Wednesday 13 September: The dangers of letting unqualified staff decide who gets to see a GP

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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412 thoughts on “Wednesday 13 September: The dangers of letting unqualified staff decide who gets to see a GP”

    1. Treasury officials are discussing a one-off break from the pensions triple lock that could save £1bn by preventing a bumper 8.5% increase in the state pension next year.

      Morning Janet. Rishi just gave away one billion+ to the Greenies at the G20 without turning a hair.

      1. Sunak’s remit doesn’t include the wellbeing of the British people, especially the non-contributing useless consumers of resources of which pensioners form a large part. Previous contributions in tax, effort and dedication to one’s family and Country count for naught in this awful person’s world view.

        Sadly, the substitute’s bench isn’t too well stocked with well-meaning patriotic material either.

        2. Having been retired since 2010 I now pay tax on my monthly £95 private pension. TPTB are determined to impoverish, starve and/or freeze us to death. One way or another they’re really determined.

          1. They’ll keep the tax threshold just below the max pension payment so anything else is taxed. I’m still getting the same company pension as I got in 2001 although it has risen in line with inflation since – tax has taken care of the difference

          2. They’ll keep the tax threshold just below the max pension payment so anything else is taxed. I’m still getting the same company pension as I got in 2001 although it has risen in line with inflation since – tax has taken care of the difference

          3. My small monthly AVC pension is also taxed at 20%. Only the basic SP is just within the personal allowance.

          4. You have it easy, the tax people here are stealing part of my state pension because I earn too much.

            They call it a pension clawback.

        3. Actually, dedication to one’s family and country means that these subversives need to be destroyed.

    2. Treasury officials are discussing a one-off break from the pensions triple lock that could save £1bn by preventing a bumper 8.5% increase in the state pension next year.

      Morning Janet. Rishi just gave away one billion+ to the Greenies at the G20 without turning a hair.

  4. The dangers of letting unqualified staff decide who gets to see a GP

    The old days when you just turned up at the doctors and got in the queue in a damp musty room with sick people coughing and sneezing worked much better

  7. Conservatives warned by MI5 that two potential MPs could be Chinese spies. 13 September 2023.

    The Conservative Party dropped two potential candidates to become MPs after MI5 warned they could be Chinese spies, it has been reported.

    It comes as ministers continue to face questions about allegations of espionage in Westminster after the arrest of a parliamentary researcher on suspicion of spying for Beijing.

    The Times said the security service advised the Tory Party in 2021 and 2022 that the two MP hopefuls should not be included on the central list of candidates.

    What one wants to know is, were they ethnically or nationally Chinese, or perhaps even spies in the classic sense, i.e, UK citizens sympathetic to Chinese Marxism. Did Mi5 actually supply any evidence to support their assertions? Do they provide the same service for agents of the United States or the EU? How certain are they that the Prime Minister does not work for India or George Soros?

    The last is of particular interest to me. Sunak was parachuted into one of the safest seats in the UK and then into the premiership without having to stand in an election. He’s a serial liar (immigration) and shows absolutely no interest in the fate of the UK or its people. I’ve watched him on TV, and though I’m aware that it is not very scientific or can be proved in any way I’m pretty sure that he’s as fake as a seven rupee note. In fact I will bet anyone ten quid that after the coming general election he simply quits and heads off to California and a very good job.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/09/12/conservatives-warned-mi5-potential-mps-could-be-spies/

      1. No Bob. The reason I listed the threats and enquired the provenance of Mi5’s warning is: How did they know? I’m pretty sure that at least half of the Civil Service work for the EU though they aren’t paid for this service and there is absolutely no way that I could prove it .

        1. I read the other day that when the Brexit “out” vote was announced several snivel serpents actually cried!

          But, of course, the vast majority of the HoC voted remain and Brexit never ever happened.

    2. Morning, Araminta.

      What is the difference between being an agent for a foreign country and being an agent for the WEF? The latter’s leader has actually boasted about his organisation’s infiltration of cabinets/governments around the World.

      MI.5 investigations into direct interference in government policy by Schwab/Gates/Soros et al? I’ll wait.

      1. Morning Korky. I didn’t want to go too far in one post but I’m certain in my own mind that the so called intelligence services are as corrupt as the rest of the UK Nomenklatura. They serve the Globalists!

      2. Morning Korky. I didn’t want to go too far in one post but I’m certain in my own mind that the so called intelligence services are as corrupt as the rest of the UK Nomenklatura. They serve the Globalists!

    3. Chinese spies… Why do you think there were so many Chinese Takeaways and Cafes near Military bases etc??

    4. But Boris Johnson’s “Withdrawal Agreement” was fundamentally the same as Evila May’s.

      Before the election Johnson was very reticent about the proposed WA other than giving us total guff about it being ‘oven- ready’ and ‘brilliant’.

      He was scheduled to be questioned on live television by Andrew Neil before the 2019 general election but at the last minute he managed to get out of it. At that time Andrew Neil was a formidable journalist who would have winkled the truth out of The Bonker.

      How sad it is is that Andrew Neil has gone to pieces and is no longer the journalistic force he used to be.

      Mrs May is every bit as wicked as Lady Macbeth. It is high time she started sleep-walking, washing her hands and confessing the evil she has done.

  11. ‘Morning, Peeps. No sun, a fresh breeze and a maximum of 20°C today. Bliss!

    Allison Pearson is on good form – as usual:

    When will our leaders admit that achieving net zero will cost trillions and is unachievable?

    How can our gravely indebted country afford to splash the cash on grand, almost certainly corrupt and futile, international eco-projects?

    ALLISON PEARSON
    12 September 2023 • 7:14pm

    It was only a matter of time before the green bandwagon of pipe dreams crashed into the Jones family’s 12-year-old internal-combustion-engine people carrier with an almighty bang. The net zero target has vast social and economic costs, costs so dizzying, so deleterious to our way of life that few of its proponents have bothered to find out what they are. Well, I have, and it’s terrifying.

    You may have missed it, but at the G20 summit, Rishi Sunak just breezily wrote a £1.62 billion cheque from the UK to the Green Climate Fund to “support the world’s most vulnerable to deal with the impact of climate change… And this government will continue to lead by example in making the UK, and the world, more prosperous and secure”.

    Was there really nothing better at home to spend that money on, Prime Minister? You know, all those special needs children whose funding your government just cut by 20 per cent, or are 1.9 million kids struggling with talking/understanding language insufficiently “vulnerable”? How about building a couple of new hospitals and creating bursaries for 1,000 desperately-needed nurses? Or maybe put up some new houses to deal with the pressure of the 606,000 immigrants you allowed into our country last year against the very specific wishes of the majority of the population?

    Sorry, you’ll have to forgive me for not understanding how our gravely indebted country can afford to splash the cash on grand, almost certainly corrupt and futile, international eco-projects: maybe helping British people during a cost of living crisis doesn’t earn sufficient greenie points with Sunak’s globalist mates?

    Honestly, I wanted to slap him. No, Prime Minister, “leading by example”, as you call it, will not make the UK more prosperous and secure. The credulous pursuit of net zero by 2050 will leave us exposed and vulnerable, and very cold. We are already far too dependent on energy from other countries who are busy fleecing us for our folly. The UK pays Norway a deafening £14 billion a year for gas while our PM struts on the world stage, boasting that Britain is leading the world in “decarbonising”. Like a man snipping the cords of our last remaining parachutes while bragging that we’ll hit the ground before anyone else.

    Yes, Marjorie, I’m aware that most of this stuff is deadly dull and we’d really rather not think about hydrocarbons, whatever they are. But we absolutely have to focus now before the eco-zealots who have captured almost our entire political class do irreparable harm. Take a recent report from Offshore Energies UK which warns that, by 2030, unless a fortune is invested in new North Sea exploration and production facilities, the UK will be reliant on other countries for 80 per cent of our gas and 70 per cent of our oil. In what world is that secure? It sounds criminally stupid to me.

    It gets worse. Steven, a Telegraph reader who has worked as a geologist around the North Sea for a quarter of a century, says that new investment has been scared off by the EPL (Energy Profits Levy, the additional 35 per cent on oil and gas profits imposed by Chancellor Jeremy Hunt). “Before the EPL, my company ranked the UK below Pakistan on the above-ground (political) risk,” says Steven, “Not any more. Our economic models play out over 20 years. You simply cannot change taxes halfway through the game.” Steven says the UK is now “completely uninvestable”. Bountiful natural resources beneath our silver seas remain untapped so the clever fellows on the Climate Change Committee can pat each other on the back.

    Boy, it really is going to be squeaky-bum time in 2030. That’s also the date when the UK bans the production of cars and vans that use petrol and diesel. “Madness,” according to Karl McCartney, the Conservative MP for Lincoln and a long-time member of the Transport Select Committee. “The Government’s electric vehicle (EVs) target is unrealistic and dangerous,” he says. “It needs to be scrapped – and fast.” (The EU has already pushed back its target to 2035 while President Macron says “France has done enough”.)

    I interviewed Karl for this week’s Planet Normal podcast and he explained how government policymakers have been “led by the nose by green zealots and the metropolitan elite – the EV evangelists, as they have been called”. Karl, a delightfully sensible chap from Ellesmere Port, points out that there are 35 million vehicles on the road, a very small proportion are electric, and they’re not all going to be replaced in seven years’ time. Not when the average salary of Karl’s constituents buys them an eight-year-old diesel or petrol Ford Mondeo instead of a Tesla, and not when there’s no place to charge it even if they could afford an EV. There is already a shortage of electricity in Lincoln. People down South, the MP reckons, have no idea how much those in areas with very little public transport rely on the private car.
    “I have spoken about this to senior colleagues and they know it’s madness,” Karl says. Even some members of the Cabinet are concerned, but no one dares challenge the sacred consensus. “It seems our government’s policies are based on green virtue-signalling and oneupmanship,” he despairs.

    Karl had a big hand in the Transport Committee’s Fuelling the Future report which was published in March. “We remain concerned that the Government has not fully thought through, or properly responded to, our scepticism about expecting ordinary motorists to bear the financial burden of transitioning to all-electric vehicles,” the report said, “We maintain that it is realistic and fair to expect a significant number of motorists to continue using hybrid or conventional-engine cars for years ahead. Synthetic low-carbon fuels that can be used in these engines without expensive modifications should be supported as a halfway house for a significant number of private car owners.”

    There was a “woeful response” to that report from the Department of Transport. According to Karl, this was “an opportunity for the Government to climb down and save face,” but realism and practicality – a grasp of the impact of your deluded, undeliverable policies on millions of lives – are unwelcome in the net zero Cloud Cuckoo Land where much of our ruling class snoozes. They’ll wake up soon. The vandalism of Ulez cameras in London will be as nothing compared to public anger when people realise the bill for net zero will run into trillions.

    Even if you believe, as most of us do, that a transition to cleaner greener energy is highly desirable and will surely come in the long term (the end of the century seems a realistic goal), you can still be alarmed by this crazy groupthink and its wilful blindness to looming consequences. Covering half of Lincolnshire in solar-panel farms, and paying American firms huge subsidies to produce electricity when we should be producing food on good, productive land – who voted for that?
    Not very long ago, this country went into Covid lockdowns without a proper cost-benefit analysis and with politicians bamboozled into believing there was only one possible course of action, instead of listening to a range of possibilities. I’m afraid we are in great danger of repeating that historic error. The Government should repeal the net zero legislation and switch its focus to achievable adaptations over a longer timeframe instead of coercing and bullying the British people into altering their lifestyles in order to hit a meaningless, unattainable target.

    A bold change of tack may well yield electoral dividends, giving disillusioned Conservatives something we can actually vote for. “My polling suggests scepticism of expensive net zero commitments unites the 2019 Tory coalition,” says Prof Matt Goodwin. So both Red Wall and Blue Shires have well-founded doubts about the green bandwagon of pipedreams; they’ll be sticking with their internal combustion engines, thanks.
    At the G20, the Prime Minister said he wanted the UK to be a world leader. Marvellous, Rishi, but who wants to be a world leader in shooting ourselves in the head?

    Alex Thomson
    12 HRS AGO
    If the Uk disappeared beneath the waves tomorrow then it would make a rounding error’s worth of difference to total global emissions, a difference that would have been replaced by overseas emissions growth within around 6 months.
    The impact on global temperatures wouldn’t even be measurable. An entire advanced, hydrocarbon dependent economy of 70m could simply cease to exist and in the scheme of the global Net Zero project there would be only a limited reduction in global emissions for a few months and no discernible impact on temperature.
    The whole point of Net Zero is to supposedly stop climate change and keep temperature the same. The idea that the UK can make a meaningful difference to that goal is absurd. The idea that the UK can “lead by example” and therefore influence emerging economies into doing the same as us is so moronic as to utterly disqualify any person uttering it from any position of professional responsibility. Totally cretinous.
    We are in the process of degrading living standards, de-growth, wasting hundreds of billions of pounds that will need to be paid back by our grandchildren, failing to address more pressing (and addressable) social needs, giving enemies such as China a strategic advantage and making the lives of tens of millions of people harder, poorer, colder and ultimately shorter.
    There is no prospect of any tangible benefit to this policy emerging. None. This is being pursued solely for the bragging rights, posturing and back slapping of our elites and it’s a betrayal of the interests and needs of the British people.

    * * *

    And so say most of us!

    1. If only our government had any intentions at all of making the UK a secure and prosperous country. They don’t, and so what exactly is their goal? Nothing good for us, that’s for sure.

      2. At the root of the problem is the fact that Sunak does not want the Conservatives to win the election – he actively wants them to lose.

        And people like Jacob Rees-Mogg are too ‘polite’ and too mild-mannered to take the bull by the horns and get rid of Sunak for the sake of the country and for the sake of the Conservative Party.. In fact you could accuse JRM of being a traitor because of his dereliction of duty!

  12. Good morning All,

    Partly cloudy at McPhee Towers, wind Nor’-East, 12℃ going up to 18 or 19℃. An average September day for the South of England.

    Hugh J has beaten me to it. ⤵️⤵️⤵️

  13. Good morning All,

    Partly cloudy at McPhee Towers, wind Nor’-East, 12℃ going up to 18 or 19℃. An average September day for the South of England.

    Hugh J has beaten me to it. ⤵️⤵️⤵️

  14. Before I go and do something useful…has anyone else watched the first episode of Laura Kuenssberg’s State of Chaos? I had to remind myself throughout that I wasn’t watching an episode of The Thick Of It!

    These are real politicians and Snivel Serpents, and the general level of incompetence and plotting is, to say the least, hair-raising, even for those of us who have been round the block a few times and have learnt the hard way how they conduct themselves.

    1. Deliberate. Covid19 was a scamdemic, laying the foundations for keeping us all inside to get used to not going anywhere, not socialising, not using our cars … just priming us for the great reset. They’ve done well.

  17. Selfie with Jacob Rees-Mogg used as ‘evidence of far-Right extremism’ by police

    Former civil servant claims counter-terror officers were ‘heavy-handed and violent’ during dawn raid that led to no charges

    By Steven Edginton • 12 September 2023 • 9:00pm

    A former civil servant has accused counter-terrorism police of using a selfie with Jacob Rees Mogg as evidence that he was a “far-Right extremist”. Andrew Hale-Byrne, a former trade official, was arrested in October 2020 during Operation Asperite, the now-concluded investigation into the leak of government memos sent by Kim Darroch, the former British ambassador in Washington.

    Lord Darroch resigned in July 2019 following the disclosure of his comments describing Donald Trump, the former US president, as “inept”. The former ambassador’s resignation was welcomed by some Brexiteers, including Nigel Farage, who urged on social media for “a non-Remainer who wants a trade deal with America” to fill the post.

    Mr Hale-Byrne says he was asked how he voted in the Brexit referendum while being interviewed by officers. Speaking to The Telegraph, Mr Hale-Byrne described how, during Operation Asperite, officers tried to paint him “in a particular political light to fit their narrative that they were trying to build”.

    The former official, who was released from bail in April 2021 without being charged, said he met Mr Rees Mogg, then a Cabinet Office minister, at an event discussing the Northern Ireland protocol in 2020 when he asked for a selfie.

    Mr Hale-Byrne continued: “After the police confiscated my phone and gave all my electronic equipment to GCHQ they were really clutching for straws. They couldn’t find anything to link me to the Darroch leaks and so they started going for personal stuff and they’re like, why would you have your picture taken with such a person, someone who’s so far on the Right, etc.?”

    The former official claimed officers accused Mr Rees Mogg of being a “far-Right extremist”.

    In February 2022, Mr Hale-Byrne complained to the Metropolitan police, claiming that the officers’ treatment of him was “absurdly heavy-handed and violent” and left him with post-traumatic stress disorder. A police investigation by the Professional Standards Unit, which operates from the same building and oversees complaints involving Counter Terrorism Command, did not uphold any of his allegations.

    Mr Hale-Byrne referred the handling of his complaint to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), who in June ruled that it had not been properly investigated. The IOPC’s report states that it has directed the Metropolitan police to “reconsider the documents and emails which set out Mr Hale-Byrne’s concerns and to formally record the complaints that were not addressed”.

    Among the dozens of allegations made by Mr Hale-Byrne is a claim that despite a police assessment that he was not a risk, fourteen armed counter-terrorism officers smashed down his door during a dawn raid on 14th Oct 2020.

    Mr Hale-Byrne was suffering from a post-cancer operation infection when the police raided his home. The former official claimed officers dragged him from his bed, crowded into his bathroom while he was defecating, chose his underwear and watched him get dressed, laughed at him and told him to “s— in your pants” prior to getting into a police car, and trashed his home during their search.

    The IOPC’s report said that “the force’s response [to these allegations] did not refer to any of these concerns.”

    Mr Hale-Byrne claims during his journey to the police station he soiled himself and was told he was not allowed to shower, and was then held in a freezing cell while being dangerously ill. His complaint alleged that a police officer “contacted the wife of the vicar who runs my prayer group and asked her about what we prayed about”. [Mr Hale-Byrne is obviously a religious extremist.]

    He also claims that his reverend was contacted by two plain-clothes police officers who said they were from “Special Branch”, however the reverend refused to be interviewed.

    According to the IOPC report, the counter-terrorism police did not launch a formal investigation into the allegations, and instead chose to deal with the complaint “otherwise than by investigation”.

    The report continues: “This means the force took an early view that there was no indication from the complaints that a person serving with the police may have behaved in a manner that would justify the bringing of disciplinary proceedings, or, that there may have been any infringement of your rights under Article 2 or 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights.”

    The IOPC expressed “surprise” that both a formal investigation was not launched, and “that the Professional Services Department effectively delegated the complaint handling to the counter terrorism team at local level despite the high profile, and wide-ranging nature of the complaints. These decisions lead me to believe the Metropolitan Police Service may have underestimated or downplayed the range and complexity of your complaints at an early stage.”

    The IOPC recommended that the Met reinvestigate the complaints through an independent body.

    However, according to an email sent to Mr Hale-Byrne on 8 Sept and seen by The Telegraph, from a senior officer from the Met’s Directorate of Professional Standards (DPS), this recommendation has been ignored.

    The Met’s website defines the DPS as dealing with “investigations into serious, complex matters whereby the allegation(s) against officers are so severe that dismissal from the police service is a possible outcome”.

    However, the website states that “less serious” investigations “may be dealt with locally by Professional Standards Units”, which is what happened in Mr Hale-Byrne’s case. The officer from the DPS claimed that the original investigators were “not members of the ‘local team’ subject to [Mr Hale-Byrne’s] complaint” and therefore he “decided not to accept the IOPC recommendation or your request for the matter to be allocated within the DPS”.

    Mr Hale-Byrne is also suing the Secretaries of State for the Department for Business and Trade, and the Foreign Office, for misfeasance in public office.

    The court documents include the claim that Lord Darroch leaked classified intelligence to a CNN reporter, Michelle Kosinski, in exchange for sex. Ms Kosinski denies she had a relationship with Lord Darroch and that he was the source of her stories when she was CNN’s White House correspondent.

    The Metropolitan Police Service were contacted for comment.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/09/12/jacob-rees-mogg-selfie-hale-byrne-far-right-darroch

    2. If Jacob Rees-Mogg is as reasonable, rational, gentlemanly and principled as he pretends to be then why is he not leading a coup against Sunak from within the Conservative Party?

      He has said that he will always be a Conservative and that he could not bear to leave his beloved party but it is not the Conservative Party in anything more than name any more so surely he must either leave it or save it from within?

      Surely he can see that the Conservative Party will be totally eliminated unless it gets rid of Sunak now. Cannot Rees-Mogg see that if he remains in the party it is his duty to try and save it?

    4. Plod seem unable to investigate shop lifting but have infinite resources for ‘far Right’ despite the real danger being from the Left – stonewall, hate no hope,

    5. Reading the account, I am in two minds about the episode.
      Mr. H-B doesn’t sound too stable; whether it is innate or the result of his alleged illness is impossible to tell.
      But, for the past 30 years in particular, the eye-watering levels of lying that have been inflicted on us, make me sceptical of anything uttered by the British government or its apparatchiks.

        2. I did send birthday greetings in the early hours of the morning, but in case you didn’t get them, many happy returns of the day!

      1. I’v already had a chum singing down the phone.
        Note to self: treat ****** to singing lessons for Christmas.

      2. I’v already had a chum singing down the phone.
        Note to self: treat ****** to singing lessons for Christmas.

  21. Good morrow, Gentlefolks, today’s story

    It’s Not What It Sounds Like
    One day Ed goes over to Bob’s house looking for him, but the only one there is Bob’s wife.

    “Where’s Bob?” Ed asks.

    “Out at a bar,” she tells him, then adds “I’ll tell you which one if you loan me $50 so I can go to the beauty parlour!”

    “Well,” Ed replies, “that’s all I got, but sure, I’ll lend you a fifty.”

    She tells Ed Bob is at O’Malley’s.

    When Ed gets to O’Malley’s, he sees that Bob and the boys have already finished their first round of drinks.

    “Buddy boy!

    “Sorry, Bob,” Ed replies. ” I just blew my wad on your wife’s face.”

  22. Against my better judgment, but as a loyal spouse, I watched the Coonsberg woman’s TV prog about Brexit.

    The sheer mendacity and duplicity and turncoatery of the “Tory MP” talking heads was appalling. They simply lied through their teeth.
    Unspeakable people. Never to be voted for again.

    And there is another part to come….

    1. ‘Morning, Bill. I think we all knew that things were pretty bad, but it was painful to have to watch the participants admitting it – and more.

      1. Boris Johnson was essentially weak – he should have had all remainer Conservative MPs deselected before the 2019 general election.

        But I blame Nigel Farage for not seeing that Boris talked bollocks without having them (apart from procreatively!) and forcing him into a pact.

        Farage agreed to withdraw Brexit Party candidates from contesting all Conservative held seats – including seats held by remainers. This has led to a House of Commons still stuffed with treacherous remainers who promised to support Brexit and then failed to do so.

        And why, with an 80 seat majority, did not the limp Bonker get rid of the Benn law so that he could confront the EU without his hands tied behind his back?

        1. Farage was a member of the tory party and has not yet accepted how much they have moved to the left

    2. Apologies Bill, but what did you expect? The BBC is never, ever going to present a rational view of Brexit to discuss the intentional failures, the deliberate attempts by the state to remain chained, the missed opportunities, the ignored choices (reservoirs) and it is going to continually promote the EU and accentuate the negatives of leaving using cherry picked data.

      The BBC lies. It has to to defend it’s position.

      1. My beef – for once – was not about the beeboids. It was seeing MP after MP looking at the camera and lying his head off.

        1. Happy birthday Anne I hope your day will be as wonderful as mine was. I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. To you 🤩🥂🍾🎂🌹🌺🌷

    4. That’s politicians for you, pathological and habitual liars. Cheats turncoats who commit treason at every invented possibility. Absolute A holes.

  23. Good Moaning.
    “A Mumsnet user has been widely mocked for asking ‘what happened to the planes on 9/11’ before musing if they ‘crash landed’ or ‘continued flying’. …..
    ……. The user went on to explain they did not remember the terrorist attack as they were only aged two when it happened and that they had recently been handed a case study researching mass disasters. ”

    Either the Little Flower has a sense of humour or is just genuinely dim.
    Hiroshima happened when I was not of the age to understand, but well before the age of 24 common sense told me that many human beings perished. And that the planes flew back to base. All this knowledge before the interwebby made research easier.

    1. Remember that children are now taught that it was imperialistic, war-mongering Britain that 84 years ago declared war on helpless, undefended Germany….

    2. Happy birthday.
      Just to make your day, recall that next year is a leap year so in 2024 it will be on Friday.
      Have a year of splendid good luck until then…

      1. When I had my hip done, the only free date was Friday, 13th.
        The surgeon smiled and asked me if I worried about such things. I explained that the number 13 hadn’t done me any harm so far.
        Thank goodness I did; less than a fortnight later, Johnson and Co. shut the country down.

        1. I must admit that I have never been bothered by it and am unsure why it should be so. Crucifixion possible?

        2. When i had my hip op 15 years ago the surgeon was a member of the same golf club and lived on the edge of the village.
          He came to see me just before I had the general anesthetic.
          I tapped his arm and said “I know were you live”. He did laugh.

        3. Happy birthday again.

          Should I place you in the Trombone Club, The Sunset Strip Club or the Shellac Record Club? Or is it a secret?

        1. Hello Anne

          I am feeling rather empty , poor Jack.

          He had a lovely aroma , soft fur and wonderful eyes , he followed me everywhere , and always woke up , even though I thought he was fast asleep and gently snoring, when I got up from my chair.

          Because he was on so many pills , he needed to be encouraged to wee every few hours , so we would walk around the garden until he decided to choose a fresh spot to wee. He was a wonderful chap, but I suspect Pip will soon stop being the spare and then become the Heir as his new found confidence grows with all the fresh attention . He was the baby , and snuggled into Jack for cuddles ..

    4. Yo anne

      Happy Birthday and of course even happier 365 Unbirthdays to the next anniversary of it

      1. Daleks are effectual being a transport mechanism for a super intelligent species. Although I would agree that the aggression, vindictiveness and desire to rule match up.

        We need a Doctor to wipe them out. Sadly, good people have morals which politicians lack.

        https://youtu.be/RUNLK2oN5c4?t=2259

          2. All the robotics companies say their robots in civilian settings are not to be weaponised. Tasers, DEWS, nerve gas etc.
            And if you believe that i have a bridge to sell you.

  25. Morning all 🙂😊
    🤔 I’m a bit late today I’ve only just woken up for the second time. 5:30 was far too early.
    Lovely sunny day after my I told you so Rainman birthday. But we managed.
    I have a 100% record of every time we go on holiday or to something or somewhere important. It rains.
    I think I mentioned the epic journey from Northern Qld towing our home, a caravan to Melbourne early December 1979. We stayed over in a NSW inland town with the name of Coonabarrabran. Where It hadn’t rain for around three years……

    2. Whilst serving in the RAF, my folks dubbed me ‘Noah’ as every time I turned up on leave it rained. I’ve been deployed to Sodding Arabia twice, it rained both times. I’ve also scaled Snowdon seven times and the aggregate length of the view is about 200 yds. Pah, sunshine is overrated anyway. 😉

    3. Lovely. My mother’s 70 and wouldn’t do that. I do sometimes wonder that Junior’s inherited my tone deafness. I find music weirdly annoying. I don’t quite know why but Junior isn’t a great music person either. The Warqueen doesn’t play anything which I find odd as she’s a genuine polymath and instruments being based in maths – tend to be amongst very bright folk.

      1. Being able to play is a gift – I learnt the violin when I was at school but wish I’d learnt the piano. At least my OH can play the ancient piano I inherited from my mother.

        1. I learned to play the piano and the guitar (failed miserably with the clarinet), but prefer to sing (ex chorister).

  28. Homes across London cut off and schools close. 13 September 2023.

    Large swathes of homes in London have been left without water or with no pressure after a fault was reported at a plant in the capital.

    Schools have confirmed they will remain closed on Wednesday amid widespread disruption as MPs called on Thames Water to update residents when supplies will return to normal.

    Thames Water has said it is preparing to bring tankers to support hospitals with thousands understood to have been affected by the outage.

    Third World!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/09/13/thames-water-outage-london-cut-off-homes/

    2. Let’s hope this is a genuine one-off event but with all that’s going on I have been wondering when the freaks might go for the water supply. With governments conniving in the madness these people are literally out of control.

  29. Yesterday my birthday, although I only saw one of our sons, youngest on holiday in the Caribbean.
    Eldest flat out at work.
    My lovely wife found something fantastic locally available.
    We had I suppose what could be called supper, early dinner, at The Ivy restaurant in St Albans.
    Then across the road to the Alban Arena for 7:30 to see probably one of the best live bands in Britain. The Illegal Eagles.
    Packed with oldies enjoying the brilliant wonderful authentic sound of the 70s US band.
    Wonderful vocal harmonies and fantastic music, along with humoured announcements and observances of the eldey audience.
    Hand clapping and even singing along.
    If you are interested lake a look at their long list of venues planned for future gigs. Just Google. Illegal Eagles.

    1. I have just refilled the windscreen washer on our car sat in and turned on ignition to work the wipers, the radio came on and the radio station was playing the Eagles Lying Eyes.
      They told a story last night about the origin of the lyrics.
      Early 70s Glen Frey and Don Henley were in a bar in California and they wondered why there were so many young women with potentially rich, much older men……

        1. That’s just what I’m looking for. I’m currently wanting to meet a 59 year old Glasgow girl who seems to be gagging for it. Wish me luck or whatever rhymes with it!

    2. Afternoon, RE. I missed the announcement so, belated Birthday Greetings to you.
      I saw the Illegal Eagles in Clacton-on-Sea a few weeks ago and I agree that they are very good. Was their encore, Hotel California? A few people in the audience near me were surprised that they hadn’t sung that song but I was convinced that they would come back and play it. And of course they did. The guitar solo was everything that you could hope for. Glad you enjoyed their show.

        1. That’s got me stumped. I can’t remember. I did notice that three of them could play lead and at least two of those played the keyboard.

    3. Probably better than the legal Eagles*. We saw them at a concert in Ottawa. The group came on stage, performed their songs and left. No interaction between themselves or with the auduence. They played well but we might as well have stayed at home and listened to their albums.

      It might be the venue at fault. Van Morrison wax the same and the only audience interaction during a Bob Dylan concert was an announcement that because of a fear of illegal recordings, video screens were being turned off.

      * no relationship to our legal beagle.

  30. Anyone else get an email this morning from “Not our Future”?

    We have had a lot of interest in the email we sent
    out a couple of weeks ago. In case you missed it, it was a summary of
    our new campaign which we will be launching in October.

    Many
    people have already asked to become volunteers, local committee members
    or candidates. The most common questions were around the criteria for
    becoming a candidate. How can we make sure they won’t be self-serving
    ****s like all the others?

    We’re sending out this
    email so that everyone can be clear where we stand. More details will be
    available on the new website when we launch but, for now, this should
    get you up to speed.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/af9f9a8de0b886afeb289d67de696d3efe900f3d9bac0183e1fbdd5d9e824140.png

    1. “To this end, we will be fielding 650 independent candidates in the next general election with the aim of giving the people control of the Government for the first time ever. Yes, for the first time. The British people have NEVER been in control of the Government that rules over them. “Take Back Control” was a misnomer at best and neuro-linguistic programming at worst.“

        1. NOTA (None Of The Above) candidates could unite and dent the system a bit but how can a real change be effected without a revolution?

    1. One glance at the psychiatrist is enough to know that he has a very different notion of what constitutes “‘distorted sexual attitudes towards children’ to what we consider acceptable.

    2. At least the tribunal made the right decision. I hope they don’t use that doctor again for his opinion.

  33. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3da7584903d908261bdcaa8d998d7941fa7ddbc2bf91ad27e99b61e40aac8690.png

    I never use these machines – I always prefer to deal with a human being. Indeed, I always make a noisy point of telling the people manning the tills that they ought to go on strike as the machines are a danger to their continued employment at a cash desk.

    Often the people behind me in the queue join in and tell them they hate the machines as much as I do and say that the till employees should take action and not put up with being replaced.

      2. I deliberately use the checkouts for one or two items. Edit: I have a rebellious nature when it comes to authority. It made itself clear very early on when I walked out of school two days running, my first day at school and the day after. I wasn’t missed the first day but I was discovered missing the second day, two goody-goody older girls saw me leaving the playground and snitched. I can see them yet…! However, normally I am quite accommodating and one of nature’s teddy bears, I dislike confrontation and I prefer easy- going atmospheres. I just dislike authority more.

    2. We use them all the time as we do not have to unload our truck, then the cashier picks and chooses the item they want to read that is not in the order we gave to her. We then have to repack our truck and resort it again no one to help . The best move we ever made to suit us. Try it, think about it. Its so much quicker and far less frustrating and tiring. the girls in our area are are just so hepful and pleasant.

        1. Never had a problem just know we are leving the store before people have reached the check out desk. with no lifting in & out.

  34. Covid scare under way.

    They were at it on the news last night. Big wave coming, seniors at risk, everyone over six months old should get the brand new covid jab that will be available

    Believe it or not, the disrespected medical officer of health wore a face mask when she presented this incitement to panic.

    1. The brand new jab that was tested on 20 mice. The brand new jab that was not tested against the latest scariants.

      BREAKING–Pfizer XBB.1.5 Monovalent Vaccine Tested in 20 Mice, No Control Group, and No Humans

      Emergency Authorization Granted without Emergency or Human Data

      Peter McCullough, MD

      Sep 13, 2023

      By Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPH

      At
      this point, the American public and scientific community is
      flabbergasted at the complete regulatory malfeasance committed by US FDA
      VRBPAC and CDC panelists. As of September 12, 2023, the prior bivalent
      (original Wuhan /BA4/BA5 mRNA Code) has been retired and the new XBB.1.5
      monovalent vaccines have been emergency use authorized. From the
      Pfizer core slides released today, there was a single experiment with 10
      mice assigned to the prior BA4/BA5 bivalent and 10 assigned to the new
      XBB.1.5 monovalent vaccine. They were injected twice, 21 days apart.
      The new booster was authorized for a single 30 mcg shot in humans.

      2. The mask is the hypnotist’s equivalent of the click of the fingers to put the branch covidian under again.

  36. How, when, and why did this forum come into existence?

    Who were the founder members and are they all still here? I would be very interested in hearing about this.

    In my case Bill noticed that I was a regular BTL commentator on DT articles and he worked out who I was from my pseudonym and the sort of points I raised and as we knew each other he suggested that I visited the site which I did – and here I am still.

    1. This forum started when the DT stopped allowing comments on 1st April 2016. Previously many of us had commented on the DT letters page. I lurked and read for a long time before I jumped in and posted anything. By that time I felt I knew people.

        1. We were all still on the letters page then – Geoff started this forum when the DT stopped allowing comments, not long before the referendum in 2016.

      2. Same for me, lurking before posting!! Having little knowledge now of British politics, it becomes harder to comment, it seems a very different country to what I knew and loved.

        1. It’s changed beyond all recognition in the last 30 years especially – but we’re still here! We who remember what life was like in the 50s and 60s. I was a child in the 50s and had great freedom, unlike the regulated lives children have now.

          1. I remember how liberal the 90’s were. How it felt as if anything was possible, that the future was one of growing technology, opportunity and equality. Then Blair got in and the country went to manure and the faux Tories have kept it there.

    2. I commenced commenting on the old DT Letters’ forum way back in 2010, when I still lived in the UK. I was grizzly (lower case ‘g’) back then and acquired my current (upper case ‘G’) username when Disqus ‘lost’ my original.

  37. How, when, and why did this forum come into existence?

    Who were the founder members and are they all still here? I would be very interested in hearing about this.

    In my case Bill noticed that I was a regular BTL commentator on DT articles and he worked out who I was from my pseudonym and the sort of points I raised and as we knew each other he suggested that I visited the site which I did – and here I am still.

    1. Yo, Mr Effort.

      ‘Wokism’ is incapable of dimming my senses. My senses are much too awake for any ‘woke’ quarter-wit to get even close to dim them.

      1. Fanx, it takes a very brave Rupert/Rodney (JUNIOR Orficer) to scream at a CPO in that manner………

    4. Curses; no readundery.
      After struggling with bloody back doors at our son’s house while desperate dogs wanted get out plus travelling half way round North Essex to get to the butchers because the council decided to block the road to trim a small hedge, patient reading is not my thing.

    5. Funnily enough I’ve always thought that designers are taking the mickey out of women when seeing their “collections”. I invariably think who on earth would want to wear that!

  42. And in other cat news. In November 2004 we were given a eight week old female ginger kitten whom we called Mousie. She rejuvenated the elderly Thompson whose brother, Bob, had died that summer.

    In 2009, when the MR took her job in Monaco, a cat-loving chum agreed to take Mousie.

    Well, yesterday, Mousie was 19. Here she is – fur a bit scratty – but alive and well still:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0b45624799c11a8970704334007f217fd8c764ba27075022a66f3a8b11761927.jpg

        2. In other DM stories the BTL often take the mickey out of the so called journalism and say …Yes, yes but how much was their house worth.

      1. We only see her once or twice a year. I have always trained my cats too respond to a whistle. Earlier this year, we called in to see Jan (our pal). Mousie was out in the woods. I whistled – and she immediately came to me. She certainly recognises the MR.

        A fried in upstate New York had a cat called Solomon who lived to be 22.

      2. My oldest cats were Pat & Joe, brothers born in April 1984. Joe died in late August 2001, at 17, and Pat lived another year, till August 2002. He was 18. I don’t seem to have any digital pics of them – must scan some.

        2. We had a ginger cat decades ago , similar to Bill’s boys .

          We named him Scud , he was was lovely, baby rabbit catcher , mouser , bird catcher and more like a honorary spaniel actually . He loved our previous spaniels .

          We bought him from a garden centre, when garden centres used to sell rabbits , fish and kittens and stick insects .

          Scud contracted a feline form of pusscat aids , even though he was de nobbled as a kitten . Scud did very well though because he was about 16 years old before he crossed the Rainbow Bridge . https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/58c24eb7d290d1f9a5c73596d244217b1fb395861f501f48d78d827f341bb4fd.jpg

          Pip, my remaining 10 year old w/cocker is very quiet , he knows dear Jack spaniel is missing , and is searching for him .

          I took Pip for a lovely long country walk earlier , along the Piddle , definitely jumper wearing weather now , Easterly breeze.

          Moh was playing golf , so I had the countryside to myself .. Fields are being sown already , maize is being gathered in , and the area where I walked the tracks were rutted with tractor tyres , so quite uneven to walk along, plus clumps of horse poo and mud .

          Pip flushed out a pheasant , lovely mature cock bird , it chakked loudly as it flew up and over the field .

          I must have ambled along for a mile and a bit and met up with other dog walkers and a few horse riders .

          Arrived home via Bovington and followed a couple of training tanks , belching smoke . Lots of activity , well I guess the country has to be prepared .

          Moh arrived home before me , and he had made himself an egg sandwich, I think he singed the pan .

          1. I find that searching for their companion absolutely heart breaking.
            George was put to sleep at home, so we could show him to Hamish before his brother was taken away.

          2. One of my neighbours, who used to breed English setters, said she made a dreadful mistake when she had one of her two put down and didn’t let the other one see or know. The survivor kept looking for his mate and never really settled.

          3. Did Jack die at home? If so, Pip might have understood better by being allowed to see & sniff the corpse.
            Pets have feelings too, and are brighter than most people think. They need the chance to say “goodbye”, as do we human animals.
            Big Cat pines when Little Cat is absent.

          4. Sadly OB, we had no choice but to take Jack to our vet practise situated just outside the village .

            My dear dog was gently treated , sedated , and then eventually led down the path to eternal life .

            Pip knew that Jack had deteriorated quickly during the day, because he licked his face and fussed over him .

            I have washed all the bedding , and hopefully will complete cleaning the carpets tomorrow with the Vax machine .

          5. Wasn’t Pip able to be with Jack and know that he’d gone? I took Charlie along when Jazz had to be put to sleep. Mind you, Charlie being Charlie, he took one sniff, thought “he’s gone” and started looking for treats. Charlie was always destined to be an only dog.

        2. There are a couple of cats further along our road that are pensioners.
          They just give Spartie a death stare, and he decides to cross the road.

          1. She was the best cat and we have had some lovely cats mostly from the Blue Cross or Cats Protection League.

            She died on Easter Day in what seemed to us an agonising battle. She went under the bed having vomited and went very cold before eventually expiring after two hours. We could do nothing but try to comfort her.

            We phoned the emergency vet number but it seemed hopeless so we had to allow matters to take their course.

            Usually we have arranged for euthanasia at home as we did for our Lhasa Apso Sinbad last year.

            Edit: when Sinbad was euthanised we placed him on the refectory table in the kitchen. During the process Princess (Paris) jumped onto the table to check what was going on. Carol fed Sinbad small treats until the little fellow breathed his last.

          2. I had to take Charlie to the vet. It was dreadful because they still had Covid restrictions and he was put to sleep outside. I had to wear a mask to be with him (even outdoors) which added to the misery. I kept talking to him, but my voice must have been muffled and he couldn’t see my face. My last view of him was him being carried away wrapped in a towel. It upsets me even now.

  43. Putin and Kim dine on crab dumplings and shrub sorbet. 13 September 2023.

    The two dictators enjoy a lavish meal with bilberry dessert at their meeting in Russia’s far east where they discussed weapons technology.

    A lavish menu of duck and fig salad, crab dumplings, sturgeon and beef will be presented to Kim Jong-un and Vladimir Putin as they discuss a potential arms and weapons technology deal at a cosmodrome in Russia’s far east.

    Their rich meal will start with speciality dumplings made with Kamchatka crab, White Amur fish soup and a sorbet from sea buckthorn, a deciduous shrub – all washed down with red and white wines from the Divnomorskoe manor in Southern Russia, a Kremlin reporter said on Wednesday.

    The main course will offer a choice of sturgeon with mushrooms and potatoes or an entrecote of marbled beef with grilled vegetables, followed by a calorific dessert of red bilberries from the taiga with pine nuts and condensed milk.

    Just for Nottler gourmets. Can I observe in passing that despite all the speculation and assertions no one knows what they discussed.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/09/13/kim-jong-un-putin-meeting-dinner-menu-cosmodrone-spaceport/

    3. Similar to the Davos menus then. Mention of sturgeon brings to mind a vision of head of Sturgeon on a platter with an apple in her gob. Just popping to the kitchen for some mind bleach.

    4. It’s funny that Russia gives it’s cast off weapons to North Korea and we give our cast off to Ukraine, yet they’re the bad guys. At least Putin and Jong Ill are honest about their authoritarianism.

    6. I imagine they discussed maintenance of good trade relations. Those areas of the economy resulting directly from US and UN sanctions.

      Probably Putin to lay on a pipeline for gas, the provision of fertiliser and cereal crops even tractors. Kim will supply Russia with minerals but I doubt that Russia needs armaments or ammunition.

      The stupid Biden administration by going ‘sanctions mad’ has managed to undo all of Trump’s good works. Trump met Kim in Hanoi and was seeking to have good relations with all Koreans. Likewise Trump built good relations with Putin.

      As with every other bright idea conjured by Obama, Nuland, Blinken and Sullivan these sanctions have backfired completely.

  44. Adults sought by police over Sara Sharif death fly back to UK. 13 September 2023.

    The father, stepmother and uncle of 10-year-old Sara Sharif, who was found dead at her home in Surrey last month, are on their way back to the UK.

    Sara’s father, Urfan Sharif, 41, her stepmother, Beinash Batool, 29, and her uncle, Faisal Malik, 28, left Sialkot airport in Pakistan on Wednesday morning after negotiations with the police and British authorities, sources told the Guardian. They are expected to arrive in the UK on Wednesday evening.

    Well we can look forward to the trial and the contortions of the MSM as they try to convince us that it was all due to white prejudice against Muslim tradition.

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/sep/13/family-of-sara-sharif-fly-back-to-uk-from-pakistan

    2. I expect them to be arrested at the airport with a full BBC camera crew in tow.

      I’m dreaming aren’t I ? …They will be collected in a blacked out minibus from the VIP area and taken to a safe house.

    1. We let it our sub expire altogether and then started afresh with a special offer which came along virtually immediately. Don’t remember how much we paid but it was well under £100 – not as good as Richard II’s! Not sure how he managed that one.

  46. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/09/13/prank-new-york-fashion-week-bag-shower-cap/

    Watch: Prankster in bin bag and shower cap invades catwalk at New York Fashion Week

    YouTuber tackled by security after audience appeared not to notice he was an intruder

    By Benedict Smith 13 September 2023 • 10:55am

    A prankster wearing a bin bag and shower cap made his way down the New York Fashion Week catwalk before being bundled off stage by security.

    The man, also clad in a pair of salmon-coloured shorts and trainers, was seen checking over his shoulder before nonchalantly strutting down the room.

    The audience appeared not to notice he was an intruder.

    But as he reached the end of the catwalk, a security guard ran towards him and bundled him away while spectators clasped their hands to their mouths.

    It is unclear how the man managed to make his way into the fashion show, which was hosted by Creators Inc, an agency for social media influencers.

    One person on social media said it was “probably the best outfit of the week”, while others noted that the audience did not seem to find his costume unusual.

    Another commenter suggested the prankster might have gone undetected if he had not self-consciously turned around before starting his parade.

    Some have named the man as Fred Beyer, a YouTuber known for creating prank videos, including “trolling an all-women convention” and pretending to drink-drive.

    Beyer commented with a laughing emoji under a clip of the catwalk prank but has not explicitly confirmed he was responsible for gatecrashing the event.

    It marks the latest disruptive scene at this year’s fashion show, which has also been invaded by animal rights protesters, one of whom carried a sign reading: “Leather kills”.

    https://youtu.be/HDM-iiV7kUo

  47. OT – near where we stayed in Brittany there is village called BATZ. You will be delighted to know that it has a BELFRY.

    3. I stayed in Batz-sur-mer in Brittany when I was on an exchange visit with a French lad when I was at school

        1. I had a great holiday there, it was his family’s holiday home – they lived in Marseilles where the rest of the school went.
          I was 15 and this lad had a 17 year old sister who was a cracker………..😜

    1. They are going to have to shoot at the boats to stop them, and soon, before there’s an awful disaster.

        2. I have witnessed sheer arrogance myself. The whole establishment is telling them that they are entitled to break the law and be anti-white and nobody is allowed to criticise them because slavery – the consequences of that are utterly predictable.

        3. Same old story true for many years. You can take the person out of the jungle, but not take the jungle out of the person.

  51. When the climate crisis meets a failed state, the outcome is the kind of disaster that Libya is witnessing in Derna.

    Any city would have struggled with the extraordinary level of precipitation that Storm Daniel visited upon Libya’s northern coast. In its earlier, milder form, the storm caused severe damage in Greece before it crossed the Mediterranean.

    Nevertheless, the extent of the devastation – a quarter of a city was swept into the sea in what is being described as Libya’s 9/11 – is also a function of the country’s failed politics.

    By chance I caught the BBC coverage of this story and they followed a very similar line to here. The floods were terrible but it was worse because of the Libyan Civil War. How exactly neither explains. They have a crisis next door in Tunisia and despite having an undivided government things are not very much better.

    What I suspect this is really about is fending off any criticism of the part that the UK played in overthrowing Muammar Gaddhafi. Despite all his shortcomings he raised the Libyan standard of living to the highest in Africa. He also undertook a vast irrigation project that brought fresh water to the coastal region. I’m not certain whether the two dams that have collapsed were a part of that and were weakened under the western attack (the general system was destroyed) but it would explain these reports.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/13/libya-floods-the-outcome-of-the-climate-crisis-meeting-a-failed-state

    1. I worked in Libya for several years, on a visiting basis. It was a great place, as you mention, with good and improving standards. To read of and see the place these days is heart-breaking; I’m really sad for the place, it doesn’ t deserve such ruination. Libyans are fine people.
      🙁

      1. Everywhere the West goes hundreds of thousands of indigenous peoples die before the west washes its hands of the damage it’s does and moves on to create another disaster.

      2. Everywhere the West goes hundreds of thousands of indigenous peoples die before the west washes its hands of the damage it’s does and moves on to create another disaster.

    1. Me too.

      Wordle 816 4/6

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

      1. And me.

        Wordle 816 4/6

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

    2. Chilly? Not here. Pleasantly mild and a relief from last week’s heatwave. I do not like high temperatures at all. Better 60F than 80F.

  55. “Commodore” is the answer to 25 across in the DT cryptic crossword. “High rank for an old PC.”
    I remember Commodore. Their shop in Crouch Street in Colchester was a glorious former fishmonger’s with tile pictures of fishing on it walls.
    The ignorant b’stards hammered battens into those tiles and then covered them with sodding plasterboard. The only sign of the shop’s former use is the two dolphins above the shop window.
    God Rot Their Souls.

        1. IIRC Hearsum’s had at least two shops, one in Crouch St – although something keeps niggling me that they had two there – and another in the High St. The latter between the Town Hall and the Gaumont?
          The 1950s Crouch St had just about everything one could want, a cinema, pubs, coffee bar, baker, a grocer (Gunton’s remains) fishmonger, sweet shops, newsagents, cycle and toy shop (West End Cycles) and even a dentist, Roland Still. The western end of the street remains quite a nice place but the eastern end is rather tacky. Such a shame but some would call it progress.

        2. IIRC Hearsum’s had at least two shops, one in Crouch St – although something keeps niggling me that they had two there – and another in the High St. The latter between the Town Hall and the Gaumont?
          The 1950s Crouch St had just about everything one could want, a cinema, pubs, coffee bar, baker, a grocer (Gunton’s remains) fishmonger, sweet shops, newsagents, cycle and toy shop (West End Cycles) and even a dentist, Roland Still. The western end of the street remains quite a nice place but the eastern end is rather tacky. Such a shame but some would call it progress.

    2. I get that googling symptoms might yield unorthodox remedies, but I don’t get the second video at all.

  57. The mystery why so many migrants are arriving on our shores has just dawned on me.

    All their local shops have been looted and closed down

    1. If I may:
      The mystery why so many migrants are arriving on our shores has just dawned on me.
      They’ve looted all their local shops which have been closed down

    1. The International Space Station is dependent on Russian space technology. Putin met Kim at Russia’s newest space exploration facility and essentially showed Kim around and introduced him to Russian scientists.

      Expect more economic ties between Russia and Korea including the sharing of scientists and skilled workers. Expect Russian factories to be located in Korea and staffed by Korean workers.

      Proof of the consequences of the most ignorant and damaging policies of the inept and increasingly dangerous Biden regime. US and UN sanctions no longer yield the intended results and simply backfire with a vengeance.

        1. Perhaps, but 6 weeks as PM ain’t a lot of time. The Tory Party thought she was dangerous though, which is why she was done in, so maybe she was ok.

          1. When Truss and Sunak stood against each other in the Tory leadership elections the votes of the Conservative party membership trounced Sunak. It was external forces (WEF) who didn’t like her and effectively forced her to drop her excellent economic plans to attract inward investment and replace her Chancellor with Hunt. Lack of support from Conservative MPs were what ultimately forced her to resign. We live with the results today.

    2. a callous decision to keep an 80-year old man in office when he would be far better off enjoying his retirement

      in an asylum.

    3. Apparently every US President with Biden’s dismal ratings has either resigned or started a war. I guess they’ve gone for “resigned.”

        1. Both, then. Gen Z is too lazy, disillusioned, fond of their own comfort and apathetic to go to fight for a country that doesn’t belong to them. And they’re hardly likely to fight for climate change when they can’t even be bothered to split their recycling.

    2. Why do you think the British governments have disarmed everyone other than agents of the state and criminals?

  62. Went to the cinema this evening for the first time in years.

    Sound of Freedom finally got a UK release on 1 Sept and finishes tomorrow but I only realised on Monday. I’d have chickened out because it was never going to be an easy watch but I mentioned it to a colleague at work and she made the decision for me.

    We’re both glad we’ve seen it. It’s a distressing story but true and well told. Very effective in explaining how child sex trafficking works. The island sequence yelled Epstein.

    There was a very long list in the end credits of sponsors who contributed to the distribution costs and Mel Gibson is the executive producer, which I didn’t know but it comes as no surprise.

  64. Well that’s me for another day. An afternoon at the Lexden History Group for a talk on Jane and Ann Taylor (Jane wrote “Twinkle twinkle little star”) and later a ZOOM talk from the Aberdeen branch of the Dickens Fellowship by Professor Robert Douglas-Fairhurst on “The Turning Point” in Dickens’s life (1851 and his reaction to The Great Exhibition of that year). Earlier I spent some time sorting through a collection of music books and before that (at 5 am) I watched an early episode of Endeavour called “ICARUS”. A day of culture. Tomorrow night it’s curry at a local curry restaurant after another massive effort to solve more of my computer problems. So I’m off to bed now. Good night, everyone, and sleep well.

  65. Evening, all. Been a lovely day here. Shame it’s going to hiss down tomorrow as the windscreen repair team didn’t turn up today, but have informed me they are coming tomorrow instead.

  66. Evening, all. Been a lovely day here. Shame it’s going to hiss down tomorrow as the windscreen repair team didn’t turn up today, but have informed me they are coming tomorrow instead.

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