Thursday 24 August: Sadiq Khan’s Ulez cash grab is part of a wider attack on British freedoms

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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423 thoughts on “Thursday 24 August: Sadiq Khan’s Ulez cash grab is part of a wider attack on British freedoms”

  2. Good morrow, Gentlefolks, today’s story

    Call It What You Will
    Morris wanted to get his beautiful, blonde wife Sherry something nice for their first wedding anniversary. He decided to buy her a cell phone.

    Their anniversary came and he gave Sherry the phone. She loved it. He explained to her all the features on the phone.

    The next day Sherry, the blonde, goes shopping.

    Her phone rings and it’s her husband Morris, “Hi hon,” he says, “How do you like your new phone?”

    “I just love it! It’s so small and your voice is clear as a bell but there’s one thing I don’t understand. How did you know I was at the beauty parlour?”

    1. That reminds me of a friend who was one of the first to get a mobile ‘phone. He wondered why you had to enter the code for a local call. We pointed out that the ‘phone didn’t know where it was even if he did.
      As phones are all tracked now I do wonder about the need for a local code when in the area.

    1. The Great Britain.
      I remembering visiting that not long after it first arrived in Brissels.

      1. I visited many, many years ago with a friend, now deceased. There was only the two of us at the time and I was able to walk under the huge propellers. Another reminder of happy times.

  6. LL,

    A criminal barrister of 27 years experience in both prosecuting and defending cases draws parallels between Lucy Letby’s case and historic medical cases where a miscarriage of justice had occurred:

    https://youtu.be/qwunlsP6nbA?si=UXFV12lmokaVIzy9

    Could the protracted length of events leading up to the referral to the police for a criminal prosecution have prejudiced the outcome of the trial by jury?

    The barrister points out that no post mortems were carried out following the deaths, no cause for death through evidence of poisoning was established and only hearsay evidence was advanced to make a conviction based on coincidential observations and a prejudiced accusation of an alleged murderer.

    How could lots of second opinions by pediatric specialist doctors have got it so wrong as to why more babies were dying on a particular nurse’s watch due to causes that she couldn’t understand or explain and for which she felt so responsible?

      2. Good morning.
        How can there have been no post mortems on alleged murder victims?
        How can there have been a successful prosecution of her as a murderer when it has not been established that any of the victims were murdered?
        Can this really be true, and if so, what on earth is going on? (rhetorical question, I do not expect you to have the answers!)

        1. Not only the NHs, BB2, but the so-called British Justice system is also woefully fcuked up, Big time.

      4. …and why was the whole neonatal unit not taped off aa a crime scene as the management expected it would be should there be a police forensic investigatiin?

      5. ‘Morning, Nanners. Conducting PMs might have highlighted the possibility that their deaths were not natural, and that would not have gone down well in an organisation that goes out of its way to avoid unpleasant truths…like negligence, for instance.

    2. I doubt LL was responsible for the deaths. Afterall other babies died or were taken ill on other nurse watches.

      I suspect something as basic as the water supply was in part responsible. In laboratories the water supply is filtered and ‘polished’ to ensure its purity and to eliminate harmful bacteria. This does not appear to have been the case in this neo-natal unit; far from it there is witness evidence that plumbers were in attendance on an almost weekly basis and that contamination had occurred.

      There does not appear to have been a separate epidemiological investigation which concerns me.

  7. And just like that, there was no internet…
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b963333de64c7a79ad6a54b5e6536606038e8d464da85274d6e9d61d95339648.jpg

    Can this be true, I wonder?
    Switching off the mobile network is very easy, and has been done in Britain, for example during the Paddington rail crash, they only allowed mobile traffic of a particular class just around the crash site, i.e. from the emergency services. Normal phone traffic has a different class, which was rejected. Didn’t the Canadian government also do it to the truckers in 2021?
    Shutting off the landline network would also be easy, I suppose.
    Wagner might be expected to have satellite phones though, as they operate in places like the Sahara desert.

    Just another weapon of the authorities against anyone who they perceive as threatening them.

    1. The land lane system is about to be replaced and will shut down in the next few years.

          1. I don’t really live in the Midlands, though, Johnny. According to regions I live in the middle of nowhere as I’m not in the North-West, not in North Wales and not in the West Midlands, either. The Marches (which is where I do live) doesn’t appear to exist.

    2. Tomorrow, BT are coming to turn off my copper landline and replace it with a direct Fibre To The Home (FTTH) connection to the exchange. They do however point out that the replacent service will not work in the event of a power cut.

      4. Just about to do the same here Angie. After a delay of five weeks chaps finally came round to lay the ducting for the new fibre and once the cabling is in I will be on FTTP/FTTH. Phone is currently scheduled to move over to the new digital version next Tuesday, the fibre may be a bit later.
        Everybody says everything works just the same as normal. But I was wondering if when calling other phones on your local exchange you can still leave off the dialing code or whether I will need to dial the whole number like we do mobiles. ‘Local’ is probably an unknown to the digital phone network and I am not sure our fibre networks even go to our local exchange.

        1. You have to dial the whole number like using a mobile.
          We’ve been caught out with numbers we know off by heart.

        2. You need to dial the complete number even if you’re calling locally.

          Here they spent nearly a year revisiting to iron out the various snags, much to the annoyance of our

          neighbours who WFH. Now at last it’s working fine.

          However BT did offer financial compensation for all the inconvenience.

        3. Landlines to Digital
          It has been said on this blog several times that the old analogue telephone system was powered by around 20 Volts coming from the exchange along the copper wires. So when there was a power cut, you could still make phone calls using the ‘old’ copper-connected analogue phones.

          With an all-digital line, especially if you are making VOIP* calls using your Internet router, a power cut means no phone service. If you are elderly or bedbound, and have a wrist or pendant-mounted panic button, it won’t work when you’ve fallen in the dark and need help. I raised this concern last year with our panic button providers (and was by no means the only complainant).

          * VOIP =Voice Over Internet Protocol – a means of getting ‘free’ phone calls [but you are still paying to have the Internet connection!]

    3. Shutting off the landline network would also be easy, I suppose.

      You suppose correctly. Each customer will have one of a number of priorities set against their landline and to preserve the integrity of the network during an emergency/crisis call barring by priority will be activated. With the modern processor controlled systems it is also possible to manage the rate at which calls could be processed on certain routes, or all, if necessary.

          1. I don’t read the “Rebus’ books for nothing!

            “Haar, or ‘sea fret’ as it is also known in North East England, is used to describe a cold fog that accumulates at sea, rather than on land.”

        1. Well it’s clearing up a bit now with the sun trying to come through – I’m heading for Inverness in a minute so there’ll be different weather on the way

  10. Sadiq Khan’s Ulez cash grab is part of a wider attack on British freedoms

    well you could knock me down with a feather

  11. Piers Corbyn and the ULEZ Charge

    I never in this world thought I would ever support Piers Corbyn. But his idea of refusing to pay ULEZ could, if replicated by everybody, surely crash the ULEZ system completely. Here he is explaining his stance:

    RESIST, DEFY, DO NOT COMPLY.

    Link: https://www.newsflare.com/video/544363/piers-corbyn-claims-he-owes-44-000-pounds-in-ulez-charges-and-fines

    or this one: https://www.newsflare.com/video/542053/piers-corbyn-protests-londons-ulez-low-emission-zone-claims-he-has-42k-in-unpaid-fines?origin=car

    P.S. to get the sound, just click on the image when it’s playing.

    1. Mass disobedience would certainly be an option. The courts are already sitting on a vast backlog of cases…

      Slightly OT – it was said yesterday that the ANPR cameras for this scheme were ordered before the (sham) consultation was set up. Do bears…is the Pope…etc etc.

      1. I think the phrase you are looking for is ‘Does a one legged duck swim round in circles?’.

        1. I noticed yesterday when I went into town to pay a bill that the phone shop has a notice saying they are cashless and will not accept cash. That means I’ll never darken their door!

    3. Piers Corbyn is one those awkward sods that this country used to produce quite regularly.
      The past three years has shown that we desperately need far more of them.

    3. Thinking about your smelly chicken neighbours; is this a recent phenomenon?
      I hardly think you or MR would have bought the house if the problem was apparent years ago.
      If so, what has changed? And why?

      1. How long have you got…..

        When I bought in 1983, the units were old, wooden ones. Used for broiler hens. Seven weeks from chick to oven. Bit smelly once every seven weeks. 1990 owner decided to upgrade to “modern” units. Still the same system. Quite tolerable given that one is living in farming country.

        By 2018 the units were getting noisy – ventilation fans made a racket. Smell increased a bit. Then it changed hands and was closed because of animal welfare concerns. Re-opened April 2023 as an egg producing unit. Birds to be kept for six months – unit to be cleaned ONCE a year. Terrible flies became very apparent very quickly. Plus smell plus ghastly 24/7 noise of conveyor belt collecting eggs and the ventilation fans. Local objections started from Day 1. Indeed before. Banham Poultry do not and never have given a toss about the filthy, ill-managed, noise polluting unit. They make promises which they break. Plans which they ignore…. Nightmare. On 6 September there is an inquest into the deaths – in 2018 – of two employees at another unit. It is hoped that they will be prosecuted H&S failings. In yet another place they were fined £300,000 for statutory nuisance. They DON’T CARE.

        I’ll go and have a lie down.

        1. Heck. Talk about mission creep. And, unsurprisingly, no councillors or their ‘planning’ advisors envisaged such development.
          I wouldn’t dream of teaching you or MR to suck eggs, but do you know any sensible councillors or planning experts?
          (I know you have an unimpressive MP, so I didn’t bother mentioning him.)

          1. Limp Dumb new councillor – “Absent on long term sickness”

            There is a small group of very determined residents who send daily e-mails to the Council chief and to Banhams with pictures of fly strips; fly traps; noise readings. One view (which I do not share – surprise surprise) is that when they empty the birds in October, they’ll close down.

            If only. I do wonder to what extent brown envelopes are involved….

          2. If it were closed down, is the area designated as land for farming use only or would it be treated as a handy brownfield site to build ‘starter’ homes?
            Sorry to prolong your agony, but I remember similar hassles when we lived out in the boondocks.

          3. There would be some difficult in building more than one or two houses – to which no one would object. We had a new public sewer installed five years ago and it is already insufficient. Great work by Anglian Water…

          4. As I know from my tussles with County planners, having insufficient sewerage capacity is NO reason to withhold planning permission! I’d like the planning department to have sewage coming up through their kitchens and see if they still think that.

          5. The land occupied by by the chicken sheds would not be designated as ‘Previously Developed Land’. As such there would be no automatic assumption that the land could be built on were the chicken sheds removed.

          7. The chicken sheds will be founded on thin concrete slabs without proper foundations. There might be an argument for a developer to offer to clear the sheds and slab foundations away and decontaminate or otherwise improve the site in exchange for permission to erect a few houses.

            I doubt this would be economic which is why underhand dealings are suspected when councils do such deals.

          8. We are having 561 houses foisted on us on agricultural land. Dwr Cymru (who have charge of the water/sewerage) said it was not viable because it would not be economic given the problems. Surprise, surprise! The council voted CIL (Community Infrastructure Levy) money to make it possible. CIL money is supposed only to be used to offset the problems caused by building, but they changed the rules. They have not (despite it being pointed out in the “consultation”) considered that a) there is no work locally, b) the roads are already chock-a-block, c) we can’t get a doctor’s or a dentist’s appointment even without circa a thousand new residents, d) ambulance waiting times are horrendous (six hours is nothing), e) schools are full (the “new school” is in Phase 2 – what’s the betting it never gets built?) and the sewers to which this will be connected (on a neighbouring estate) are already causing problems without the extra input.

  13. Prigozhin killed in plane crash, says Russia, as allies point finger at Putin. 24 August 2023.

    Allies of Prigozhin claimed the Embraer jet was shot down by Russian air defences. Dmitry Utkin, the Wagner co-founder, was also reported to be among the dead.

    UK security sources told The Telegraph that the aircraft had almost certainly been shot down by the FSB, Russia’s domestic intelligence agency, acting on orders from Putin. “Of course it’s Putin,” said one source.

    Best to stay off this for a few days until it settles down. There is no evidence that the plane was shot down and one of the “sources” on the BBC was Christopher Steele of “Dossier” fame. The flight data suggests some on board problems before the crash but we have as yet no idea whether there was any communication with the ground.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/08/23/prigozhin-killed-plane-crash-russia-allies-blame-putin/

    1. If The Dower House is totalled by a stray rocket, I’ll take the blame.
      It requires an impressive degree of arrogance and self-belief to take on the Russian government.
      Does that same arrogance and belief in personal invincibility extend to using a well known flight corridor between Russia’s two capital cities in a private aircraft with visible registration marks?

      1. After their little excursion in the direction of Moscow a few weeks ago you would think that boss and deputy boss of Wagner might have avoided the risk of travelling in the same aircraft? The falling-out-of-buildings method was, after all, was surely beginning to raise eyebrows.

        ‘Moaning, Annie

        1. There seems to be conflicting numbers. Ten or eight bodies?
          Would the discrepancy be due to fire damage?
          Good old “a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma”.

          1. Perhaps a couple of passengers decided not to board. Have they identified any of the bodies yet?

    2. If it was brought down with a missile or bomb then this will be very obvious from an examination of the wreckage – assuming it remains there and access is possible. The video of it falling out of the sky is certainly indicative of a missile, but for the time being there always remains the possibility of a structural failure.

      1. The internet is saying it was a missile, and pointing to proof, but I am no expert, so can’t say if it is convincing or not.
        The old adage about living by the sword comes to mind though.

      2. From the video in the Gatesograph the ‘plane looks substantially intact as it falls spiralling which suggest it wasn’t hit by a missile. It is trailing not smoke but, I would suggest, escaping fuel. A small explosive device placed so as to damage substantially or remove a wing would have that effect.

  14. Good morning, chums. Spent just over an hour in the front garden this morning, hence my late appearance on this site. It’s now forecast to rain from 8 am to 8 pm (when I put out my rubbish for tomorrow morning’s collection). For the rest of the day it’s odd jobs indoors. Play safe and have fun.

    1. I spent some time in my back garden this afternoon; no rain at all, amazingly! Unfortunately, the green bin, only emptied yesterday, is now full to overflowing again and I haven’t got rid of half the brash left over from the tree felling. I have, however, cleared the lawn area, so I may be able to tackle it with the mower if the rain keeps off until tomorrow.

      I have frozen about a pound of raspberries and roughly the same of plums. Jam making will commence when the Rayburn is lit.

        1. Glover and Hitchens are two thoughtful writers.
          I suppose they write for the Mail because it has a wider circulation – and probably pays better. We all have to eat.

          1. Hasn’t Quentin Letts returned to the Daily Fail? Presumably he’s following the money too.

          2. I haven’t seen him there.
            I think I’ve seen the occasional article in the Spekkie.

          5. Which reminds me:

            A ‘notable’ newly discovered Covid variant may already be spreading across the world, according to a panel of government experts including ‘Professor Lockdown’ Neil Ferguson.

          9. Hasn’t Quentin Letts returned to the Daily Fail? Presumably he’s following the money too.

    3. I personally would not like to see the revival of the death penalty. I think we should have learnt by previous experience and the mistakes made.
      Let the guilty stay behind bars until they die.

      1. I still believe it is a deterrent and Hitchens’s article shows reasonable evidence.

        In which case in their cells leave them the means to kill themselves.

        My view is that where the cases are as clear cut as Brady, Sutcliffe, Shipman, Rigby’s killers et al what good is gained by keeping them alive, none.

          1. Quite, and I certainly don’t hold with the view that it would make martyrs of them.

            The only downside is it might encourage revenge attacks from other savages of the same persuasion.

    1. I don’t believe the State should take a life. It reduces the state to the level of the criminal. I do however, think that all life sentences should be life sentences with few, if any luxuries.

        1. Morning Anne. It’s pretty obvious that we are now in the Post-democratic age. There’s only a pretence of it!

          1. Much as I dislike agreeing with Mandelson, he knew whereof he spoke.
            Partly because he was responsible for it.

        2. I’m getting to a stage where it’s difficult to trust anyone in public office.
          i.e. those in senior positions who rely on public money to live their seedy lives.

    2. This reminds me of Rastus’s comments on white colonialists
      edit for block quote

      A few years before his death in 2007, I interviewed Ian Smith in Zimbabwe. The former wartime RAF pilot wouldn’t accept that the horrors of Mugabe’s rule might have been avoided if he had encouraged moderate black leaders earlier. He left it far too late.
      But he did say one true thing. I doubted him when he said that blacks often approached him in the street and told him he had governed better than Mugabe. He suggested I canvas opinion.
      So I did. I asked one black Zimbabwean after another. None of them much liked Ian Smith. They wanted democracy. But, yes, almost all of them said that Ian Smith had been preferable to Robert Mugabe.

      1. It was all covered up when Mugabe had more than 20 thousand of his people murdered because he knew they would never vote for him.

    3. Black people in Europe need to wind their necks in and not keep moaning about white privileged.
      How many white people, farmers in particular have been murdered in southern Africa ?
      Answer……Thousands.

  18. Good day all,

    Grey and wet at McPhee Towers but soon clearing up to be a lovely day again, wind a bit all over the place but settling down in the West, 16℃ rising to 22℃.

    Prighozin’s plane shot down by the Russian air defence system on Putin’s orders? It has all the hallmarks of the FSB? Not an accident says sir Richard Dearlove? Too glib. Too quick. Certainly from the video published by the Gatesograph it can be seen that something happened at 28,000 feet or whatever altitude the jet was flying at. That’s all that can be said right now. Best to wait.

    1. It was always on the cards he would be dispensed with, he lasted longer than I thought he would

  20. Morning all 🙂😊
    Back to normal grey again.
    Kahnt is obviously on a mission to destroy British culture.
    If he succeeds it is the fault of our government Westminsrer and Whitehall. Most of the people in these institutions have some sort of a grudge and are playing it out. For the sake of the future of our grandchildren, He and those helping him need to be stopped.

    Early start to day Geoff. ☺️

  21. ‘Morning, Peeps. A useful drop of rain just now, with more to follow this afternoon (allegedly). Still rather humid and 22° C won’t help, either.

    Headline in the DT…look away now if you suffer from hypertension, controlled or otherwise:

    “NatWest under pressure to block £11m payout to Dame Alison Rose

    Dame Alison resigned after admitting she leaked private banking information to the BBC

    * * *

    Since we still hold a 38% share of Natwest we are the majority shareholder. As such it would be nice to think that there is a mechanism for intervening in such an outrageous payoff, ie the Treasury getting off its fat incompetent arse and doing something worthwhile for once.

        1. They are all in it together, and they probably think 11 million is chicken feed, and the least they themselves would expect.

      2. …and who broke the first rule of banking – confidentiality. Absolutely staggering, isn’t it? Allowed to resign leaves her ridiculous ‘package’ in place. The idiot(s) who awarded such a ridiculous contract should also be gone.

      2. Makes a complete mockery of the SMCR (regulation to ensure banks’ senior managers engage in appropriate conduct).

    3. As the taxpayer holds 39% of the shares in Nat West, is there a Sir Humphrey or some finance minister who represents us as major shareholders?
      Er …. I think I’ve just spotted a problem.

  22. Today’s leading letter:

    SIR – Following Sadiq Khan’s immoral and scientifically unjustifiable Ulez cash grab (Letters, August 23) – hitting the poorest and most vulnerable hardest – I wonder how long it will be before the middle classes wake up and realise they’re next.

    It is time to put a stop to this project before it’s too late. In addition, net zero is an impossibility, and I find myself unable to vote for any party that fails to recognise that fact.

    Democracy in Britain is broken and there will be serious consequences for the future of our society if we meekly allow our rights and freedoms to be removed for some vague greater good.

    Simon Hubbard
    Brownhills, Staffordshire

    If Mr Hubbard isn’t already a Nottlr then he bloody well should be!

      1. We need more CO2 in the atmosphere, not less. CO2 is at historically low levels, and far below the optimum for plants!

    2. Some idiot up north who has no idea what’s going on in London has written in about air quality blah blah.

      Seriously, what a twit.

  23. Good morning all.
    A bright 12°C start after a bit of overnight rain. A dry but cloudy day forecast.

  24. I see that in Allister Heath’s article today he makes mention of the Club of Rome and Limits to Growth.

    “I hope they reconsider. The eco-extremists’ fixation with over-population, beginning in 1972 with the Club for Rome’s infamous Limits to Growth, is hopelessly outdated. The real threat today is a global demographic collapse caused by an unprecedented reduction in the number of babies, and the social, economic, cultural and philosophical revolution this will unleash.”

    Is the MSM turning?

    “There is crack, a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in”.

    Leonard Cohen

    1. Despite decades of the one-child policy. China has 20% youth unemployment, And there’s one continent which didn’t get the memo about demographic decline.

    2. The problem is that white folk aren’t having enough children. Africa, which can’t support the population is breeding at incredible rates.

      1. With the resources Africa has and the experience it should have for managing those resources, Africa should be a rich continent.
        That fact it isn’t is entirely down to Africans themselves.

        1. And if the ‘Out of Africa’ theory is correct, they have been on this planet, and specifically in that area, for possibly 2 million years; enough time to get their act together.

        1. It goes completely doolally, with sometimes 10 or twelve big blooms, and all I do is hack it back in the winter and keep it fed during the summer.

      1. Yes. I got it early in the year from ‘YouGarden’. It was advertised as free but delivery was £6.99.

        This is the second time it has flowered this year. Rose ‘Queen Elizabeth’.

  28. One for the blood pressure.
    MB and I trained with students like this; they couldn’t wait to get off the wards.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/08/23/medical-director-letby-hospital-ian-harvey-doctors-concerns/

    Medical director at Letby hospital says doctors should have pushed harder to raise concerns

    Ian Harvey also reveals he has had to leave his rural French home following ‘intolerable’ scrutiny

    Will Bolton, 23 August 2023 • 9:35pm

    Ian Harvey left the Countess of Chester shortly after Letby’s first arrest

    The medical director of the hospital where Lucy Letby murdered seven babies said the whistleblowing doctors should have pushed harder to raise their concerns, after he fled his French home.

    On Wednesday, Ian Harvey told The Telegraph he could not recall any Countess of Chester paediatricians contacting him with concerns about neonatal deaths in February 2016, as they claimed, and that they didn’t chase him for a response.

    Mr Harvey, who has retired to a hamlet in the Dordogne, said: “It is surprising, given the level of concern that some of the paediatricians professed having had at the time, that there was no follow-up to chase a response, either with my secretary or directly with me.”

    He also claimed that he had an “open door policy”, but “at no time prior to May 2016 did a consultant paediatrician come to my office to express or discuss their concerns”.

    Mr Harvey told The Telegraph that he has not “fled” but had left his home because the scrutiny linked to the case was making the lives of his neighbours and friends “intolerable”.

    Dr Stephen Brearey, one of the whistleblowing consultants who gave evidence in Letby’s trial, said he requested a meeting with Mr Harvey in February 2016. The jury was told that Mr Harvey did not respond for three months.

    On Wednesday, Dr Brearey told The Telegraph that he had emails referring to Mr Harvey’s reply from early March. He said: “We did chase repeatedly.”

    The claim that he ignored concerns is one of a number of allegations that have now been levelled at Mr Harvey, who earned up to £175,000 a year at the Countess of Chester and left shortly after Letby’s first arrest with a pension worth £1.8million.

    Mr Harvey’s detached farmhouse which he left with his wife on Sunday morning Credit: Julian Simmonds for The Telegraph

    He and his wife moved to rural France where they now reside in a large, detached farmhouse with a private pool, and outbuildings.

    The front gates carry a bold sign in block capitals, “Entrée interdite” – entry forbidden – whilst the back extends out onto acres of land, where the couple’s horses roam freely.

    Comparable properties in the area typically sell for around €500,000 (£427,000).

    He and his wife left their home in the early hours of Sunday morning. A neighbour, who has lived in the hamlet for 12 years, said that the couple left when she was still asleep.

    “They told us beforehand… For their own privacy and safety, they didn’t tell anyone where they went. They just said ‘we are going because this is too much’.”

    The neighbour added that although she speaks to the couple “a lot as neighbours”, they had never discussed the Letby scandal. “Never in all the years we have lived here together have they mentioned it to me. I informed myself of the case myself,” she said.

    Whilst still working at the Countess of Chester hospital, the former NHS executive reportedly told colleagues an inquiry “would have to find me first”.

    “He was implying he would be long gone,” the colleague told the Daily Mail.

    Mr Harvey retired from the hospital in 2018

    On Wednesday, John Gibbs, a retired paediatrician who worked at the hospital, said it would be astounding if executives did not cooperate.

    “If you happen to be a senior manager in a hospital where there have been multiple murders and attempted murders by a member of staff, it would be absolutely astounding for you not to help with an inquiry to try and learn lessons,’ he told The Telegraph.

    “I think we doctors and nurses have to feel an element of guilt that we didn’t stop it earlier, I do.”

    Ministers have announced an independent inquiry into what happened at the hospital but have faced calls to give it powers to compel witnesses by turning it into a statutory inquiry.

    Most witnesses who give evidence at statutory public inquiries are invited to do so by consent.

    However, if a witness refuses to participate, the chair can direct them to attend and, if they still fail to appear, apply to the High Court for a summons. If the witness resists after that, they can be arrested.

      1. I can’t recall seeing him, but Dordogneshire is pretty large, he seems the type to choose Eymet.

    2. What was once a vocation has become a career path; qualify, and then have children and cast around for a role in administration; better hours, better pay and little or no contact with (insert adjectives ) patients. Edit: the Witch of Chester is criminally insane. Even Dr Shipman was careful enough to concentrate on the wrinklies.

      1. Don’t worry, it is a tributary of the Kennet and the Thames, it will be full of drugs and turds before it gets to its destination.

    1. I am no fan of Harry, but with headlines like that, it’s little wonder he doesn’t want to come back.

  33. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/657a03b349bb9a6476f83cf22ba8ebdb6d667c3667b26c43b65f3ba62df5b9fc.jpg The Skåne Charcutière is in full production mode today. My first task was to strain the pig’s-trotter jelly that I made yesterday in the pressure cooker (roasted pork bones, pig’s trotters, water, onions, carrots, black peppercorns, salt). This is now in ice-cube trays ready to be set in chunks, placed in polythene bags, then frozen in portions.

  34. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/eeb185c76ea521fbc360faf0d0aa8a96685b7ea0087ab6a073cbccd22ed96e0e.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3891c2be671d7b4f7edcb12ad7754405aba9ed026f1567555de11f1f61e9ec09.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/142af188d0537f213066dc58c296a044c76b3bbc0e35f99862d10ba974da678b.jpg My next task was to make some delicious, healthy and nourishing lard. I bought some pork back-fat and minced it prior to roasting it in the oven. The rendered lard is now cooling in tubs and the residual pork scratchings are salted and ready for snacking on. I have to do this since I cannot buy vital, necessary and body-building pork lard in Swedish shops.

  35. BREAKING NEWS:

    India lands a space craft on the moon.

    Meanwhile, half of Indians still shit in a bucket!

    (Nice to see they’ve got their priorities right)

    India lands on moon

    Luna Cornershop now open

    Can’t believe these scammers, just had a call from the moon branch of my bank asking for my details.

    India becomes first country to successfully land a spacecraft on the lunar South Pole.

    I didn’t even know they delivered there’.

    India makes historic uncrewed landing on the moon’s south pole. When
    asked why there was no crew sent on this mission a representative
    replied “because most of the time our people like to ride on the outside
    of vehicles”.

  38. Belated Morning All

    Start with one that will resonate here………..

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/dfbc88c1e6dfb9557290ae65c5e92592b772224bb813067a7c80092ce6df3713.jpg

    Rest

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ee87b4fa1af07bfea3b82343c612cbc9057ac1c5e39306f0df3936f09dc4a5da.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3e11b238c9889ba71d06fb541b6e0b1f582204f68eef27b6c2182e0fb5253995.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5b7991f389edd710cf6b0e16d6d2006cf47bf8cbcca07ba8e5e7b992612b4ecf.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/abe4ad6b750dbab7e6a176416e5050d512e4994e1a01061564f88adc229befd8.jpg

    Finish with animal crackers

    https://media.gab.com/system/media_attachments/files/146/077/005/original/c5c62d08066846ca.gif

    http://forgifs.com/gallery/d/439023-1/Cat-jumps-into-fish-tank_001.gif

  40. Meanwhile:

    “Edinburgh Fringe: Musical set in gender neutral toilet becomes hot ticket”

    I expect it’s called Shit Happens….?

    3. If the most popular joke at the Fringe is anything to go by then it will be bog standard.

    1. I think the current data suggest that those who have multiple jabs are far more at risk of dying?

      1. Yes it just popped out at me.
        Both my elder sister and BiL had every jab they could both in their early to late 80s.
        Both had covid and both since it all started have ben fairly ill.

      3. The start of the great die-off correlates with the start of the jabathon. Graphs clearly show this, hence the first attempt at denial, “correlation doesn’t mean causation.”
        Now, they’re attempting to put all of the deaths at the door of the ‘infection’ whether or not the victims were symptomatic. He/she dropped dead suddenly, ergo they had ‘covid’ back in the day.
        Where is the irrefutable evidence that ‘covid’ existed as a transmissible respiratory disease? Oh, the government and its agents, including the nudge unit, told us, didn’t they?
        Those people have been exposed as liars with their greatest lie to date, ‘Safe and Effective’. Why should people believe what came before and also what they are now trying to sell as the cause of the die-off?

        1. The jab seems to have been quite effective as a means to reduce the population. Not only directly, by killing off the elderly and other infirm, but also by damaging fertility and causing stillbirths and miscarriages.

    1. Our planned trip to Northumberland has been scuppered by the strikes at the beginning of September. It took my OH hours to get the route and tickets sorted online and now he’s got to get a refund.

      Driving to Northumberland is just too far these days for either of us to contemplate.

    2. That sums up my feelings towards online shopping, and I am working in the tech industry…

      1. I enjoy doing my shopping online with Ocado M&S. They have very good customer service. If you don’t like something you can give it back to the driver and they credit you. If something is damaged they credit you.

        I recently took advantage of Charlie Bighams butter chicken with rice for two people. Normally priced at £9.50 reduced to £4.50. And that’s for two people. I bought 4 @ £18. Much cheaper than a take out.

        They had been packed in their robot warehouse and placed in the bag on their ends. A little bit of seepage but not much. They refunded the whole lot !

        I also find i don’t do impulse buys except for their flash sales which can be great value.

  44. Russia blames Ukraine for plane crash that killed Wagner chiefs. 24 August 2023.

    Kremlin have cited ‘murder’ of Wagner chief has ‘all the hallmarks’ attack by followers of Ukrainian resistance fighter Stepan Bandera .

    Actually, as a close reading of this article will tell you, the “Kremlin” has said nothing of the kind. In fact there has been no official response whatsoever from the President of Russia or his spokeswoman.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/08/24/russia-blames-ukraine-for-plane-crash-killed-wagner-chiefs/

  45. Just listening to Tucker and Trump – it’s really good! At about 12 minutes, Trump does a priceless little impersonation of Kamala Harris.

  47. The Perfect Human Diet.

    Around four million years ago the early ancestors of modern-day humans, the early hominids — in particular, Australopithecus anamensis — that had previously split from the line that contained chimpanzees, developed the ability to use stone tools. This made it easier for them to hunt and catch their main prey item, the animals that provided these carnivores with the protein necessary for their survival. Those primitive hominids had evolved as hunter/gatherers; they hunted their prey that provided more than 80% of their nutritional requirements. This was supplemented by the gathering of nuts and berries.

    Being a carnivore, with an increased ability to think rationally, gave them a huge advantage over other species. Their diet of meat protein and fat built their bodies into powerful units and this was matched by an ever-increasing brain size and the improved intelligence that ensued. This early human, in particular, favoured the fat-rich portions of their prey’s body, such as the brain and bone marrow. This more-or-less mimics the diet of some contemporary mammals, the spotted hyena for example, that has grown very powerful and intelligent favouring this diet.

    In time, Australopithecus morphed into the more advanced Homo erectus [the ephemeral sub-species, H. neanderthalensis (a.k.a. H. stupidus) also developed from H. erectus], which eventually became modern man, H. sapiens, around 300,000 years ago. The ascent of this highly intelligent species was, in no small part, due to its carnivorous nature.

    Its rapid spread and increase in numbers, coupled with its burgeoning intelligence , eventually caused it to explore the growing of crops for extra sustenance. This occurred around 10,000 years ago and was considered to be the birth of agriculture. The fossil record shows that the rise in the species’ physical strength and increased brain power slowed down around this time. Archaeological findings now show that the species’ skull started to shrink from that point in its history; this accounts for modern humans requiring the removal of wisdom teeth since the space to hold them has shrunken.

    In recent times, the sophisticated and very clever present-day human has explored many alternatives to its historical meat-protein diet; a great many of them artificial products not found in nature. Alongside this an increased preference for vegetarianism and ‘veganism’ is being shown to further atrophy the body and brain of a once powerful and intelligent being. Since the late 1950s and early 1960s, a heavy bombardment of advertising from powerful global corporations, health authorities, governments and other vested interests has proposed heavily reducing or even eliminating animal protein and fat from the human diet and replacing it with carbohydrates and sugar! The replacement of animal fats with so-called ‘vegetable’ oils (in reality seed oils developed for industrial lubrication) was also heavily promoted by these agencies.

    It can be no coincidence that this point in history was also the time when rates of obesity, heart disease, strokes, cancers, type-2 diabetes, insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, mitochondrial dysfunction, macular degeneration, inflammation, hypertension, atherosclerosis, fibrosis, DNA damage, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimers’s disease and many more maladies started to explode.

    The archaeological (fossil) record, clearly and unambiguously, shows that the species had gained huge nourishment, fitness, increased physical strength and a massively increasing level of intelligence from its natural diet of animal (including fish) protein and meat … for nearly 4,000,000 years. Compare this with its rapidly decreasing level of all those positive attributes over the past 10,000 years; and how this has now begun to accelerate wildly in the space of the past five decades.

    I conclude from this that eating a natural diet (for the species) of animal protein and fat keeps you fit and intelligent. While a diet of mainly vegetables, carbohydrates and sugar makes you weak, feeble, stupid and more prone to disease. Clear and unambiguous evidence for this presented daily in everyday life, and documented widely in the news media.

    In summary:

    ● Eating meat protein and animal fat for 4 million years gave the developing human species a powerful body and large and intelligent brain.

    ● Eating grains and root vegetables over the past 10,000 years curtailed the development of that strong animal’s body and brain.

    ● Eating margarine and seed oils for the past 100 years has turned that once physically strong and highly intelligent animal into an increasingly weak and feeble being, susceptible to more and more modern diseases.

    ● Eating sugar-laden, flour-based processed food for the past 50 years has rendered that once physically strong and highly intelligent animal into an imbecile.

    The species has not evolved, in the space of the past 10,000 years, it has gone into retrograde development.

    This excellent, well-produced, documentary [that I wager few will bother to watch, preferring instead to bury their heads in the sand!] explains in full detail all the concrete evidence for the theory I have explained above. This documentary may well be an-hour-and-a-half in duration, but I guarantee it will be the most important 1½ hours many people will ever spend.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Y_1fiN-1SI

    1. That five a day veg was rubbish advice. Five a week maybe. We eat good quality and as natural as possible. We eat meat most days and fish at least once a week. vegan diets should carry a health warning. In the past I have overdone everyting but have reached 76.

      1. I’ve reached 75, in good health. My OH reached almost 80 but now he’s not so fit as he was.

    3. I still have all my wisdom teeth – and they are still in good condition. Not sure about that bit ” this accounts for modern humans requiring the removal of wisdom teeth since the space to hold them has shrunken.” as I am not exactly lantern-jawed.

      I’ve just had some lunch – meat and fruit.

      1. Sit back, watch the documentary, where scientists (from all over the world) will explain everything in clear detail.

    4. It was downhill all the way after we planted the first seed and tethered the first goat.

      1. And remainers…and eco protestors…and in support of illegal migrants.

        “Knock, knock.”
        “I’m a vegan.”
        “You’re meant to say who’s -”
        “I’m a vegan.”
        ” – Who’s there.”

    2. No proof I notice and you cannot trust the far left New York Times. Storm in a tea cup.

          1. It sounds as though it was very hot and he was very stressed with a long performance – maybe too much for him at 80? I see he’s returned home and someone else will conduct the other performances.

          5. I couldn’t agree more. He lives not far from here, his daughter went to the same school as ours, I’ve met him and he came across as arrogant and someone with an ego larger than a politician’s, and that is saying something.

    3. I went to a performance of The Trojans in Porsmouth and it went on forever. far too long.

    4. I am reminded of the remarks by Andre Previn about Gardner and his orchestra equipped as it was with antique instruments. Previn wondered why anyone would reject modern instruments for those playing ‘out of tune’.

      I have sympathy for Previn’s views. I would rather listen to Emil Gilels playing Scarlatti sonatas on a Steinway or Bosendorfer than some dilettante at a rickety harpsichord.

      Edit: Gardner’s recording of Rameau’s Les Fetes d’Hebe – La Danse with the Monteverdi Choir and Monteverdi Orchestra is exceptional.

  50. Dr Raj Persaud who has has a distinguished career in the NHS and Harley Street challenges the judge’s summary in the Lucy Letby case particularly in the context of trying to explain the motivation for her alleged misdemeanors:

    https://youtu.be/WlhlJKxu3Kc?si=gsfO__BZGmuVQtt8

    Dr Raj is a controversial presenter and gives this amusing but albeit lengthy talk on the subject of the psychology of motivation the absence of which was dismissed in the LL trial in favour of deeming her to be ‘evil’. In this talk he portrays motivation as a taboo subject particularly in the terms of both career ambitions and personal relationships:

    https://youtu.be/6oOwTAVjBro?si=rUumr955XM5NHCCC

    He shows how Monty Python’s dead parrot sketch relates to how he approaches a conflict situation between two parties.

  52. Stop! I want to get off!

    Calling trans woman a ‘w—-r’ is discrimination, tribunal suggests

    Female-specific insults should be used to avoid possible breach of equality law, panel advises, after complaint from trans bus driver

    By Jamie Bullen • 24 August 2023 • 10:34am

    Calling a trans woman a ‘w—-r’ is discriminatory because the insult is commonly used in reference to men, an employment tribunal has suggested.

    The swear word is not a gender-neutral term and so using it against someone who has transitioned would constitute a breach of equality laws, a panel concluded. To insult a trans woman without being discriminatory, female-specific slurs should be used instead, the tribunal suggested.

    Its ruling came after a trans bus driver sued the company where she had been working for gender reassignment discrimination. Amanda Fischer claimed that another employee called her a “w—-r”.

    [And so on and so on…]

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/08/24/trans-woman-slur-discrimination-men-tribunal-rules

    2. I can’t be bothered with this tripe any more. Whenever trans pop up, idiocy follows.

      1. There’s another report on the DT site about a cyclist intending to sue British Cycling over its ban. My hope is that the more publicity they get, the more their mad cause is damaged.

        1. I think they’re just potty. All they seem to be is egotistical wasters with a grudge agains life, who expect everything and everyone to cow down to them.

          It’s boring. They have got to learn they are not the centre of the universe and be made to accept life in the real world rather than their own psychotic bubble.

          2. The victorians built special homes for all the nonconformists. Mental institutions. All bowled over and housing on the land now.

      1. What’s wrong with “wankeress?”
        Or if the person is a transwoman, you could call them a transcow, I suppose.

        1. Q: Whats the difference between a w**k and an egg?

          A: You can beat an egg but you can’t beat a good w**k.
          The old ones are the good ones!

    7. I was always under impression the descriptive word came about from a naval tradition. They the younger members of the crew were ordered to retract the holding weight from the sea bed and the captain would shout at them…….weigh anchor. And of course the same young crew members who were instructed to hold the ships in position by throwing the heavy equipment over board were called Tossers.
      Anything was more acceptable than port hole duff.

  54. BRICS are expanding

    “We have decided to invite the Argentine Republic, the Arab Republic of Egypt, the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to become full members of #BRICS from 1 January 2024.”

    Was expecting Iran and KSA, UAE makes sense, but Argentina and Ethiopia? Will the Argentines finally stabilise their economy?
    What commodities has Ethiopia got that interests BRICS…

    1. Food. The soil is very fecund. Drop a seed in the morning. Come back at lunchtime and you have a plant.

        1. War. Farmers couldn’t farm.
          Now everything is settled down their food markets are overflowing with produce.

    2. Is the presence of Islam in Argentina growing and is it soon to be at the point where the adherents can start demanding special treatment as they do everywhere else they turn up.?
      Oil around the Falklands? Let’s face it the UK could do SFA about an Argentine takeover.

    1. Wouldn’t be so bad if it were Indians, but it’s Sundanese, Eritreans, Nigerians, Iraqis, Afghanis, Turks.

  57. Not only is Duster a stupid name for a car – why not mop or dishcloth? – but the Dacia Duster advert is repeated several times an hour every hour on Sky Sports to the extent that I now despise the Duster, Dacia and, with great regret, Matt Monro’s rendition of Born Free which accompanies the commercial. Sadly, there are still sufficient numbers of people of the type who will gladly eat beans on toast every day for weeks on end and will never tire of having beans on toast every day in the weeks and months to come for whom the only thing better than endless repetition is even more endless repetition. There must be many such people otherwise businesses and broadcasters wouldn’t piss off the rest of us who are not of the kind which are oblivious to – even welcoming towards – this relentless assault on our senses and patience. I hope the Duster is a flop and that Dacia goes bust, but it won’t happen.

    1. The advert I loathe most at present is the one for the Three network, with the brain dead woman going “AAAAHHH” at regular intervals while gazing at her phone. That too is repeated ad nauseam!

    2. Familiarity breeds contempt. “I just sold my car to Webuyanycar” has become wearisome (although effective, as my grandchildren sing it in the rear seats of my car, with much teeth–gritting from me).

    3. The one that gets my goat is that stupid one from the so called gold experts in a mall in Wales. So phony and if anyone is daft enough to take their gold they get all the deserve!

    4. The only good thing about that advert is the fact that the Duster is not an EV or hybrid or whatever. I can just switch my mind off when the ads come on between overs.

    5. Why watch them and allow yourself to get so worked up about it? You could record the sports and fast forward.

    6. According to the reviews the Dacia is cheap and reliable – we are thinking of getting a Dacia Jogger with 7 seats in it as our Fiat minibus is now 22 years old.

      I have got to the age where I don’t toss a giver about ‘image’ so I won’t feel uneasy about driving about in a pleb’s car.

    7. I’m happy to live in a completely advert-free environment. I refuse to watch Swedish TV (it is beyond naff) and I get access to all UK TV via a VPN (including all Sky’s output). I watch on the ‘catch-up’ facility, which means that I can skip all adverts at the touch of my computer’s trackpad.

    8. Hi Stig – the Dacia Duster has been around for a few years now. OK – so it’s not by Land Rover*, but it’s a perfectly functional car. Much of the mechanicals are based on Renault. Most Sundays, I get a lift home from Church in one, the owners are completely satisfied with it. *When a lift in the Duster isn’t available, I can generally get a lift from another neighbour who has a Range Rover and a modern “pretendy Defender” – both lovely cars, but not especially disability-friendly.

      Before I decided I no longer needed to drive, as I researched Motability cars, it was one of the SUVs on offer. Ironically, in terms of ‘advance payment’, it was rather more costly than equivalent offerings from the likes of VAG, Ford, Stellantis and the rest. Clearly, this was due to depreciation, rather than initial purchase price. But – if I was looking to purchase a cheap and cheerful SUV, I wouldn’t hesitate.

      Then again, I ditched my TV Licence years ago, so I’m not exposed to the advertising.

      P.S. I thought of you today, briefly, for the few seconds it took the train to pass through Stevenage, as I returned from a funeral in Suffolk…

      1. ‘P.S. I thought of you today, briefly, for the few seconds it took the
        train to pass through Stevenage, as I returned from a funeral in
        Suffolk…’

        Oh for fucks sake !

    9. I’ve only watched the advert (I mute all adverts on principle if I don’t whizz through them) and it has already convinced me one has to be a cretin to buy a new Dacia – I have to admit I did buy a second hand one (a soft top) many years ago. It proved to be the worst vehicle I ever owned.

  59. Methinks Wordle were taking the rise today!

    Wordle 796 3/6

    ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜
    🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  60. Double Bogey Six
    Wordle 796 6/6

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

    1. Par today.

      Wordle 796 4/6

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

  61. That’s me gone for today. GCSE results in for grand-daughter. Quite brilliant – but she is mortified – had expected “better”. I told her to look forward not back and concentrate on the next two years.

    Have a spiffing evening.

    A demain – after Nurse…..again.

    1. At least her GCSE results won’t be the highlight of her career, and she can go on to greater things.
      I met some people who had got the top results all the way through their careers; by the time they graduated, you couldn’t find a bigger set of jerks on the planet!
      Some of them are in government now. Of course.

      1. Our second son had mediocre GCSE results but he had good “A” levels, and a 2.1 B.A. (hons) degree in Philosophy and Politics.
        He then was top of his year and got a distinction in his M.Sc. in Computer Science and Data Analytics.

        Better to start modestly and finish strongly than the other way round!

        1. My GD’s results are very satisfactory: 2 @ 9; 7 @ 8 and one at 7.

          I have given her a good shaking….!!

          For A level – she’ll be stars all over.

          Then a double first. Talk about a brain on legs….

          6. I failed Human Biology O Level. Still have trouble knowing which end is which. Talk from one end, shit from the other. But these days…

          8. Only an A in one subject? Horror of horrors, the sky is falling. I hope that she is bathing in her success, not wallowing in the lost opportunities.

            I remember how an A in any subject was rare, ten A equivalents would have been unheard of – but that was many eons ago.

          12. I had a spread, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 (the last two were fails!). I passed French, Latin, Biology, Art, English Language, Geography and Maths (maths and geography were 4, History and Scripture Knowledge were 5 and 6). We were excused English Literature because we took our O Levels in four years, not five, so only nine subjects instead of the usual ten. I did subsequently pass Scripture Knowledge, but I only got an O Level pass in my A Level History (I didn’t want to take it, but was made to).

          13. Which board was that? Mine was Cambridge and 6 was a pass (just) I got that for Geography. I got an 8 for Maths – I thought that was doing well as I expected a 9. Apart from 2 for French, I got 3 in all the others.

          14. NUJMB (Northern Universities Joint Matriculation Board). Supposedly one of the hardest boards to get good passes in.

      1. Not until they are certain that the membership is greater than one, and that none of the members have heitophobia. E&OE.

        1. Ooh I have learnt a new word today. Who would have thought there was a word for “fear of apostrophes”.

  63. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b24fff6e41e8a7aacc0083ea7a2f4c9e371088f83c726014d8e498753f5b2ddb.png
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/08/24/the-establishment-is-closing-ranks-to-protect-natwest/
    “Rishi Sunak’s Government – which is technically the largest shareholder in NatWest – needs to act fast in order to right this shameful wrong.”

    BTL Ratty Wrattstrangler

    The trouble is that Sunak has all the rigid resolve of a mushy, invertebrate blancmange – he will do nothing and his government will do nothing just as Sunak could delay the Ulez expansion but is too cowardly to do so.

    If the Conservative Party keeps him in place any longer that will be the end of the Conservative Party for ever. He must be told, as Lady Macbeth, told her guests when Banquo’s ghost turned up at the dinner party at Dunsinane:

    “Stand not upon the order of your going, but go at once.”

    1. It is a form of humiliation. People without a spine will be forced to vote for the Tories or get Keir “Kneeler” Starmer.

    2. Furious battle BTL, with the Remainer trolls out in force enjoying Farage’s problems and blaming his ‘Brexit lies’ for the state of the nation. Oh, and he’s also a Putin supporter for having had a chat with him.

    1. I can’t be arsed to read these reports any more…..“To help prevent further anti-social behaviour, I have authorised a
      dispersal order which gives us the power to arrest anyone returning to
      Shrewsbury town centre during the 48 hour period, if officers had told
      them to leave.

      What utter ducking idiots. You already have the powers you effing dolts. By closing off to you know..the law abiding taxpaying citizens you are committing a more serious crime in restricting our rights of free movement.

      I do not expect to identify myself or be charged to travel without let. I no longer recognise the authority of the Police.

      1. As Esther Ranzen found out, if you are asked to move on by the police and you just go across the other side of the road, you are committing an offence. That’s been the case for decades.

        1. And i would have accepted that once. But after seeing how they treat different types of protesters i now think of ways to make things a little more awkward.

  65. Well, chums, I’ve decoded to have an early night tonight as I can barely keep my eyes open. So good night to you all, and I hope to see you all tomorrow.

  66. If you haven’t seen the movie Shadowlands, it’s going to begin at 9. The background story of CS Lewis and his relationship with Joy Gresham. BBC 4.
    If that doesn’t get the water waterworks flowing, I don’t know what will.

        1. Or they are so caught up in the idea that they can no longer ask pertinent questions. Not forgetting the people and surgeons who encourage these extreme ideas and operations.
          Those are the people we really need to worry about.

    4. I believe this post and a previous one similar are spoofs. Not suggesting those feelings aren’t real. I just don’t understand why anyone who chopped off parts of their body would expect to have any sensitivity in those areas.

  72. Here’s a thought.
    I wonder if Kahnt is going to fine Gatwick, LHR, London City, Sanstead, airports for pollution by using his ULEZ scam ? Their businesses of flying over our villages towns and cities at will, are far more polluting than a million businesses like Dave the plumber in his white van.
    Perhaps not, he’s just a gutless little bully.

Comments are closed.