums need the child benefit (and general benefits) to get their plastic nails and caterpillar eyebrows done.

    3. I don’t see why I should subsidise feeding other people’s children. I already pay for child allowance through my taxes. They had them, they should pay for them!

      1. So last century to expect child allowance be used to feed children. Its to upgrade the iphone, and if there is anything left over, a new tat…

      3. As far as I’m concerned, any parent who has money to waste on plastic nails and other such fripparies, should have no access to tax payers money, food banks or other ‘freebies’ funded by people who have to fund them.

      4. Can’t feed: Don’t breed.

        There are those who find themselves in financial troubles through no fault of their own, but the majority are just feckless breeders.

  75. Prevening, all. I am not sure about the “world-class doctors and nurses”; they let my late neighbour down very badly by constantly reassuring her she didn’t have cancer until they finally admitted she did and it was Stage 4 terminal. That’s why I have Kadi. Only this morning I heard about someone’s relation who fell and broke her hip and while she was in hospital they dropped her from the operating table. She ended up with a huge bump on her head and a letter of apology!

    1. “… it was Stage 4 terminal. That’s why I have Kadi…”

      A touch of non sequitur?

      2. Not really; Kadi was my neighbour’s dog. When she got the death sentence I agreed to take him over so she knew he was provided for and would be well looked after.

        1. Is Kadi settled in and getting along well with Oscar? (Auto correct just tried to call him Katie!)

          1. Yes, thanks. He’ll soon have been here a year. He and Oscar have always got on, but occasionally they have a falling out. It gets sorted out swiftly (a quick shout of “oi!” usually does it).

    2. “… it was Stage 4 terminal. That’s why I have Kadi…”

      A touch of non sequitur?

  76. Another banging-the-head-on-the-desk moment with the BBC. Just back from a trip to the shops through the weed-choked wastelands of Wellingborough, I switched on the radio to hear the headlines. What I heard was a bit of noise about another raid by the Orange Brigade eco-loons. I thought at first it was from Edinburgh, but it was in SW19 where a sports event is apparently taking place. It’s taking nine hours for spectators to get into the place because of the extra ‘security’ checks. Must try harder…

    Anyway, the next report was from Auld Reekie, though it’s not so much smoke as sanctimony that fills its air today. The leader of the Scottish Greens, one Patrick Harvie, gave us the benefit of his opinions on what he regarded as a waste of money. The presenter didn’t ask him his opinions on the waste of money that is green technology or the Holyrood hot-air generator which he attends as an MSP. Harvie suggested that the Royal Family should be a bit more accountable. I don’t think he quite understands…

    As for the Scottish ‘coronation’, we were informed that the reading of one of the lessons in Gaelic was a example of Scottish diversity. Thankfully, I didn’t spill my cup of tea on the keyboard.

    1. At no time was the ‘Scottish Crown’ placed on the Kings head.

      ‘Scottish Coronation’ – Nah!

      1. Yes, that was odd! He’s only allowed to look at it, and touch it, iirc. One might almost get the impression that the Scots are murmuring “over the water…” under their collective breath!

  77. Another banging-the-head-on-the-desk moment with the BBC. Just back from a trip to the shops through the weed-choked wastelands of Wellingborough, I switched on the radio to hear the headlines. What I heard was a bit of noise about another raid by the Orange Brigade eco-loons. I thought at first it was from Edinburgh, but it was in SW19 where a sports event is apparently taking place. It’s taking nine hours for spectators to get into the place because of the extra ‘security’ checks. Must try harder…

    Anyway, the next report was from Auld Reekie, though it’s not so much smoke as sanctimony that fills its air today. The leader of the Scottish Greens, one Patrick Harvie, gave us the benefit of his opinions on what he regarded as a waste of money. The presenter didn’t ask him his opinions on the waste of money that is green technology or the Holyrood hot-air generator which he attends as an MSP. Harvie suggested that the Royal Family should be a bit more accountable. I don’t think he quite understands…

    As for the Scottish ‘coronation’, we were informed that the reading of one of the lessons in Gaelic was a example of Scottish diversity. Thankfully, I didn’t spill my cup of tea on the keyboard.

  78. Back from yer Lunnon. Far too many people there. However, all trains (ours) ran exactly to time. Poor grand-daughter, coming up on her own from Chiswick was mortified. The tube she was in stopped for 20 minutes….reason unknown. Never mind – she was on brilliant form. Saw the famed Rembrandts – very small they are. And the Gentileschi. Then to a pub for a sandwich for GD – we had our own to a eat on the train home.

    Just basking in the time we spent with her. All NoTTLer grand-parents will know exactly what I mean!!

    A demain.

    1. Yep! Our 30 year old granddaughter is arriving tomorrow to stay with us for a few days.

    2. When I pick up grandson from RHS, I sit in my dusty Noddy car and look round at the rather more impressive vehicles.
      Then tall, blond, very fit grandson rocks up and happily dumps his kit in the boot of my little baked bean can.
      And I sit there and think “Hah, you rich people; you have the money, but I have the incredibly dishy grandson who is now a sergeant in the cadet corp. And bosses your brats around. So neh-neh-di-neh-neh!”

  79. 374176+ up ticks,

    Seems like the special forces are being set up for a kicking I only want them to be on our side when the shite truly hits the fan.

    With the NHS saying it is many new procedures coming on line that is causing problems, nothing about near 6000 in one month
    .morally illegal potential / patient / felon/troops entering the system tis all deflection material shielding the semi covert WEF /NWO agenda.

  80. Julie Burchill nails it.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/andy-murray-the-unstoppable-rise-of-the-sporting-bores/

    Andy Murray and the unstoppable rise of the sporting bores

    5 July 2023, 2:07pm

    When I was a girl, sportsmen were amiable dolts. If they were old-school, they liked blokes and beer; if switched-on, they liked boogieing with blondes at Tramp and dreamt of opening boutiques. But with both, you could rely on them never to let you know what they were thinking about the three-day week or the situation in Cyprus.

    When Andy Murray declared his support for Just Stop Oil this week, he joined that ever-burgeoning brigade of what I think of as the Schlock Jocks, or perhaps the Poppycock Jocks. Their leader is Saint Gary Lineker, the most expensive dominatrix around, taking the pound of the people and in return scolding the people who pay him. Gary, patron saint of refugees, whose virtue is so magical and identification with the under-privileged so great that he once spoke about receiving racist abuse, despite being born in Leicester to Margaret and Barry. Like all plonkers, Lineker has claimed that the language used about stopping economic migration to this country is in some way equivalent to ‘Germany in the 30s’ and is also a veteran Israel-basher, tweeting about arrests in the West Bank and lamenting the killing of a Palestinian man who was later revealed to be a member of Hamas, those lovely people responsible for multiple deadly bombings in Israel.

    Then there’s Saint Lewis Hamilton, who memorably twittered in 2020: ‘I had time to reflect on where we are in the world today, every day I see something upsetting happening, people being abused, people suffering, volcanoes erupting, explosions, oceans and forest’s [sic] being destroyed. 2020 is such a heavy year. But it gives me hope seeing people come together, fighting for justice and doing more for our planet and the people in it.’

    And of course Saint Gareth Southgate, who led a veritable squad of saints to Qatar last year; there’s nothing like the sight of men earning £100,000 a week for doing the thing they love lecturing us about colonialism to remind us of our privilege. In contrast, the brave men of the Iranian football team refused to sing their national anthem in solidarity with the protesters at home. It’s ironic that men raised in Iran care more about women’s rights than footballers raised in the liberal West, most of whom probably believe that ‘feminism’ is a brand of tampon and who can’t seem to go a week without giving us yet anther sexual-assault or domestic-violence headline.

    Gandhi Lineker trotted off happily to Qatar with ‘socialist’ Gary Neville plodding after him and – in the manner of a particularly thick pantomime horse – was Southgate himself, making a questionable claim about how keen the wretched migrant workers were to see the World Cup come to Qatar. The cherry on the top of this sumptuous sundae of hypocrisy were the players who planned to flaunt their support for LGBT by wearing ‘OneLove’ rainbow armbands – but who swiftly removed them when threatened with yellow cards.

    And now Andy Murray is the latest ball-botherer to tell us his thoughts on something completely unconnected with what he’s good at. Like the other Shlock Jocks, one gets the impression that Murray thinks talking about politics is just about the bravest thing in the world, while holding exactly the same anodyne, fashionable, corporation-endorsed, non-bank-cancelling opinions as the rest of his kind. After a Just Stop Oil nutter said it would ‘very inspiring’ for JSO to create ‘an image of someone’s hand glued to something on Centre Court…there’s a lot of people up for that’ Murray commented: ‘I would imagine probably something would happen here. I mean, I agree with the cause – just not always how they go about expressing it. Rather than running on the court, maybe they could do it a different way.’

    Tell us, oh oracle! While you’re at it, perhaps clarify – as you ‘agree with the cause’ these Malthusian muppets propagate – how many planes you take a year, why you have four children under the age of seven and how you can support Scottish independence while being against oil? But of course, Andy’s habits – from flying to breeding – will be essential, and nobody else’s business; it’s us plebs who need to stay at home and worry about over-population.

    Being such a liberal conformist, it’s predictable that Murray simpers of Jonny Bairstow’s hands-on attitude to climate protestors ‘I didn’t see what Jonny Bairstow did, but it could be dangerous.’ Organisers at Wimbledon have, pathetically, told players and staff not to take matters into their own hands if protesters get onto the court. But how refreshing it was to see Bairstow carrying away a JSO toff as though he was a useless surfboard being stashed away for winter.

    Sportsmen are singularly ill-suited to pontificating about politics because sport is as cut-throat and greedy an industry as entertainment; it’s a cross between mediocre showbiz and bad religion. When we’re young, we all make a decision about how we’d prefer to make a living. Unequal opportunity will hinder us; in my own case, I had to overcome the fact that more than half this nation’s journalists were educated in private schools. Of those who went to state schools and still succeeded, most went to university. The percentage of working-class women who left education as teenagers and still succeeded in journalism is so low it’s unrecordable – basically, myself and Caitlin Moran (and she had too many books in her house as a kiddy for my liking). It’s getting worse – last year’s Diversity In Journalism report found that ‘Working class representation in UK journalism hits record low’ as the Press Gazette headline put it.

    Taking this into consideration, we still have a choice whether we want to do socially useful jobs, which often pay badly, or socially useless jobs, which often pay well. Actors, musicians and sportsmen all had the chance to become carers, teachers, firefighters – instead they chose to indulge their passion and keep their eyes on the prize rather than work selflessly for the social good. We respond to nurses strikes viscerally, even if logically we believe they are wrong, because we acknowledge they have chosen to do work which we wouldn’t have the patience for. During lockdown, our appreciation of refuse-collectors and shelf-stackers rightly rocketed. But this good sense seems to have fallen by the wayside and we again accept it as perfectly normal that we pay the least useful members of society – such as Gary Lineker and his band of brothers – the most money.

    These Empathletes are not only paid for what they do but haul in huge amounts from advertising; Lineker in particular has pocketed millions of pounds over the past 25 years urging the nation to neck as many units of salt, fat and sugar that we can manage to consume in the shape of Walkers crisps.

    If in the future those who have grown filthy rich from sport could only put their money where their mouths are, the air-polluting, hot-air carbon dioxide levels which worry the likes of Andy Murray so much would surely fall.

    1. FFS!
      Did Andy Murray learn nothing from his “Anyone but England” remark?
      What a Fool! Would serve him right if he got stuck behind a Just Stop Oil protest on his way into Wimbledon!

      1. Presume Murray drives a gas guzzling car and understands that without oil he wouldn’t have a racquet to play with

        1. He should try a wooden racquet strung with gut (tempting to make suggestions…), it would slow down his serve beautifully? He’d love that 😂!

          1. I have fond memories of my old wooden tennis rackets. Always had to store each in its wooden press too.

          2. They used to weigh a ton. Carting them plus a satchel full of books burnt off the calories.

          4. Packed lunch? 2 Ryvitas with a tub of cottage cheese and a flask of black Nescafé!

          11. I lapped up the school meals and several others as well. Mostly the cabbage.

          12. You didn’t go to my school then. Lumpy mash, overcooked vegetables (well, the rumour was the sludge was veg) and wafers of old shoe leather that was, allegedly, meat.

          14. Along with many of my classmates, I always went home for lunch at primary school.

          15. Too far for me to walk home at lunch time, though we used to walk to school and back.

          16. I don’t recall mine very well. Probably not awful enough. On the other hand, I often enjoyed the fayre in the company canteen. Leicester Baked Fish, Navarin of Lamb and Nasi Goreng stick in the mind.

          19. #metoo
            And at the time, it was almost certainly the best non-professional racquet that was available to the general public.

          20. I’ve still got my tennis racquet in its press somewhere, but I’ve no idea what make it was. Same applies to my squash and badminton raquets as well.

          22. Impressive. No idea what happened to mine. My Dad possibly passed them on some juniors at his tennis club.

          23. I wonder how many of the modern stars could .have beaten Rod Laver if they had had to use the racquets of his time, even allowing for the differences in fitness and strength.

      2. He’s a proper thick “ball-botherer” and a professional bore. Hopefully, a career with ze SNP in just aroumd the corner.

    2. I went off him when he put on an Argentina Shirt when they were playing England at the world Cup a few years ago. The ignorant Prat.

    3. Most impressed that she got away with the word “Malthusian” in a mainstream article.

    4. You could probably lay the reason for so few working class people becoming journalists these days at the feet of the demise of the grammar school. It was the biggest factor in upward social mobility (until Labour got rid of it – can’t have the working class bettering themselves; much better to keep them down and create an underclass that will always vote Labour).

    5. I have ALWAYS disliked Murray and his mother .

      They are both gobby and the sight of their asinine grins just turns my stomach .

      2. Over the years, I have really tried to like Andy Murray, but I think I will give up the effort now.

      3. It’s the permanent croak in Andy’s drawl that irritates me. I cannot listen to him for long.

    6. It reads like a Julie Burchill article, which, considering she wrote it, should come as no surprise. A squeaky-voiced Bristolian is not the best vehicle for such scathing thoughts. I’m glad she prefers them in print. I remember reading her columns in the New Musical Express. She’s even better now.

  81. I don’t think I mentioned a few months ago I pulled into a garage to fill our car and a Roller pulled in opposite. The driver got out to fill the tank and couldn’t resist asking who was sitting in the rear seat. The driver told me is was Percy Bates. Who I asked what does he do ?
    Oh replied the driver he works for Cunard.
    I said so do I but I can’t afford to run a car like that. 😉😊

      1. He was a cabin bar/steward on a cable laying vessel. My good lady use to work with the captain’s wife.
        One a bar steward always one.

  82. An observation/question.

    When I have been “away” for a time, I look at my notifications to see if I need to reply to a response to one of my posts that I may have missed. Surprise, surprise, I actually do try to be polite

    Doing that, I also observe that people may have given an upvote.
    It’s interesting to note votes from former regulars who rarely post, votes from people who “hover” but very rarely post, and people who vote for what appears to be the fact that one has bothered to post at all, (The two Sues, I know you’re out there). I particularly enjoy seeing phantom upvoters appear and eventually post, Cheshire lad I know you’re out there too…

    For those who bother to check, whose votes do you value?

    I value them all, but having been stuffed by a bot, err is that really what I meant, I have a grand total of null points.
    Does that make me British?

    1. All of us who have old accounts have null points – but I do look and see who upvoted or replied. Cheshire Lad got caught out once and replied!

      1. Cheshire Lad still posts, albeit infrequently.
        I’m delighted to see how many new faces are appearing recently, although I wonder what attracts them to the honeypot.

        1. Mr Brush has popped in before from time to time. Ambroise had a strop the other day and closed his account but he may be back in disguise.

  83. We are going to bed soon. The pain today has been unbelievable- Simply can’t cope.
    Husband made a lovely Carbonnade which I managed a few mouthfuls of.
    I have emailed my son, poor lad, but tonight sleep and or rest beckons.
    Sleep well y’all.

    2. Oh, so sorry to hear that. Are you using the oramorph, even if only at bedtime?
      We’re all thinking of you, and hope you can get a restful night or a few hours at least.

    3. Hope you get a night’s rest, Ann.
      I’ll take care of the red medicine for you!

      1. Not if there are heart problems.

        In that case, whisky, it opens up narrowed veins, whereas brandy has the opposite effect.

    6. I am so sorry to hear of your pain. One thing the NHS doesn’t promote is alternative therapy. You might wish to investigate other options than bought and paid for Doctors.

  84. Off topic
    We get a lot of little lizards in the garden and they particularly like climbing the walls and resting on the stone sills.
    I enjoy watching them very close to, for some reason they don’t notice when one is behind the windows.
    The are voracious eaters of insects and I’m convinced that they smile every time they flick out their tongue and catch one.

    1. Did you ever bump into a Goanna in Oz ?
      We were on our way to Melbourne once and I needed a wee. Went into the off road section and heard a noise low diwn in the scrub. Picked up a stick rattled the Bush and a 4 ft reptile shot out hugging the tree and stared at me. Good job I’d finished what I was doing.

      1. We had a very similar experience in Oz.
        At Nusa we regularly saw big lizards, they were fairly “tame” and would approach tables.
        We were driving down from Nusa/Noosa Heads and were way off road and stopped to eat a picnic lunch in the car.
        We would usually have gone to a table but fear of snakes kept us in the car, we were that far off road.
        An absolute monster waddled out of the bush.
        It put its foreclaws on a picnic table, and I swear its head was two feet higher than the table, at a guess I would have thought 18 feet+ nose to tail. Quite an experience!

          1. Certain.
            It was one of those experiences that underscored the fact that we don’t really know what is out in the wilds.
            Those at Noosa were big, this creature dwarfed what we had seen there close to.
            On a more tranquil note:
            We were eating in a restaurant close to the shore when a Koala scuttered past, hotly pursued by a horde of Japanese tourists with cameras.
            The poor beast eventually found a suitable tree and shot up it as if pursued by the hounds of Hell.

        2. I remember Noosa Heads we drove the whole coast from Adelaide to Gladstone Qld.
          I had a few run ins with the wildlife. Chased by nesting Emus. Snakes spiders.
          Caught a port Jackson shark once.
          But put it back, both of us unharmed.

          1. We drove from there back to Adelaide, mainly hugging the coast.
            A super-scenic drive and I really enjoyed it. We stayed in small hotels, although one night we were turned away because the room temperature was 55°C.

          2. We use to live in Hunter Road Christie’s Beach 100 yards from the beach.
            When the temperatures went off the scale the beach was packed at night.

  85. It’s a bit early but I think I’ll nip off.
    I can’t stop yawning.
    It must the tennis or 75 years of the NHS.
    I wonder if those who moved into the private sector having been trained by the NHS are asked to repay the money that has been spent on their behalf.
    No ? Some how I thought not.
    But a few years back some of them recieved massive back payments from the government.
    Well in reality the taxpayers.
    Night all.

    3. A few years ago a hole in the cloud like the one in your picture was created by a UFO (now Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon) at O’Hare airport in Chicago. Maybe BT’s been abducted?😎

    2. The problem with all this oppressed minority stuff is once they get equality they don’t like it and have to keep it going until they become the oppressors, it never was about fairness.

  89. Well, I am back for a while- plonk needed. Thank you all for your good wishes.

    1. Mavis who will be 100 in four weeks sent me a bottle of ginger wine which I’m currently sampling with a dash of whishky and ice! So cheers!

        1. Talk about word association….

          PORTER : Marry, sir, nose-painting, sleep, and urine.
          Lechery, sir, it provokes and unprovokes. It provokes
          the desire, but it takes away the performance.
          Therefore much drink may be said to be an
          equivocator with lechery. It makes him, and it
          mars him; it sets him on, and it takes him off; it
          persuades him and disheartens him; makes him
          stand to and not stand to; in conclusion, equivocates
          him in a sleep and, giving him the lie, leaves
          him.

        1. He wants to move about but when we do he’s clearly in pain and keeping him still is tricky. There’s no easy way for him to lay, so he is dozing a lot during the day to make up. Junior has moved his matress downstairs so the great floof doesn’t have to go upstairs.

    2. I don’t get it.

      Never heard of Bennie and the Jets.

      Did he stutter a lot?

      1. An Elton John song in which he stutters – deliberately – on the first letter.

        2. Should people Who are in m-m-m-my g-g-g-generation f-f-f–fade away with Roger Daltry?

  94. Well, I’m off to bed.
    Had a bit of sad news, Marie, my ex-next door neighbour on the Bonsall side, who’d only just moved out a few weeks ago, has died.
    She was in her 80s and did seem to be getting tired before she left though.

  95. Listen carefully, I shall say this only once….trying for sleep again. 2 more glasses of plonk and Stephen’s Leonard Cohen may have done the trick.

    1. Sounds couterproductive, but try just resting. Don’t feel pressured to ‘sleep’.

  98. Morning all. In case you’re still looking at this day’s news and miss tomorrow’s here is a very useful app to find the nearest least expensive fuel. http://Www.petrol prices.com

    Found in the DT letters Thursday. Every little helps!

  99. I watched a YouTube video today that reviewed the top ten new cars that owners decided not to keep after one year.
    They were all internal combustion engined (ICE) cars. I don’t suggest that EVs are an acceptable replacement for an ICE car but they do have compensations.

    I serviced my own diesel between MOTs and I went through regulart parts replacements to keep it on the road.
    I realised how much Autodoc missed me by the amount of email reminders that I haven’t ordered anything.

    The era of the EV is exemplified by Musk’s Tesla cars but his business model is unique in having no dealerships to charge for annual servicing. Tesla owners don’t even have a service schedule and this is trend of other EV manufacturers who are starting to dump the idea of having dealerships that can actually do things to your vehicle to make things worse.

    All cars, ICE, EVs or hybrids are now so complex to control that there are not enough experts to diagnose faults even with the availabiility of OBDII diagnostic ports that are now fitted to all vehicles.

    Technology is advancing so fast that human servicing of vehicles is becoming problematic because software fixes after a recall, once thought to be the way forward, are even beyond the competence of the original manufacturer.

    Just to illustrate how stupid things have got is when a Transit van with a clogged diesel particulate filter turned out to have been fitted with a replacement OEM side view mirror without an essential sensor fitted in it. This prevented the van from performing an essential DPF cleaning cycle and therefore would go no faster than 40 mph.

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