Thursday 14 September: Why should pensioners suffer while striking civil servants get bonuses?

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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352 thoughts on “Thursday 14 September: Why should pensioners suffer while striking civil servants get bonuses?”

        1. That gets the apple, I would have thought. There is only one thing worse than finding a worm in your apple – finding half a worm 🙂

  3. Good morrow, Gentlefolks, today’s story

    Why Motorcycles Are Better Than Women

     Motorcycles only need their fluids changed every 2,000 miles.
     Motorcycles curves never sag.
     Motorcycles last longer.
     Motorcycles don’t get pregnant.
     You can ride a Motorcycle any time of the month.
     Motorcycles don’t have parents.
     Motorcycles don’t whine unless something is really wrong.
     You can kick your Motorcycle to wake it up.
     You can share your Motorcycle with your friends.
     If your Motorcycle makes too much noise, you can buy a muffler.
     You only need to get a new chain or belt for your Motorcycle when the old one is really worn.
     If your Motorcycle smokes, you can do something about it.
     Motorcycles don’t care about how many other Motorcycles you have ridden.
     When riding, you and your Motorcycle both arrive at the same time.
     Motorcycles don’t care about how many other Motorcycles you have.
     Motorcycles don’t mind if you look at other Motorcycles, or if you buy Motorcycle magazines.
     New Motorcycles must be asked for, and if you don’t want to pay for them, you don’t get them.
     If your Motorcycle goes flat, you can fix it.
     If your Motorcycle is too loose, you can tighten it.
     If your Motorcycle is too soft, you can get different shocks.
     If your Motorcycle is misaligned, you don’t have to discuss politics to correct it.
     You can have a beer while riding your Motorcycle.
     You don’t have to be jealous of the guy that works on your Motorcycle.
     You don’t have to deal with priests or blood-tests to register your Motorcycle.
     You don’t have to convince your Motorcycle that you’re a motorcyclist and that you think that Motorcycles are equals.
     If you say bad things to your Motorcycles, you don’t have to apologise before you can ride it again.
     You can ride a Motorcycle as long as you want and it won’t get sore.
     Your parents don’t remain in touch with your old Motorcycle after you dump it.
     Motorcycles always feel like going for a ride.
     Motorcycles don’t insult you if you are a bad rider.
     Your Motorcycle never wants a night out alone with the other Motorcycles.
     Motorcycles don’t care if you are late.
     You don’t have to take a shower before riding your Motorcycle.
     If your Motorcycle doesn’t look good, you can paint it or get better parts.
     You can’t get diseases from a Motorcycle you don’t know very well.

  5. Why should pensioners suffer while striking civil servants get bonuses?

    Because the powers that be reward people for making our lives just that little bit worse every day

    2. Same here, Bill. I’ve capitulated and put the heating on. It’s only 14 degrees C outside and damp with it.

    3. Sorry to hear about the chilly night, Uncle Bill. Do what damask_rose does (see above); wear two nightdresses. Lol. (With apologies to d_r and yourself; I just couldn’t resist it.)

  10. Keir Starmer plots deal to take EU’s migrants. 14 September 2023.

    A Labour government would accept migrants from Europe as part of a proposed deal with the EU to try to stop the small boats crisis.

    The party is considering taking a share of asylum seekers reaching Europe in return for the bloc taking back migrants who arrive illegally having crossed the Channel.

    Senior party figures believe Britain is only likely to secure a returns deal, enabling it to deport Channel migrants, if it offers to share the burden of asylum seekers reaching the continent.

    This is simply sleight of hand. The juggling of “Migrant” and “Asylum Seeker” as if they were different things. They stop coming by small boat and arrive by Plane instead. The only thing you have to know is that Labour is not going to put a stop to Mass Immigration. Rather they will increase it! ,

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/09/13/labour-keir-starmer-accept-migrants-eu-deal-small-boats/

    3. Vlad: “The lad’s got a lot to learn.”

      Young-Un: “If you lived in North Korea, I’d kill you.”

    1. There was a brief exchange on this subject on GBN last night. “They’re definitely not human”. “No, they’re papier-mâché”.

      1. I think i read that they were fossilised and 1000 years old. It takes at least 10,000 years for the fossilisation process to complete.

      2. It’s strange how so many purported aliens (from space, you understand…) have such humanoid basic structures.

        2. If life came to fruition on a planet similar to Earth in resources and especially gravity, why wouldn’t they evolve in a similar fashion to take advantage of the conditions on that planet as we have here? Recent science proclaims that there is a huge number of planets in our galaxy and amongst them many will be Earth like.

          Reports of three or four fingered aliens without an opposable thumb is a bit of an outlier when it comes to dexterity as we humans perceive it but if aliens exist perhaps their physiology overcomes what we see as necessary to take advantage of when making tools etc?

          1. Perhaps that is because the Americas is where the most dysfunctional of the intelligent part of the human race is situated.

    2. But…… there are more grabbing fingers in the front two rows of the commons than any given person could “poke a stick at”!

  14. With both UK and EU wrecking their combustion engined motor nanufacturing industries by trying to achieve net zero targets, Brussels is set to impose tarriffs on importing cheap mass produced EVs from China whilst UK has completely removed EV subsidies:

    https://www.ft.com/content/155b3114-b3a6-47a0-a1ca-fd42a1f4b722

    EVs can currently only be profitably manufactured through volume production on the scale of Tesla and BYD. Tesla’s are built to be self driving whilst BYDs are built to last until their wheels drop off.

  15. Listen to 22 minutes (Twitter link) of the brilliant Dr David Martin. He uses the criminals’ own words and documentation to reveal what has been going on for decades. His revelations reveals the WHO in a completely new light. And Sunak wants to sign the UK up to this unelected and unaccountable grouping’s regulations!

    Anyone supporting the idea of a respiratory virus stalking the World and the wonderful work of Big Pharma in combatting the virus this presentation, along with Dr Martin’s presentation to the EU (second link) earlier this year, should make them think again.

    https://twitter.com/Restitutor_/status/1701994591728066983

    Dr David Martin at the EU Conference

    1. We understand that Dr Mercola, in Florida, has had all his bank accounts closed.

      Should we assume that Dr Martin is next for account closure?

    2. Sadly, the EU is hardly an organisation that would be interested in outlawing profiteering, corruption or criminality.

  16. Morning all 🙂😊
    Lovely day today. Just the right temperature for not doing too much.
    And as civil servants are all paid from taxpayers money and produce absolutely nothing that is viable, their bonuses are for what exactly ? Being there ? Which is not they appear to be capable of.
    At least the majority of pensioners have a life times work behind them. And probably never even considering going on strike.

    1. Today the unpacking continues, only for things to be re-packed in different storage boxes!

      Then cutting boxes down for bin sized chunks.

      1. I Absolutely agree.
        It seems to me that over the past 30 years or so, there appears to have become a concept of exaggerated self importance especialy amongst people in public life. They have been leading many others along the same paths. The paths leads to a high cliff edge.
        Where as during my and many others of the same age group lives we were told or taught by our parents and educators to sort things out our selves and “get on with it”. Mental health issues did not exist.
        If anyone tries this previously successful approach now, they could quite easily end up in prison. That’s how stupid it has all become.

        1. Similar to job title inflation.
          The top bod was the General Manager, then they became the Chief General Manager, then Chief Executive, then Chief Executive Officer.
          Almost nothing about the jobs changed fundamentally, apart from the title the pay and the bonuses and the share options, all of which rose exponentially as did those of the senior underlings.

          1. The same sort of thing has happened were one of our sons works. It’s an international company he has a good job he’s very well paid and the bosses keep promoting people above him but they were never any good at their jobs and now do as little as they can get away with. Putting more pressure those who actually know why they are there and what they are supposed to achieve.
            It seems that the more noise people make the better chance they have at promotion. What does this day about the people in charge.
            It’s all very similar to the way our whole country is run now.

          2. The people that get on have lot of paper qualifications are very good at presenations and self promotion and are picked to do a job they are not fit for, by people who are not fit pick.

            A very good track record counts for nothing.

          4. More than spot on.
            Just like our politicians i liken them to Wood pigeons they grab all they can get and after drinking from the bird bath they crap in the water, and fly off.

          5. An oldie but a goody!

            Those at the bottom are treated like mushrooms : kept in the dark and fed on faeces.

          6. The same was true in education before I left. Those who couldn’t hack teaching ended up either as Heads of Department/Faculty where they didn’t have to go in the classroom or telling the workforce at the chalkface what to do and how to do it.

          7. Shades of nursing.
            You could tell on Day 1 of the training, who was aiming to pass through and get into the office ASAP.

    2. I was a snivel serpent but I never went on strike. As advisers to the great unemployables we did have to work quite hard to get them into jobs.

  18. Morning all. I’m here early because I’m waiting for the chap to come and replace my windscreen. I suspect he’ll turn up and say he can’t do it because it’s raining. I can’t remove a couple of the stickers (memberships) so they will have to be replaced. I tried tracking progress but couldn’t sign in. Perhaps I should have driven to Shrewsbury after all; it would have been done by now.

    As for the headline; why should pensioners suffer at all? We’ve paid in all our working lives. It isn’t our fault successive governments have wasted our money pissing it up the wall.

    1. When I first started driving the sort of cars I drove often broke down and so I joined the AA for its breakdown service offered by a chap on a motor bike with a side car combination.

      I proudly fixed the badge to the grill at the front of my car and made sure to take it off to put on my next car when I changed cars. It became very important so to do especially when they changed the badge design and the interlocking AA badges were no longer available. Now I believe you can’t get a badge – you just get a sticker!

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fe503ec49829feb81aca5dcd5111731ade22954f180365420144574754ec3258.png

      Did anyone ever prefer the one on the left to the one on the right?

          1. I understood he got a reprimand if he didn’t and a member reported it. Must have been like expecting an Me 109 to swoop out of the sun!

    2. When I first started driving the sort of cars I drove often broke down and so I joined the AA for its breakdown service offered by a chap on a motor bike with a side car combination.

      I proudly fixed the badge to the grill at the front of my car and made sure to take it off to put on my next car when I changed cars. It became very important so to do especially when they changed the badge design and the interlocking A badges were no longer available. Now I believe you can’t get a badge – you just get a sticker!

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fe503ec49829feb81aca5dcd5111731ade22954f180365420144574754ec3258.png

      Did anyone ever prefer the one on the left to the one on the right?

  19. Zelensky’s commandos are crushing their enemy behind the frontline – just like Britain in WWII. Hamish de Crettin–Gordon. 14 September 2023.

    The war in Ukraine appears on the surface like no other, with small flying drones attacking ancient tanks, sea drones attacking bridges and the wide scale utilisation of makeshift yet high-tech equipment. But for all these developments, the art of warfare remains unchanged. The aim is still to use any method to unhinge and dislocate your enemy in order to defeat them. The oldest form of warfare – the clandestine operator behind enemy lines, creating confusion, fear and logistical mayhem – is in full swing in this campaign.

    What is most striking is the emergence of what appears to be replication of the Allies’ “Special Operations Executive” (SOE) from the Second World War. And its effect – the death from a thousand cuts of the enemy – is looking as successful in 2023 as it was in the 1940s. Then, as now, incredibly brave men and women conducted operations to gather intelligence, allowing for sabotage attacks where the opposing country least expected it.

    You can read the illustrated version in next month’s Commando Magazine.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/09/13/ukraines-commandos-have-learnt-from-britains-wwii-success/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr

    1. Why does the Telegaffe continue to humour Hamish the Cretin and his co-moron Kemp? Who is paying them??

  20. OT – for NoTTLers who still believe here is an excellent article for you:

    Some weeks ago in The Times there was a survey conducted among a random selection of the clergy. Those who responded to the questionnaire largely appeared to wish that the Church of England would conform to the changes in the modern world. All seemed unutterably depressed by the falling away of their congregations.

    An interesting article provoked an even more interesting correspondence. Some of the letters pointed out that, of those approached, only a small percentage had actually taken part in the survey. Others were too busy running their parishes. Other letter writers, evangelicals or Orthodox, suggested that, in churches where the faith was delivered undiluted, the congregations were still healthy.

    Christianity is of its essence contra mundum. Its values invert those of liberal modern life. The hierarchy of the established church is largely composed of men and women whose mindset is entirely shaped by that godless liberalism, so, naturally, when they see themselves attacked by fellow liberals for their attitude to gay marriage or women bishops, they run for cover. They don’t have the courage to see, let alone say, that these matters are entirely marginal to the awesome gospel they are commissioned to preach.

    Today, September 14, is the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, and last Sunday, my wife and I went to St Silas the Martyr in Kentish Town, north London, where they were keeping the feast four days in advance — and keeping it in style, with music, incense, processions, a solemn Latin chorus from the gallery.

    It is the sort of church usually described as Anglo-Catholic but, in this particular case, no label would be adequate to describe it, nor its vicar, Prebendary Graeme Rowlands. A visitor to the place would assume that it was not merely Roman but very conservative Catholic at that. Candles flicker in front of an image of Pope Pius X. You can light candles to the Sacred Heart and Our Lady.

    In fact it is CofE, but one of the great things about this place is that its denominational status is immediately irrelevant. If you had been with us on Sunday, during the procession, you would have seen what CS Lewis called Mere Christianity in the raw. The crowd was impressive — and I should think you could have found people from four or five continents in their number. Their faces made me think of the line in Goethe’s Faust, that humanity’s best part is to shudder, or to feel awe.

    The short sermon was awe-inspiring. So was the procession. So was the moment at the end when we queued to venerate the relic of the True Cross.

    Of course, we all know the old jokes about such relics; how if you stuck together all the relics of the True Cross you could build a bridge to the moon. But last Sunday, you thought, maybe Father Graeme has built a bridge to the moon. What was being proclaimed was the undiluted religion for which the martyrs of the church have died for 2,000 years.

    I do not want to embarrass Father Graeme, who is about to retire, but when he leaves this parish this weekend, Kentish Town will be in mourning. For over 30 years, his distinctive figure, in a soutane and buckle shoes, has been seen on the housing estates and grotty streets, and in the Holy Trinity School where he is on the staff, teaching music and divinity. There has been mass in his church every single day.

    He takes each year group of the school on pilgrimages to St Albans, to Westminster, to Walsingham. He is there at the hospital bedsides, the prison cells and the lonely bedsits of his parishioners. During Covid, when the church was forced to close by the bishop of the diocese, Father Graeme sat outside for three hours every Sunday morning, offering the sacrament to those who required it.

    When he retires it is not only the poor of Kentish Town who will be in mourning. A great hole will have been cut in London’s heart. But his ministry makes me realise that those letters to The Times protesting at the findings of the survey were right. Christianity is a very strange and a very difficult faith. It is difficult to believe, and it is even more difficult to do what we were asked to do last Sunday — take up the cross of Christ and follow. Yet, in spite of the gainsayers, I do rather wonder whether Britain is as secular as the sociologists of religion maintain. In churches that take the trouble to present a well-conducted liturgy, to preach the difficult and challenging faith of Christ, people still respond.

    The evangelicals in the Church of England manage to fill churches. The splendid liturgy of the Western Rite attracts thousands every Sunday to the great oratory churches in Knightsbridge and Birmingham. Even the oft-repeated claim that there are no more vocations to religious orders is not completely true — the Blackfriars in Oxford have a flourishing novitiate.

    There has never been a time when it was easy to believe that a loving creator allows the innocent to die in earthquakes or children to suffer from cancer. Since the feminist revolution, and the change in societal attitudes to sexuality, the churches undoubtedly face some problems. But I do not believe that either the sheer difficulty in believing at all, or the sexual revolution, is what keeps people away from church.

    Christianity is not destroyed by rival ideologies, such as Darwinism. It is just slowly gnawed at by secularism, consumerism, the “strange disease of modern life”. To visit a church where they still offer business as usual is to be stimulated, as no secular equivalent can stimulate: disturbed as no drama or work of art could disturb.

    A N Wilson in The Times this morning.

    Non-believers may look away.

    2. Compare and contrast with the rectorette who has lost probably 80% of the congregation. I’ve always said that the traditional services are the ones that attract an audience (and I use the word advisedly – the ritual is a performance and done well it is a wonderful experience). Who wants to go into a warehouse and be harangued by a woman in a lab coat? Not me.

      1. The New Testament in the New English Bible was published in 1961 when I was a fourteen year old at Blundell’s. The chaplain used the Chapel Fund to buy in bulk and each of the school’s pupils and teachers were given a copy.

        I could see even at that tender age that the main achievement of this noxious work was to remove all the poetry and beauty from the King James Version. The abandonment of the Book of Common Prayer and the use of different series of services was another act of vandalism.

        1. The state secondary modern that I attended also used the NEB. The PCC at St Barts Smithfield voted just a few years back to return to having all readings from the KJV but it’s amusing to note even there how often the preachers compare and contrast with other translations.

          1. I am going to stipulate in my will (or my list of preferences) that I want the BCP service, anthems in Latin, KJV bible reading (Ecclesiastes) and women to wear hats or headpieces.

          5. Good idea! I was planning to leave a few details too – I shall add mandatory KJV – with threat to haunt them if they don’t do it!

        2. The rectorette continued with her “act of worship” (took a good five minutes) at the beginning of the PCC meeting – as a consequence we didn’t get through the agenda. At the end, instead of having the grace, we had another long spiel including the new version of the Lord’s Prayer. I think she does it to rub our noses in it because she herself admitted it was a “traditional church”. How long, O Lord, how long?

    3. Thanks Bill. Secularism is one thing, the relatively recent aggressive secularism is entirely another. I wonder why its proponents don’t devote the same nastiness to the black-bearded brigade??

    4. The Church of England is a complete disgrace.

      I am becoming more and more convinced that Welby is a dedicated and sincere atheist who does not believe in the existence of God and his son, Jesus, and does not believe at all in Christian teaching. He sees it as his mission to destroy the Church of England completely.

    5. The CofE was healthy until the misnamed progressives got hold of it and their answer to decline is always to do more of what caused it.

      1. Firstborn’s Godfather was a C of E vicar. He reckoned he was the last that believed in God.
        Now retired.

    6. Brilliant, thank you Bill. I am particularly impressed with Father Graeme’s attention to his parishioners and his vigil outside his church when services were forbidden.

      This reminded me of the attitude of our own parish priest. At the beginning of the second lockdown the French government had passed legislation effectively forbidding church services. The Catholic Church took the government to court over this and eventually won, but in the meantime, of course, there were no services. Our parish priest let it be known that he would celebrate Mass with a couple of seminarists who were in the parish at the time, and then he would be there to give the sacrament to anybody who “happened” to be there. In the meantime, I toddled along and played the organ – just for practice, of course.

      2. Though we had no services – the Rector was afraid of the Bishop…the PCC refused to shut the church which remained open for private prayer throughout. I was surprised because the churchwarden is a eco-freak limp dumb (electric car) chap – also a full Covidian (five jabs and counting) . Thus I had expected him to lock the oor and throw away the key…

    7. Yesterday at Trowbridge I saw a pair of Swans with ten cygnets . Clearly they were of the Roman Catholic faith and had had a mishap with their natural contraception method – Cygnus Interruptus

    8. Fascinating article.
      Kentish Town has been very lucky. Particularly when Fr Graeme side stepped the poltroons of Canterbury and York.
      Will some vicarette be inflicted on the congregation?
      There have been plenty of genuinely holy women, but the CoE doesn’t seem to attract them.

    1. heh, but the idea of the Warqueen walking Mongo is laughable. He only does as I tell him because I outwait his stubbornness. Oscar follows her Maj around everywhere.

  22. What is the point of having an established Anglican Church with the Head of State as its head if that Head of State, the monarch, cannot insist that the head of his government – the prime minister – is not the follower of some other religious cult as Mr Sunak is.

    A Roman Catholic cannot become King or Queen of England and until a new law came into being in 2013, being married to a Roman Catholic also barred a royal from a place in the line of succession.

    So if a Roman Catholic can still not become monarch why cannot we say that a Muslim or a Hindu should not be allowed to be prime minister?

      1. Forgive me Conway, but if I had *my* way I’d have Sunak and Hunt – and say 620 other MPs – in stocks and once the public are finished with them I’d throw them away – still cuffed in.

    2. Because we have laws that say we can’t. The legislators are happy to legislate for our restrictions, not so much for our freedoms (arguably the latter shouldn’t need legislating for under our constitution, but our constitutional rights have been breached for decades, if not longer. Since Blair nobbled the judiciary there is no point in trying to exercise them, either).

        1. He is reported to have said he had the religion of all wise men. When asked what wise men’s religion was he said that wise men never say what their religion is.

    3. Because we have laws that say we can’t. The legislators are happy to legislate for our restrictions, not so much for our freedoms (arguably the latter shouldn’t need legislating for under our constitution, but our constitutional rights have been breached for decades, if not longer. Since Blair nobbled the judiciary there is no point in trying to exercise them, either).

    4. Is Hinduism a cult?

      Why Hinduism can never be a cult:

      Cults by definition are exclusive: Hinduism is by definition non-exclusive (it is neither exclusive nor inclusive). Anyone is free to practise the Hindu way of life. At the same time there is no preaching, there is no attempt to convert (which exists in other religions), heck, there is not even a “ritual” for initiation. Hinduism is more a way of life than a strict religion due to the sheer diversity of beliefs that fall under its ambit. Everyone from an atheist to a monist to a henotheist to a polytheist can be a Hindu!

      For more you can see here: Harish Aditham’s answer to What are the most interesting facts about Hinduism?

      Cults are secretive, esoteric if you may: Secrecy of cults is connected to the exclusive nature of theirs, its a mode of appeal. However, there is a wide corpus of first hand information about Hinduism on the worldwide web.

      Cults are homogenous: Everybody in the cult professes similar beliefs, more often than not, have similar lifestyles. That is anything but the case with Hinduism.

      Cults have a preceptor/ founder: There is a guiding “beacon” associated with a cult. Hinduism celebrates its “apaurusheyam” anture: i.e. th religion does not have a human founder. It is a broadly defined way of life, with a wide corpus of literature, no one single book, no one single founder.

      There exist some sub-sects in Hinduism which may be termed cults because of their esoteric nature; for example, the Tantrics. But strictly speaking, even Tantrics are simply adherent of a different school of philosophy within Hinduism.

      https://www.quora.com/Is-Hinduism-a-cult

  23. Good morning (just) from the Oaktree Animal Shelter’s tea rooms Just North of Armathwaite.
    Had a walk from Little Salkeld past Eden Lacy Viaduct yesterday and on past Lacy’s Caves then back via Long Meg and her Daughters.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f0fb4c00e92d048135cabbe173cc9db6c111f518851e99475b7707682aedb9ce.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2184450b3a4621b02aca05d3b7094c353cc7f48aea96a7612baeaeba20fe3877.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ece3ae411938edcea1c5be82a0732e8a897035aa2c7a341c424cce536f1459d7.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3abe62edf1f43fcefdbefde2ca8a8cf48885f8e916ee64da8d0d9af5a90d27f9.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/65b5d09ee2f71cca444446faf9a4053fefabef7fb3eb22bdf558122f44464e53.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cc6a9a497586bc24494edd9dae8d8295c055fd75bd1d8c84ab3ab498006af439.jpg

    2. I take it that’s the drawbridge, hall way and the moat there? Did you lift the boulders in for the catapults?

      I jest Bob – they’re lovely photos. I wish I were outside rather than in a cramped loft setting off my claustrophobia.

  24. Car windscreen now replaced (and even my stickers are back where they should be!) by a very pleasant youngish chap who sounded like a Colonial. I am off to walk Kadi (as I didn’t know exactly when he’d arrive, I saved the walk for afterwards). Hopefully will be back later this evening to rejoin the conversation. Be good! If you can’t be good, be careful! 🙂

  25. Kier Starmer says he:s going back to Europol to sort out the boat people in conjunction with the EU.

    From 1 January 2021, the UK and EU’s relationship in policing, law enforcement and security has been governed by the provisions of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement, TCA. The operation of the TCA is overseen by the Partnership Council and a number of specialised committees and it can be terminated.

    The committee https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/516/european-affairs-committee/ said the agreement would allow the UK to continue its involvement with Europol and Eurojust in a way “that reflects its status as a country outside the EU, but with a continuing close relationship on law enforcement and criminal justice”.

    https://lordslibrary.parliament.uk/beyond-brexit-policing-law-enforcement-and-security/

    Concerns are that changes to this agreement could prejudice the way in which the UK’s security outside the EU could be maintained.

        1. After more than seven years since the referendum, I suspect the churn in the electorate has shifted the balance of opinion back in favour of the EU. That doesn’t necessarily mean a majority seeking to rejoin immediately, though. Some of those in favour of the EU wouldn’t want the upheaval of negotiating a return, not for at least ten years, although if a magic wand could be waved to seamlessly return us as if leaving had never happened, they’d happily accept that. It’s just the thought of interminable negotiations taking several years which would put them off starting negotiations now. None of the present mainstream parties will offer a referendum on rejoining. Eventually, a party which wins a General Election will have had rejoining in its manifesto and will consider its election victory to be the mandate it needs to do just that.

          1. I’m not sure about the balance wishing to return but otherwise I agree.
            The remainers make an awful lot of noise and are better placed so to do, the majority of leavers don’t.

          4. This is what the Conservative 1970 General Election manifesto had to say about the UK’s prospects for joining the European Economic Comminty, as it was then known. There was no mention of a referendum, only a commitment to listen to and take account of the views of constituents. Of note is another commitment to do no more than negotiate. As we know, that government went further and signed the Treaty of Accession.

            If we can negotiate the right terms, we believe that it would be in the long-term interest of the British people for Britain to join the European Economic Community, and that it would make a major contribution to both the prosperity and the security of our country. The opportunities are immense. Economic growth and a higher standard of living would result from having a larger market.

            But we must also recognise the obstacles. There would be short-term disadvantages in Britain going into the European Economic Community which must be weighed against the long-term benefits. Obviously there is a price we would not be prepared to pay. Only when we negotiate will it be possible to determine whether the balance is a fair one, and in the interests of Britain.

            Our sole commitment is to negotiate; no more, no less. As the negotiations proceed we will report regularly through Parliament to the country.

            A Conservative Government would not be prepared to recommend to Parliament, nor would Members of Parliament approve, a settlement which was unequal or unfair. In making this judgement, Ministers and Members will listen to the views of their constituents and have in mind, as is natural and legitimate, primarily the effect of entry upon the standard of living of the individual citizens whom they represent.

            http://www.conservativemanifesto.com/1970/1970-conservative-manifesto.shtml

          5. Lying through their teeth again. The deal was unfair, the disadvantages outweighed the advantages and it wasn’t in the interests of Britain. In fact, none of the “immense” opportunities occurred. To negotiate no more no less? I wouldn’t call signing us up was no more than negotiation!

          6. Lying, deluded, over-optimistic or over-estimating the UK’s capacity to take advantage of whatever the EEC had to offer? You have to imagine what the prospects looked like before we knew what we now know. In spring 1970, the UK was looking a bit clapped out. The near-continent looked as if it was doing well. I can quite understand if politicians thought that being on the outside meant missing an opportunity to thrive as the six were thriving. With hindsight, I’d say the UK’s problem wasn’t being outside the EC, it was being the UK, and being the UK is what we were and are whether within or without the EEC/EU.

          7. The civil servants (they were on our side then) warned Heath that it would ultimately mean the loss of sovereignty. He still went ahead.

      2. The state continues to fight divergence. At the most basic level big government fights Brexit deliberately, spitefully forcing chaos and poverty.

        They are the enemy.

    3. They are lying through their teeth and it’s just a way to start the process of sliding us back in against our will.

      1. We have a friend who once got out a calculator.
        A silence fell – the sort that feels more like a thick freezing fog; she’s never done it again.

        1. At nights out with colleagues……..there was always someone who did that! And always someone who quibbled about the bill.

          3. It was a very nice Malbec x two and a Froggy Sauvignon Blanc x two. You should have been there ! We had jugs off tap water on the table just in case you turned up.

      2. You’d have laughed at the painting on the wall in a restaurant in Peru ……..Jesus and the apostles had guinea pig for supper. I wish I’d taken a photo of it but it was before I had a phone with a camera, and I’d left my camera in the hotel room.

  29. Afternoon All

    The senior Fang Wrangler has done his worst and I have some temporary teeth and a referral to an even more senior Oral Surgeon there was much crunching and grinding and I am not looking forward to the jabs wearing off…….

    Belated Medley

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3b1075e48791aa211ecdc0015205a7e3e797f429c4794388d3829a36c0b9a9b6.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2e353affc65d9c5c91e00ad8d339efb01f8ed66bb0529a3f0ccc2e0d195dd448.gif

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f880498d5d4667f2c18dfca44dadb23c7a5f0a29477748b92a8831e2723735a8.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1f863009112206b7ec0eacdf59355a3775851376f65ccc4979ea3c1a820cf29b.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0415ff44e7aa3604ff847a918906427ab007610074891ff78e58a41b814cce47.gif

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/651fd7055edc2b287cd5b3de3b99a8e11c5ff7a4ae423ab1009aae159287fad7.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7b6d0445914aedbc7d3180405fcd0cded4cdb272713e1d161131c7a9b47fd2a7.jpg

  31. Well, that was exciting! The bus I was on hit a parked car, for no apparent reason. Nobody hurt, but I think the bus driver will soon be looking for work. The bus is probably still blocking Batts Hill, Redhill.

    1. As I was on my way home, a bus driver tooted and waved to me. It was one of my friends who used to work in heavy industry! I knew he was unhappy in his job, but now he’s horizontally mobile.

    1. No! Diversity strength! Suggesting we go back to the bad old days where you didnt get stabbed for your watch, where drugs weren’t sold openly, where dogs were not used to kill one another for sport, where children are not raped is wrongthink.

        1. Yes. report to re-education and repeat after me! Diversity! Strength!

          Ignore the evidence of your eyes, just swallow the excrement of the state line.

          https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12518177/Police-say-three-men-gang-raped-Irish-rugby-fan-Romanians-immediately-fled-France-attack.html

          https://news.sky.com/video/oldham-footage-shows-moments-before-boy-racers-kill-16-year-old-student-in-crash-12961202

          https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/feb/08/twelve-men-sentenced-for-sexual-exploitation-of-keighley-teenager

          Di-feckin-versity.

    2. It is very simple: the trouble with multi-culturalism is that it doesn’t work. Islam is incompatible with Christianity and however tolerant societies based on the the Christian ethic are towards Islam Muslims will not reciprocate.

  33. Good Afternoon.
    Noddy car stuffed to the gunwales with boxes of ‘stuff’. We have been raiding chum’s barn; pigeons nearly gave us heart attacks. Boy, do they flap and crash about.
    ‘Stuff’ last seen approx a year ago when we wrapped it in newspaper, boxed it up and shoved the boxes into chum’s barn.
    Great discipline will be needed not to get diverted into reading the crumpled newspapers rather than making sensible decisions about ‘stuff’.

      1. Talking of T shirts (I’m now back from my walk, obviously); while I was out I saw a landwhale wearing a T shirt printed with a list on the left hand side – ‘Happy, Beautiful, Lovely, Pretty, Nice’ it read. Nasty me thought, “oh, she’s wearing someone else’s T shirt”.

        1. On Sunday at Frampton I was struck by the numbers of hugely obese people waddling by, and most (but not all) were women.

          1. And poorly dressed i suspect.

            Montserrat Caballe knows how to dress as a woman of stature and still look elegant.

          2. Most of them showed too much flesh (and some of it tattooed) but flowing robes would not really be practical at a country show.

          4. I appreciate that but it is a case of people with no taste will ram their rolls of fat into lycra.

            I notice Princess Anne was in NI watching the sheep trials. No ostentation and dressed appropriately for the weather. Counter that with the Duchess of Memememe at Invictus with approved Paparrazi.

        2. Reminds me of a faded T shirt with, emblazoned upon it:

          I am a Virgin

          (But this is a pretty old T shirt)

    3. If it’s sat there for a year, unused and not missed then it should be given away.

      That said, it was the open house my mother in law held that really drove the wedge in with the wife. I don’t know who was moer surprised. Me finding out she’d played with Care Bears or that she’d bought them all. We still have them, carefully packed in boxes in the loft.

      It’s a facet of her yet to open up even after 10 years.

        1. We’ve all of them – I assume. They’re in many boxes.

          She won’t talk about them though. I said let’s put them out on the shelves but no. Hostage bear and piglet have places, but not the bears.

          I assume it’s something traumatic but she’ll talk about it when, if she wants to.

        1. Nonsense! I have stuff in boxes in the garage that I haven’t unpacked since 2013. But I still want it – and I know what’s in there!

          1. 2013?!?!? You must be joking. My efforts at decluttering go back almost 50 years. Explanation: my efforts only go back five years; it’s the material I am sorting through which is up to 50 years old.

          2. When I was but a child, friends of my parents decided to emigrate to Canada. After packing up everything from bedrooms, sitting room, kitchen etc, the wife said they would need to look through the stuff they had in the loft to see what they would be taking from there. The husband demurred and said if they hadn’t needed any of it in the two years they had been there, then they wouldn’t be taking any of it and could all go in the rubbish. Don’t know where the wedding album was…

          3. When I was but a child, friends of my parents decided to emigrate to Canada. After packing up everything from bedrooms, sitting room, kitchen etc, the wife said they would need to look through the stuff they had in the loft to see what they would be taking from there. The husband demurred and said if they hadn’t needed any of it in the two years they had been there, then they wouldn’t be taking any of it and could all go in the rubbish. Don’t know where the wedding album was…

      1. Brilliant , Moh was looking at his laptop but listening to your vid .

        We just don’t know where to start.. he has trunks of Naval uniform , bone domes , civvy flying uniform , old suits , me , Dallas style skirts and Jackets , even a mini skirt kilt , old handbags , scarves, stuff that has sentimental memories , long sleeved ball gown gloves and shoes , children’s toys teddies , gollies , games , sporting trophies , my father’s old ties , old Barbours ..

        Gawd you name it …. WW1 postcards from the front (R’s grandparents ) Royal Doulton dinner set, wedding present ( We don’t do formal anymore ) old bottles of wine , ( we don’t drink ) nice glasses . Boxes of spectacles, dah di dah diddah.

        I am going to start on bedroom drawers , socks , underwear , bras etc etc. they need a good sort out .. I have a closet which has all the bedding .. we have a 5 bedroom home , but only 3 rooms are used .. so must sort those out .

        I have a pile of old cookery books , some pre WW2, any offers?

  35. Nearly a Nottlerless day, drove back from Southwell to North Dorset after depositing a pile of Granddaughter’s stuff for her at Uni which we held for her over summer. Came back sort of cross country, along the Fosseway from Coventry to Cirencester then Chippenham, a very pleasant and stressless drive; I find motorway driving less to my taste than before, many drivers are selfish and also drive too fast in rain and spray. Crossed the white elephant of the HS2 works, what a scar on the landscape and total waste of funds. The first thing that struck me after getting home when I glanced at the Torygraf was the amount of coverage Ginge and Cringe still get, and the headlines about “Invictus Games”. What on earth are “NATO Leaders” doing there? I’m of the view that these games were set up primarily to self promote Ginge, and while I sympathise with the after effects of conflict, nothing like that was done in the 70s for troops suffering after continuous tours in Northern Ireland. All we had was SSAFA and WRVS.

  36. Why should pensioners suffer while striking civil servants get bonuses?
    [Leading letter in today’s DT]

    I always thought the Parable of the workers in the vineyard was rather unfair.

    If you remember the gaffer employed a group of peasants to work in his vineyard and said they would have a certain sum for toiling the whole day long. It was a hot day and the sun beat down on the poor sweating grape gatherers and then, after teatime when the sun was low in the sky, a group of opportunist vineyard operatives turned up and the gaffer agreed to give them the same amount of money for a couple of hours of a cool evening’s work as those who had put in a full day’s toil. As you would expect those who had worked all day long were pretty pissed off.

    “Hard cheese,” said the gaffer to the all day workers. “You agreed to the terms at outset. You can lump it – what I pay the late arrivers is my business not yours!”

    And this is why pensioners resent immigrants being pampered and public service workers getting bonuses when they, the pensioners, get less and less.

    1. The evening fellows also worked for what they got. Where immigrants work and return something, that’s great but they don’t return as much as they cost.

      Pensioners pay in their whole lives and the outcomes are socialised. If you contribute 50p a month or £500 a day you get the same. Worse, independent provision is punished so harshly by big government that the poorest are forced into dependence and reliance on the state.

      Why shouuld civil servants get bonuses? They shouldn’t. They do a job. There is nothing over and above their service.

      They cheat and use the ‘bonus’ to lift their pay as the next step up. The ‘outstanding merit awards’

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGXwpO6Ou-4

    2. The evening fellows also worked for what they got. Where immigrants work and return something, that’s great but they don’t return as much as they cost.

      Pensioners pay in their whole lives and the outcomes are socialised. If you contribute 50p a month or £500 a day you get the same. Worse, independent provision is punished so harshly by big government that the poorest are forced into dependence and reliance on the state.

      Why shouuld civil servants get bonuses? They shouldn’t. They do a job. There is nothing over and above their service.

      They cheat and use the ‘bonus’ to lift their pay as the next step up. The ‘outstanding merit awards’

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGXwpO6Ou-4

    3. The difference between the full-day labourers in the parable and the pensioners is that, at the end of the day, the labourers got what was agreed, and not less. The gaffer in the parable didn’t say to the full-day labourers: “Hard cheese, you agreed to the terms, but now I’ve got all these extra labourers to pay, so I’m paying you all 10% less so that I have enough to pay these new guys”. No, the gaffer honoured the deal.

      Pensioners all over the Western world are finding that their pensions are effectively shrinking, and that is ultimately what is so unfair. I fear we risk taking our eye of this particular ball by talking about civil servants’ bonuses and immigrants’ benefits. Pensioners have worked all their lives and paid into a system; they should not then find that the rules are changed retroactively so that whatever government happens to be in place can raid the pension funds to cover other expenditure.

      1. That is why I would honour all civil service salaries and pensions but employ newcomers on new terms and when existing employees get promoted their terms and conditions in the new role are what would be offered to a newcomer.

        eg final salary pension becomes defined contribution to a pot, retirement at 60 becomes retirement at 67.

        They keep what they had but start again when in a new role.

        1. The civil service pensions scheme was altered years ago to an average salary scheme – no longer final salary. There’s no retirement date. People I know are still working at 70, part time.

          1. Exceptions that do not alter what should be a rule.

            Were all final salary schemes cancelled or merely those of incomers and job changers? I knew numerous CS’s of my age who took early retirement on a final salary scheme (unless they were lying about it to impress)

            And even an average salary scheme is much better than the majority of the private sector.

    4. But but, surely the meaning of the parable is that those who repent and believe late in life can still be admitted into heaven.

      1. Of course it does, Sue. Richard misses the point of the parable which is “Is thine eye evil, because I am good?” This parable isn’t about social justice, it’s about the mercy of God.

    1. Meat will be banned over my dead body.

      And if it’s to be my dead body, then rest assured I’ll take a good few with me!

    2. It’s what aspiring Prime Ministers do. Seek out opportunities to look like a PM in waiting. He’ll be PM later next year.

  39. That’s me gone for today. A chilly one, as well. The Wet Office thinks it may be warmer tomorrow – so we’ll plan for it being even colder.

    I was very heartened by the news that Cur Ikea Slammer is going to rely on Interpol to patrol the Pas-de-Calais and drive back the endless hordes of African terrorists.
    Such imaginative thinking on his part, wouldn’t you say?

    Anyway – have a jolly evening.

    A demain.

  40. That’s me gone for today. A chilly one, as well. The Wet Office thinks it may be warmer tomorrow – so we’ll plan for it being even colder.

    I was very heartened by the news that Cur Ikea Slammer is going to rely on Interpol to patrol the Pas-de-Calais and drive back the endless hordes of African terrorists.
    Such imaginative thinking on his part, wouldn’t you say?

    Anyway – have a jolly evening.

    A demain.

  41. As the weather forecast isn’t great for Saturday. I’m going to attempt the Caen Hill Flight tomorrow of 29 locks starting at 6:30 am. I expect to be Christmas Crackered by the time in get to the top! If there are any Nottlers I the Devizes region you are most welcome to join in the resuscitation efforts which I’m sure will involve Red & White medicine!

  42. I work in a supermarket and see how desperate some shoplifters are. My heart goes out to them. 14 September 2023.

    At the bottom of the shoplifting pyramid are those who are living in dire poverty and are ravenously hungry. Their focus is less on stealing high-value items and more on urgently filling their empty stomachs. I spent a period street-homeless several years ago, so I know what it feels like to be hungry and have no means of getting a meal. Sometimes when someone is caught stealing a low-value item such as bread and are clearly hungry, another shopper who witnesses them being caught offers to pay for the stolen item.

    I have never seen anyone prosecuted for shoplifting in all my time working in supermarkets. If we call the police they ask us if anyone has been stabbed. If the answer is no, they often don’t come, or come hours after the event. I have been pushed once by a shoplifter I challenged but thankfully wasn’t injured. I know some colleagues who have suffered worse attacks.

    I live in a house and I’ve seen how desperate some burglars are. We should string them up!

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/sep/14/supermarket-shoplifters-professionals-people-poor-food

    1. My parents weren’t wealthy, they went out and took jobs and earned money to keep their family.

      1. My mother was left almost destitute when my father died. His colleagues had a whip round for her. She got a job – hated it there but she managed to stick it out till she found something better. I was four years old. She’d never had to work before apart from doing sewing jobs for people she knew.

        1. When myself and my two sisters were considered old enough to look after ourselves on coming home from school, our mother was off working part-time. They all did. No benefits system then.

        1. My father was an accounts administrator. He was in the RAF during the war and from the note attached to his discharge papers they wanted to keep him.
          He ran a post office for a few years.

    1. From a family of farmers, they all tell me that Clarkson has done wonders to publicise the problems farmers face – especially the idiotic bureaucracy.

      1. Indeed; and how difficult it is to farm and make any money out of it.
        My hat is doffed in his direction.

        2. That’s precisely why farming isn’t more diverse. Its ‘king hard work.
          But……well we all know.

    2. I gave up on him and his posse when they turned Top Gear into a show for fifty-something adolescents.

  44. Hunter Biden indicted on three federal gun charges
    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-66815168
    President Biden’s son Hunter has been criminally charged with three counts of lying when buying a firearm, after efforts to reach a plea deal failed. The indictment marks the first time the child of a sitting president has been criminally prosecuted. A planned plea bargain to resolve gun and tax-related charges he faced abruptly fell apart in July. All three counts relate to Mr Biden allegedly lying on forms while buying a firearm while he was a drug user. He previously acknowledged the charges during negotiations for the aborted plea deal.

    The younger Mr Biden’s legal woes have become an increasingly contentious issue in US politics.

    3. Fight leftwaffe lawfare with the same.

      But choose the battles that are certain to win and hurt them rather than make martyrs of them.

    4. Fight leftwaffe lawfare with the same.

      But choose the battles that are certain to win and hurt them rather than make martyrs of them.

    5. I suppose it ought to matter but I can no longer be bothered with US politics. If it does matter, there’s absolutely nothing I can do about it. If it doesn’t, why get agitated about something utterly out of my control, even though it might affect me in some way? To be honest, I quickly scan or simply skip NTTL comments about Trump, the Bidens, Obama, Harris, Yellen or any of them in todays news.

  45. Whilst looking for a manual to repair our water softner, amongst other things, I found a 13 year old mint condition telegraph in a cupboard with an article about the spreading of global illness.
    I’ll try and post more tomorrow after I get home from my 6th month, out of date orthopaedic appointment.

    1. I don’t and do get the need for water softeners. Mother has one and it’s been out of salt for years now.

      I’m honestly suprised that everyday moisture in the air didn’t nobble the paper to either brittle or sogworth.

      1. It depends were you live wibbers.
        Our water comes out of aquifers in a chalk belt. Our water is one of the hardest in England. The kettle needs to be descaled at regular intervals.
        We only have two taps fed with hard water.

        2. Ditto ours, slightly further east in s.Cambs. Ours is from chalk aquifers (Chilterns?) too – we reside in the lee of the most easterly wing of the Chilterns. We have a water softener and also a hard water tap which bypasses the soft water and gives us filtered drinking water.

  47. An unpalatable lesson:
    SIR – Living in a small American town in the 1970s, I witnessed how it rejuvenated its Main Street after the advent of out-of-town shopping malls had caused it to become a desert (Letters, September 12).

    The town simply provided easy access for cars and free short-term parking. As a result, new shops replaced those that had been boarded up, and the locals returned.

    The shops could not compete with the malls but artisanal enterprises such as a bakery, café and hardware store appeared, as well as a microbrewery and bar (my favourite). When we left after seven years, Main Street had become a thriving local community.

    We returned to Leatherhead, which had been pedestrianised in our absence, and had just been voted the UK’s worst high street. It still is.

    If we want our high streets to thrive, we need to embrace the car instead of demonising it.

    Alan Belk
    Leatherhead, Surrey

    2. Pedestrianised Leatherhead, you will find, is no different to all the other High Streets around the country. They all look like the aftermath of a nuclear attack.

      1. Grizz – I spent a year or so in Leatherhead, constructing the new PolFed HQ. Can’t fault the building, but the town centre is utterly shiite…

        My closest towns are Aldershot and Guildford. The centre of Guildford (7 mins by train) is mostly pedestrianised, but at least, the bus station is fairly central. The rail station is quite close to the town centre, but uphill, when one is carrying shopping home. Hence, I tend to go there by train, and go home by Uber.

        The former has much regeneration going on in the town centre. It’s 12 minutes from here by train. The bus station is immediately adjacent to the rail station, hence, on arriving at Aldershot, the world is one’s lobster oyster.

        Oh, wait. Rushmoor Borough Council has closed the bus station, “in order to improve access to the rail station”. Access remains the same. Apparently, Stagecoach’s lease on the dismally run-down bus station expired. So, instead of walking a few yards to one’s desired bus, one now has to walk across the town centre – up to a mile – the direction being dependent on where one is heading.

        There’s a taxi rank at the rail station, so one might consider taking a cab to one’s desired omnibus. Oh, wait: The new bus stops which take the place of the bus station, have taken the place of most of the taxi ranks. Honestly, there’s nothing in modern life which can’t be made worse by local councillors… 🙄

        1. Stevenage Town Centre was once the home of the central bus station. However, it was somewhat bleak and unwelcoming. A new one has been built, more welcoming, with better shelter and nearer to the railway station. However, it’s further from the pedestrianised shopping precinct it’s supposed to serve. I’m able bodied and not at all inconvenienced by the relocation – I nearly always walk from home without using local bus services – however, the elderly and those with mobility problems have complained that it’s more difficult to do their weekly shop. I understand their concerns, so I’m undecided whether this new build is a net benefit to the town and its residents.

      2. Last time I was in Leatherhead town centre was 1990, as I worked up the road and we’d walk in for a bite of lunch or a Friday pint at the Running Sore Horse. It was, at best, dull back then.

  48. I think I’ll call it a day now. Dan Snow on bbc 4 talking about the dangerous dark ages of Scotland. I expect he’s been clue up by his uncle Jon the jorno and news reader with the red socks.
    Night all 😊

  49. That was exciting! Small rat in the house, likely brought in by Little Cat to show his family, found scuttering behind the furniture. After some 20 minutes hunt, with only Little Cat in the house, the rat is now gone to ground under cabinets taht are too heavy to be easily moved.
    Sigh.
    I expect we’ll find guts strewn all over the floor in the morning… just got to watch where we put our feet in the morning.
    ps: Big Cat, a stealth hunter, has just entered the building. Expect seismic proportions thump when a massive paw finishes the rat… eek!

  50. Good evening from Siloth. Currently sag in the RAFA club making use of their internet and a 3 pin socket to recharge my laptop.

    A few photos from today:-
    Armathwaite Church:-
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/14b7be04343b1dd63ac56c228f264da7dc117446dd2a7b2ba15d9e5f537f5482.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/26c89c2f68613704583826661ab8b2c6f73518b4227a3cff041aec2bea3ef19c.jpg

    The bridge:-
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b8c41bc27a60d1a508e361ff4e0496f256496b25798a73275a494c687d1dfda1.jpg

    Wetherall Viaduct:-
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/472cfd5b331dd9172a88a6fbe384822160f575deccdfa28c59eb0acc809ae451.jpg

    Clouds over the Solway:-
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6ffb6b2ed68ea98e62d4a455ab7e4aedb62ffa76c8f4fdd8f8e7e67bce4a243b.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/60d9edd678132878eaa174f1c136fe81990e33e772a5f4ba840090a5c64a5e59.jpg

    1. Hello Bob
      You were in the RE when you took the Queen’s shilling .

      I am always puzzled how very old bridges were constructed , and how have they remained intact re concrete / bricks/ stone not dissolving ?

      PS Love your photos , it is like armchair travelling .

      1. Them old bridges were new when they was constructed! For starters, the Romans discovered/invented a type of cement, called pozzolanic, that can harden underwater. Some, if not most, river bridges are replacements for earlier structures, so the engineers and builders would have taken heed of local knowledge. Without looking at the web, I would guess that the central pier for Wetherall viaduct was built first, by diverting the river to one side.

          4. Research the diver who was responsible for placing bags of concrete under water in order to
            underpin the foundations of Winchester Cathedral.

            Several great English cathedrals were built on waterlogged lands. Wells Cathedral and Winchester are the most obvious examples.

      2. Materials survive best when under compression. Bridges depend upon the strength of their abutments.

        I expect the mortar used will have been a lime mortar where limestone is heated in a furnace and slaked by the addition of water. To this will have been added a quantity of sharp sand and a proprietary cement. The limestone will have had clay on its surface and this will have contributed to the plasticity of the mix when burnt.

        I expect that the materials employed below the water line will be harder than the stone above and built solidly whereas above the water line the stones are facings with a mortar and rubble core.

        The bridge in question is an early example of a railway bridge and I have no more specific construction information for it.

    2. Hi Bob – Silloth (two ‘l’s) is part of my old stamping ground. A schoolmate’s parents had a caravan at the Lido. So a crowd of us would stay there for a weekend. But – in the absence of decent watering holes – we’d return to The Great Border City for a few pints. Petrol was cheap in those days…

      I stayed at the Crown, Wetheral (only one ‘l’), a few years ago, pre-pandemic, when it was my turn to organise a meet-up with the maternal cousins. All have fallen by the wayside, now that the dreaded lurgy moves upon us. It was my turn again last year, but there are no takers. Meanwhile, one has dropped off his perch, and his wife now has dementia. But on the last visit, we looked at a few old places. Including my maternal home, which was similar to the pre-war council houses in Carlisle, but had actually been constructed by John Laing Construction (the local builder, and my former employer) as a home for the manager of the adjacent brickworks. The brickworks are long gone, although the foundations remain, but are overgrown.

      Silloth was the nearest seaside resort for us Carlislians. Years ago, it wasn’t unknown to cycle the 23 miles there. I don’t suppose Longcakes (purveyors of the best ice-cream in Christendom) are still there? One could always go by train, but sadly no longer.

      At school, I took part in a fifty-mile walk from Maryport, via Silloth: something to do with JFK. The worst part was that the many radio masts at Anthorn are all festooned with red lights. And they wouldn’t go away, as we trudged through the night. Still, I made it within the requisite 24 hours…

      Do seek out Richard, if you have the chance: he’s reasonably house-trained, if prone to missing exits from the A74… 😉

      PS, should you visit Burgh Marsh as you leave, watch out for spacemen… https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/982e33cbb31afbb49dddc00be6e27a787b4e8f0643511e98d6312a27df33a864.jpg

  51. At so it begins
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12519525/Republicans-escalate-COVID-origins-investigation-press-HHS-Dr-Faucis-chief-staff-info-THREATEN-subpoenas-following-bombshell-allegations-CIA-covered-virus-came-Wuhan-lab.html

    EXCLUSIVE: Republicans escalate COVID origins investigation and press HHS and Dr. Fauci’s chief of staff for more info and THREATEN subpoenas following bombshell allegations the CIA covered up virus came from Wuhan lab
    Republicans are escalating their COVID origins investigation by demanding additional documents
    READ MORE: A CIA whistleblower told Congress this week the agency bribed its own analysts to say Covid-19 did not originate in a Wuhan lab

    1. The most interesting aspect of the Wuhan saga is in my view the fact that Fauci was funding the involvement of a private US company in its viral pathogen research.

      The placement of essentially non government scientific bodies in China was a deliberate policy organised by the CIA and intended to spy on and discover what the Chinese were doing in their biological weapons research.

      In Fauci and the US we are dealing with pure evil. Regrettably our own useless government are still going along with this nonsense.

      Successive UK governments have failed us for a century and more. They continue to prejudice our well-being on a daily basis. It was evidently not enough to sacrifice our Empire and our finest in WWI and to follow up with much of the same in WWII. Now the fuckers wish to sacrifice another generation by provoking WWIII in Ukraine, a basket case militarily. But what is new?

      1. That’s the USA. You can imagine the malice involved when Canada hosted two Wuhan Chinese reseachers in a Canadian level 4 lab.

        They were expelled in 2020 but bo reasons were given – national security old chap!

  52. Just back from fishing. Can’t find a Wordle post.

    Birdie 3.

    Wordle 817 3/6

    🟨🟨⬜⬜⬜
    ⬜🟩🟨⬜🟨
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Par for me.

      Wordle 817 4/6

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

      1. It’s not the same without Lacoste starting the Wordle post. Same as Lotl not being well. Bugger!

        1. Is Lacoste ill? Since returning from a weeks vacation, I had noticed the absence of both, hope they are okay.

  53. Tonight’s Curry Thursday meeting was excellent: good company, lots of fun and joking, superb food, and a doggy bag for all of us to enjoy in a day or two. Good night, chums.

    1. Yo Conners.

      All those Airyplanes with Black and White stripes on the wings will be out and about

  57. Let joy be unconfined. I can hear with pin sharp clarity. So what, you might say. Well, I have been afflicted with a build-up of ear wax for much of my adult life. It used to be flushed away by a GP doctor or nurse. Not any more. It’s a withdrawn NHS service. On more recent occasions I have been able to treat it at home with ear drops. This past few weeks, however, it has been persistent and stubborn. It has been building up for several months but what finally made it quite disagreeable was a recent bout of a chest infection. That eventually abated but I was left with hearing akin to that of listening through a pillow: an auditory fog. I resumed using the Otex ear drops, as before, but little changed. There would be an occasional ear pop only for it to close up as before. I resorted to flushing my ear canals using water squirted from a rubber bulb. That didn’t work. I carried on using ear drops hoping the wax would ooze away but without luck until today. I tried again with irrigating my ear canal with a water jet from the rubber bulb. The right canal remained bunged. The left, however, suddenly opened up and a plug of ear wax descended into the wash basin. Not a pretty sight, I grant you, but very welcome, nonetheless. I tried once more with the right ear canal, the most troublesome one, and it finally yielded up its waxy bung. Since then, I’ve been hearing with crystal clear clarity, the best for several years, which indicates how long this has been building up. Now, everyday noises – the click of light switches, the rustle of clothing, the crackle of plastic wrapping – is all there in hi-fi clarity. Never take these noises for granted. They are welcome old friends when you suddenly realise how poorly your hearing must have been for a long time. The deterioration is slow and so gradual you do not notice from one day to the next, but once your ear canals have been flushed clean, you suddenly realise how much you’ve been missing from the world of sound. If you suspect your hearing is failing, make sure your ear canals are not waxy.

    3. Very glad to hear that, and thank you for the tip. When light switches go silent, I’ll break out the Otex.

      Really though, I can’t help reflecting on a “health service” that doesn’t syringe people’s ears out, but pays for expensive operations that cripple people for life and render them infertile in order to try and “cure” their psychological problems – especially when it is already known that the highest suicide rate for this particular problem comes twelve years after the operation.

    4. Well done! My hearing is very poor now – I don’t hear any of those small sounds. I have a lot of tinnitus instead.

    5. Excellent news!
      I use an ear spoon and dig the stuff out… if it was good enough for the Vikings, it’s good enough for me.

        1. A small implement shaped somewhat like a narrow spoon that you insert in the ear canal and gently scrape the wax off the sides. You notice if you touch the eardrum itself – that is tender!
          See also https://www.etsy.com/de-en/listing/1183045460/viking-ear-spoon-from-gotland-0-got-ohr?gpla=1&gao=1&&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=shopping_no_en_no_-jewelry_megafeed&utm_custom1=_k_CjwKCAjwgZCoBhBnEiwAz35RwpB_kF3oPhJRVh2nnShfZazsNeN_CGuFKY1UDd0qDFkMbwkde9-76hoCyYQQAvD_BwE_k_&utm_content=go_20050906253_151556176954_656775411485_pla-295491029933_c__1183045460ende_704667981&utm_custom2=20050906253&gclid=CjwKCAjwgZCoBhBnEiwAz35RwpB_kF3oPhJRVh2nnShfZazsNeN_CGuFKY1UDd0qDFkMbwkde9-76hoCyYQQAvD_BwE

        1. I’ve so far managed to fail to try ramming the implement right through my head, so it works for me.
          Anyhow, he was Olaf the Døv (Olaf the Deaf)… 😉

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