Monday 17 July: Raising immigration fees to pay for NHS salaries is a positive first step

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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618 thoughts on “Monday 17 July: Raising immigration fees to pay for NHS salaries is a positive first step”

  1. Good morrow, Gentlefolks, today’s story

    Confused

    A confused nine year old boy goes up to his mother and asks, “Is God male or female?”

    After thinking a moment, Mum responds, “Well, God is both male and female.”

    This confuses the little boy so he asks, “Is God black or white?”

    “Well,” Mum says, “God is both black and white.”

    This further confuses the boy so he asks, “Is God gay or straight?”

    “Darling,” Mum says, “God is both gay and straight.”

    So the child thinks about if for a while, then asks, “Mum… Is God Michael Jackson?”

  3. Raising immigration fees to pay for NHS salaries is a positive first step

    But wont the NHS staff then want even higher salaries to pay their immigration fees?

      1. Somehow I suspect that the people who forked out thousands to come illegally will pay nothing, and the people who went the legal way, and worked for several years as carers or some other poorly paid job, will get clobbered with the high fees.
        That’s how our government works.

        1. If you look at the forms for gaining leave to remain etc, there is always a note that refugees and trafficking victims are excepted from many of the requirements and fees.

        2. You mean that is the only reason for the Government to talk about abolishing IHT?

    2. Why not just stop giving free treatment to those not entitled like every other country in the world.

  5. Is it time we did business with the Taliban? 17 July 2023.

    Hold your breath. Security has vastly improved, people are free to travel and the widespread corruption that impacted at every level of former President’s Ashraf Ghani’s government has all but disappeared. And the dreaded black market opium trade that blighted the nation’s economy has seemingly gone.

    This war-torn nation has not experienced relative peace like this since the 1970s. And it shows. The congested streets are bustling with life as everyone goes about their business – free from the infinite checkpoints and perpetual fear of violence. The Taliban authorities are no more visible than our own police are in London.

    In the heart of Helmand Province, where the British Army once invested blood and treasure, a transformative shift is taking place. Miniature solar panels dot the landscape, powering thousands of irrigation systems that nourish the abundant fields of cotton, fruit and wheat. The colossal 200-ton electro turbine, brought to the Kajaki Dam by British forces over a decade ago but never operational, is now actively supplying electricity to Kandahar and beyond via expansive pylon lines. The high-voltage distribution system has become a lifeline for local economies, facilitating extraction, processing and export of minerals, such as marble, on a huge scale.

    Then what were we doing there? It’s worth reflecting that this article is by that moron Ellwood who’s a cheerleader for the War in Ukraine!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/07/16/it-may-be-time-to-do-business-with-the-taliban/

    1. Ever since NATO one has to go further abroad for live fire training…..!

      Morning Minty and all

      1. Morning S and all,

        I’ve always thought that the live firing exercises for NATO in the UK had serious limitations for asessing the effectiveness of modern warfare armaments. Russia’s extended military excursion into Ukraine has provided a most opportune scenario to test NATO’s defensive readiness and limitations against fast evolving live ammunition weapons.

      1. I hate these propaganda pieces in the media – tomorrow it could just as easily be “Afghanistan is a hellhole where half the population never sees daylight”

    3. Easy to install ‘peace’. Lock up half your population and deny them an education or the chance to earn money.

  7. Light rain forecast but non so far.17C and very cool for time of year. I think the jet stream has pushed all the hot air onto mainland Europe and leaving us cold behind it. not sorry.

    1. Its a high pressure area that has settled over southern Europe, absolutely nothing to do with carbon dioxide. The jet stream normally sits close to the boundary between cool and warm air masses and is caused by the pressure difference at altitude resulting from the thermal contrast in the air.

  8. School holidays are here, so silly news season begins.
    This week climate project fear is appropriate I suppose.
    Apparently this is going to be the hottest week ever around the globe
    Recorded at weather stations on airport runways after jets have taken off, I expect

    1. Flippin’ not hot here. One of the miserablist summers I can recall since we came to Norway – back then, it was so hot at night, we’d sleep on the balcony. Now if we did that, we’d get trench bum. And frostbite. Honey production is well down on average, as the bees don’t fly in the rain, and there’s fewer flowers too.
      So, don’t you believe it.
      https://youtu.be/OLKDV-_SCBs

  9. British families could be paid to take in Afghan refugees to reduce housing asylum seekers in hotels. 16 July 2023.

    British families could be paid to house Afghan refugees under plans being drawn up by Michael Gove to reduce the use of hotels for asylum seekers.

    The Levelling Up and Housing Secretary is considering replicating the Homes for Ukraine scheme for up to 2,000 Afghans who worked for the British and have been granted the right to come to the UK in gratitude for their service but have yet to come to the UK.

    The Afghans and their families are currently living in limbo in hotels in third countries such as Pakistan and Iran because there is no housing available for them in the UK.

    Lol! Good luck with that!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/07/16/british-families-paid-take-afghan-refugees-reduce-hotels/

    1. Yer, rite.
      Surely Pak and Persia would be more culturally comfortable for them.

        2. One of the benefits would be that they wouldn’t be here! ‘Morning Minty! And all!

        3. One of the benefits would be that they wouldn’t be here! ‘Morning Minty! And all!

    2. First the Ukrainian refugees, then the Afghans, followed by… The unfortunate boat people?

      It’s looking very much like a thin end of a wedge being pushed forward. Levelling up by bringing in the Third World sounds rather oxymoronic, n’est-ce pas?

      1. Particularly when most of the boat people appear so keen on living on welfare rather than looking for a job.

        ……………………………….unlike the local Ukrainians who as soon as they arrived all went job hunting.

        1. I may be wrong, but the Ukrainians were allowed to do so, the gimmegrants aren’t, not that they appear to be keen to do so anyway.

    3. Is the Levelling Up and Housing Secretary going to be the first “volunteer”? Not on your Nellie!

    4. Do what Trudeau does!

      Do aphoto op, announce big plans, do a photo op, bringing hundreds of thousands and then dump them on the streets along with the Canadian homeless.

    5. Inevitable, I suppose. Once enough mugs had volunteered to take in Ukrainian ‘refugees’, the likes of Wormtongue Gove must have laughed their socks off at another avenue for ‘care in the community’.

  10. Good morning all.
    A bright 8½°C start, a bit cloudy with blue patches and dry, though there were a few drops when I got the milk in earlier.
    Met website has rain forecast to start in an hour or so with thunder coming along later.

    1. We had another downpour here just before I took the dogs out, so I put on my long mac, stuffed the dogs into waterproof coats and set off. Guess what — the sun came out and roasted us all! The only thing I wasn’t wearing was a pair of sunglasses 🙁

  11. Good morning, chums. Still suffering from a very debilitating and sore throat. Have made myself a milky coffee and will go straight back to bed where I plan to spend the rest of the day.

      1. Vit C, D, K, Zinc, Magnesium, Quercetin for a strong immune system.
        Bonus: Quercetin makes your hair grow thick!

    3. Good plan, Elsie.
      We can get lemon-filled colostrum pastilles that are very effective with colds and sore throats – are they available in the UK? I chew a few as soon as I feel the tickle, and it usually goes away without getting any worse.

      1. Trouble with any pastilles or vitamin tablets (recommended by Ndovu) is that it necessitates a trip to the chemists and I just don’t feel up to it at present. Ciao for now!

        2. Gargle with an antiseptic.

          Neat whisky is good as an antiseptic, and you can swallow it afterwards, where it will also get rid of any angina – I’ve found.

        3. I swear by Disprin – if ever I get a sore throat a couple of Disprin eases it within 15 mins

    4. Morning, Olaf’s Relict.
      There seems to be ‘a lot of it about’.
      I can recommend Difflam spray and pastilles.

    5. Elsie, that doesn’t sound right – you seem to have had this sore throat for far too long.

  13. A response to the Green Goblin:-

    Climate Science Journal
    @ClimSciJournal
    The heat records have been “shattered” because ESA has started using Land Surface Temperatures, not air temperatures at 2m above the surface, which means they have altered the standards of the past records (which means they are not actually record temperatures, except on the short-term).
    ESA explains “the map shows the actual temperature of the land’s surface which is significantly hotter than air temperatures”.

    https://twitter.com/ClimSciJournal/status/1679834118475993088

  14. 374553+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Monday 17 July: Raising immigration fees to pay for NHS salaries is a positive first step

    Stopping immigration in any shape or form, for a set number of years, cutting top ranker NHS management, obstruct & stop ANY attempts at landing more potential patients / troops mid English Channel .

    These are very positive first steps unless YOU are going to continue to support the repress,replace RESET odious agenda
    via the lab/lib/con / mass controlled /uncontrolled lmmigration / paedophile umbrella / WEF / NWO with royal seal coalition party.

    1. Nobody should be allowed into this country without proof of proper health insurance.
      Any doubts abut the paperwork or their health – they are barred.
      No ‘compassion’ for some foreign female waddling through the airport obviously about to pop.

    3. Sunak and his cohorts should be reminded that the UK does not belong to him and he has no right to allow all these immigrants into OUR country

  15. Ukraine forced ‘on the defensive’ as Putin boasts about his ‘heroic troops’. 17 July 2023.

    He said Russian soldiers had “heroically” stopped Ukraine’s counter-offensive, sucking in its reserves and capturing key locations.

    “All attempts by the enemy to break through our defences have been unsuccessful during the entire offensive,” said Putin.

    Ukrainian commanders have admitted that their counter-offensive has progressed slowly but they have still estimated that they have recaptured around 65 square miles of land in two months.

    Wow! Even with my sketchy arithmetic that’s around a square mile a day! At that rate the Ukies will be in Crimea by 2300. The use of these figures are themselves cause for suspicion. For one thing we have no way of verifying them and the gain of them even if true tells us nothing of the costs. On the first day of the Battle of the Somme the British gained two miles at the cost of twenty thousand killed. Some people might think that worthwhile.

    One of the drawbacks to commenting on this war is the lack of credible information. It’s much worse than Vietnam or even Iraq. They were just lies and eventually exposed. This time the whole of the MSM has been corrupted to control the narrative. No single western source can be trusted, only the occasional independent reporter possesses any reliability and even that has to be treated warily.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/07/16/ukraine-forced-defensive-putin-boasts-heroic-troops-bakhmut/

    1. The situation is different from WWI because we can get erroneous information now from the. MSM far more quickly.

  16. Good Moaning.
    Oooh ….. the excitement. I’ve booked a slot at the tip. Now the ECC knows the Noddy car’s registration number.

    1. You can hum the William Tell Overture while you are driving there:-
      “To the dump, to the dump, to the dump, dump, dump”.

      2. Not so tuneful, the shower waste water pump on the boat, makes a noise which if you put words to it goes:
        “Let it out, let it out, let it out, let it out, let it out, let it out, let it out, let it out” … until a final belch!

      2. I believe they are very rebellious. As soon as you put them in the frying pan over a moderate heat they have a tendency to bend to the left making it very difficult to achieve even cooking on all four sides!

          3. Stephen’s right, they get squashed into a square profile in the pack (normal sausages not skinless) but go round again in the pan.

          1. Black pudding – m’mmmmmmmmmm …….
            Not that awful Mattesson’s stuff with cubes of fat, though.

          2. Proper black pudding has to have chunks of delicious, nutritious and healthy fat in it. Without fat, all meat is dry and devoid of flavour and nourishment.

      3. compo sausages in tins we got in the RAF were triangular and the best sausages I’ve ever tasted

    2. Square or not, I struggle with sausages in the frying pan just like this. The theory that they bend is probably correct, you get a couple of properly browned stripes and the rest stays whitish whatever I do. Together with the thin skins, discussed in the DT last week, where the skin just shrivels off. I used to grill my sausages and it seems far easier to cook and brown them properly under the grill. Recently I have taken to frying them, together with a fried rather than poached egg in the same pan, as a single frying pan uses less electricity, being green or whatever.
      Perhaps I should just blame the cheap (or not cheap these days) Tesco Lincolnshires.

      2. My son gets them evenly browned. His method is to put a lot of fat in the pan, and then stand there for the whole cooking time, constantly turning them.

        1. Tried that, failed…. just get more bits of fallen off skin separately fried. And yes I do prick them, maybe not enough.

    3. I roast our Howells sausages. Just need turning once. It does help if you manually straighten them a bit before putting ’em in the oven. Will take a pic next time cook some.

      1. I used to know a lady who could straighten a sausage just by looking at it

          4. Had that for the first time a couple of weeks back. I cooked it in the Crockpot with various veggies and liquids as I thought it might be rather dry.
            It was delicious.

      3. Looks like the old corned beef we must have all grown up with.
        Never read or even saw the ingredients we just got on with it.

          4. Yes, it does!
            I use it straight out of the tin in sandwiches or a salad
            Fried as part of a meal
            Chopped up and fried with mashed potatoes as corned beef hash

          6. Sandwiches made with corned beef, a strong cookhouse cheddar and sliced onion saw me through many a stag on guard or Regimental Police duty.

          8. Ask cook…

            Yes it does and a corned beef hache is a tasty, filling and cheap dish.

          9. My mother used to fry it and pour on beaten egg to make something akin to a spanish omelette. It tasted good.

          10. So many ways to make it and good for using up odds and ends in the fridge.

            I like mine with a fried egg on top.

          11. Yes.
            Available over here from Asian shops. Still the weird neo-conical can, with strange windey key to open.

          12. Because it was found to be impossible to keep insects out of the production cycle for corned beef the U.S FDA allow a small percentage of insect parts per tin.

          16. So we’ve always eaten ze bugs? I guess the human immune system copes with low level poison.

        2. Love corned beef, either as a hash or in a sarnie.

          I always keep a couple of tins in the ‘fridge.

          1. My mother worked part time in a local Grocers shop.
            We always had corned beef in the fridge.

          6. Steady on! It’s difficult enough to get Branston here (intermittent supply in Iceland the shop), let alone Henderson’s.

          10. I sent my Swedish friends some tea (Yorkshire, of course). They got a bill from customs! They are disputing it as it was a gift.

    5. There are so many times in recent years when I have resorted to the phrase “You just couldn’t make it up”.
      WTF are all these morons on ?

    6. I always thought it unfair to that magnificent animal, the pig. Slaughtered, cut up into little pieces, then shoved up it’s own arse. How undignified is that?

  18. Good morning all,

    Sunny start to the day at the McPhee residence, some showers around midday, wind Sou’-West going West, 13℃ with 19℃ forecast. Another cooler than average July day.

    Here’s a video which must be seen: Dave Rubin and RFK Jnr. Censorship is exposed and it’s the legacy media fighting for its life spear-headed by none other than the BBC and CNN but the strong arm was applied by the Biden administration two days after it took office. The other bombshells are at the end on the Ukraine war where he identifies it from the start as a neo-con project to break up Russia but they have very badly miscalculated. Oh, and Boris Johnson is a neo-con puppet. So is the present UK government. Could this by why Wallace is standing down?

    Censorship – from 5 minutes in to 27 minutes.
    Ukraine – from 47 minutes.

    But the whole thing is very revealing. It’s why the Dems do NOT want him to gain the nomination.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_gHzPvOpIo

      1. 374553+ up ticks,

        Morning BB2,

        But we need it to echo throughout ALL the polling stations as the only way to go.

    2. With politics descended to its nadir I’d have thought all MPs habitually wore stab vests.

      1. 374553+ up ticks,
        Morning M,
        Currently if not
        then stupidity rules, and they ain’t stupid.
        If I remember correctly then years ago jackie smith wore one in her own constituency on a walk about.

          1. 374553+ up ticks,

            Afternoon M,

            Sorely needed if this voting pattern is being adhered too.

    1. Disgusting. Just imagine the area swarming with slammers on a Friday – EVERY Friday.

    2. Why are the people who fake being in charge of our country are so effing stupid.
      It’s getting beyond a joke.
      Why are they bowing to an ancient religion that has no place in Europe let alone the this century. Even CofE is past its time.

    1. With so many people being badly effected by the so called ‘vaccines’ I find it amazing that there has never been the same or even similar ratio of deaths or suffering by the so called hierarchy. As in Westminster royalty Whitehall the Lords etc. If only one of them had suffered even mild myocarditis, we would never have heard the end of it.
      Were all their jabs just sterile water ?

        1. It had to be Tom.
          The more this is investigated the more of the truth will be unearthed.

          1. See my post above – I checked my batch numbers – they were very close to the bad ones.

      2. Similarly, how many MPs, Lords and Ladies, Royals and others considered elites caught and died from the “virus”?
        The “rules” prescribed masking, separation by a totally arbitrary and useless distance and meeting in groups: why then, were many of these people caught unmasked or abusing the masking rules when they thought that they couldn’t be seen, or holding parties?
        They knew that the “virus” was not spread by being able to float around in the atmosphere and therefore be passed from one person to another. That’s the reason these same people didn’t have the “vaccine” pumped in to their bodies. It wasn’t a necessary act even though many posed being inoculated to keep up the pretence.

        1. Bore-us was shown being in hospital because of the ‘virus’ he was out in around a week. It was a complete fake. The Australian nurse who was supposed to have looked after him was quickly moved to a new job in the US.

        2. Viruses are airborne that’s how we all sometimes catch a cold, etc. the “elites” who ignored all the rules because they knew there was no danger! . That’s what I rage about – not the fact that they gathered together and/or partied. There simply was little or no danger.

          1. There simply was little or no danger apart from the experimental injections.

          2. There simply was little or no danger.

            Not because it wasn’t airborne but because they simply weren’t in the at-risk section of society.

        3. They knew that the “virus” was not spread by being able to float around in the atmosphere and therefore be passed from one person to another.

          How was it transmitted?

          1. Possibly it isn’t. Contrary to the official narrative, the Germ Theory versus Terrain Theory debate has never been satisfactorily resolved.

          3. I tried to find what Karen Kingston disclosed that would answer the question you posed last time I mentioned this. Much of her writings are behind a pay-wall on substack and I haven’t had time to trawl all of her appearances on the Stew Peters Show as an alternative.
            IIRC KK doesn’t believe it’s a virus but a pathogen possibly spread by aerosol and/or by lacing public places with it. Here’s a short clip in which very early on she states that it was not a virus. She’s not a conspiracy theorist but a very smart analyst etc. who has worked in the pharmaceutical industry and, like Dr David Martin, knows her way around patent and legal documentation.
            Dr David Martin has stated that this pathogen is, “replication infectious defective,” i.e. the pathogen is a weapon meant to target an individual but not have collateral damage for other individuals: it isn’t spread from one individual to another. Ergo, it’s not an airborne infectious respiratory “virus”.
            If the foregoing is factual then the elites et al. who playacted at mask wearing and social distancing and who also attended parties under lockdown rules knew that there was no virus to fear.

          4. “…possibly spread by aerosol and/or by lacing public places with it…”

            That really is pushing it. The idea that all around the world, secret agents were spraying a germ agent hither and thither amongst the public but avoiding the elites is real tinfoil-covered, pointy-hat territory.

            Those who were caught having parties knew, like we knew, that not being elderly or immuno-compromised made it unlikely that they’d be victims.

      3. There was no requirement for anyone in the Palace of Westminster to take it and likewise the House of Congress in the US. The latter issued ivermectin to its own while denying it to the general population.

  23. One for SirJasper

    German Sex Joke
    A German guy abroad approaches a local lady of the night.
    “I vish to buy sex viz you.” he says.
    “OK,” says the girl, “It will be $50 an hour.”
    “..ist goot, but I must varn you, I am a little kinky.”
    “No problem,” she replies cautiously, “I can do kinky, but it will be double the price.”
    He agrees and off they go to the girl’s flat, where the German produces four large springs and a duck caller from his briefcase.
    “I vant zat you strap ze springs to your hans und kneeses.”
    The girl finds this most odd, but complies, fastening the springs as he had said, to her hands and knees.
    “Now you vill get down on your hans und kneeses.”
    She duly does this, balancing precariously on the springs.
    “You vill now please to blow zis kwacker as I make love to you.”
    She finds it very odd, but figures it’s harmless (and the guy is paying.)
    The sex is fantastic, she is bounced all over the room by the energetic German, all the time honking on the duck caller. The climax is the most sensational that she has ever experienced and it is several minutes before she has enough breath to say,
    “That was totally amazing, so what do you call that position?”
    “Ah,” says the German …..
    “zat is ze….
    famous German four-sprung Duck technique”

    1. Thanks, Bob, Nicked for The Bumper Joke Book.

      Expect to see it again in 18 months or 2 years.

  24. Morning all 🙂😊
    Bright but rapidly moving cloud.
    What are immigration fees and who pays
    them ?
    I suspect that the vast majority of brits who have worked and paid all their lives have long been extremely fed up with people turning up on our shores and helping themselves to free treatment. It is one of the most obvious things that should never have been contemplated, let alone let happen.
    It all adds up to the same old same old. Everything the ‘They’ come into contact with they eff it up and big time.
    But or course none of them would have been bothered they all have private care.

  25. Belarus abducts thousands of Ukrainian children. 17 July 2023.

    Thousands of Ukrainian children have been forcibly deported to Belarus in an alleged war crime that could implicate president Alexander Lukashenko.

    Some 2,150 Ukrainian children as young as six are estimated to have been taken to at least four camps in Belarus since September 2022, with the number expected to reach 3,000 by autumn this year. Some are alleged to have been given military training.

    Evidence linking these crimes to Mr Lukashenko and other Belarusian officials has been submitted to the International Criminal Court (ICC), The Telegraph can reveal.

    This is of course a repeat of the accusations against Russia. The humanitarian act of evacuating these children from a War Zone has been made into abduction by legal sleight of hand. The best that can be said is, that as propaganda, the Troll Support below the line has achieved new depths not only in numbers but moronic fictional twaddle.

    malcolm scoggins.

    At best, the children will be used as slave labour on farms.The farmer will problably ‘visit’their bedrooms in the night.

    They certainly wont be adopted by a caring, loving family, such people dont exist in Russia or Belarus.

    I’ve read unsubstantiated reports that the fate of many children is that of being sold to sex traffickers. Given that Putin is ‘capo di tutti capi’ of the Russian Mafia mobs, the reports are entirely believable.

    It is simply beyond comprehension that such evil exists in today’s world.

    This propaganda onslaught probably precedes some sort of measure against Lukashenko and Belarus.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/07/17/russia-abducting-ukrainian-children-via-belarus/

    1. I never thought the moment would come where I see the phrase “war crime” and just think that the real crime is being committed by the accusers.

      What an offensive, brainwashed comment below as well. No caring, loving people in Belarus indeed!

      1. Morning BB. I bet Belarussian farmers are ecstatic about being portrayed as slave driving pederasts!

    2. The “Sound of Freedom” movie is doing massive box office business in the US and exposing the real child trafficking, while in-fighting with the talent unions is paralysing the Hollywood machine. This is a lame attempt at deflection?

    3. Oh heck: all we need is nuns with heavy boots, parachuting into the barber’s to get their 5 o’clock shadow removed.

    4. If the idiot Scoggins wants corruption and Mafia like extortion he’d do better to look at Zelensky – the man with the rapidly increasing bank account and the multiple expensive properties that he seems to have somehow acquired!

  26. I read this morning (while using my phone) on TCW the piece about the MHRA and vaccine damage which gives a table listing the worst batch numbers for the most serious adverse effect reports to the Yellow Card. So I checked which batch numbers of AZ I had….. just one or two digits away from the very bad ones. Talk about dodging a bullet! I had no reactions at all, so I wonder if I got a placebo. Not that it matters, but I’ve been lucky.

  27. Good to see the appalling Serb losing yesterday.

    What a delightful, polite young man the new champ is; as well as being a pretty good tennis player!

    1. I was never keen on Djokovic but he went up in my estimation last year when he stood by his principals in Australia, in spite of being imprisoned there and banned from playing in a tournament he would have won.

      I was sorry he ran out of steam in the end against a much younger opponent. He shouldn’t have smashed his racket but other than that incident, he was very gracious at the end.

          3. It is so long ago I don’t remember – but I wouldn’t be surprised.

            Anyway – today is it illegal to tell children how to behave and comport themselves. They have to let their own personalities develop…!!

          5. Ha! I did on Saturday, while looking after our elder daughters children! The nearly-3 year old blond, blue-eyed little chap, who looks as though butter wouldn’t melt, and whom my daughter says is feral didn’t know that Gran is averse to being told ‘No’! Well, he does now!

          6. I would be happy if the shut their mouths when eating.

            It is a dusgusting sight to see a family chewing the cud in a restaurant.

          7. Ugh. With loud splatting noises, makes me want to throw. The eye is drawn inexorably to this vision of vomit going round in a tumble-dryer…

    3. I only saw parts of the match and those parts showed a brilliant game of tennis. That was what I was hoping to see and wasn’t disappointed. Yes there was a tantrum that was uncalled for and he was punished with a code violation, par for the course.
      Why do the British hate very successful sportsmen.

      1. I do not “hate very successful sportsmen”.

        I think that the Serb is an extremely good tennis play but with a very unpleasant personality.

    4. But he understood the truth about wearing masks. He was spot on with that one.

  28. My new companion: a cat from the next street. Name of Bobble. He visits most days. He especially enjoys the evenings when I’m gardening. He is fond of a few Dreamies. Very friendly, he’s a bit of a purring machine …

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/i
    mages/dd2915b03aa854ec8d550161c4baabc186a65940097cfedb28b5a2b54cc3eb25.jpg

        1. He’s become such a regular visitor that I introduced myself to his owner last week and informed her that he was intaking a few Dreamies most evenings. She was totally laid back about it.

          4. I shudder to think what drugs they contain. We have a bed of catnip – G & P go into a trance when lying on it!!

          5. Hippy cats. They will be traveling to India next in search of a Marharishi Yogi.

    1. She was a child of the sixties – so was I. But I didn’t live her kind of life.

    2. He was on last week’s ‘Countryfile’ offering the same nonsense about livestock farming but he didn’t say the growing of crops should also be abolished.

      1. Pretty well all meat tastes like chicken – crocodile, for example, and frog.
        Why, I don’t know, as chicken is the most boring meat on Earth.
        Also, the record of healthy results from artificial sweeteners and margarine doesn’t encourage me to try the stuff.

      2. Pretty well all meat tastes like chicken – crocodile, for example, and frog.
        Why, I don’t know, as chicken is the most boring meat on Earth.
        Also, the record of healthy results from artificial sweeteners and margarine doesn’t encourage me to try the stuff.

          1. I prefer moose, reindeer, camel, antelope, barbecued. Never tried snake of any type, it doesn’t appeal (more appall)

          3. The only time I tried moose it had been too long in the freezer and it had the texture of a wet sponge.

          5. It was in midwinter at a restaurant at the top of a skiing mountain way up in Abisko. We had gone to see the Aurora Borealis.

  31. ‘Morning All

    Medley Time

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3eb71955bdc5794a69efe7072823dfa6cf51badc4bafba53027ce99dc7082b8e.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/003d195accbf246754af9a9a04153d55a362ff8ff1538f489d276523cde0fcb9.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2c216066131aa7348ac2bc4eec6c4c23723f12c1c6919c585408536f49f1a892.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2d13df414f7329c014d8c32604139ff81605a8b4c6eda47691ab51e4852bc6fc.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e228fe266b15ca369e51f66330d3e1bec8be19167830d17258a67396f722bffa.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c085358df0471de509760f11463d7d78cbe5ebace5e0c28ba258723f4777505f.jpg

    Finally some cuties

    https://twitter.com/cosyposter/status/1680769867388014592

  32. I see the eco-freaks are out and about in Lunnon today – aided and abetted by the ever helpful Met Perlice Farce.

    Oh for water cannon, tear gas …..

    2. If plod don’t get the joilers off the road someone will be badly hurt or killed when tempers have had enough. Then, of course, they’ll blame the driver – not the obstructing waster who shouldn’t be there.

  33. Who knew…… re introduced beavers are causing havoc by felling trees at random. Next re introduced wild boar are killing new born lambs.
    Shop lifting is costing the honest British people up to one billion pounds every year. And nobody seems to want to take responsibility or abmit their ongoing mistakes for any of this.

    1. Dagnabbit – I thought they would be like many other incomers – just quickly learn to adapt and fit in…..(sarc)

        1. Don’t hold yer breath on that one Anne there have already been many fights. And some security people have been threatened with knives or left their jobs because of a lack of support.
          The police are not interested. Unless of course one of the shop lifters are injured.

      2. They are having the same problem in Parts of Oz, it’s the newly arrive-es causing the problems. But of course no mention of who is guilty in the UK.
        There just has to be a common denominator.

  34. Just found a photo-album from the early ’70s that has been lurking in the attic for a couple of decades whilst I’ve been searching for it.
    This is the 1st batch of POLEX72 taken when I was a young Sapper with 61 Field Support Squadron RE.
    POLEX72 was a fuel handling exercise to get AVTUR off an RFA tanker lying off Orford Ness onto the shore, then piped to the two USAF bases at RAF Woodbridge and Bentwaters and one of my duties was to check over a pump on a MEXE float lying offshore that was used to transfer the fuel on shore.
    I’ve added a shot taken in August ’20 more or less from the same physical location!

    MEXE Float with pump
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/da308dcdaf5ea597d456ddeefe5d41f7c0a0c19e3fa37f10d327f1637320e0e0.jpg

    Shinglestreet from MEXE Float
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9a9828ebafca9d3b1343177a7517e187186bef8a0bf85ec2d415931f524e7793.jpg

    Coastguard Cottages from MEXE Float
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/906f43be78d7927eafd86c4811bdf62fdab5681e618cba4402275ab36231136d.jpg

    Looking towards MEXEfloat from Martello Tower
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e5f9d022b5fe04dce2197d0a4e821ec36ac1e3b8253e399e05b4fc2a5af947b3.jpg

    Now, compare the 3rd photo with this, taken from about the same location, where the hell has all the shingle come from?
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/466448e7b265444819148891f123f4f872609b3a6d60bf4d0ee1474273e536d4.jpg

    1. It’s quite moveable stuff – the coast shifts all the time, sand especially.

        1. Happening all around the coast. In a few thousand years our home will have radically changed shape and they’ll have to re-draw all the maps.

          1. They dredged Portsmouth harbour (to make way for the new carriers) and threw it all on a local beach where it raised the level six feet. The locals weren’t impressed with all the broken bits of rock destroying their lovely shingle beach.
            At least they sieved out all the bombs, bits of detritus and bones from being a port for centuries.

          2. Would that be the carriers now parked for the next decade while bits are cannibalised?

        3. If you look at Google Earth some one has walked or driven along the beach near Hemsby with a camera and filmed the mess that that has collapsed on to the beach. Fencing, sheds parts of houses even a telegraph pole and cables.

          1. 90% of the women I worked with at Norwich airport told me they lost their virginity on Hemsby beach.

            Must be something in the sand!

    2. Poor old Mr Packman will be so angry, he’ll probably go out and fell a few trees using his front teeth.

    3. I’m guessing that the presently apalling state of Shepherds Bush Green is “rewilding”. Also known as gross neglect. I’m sure Mr Titchmarsh is correct. Plants and wildlife will fare far better in a carfeully tended environment.

      1. Not sure, I think he is exaggerating a bit in the opposite direction, thinking of jobs in garden centres, gardeners etc.

        Not mowing the verges is downright dangerous though – not just because one can’t see road users coming, but also one can’t see small animals like cats while they’re hidden in that long grass.

      2. I have to disagree with that, Sue.

        Wildlife has always fared much better in an environment that hasn’t been messed around by the hands of humans. It has done so for aeons. The unstoppable rise of mankind and his obsession with destroying that natural environment, to suit his own vanity, has directly led to the ongoing wholesale destruction of wildlife and the vital biodiversity that supports it.

        Humanity is responsible for more ongoing extinctions, worldwide, of both plant and animal species. Without that vital balance of nature no species, including mankind, can possibly hope to survive and prosper.

        Wildlife needs wild places, not carefully manicured gardens and pristinely-trimmed lawns.

        1. Problem is people have to fed, That means turning more and more land into farm land or reduce the population.

          1. Your last suggestion is the only way to save the planet, and all that lives on it.

        2. If farming ceases and animals only exist in the wild then as well as killing each other, they will tend to perish from disease and starvation.

          1. But ‘killing each other’ is the natural way … the only way to keep that natural balance. Nature has seen to that since life evolved.

          3. But the strongest and fittest will survive. Once technology fails we’ll be in the same boat as the rest of the animals.
            Apart from that, extinctions have always occurred as the environment changes, and it is always changing..

        3. Quite a large doe in the garden today but she left before I had a chance to photograph her.

          8. Which I am told means “Greatest Of All Time”. I wouldn’t disagree…{:¬))

    1. I had measles in the mid fifties and survived it. I remember reading Children of the New Forest, and a couple of library books which they wouldn’t have back due to it being a notifiable disease.

      My children had the measles vax because it was before they introduced MMR. They were more than babies then. The elder one was definitely over three by the time he had the jab.

      1. I had measles, rubella, chicken pox, mumps and whooping-cough as a child.

        I’m still here.

          2. I don’t remember the whooping-cough. It was apparently during my first year as a babe-in-arms.

          3. I was five or six and missed about six weeks of school. Not only coughing but a lot of vomiting as well. My mother was ill at the same time, but she didn’t get the whoop. I remember neighbours doing shopping for us and getting large rolls of paper for clearing up purposes.

          4. I think the coughing caused the vomiting. I remember that, even though I was only three. I was ill with whooping cough from November – March.

          5. It’s nasty, isn’t it! I had Liquafruita cough mixture at that time – a dark brown concoction which tasted of onion and garlic.

          6. I remember Liquafruita but never actually had it, ugh, sounds a nightmare – onion and garlic!

          7. Whooping cough is the only childhood illness I’ve had – and I caught that when I was in hospital!

      2. I had measles and chicken pox as a child and I remember the scratching and the scabs but everything healed up fine. I was terrified that I would become impotent and infertile if I got mumps so I was happy not to have had that.

        1. I was 25 when I had mumps and it was extremely painful and unpleasant. My three year old and three month old also had it so we were all ill and miserable together. It left me with a depression that lasted a very long time.

          1. I had mumps when I was 26. Rushed into Raigmore Hospital, Inverness with encephalitis. Very scary.

    2. The decline in most diseases coincides with the rise in living standards but are cancers and conditions such as alzheimer’s more prevalent now, or just more accurately diagnosed?

      1. Probably both – alzheimers because old people are living longer and cancers probably have other causes.

      2. Dr Stephanie Seneff has studied statins for many years and is convinced that the rise in statin prescribing is linked to the increase in dementia.

    3. It had almost disappeared as a serious illness long before the vax. I think Andrew Wakefield was probably right about the link between the MMR jab and autism.

      1. An American doctor has just released his own study of vaccine records and chronic illness, based on years of medical records from his large family practice. Conclusively against vaccines.

        1. They pump far too many vaccines into American kids – I gather in some states or maybe all, it’s a condition of school admission. The level of autism is very high there and all sorts of ADHD issues are becoming very common here.

    1. As in the Netherlands, we didn’t give them the control. The stat took it, by force.

      1. Well said wibbling. I get fed up when people say “we”. It is certainly not me, it is HMG.

  38. Who is Ian Hogarth and what is he goihg to do as chair of the AI Foundation Model Taskforce?

    What may well trouble Nottlers is the fact that the taskforce will be

    Modelled on the success of the Vaccine Taskforce, operating with the same agility and delegated authority, is backed with an initial £100 million of government funding.

    https://www.gov.uk/government/news/tech-entrepreneur-ian-hogarth-to-lead-uks-ai-foundation-model-taskforce

    An AI app that first springs to mind is one that enables you to have an Artificially Intelligent dialogue with a GP (ChatGP?).
    Here’s one app I used earlier when I asked about blood oxygen level below 95%:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fcb90d121fcce7d502b8283ab810c5ffdec3671b8c3dafa216086ce42fbe428a.jpg

      1. It just stuck there with the flashing dots saying there were four messages (that I couldn’t find).

        Anyway no GP would ask a patient about their own diagnosis – only a GP is qualified to make one.

          2. I’ve deleted the app from my tablet as it didn’t get any further than the GP got when I asked the same question.

    2. As government ruins everything it touches, is this a desperate last ditch attempt to hold back artifical intelligence and the end of their miserable troughing?

      1. There are already signs of holding back AI engine development such as ChatGPT3 evolving into ChatGPT4. It all comes down to which data sets the AI engine was trained on and to how recently.

        It could be an AI engine that finished its training in 2021 or it could be one that is up to date. There will a difference in the dialogue because of outdated generally accepted practices and also any confusion about the context of a dialogue.

  40. It was surely a gaffe on the part of the Princess of Wales to send her daughter to the Wimbledon men’s final wearing a dress from a Spanish brand.

    1. I failed to understand why the child was wearing dark glasses. Completely unnecessary.

          3. When your mother is a fashion-plate like Kate she would need to be locked away to avoid that.

          4. Hmmm. I think children should be children and not mini-adults. George often looks like a trainee estate agent….

          5. He’s training to be Prince of Wales and then King. He doesn’t have a lot of choice in the matter.

          6. He’s 9 years old, for heaven’s sake. Of course he’ll be king one day – prolly – but there is no need for him to be paraded in adult clothing.

      2. So no one would recognise her. Not very effective though if you sit in the royal box..

      3. It’s the fashion donchano – like wearing your sunglasses above your head in blazing sunshine

      1. The manufacturer was noted in the Daily Mail (where else??).
        The royals usually wear clothes from local brands when they go on state visits, so they definitely use them to send messages. In this case of course, it was that narsty NoVaxx Djokovic was the bad guy, as defined by the BBC.

        1. Ah.
          None the wiser, I’m afraid, but whatever she does about dressing her daughter will be wrong in many people’s eyes.

    1. “… an unelected body, like WHO, who [sic] is controlled and run by multie-[sic]-billionaires, should never be allowed to act in place of a democratically-elected government.”

      Would that be “democratically elected” as in the EU?

          1. I was disenfranchised by Blair in 2004 – 15 years after moving to France in 1989.

          2. Strangely enough, although he doesn’t deserve it, the Blair creature is still enfranchised….

      2. Good point – but given the direction theWHO appears to heading in anything that throws a spanner in its works is to be applauded.

  43. “French public want climate activists tackled like terrorists” (The Grimes just now).

    Don’t we all?

      1. The trouble is the PTB would accuse anyone right of centre of being terrorists and happily execute them for a traffic infringement whereas an Islamist committing several throat- slittings and beheadings would be given a caution and be told not to get caught next time.

    2. Absolutely bloody disgraceful act of further sabotage to our culture and social structure.

    3. The UK should insist that NO further mosques be granted permission unless churches are built AND protected in Saudi Arabia, including in Mecca.

  46. Par Four today.

    Wordle 758 4/6
    ⬜🟩⬜⬜⬜
    ⬜🟩🟩⬜🟩
    ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. A wee birdie here.

      Wordle 758 3/6

      ⬜🟩⬜⬜⬜
      ⬜🟩🟩⬜🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    2. And me.

      Wordle 758 4/6

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

    3. Par for me to.
      Wordle 758 4/6

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

  47. That’s me gone. Funny old day. Hot sun mixed with very cold – and very short – hail showers.

    Incidentally – re the three kittens on a bench video. I showed it to the MR (who is even more a cat fan than I am). She says it was a set up. The kittens were not feral. They had none of the signs of living in the wild and the way they let a “stranger” fondle them was yet more evidence…!!

    Have a jolly evening – do enjoy Univ Chal – with the motor mouth indian “in charge”.

    A demain.

      1. I see that they’ve pitted two of what are usually the strongest teams against each other in the first round.
        Fixed draw?

  48. I haven’t made a study, but is this a contender to solve Ann’s pain? From today’s DT letters.

    Give GPs the power to prescribe cannabis
    SIR – NHS waiting lists have now reached 7.4 million people, and could yet increase further. The NHS estimates that one in three adults has chronic pain, meaning these people will represent a significant number of those waiting to be seen. Many will later be prescribed highly addictive opioid medicines, which cause crime and death in their communities.

    Significant real-world evidence clearly shows how medical cannabis can tackle the symptoms of chronic pain and improve patient quality of life. However, medical cannabis patient numbers are very low, mainly due to the fact that only specialist doctors – and not GPs – can prescribe.

    Today the Cannabis Industry Council, which represents the industry, patients and medical organisations, is launching a new report on why GPs should be able to prescribe cannabis medicines. It assesses other jurisdictions – such as Australia and Germany – and how their approach has led to significantly more patients receiving medical cannabis prescriptions than they do in the UK, including higher numbers of women and the elderly.

    We hope that MPs will be able to support these modest yet transformative proposals to allow GPs to prescribe medical cannabis. This will expand patient access, reduce NHS waiting lists and cut crime.

    Mike Morgan-Giles
    CEO, Cannabis Industry Council
    London N1

      1. https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/medical-cannabis/
        Epidyolex is a highly purified liquid containing CBD (cannabidiol). CBD is a chemical substance found in cannabis that has medical benefits. It will not get you high, because it does not contain THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), the chemical in cannabis that makes you high.

        2. I’m told that, allegedly, CBD is no match for the real thing as far as pain relief goes.

    3. Could this be the nub of the problem, Paul?

      “…mainly due to the fact that only specialist doctors – and not GPs – can prescribe.“

    4. Pot shops on just about every street corner here and in a few places they are handing out all kinds of drugs in a safe drugs program.

      Working like any other government program. Committed druggies get their free heroin at the government store then sell it on the street so they can buy the real nasty stuff.

        1. Obviously not the government.

          I believe that Vancouver has a dispensing machine, no nedto wait for normal office hours to get a fix.

          Your hard working drug dealers are the ones that suffer, street prices have really dropped.

          1. There was (is?) a good documentary on Netflix re the Fentanyl use in Vancouver (Ten Dollar Death Trip).

    5. MOH was trained at a major London teaching hospital where patients were routinely prescribed the Brompton Cocktail for patients experiencing unbearable enduring pain. The development of the cocktail originated from the discovery that a combinatiom of drugs with alcohol in a ‘cocktail’ could resolve pain better than the individual constituent parts alone.

      This article explains how it evolved as a pain relief treatment and fell into disuse due to the overheads involved in its preparation:

      It’s time we bring back the “synergy of constituents” to humanely get better pain relief and simultaneously lower opioid dosages in the intractable pain patient.

      https://www.painnewsnetwork.org/stories/tag/Brompton+cocktail

  49. There are times when I think that forced “equality” goes mad.
    Women claiming that they should receive the same as the men in the Wendyball world cup.
    https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/66219752

    Brann midfielder Tameka Yallop said: ” :Fifa will still only offer women one-quarter as much prize money as men for the same achievement.”

    Same achievement?
    Stoopid girl.

    2. The Canadian women threatened to go on strike if they were not paid as much ax the men. Naturally in this woke country, the authorities caved in.

    3. Once upon a time, football was a sport between players from local British towns and villages. Players were predominately ‘working class’ and championed by the Labour Party.

      In some areas e.g. Glasgow, Liverpool and London, it created a poisonous divide between ‘religious’ factions; their poisonous rhetoric can be heard today.

      In recent decades, football has become an international multibillion pound/ dollar business run by unscrupulous billionaires and played by wildly overpaid, ignorant and gormless young men.

      They – and their WAGS with few exceptions – are the world’s worst role models for the young.

      1. Rugby, the game for hooligans played by gentlemen, football the game for gentlemen played by hooligans?

        1. I thought it was rugby at Rugby.
          Football/soccer has been around almost forever.

          1. Good old Portillo on his train journeys was in Sheffield in a programme shown last night. The oldest football ground – which was Sheffield FC. There was a potted history of the game provided which talked about the public school origin.

          2. I like Portillo’s programmes, but without having seen that one, I think that either he’s wrong or he was looking at it from the organised rules perspective.

          3. OK It’s Wiki but:

            Establishment of modern codes
            English public schools
            Main article: English public school football games
            While football continued to be played in various forms throughout Britain, its public schools (equivalent to private schools in other countries) are widely credited with four key achievements in the creation of modern football codes. First of all, the evidence suggests that they were important in taking football away from its “mob” form and turning it into an organised team sport. Second, many early descriptions of football and references to it were recorded by people who had studied at these schools. Third, it was teachers, students, and former students from these schools who first codified football games, to enable matches to be played between schools. Finally, it was at English public schools that the division between “kicking” and “running” (or “carrying”) games first became clear.

            The earliest evidence that games resembling football were being played at English public schools – mainly attended by boys from the upper, upper-middle and professional classes – comes from the Vulgaria by William Herman in 1519. Herman had been headmaster at Eton and Winchester colleges and his Latin textbook includes a translation exercise with the phrase “We wyll playe with a ball full of wynde”.[51]

            Richard Mulcaster, a student at Eton College in the early 16th century and later headmaster at other English schools, has been described as “the greatest sixteenth Century advocate of football”.[52] Among his contributions are the earliest evidence of organised team football. Mulcaster’s writings refer to teams (“sides” and “parties”), positions (“standings”), a referee (“judge over the parties”) and a coach “(trayning maister)”. Mulcaster’s “footeball” had evolved from the disordered and violent forms of traditional football:

            [s]ome smaller number with such overlooking, sorted into sides and standings, not meeting with their bodies so boisterously to trie their strength: nor shouldring or shuffing one an other so barbarously … may use footeball for as much good to the body, by the chiefe use of the legges.[53]

  50. Had gums sprayed with antiseptic while having them scraped, wont do that again feel like I have flu coming on shivers, hot and cold.

        2. I knew that was what you meant, but open goal, why resist?

          My teeth, even after all dentistry, have always been on the yellow side; I’m told it is a sign that they should last, even though they ain’t pretty.

          1. That’s not what they say over here. Yellowish teeth are an excuse to sell tooth whitening procedures at ridiculously high prices.

            No thank you, just chip out the crap and sandblast the rest.

  51. Could anybody please remind me how we evil nasty white colonialists deal with this problem?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/07/17/tunisia-government-moves-migrants-to-desert/

    Migrants forcibly moved to desert without food and water in 40C heat

    Tunisian authorities took hundreds to desert and hostile areas bordering Libya and Algeria after racial unrest in early July

    17 July 2023 • 2:17pm

    Dozens of migrants were left in the desert by Tunisian authorities without water and food, and their numbers are “rising”, an officer said.

    Hundreds of migrants from sub-Saharan African countries were forcibly taken to desert and hostile areas bordering Libya and Algeria after racial unrest in early July in Sfax, Tunisia’s second-largest city.

    Migrants who were visibly exhausted and dehydrated could be seen over the weekend lying on the sand and using shrubs to try and shield themselves from the scorching summer heat that topped 40C.

    The group were in an uninhabited area close to Al-Assah, a town near the Tunisia-Libya border, nearly 150 kilometres west of Tripoli.

    “The number of migrants keeps rising every day,” Mohamad Abou Snenah, of the border patrol unit, told the Associated Foreign Press, adding that they had rescued “50 to 70 migrants”.

    “We offer them medical attention, first aid, considering the journey they have made through the desert.”

    A group of women and children, including toddlers, were being cared for in a reception centre.

    Abou Kouni, an Ivorian migrant who arrived in Tunisia seven years ago, said he was apprehended on the street last week and put on a truck along with his wife.

    He told AFP he was “hit” in the torso and back and that policemen had threatened to kill him.

    Tunisian police, according to Abou Kouni, “said they are going to throw us in Libya” and told him: “We don’t need you in Tunisia.”

    A member of the border patrol unit says the number of migrants keeps rising every day

    In a video posted online, one officer can be heard saying: “Do you see them? It’s sad. They are being expelled from Tunisia to Libya.”

    The video also shows a migrant rescued from the border area on Saturday, saying that “Tunisian police deported us to Libya”.

    Ibrahim, a Congolese migrant who used to live in the Tunisian city of Zarzis, said he was stopped on the street on his way back from work.

    “They dropped us in the desert,” he said. “We’ve been in the desert for many days. We saw a shepherd who gave us bread and water.”

    Hundreds of migrants fled or were forced out of Tunisia’s Sfax after racial tensions flared following the July 3 killing of a Tunisian man in an altercation between locals and migrants.”

    1. “Dozens of migrants were left in the desert by Tunisian authorities without water and food, and their numbers are “rising”, an officer said.”
      It sounds like they’re thriving!

    2. What use are these guys to Tunisia. Dido was a refugee but it’s not like this lot could rebuild Carthage?

    3. Had some work out of Sfax some decades ago. Dull place, but Tunisia always came across as pretty civilised.

      2. I worked on the Britiah Gas plant in Sfax about 13 years ago. I had travelled four hours from Tunis (and back) by train with no company minder. I hardly saw any women wearing headscarves, far fewer than at home in Birmingham.

  52. It is I, Le Clerc
    Well, it’s clear now, the NHS wants me dead. Phoned the hospital this morning to rebook and was told I couldn’t. Gave all the horrendous and gory details about why I didn’t go and pointed out that I had let them know. Sod that, was told to see GP and be assessed. So called the surgery and explained situation and was told I have to call at 8 tomorrow.
    Lost my cool and told the woman I was going to throw myself off the end of the pier.
    To add to the jollity, I have had a resurgence of the gastric issues that prevented my going on Friday. They just don’t bloody care.
    Everything hurts and all I want to do is sleep.
    Fed up, really fed up.

    1. Keep hanging on in there, young lady.

      It may be time to take a very strong willed and articulate friend with you and arrive at the hospital and refuse to leave until you are seen by the consultant.

      Call the local newspaper beforehand and spring a trap.

        2. Articulate intimidation sometimes works better than physical, if he has both, then go for it.

    2. I suppose that you have a useless MP (hard to guess, they are all useless) but it seems that you need to go outside the normal channels to get any kind of support.

      Soulless bastards aren’t they.

    3. The policy for dealing with patients who Did Not Attend (DNA) varies by NHS group. If you cancelled in advance, even just an hour before, then it isn’t classed as a DNA but a cancelled appointment. The NHS England guidance is that the number of cancellations before referral back to primary care should be ‘not less than two’. They should also take into account the clinical situation i.e. is it appropriate? In your case, clearly not.
      See what the GP says – I’d be surprised if they didn’t ring the hospital to enquire why.
      Does your hospital have a stated policy? I appreciate you won’t want to be trawling through the internet looking for it but without knowing where you are, I can’t see what the local policy is.

        1. Thanks – any related websites seem way out of date (still living in the pandemic)

          2. It doesn’t matter what the website says anyway. The NHS can’t refuse you treatment (except in limited, exceptional circumstances that don’t apply here). They shouldn’t be spinning a patient back to primary care due to one cancelled appointment. You’ve mentioned Mac Millan and Marie Curie but there’s also the local PALS who might at least be able to go to the right person quicker.
            It’s the last thing you need – unhelpful hospital.

          3. I think Ann has had to cancel two appointments because she was unwell. Her GP should bloody furious and pulling out all the stops to assist.

          4. Indeed, you’d think a hospital would understand cancellations due to being too ill to attend.

      2. My appointment was at 12.30 on Friday- I phoned at 9.30 to say I wasn’t fit enough to attend, so they can’t say they didn’t know well in advance.

    4. You need someone to bat for you. Please get hold of Macmillan and /or Marie Curie they may be able to intercede on your behalf.

    5. Wish I could do something for you Ann, prayers don’t seem enough. Here’s wishing you a peaceful night and some action tomorrow

    6. Keep your chin up, Anne. Nil illegitimum carborundum, as we say in Barnsley.

    7. What a disgusting way to treat you. You must feel so helpless faced with such uncaring, faceless salary collectors.
      Would they prefer patients to turn up for appointments being physically sick?
      Have you tried calling 999? Or is there somebody who could take you to A&E?
      Desperate situations can require playing the system.
      I can only hope the pain reduces enough to permit you some sleep.

      1. Going to call GP this morning and see if I can get an appt this afternoon. It’s not just my face but I’m getting weird sort of spasms in my legs, which also prevents sleep.
        If I don’t get any luck today I will go to A&E. Think it’s time I contacted MacMillan too.

        1. Could the leg spasms be a side effect of your medication? Having additional problems is the last thing you need.
          This malarkey of most of us having to ring the GP at 8 for appointments is beyond unacceptable. Ring a second before 8am, and the lines aren’t yet open. Ring a second after 8, and you are number 25 in the queue with all appointments gone by the time you eventually get through to the Rottweiler on the other end.
          That set-up is bad enough when the patient has just a day-to-day issue that need checking, but intolerable for someone in your situation.
          I hope you can get some action/help today, whether it is via the GP, A&E or through Macmillan.

    2. Without cheap energy there will be a shortage of vegetables and salads. Vegetablists will have to go without. Fools like Monbiot, who are pushing both sides are plain thick.

      1. Honey production and hive development is noticeably down on last year at Firstborn’s place. It’s cold and wet, so the bees stay in the hive, and there’s fewer flowers too, so less to pollinate, meaning a worse crop of blackberries, apples and the like.
        Since he’s invested a lot into honey, that’s a bit concerning.

  54. Heard on the news this evening that now the over ground rail workers are going on strike. On the day my very long hospital appointment os booked it is now in severe jepody. I can’t take chances now we will have to book a hotel at around 200 pounds for one night.
    It sickening to think the potential damage this will caused to people’s lives by these A Hole union leaders who only have single track (scuz the pun) minds.
    They are Absolute bastards. They are going to get the bill for this. I know they won’t reimburse me but…….

      1. Yes Sos, but it’s difficult to find something close enough to the hospital.
        Our sons have offered to drive us.
        But there at least three dual carriageways if there is the slightest prang we will be stuck.
        I will ring the hospital help line tomorrow, they might be able to advise.

        1. An off the wall suggestion.
          Hire a van, park in the hospital car park and sleep in the van.

    2. Yep, I agree completely. This isn’t about a safety issue, it’s pure greed and weak government – on both sides.

  55. It seems my strategy of late bed for a good night’s sleep, didn’t work and subsequently I’m now v tired, so I’ll say goodnight and God bless, Gentlefolk.

    1. Just a thought.
      Sleep when you feel like it, don’t follow “society’s” hours unless you have an unavoidable appointment.
      Your body clock will eventually adjust to suit you.

      I knew an academic who had a 25 hour body clock, he lived with it.
      Most of the time he was more or less in synch with his friends although he might have been eating breakfast instead of supper.

      2. Thank you, Sos, maybe I’ll try that, I’m all over the place at the moment.

        Went to bed @ 20:04, yet here I am @ 23:49 still on the pooter.

        2. In the past they would have invited him to spend a while in an institution, indefinitely….

          1. I had a narrow miss as I had just been posted to the MoD as hostilities broke. Jerry Witts, who I had done a conversion course with about a year earlier, led the first mission into Iraq apparently. His Obit was in the DT a year or two back. He died young.

    1. Nearly every programme on TV these days involves the phrase mental health issues. If that’s not a mental illness I don’t know what is.

      1. Mental illness, close to, is horrific and I wish that those who use it for advantage actually had to experience the real thing

        1. I use to know a guy in South Africa who suffered badly. I lost contact with him, he had access to fire arms.
          He wasn’t an open threat to others. But only really self harmed. He probably shot him self eventually. He did threaten to quite often.
          He also liked a drink.
          But there was no help available.

  60. This rather unique discussion group has a number of professions represented amongst the contributors. What we could do with at the moment is a recently retired doctor able and willing to contribute advice (without liability) for those in need who subscribe to this forum. If anyone here has a friend who might fit the bill perhaps you might encourage them to sign up?

    1. At least after all this recent drenching rain it will be difficult for the arsonists to start ‘spontaneous wild fires’.

    5. I enjoyed it.
      The new question master was good.

      The whole series has been recorded already and I suspect am pretty damned sure that the match was chosen specifically because there was a tight result and that both teams will go through to the later stages

    6. I miss the casual derogatory remarks giving the impression that the question master knows more than all the contestants.

    1. Perhaps they should try slow driving through them and slowly push them out of the way.

      1. Or put a water cannon filled with bleach behind them, slowly, but gently, spraying them.

    3. Something I suffer from when cruising navigating the canal network!

      (That and gribbling!)

  65. If only…

    Put the HS2 white elephant to sleep, once and for all

    There is simply no justification plunging billions of taxpayer funds into this shambles of a project

    SIMON HEFFER • 16 July 2023

    Last Wednesday Mark Thurston, chief executive of the benighted HS2 rail project between London and Birmingham, resigned. He had done six and a half years, longer than some serious criminals serve for their offences. He leaves behind a trail of delays to HS2 (now scheduled to be completed by 2033) and costs going out of control, not merely thanks to inflation. Presumably in an attempt to sustain morale, HS2 points out that work is currently under way at 350 sites, with the first phase of the project “at peak construction”.

    Mr Thurston’s own red signal came after the Public Accounts Committee gave a kicking to the Department for Transport (one of an under-performing Government’s most chronically under-performing departments). It said the Government “does not know what it is trying to achieve” in regard to Euston Station, the supposed London terminus, where it appears there is little chance of HS2 trains arriving before 2041, and probably not then.

    The original intention was to have trains into Euston by 2026, but even if the railway opened it would until the 2040s have to deposit its passengers in a distant west London suburb, whence they would continue their journeys by conventional means, negating the time-saving promised by HS2.

    It is but the latest setback for the project. Currently, it is expected to be 2043 before any high-speed train arrives at Manchester; and the aspiration to connect Leeds to this network was abandoned in 2021. But the Government stands firmly by this cash-haemorrhage of a stunt.

    Mark Harper, the minister responsible, boasts of its having “created tens of thousands of skilled jobs and apprenticeships across the country”. But it is the government’s job, as Mrs Thatcher so often said, to create the conditions in which employment opportunities can multiply, and expressly not to use taxpayers’ money to create them.

    When HS2 was launched it was allegedly going to cost £32bn, a figure that, even allowing for inflation, anyone familiar with state infrastructure projects knew was a fantasy. Now one analysis suggests the whole programme, if it manages to reach the north-west, could easily cost over £100billion. But the sheer cost, and consequent punishment of taxpayers, is not the only reason this is political lunacy.

    The new railway is being driven through the Tory heartlands of Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Warwickshire. It was always going to reduce quality of life in those places: now it promises to wreck it for years to come, and to no great purpose. It will certainly not regenerate the English regions; instead, it would make it easier for people in those regions to escape them for London.

    Moreover, if the Government feels it must fund jobs in civil engineering and construction, there are many other useful infrastructure projects that could be realised far more cheaply and to great effect all around the country – notably by reopening numerous railways closed under Beeching and even earlier, when the growth of population in those areas and the expansion of commuting were simply not foreseen. Indeed, such projects might even be attractive to the private sector, creating jobs at little or no cost to the taxpayer, and without the suffocating state bureaucracy that is making HS2 into such a turkey.

    The Government also protests that it has spent £8bn already on the project, which would be wasted were it to be stopped now. That figure is far less than £100 billion spent to no real effect. As a nation, we are facing a chronic debt crisis. We need HS2 like the proverbial hole in the head. If we are, in Mr Harper’s phrase, to “grow the economy” we shall do so best by leaving money in the pockets of individuals, to spend in the productive sectors of the economy.

    And HS2, whatever the political fantasies, is not one of those.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/07/16/put-the-hs2-white-elephant-to-sleep-once-and-for-all/

    1. The government hasn’t spent £8bn on a railway. There is no railway. HS2 is yet another money laundering scheme.

  66. Going to bed, was up and down like a yo-yo. Hopefully things will settle down.
    Sleep well. Y’all.

  68. Good night, chums. After spending most of the day in bed sleeping, I hope to wake rested and feeling better tomorrow morning. Good night, chums.

  69. Evening, all. I should have thought that pushing up fees for arriving here as a legitimate immigrant would only encourage yet more illegal migration. Still, what do I know?

    1. I think that you will find that the increased fees are only for those who apply for entry to the UK legally and obtain a visa. Those just pitching up will get a free pass…

      1. I am sure you’re right, so why should anybody bother trying to come here legally? Just rock up in a rib. You know it makes sense.

  71. Yet more damning emails released from the Hunter Biden laptop implicating Joe Biden in the corrupt practices of Burisma in Ukraine. Nothing so far on the BBC or legacy media outlets although Fox News have verified the emails.

    If any still think the conflict in Ukraine is about territory please think again. Russia had no interest in Ukraine until the US enforced replacement of the government in 2014 and a perceived impending threat to the freedom of movement of their Black Sea Fleet should the US use Odessa as a naval base.

    It has now transpired, we all worked this out some time ago, that Biden has been intimately involved with the regime change in Ukraine and the replacement of the Ukrainian prosecutor who was investigating Burisma and by extension the activities of the Biden Crime Family. The reality is that we have in office a conflicted President of the USA, a man who cheated an election to gain position and one of the most corrupt world leaders in our lifetimes since at a push Linden B Johnson.

    Little wonder that Biden and his fellow US politicians so heavily invested in Ukraine should now wish to destroy it. My personal opinion is that the Bidens, Kerry, Pelosi and other senior politicians who have conflicts of interest in that corrupt and benighted country now wish to wipe the slate clean by its destruction. Mission more or less accomplished judging by the utter failure of the Ukrainian offensive and superiority of the Russian military by all reliable accounts. Nothing whatever from the BBC on the actual situation on the battlefronts.

    If anyone wondered why the BBC merely spouts government propaganda, this was pre-arranged with CNN and other international media outlets. These organisations met to discuss any means by which they could survive given the rise of alternative media and the imminent failure of their traditional business model. Their agreement was to promote only government narratives and at the same time seek to effectively censure alternative media. The latter was achieved by forging relationships with those governments and the main platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to deliberately take down opposing opinions. This was done by the invention of Fact Checkers and the identification of supposed Misinformation.

    The BBC were leaders in adopting these measures. For this reason alone they should be defunded and left to their own wicked devices.

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