Friday 15 March: The compassionate case for a change in the law on assisted dying

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here.

675 thoughts on “Friday 15 March: The compassionate case for a change in the law on assisted dying”

  1. Good morrow, gentlefolk. Today’s (recycled) list

    MEN BEHAVING BADLY

    Wife: ‘What are you doing?’
    Husband: ‘Nothing.’
    Wife: ‘Nothing …? You’ve been reading our marriage certificate for an hour.’
    Husband: ‘I’m looking for the expiry date.’
    ——————————
    Wife: ‘Do you want dinner?’
    Husband: ‘Sure! What are my choices?’
    Wife: ‘Yes or no.’
    ——————————
    Stress Reliever
    Girl: ‘When we get married, I want to share all your worries, troubles and lighten your burden.’
    Boy: ‘It’s very kind of you, darling, but I don’t have any worries or troubles.’
    Girl: ‘Well that’s because we aren’t married yet.’
    ——————————
    Son: ‘Mum, when I was on the bus with Dad this morning, he told me to give up my seat to a lady.’
    Mum: ‘Well, you have done the right thing.’
    Son: ‘But Mum, I was sitting on Daddy’s lap.’
    ——————————
    A newly married man asked his wife, ‘Would you have married me if my father hadn’t left me a fortune?’
    ‘Honey,’ the woman replied sweetly, ‘I’d have married you, no matter who
    left you a fortune!’
    ——————————
    A wife asked her husband: ‘What do you like most in me, my pretty face or my sexy body?’
    He looked at her from head to toe and replied: ‘I like your sense of humour!’
    ——————————
    Husbands are men after all!

    A man was sitting reading his papers when his wife hit him round the head with a frying pan. ‘What was that for?’ the man asked. The wife replied, ‘That was for the piece of paper with the name Jenny on it that I found in your trouser pocket’.
    The man then said ‘When I was at the races last week, Jenny was the name of the horse I bet on.’ The wife apologized and went on with the housework.
    Three days later the man is watching TV when his wife bashes him on the head with an even bigger frying pan, knocking him unconscious. Upon re-gaining consciousness, the man asked why she had hit him again. Wife replied… ‘Your horse phoned’

  2. Morning folks. I suspect the Spexiles will be choking on their cornflakes this morning if they read Fraser Nelson’s piece in the DT:

    ” A free press is a cornerstone of our democracy….”

  4. Good Morning Folks,

    Cloudy and damp outside

    A journeyman 4 today

    Wordle 1,000 🎉 4/6

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

    1. We made hard going of it today, including one silly mistake….
      Wordle 1,000 🎉 5/6

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

    2. Slow and steady
      Wordle 1,000 🎉 4/6

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

  5. The compassionate case for a change in the law on assisted dying

    What with liberal abortion laws and now assisted dying we appear to be under a population reduction pincer movement

    1. There isn’t the money to pay for pensions. Received wisdom appears to be that the private pension funds can’t meet their obligations either. Gotta do something about all those oldies expecting to receive some of the fruits of their labour back in their old age…

      1. The sad truth is that state pensions, supposedly funded by national insurance along with other welfare costs, always ran at a deficit against liabilities and no funds were ever invested anyway. The politicians misled people and the population willingly believed them as it meant lower taxes today. With ageing demographic and 9 million working age people not working, the lie can no longer be sustained and the whole pack of lies is collapsing.
        Declining life expectancy is underway now and the Left in particular will be delighted as all those awful right oldies who cost a lot will be dying off and freeing up room for more immigrants.

          1. When my earnings were much higher and the contribution tax rules much looser I piled everything I could into my SIPP until they brought in the Life Time Allowance so Jeremy Hunt did me a big favour when he scrapped it which I am taking advantage of before Labour reimpose it. Nevertheless I will go on working until I drop as pension funds are sitting ducks for cash strapped governments so I’m not sure I would save hard into a pension today.

          2. I had an interesting conversation with a young man working in a jewellers, and he said that he doesn’t trust any pension company, and is (already!) making his own investments in commodities and cryptos.
            He appeared to be very financially aware. Gen Z seem to fall into extremes, either they are phone-scrolling zombies or trad wife, de-fi preppers for the apocalypse!

          3. They’re not all dumb, very many are pretty switched on but are responding not by getting involved but by trying to stay as far from officialdom as possible. I actually have far more regard for the youngsters than their parents who are the dumb complacent ones.

          4. As one can see about the scandals concerning St James Place, part of your pension can be removed quite legally,

            yet many people still “invest” with them.

          5. Sorry for being thick, Janet, but what is St James’ Place?

            And how do they have lien over my pension.?

          6. St James Place is a big pension provider. It is also one of the most profitable.

            For many years their salesmen have represented themselves to their clients as “advisors”.

            You will no doubt be surprised that in many instances they advised investing into various

            St James funds, which according to The Sunday Times had high charges and poor performance.

            The Sunday Times has revealed many of St James’ money making ploys in the past, and have been

            threatened with legal action by St James’ solicitors, who then didn’t carry out their threat.

            It appears that their excessive charges are legal, if unethical.

            All pension contributors are in danger of losing some of their contributions if investing in any pension

            provider who has similar ethics.

            Having said that, as far as I know all the charges are written in various portions of their sales literature,

            so it really is a case of doing one’s research before investing.

          7. Thank you, Janet. Explains a lot – i take it, they cannot touch my State Pension?

          9. I know, but what do you do? I started years ago paying into a private pension – I don’t have the courage to stop it, though had I known then what I know now, I would have put the money elsewhere. Fortunately, I always wanted to look after part of my future myself, so I do have some independent stuff as well.

      2. Great to see that MPs have a nice salary increase to work with while they’re labouring over plans to reduce everyone’s standard of living. .

      3. The resources spent on my mother during the last two/three (miserable, distressing, and clearly hopeless) years of my mother’s life … age 93 to 96 …. were humungous. She worsened considerably the lives of my rapidly ageing and immobile sister into the bargain + imposed on many others. Several times she was brought back from the brink with oxygen. It still looks like a complete bloody waste to me at nearly 1p years distance …. although it gave plenty care workers (a number of wh I m must have trousered the occasional £5 note … which went missing) practise in nappy changing plus treating bed sores.

        1. It’s not an easy issue, but the economics of the current situation dictate that in order to cover up the financial crimes committed by those who have played fast and loose with currencies over the last half century, there must be fewer pensioners demanding the payouts to which they are entitled. That alone guarantees that it will be used for murder.

  9. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a4f6bd919eec925a2b36a5ca66e6b4a6945bf18f4bdb7460c629fee567962010.png Schools must do more to keep children active

    SIR – New data extracted from Sport England’s “Active Lives” report reveals that 54 per cent of young Londoners do not meet the chief medical officer’s recommendation of 60 minutes of daily exercise.

    Throughout my teaching career (1966-2005), I assumed that all children had an in-built exercise switch, which would be activated as soon as they were released from my classroom. It was true for five-year-olds in their playground, nine-year-olds racing to catch the day’s conker drop, 13-year-olds inventing hide-and-seek games in the grounds, and 18-year-olds getting in a few overs of quad cricket. Yet it is not true for many Londoners today.

    Parents, of course, bear much responsibility for their children’s physical fitness; but if lack of time, opportunity or inclination undermines that responsibility then it has to be accepted by schools. However, schools have no obligation to provide a set period of PE for all pupils – just a recommendation from the Government of two hours each week, which many ignore.

    For the sake of our children’s future, as well as Britain’s economy, the Government should change that recommendation to a statutory obligation, and Ofsted should fail schools that do not comply.

    Malcolm Tozer
    Portscatho, Cornwall

    Clueless parents and not-fit-for purpose teachers are the main drivers for a legion of intrinsically stupid and unfit “Generation Z” morons. They would rather see masses of fat and bloated nincompoops aimlessly wandering around with their gormless and witless faces glued to a “smart” phone. The entire notion of a PE or games period is anathema to such teachers, modern parents and their imbecilic offspring.

    Time for a return to the values of yore, clearly depicted in this wonderful monochrome portrait of schoolchildren being taught cricket by a teacher [even if that teacher, depicted, thinks that chucking (instead of bowling) the ball is acceptable in the laws of that vaunted national summer sport].

    1. William takes swipe at phone fixation amid social media woes

      ‘Are you all on your phone quite a lot? Do you know how long you spend on your phones?’

      The Prince of Wales voiced concerns about the amount of time people spend on their mobile phones as he toured a youth club in the midst of the social media storm about a doctored family photograph.

      The 41-year-old continued with business as usual during the opening of a youth facility in west London, despite an ongoing row about a “manipulated” picture issued by Kensington Palace.

      Speaking to teenagers who confessed to spending too much time scrolling on the phone, he told them: “The grown-ups are guilty of it, too.” The Prince said “we have got to be better at it”, with people across the generations spending “ages on our phones”.

      During the visit to West Youth Zone, he turned his hand to shooting basketball hoops and icing biscuits. “My wife is the arty one,” he said while biscuit-making. The Princess of Wales remained at home as she recovers from an abdominal operation.

      Sources said the engagement, which came days after a row about a digitally enhanced photograph of the Wales family, was always intended to be solo.

      The Prince appeared to be in good spirits as he appeared to put the controversy behind him. The Royal family has been the subject of unfounded rumours online, as members of the public discuss the Princess’s whereabouts.

      Prince William returned to the topic of mobile phone use twice during the engagement, in which he found himself in the middle of a crowd of excited children and teenagers shaking hands and taking a selfie.

      Onlookers described him as being in “full dad mode” as he spent more than an hour with youngsters.

      As the conversation turned to what they would be doing if they were not at the facility, one young woman told him she would otherwise be “scrolling” her phone.

      “How much time do you all spent on your phones a day?” he asked, looking around to joke: “Everyone in this room has got something to be honest about here!”

      Hearing that it could be up to 15 hours, William said: “I bet you feel better coming here, not on your phone.

      “Are all of you on your phone quite a lot? Do you know how long you spend on your phones?” He added “Do you think it’s a good idea to be on your phone all day?”, adding “Who said yes!?” in mock outrage.

      The Prince and Princess of Wales want to focus on continuing the legacy of his late mother to help young people change the world, William said later , as he marked the 25th anniversary of the Diana Award.

      The Prince said Diana, Princess of Wales, taught him that “everyone has the potential to give something back; that everyone in need deserves a supporting hand in life”.

    2. This may be the reason GenZ are all as thick as mince…

      Harvard doctor says animal products are essential for mental health – in blow to veganism: ‘The brain needs meat’.

    3. Tozer was my housemaster when I was at Uppingham school. He also taught PE and stood in for absent teachers as needed. That was back in the late 1970s.

      1. My housemaster’s son was at Uppingham. I used to visit the town regularly as my then girlfriend’s parents – who were friendly with some of the masters – lived there and the school let us use their swimming pool and squash courts.

        There used to be a cricket week with Blundell’s, Uppingham and Oundle during the summer school holidays with the venue rotating each year in the days when Vic Marks and Jonathan Agnew were schoolboys.

        We have had a few students from Uppingham with us on our “A” level French courses and indeed a boy from the school will be coming to us in three week’s time.

        The school in the area from which we have had the most students is Oundle from which we have had a total of 30 boys and girls over the years, then 23 from Rugby and 21 from Repton.

    4. In most independent schools teachers of academic subjects are expected to take part in games and run around in shorts with whistles or clip-boards! For example I had a Junior Colts Rugby Under 15 XV in the Christmas Term (shorts and whistles), I ran the school’s cross country running team in the Easter Term and the swimming in the Summer Term. In addition to this I played squash regularly against the boys and was in the Masters’ Common Room cricket XI. Both the pupils and the members of staff were expected to keep relatively physically fit.

      Most independent schools lend their sporting facilities to state schools. When Starmer’s government’s tax arrangements succeed in abolishing private schools their playing fiends will be sold to developers to built more houses for immigrants!

  10. Parliament has finally shown the autocracies what money can’t buy. Fraser Nelson. 15 March 2024.

    With sclerosis and dysfunction in so much of what should make Britain tick, it’s rare to see an example of something working just as it should. This week, Parliament rose up to force a hamstrung Government to do something that was obviously needed: stop a foreign power buying a newspaper. But during the debate, far more was revealed as we learnt just how successfully autocracies have found clever ways to buy up the right people. All this extends far wider than a newspaper bid.

    I suppose that hypocrisy is one of the most recognised traits of authoritarianism. Parliament did not rise up. The Telegraph and its backers prodded them into action and no doubt made them extravagant promises with the added incentive of a donation to Election costs. You would think Fraser would be the last person to bleat about Foreign Ownership. His recent suppression of Free Speech on the threads is hardly an endorsement of domestic tenure. I have always suspected his opposition is because he didn’t want a new owner revealing the secrets of the way the Spectator and Telegraph were run.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/14/parliament-finally-shown-autocracies-what-money-cant-buy/

    1. Am I supposed to get a nice, warm glow of satisfaction that Parliament is not the corrupt waste of time that I had mistaken it for?

    1. When I grow three additional stomach chambers and an extra 50ft on to my digestive tract and acquire a completely different set of teeth, I’ll become a vegan. Interestingly, elephants are the one natural herbivore to be totally ill equipped to cope with a diet of vegetation. They digest their food very slowly and inefficiently as a result.

  12. Bizarre Putin propaganda advert urges Russians to vote in upcoming election. 15 March 2024.

    Russians are being urged to vote for Vladimir Putin with a bizarre new propaganda advert promising better living standards if they back the Russian president.

    The campaign advert, which went out on Russian television, begins with a seemingly innocuous discussion between a husband and wife.

    Good heavens. What made them think something like this would work?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/03/14/putin-propaganda-advert-urges-russians-vote-election/

    1. Whereas in the West, you can vote for any colour you want and they all follow orders. And in certain African countries you can vote for who you want and then he has a heart attack when he proves that PCR tests are a load of nonsense. I don’t see that the Russian system is any worse at this point!

  13. Good morning, all. Bright with broken cloud here at the moment. Forecast of possible showers around lunchtime.

    How are those investments in insect protein and laboratory grown meat going? This week’s Jaxen Report from The Highwirehas bad news for investors…

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0771509d9a9b5d86b5b741924fa2dd13db8e22e5aa13c52e06f0b8e66519a9f7.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/86f828b62b9f7ab69df5337be8cd7843afcc6d53e84464ba13d92f9716c75964.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c461ba66e1b1bd1dd8c3ac78cfdb2454d06e22060932db23678182be4fa07e02.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/681a4b8e3261520b2035140d26d724fd59d64036c44aa576ce37c3777ded81f6.png

    and as for Bayer AG, a round up of this company’s woes.

    The final segment re contrails/chemtrails is real science, so much so that I’ve had to stop watching to give my poor brain a break. Jim Lee explains much about the ‘management’ of chemtrails/contrails and how it can be used to cool the Planet and it has nothing to do with Gates’s seeding idea: the latter is happening already as a result of mass air travel.

  14. Morning all 🙂😊
    Forecast today is more rain. Oh dear we are as in Erin’s been, looking for a week to ten days in warmer climes. The terrible side to that is we have to come back.
    I Wonder will there be a wish list for assisted dying ?
    Or perhaps a public petition?
    Just askin’ …….

  15. The Americans are apparently set to pass a law restricting social media – first TikTok on security grounds, but it is suspected that it will be used to restrict the internet further.
    Modern life, eh…

    Xi Van Fleet
    @XVanFleet
    6h
    TikTok mobilized the kids to call their Congressmen demanding that TikTok not to be taken away from them.
    “We’re getting a lot of calls from high schoolers asking what a Congressman is” reported congressional staff!!!!

  16. The West should tear down Putin’s new digital Iron Curtain. 15 March 2024.

    The renewed bans are part of a multiyear campaign to consolidate information control amid concerns that the costs of war in Ukraine could bolster domestic opposition. Readers will recall that in March 2022, Putin signed a law banning “fake news” so that calling the fighting in Ukraine a “war” rather than “special military operation” became a crime punishable by 15 years in prison.

    Soon after, he shuttered what remained of Russia’s independent media and restricted Russians’ access to Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. He has targeted social media influencers and activists with draconian sentences to deter those who develop too many followers or contradict regime statements. Only recently did Russia’s parliament endorse a bill to allow authorities to confiscate assets from people convicted of spreading “deliberately false information”.

    Oh God! He must be copying US!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/14/the-west-tear-down-vladimir-putins-new-digital-iron-curtain/

    2. No mention of Zelensky limiting access to social media and taking control of the news media then…

      1. As our eldest was in Budapest on business, I was looking at the areas on Google Earth. And was pleasantly surprised at the orderliness of it all.
        Unlike quite a few countries nearby.
        And straying over the border was also amazed how many residential streets and other areas are more recently available to view in Russia.

        1. I find it remarkable from the youtube footage I’ve seen at just how modernised a number of cities in Russia have become over the past couple of decades.

          1. When I was in Moscow in ’68, the facades along the main streets were all modern (somewhat brutish architecture, but nonetheless not dilapidated). Once you went round the back streets, however, you discovered little izbushki (huts) that wouldn’t have been out of place in a tale of Baba Yaga.

        2. I felt completely safe walking around at any time of day or night. Something i would no longer do in London, Birmingham etc.

          The streets were clean. People were friendly and polite. No aggressive begging. No signs warning you about muggers because there weren’t any. No groups hanging on street corners.

          The transport system consisted of metro, tram, trains, buses, taxis and water taxis.

          If i remember correctly most of that was free to pensioners.

          I booked a night time river cruise with dinner. The top deck was all glass so you got a really good view of all the lit up architecture.

          And if that wasn’t enough…there were two duelling baby grand pianos just in front of me. For £60 i got a htre course meal. Unlimited wine and a personal Waitress in attendance.

          The apartment for the week was just over £500. In the grand style. 12 foot high statues guarded the entrance. The foyer looked like a mini version of the Sistine Chapel. Totally blew me away.

          I should have had an inkling about the splendour as my apartment was on the most famous street in Buda. Andrassy Avenue.

          The food in the Jewish quarter was as good as anywhere i have eaten before at a fraction of the price.

          One of the best holidays i have had.

          1. Sounds great Phizz he’s back today I’ll have a chat with him at the weekend.
            I believe the hotel he stays in, was in the city centre.

          2. I would like to live there. But you have to learn the language which would be impossible for me.

    3. Disingenuous. RT would be on Facebook and Twitter if those networks would host them. X reinstated the account of Peter Lavelle, American but Moscow based RT presenter and he certainly doesn’t appear restricted in what he can write. Much of his output is garbage but there are some insightful gems in there as well and many of the guests on his show are worth a listen.

  17. Good morning all.
    Almost 6½°C on the Yard Thermometer this morning. Currently not raining but a bright overcast and a light breeze after the heavy rain of yesterday evening.

    So, “Long Covid” is out and Post Viral Fatigue Syndrome is in? PVFS is what I’ve always called it!

    1. In the second video Carlson interviews Dr Pierre Kory who postulates ‘Long Covid’ or PVFS may be caused by the vax. He remarks that no one in the senior echelons of Public Health appears interested in investigating this possibility…..
      https://twitter.com/TuckerCarlson

      1. They never are.
        There is a lamentable lack of curiosity in the world of public health. For example, at least half of the public money spent on adult social care is now spent – not on the frail elderly or demented – but on relatively young disabled adults. As many of them are getting very shoddy provision (witness the recurring scandals), that spending would be much greater if more of them had decent advocacy. Part of the reason is that models of care have changed to eliminate the sort of warehousing in large institutions that used to go on but the massive elephant in the room is the increase in numbers of youngish adults with complex severe neuro developmental disabilities that often include autism. The Public Health establishment is in denial. IMHO this is partly because the rush to shut down any suggestion that MMR could be a culprit made them fall back on ‘it’s just better recognition ‘ie ‘nothing to see here’ but that is clearly only a small part of the answer. The other big contributor is that – just like other parts of our establishment – they are running scared of a particularly vocal and aggressive minority of ‘able autistic people’ who bully anyone who suggests that being autistic is a problem. Such people want to claim a ‘disability’ label (sometimes making a living on the strength of it) but not accept that, for others, having a condition that makes them highly dependent, often massively anxious and distressed, and a vast cost to the public purse, is something that should be delved into.

        1. Having watched the equivalent of 12 police shifts (and their cars) wasted on a couple of Don’t Care In The Community beneficiaries, I feel that matters have gone too far the other way.

    2. PVFS has been around since viruses evolved. So way before humans evolved.
      Imagine a banjaxed Brontosaurus.

  18. I was up and in the kitchen at 6 am.
    Sour dough risen over night, wrestled the great stretchy lump out of the large bowl. Knocked it back, divided into two, placed and covered in heavily floured baskets for baking later.

  20. Europe will lose all credibility if Russia wins in Ukraine, warns Macron. 15 March 2024.

    Europe’s credibility will be destroyed if Russia is allowed to win in Ukraine, Emmanuel Macron has warned, as he defended his refusal to rule out sending troops to the country.

    “If Russia wins the war in Ukraine, Europe’s credibility would be reduced to zero,” he said in a prime-time interview on his stance on the conflict.

    Macron for once is probably right here though its credibility wasn’t much to shout about at the beginning. The political consequences will almost certainly be much greater than the Military ones. For this reason one should not ignore the possibility of a direct NATO intervention with all that may ensue from that.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/03/14/macron-europe-will-lose-credibility-russia-defeats-ukraine/

    1. So what you are saying Minty is that we should take the opportunity now to kiss our ar5e goodbye….

  21. The fightback against people who hate Britain has begun. 15 March 2024.

    Let’s take a step back. “Extremists”, however defined, should in my view be entitled to their views as long as they don’t advocate violence. But many of us simply don’t understand why people who don’t seem to like this country, its history, or the Western civilisation of which it is a part so often seem to show up as advisers to government bodies, appear on quango boards, or receive public money.

    That would be the Political Elites and their Woke allies then?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/14/michael-gove-extremism-definition-free-speech/

    1. It’s interesting that the Conservatives have spent the last 14 yrs encouraging extremists to enter this country, settle and in

      many cases be supported by public funds, and yet a few months before a General Election they “See the Light”

  22. Morning Afternoon, all Y’all. Somewhat delayed entry due to new pills making me dull, and sleep all the time. Coffee seems to help!

    1. Morning Oberst. I have a cold at the moment with rather unusual symptoms. Hardly any nose or cough problems but Dehydration and Chest issues.

      1. Not fun.
        🙁
        Hope you get over it soon. I take vit D3 every day, and haven’t had a cold or similar infection since I started.

      2. Berocca will rehydrate you and help replace lost vitamins and minerals. Get well soon.

    2. What pills? If you don’t mind me asking. I’m compiling a list of drugs to avoid like the er…plague.

  23. Good morning all and warriors of the 77th,

    Showers all day at McPhee Towers, wind in the South-West 10-11℃.

    The Fake Torygraph just loves to print this sort of thing these days.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/59f6984adff99467f963c6d23589b63937ffd8bbb4f3f5d9c9fe0c4f9a23204d.png

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/14/hms-prince-of-wales-nato-steadfast-defender/

    This impressive array of naval power, 15 ships of which 3 are support vessels, would have been dwarfed by the numbers sailing from just one of the former Royal Navy harbours around Britain which are now empty.

    The other rather embarrassing point of note is that the Italian Carrier Giuseppe Garibaldi will have Harriers on board while the HMS PoW has nothing. The jets in the fly-past are Rafales (French Navy) and F18s (prob. Norwegian land-based). Not an F35B in sight.

    I wonder why the Italian Harriers are not in the flypast? Too embarrassing? There does appear to be a few on deck but it’s too indistinct to be sure.

    2. It can obviously keep up with its fighter planes, and cleverly doesn’t have a bow wave or leave a wake… unlike the support vessels.

      1. Morning Paul, I enlarged the photo and you can see bow waves and a wake but not as pronounced as the support vessels but that could be down to the design of the hull or propeller design/revs ? Any photoshopper worth his salt would have placed the aircraft on the centreline of the ship😇

        1. I thought similar. The carrier doesn’t need to tax its engines so much as the other ships. So moves more elegantly without a lot of water displacement. Less bow wave and wake.

    3. It can obviously keep up with its fighter planes, and cleverly doesn’t have a bow wave or leave a wake… unlike the support vessels.

        1. Reminds me of a story of the Queen Mother. When sailing on Britannia she would rise early and go to the galley, put on an apron and start cooking bacon and eggs for the crew. I doubt she ever burnt the toast.

      1. Isn’t it strange that birds of a feather flock together. You all look exactly like several other Nottlers i know. I think we will need to start using name badges at the lunches.

          1. April 1st is the Nottle birthday. (yes honest) Though this year that makes it Easter Monday so that’s out. Sometime in April. Notification banner will appear at the top of the page. Geoff has mooted East Anglia this time to give others a chance. If no one from that region signs up it will probably move back to Woking area.
            Nothing certain at the moment.

  27. I go through this annual ritual in March, when I get a free birthday gift of three day’s subscription to Telegraph Dating. I leave it to the last minute before the offer expires, so my last chance to write to any of my lovelies is in a couple of hours time.

    The problem I have in this romping for needles in a haystack long past its use-by date is that I actually fancy only half a dozen of those that have logged on in the last six months, and of these a vanishingly small proportion are actually going to fancy me. The closest I got was a 30-something beauty from Hereford, a writer and artist, who had the sexual appetite of Freddie Mercury in his heyday, and found me sufficiently interesting to boast about her current adventures. Her emails to me were quite long, but I had to remember not to read her detailed and poetic description of the joys of menstruation over breakfast. I think she was quite keen to add me to her smorgasbord of participants, but I was a little less eager to pile in with the others.

    Both my mother and God point out pithily that any woman would take one look at the state of my cottage and run a mile (it so happens that the nearest church is almost exactly a mile away), but I am probably good enough for the rats, who are at least local. I haven’t seen them lately though – not since the day fox ate the neighbour’s chickens. Maybe even they are too good for me, or maybe I don’t tick enough of their diversity boxes?

    At least in this opera I am in next week, playing this scary Russian manservant at a Viennese party, I get to waltz with an empty vodka bottle. No worse than dancing with a smartphone, which is about the best a GenZer can achieve!

    1. ‘menstruation over breakfast’.

      I think you could have phrased that better. Anyway. Good luck.

        1. I used to be into sadism, bestiality and necrophilia!

          But then I figured I was just flogging a dead horse.

  29. Wordle 1,000 🎉 5/6

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

    1. It was never even a case of “suspecting” it was useless. Its inventor, Kary Mullis, who went on to win a Nobel Prize with a colleague, always said that it was not a diagnostic tool. He died in August 2019. Had he lived things Covid might have been very different.

      1. What it does do of course is collect DNA samples. If fact in practical terms, that’s all it does. There are other ways of doing that but testing for disease is a good cover. Announcing that we want samples of your body tissue to assist with our eugenics programme, or whatever, probably wouldn’t be met with much enthusiasm?

        1. I hadn’t thought of that angle, but I do see your point 🙁 Perhaps a conspiracy theory too far – until we are told that a criminal has been caught from his/her DNA sample collected from a Covid PCR test!

          1. The Met Pol recently said about the difficulty in finding a stabber was because he didn’t have his mobile phone with him. Not forgetting they can track your position even if your phone is switched off.

          2. I wonder how they tracked them down before the advent of mobile phones? I seem to remember the crime clear-up rate then being somewhat higher than it is today….

        2. I only had one test – a very cursory swipe of the throat to be found “fit to fly” by a fly-by-night scam company. £80 a pop – they made a killing there.

          1. I only had one test; it was a condition of being allowed into the care home to see MOH for the last time.

          2. At least she wasn’t there for too long. You were able to visit and she died in peace.

      2. It was never even a case of “suspecting…

        For those who were awake and doubtful of the PTB’s motive, I agree. However, millions queued to be probed and similar numbers probed themselves at home. I attempted to educate some family members re jabs and testing and all I got for my trouble was a cold shoulder. Now, I don’t mention what went before as I do not want to be seen as crowing for being right. I was right, and that’s enough for me to know.

        1. As someone once said to me, being right when nearly everyone else is wrong is a heavy burden to bear, and no-one thanks you for it!

    2. Covid was only one string to their bow.
      It gave them the opportunity to carry out hydraulic despotism and not just where water is concerned. This is the future they have planned for us.

      By closing down our coal mining ability, restricting North sea oil and gas. Banning fracking. Closing down our gas storage ability and dragging their feet over nuclear.

      Besides all this…The supply problems of many items including drugs.

      Our French friends took advantage of the chaos and brought in many more restrictions on import/export and travelers.

      I hope they rot in hell.

    3. I cannot tell whether Jim Ferguson is circulating this now because he thinks it’s new or that he’s allowed the mainstream media more than enough time after 3 years 3-and-a-half months to get its act together and relay Russia Today’s website posting of November 27, 2020.

          1. I do, however, concede his point about lack of interest shown by British mainstream media.

            The context is important, however. These 4 German tourists were detained in their Azores hotel rooms for a fortnight in summer 2020 after one of them tested positive, although none were symptomatic. From the standpoint of March 2023 2024, this looks draconian, but Covid-19 anxieties were running high at that time. The fear that one holidaymaker might infect an entire planeload of passengers returning to Germany, along with others encountered during transit, was a real one. We sometimes forget this in hindsight. Jim Ferguson’s failure to give us a date is an important omission.

    4. From what I can determine, these were asymptomatic cases. The PCR test reliability which the appeal court judges called into question was in this particular circumstance, as reported by the Portugal Resident on November 20, 2020.

      Said the ruling, dated November 11: “In view of current scientific evidence, this test shows itself to be unable to determine beyond reasonable doubt that such positivity corresponds, in fact, to the infection of a person by the SARS-CoV-2 virus”.

      RT-PCR tests (standing for polymerase chain reaction tests) “are performed by amplifying samples through repetitive cycles”.

      “The number of cycles of such amplification results in a greater or lesser reliability of such tests. And the problem is that this reliability shows itself, in terms of scientific evidence (…) as more than debatable.”

      It’s here the ruling cites a study conducted by “some of the leading European and world specialists in this material” published by the Oxford Academic at the end of September [2020].

      “At a cycle threshold (ct) of 25, about 70% of samples remain positive in cell culture (i.e. were infected): in a ct of 30, 20% of samples remained positive; in a ct of 35, 3% of samples remained positive and in a ct above 35, no sample remained positive (infectious) in the culture”.

      “This means that if a person has a positive PCR test at a threshold of cycles of 35 or higher (as happens in most laboratories in the USA and Europe), the chances of a person being infected is less than 3%. The probability of a person receiving a false positive is 97% or higher”.

      The judges stress that they “were unable to find any recommendations or rulings” on the number of amplifications used in tests carried out by Portuguese health authorities.

      But they went on to cite a second study, published in the Lancet, that suggests “any diagnostic tests should be interpreted in the context of the effective possibility of the disease existing” before the test is actually carried out.

      This is not what happens in Portugal – which logs ‘thousands of asymptomatic cases every day’, obliging them all to go into quarantine.

      The bottom line is that these ‘asymptomatic positives’ may not be positives at all.

      https://www.portugalresident.com/judges-in-portugal-highlight-more-than-debatable-reliability-of-covid-tests/

      I don’t whether or not RT-PCR test reliability has improved in the 3-and-a-half years since that published by the Oxford Academic in September 2020.

  31. 384768+ up ticks,

    For those who want to listen,

    Andrew Bridgen MP
    @ABridgen
    Last week, I was invited to meet with His Excellency Andrey Kelin, the Russian Federation’s Ambassador to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland at the Embassy in London.
    @RussianEmbassy

    I found the meeting incredibly productive and was pleased to hear that Russia is open to peace talks over the situation in Ukraine. Enough lives have been needlessly lost on both sides of this conflict and we need to find a peaceful resolution to this tragedy.

    At the weekend, the Pope even said, “The strongest one is the one who looks at the situation, thinks about the people and has the courage of the white flag, and negotiates. When you see that you are defeated, that things are not going well, you have to have the courage to negotiate.” which I would agree with. Now is the time for negotiation, not more bloodshed.

    We don’t want a war with Russia, we don’t want war with anyone, for war has no winners on either side, only losers.

    The ordinary people won’t profit from it on either side. We are being pushed into a war with a nuclear power, over attempts to push NATO nearer to Moscow. It’s not in the British people’s interest to fight a war which has very little effect on our country, after all, the people are not the investors who get the profits. The only people who want this war are those profiting from the military-industrial complex.

    It is now time to end the pointless bloodshed. It is a time for cool heads and negotiations, not a time to further escalate the crisis.

    https://x.com/ABridgen/status/1768335035730416084?s=20

  32. 384768+ up ticks,

    Seems like the political overseers culling dept. is operating in top gear this roll out will be
    another offshoot from assisted dying.

    Fears for patients as NHS rolls out net zero electric ambulances
    Paramedics concerned that vehicles introduced to hit green targets will take too long to recharge.

    1. The only solution to recharge anxiety is to have twice as many vehicles on standby. Hardly the wisest way of utilising the NHS’s capital expenditure budget.

    2. Why would they worry?
      The ambulances can be on charge for hours while the patients are lying inside them in the carparks waiting to be admitted to A&E

      1. 384768+ up ticks,

        Morning S,
        That’s only if you are lucky enough to win the “enter car park lottery.”

    4. Since ambulance waiting times round here can reach 11 hours plus, would we notice the difference?

  33. Good moaning all. An extract of the interview with Michael Gove in the TCW.

    Why extremism exists is a far more complex issue, involving society and multifaceted problems. As a government, we often struggle to understand why a country such as the United Kingdom is in disharmony. Part of the problem, I think, is that the population are extremely content. Macmillan summed it up with his ‘You’ve never had it so good’ speech. That sentiment is even truer today than then. People are undeniably happier and more content that at any time in history. With that gladness, people cast around for problems where none exists. The Government has striven tirelessly to make life easier for so many sections of society, and to have certain groups carping and moaning about nothing is particularly galling.

    I thought especially those who lunched yesterday would be very interested in the “people are undeniably happier and more content that at any time in history” statement.

    Discuss.

    1. It is variance with the worldwide survey published only a few days ago which said the UK was the second most miserable country in the world. Alison Pearson wrote an article about in the DT.

      1. I found it extremely difficult to believe that of the UK.

        Measuring mental wellbeing is a tricky business. But the US non-profit, Sapien Labs, has had a go with its Mental State of the World report, the latest edition of which has just landed. Using data from 500,000 respondents in 71 countries, it measures how people’s “inner state impacts their ability to function within their life context”. In other words, mental wellbeing relative to the setting.

        The results suggest that despite living through an unfolding humanitarian disaster, Yemenis are functioning better in relative terms than not only Brits, but the Aussies and Irish, too.

        Are things really that bad in Blighty? Is our stiff upper lip truly all a-quiver? The similarly dubious but slightly woollier World Happiness Report doesn’t think so. It ranks the UK 19th in its cheeriest nations index, between the Czech Republic and Lithuania.

        https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/united-kingdom/mental-wellness-index-uk-miserable-nation/

        First, only 71 countries were surveyed. The United Nations has 193 members. Second, it’s mental wellbeing relative to setting, or happiness relative to circumstances. In other words, life in Ukraine or Yemen might be more miserable but, relative to the circumstances in those countries, the people are happier than might be expected. The converse seems to apply to this country. In absolute terms, however, it’s scarcely credible that Ukrainians and Yemenis are happier than the British. I’m prepared to concede that the UK might be the most unhappy country in the world compared to other countries of similar circumstances and standard of living. For the record, Uzbekistan was the sole country of the 71 which emerged from the survey with a worse score.

        1. Like anything it’s subjective and therefore open to challenge, but it is indicative. All happiness is relative to expectations and comparisons are therefore not absolute but on more objective measures like those not working or seeking work, depression statistics etc the UK is not in a great place.

        3. Yet it’s easy to see why: a deceitful government that is openly corrupt, cripplingly high energy, food and fuel costs.

          Comical levels of inequality – if you work, you’re heavily penalised. If you are rich, you avoid tax, if you’re poor you don’t bother working.

          Hilarious levels of illiteracy and ignorance amongst the population – mainly because of government obfuscation of the facts to hide its incompetence.

          A dire health service we’re told is the envy of the world – only by other health services, not people, as other services are thinking ‘I wish we could be that useless and cost that much’, our infrastructure is an abysmal mess despite a tax burden so high our roads could be level and smooth and schools could be gleaming towers.

          On top of that one group of violent, unpleasant, utterly resentful – yet existing on welfare – foreigners are screaming for the destruction of our civilisation every sodding week and the poolice (sic), instead of rounding them up and shooting the scum are protecting them.

          Folk want to know where their money is going – it’s straight into waste, inefficiency, incompetence, laziness.

          Our value for money is a massive negative value. Our costs are exorbitant. Our homes and lives are actively being made poorer by the state. The state provides an atrocious level of service, the sewage of society are rewarded and lauded, the worker punished, the family derided, our education system doesn’t, we’re told to change our entire way of life and accept being miserable ‘for da planet’ which is why everything is so expensive while other nations just ignore this tosh and get on with fleecing us – and the political class keep lying while pocketing the six or seven figure cream off the top.

          1. Some of these complaints are also applicable to some of our near neighbours. Look at France, for instance. It’s a country of high taxation, expensive fuel and food, even more undesirable immigrants, a well cushioned and protected public sector. Yes, there’s much to complain about in the UK, but it’s no bed of roses across the channel, either. Note, also, that our agricultural sector is yet to be up in arms.

          2. True, but I am not concerned with France. It is Britain that I care about. I look around and see litter, graffiti, unhappy people working too long hours, worried about putting the heating on or cooking dinner. It’s absurd that we’ve been so ruined by the political class’ malice.

    3. It seems unlikely to say the least that someone could hold such views that are counter to the generally held opinion without a smidgin of doubt being expressed. There is also the point that they contradict his own and the governments actions to prevent them. The reasons are moot of course. We cannot see into Gove’s thoughts. Still two possibilities spring to mind. He genuinely believes the above and is thus lying about the anti-extremism measures, or he’s lying as a political maneuvre. Either way they are lies.

    4. The country is tinder dry, and his words, blatant lies, are going to become like striking matches.

    5. ‘Part of the problem, I think, is that the population are extremely
      content. Macmillan summed it up with his ‘You’ve never had it so good’
      speech.’

      He’s obviously still using cocaine.

    6. It’s a parody piece, not an actual interview with old Backstabber de Frogface.

      2. There’s a grain of truth, in that people will moan but they won’t fight while they still have bread and circuses.

    1. Ooh hell! That thing in the pink looks as though she’s back to front! 🤢

  36. Can you believe that our useless politicians are
    demanding a 5.5% Increase in their pay.
    And are probably going to have a vote on it ???

  37. Still convinced Trump and the Republicans are heading for a landslide?

    Britt is the person the Republicans chose to respond to Biden’s State of the Union address

    https://www.takimag.com/article/republicans-latest-diversity-train-wreck/

    Thus, Britt said:

    “I spoke to a woman who shared her story with me. She had been sex-trafficked by the cartels starting at age 12. She told me not just that she was raped every day, but how many times a day she was raped.
    “The cartels put her on a mattress in a shoebox of a room, and they sent men through that door, over and over again, for hours and hours on end.
    “We wouldn’t be OK with this happening in a third world country. This is the United States of America, and it’s past time we start acting like it.”
    Democrats are permanently destroying the greatest country on Earth — which happens to be where we live — but Rosalita’s life has gone from a negative 9, living in Mexico, to a negative 10 being human-trafficked.
    As with affirmative action, the GOP can only attack illegal immigration by saying it’s bad for the illegal immigrants, who apparently are driven by some invisible force to stream into our country. Their illegal behavior is something we’re doing to them.
    Help! Someone keeps burning down my house!
    GOP: Oh my gosh — was the arsonist hurt?
    In producing a diverse person to make her case, Britt botched the story six ways from Sunday.
    As we now know, the serial rapes didn’t happen in this country, but in Mexico. Even if they had occurred here, who did Britt imagine was doing the raping? As described in my book Adios, America!, child rape is rife in Latin America. It’s their culture, having nothing to do with our enticing open border. My idea: Let’s not let that rape culture come here.
    The rapes also didn’t happen under Biden, but under President George W. Bush.
    So that was great. Britt’s bleating for a diverse person gave Democrats something to talk about other than the thousands of American lives snuffed out by illegals at a rate of about 40 a week.

    Britt could have talked about 27-year-old Washington State Trooper Christopher Gadd, killed days before the SOTU by an illegal in a “sanctuary state”; 10-year-old A.J. Wise, killed while walking home from school last month by an illegal alien hit-and-run driver in Midland, Texas; Travis Wolf, killed in Missouri by a boozed-up illegal in December — the night before Travis’ 12th birthday; Diane Hill Luckett, mother of three, who died in March of last year after being smashed into by a drunk illegal alien with a string of criminal convictions to his name (and zero deportations); or David Breaux and Karim Abou Najm, stabbed to death by an illegal alien on a killing spree in Davis, California, last April.
    Half of the murdered Americans I just listed were black. But when it comes to immigration, black Americans might as well be white men. “Illegal immigrant” trumps “American” because diversity is our greatest strength.

      1. As DJT can attest. He was aware of the swamp but I don’t think he knew just how large and deep it was, and it was able to sideline him for the past three years. Those darned voters are stubborn so and sos…thankfully.

        Laughingly, this comment thread started with a line from Fraser Nelson extolling the ‘freedom’ of the media. He is apparently unaware of the lockstep restrictions on newz management, or just another paid stooge.

    1. ‘Could of’ instead of ‘could have’.
      ‘Tow the line’ instead of ‘toe the line’.
      ‘Loose’ instead of ‘lose’.
      ‘Haitch’.

      …and many others.

          3. By and large I live and let live over many such errors but must admit that this is one of my pet hates.

      4. All the ones mentioned here, and also:

        “This door is alarmed” (since when do doors have emotions?)

        and new to me, seen earlier this week in the Travelodge where we stayed:

        “This window is restricted” (to what?)

  39. Just spent the last few hours going through Mother’s papers. Found school matriculation certificates, degree certificates, divorce & marriage certificates, passports & driving licences, all kinds of stuff. And pictures – some of my parents, Father’s parents and some of “other folk” – no labels. Lots of bank related papers, so I guess I will have to contact them all and find out WTF. That means, cataloguing them… Sigh.

        1. Hopefully you’ll see it off quickly then. It should give you some immunity for a while.

  41. James Heappey to quit as Armed Forces minister amid concerns over military spending. 15 March 2024.

    James Heappey is set to quit as Armed Forces minister this month and stand down as an MP at the next election amid a row over defence spending.

    The former soldier will step down from the post, which he has held since February 2020, to “pursue a different career” in a major blow to Rishi Sunak.

    In a letter to his local Tory association in Wells, Somerset, he said that the time had come for him to “step away from politics” and “prioritise my family”.

    Another one bites the dust! The pity is he ever got started!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/03/15/rishi-sunak-latest-news-tory-general-election-extremism/

    2. Wait and see which plum sinecure he gets offered before you start cheering the ‘family man’.

    3. At least he had some credibility, unlike Grant Shitts!

      Before entering politics, James [Heappey] served in the Army reaching the rank of
      Major. In a 10 year career in the Rifles, James served on operations in
      Kabul in 2005, Northern Ireland in 2006, Basra in 2007 and Sangin in
      Helmand Province in 2009. He also served in Kenya and across the United
      Kingdom.

      1. 384768+ up ticks,

        Afternoon A,
        Agreed, we lost the royal soul of the nation (RIP) only
        heels, apart from ANNE remain.

  43. ‘Morning All (just)

    Medley

    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/07b8a015a5f68ed676698073ff3135b24c8a47642979c867cf1ad49347ca65e4.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/35bb341d80a6ec50fdedf24397fbc463903532955252b07ae8f3ae997a8332ec.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/86f37e5cd2cb6aa8a3258fbd8dbd8b9847ae0b67f5596d3d6beb5a846cc58de6.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2c8497b91807fb703f4947d2b5d81f3efadcd115cd160045e901506b19c412d7.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7ec4075fc4a9b4a96504ea953b32f2d47437a2ed84d363ebe122872106472d88.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/67f57c55752d58553afb6979a19cd6391ab8326d3fab8e519df568fa28d3d0dd.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2494b3f429f7301569beec444b308a61b329a5d66eee9df2cf7cb12b5e57f6c5.jpg

    1. Actually, the fifth horseman is Ronnie Soak, the milkman! [You might need to be a Discworld fan?]

  44. Hi peeps.
    Another day another creepy statement from Michael Gove. Can you imagine how labour and its associated victims will play this one.
    All I can say is god help you if you are a white man, or a born woman.
    Soon you won’t be able to sneeze in public without doing seven years for a hate crime.
    We have to vote reform, we cannot let labour get in with a majority.

  45. “Patriotic Alternative” you say Gove,thanks for bringing them to my attention

    “In short, we stake a claim to the ancestral homeland of our people

    and declare that our homeland should be governed for the benefit of our

    people.

    You are an ardent supporter of the state of Israel, a state that has a

    nation-state law worded in a very similar way to the proposal that we

    are in favour of. If you support such a law for the Israeli people, why

    are you so offended that the indigenous people of the British Isles

    would also campaign for a similar law in order to protect our cultural

    and ethnic interests?”

    Bloody good question!!

    Rest of their rebuttal here

    https://www.patrioticalternative.org.uk/open_letter_michael_gove

  46. The enduring lesson of Julius Caesar’s assassination. 15 March 2024.

    Today is the Ides of March. The day of Caesars assassination.

    The story of the assassination is an object lesson in the law of unintended consequences. It should be carefully studied by anyone contemplating the removal – violently or otherwise – of any Putin-like dictator in today’s world: be careful what you wish for. For the ultimate result of Caesar’s murder was the exact opposite of what the conspirators wanted to achieve. The dictator’s death paved the way for the rise of an even more efficient and brutal successor.

    The reason for this was that Caesar like Vlad stood for those forces, the People and their Traditions against a corrupting oligarchy, that served only themselves. That all were destroyed in the aftermath is no critique of Caesar. The same will probably happen again.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-enduring-lesson-of-julius-caesars-assassination/

    2. Woe to the hand that shed this costly blood!
      Over thy wounds now do I prophesy—
      Which, like dumb mouths, do ope their ruby lips
      To beg the voice and utterance of my tongue—
      A curse shall light upon the limbs of men.
      Domestic fury and fierce civil strife
      Shall cumber all the parts of Italy.
      Blood and destruction shall be so in use,
      And dreadful objects so familiar,
      That mothers shall but smile when they behold
      Their infants quartered with the hands of war,
      All pity choked with custom of fell deeds,
      And Caesar’s spirit, ranging for revenge,
      With Ate by his side come hot from hell,
      Shall in these confines with a monarch’s voice
      Cry “Havoc!” and let slip the dogs of war,
      That this foul deed shall smell above the earth
      With carrion men, groaning for burial.

      Mark Antony foresaw the consequences of Caesar’s assassination very clearly.

      Philippi – or Nemesis – awaits!

    3. Woe to the hand that shed this costly blood!
      Over thy wounds now do I prophesy—
      Which, like dumb mouths, do ope their ruby lips
      To beg the voice and utterance of my tongue—
      A curse shall light upon the limbs of men.
      Domestic fury and fierce civil strife
      Shall cumber all the parts of Italy.
      Blood and destruction shall be so in use,
      And dreadful objects so familiar,
      That mothers shall but smile when they behold
      Their infants quartered with the hands of war,
      All pity choked with custom of fell deeds,
      And Caesar’s spirit, ranging for revenge,
      With Ate by his side come hot from hell,
      Shall in these confines with a monarch’s voice
      Cry “Havoc!” and let slip the dogs of war,
      That this foul deed shall smell above the earth
      With carrion men, groaning for burial.

      Mark Antony foresaw the consequences of Caesar’s assassination very clearly.

      Philippi – or Nemesis – awaits!

    4. Already happened in Iraq and Libya. Forces of chaos unleashed. More death and destruction. Ghaddafi and Hussein kept order. As we can see, Sunak hasn’t a clue.

  47. A Husband and Wife who worked for the Circus went to an adoption agency. The social workers there raised doubts about their suitability?
    The couple then produced photos of their 50-foot Motor Home, which was clean and well maintained and equipped with a beautiful Nursery.
    The social workers then raised concerns about the education and care a child would receive while in the couple’s care.
    “We’ve arranged for a full-time Tutor will teach the Child all the usual subjects along with French, Mandarin, and Computer Skills”. “Our Nanny will be a certified expert in pediatric care, welfare, and diet.”
    The social workers were finally satisfied.
    They asked,
    “What age child are you hoping to Adopt”?
    “It doesn’t really matter.. As long as they fit in the Cannon”..

  48. Anyone else noticed the ‘extremism’ definition defines ‘parliamentary democracy’, not ‘democracy’? As there’s nothing, absolutely nothing democratic about parliament.

          1. We’re not stuffed, Anne. We see them. They hide in plain sight. By getting active at local council level as the Colchester ladies have shown we can take the wheels off this wagon.

          2. We’re not stuffed, Anne. We see them. They hide in plain sight. By getting active at local council level as the Colchester ladies have shown we can take the wheels off this wagon.

        3. Oh please, I’ve just had lunch!
          Doesn’t anyone in America do assassination any more?

        4. Oh please, I’ve just had lunch!
          Doesn’t anyone in America do assassination any more?

    2. This seems unlikely. Such sophistry is meat and drink to the likes of the BBC and MSM.

    5. I went shopping in Lidl, yesterday.

      My knowledge of how products are made was increased 10 fold, every thing in the Bakery section had a warning:
      Product Contains Wheat

      2. Caroline has Coeliac disease so she bakes her own bread without wheat, barley and rye because they contain gluten. She is currently having great success with her gluten-free sourdough which, she says, tastes almost as good as bread made from wheat.

        Her gluten-free cakes are excellent – especially her Christmas cake – as is her Christmas pudding.

    6. This simply acknowledges the fact that people are getting exponentially more stupid by the second. General knowledge is no longer taught at school (ditto mental arithmetic) so each generation of school-leaver become much thicker than those before.

      It is a bit like why all television programmes and films — in this Woke age — are preceded by a “warning” to the viewer that what they are about to see may “offend”. Personally I find such warnings offensive and I would love to inform all those shrinking violets to “man-up” and get used to being offended.

      1. About time this generation of teachers and academics were sent to the fields to harvest fruit and veg. Not entirely sure how that worked out last time but at least they ended up doing a days work.

  54. Good afternoon.
    Advice needed.
    Has any NOTTLer used a TENS machine? A recurring problem for me is knotting muscles on my left shoulder and round the back of my neck. (The result of accidents and heavy lifting.)
    I go to the chiropractor and do exercises, but it would be good to have something to deal with the problem while I get on with other stuff.
    Any thoughts or advice?

      2. It works almost immediately and does give relief in that region. I haven’t used it for a long time now as i did specific yoga exercise at the same time which strengthened the surrounding area.

        Doctors are just legal drug pushers.

    2. HG recommended them for many of her patients, but you should get a professional opinion as to its suitability for you. They can alleviate symptoms but won’t necessarily cure an underlying problem and by masking the problem you might accidentally make matters worse.
      They don’t suit everyone but they can be an excellent pain reliever.
      This is a fairly comprehensive site:
      https://www.healthandcare.co.uk/blog/best-tens-machine.html

      1. Good advice. I emailed similar just now. If you are sitting hunched over a keyboard then it will work. If Anne insists on continuing to deliver sacks of coal then she is in trouble.

    4. Have you had medical advice? It might be something more serious like crushed discs which is what i had.

          1. It certainly felt as if it was on fire. I have other extraordinary tidbits so say about the final days before the explosion but i’m sure most people wouldn’t be interested.

      2. No, it is just me being not the most relaxed of people.
        Over the years I’ve been scanned and X-rayed.
        Lifting 18 stone patients in my youth and falling through ceilings (not at the same time) has left its mark.

        1. Okay. Often people are given 6 monthly steroid injections for shoulder/knee pain.

          I use this because it has multi program facility. https://tensmachineuk.com/premier-tens-and-ems. You can buy the pads separately. Never put over damaged skin. It will hurt.

          Shop around though you might get cheaper.

          I was in agony with my neck and shoulders from a cervical 3 crushed disc which was trapping a nerve.

          Private doctor. MRI. Not sufficiently bad to operate. Over a £1000 later he prescribed Tramadol. Open ended.

          Sod that so i googled. Careful Yoga exercises can and will build up surrounding muscle tissue and give support. I did that twice a day for 15 minutes sitting in a chair.

          The Tens premier can be set to give a light tingle to someone thumping you in the back and everything in between. The one i have can be worn on a belt around the waist and you can carry on as normal.

          2. Another email sent. Costs are mounting. Do you wish to continue? Type Yes for yes and yes for no.

          4. Given that i am on the run from multiple agencies i would have preferred you to have used normal channels! Not back channels !!!

    5. Richard has a Revitive (to help prevent nocturnal cramps in his legs) which also has pads that you can put on aching parts of your body. I used these successfully myself a few years ago when I had pulled something in my elbow.

      When my neck seizes up, I wear a large neck brace for a couple of hours a day. No more than that, because over-wearing them can make the problem worse as the neck muscles get lazy. I find it works a treat.

      The other thing that works for me is a heated neck cushion. I have one that I made myself years ago, stuffed with cherry stones which are good at retaining heat (or so I’m told, at least). Pop into the microwave when required.

      1. I have no disagreement with what you say but tonic water has got rid of my leg and foot cramps.

      2. Thank you. I’ve seen the microwave cushions. I certainly find heat is better than cold.

  58. Funny you should mention that. Been there done that. Size of a tennis ball before it exploded.

      1. Lucky i was wearing a Tena at the time. This condition gave rise to hypogonadism which lead gynocomastia as i wasn’t producing enough testerone. Topical testerone prescribed. Now i have the problem of teenage bed tent. Priapism.
        I’m never going to the doctor again !

  59. Probably but it will die of shame.

    A long time ago I proposed the Royal Navy (you know the one with the anti-Slavery history) be asked to erect a ship’s mast and spars on the 4th plinth and fly the signal; “England expects etc”

  60. Probably but it will die of shame.

    A long time ago I proposed the Royal Navy (you know the one with the anti-Slavery history) be asked to erect a ship’s mast and spars on the 4th plinth and fly the signal; “England expects etc”

  61. I should add it stops pain by blocking nerve signals to the brain which can create its own problems if you are not careful.

  63. DT BTL Comment:

    Overtaxed Unrepresented
    3 HRS AGO

    ‘X is an oleaginous example of all that is wrong in our parliamentary so-called “democracy”.
    A heat-seeking missile of self interest forever homing in on the latest “prize” of self-agrandisement.’

    No prizes for guessing who Overtaxed Unrepresented is referring to….

    3. Maybe les flicks kept coming up with inconvenient facts.
      Like black lives don’t matter to other blacks.
      That the Koran is compulsory not advisory.

  67. Just finished two hours of sawing trimmed branches – and stacked them. As I was walking back to the house – there was a short shower. Good timing!

  70. S.S. Wyoming.

    Complement:
    127 (0 dead and 127 survivors).

    At 21.00 hours on 15th March 1943 the Wyoming in convoy UGS-6 was hit by two torpedoes from U-524 (Walter von Steinaecker) and sank in eight minutes. The crew and 30 passengers (US Army Airforce personnel) abandoned ship and were picked up by USS Champlin (DD 601) (Cdr C.L. Melson, USN) and landed at Casablanca.

    Type IXC U-Boat U-524 was sunk on 22nd March 1943 in the North Atlantic south of Madeira, Portugal by depth charges from a US Liberator aircraft (2nd A/S Sqn USAAF/T). 52 dead (all hands lost).

    https://uboat.net/media/allies/merchants/fr/wyoming.jpg

    https://uboat.net/media/allies/merchants/fr/wyoming_sinking.jpg

    Wyoming sinking by the bow after being torpedoed

  73. A gushing Par Four

    Wordle 1,000 🎉 4/6
    🟨⬜🟩🟨⬜
    ⬜🟩🟩⬜🟩
    ⬜🟩🟩⬜🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    2. The NYT insisted that I “open an account” to share my stats today. Grrrr!
      Wordle 1,000 🎉 3/6

      ⬜⬜⬜🟨🟨
      ⬜⬜🟩🟨🟨
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

        1. Surely you wouldn’t want to join a club that would have you as a member, lacoste? 🙂

    3. Squeezed out a birdie after 5 o’clock club at the pub.

      Wordle 1,000 🎉 3/6

      🟨⬜🟩⬜🟨
      ⬜🟩🟩🟨⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    4. Lucky birdie with a successful guess at 3!

      Wordle 1,000 🎉 3/6

      🟨⬜⬜🟨🟨
      ⬜🟩🟨⬜🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  74. Just had the Council Tax through for the coming year – gone up £16, well it’s the water charge that’s gone up (the council tax is frozen). £1260 just to get my bins emptied and other peoples kids educated not to mention having to dodge pot holes

      2. Our district council wastes £40,000+ a year sending out a coloured magazine telling every household what a brilliant job it is doing. The latest has an article about the many ways in which they are looking to “make savings…”

    2. Mine’s just gone up by 4.5% – so has my phone/broadband bill, car and house insurance and just about every other regular payment. Remunerations for CEO and heads of industrial/commercial concerns have probably gone up by far more than 4.5%.

      1. Phone bills, for some reason, increase annually by inflation +4%. I have yet to hear the explanation for the additional 4%.

    3. Our brilliant bunch decided to knock down the old civic buildings, build a new something and change their ‘logo’! Can you imagine the rebrand costs on the vehicle fleet alone, before you start on the stationery, advertising, uniforms etc! Absolute bluddy lunatics with other peoples money!

      1. If only they concentrated on their baseload – fixing potholes, disposing of rubbish, fighting crime, looking after the genuinely vulnerable, etc., making everyday life more convenient for those who pay them, they could (possibly) be forgiven for pursuing utopian ideology. But their basic duties would have to be performed perfectly first, and as things stand these duties are neglected in favour of expensive hot air, for which we are expected to pay.

        1. That would involve using their brains – in fact, actually having a brain would be a start! Also bear in mind I reside in the Pakistani/Muslim-run enclave of Central Scotland, soon to be twinned with Zimbabwe!

          1. Poor you! I have observed, only this afternoon, an increase in the vibrancy of our local small town (incrementally apparent day by day) and a new foreign (Romanian? Albanian?) Big issue Seller outside Sainsbuggers.

          2. Ah! The local town has several vagrants/alkies/vibrant incomers with small dogs on string outside the Asda next to the bus stops! It’s a pleasure to shop there….🙄

          8. We have so many obviously non-indigenous in my rural neck of the woods, it’s starting to look like South Africa without the sunshine. They have been bused in to be housed in a defunct care home and they wander around looking fed up.

      2. Ours (Salop) spent a fortune on refurbishing Shire Hall, which is now empty as people are working (or not, as the case may be, because even councillors can’t get questions answered) from home. They want to demolish a civic centre in the sticks and build [more] housing (needless to say, there is no thought of replacing the centre or finding a home for local services that used it). They also acquired a white elephant of a shopping centre despite having no retail experience whatsoever and just at a time when high streets were losing out to online business. It’s no wonder they are nearly bankrupt, but the PBTP will have to pick up the tab for their lack of commonsense.

    4. My council is riddled with Woke hokum. But my fellow citizens keep voting in councillors who support this theology.

    5. This is ours in S.Cambs. (A total of 4.99%.) Read the last sentence.

      “For 2024/25 the Council has chosen to increase the main element of Council Tax by 2.99% and to charge an additional 2% precept to fund increased costs for providing Adult Social Care (ASC) services. The Council also collects money through Council Tax on behalf of the Greater London Authority (GLA).”

        1. I could email and ask them the reason, there is a lot of building work going on especially at Waterbeach just outside north Cambridge (but still s.Cambs district council); our little village has almost doubled in size since building started 4 years ago – walking in the local fields now, once deserted, has become an M25 of recreational activity.

    6. I don’t get much more in the way of services (I’m going to have to pay to have my green waste taken away in future), but that is less than I had to pay last year! This year I’ll be looking at over £2k for the year, I expect.

    7. Just looked at today’s Council Tax missive. Up 5.5% to £3,315. I’ve actually registered for online communication to them. Talk about jumping through hoops just to ask them a question, which was, “How much is Cornwall’s crime commissioner’s salary?”

      One of the questions when logging-in in future (what’s the point?), is the name of my primary school. My answer to this is ‘Twathead‘.

  75. Following up Chainsaw Bob’s earlier remarks about ‘Long Covid’:

    There is no such thing as long Covid, say health officials

    Doctors in Queensland say the condition is no different to any post-viral syndrome

    Sarah Knapton, SCIENCE EDITOR • 15 March 2024 • 6:00am

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/62fd93ab99590939124857dc41cd49e50c630a1a44cb8af499adaae9bdd07f9b.jpg
    Long Covid is no different from the after-effects of viruses like flu and people should stop using the term, health experts have warned.

    The chief health officer of Queensland, Australia, said it was wrong to imply there was something unique about symptoms suffered by people following a bout of coronavirus. Instead, sufferers are simply experiencing the normal effects of recovering from a virus, which can include fatigue, brain fog, and shortness of breath – known as post-viral syndrome.

    The comments follow new research by Queensland’s public health department, which studied more than 5,000 people suffering Covid-like symptoms between May and June 2022. Analysis found no evidence that Covid-19 positive adults were more likely to have symptoms a year after their diagnosis when compared to symptomatic adults who were negative for Covid-19. When the results were compared with nearly 1,000 people who had flu, the numbers reporting issues were similar (3 per cent vs 3.4 per cent).

    Dr John Gerrard, Queensland’s chief health officer, said: “In health systems with highly vaccinated populations, long Covid may have appeared to be a distinct and severe illness because of high volumes of Covid-19 cases during the pandemic. However, we found that the rates of ongoing symptoms and functional impairment are indistinguishable from other post-viral illnesses. We believe it is time to stop using terms like ‘long Covid’. They wrongly imply there is something unique and exceptional about longer-term symptoms associated with this virus.”

    Dr Gerrard added: “This terminology can cause unnecessary fear, and in some cases, hyper vigilance to longer symptoms that can impede recovery.”

    At the last estimate by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), about 1.9 million people were thought to be suffering symptoms of long Covid in Britain, around 3 per cent of the population. Symptoms are nebulous, and can include fever, headache, muscle ache, weakness/tiredness, nausea/vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhoea, sore throat, cough, shortness of breath, loss of taste and loss of smell.

    The ONS has pointed out that such conditions are experienced regularly within the general population. They are also common after viruses, and may be caused when the immune system fails to dial down after an infection leading to ongoing inflammation.

    Research published last month by Imperial College found that people who suffered a previous infection had long-term mental deficits which equated roughly to a three-point fall in IQ. The effect was mostly seen in those infected by the original virus or alpha variant, rather than omicron, suggesting that vaccination may have helped protect against post-Covid symptoms.

    The new study was carried out during the omicron wave when large numbers of the Queensland population had already been vaccinated, and the authors said that it was unclear if the results would still hold in an unvaccinated population.

    Commenting on the research Dr Aimee Hanson, a senior research associate, at the University of Bristol, said: “Long-term symptoms following Covid-19 are likely driven by similar processes to those at play in other post-viral syndromes. The Covid-19 pandemic has provided a rare opportunity to study Sars-CoV-2 infection and its consequences in intense detail, but this collective research may inform treatment strategies to prevent or lessen the severity of symptoms that linger for months to years following viral infection more broadly.”

    Dr Janet Scott, a clinical lecturer in infectious diseases, at the University of Glasgow, added: “Many infections cause post infection syndromes, and it may be that long Covid is indeed not markedly different from other post-respiratory virus syndromes. It is important however not to minimise the huge personal and economic impact the long Covid has on individuals. The big difference with long Covid is the sheer number of people infected with the same virus in a short space of time.”

    The research will be presented at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases in Barcelona, Spain.

    It came as the chairman of the Covid Inquiry insisted she was not acting on assumptions amid accusations she was failing to examine the costs of lockdowns. In her closing remarks at the Welsh phase of the inquiry, Baroness Hallett said that the “message doesn’t seem to be getting through” that she had not reached any conclusions yet. Lady Hallett is under pressure to reassure critics of lockdown that she is examining the costs of national shutdowns and has not already decided they were necessary or should have been implemented sooner.

    Her comments came after The Telegraph revealed on Wednesday that a group of leading scientists said the inquiry was “fundamentally biased” and was not examining the costs of national shutdowns.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/15/doctors-no-such-thing-as-long-covid/

    2. I would be very interested to see any comparable study looking into the incidence of ‘Long Covid’ in people who were diagnosed with Covid-19 but who did NOT have any of the mRNA ‘vaccines’.

      2. More to the point I want a study of incidence of “Long Covid” of those paid from the public teat (civil sevice council office employees etc) and supermarket workers and various self employed
        Actually don’t bother I know what they’ll find…………..

  76. Following up ‘Chainsaw’ Bob’s earlier remarks about ‘Long Covid’:

    There is no such thing as long Covid, say health officials

    Doctors in Queensland say the condition is no different to any post-viral syndrome

    Sarah Knapton, SCIENCE EDITOR • 15 March 2024 • 6:00am

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/62fd93ab99590939124857dc41cd49e50c630a1a44cb8af499adaae9bdd07f9b.jpg
    Long Covid is no different from the after-effects of viruses like flu and people should stop using the term, health experts have warned.

    The chief health officer of Queensland, Australia, said it was wrong to imply there was something unique about symptoms suffered by people following a bout of coronavirus. Instead, sufferers are simply experiencing the normal effects of recovering from a virus, which can include fatigue, brain fog, and shortness of breath – known as post-viral syndrome.

    The comments follow new research by Queensland’s public health department, which studied more than 5,000 people suffering Covid-like symptoms between May and June 2022. Analysis found no evidence that Covid-19 positive adults were more likely to have symptoms a year after their diagnosis when compared to symptomatic adults who were negative for Covid-19. When the results were compared with nearly 1,000 people who had flu, the numbers reporting issues were similar (3 per cent vs 3.4 per cent).

    Dr John Gerrard, Queensland’s chief health officer, said: “In health systems with highly vaccinated populations, long Covid may have appeared to be a distinct and severe illness because of high volumes of Covid-19 cases during the pandemic. However, we found that the rates of ongoing symptoms and functional impairment are indistinguishable from other post-viral illnesses. We believe it is time to stop using terms like ‘long Covid’. They wrongly imply there is something unique and exceptional about longer-term symptoms associated with this virus.”

    Dr Gerrard added: “This terminology can cause unnecessary fear, and in some cases, hyper vigilance to longer symptoms that can impede recovery.”

    At the last estimate by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), about 1.9 million people were thought to be suffering symptoms of long Covid in Britain, around 3 per cent of the population. Symptoms are nebulous, and can include fever, headache, muscle ache, weakness/tiredness, nausea/vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhoea, sore throat, cough, shortness of breath, loss of taste and loss of smell.

    The ONS has pointed out that such conditions are experienced regularly within the general population. They are also common after viruses, and may be caused when the immune system fails to dial down after an infection leading to ongoing inflammation.

    Research published last month by Imperial College found that people who suffered a previous infection had long-term mental deficits which equated roughly to a three-point fall in IQ. The effect was mostly seen in those infected by the original virus or alpha variant, rather than omicron, suggesting that vaccination may have helped protect against post-Covid symptoms.

    The new study was carried out during the omicron wave when large numbers of the Queensland population had already been vaccinated, and the authors said that it was unclear if the results would still hold in an unvaccinated population.

    Commenting on the research Dr Aimee Hanson, a senior research associate, at the University of Bristol, said: “Long-term symptoms following Covid-19 are likely driven by similar processes to those at play in other post-viral syndromes. The Covid-19 pandemic has provided a rare opportunity to study Sars-CoV-2 infection and its consequences in intense detail, but this collective research may inform treatment strategies to prevent or lessen the severity of symptoms that linger for months to years following viral infection more broadly.”

    Dr Janet Scott, a clinical lecturer in infectious diseases, at the University of Glasgow, added: “Many infections cause post infection syndromes, and it may be that long Covid is indeed not markedly different from other post-respiratory virus syndromes. It is important however not to minimise the huge personal and economic impact the long Covid has on individuals. The big difference with long Covid is the sheer number of people infected with the same virus in a short space of time.”

    The research will be presented at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases in Barcelona, Spain.

    It came as the chairman of the Covid Inquiry insisted she was not acting on assumptions amid accusations she was failing to examine the costs of lockdowns. In her closing remarks at the Welsh phase of the inquiry, Baroness Hallett said that the “message doesn’t seem to be getting through” that she had not reached any conclusions yet. Lady Hallett is under pressure to reassure critics of lockdown that she is examining the costs of national shutdowns and has not already decided they were necessary or should have been implemented sooner.

    Her comments came after The Telegraph revealed on Wednesday that a group of leading scientists said the inquiry was “fundamentally biased” and was not examining the costs of national shutdowns.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/15/doctors-no-such-thing-as-long-covid/

  77. Just been over to The Telegraph where I find a fluff piece for Billie Piper. Much hay is made with references to Laurence Fox, her ex-husband. Ms Piper poses in her underwear. The comments are switched off.

    2. Ms Piper in her underwear? I may have to take a look… Press integrity etc……

  78. Are you sitting comfortably?
    Good; then I’ll bu88er that up for you.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/15/ministry-of-defence-luxury-hotels-resorts-abroad-millions/

    MoD chiefs spend millions on luxury hotels

    Senior officials have been staying in expensive resorts in Las Vegas, Hawaii, the Caribbean and Dubai

    15 March 2024 • 4:22pm

    Defence chiefs are spending millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money on stays in luxury hotels around the world, The Telegraph has learnt.

    Figures released by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) show that more than £640 million has been spent on hotels, flights and rail fares in the past five years.

    Senior officers and civil servants have stayed in luxury hotels and spa resorts in Cape Verde, Las Vegas, New York, Hawaii, Dubai and the Caribbean while working for the Government.

    The figures, released in Freedom of Information requests obtained by The Telegraph, show that around £300 million has been spent on hotels and a further £350 million on air and rail travel since 2018.

    The documents, from 2018-19 to 2022-23, reveal that officials have stayed at resorts such as the five-star Meliá Dunas Beach Resort and Spa in Cape Verde, where a two-night stay for one senior officer cost £626.

    A six-night stay at La Verda hotel in Dubai cost just under £5,000, while five nights at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki Beach Resort in Honolulu cost the taxpayer £2,742.

    The documents reveal that officers have also stayed at plush central London accommodation such as the £350-a-night Horse Guards Hotel, the London Marriott County Hall, where rooms cost more than £400 a night, and the St James’s Hotel and Club, which costs more than £320 a night.

    Cheaper available alternatives nearby include the Victory Services Club and the Union Jack Club, which have double rooms available for service personnel at around £140 a night.

    ‘Opulent choices’

    The revelations come after the MoD has faced criticism over the quality of service housing. Last year 3,770 housing complaints from service families were made to Pinnacle, which runs the national complaint service centre for the MoD.

    Darwin Friend, head of research at the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “The Ministry of Defence has spent a jaw-dropping amount of taxpayers’ money.

    “Taxpayers will understand that travel is necessary for some roles in the MoD. However, they won’t stand for the opulent choices that have so often been made.

    “Defence bosses need to ditch the luxury travel and seek cheaper alternatives.”

    A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: “These figures represent a very small proportion of our annual defence budget, with more than £50 billion a year now spent to keep the country safe.

    “Defence employees work around the world to keep the UK safe, and they are sometimes required to travel, including at extremely short notice, and stay in hotels.

    “Expenses are subject to strict controls and staff must prove their stay is necessary and provides value for money.”

  79. More LOLs to be a had over at The Telegraph. Countdown sexism row as Susie Dent suggests studio air con favours males. She says it’s too cold as Ms Dent poses in a single layer dress. This time they have left the comments on, go fill yer boots if you have a subscription.

          2. Someone mentioned those to me in church on Sunday (over refreshments) – I thought of you 🙂

          3. Rubber buttons to you….. And then there were pull-over ones which no longer required buttoning up. Those were the days….

      2. I wear a woolen jumper from September to May (except in the shower…). Works a treat. Nicely warm, not too hot, not too cold.

          1. 100% wool. Best temperature regulator – can even be mostly waterproof if you treat it.
            Handknitted by SWMBO, the lovely lady.

          1. Yes, well I told you you might have to do some bizarre things when you went on OnlyFans…….

    4. Haven’t watched that for 20 years or more. Maybe she needs her nipples greased a bit to stop chafing?

  80. That’s me gone. Successful coffee morning – several new members have indicated willingness to help with the tedious bits of running a society.

    There was a cautionary tale, however. NoTTLers will know that among my many defects, deafness stands out. I have resisted hearing aids – tried them but they don’t seem to work for me. And are fiddly. One of the committee members has brand new – very modern – TINY aids that fit right into her ears – no wires or even signs that they are there. About the size of a small piece of gravel (see below).

    Well – on Tuesday the next lecture on I K Brunel – the lady is away. She asked me to deal with the raffle. She and I walked into the carpark so that she could give me the stuff. She suddenly said – “I have lost one of my hearing aids”. It just fell out – ON TO THE GRAVEL. She and I and her husband and several others spent half an hour on hands and knees searching. Net ZERO. So, poor lady is £1,500 down on the day….

    Later, when the MR was telling a couple of new members that her daft husband declined hearing aids – I just mentioned the GRAVEL issue…

    Have a spiffing evening.

    A demain.

    5. I wonder if she had declined to pay the extra £60 – odd a year to insure them against loss or damage. My Hearing Aid firm offered it, and when one of my units started playing up two years ago I was given a new unit.

      1. I would imagine this to be one of the few occasions where that add-on insurance is worth it

        1. Another couple of advantages of the modern up-market units are (a) they are controlled by an App on your smartphone so that you can control whether the aids hear only the person in front of you, or all-around; a full set of controls to adjust the volume and Bass/Treble response in either ear so that you can almost hear the butterflies mating in the nearby meadow; and finally a “Find my Hearing Aid” module that will show on an on-screen map the place where the aid was last “connected” to the smart phone, as long as its battery lasts. After nearly 20 years using hearing aids, I couldn’t function without mine.

    6. Did you try a metal detector or one of those grabber gadgets that has a magnet on the end?

        1. Surely someone had one of those long arm grabber things – you do live in Geriatric Central, don’t you? 🙂

    7. Still, it sounds a really good idea. No one wants to wear bottle lense glasses any more when we can make the glass as thin as we like and I’ll confess the evening the Warqueen explained capital gains tax with her specs on the end of her nose was a very, very long, hot night.

  81. – I see the national crime agency has been called in to investigate the funeral directors scandal, all over the news this evening.
    I suppose it is a good time to bury bad news.

  82. Just wondering, if sir kneeler brings in assisted dying; under dei rules, will there have to be quotas?

      1. Also the “far right”, the pensioners (often the same demographic), those who can trace their ancestors back many generations …

    3. I would not be at all surprised. It is strongly rumoured from various sources (sorry, I have no links) that hospitals were paid for all Midazolam deaths so I would not be surprised if the same would occur under Assisted Dying – a little incentive for our caring nhs.

  83. Remind me about the Barnett formula.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/explicit-project-received-thousands-of-pounds-of-scottish-taxpayer-cash/

    Porn project received thousands of pounds of Scottish taxpayers’ cash

    15 March 2024, 2:48pm

    Good heavens. Just when you think events north of the border can’t get any more ridiculous, they do. Now it has emerged that the director of an, er, hardcore porn project managed to secure £85,000 from government-backed Creative Scotland in January.

    The production, directed by Leonie Rae Gasson and titled ‘Rein’, was set to involve ‘pornographic processes’ to film in the Highlands, while research for the project included a nine-minute sexually explicit film that aims to take viewers on a ‘magical, erotic journey through a distinctly Scottish landscape’. What’s more, recruitment ads for Rein, which offered a daily fee of £270 for ‘hardcore’ acts, were advertised on the websites of publicly-funded arts groups. Gasson describes herself as someone who approaches her work ‘from a queer and neurodivergent perspective’, and says her project is ‘pro-sex worker’, with ‘intimacy co-ordinators’ on hand to support cast members.

    It’s fair to say that the whole palaver has been rather embarrassing for Scottish government-funded Creative Scotland, which is now desperately trying to claw back the funds. A statement released by the organisation on Thursday suggested that Gasson had broken her contract by changing her initial proposal:

    Creative Scotland has made the decision to withdraw support for this project and will be seeking recovery of funding paid in respect of this award to date. What has emerged in the latest phase of the project represents a breach of the conditions of funding award, as the nature of the project has changed.

    As it scrambles to get taxpayers’ cash back, Creative Scotland has some serious questions to answer. How exactly did public money end up being allocated to the project? Penny Mordaunt has likened the film to a ‘hardcore porn movie’ while Labour MSP Neil Bibby has called for Gasson’s entire funding application to be published in full. And, for once, SNP culture secretary Angus Robertson agreed, adding: ‘I can see no way that what has been described should be in receipt of public funding.’ A review is now underway…

    Criticism of the handling of Scotland’s public finances has been well-documented, but this case is simply baffling. Mr S only hopes that Creative Scotland will clean up its act soon…

    1. Note the word “queering”. For the uninitiated of this parish this has nothing to do with gay, homosexuality, lesbians or bisexuals. For an introduction a recent James Lindsay New Discourses podcast Love and Praise for The Queering of the American Child will open the door to the disturbing philosophy. https://youtu.be/sp7H_T9jrDU

      1. The permissive society has been a total disaster and opened Pandora’s Box to every evil.

        1. I was a child in the ’60s and little did I realise the damage that was being done at the time.

          1. What we saw seemed to be rebellion against authority, and thus parental authority, so we rubbed our hands in glee and did not look further. I had a strict upbringing – I was not allowed to go youth hostelling, for instance – my mother put the words ‘youth’ plus ‘hostel’ together and made it 7, not 4, and thus I was not allowed to go hill and dale walking, and how I longed to be out there. And at that time there was nowhere more chaste than a YH. So any rebellion against the status quo was most welcome, and never a critical thought. Teens and twenties are not known for their critical thinking, it wasn’t until my mid-thirties (1980s) that I could see the family was being undermined and attacked. And then I found the 11 aims of the Frankfurt School and I began to realise what we were up against.

    2. The subsidised “art world” has been like this for at least the last 50 (maybe 100) years, arguably since Marcel Duchamp exhibited his urinal and Pietro Manzoni canned his own shit and called it “Art”.

      Perhaps both valid one-off comments on the stuffy sentimentality on show at the time but, as usual, this kind of conceit has become the Establishment. It is not about artistic merit, or truth, or beauty – or any kind of transcendence – but political (specifically marxist) activism.

      The farrago described above is exceptional only in its visibility and the fact that it has drawn criticism . It is par for the course.

      There is no valid reason for there to be a whole publicly funded industry supporting this kind of absolute philistine rubbish.

      1. I would argue the toss with Duchamp’s Fountain as an amusing up yours to the Parisian art scene of the day, but I take your point.

        1. Yes, Duchamp was taking the piss and was actually astounded when his “artwork” became so acclaimed!

          1. But then cashed in and became the Establishment. Bizarre, but human nature, I suppose.

      2. I like when cleaners throw away the broken chairs and used tissues, crisp packets and other dross artists think ‘art’.

        Really it’s laziness for gullible idiots. Who can forget the chaps coming into a room and sitting on the benches looking at blank walls and asking ‘where is the art work?’ only to be told it was the seats.

        1. The Arnolfini (dubbed Arnolphoney) Arts Council sponsored gallery in Bristol is (or was – have not been there in years) the epitome of this kind of rapacious dishonesty. Absolutely beyond parody exhibitions of cynical, money-making rubbish – the kind of derivative repetition of early c20th in-yer-face one-off protests that even art students from the 1960s would be mildly ashamed if they were honest with themselves. I would argue that the same has happened to music. It’s a tragedy.

    3. I think the funding review should include a screening in the chamber to MPs of Creative Scotland’s epic production of Porn Free – could bring the House down!

        1. Pubbed yesterday, with Second Son.
          There’s an English style pub in town, and they even get English ales for me – London Pride, for example. Couple bottles after work, then out for a pizza… Fridays, we usually drive to Firstborn’s place to work the weekend on his smallholding, hence pub on Thursdays.
          I prize the opportunity to meet my boys every week. Now they both left home, the place is empty.

          1. I remember when I was working in London, about 20 years ago, in most places Pride was absolute sh!te, but latterly I went to some ‘proper’ pubs who clearly kept it better, and it was a really decent pint – same with most bitters, though, I guess….

          3. Indeed, but it’s better than most Norwegian beers (except Nøgne Ø IPA, a real IPA at proper strength (8.5%) and strongly hopped.

          5. Many a year ago I worked in one of the first new real ale houses. The owner had an outstanding eye for detail. The booze was as good as it gets. Even the cooking larger Carling was a decent pint.

          2. I don’t seem to have access to emojis anymore, but you would be getting the finger for that, JD!

        1. Use it or lose it… I’m afraid. Fortunately, SWMBO doesn’t drink, so she collects us and takes us home. Another example of what a fantastic woman I married a very long time ago.

      3. Stayed home today, since the new landlord ordered a repair to a relatively minor crack in the concrete path below the Kitchen window. Which was fixed in a few minutes.

        Otherwise, I could have gone to the pub. There isn’t one in the village, but I’ve worked out that I can shop in Morrisons, Aldershot, mid-afternoon, then call in to ‘Spoons en route to the bus stop.

        So Amazon Fresh kindly delivered some Yellow Tail Shiraz, cheaper per bottle than anywhere else at the moment.

        Not everyone has this facilityl, but I can currently order from Amazon’s warehouse in Frimley, Morrisons in Woking or the Coop in Guildford. And I confess, it makes me lazy…

    2. I think those who are going to fit in well here have now fitted in! Maybe they’re all busy at the mo. I’m just home from work and catching up on nottl.

      1. The balloon’s gone up in our Benefice. The Diocese are having a very nasty shock today.

        1. I signed up today for the next STP conference in Bristol on 20 April. It will be interesting to hear the latest from around the country.

          1. I say it myself but it was an incisive and powerful letter but then it was the work of two PhDs and an Emeritus Professor. It will cause consternation.

    3. Not me, JD, though i do still make the occasional remark there when not specifically banned (why?). It is a hostile environment. If you look at what’s going on there (and my prescription appears to be still valid) there is an odd mixture of posters of whom one has never heard before and the flailing ones like myself. I have a strong suspicion that the huge influx of newbies there are pretend accounts – but what do i know?

      2. I do enjoy reading the hostility of The Spectator BTL when both parties are firing. Russia Ukraine seemed to draw out the industrial strength banter. Also standing up to the bullies without resorting to insults is good internets behaviour. Generally never say anything you wouldn’t say in real life.

      3. It’s known that big organisations buy accounts on websites to promote their agenda.

        There are dozens of accounts who always, always post anti Truss waffle and nothing else. They all appeared at the same time, had roughly the same content free presentation, never replied and only post on articles where Truss’ policies are discussed.

      4. I adopted a new name when registering with the new comment system. Other people may have done the same.

        1. I wish, but sadly not. A somewhat melancholy anniversary today so taking it all quietly.

  85. Another fine BTL Comment from the DT:

    “Latham
    11 HRS AGO

    ‘Gove the Diane Abbott of the Conservative Party.”

  88. Talk of pensions earlier and the possibility of not retiring at all reminded me of a man I used to know through church who lived to 88 and didn’t retire. He’d been an Olympic rower in his youth and became a journalist in later life. Right to the last he was on the PCC and was a lay visitor, which ironically involved visiting the elderly as well as baptism families. He also volunteered with Crisis every Christmas.
    His final illness lasted hours, not even days. On his last day he was out on the Thames rowing, as per usual, in the morning. In the afternoon he felt unwell and went to the hospital. He died that evening.

    Here is an article about him. https://heartheboatsing.com/2018/10/04/rob-van-mesdag-the-final-farewells/

    2. Thank you Sue. What a wonderful man who had a life well lived.
      A lesson for us all.

  89. Evening, all. I can make the reasonable, sensible case, based on experience, for NOT changing the law on assisted dying; it will end up with mission creep, just like abortion, which started out with the intention of only being available if the mother’s life was in danger and ended up abortion on demand. We already know they don’t want the oldies who have paid into the system all our lives; they see us as useless mouths. They’ve tried with the covid scamdemic and “assisted dying” would be the next push.

    1. I totally agree, Conway. These have been my thoughts all along. We are standing at the edge of a very slippery slope which will quickly gather momentum. The Termination of Pregnancy Act is the example of what will happen if legislation for Assisted Death is brought into actuality. The vulnerable at either end of the life spectrum are, and will be, the victims one way or another. Politicians must be rubbing their hand in glee, and with Welby at the spiritual helm they must be overjoyed.

      2. Sure is! I can’t help feeling, though, that evil intentions are all too willing to provide the map and the cement

    3. I think his partner does have a case. Though the perp was handcuffed he had a gun taped just above his buttock. Where he was able to reach it. Whoever did the search should be severely reprimanded.

  92. ITN earlier:
    Putin election, with no evidence whatsoever, corrupt and bad.
    Biden election, with as much evidence as you could ever want, tumbleweeds.

    1. What did you expect? They can’t admit the corruption because they love Biden and hate Trump. Their hatred blinds them to everything.

  93. The evil trans ideology is in retreat, at last

    One landmark victory has been won. We must now end the indoctrination of innocent children in our schools

    ALLISON PEARSON • 15 March 2024 • 6:00am

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/90c9fb15fed990af9f89adb5c69228a0949c59176b8e2e44a9a0db6a8927efee.jpg
    __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

    Sheena’s son is about to be physically castrated. Not exactly the Mother’s Day gift she would have liked. It is absolutely devastating, but Sheena and other parents of young people who claim their brains and bodies don’t align are starting to fight back against this monstrous, self-elected maiming of their boys and girls. The mums and dads think their kids have been indoctrinated by trans activists who, quite unbelievably, have been allowed to preach their controversial views to innocent children in our schools.

    In December, the Government finally published its Gender Questioning Children guidance. Education Secretary Gillian Keegan claimed this guidance “puts the best interests of all children first, removing any confusion about the protections that must be in place for biological sex and single-sex spaces”.

    The parents of kids who, out of the blue, had announced they were “trans” thought this response was wholly inadequate. The new guidance still gave schools wiggle room to allow a child to socially transition (changing his/her birth name, demanding pronouns different to his/her biological sex). And social transitioning is not a harmless act, as Dr Hilary Cass pointed out in her interim 2022 Review into Gender Identity Services. Very often, it is the first step on the pathway to gender reassignment which includes – and I still find this almost too upsetting to write down – deluded girls having double mastectomies and losing sexual function before they’ve ever had an orgasm.

    Most children grow out of gender dysphoria given time and it is often symptomatic of something else; not least that standard condition of adolescence: feeling really rubbish about yourself. There are forces at work, however, which very much don’t want children to grow out of being “trans”, or to come to the realisation that they were gay after all.

    So on Friday, a group of claimants will apply to the High Court for a Judicial Review which will claim that Mrs Keegan and the Department for Education are, in effect, sending a message to schools that they can break the law with their soft stance. “The unlawful political indoctrination of children in gender identity ideology is now commonplace in schools and colleges,” one of the witnesses claims. “Over the last few years, the country has witnessed a surge in children who express dissatisfaction with their birth sex and choose to identify as ‘trans’ (or ‘non-binary’). Trans and non-binary are taught in Relationship, Sex and Health Education (RSHE) as ‘cool’ identities which must be embraced and celebrated at any cost.”

    However, the cost (both mental and physical) of telling children they might have been born in the “wrong” body and they need to transition to feel like their “authentic self” is never mentioned, making it more akin to propaganda than education. And, as the claimants sternly point out, political indoctrination of children in local authority (maintained) schools is unlawful under the Education Act 1996.

    Claimants in the case, who are supported by the Bad Law Project, include distraught parents like Sheena who say they have witnessed “indoctrination” of their own children, but their complaints to school were ignored. Also featuring prominently is Kevin Lister who was sacked after 20 years as a terrific maths teacher for “transphobia”.

    “What was the terrible, bigoted offence I had committed that ended my life’s vocation?” asked Lister. “I dared to challenge whether my colleagues and I should be affirming a 17-year-old female student’s assertion that she was ‘a boy’ without first speaking to her parents.” For failing to do as the student demanded, and call her by a boy’s name, Kevin was escorted off the premises with immediate effect.

    If that sounds like some nightmarish episode out of dystopian fiction, that could be because our education system has been cunningly infiltrated by third-party providers of gender ideology, paid for out of taxpayers’ money, who behave as if it is biological sex which is the crazy, unscientific idea.

    One landmark victory in this bitter culture war has already been won this week. NHS England announced that children will no longer routinely be prescribed puberty blockers following referral from gender identity clinics. (Former PM Liz Truss seeks to go further in her Private Members’ Bill on Friday, which would prevent the drugs being sold via private prescription and also turn woolly Government “guidance” into law.) Apparently, there was “not enough evidence” puberty blockers are safe or effective.

    It is hard to overstate how infamous that admission is, nor to anticipate with what slack-jawed horror history will regard us. Our society knowingly allowed thousands of children to take drugs that prevented the development of penis and testes in boys and of breasts and menstruation in girls without being certain of long-term consequences. There is mounting evidence the hormone blockers may have knocked a few points off the youngsters’ IQ.

    Yet, still, the trans campaigners refuse to show any shame. “This is a cruel new element of the war on trans youth,” the group TransActual said. “It will irreparably damage people’s health, wellbeing and life chances and departs from international medical practice to pursue a political agenda.”

    If anyone is “pursuing a political agenda” here, it is the groups persuading pupils that changing sex is a lifestyle option. When the inevitable class actions start, suing for damages for infertility and other life-changing disorders, I do hope trans-activist lobbyists are around to foot the bill.

    Sheena says she will fight for her “boy” until her dying breath. I don’t use the word evil lightly, but what has been done to young people like Sheena’s son is unspeakably evil. The Government has looked the other way while impressionable children have been indoctrinated in gender ideology in what should be a place of safety and reason. This is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, not North Korea.

    I am sure we all wish Kevin Lister and the parent claimants success in their challenge against Gillian Keegan and the Department for Education. Trans ideologues must be cast out from our schools.

    One final thing. After the Second World War, a 10-point Nuremberg Code on medical ethics was published. It came into effect in 1947 following the trial of Dr Josef Mengele for his diabolical experiments on human beings in Nazi concentration camps. And one of his experiments, which helped lead to the creation of the Code, involved the attempt to transition children from one sex to the other.

    *Sheena’s name has been changed to protect her identity

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/15/the-evil-trans-ideology-is-in-retreat-at-last/

    PS The Bad Law Project is, in part, a Laurence Fox initiative.

    1. Until the gender recognition act is repealed this nonsense still infests our culture.

      Until we can stand up and say that a man in a dress is mentally ill the poison exists.

    2. It’s a wicked agenda to subvert children into life long damage both physical and mental.
      It should be kicked out of schools.

    3. “Sheena says she will fight for her “boy” until her dying breath.” Is it a coincidence that the child’s father is seldom available for comment?

  94. The evil trans ideology is in retreat, at last

    One landmark victory has been won. We must now end the indoctrination of innocent children in our schools

    ALLISON PEARSON • 15 March 2024 • 6:00am

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/90c9fb15fed990af9f89adb5c69228a0949c59176b8e2e44a9a0db6a8927efee.jpg
    __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

    Sheena’s son is about to be physically castrated. Not exactly the Mother’s Day gift she would have liked. It is absolutely devastating, but Sheena and other parents of young people who claim their brains and bodies don’t align are starting to fight back against this monstrous, self-elected maiming of their boys and girls. The mums and dads think their kids have been indoctrinated by trans activists who, quite unbelievably, have been allowed to preach their controversial views to innocent children in our schools.

    In December, the Government finally published its Gender Questioning Children guidance. Education Secretary Gillian Keegan claimed this guidance “puts the best interests of all children first, removing any confusion about the protections that must be in place for biological sex and single-sex spaces”.

    The parents of kids who, out of the blue, had announced they were “trans” thought this response was wholly inadequate. The new guidance still gave schools wiggle room to allow a child to socially transition (changing his/her birth name, demanding pronouns different to his/her biological sex). And social transitioning is not a harmless act, as Dr Hilary Cass pointed out in her interim 2022 Review into Gender Identity Services. Very often, it is the first step on the pathway to gender reassignment which includes – and I still find this almost too upsetting to write down – deluded girls having double mastectomies and losing sexual function before they’ve ever had an orgasm.

    Most children grow out of gender dysphoria given time and it is often symptomatic of something else; not least that standard condition of adolescence: feeling really rubbish about yourself. There are forces at work, however, which very much don’t want children to grow out of being “trans”, or to come to the realisation that they were gay after all.

    So on Friday, a group of claimants will apply to the High Court for a Judicial Review which will claim that Mrs Keegan and the Department for Education are, in effect, sending a message to schools that they can break the law with their soft stance. “The unlawful political indoctrination of children in gender identity ideology is now commonplace in schools and colleges,” one of the witnesses claims. “Over the last few years, the country has witnessed a surge in children who express dissatisfaction with their birth sex and choose to identify as ‘trans’ (or ‘non-binary’). Trans and non-binary are taught in Relationship, Sex and Health Education (RSHE) as ‘cool’ identities which must be embraced and celebrated at any cost.”

    However, the cost (both mental and physical) of telling children they might have been born in the “wrong” body and they need to transition to feel like their “authentic self” is never mentioned, making it more akin to propaganda than education. And, as the claimants sternly point out, political indoctrination of children in local authority (maintained) schools is unlawful under the Education Act 1996.

    Claimants in the case, who are supported by the Bad Law Project, include distraught parents like Sheena who say they have witnessed “indoctrination” of their own children, but their complaints to school were ignored. Also featuring prominently is Kevin Lister who was sacked after 20 years as a terrific maths teacher for “transphobia”.

    “What was the terrible, bigoted offence I had committed that ended my life’s vocation?” asked Lister. “I dared to challenge whether my colleagues and I should be affirming a 17-year-old female student’s assertion that she was ‘a boy’ without first speaking to her parents.” For failing to do as the student demanded, and call her by a boy’s name, Kevin was escorted off the premises with immediate effect.

    If that sounds like some nightmarish episode out of dystopian fiction, that could be because our education system has been cunningly infiltrated by third-party providers of gender ideology, paid for out of taxpayers’ money, who behave as if it is biological sex which is the crazy, unscientific idea.

    One landmark victory in this bitter culture war has already been won this week. NHS England announced that children will no longer routinely be prescribed puberty blockers following referral from gender identity clinics. (Former PM Liz Truss seeks to go further in her Private Members’ Bill on Friday, which would prevent the drugs being sold via private prescription and also turn woolly Government “guidance” into law.) Apparently, there was “not enough evidence” puberty blockers are safe or effective.

    It is hard to overstate how infamous that admission is, nor to anticipate with what slack-jawed horror history will regard us. Our society knowingly allowed thousands of children to take drugs that prevented the development of penis and testes in boys and of breasts and menstruation in girls without being certain of long-term consequences. There is mounting evidence the hormone blockers may have knocked a few points off the youngsters’ IQ.

    Yet, still, the trans campaigners refuse to show any shame. “This is a cruel new element of the war on trans youth,” the group TransActual said. “It will irreparably damage people’s health, wellbeing and life chances and departs from international medical practice to pursue a political agenda.”

    If anyone is “pursuing a political agenda” here, it is the groups persuading pupils that changing sex is a lifestyle option. When the inevitable class actions start, suing for damages for infertility and other life-changing disorders, I do hope trans-activist lobbyists are around to foot the bill.

    Sheena says she will fight for her “boy” until her dying breath. I don’t use the word evil lightly, but what has been done to young people like Sheena’s son is unspeakably evil. The Government has looked the other way while impressionable children have been indoctrinated in gender ideology in what should be a place of safety and reason. This is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, not North Korea.

    I am sure we all wish Kevin Lister and the parent claimants success in their challenge against Gillian Keegan and the Department for Education. Trans ideologues must be cast out from our schools.

    One final thing. After the Second World War, a 10-point Nuremberg Code on medical ethics was published. It came into effect in 1947 following the trial of Dr Josef Mengele for his diabolical experiments on human beings in Nazi concentration camps. And one of his experiments, which helped lead to the creation of the Code, involved the attempt to transition children from one sex to the other.

    *Sheena’s name has been changed to protect her identity

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/15/the-evil-trans-ideology-is-in-retreat-at-last/

    PS The Bad Law Project is, in part, a Laurence Fox initiative.

  95. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/15/civil-service-fast-stream-recruitment-graduate-careers/

    Just to mention – and apologise for – my firebrand youth. I entered fast stream with grand visions. I did rather well into an MoD posting. However, it was clear that it was plain wonk watch, as Guido would say. Nothing but the brats of politicians given special favours. There were a few individuals with high degrees from universities but they oddly washed out quickly. I also remember being busier and working harder than the Hermiones and Edwardos. Their flights and travel was arranged for them by ‘secretaries’. Us non-entities has to do our own.

    Fundamentally it showed me that government was a sclerotic failure, only interested in fiddling about at the edges, refusing to change or adapt.

  96. I read a story of a German soldier who, as a PoW did the gardening in a little old lady’s house. He was repatriated in late 1945, and then in the Spring of 1946 the crocuses came up and spelled Heil Hitler.

    1. Blimey!Where did the flowers learn to do that?

      At the end of Clarkson’ Farm season 2, Clarkson has spelled out a word to mock Caleb, his assistant. I can’t imagine it’d be that simple to spell out a word, even with careful plotting of seeds.

  97. Yeah, of course he’s “from” Darlaston.

    A man has been found guilty of the ‘brazen’ rape of a 15-year-old girl after taking her out to sea off the coast of Bournemouth in order to assault her.
    Gabriel Marinoaica, of Darlaston, Walsall, West Midlands, was found guilty of three charges of sexual assault and one charge of rape after dragging the teenager out of her depth while she played a game of catch with a beach ball in the shallows.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13202641/man-guilty-raping-girl-taking-sea-Bournemouth-beach-assault.html

      1. The judge is the concern here:

        “Judge Susan Evans KC remanded the defendant in custody to be sentenced on April 19. She told him: “You have been convicted by the jury of what are really serious offences. “It was a brazen thing to have done in broad daylight on the beach.
        “I am afraid I cannot grant you bail but I order a pre-sentence report – the only outcome is custody in any event.”

        In addition to the “brazen” what about “really serious offences” and “I’m afraid I cannot grant you bail”?. Really, afraid? How about “It is my duty to deny you bail to protect the public”.

        2. I also find myself baffled as to why it is so much more heinous that such a ghastly crime was “done in broad daylight on the beach”. WTAF?

  98. Hadn’t thought of that. maybe it was a sort of psychic/spontaneous flower thingy rather than a deliberate plantation. Spookeh!

  99. Lawfare is the next great struggle.

    The ‘lawfare’ waged against arms sales to Israel reveals a dangerous Western delusion

    Activist politics is increasingly being conducted via an expansive reading of the law, to our enemies’ glee

    CHARLES MOORE • 15 March 2024 • 7:00pm

    Countries like Britain and the United States are friendly to Israel. That is the official position. After the October 7 attacks, both governments immediately condemned the atrocities and supported Israel’s right to self-defence.

    Yet if one counts up all those governments’ public pronouncements on the Israel-Gaza conflict, one finds the great majority are criticisms of Israel. Ministers do not defend Hamas, of course, but they usually mention it only in passing, or not at all.

    President Biden and, here, the Foreign Secretary, Lord Cameron, keep up a running commentary on Israel’s defects. This week, it concerns the delivery of aid.

    In formal terms, there is some justification for this. Israel, after all, is a democratic state with a rule of law. As such, it recognises the duties involved and the right of other states to criticise shortcomings. It also needs the support of countries like ours. Our public pronouncements may therefore have some influence.

    In addition, Britain (with other powers) claims that Israel has been, in international law, the “occupying power” in Gaza even after it left the place in 2005. This is a strange idea, since the definition of occupation is “effective control”, which Israel even now does not have over the whole of Gaza. Such occupation makes Israel legally responsible for the welfare of civilians still under Hamas’s heel. Thus Palestinians, who detest Israel’s occupation in principle, also like it in practice: they can hold it responsible for everything bad.

    Hamas, by contrast, is neither a state, nor a democracy. It rules not by law, but by murder and fear. So there is little point in appeals to Hamas on the grounds of legality, international obligations or even common humanity.

    The imbalance is weird. From most discourse in Parliament, in international forums or on the BBC, let alone from the chants of demonstrators on the streets of London every weekend, you would not know that Israeli civilians had been the victims of Hamas-led massacres and continue to be the victims of kidnapping, or that many thousands of them are currently persons displaced by attacks from Hezbollah. And if there is a story about malnutrition, the delivery of aid and the like, Hamas’s role in blocking or looting aid is barely mentioned. The word “genocide” is used against Israel, not against the Islamist perpetrators of October 7.

    Look at how people seek to deploy the law. In 2014, David Cameron’s coalition government ratified the Arms Trade Treaty. (The United States signed, but did not ratify, and therefore is not bound by its full terms.)

    Any decent person would agree that the arms trade can be a dirty business. Its regulation is desirable. But most decent people also agree that nations are sometimes right to defend themselves. For this they must have arms. Therefore, it is positively morally right, in some circumstances, for a country to manufacture and/or trade arms. Without them, more innocent lives would be lost, and more peoples enslaved.

    Yet 21st-century international lawyers and activists see each new treaty as a platform, like the European Court of Human Rights, on which to build. Their actions are all “expansive” (I almost wrote “colonising”, but I would not wish to cause offence).

    The “lawfare” waged by organisations such as the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) is relentless and carries all the usual baggage of those for whom protest is a way of life. (“The police are institutionally racist”, “The police are part of the arms trade”, says CAAT’s website.) In such hands, the “international rules-based order” degenerates into politics by other means.

    In the present case, it is safe to say that, if Israel did not make, buy and sell arms with great skill, it would long ago have been destroyed. It follows that since a government like ours is friendly to Israel, it should resist the use of international law to assist through courts the undermining of a country, which its enemies have so far failed to achieve in 75 years of intermittent violence.

    Just now, however, attempts are being made within Government to find Israeli breaches of international humanitarian law. If these are pushed forward, ministers will be under great pressure to act.

    The process would go thus: Foreign Office lawyers recommend that Israel is in breach and therefore licences to export arms to Israel should be blocked. If Lord Cameron, as Foreign Secretary, agrees to this, it would go, for ultimate decision, to the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, currently Kemi Badenoch.

    There is good reason to think that the ministers involved – Mrs Badenoch, Grant Shapps, the Defence Secretary, Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, and even Lord Cameron himself who, despite currently leading our most famously Arabist department, has always been a supporter of Israel – would not want such an outcome. Yet it could happen, partly because the fear of Judicial Review or some other form of inquiry could frighten ministers. There is always a career risk in supporting Israel, rarely one in opposing it.

    If this did happen, it would be, to use everyone’s current favourite word, “performative”. Unlike the United States, we are not Israel’s arms lifeline. Britain sells less than £50 million worth of arms-related material to Israel annually. We buy much more from the Israelis than we sell them. Some of what they get from us is useful in tasks like reclaiming Gazan tunnels from Hamas, but its loss would not be materially large.

    Think of the propaganda sensation achieved by an embargo, though. It would be a big political chance to show off, like that which South Africa took by bringing Israel to the International Criminal Court.

    It would turn us against an ally. It would break our trust with Israel, which has grown deep in matters of intelligence and may even be helping find some of the hostages. Israelis who feel that the West’s response is almost as if the October 7 massacres were their fault would be dismayed. The “from the river to the sea” marchers here at home would be emboldened, not placated.

    It would make it much harder for Britain to conduct future arms sales to countries like Saudi Arabia, whose help will be needed if plans for a durable Middle Eastern peace are revived. It would make Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping and Iran gleeful.

    A delegation of worried Conservative MPs went to see Lord Cameron about the matter this week. On balance, it seems likely that ministerial and backbench resistance will see off the moves for an export embargo. Israel is starting to concede more on the aid front, promising to “flood” Gaza with it, and thus allowing people like Lord Cameron to claim that progress is being made without recourse to law.

    But there are lessons in the Israel-Gaza case that go wider. In its obsession with “lawyering up”, the West is allowing a strange ideological equivalent of the Nazi-Soviet Pact to be forged between two apparently antagonistic groups which hate its values.

    The first group is the law-intoxicated activist internationalists who dream of a world without borders but with universal high-minded jurisdictions. The second group consists of autocrats who hold all law in contempt but love it when it ties their opponents up in knots – Putin, Xi, Hamas etc. They note that our deepening engagement with international legal processes seems increasingly to mean that we are losing the stomach for any long fight.

    Europeans called Putin “delusional” when he invaded Ukraine, but the sad truth may be that we are the more deluded.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/15/lawfare-against-arms-sales-israel-dangerous-delusion/

  100. “Facilis descensus Averno:
    Noctes atque dies patet atri ianua Ditis;
    Sed revocare gradium superasque evadere ad auras,
    Hoc opus, hic labor est.
    (The gates of Hell are open night and day;
    Smooth the descent, and easy is the way:
    But to return, and view the cheerful skies,
    In this task and mighty labor lies.)”

    Slightly clunky translation, but we get the point!

      1. God, i didn’t mean it like that! it’s actually something I usually get wrong, too, but I do think it often apposite and worth remembering – thank you for the reminder. (Wasn’t trying to be a smart arse)

        1. It did cross my mind that it was Averno, but then I couldn’t logically justify it as movement towards takes the accusative case (hence the insertion of a preposition).

          1. Bit technical for me, Conway – I also tend to go for Avernus in my mind (rather than Averno, which is correct). I would also translate that first line as “Easy is the descent into Hell” and perhaps the rest differently, although, like you, it is decades since i studied classics and then only at school,

  101. Last week , after suffering a few hard days of pain in my kidney area , I managed to have a telephone consultation with my doctor , who prescribed anti biotics , slow release .

    My pain didn’t decrease ,throbbed from my loin to my stomach ..

    So as I my course ran out , my pain increased .

    This morning earlyish after a shocking sleep, i drove to doctors , full surgery!

    Came home rang 111.. they advised me .. and said ambulance or find my own way to hospital ..

    I was still in pain , told Moh and drove 12 miles to A+E ..

    Quickly triaged, the unit was busy , pain radiating from back to stomach, I felt terrible .. was given pain relief, bloods , B/p shot up to 198/90, and well I thought that was the end of me .

    A few hours passed more checks , still raised b/p.. Moh phoned me , my battery was low, and I have an old apple 6 .. and the last thing I needed was a flat battery .. another few hours elapsed , bloods came back , CT scan , more pain relief , drip and a mouthful of oral morphine .. sent me happily some relief .

    I have had IBS for several years , and have got several food intolerances . Doctor appeared late afternoon .. CT scan everything clear and tickety boo apart from part of my large colon .. which was showing signs of diverticulitis and could be responsible for my pain .

    I have mentioned before that i enjoy porridge and fruit for breakfast , you know, harmless oats , full of fibre ..

    The doctor told me that the oats could 99% be responsible for my pain, they cause bloating and irritation , glutens etc.

    Doctor said that most of the gut problems they encounter in A+E are usually grain .. and one of the commonest was oats.. Scientific papers have been written about oats ..

    I have been on a breakfast porridge hike for well over a year .. and now it seems that oats are the culprit, as well as other grains that contain gluten .

    Listen , the local bods in our NHS A+E are working flat out … I mean it , it is similar to a factory production line , amazingly busy .. You know when more roads are built , traffic appears from nowhere , well the same applies to newly expanded A+E units, and not only that the staff have to cope with some disgusting behaviour , which I witnessed at 9.30 this morning .. requiring the presence of police .. several of them, and my goodness what a noise there was .

    A boiled egg for my breakfast tomorrow or perhaps nothing at all.

    I have been very lucky, again.

    1. Hope you’re feeling more comfortable now. Morphine is wonderful stuff when you really need it? I have IBS too. Cereal breakfast is provided free at work but I buy scrambled eggs and sausage instead.

      1. Yes Sue,

        The morphine was squirted into my mouth , and almost had an immediate effect, ie as if I had had a few drinks !

        Sorry about your IBS , it can be hellishly painful.

        1. Hope you keep feeling better. We have to be careful what we eat as so much food has changed in recent times. We have felt better with less veg 7 grains and more meat. We never took on this 5 a day as its far too much for us .

          1. I think the 5-a-day was only ever a marketing ploy to get rid of mountains of surplus produce in the US, California I think it was. Then it caught on around the world and became a gospel truth.

    3. Ah, Maggie, just glad it turned out not too badly. Oats? No wonder our Scots neighbours are so miserable.
      All kidding aside, I have IBS symptoms, but can’t be arsed to get a diagnosis over the phone. Make my own sourdough bread but I don’t eat much grain stuff.

    4. Oh Belle! What a horrible experience for you! I’m so pleased they’ve sorted you out, but pain is a terrible thing. Glad you’re home safe and almost sound! Steer well clear of the oats!

    5. There is nothing wrong with a cooked breakfast. There should never have been a downer on it. We have 1 egg, i rasher of bacon and fresh tomatoes about onec a week

    6. Very strange Maggie – I had IBS for years and it was cured by having porridge every morning (I still do) and cutting down of gluten.
      Hope you’re feeling better now

    7. How horrid. I have every sympathy, having been born with a spastic colon and having lifelong IBS and diverticular disease – it’s painful. The NHS advice on this is always to eat a high fibre, high carb diet and take their dodgy drugs. It doesn’t work for me, and in my case has made things worse – so a constant battle, not just with the disease but with the doctors.

      The only thing that has worked for me is a keto diet – it’s just not that easy to stick to if you like a drink or three. Nevertheless, worth a try. I do hope you find a balance that works for you. The other thing I have begun to research (but not tried) is fodmaps. The NHS is hopeless on this, totally in thrall to the food and drug industry.

      1. opopanax

        So sorry to read about your IBS and spastic colon .. and painful diverticulitis.

        Mine has got progressively worse over the past 15 years ..

        My doctor / GP has always gone on about high fibre this that and the other,as if we don’t know that.

        With all the turbulent nonsense there is around us media wise and politically and financially , I am sure new ills are finding their way into our bodies .

        1. Dear Belle, it’s not a big deal for me as it’s always been there (I know no different)
          – so I have enormous sympathy for you who didn’t have it before, which must be brutal. I have just come to believe, through experimentation with different diets and looking at other points of view than the NHS point of view, that the NHS recommended diet is really destructive, though that might just apply to me.

    8. Very sorry to hear you were in such pain, T_B and glad they seem to have found a cause. Did Moh not drive you to the hospital?
      What a day you had.
      No more porridge for you then. Has the pain gone off now? I hope so.
      Did you get a result yet from the scan you had weeks ago?

      1. J
        I drove myself , I wasn’t being a martyr, he had the dog to deal with and other things , and A+E’s are so overcrowded .

        I had no idea whether i would be kept in ..

        Son and he picked me up this afternoon, son drove my car home .

        I don’t like fuss , and certainly with my blood pressure so raised I needed tranquility on my own .

        The amazing thing is , A+E charged up my nearly flat phone so I was able to message Moh .. They had charge points near their various desks .. first class treatment , and a good experience … in a fuzzy foggy sort of way .

        No echocardiogram result yet .. they searched for the result , lost in the system I think.

        1. That was good then. I hope you’re feeling better now and the pain gone. The raised BP was probably a result of the pain and stress. Have a quiet and calm day tomorrow.
          Sleep well tonight. 😴

    9. Goodness Belle, sorry to hear of your ordeal. Seems the NHS did well for you, glad you’re back home and, presumably, out of pain. Look after yourself and have a good rest tomorrow. xxx

    10. Sorry to hear about you very troubled day.
      When vw was taken to A&E 4 weeks ago it was hellishly busy.
      We can’t carry on importing 1 million people s year an it not have any effects. The NHS has got to ditch all this DIE stuff otherwise more and more people will die.

    11. Just buy Kefir yoghurt and add a few Blueberries, Banana, orange or easy peeler citrus (I split the fruit into segments and remove the pips and skin). Adding sliced apple is another tip.

      A little honey on top of the Kefir Yoghurt is optional .

    13. Sorry to hear of your predicament, Belle. I hope that you are on the mend and all goes well for you.

      As for the disgusting behaviour in A&E, my DiL worked in A&E for a number of years and enjoyed the work except for the behaviour of some people, especially over weekends. In addition, advancement was very limited and she decided to take a degree in midwifery and move on. She’s thoroughly enjoying delivering babies but keeps her qualification for general nursing by doing bank work, in A&E.

    14. Poor you. I know how you feel. Went through it recently myself. Fybogel every morning has helped me.

    15. Good afternoon Maggie and all.

      Sorry to hear of your travails and those of other Nottlers and Spexiles too!

      I truly believe all Nottlers suffer IBS every day…….. Irritable Bullshit Syndrome

    1. Geoff should have it. Or Jeremy Morfey of this parish. There are a few organists on here. We must get it for them.

    1. Shoreditch looks really delightful in those pics. I know that it is now the “in” venue for the rich London yoof. Crossbows, though?

  106. Much longer than the pleasure piers ….

    https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/235461730832?_trkparms=amclksrc%3DITM%26aid%3D1110013%26algo%3DHOMESPLICE.SIMRXI%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20201210111452%26meid%3Da5f99cdccca94c4f88dfdda23a7a19e8%26pid%3D101196%26rk%3D3%26rkt%3D5%26sd%3D266711783099%26itm%3D235461730832%26pmt%3D1%26noa%3D0%26pg%3D4429486%26algv%3DPromotedRVIPbooster&_trksid=p4429486.c101196.m2219&itmprp=cksum%3A235461730832a5f99cdccca94c4f88dfdda23a7a19e8%7Cenc%3AAQAJAAAA8CwDxH%252FaslyJlxG5OwCzDVvI1wwjxiqiJNpBlcn4K7Y%252BlVNjExGfvzPgO4VX5CP%252B%252BXd5y1jfsuNZQgJcz0YWVzb47qsmd6eNk3xmbb9rk95e5ypcc1m9bzHR7T%252BrQthJKOLx2hDTkO%252B2dwPw7Z326z8oMAtKD3S%252F2Ug0QTQW1TSAd2Ul9%252BZiWSIaymVup6eQn550RdQ6203busZFSftKAEgqP8osxuRrHQ9C7y5xKtpsaKJSGGOd%252FmaxPU4rMhl0JnCYZx0ulLvnfBUnxRpdOjApAGOqN7FbwN2koTRxVBhGGAkkyRTM6T3hwRsi%252FagcBw%253D%253D%7Campid%3APL_CLK%7Cclp%3A4429486&itmmeta=01HS274BPJ99FPHG9JBTZ23VZE

    1. She smelt rather fishy:

      https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/296128762780?itmmeta=01HS26SCGXB149Z5F469H34PMM&hash=item44f2a6539c:g:BucAAOSwZ5xk7JGd&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA4Hg8suCaLxEQkWbYK5el%2FHkJGWJ1PG%2FyMqX5NXB6iproTNSXRako6FWev%2F9ToVRU92Lh519XCZ1jWKP45hTae4%2FcxwOHKvfgDEtkyE5NiElgF8RI5fc4l%2B8bP1UTO2ptkrkhRM0GeGvjj7auVFWCZaDYjoe6cdZfvDfYTW%2B79yFPzlRk0q6lZwXt0gPTR%2FH5dm4UdkdNOaDzF%2F3jdHsGLHSLtGmHjXgR0IhZ4lPXasYvB8zI4NnqngdDwqP0odmwpLcb80LozwZmTcjwfjEdRPpEwN2UuWQxKtIljjsmCAxs%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR-LI5cbIYw

        1. It’s only a bl**dy postcard!

          From time to time I pass on adverts I encounter, including art for sale costing 5-figures.

  109. I do not follow the Red Nose Day crap and despise ‘Sir Lenny Henry’ and his type except when some dolt’s allegiances expires.

    So one of the most unfunny comedians in British history is signing off from the monumental fraud of Red Nose Day and is finally signing off. Good riddance. Please stay away and please do not resurface. You are almost universally despised as a UK government shill.

    1. Couldn’t ignore Red Nose Day – didn’t realise it was on in the first place! LH is most unfunny.

  110. Good morning fellow insomniacs.
    I woke to pump bilges and realised I was not going to settle, so came down stairs for a while.
    Put BBC Radio 3 on for some music and got some total shite called “Tearjerker” hosted by someone calling herself “Aurora” who only speaks in a soft, quiet and very unlistenable voice.
    Now listening to Swiss Radio Classique.

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