Thursday 16 May: In receipt of mounting evidence that the NHS bureaucracy is broken

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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780 thoughts on “Thursday 16 May: In receipt of mounting evidence that the NHS bureaucracy is broken”

    2. Good morning, I remember you from 15 years back at ConHome
      when you had a silver back gorilla avatar. Myself ( Kitty ) was made a honoury Kipper by Mobius ( George ) and Raddy.

  3. Good morning from Audrey and me as I dance joyously as the sun would like to shine through the early morning mist if it were not for heavy cloud in the way, so you’ll have to make do with my sunny presence 😁

  4. Good morrow, gentlefolk. Today’s (recycled) Poem

    OH TO BE EIGHT AGAIN!

    A man was sitting on the edge of the bed, watching his wife, who was looking at herself in the mirror. Since her birthday was not far off, he asked what she’d like to have for her birthday.

    ‘I’d like to be eight again’, she replied, still looking in the mirror.

    On the morning of her birthday, he arose early, made her a nice big bowl of Coco Pops, and then took her to “Adventure World” theme park.

    What a day! He put her on every ride in the park; the Death Slide, the Wall of Fear, the Screaming Roller Coaster, everything there was.

    Five hours later they staggered out of the theme park. Her head was reeling and her stomach felt upside down. He then took her to a McDonald’s where he ordered her a Happy Meal with extra fries and a chocolate milkshake.

    Then it was off to a movie, popcorn, a soft drink, and her favourite lollies, M&M’s. What a fabulous adventure!

    Finally, she wobbled home with her husband and collapsed into bed exhausted.

    He leaned over his wife with a big smile and lovingly asked, ‘Well Dear, what was it like being eight again?

    Her eyes slowly opened and her expression suddenly changed.

    ‘I meant my dress size, you f@*#*! retard!’

    The moral of the story: Even when a man is listening, he is gonna get it wrong.

  6. Good morning, chums, and thanks for today’s site, Geoff. I’ve overslept, so will now make myself a cuppa, do today’s Wordle, then add it to this post shortly. Later: I was in too much of a rush , so didn’t manage to solve it:

    Wordle 1,062 X/6

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    1. I thought it was a difficult one today!
      Wordle 1,062 5/6

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  7. THE KING ON CANVAS

    SIR – Now that is a portrait fit for a contemporary monarch (“Yeo masters the fine art of painting a modern royal”, Special report, May 15) – a fabulous and powerful work. Congratulations to all concerned.

    Tony Parrack
    London SW20

    SIR – While it is splendid that the King’s concern for butterfly conservation is shown in his new portrait, it would have been even more appropriate had the butterfly depicted been British.

    Peter Stockwell
    Ely, Cambridgeshire

    Well said, Tony. I could not agree more. It is heartening to know I am not alone in standing up to the philistines. who know little about art but “know what they like”.

    While the Monarch butterfly Danaus plexippus may, Peter, be a Nearctic species; varying numbers make the seemingly impossible vast transatlantic journey annually. In the UK it is officially classified as a vagrant.

    1. Hummingbird hawkmoths (Macroglossum stellatarum) are also travellers; some doubt in my mind as to whether they arrive in the UK from Southern France, or fly to Southern Europe from Palestine (my source was a gentleman who was born before the Mandate).

      2. I used to get those, when I lived in Norfolk, buzzing around my hollyhocks. I’ve yet to see one here in Sweden.

    2. Many moons ago I visited the island of Paros in the Aegean, and was captivated by a large sign directing us to the Valley of the Batterflies! We went anyway, and it was full of Monarchs!

    3. With red tunic on red background, from a distance Brian’s head appears to be floating in the air

      1. Floating in hell, more like.
        I looked at some of Yeo’s other work, and while he is undeniably good at capturing a flattering likeness, his designs are in my opinion, poor.
        Or who knows? maybe Yeo sees Charles clearly, and painted the picture as a warning!
        It’s very telling though, that this PR disaster (mind control symbol butterfly and flames of hell) was allowed through the palace protection net. I guess Charles thought himself to be an adequate judge of all things artistic. Or else they just don’t care any more.

    4. We tend not to downvote, as a site custom, on this forum, veryveryoldfella. Was your downvote a slip of the thumb?

  9. Pro-Russian Slovakia PM’s assassination attempt ‘politically motivated’, government claims.
    15 May 2024 • 11:43pm

    Slovakia’s pro-Russia prime minister Robert Fico was on Wednesday night fighting for life after he was shot in a “politically motivated” assassination attempt.

    Doctors were operating on the populist leader several hours after a gunman fired at least four times at him as he met supporters in the western town of Handlova.

    It is hard to avoid the suspicion that this is CIA organised and motivated. It is just too convenient .Fico was member of the political triad that supports Russia in Europe and aside from cutting one leg off it has served notice on the other two. One also notices the singular lack of criticism in the MSM. With what looks like victory for Vlad in the offing it might also be a payback notice. No comments allowed either so the Telegraph probably agrees.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/05/15/slovakia-prime-minister-robert-fico-shot/

    1. A CIA operation doesn’t ring true here. They go in for Right Wing death gangs to undermine what they perceive to be communism, followed by a pro-business takeover where democracy become a fait accompli set by Davos. They don’t go in for lone assassins with a grudge, especially if they are intellectuals, long regarded by the CIA as unreliable.

      Most likely is that the assassin is a nottler type who has gone psychotic. I described on yesterday’s page how Russia is adopting a pattern of fostering domestic dissent between natural antagonists, and then taking advantage when national morale breaks down. If there is a strategic advantage in setting off a “special military operation”, then a war chest is being set up by the Kremlin for such an adventure, to the peril of any cities, towns or villages in the way. The situation in Ukraine I described in my comment. It is following this pattern in Moldova and Georgia, and it would not surprise me if Slovakia is also on the list of prospects, having once been a key member of the Warsaw Pact and was invaded by the Soviets in 1968.

      1. Assassinations. Of the cases cited, it appears that no CIA personnel or even directly controlled foreign agents personally killed any leader, but there certainly were cases where the CIA knew of, or supported, plots to overthrow foreign leaders.

        Human rights violations by the CIA – Wikipedia

  10. I can report that the sun has managed to glimpse through the ⛅ here anyway, I smiled sweetly to Helios and he obliged . In regards to that bizarre rather red painting of King Charles, the face painted very well but I’ve no idea of why the delicate, silken butterfly is fluttering above the left shoulder unless to signify his transformation or his love of nature .

  11. “SIR – While it is splendid that the King’s concern for butterfly
    conservation is shown in his new portrait, it would have been even more
    appropriate had the butterfly depicted been British.

    Peter Stockwell
    Ely, Cambridgeshire”

    Just give that darned butterfly a ride on a dinghy to Dover, and you can be sure it soon will be.

    1. I love 🦋 they can stay as with all wildlife such as birds why fly in
      But far too feminine and delicate to be incorporated within a painting of a strong masculine King ( for whatever reason ) Henry VIII wouldn’t have done so, Tim. 😁

    2. It is a very good likeness of the King, but I rather fear it seems that the poor upstanding fellow is burning in hell as this lost butterfly is turning to the monarch for salvation and protection.

  12. Good morning all.
    A bright start with an almost warm tad under 10°C on the yard thermometer.
    A trip to Stoke is planned.

    4. Morning Bob – blue skies up here and it’s forecast to be extreeeeemly hot

  14. 387476+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Thursday 16 May: In receipt of mounting evidence that the NHS bureaucracy is broken

    If so this” mounting evidence”is surely a late comer to the destruction of the United Kingdom via the political top rankers and supporter /. voters.campaign.

    Thursday 16 May: In receipt of indisputable evidence that the ELECTED, in the main, governing top rankers are actively following an alien agenda against the wishes of the decent indigenous peoples, and have been doing so these past four decades,

    That little used commodity common sense tells me that the NHS is on a loser daily all the time Dover is active, and has been so since that political tosspot of a PM, voted in three times, lifted the entry latch.

  16. Good Morning Folks,

    A Sir Keir Dull Grey start here, rain later.

    Wordle 1,062 4/6

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  17. UK to deploy new radio-wave weapon which can blast swarms of drones out of the sky. 16 May 2024.

    A new radio-wave weapon which can destroy swarms of drones in one shot is to be used by the British military for the first time.

    The Radio Frequency Directed Energy Weapon (RFDEW) beams disruptive radio waves at vehicles and drones, frying the electronics inside.

    With a range of up to almost a mile, the radio weapon can be used across land, air and sea and costs as little as 10p per shot.

    And yet another WunderWaffen. Strange how they are all coming out now.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/05/16/uk-radio-wave-weapon-blast-swarms-drones-military-army/

    1. The dominance of the drone was always going to be countered quickly given the pace of technological development.

    3. I need to build one of those to zap the Welsh drones that come over looking to spy on my double glazing et al.

  18. Keir Starmer asked Jonathan Yeo for a portrait if he becomes PM.

    But sadly he was declined, as there isn’t enough grey paint in the country

    2. I remember seeing the Jonathan Yeo portrait of George Dubya at the Groucho Club.
      https://www.thegrouchoclub.com/art/jonathan-yeo-bush-2007
      There was a bit of a falling out I understand, so the artist got his revenge.. if you zoom in on his right ear you’ll see how.

          2. As you know my initial response to the portrait of King Charles was that it looked like it was painted in shit and blood. Now knowing the artist is notorious it wouldn’t surprise me if it was.

          3. I stopped using urine to dilute my watercolours when people started calling me a piss artist.

          4. There was some artist I remember did a painting in elephant dung – the smell followed you round the room

        2. Zoom in on the dimple on his chin. The whole thing is made up from stills of porn.

        3. His unauthorised 2007 portrait of George W. Bush, created from cuttings of pornographic magazines brought him worldwide notoriety, shown in London, New York and Los Angeles.

          Yeo looks a bit poofee to me – He probably swings both ways.

    3. I remember seeing the Jonathan Yeo portrait of George Dubya at the Groucho Club.
      https://www.thegrouchoclub.com/art/jonathan-yeo-bush-2007
      There was a bit of a falling out I understand, so the artist got his revenge.. if you zoom in on his right ear you’ll see how.

      2. We reckon we know who gave the orders for the act to be committed – but I wonder who actually wielded the blade which cut open Dr Kelly’s wrists.

        1. The original report said the body was attended by two police officers and an unnamed third person. Later reports said the body was attended by two police officers only. I believe the ‘third man’ was an American agent. Probably CIA.

  21. 387476+ up ticks,

    9h

    Gerard Batten,

    Every so often there is a news story that lifts the spirits in these dark times.

    Cambridge Uni has apparently announced it will no longer use the term ‘Anglo-Saxon’ to describe the period from the 5th cent to 1066; but will instead label it ‘Early Medieval’ or some such nonsense,

    This is about hatred of country, history & culture, & robbing the English of their identity.

    The sooner the Woke Unis go broke & crash the better. Something new & sane needs to arise from their rubble.

    Why universities are in a financial ‘death spiral’ – inews,https://apple.news/AgyWfwITzSmSXd…
    ‘We’re waiting to see who goes under first’: Why universities are on the brink — inews
    ‘We’re waiting to see who goes under first’: Why universities are on the brink — inews

    A drop in international students and income from domestic tuition fees have left some universities facing an existential crisis

    1. Have they gone full Septic too?
      Medieval Mediaeval.
      It’s a wonder they don’t name it Medievil, such is their hatred of this country’s history

      1. Medieval is in line with certain types of adgenda now in full view in our country. As in Cruel uncivilised and primitive.

    2. Good morning, ogga

      You are completely right in saying: “This is about hatred of country, history & culture, & robbing the English of their identity.”

      I have already posted this quotation from King Lear this morning but it bears repetition:

      That nature that condemns its origin cannot be bordered certain in itself.

      The British have lost their self confidence, self respect and reason which is why nobody takes us seriously anymore and the invaders think that they will swamp us and impose their legal and religious systems upon us.

      1. 387476+ up ticks,

        Morning R,

        The build up is now taking place for more of the same.
        The proven mindset of idiots is
        that the party ( in governance, no matter which) cannot be wrong.
        We have, nigh on lost a nation via
        the polling stations, and the continued input of fools.

      2. They won’t swamp us and impose their legal and religious systems upon us. They will kill us. Because that is what islam does.

        That the British have lost their self confidence, self respect and reason is evidenced in Johnny Norfolk’s comment above regarding the wearing of face-masks ‘I was very disappointed in the people of this country just how timid and nasty they were‘.

        1. All too many relished in their little bit of power.
          We can never mock Germany and smugly say “Of course, that could never happen here”.

  22. Putin could now defeat Ukraine within months. Hamish de Crettin-Gordon. 16 May 2024.

    Nato must plan for the worst-case scenario, where Russia breaks the “line” and charges West at speed and must be blocked. Much better to block in Ukraine than on Nato soil, but this may require Nato “boots in the air and on the ground”, or as a minimum the genuine threat of such action. Too many Western leaders have ruled this out, which has only emboldened Putin; here, President Macon is right. They must now rule it “in” to change Putin’s thinking and approach. We must also plan to knock down Russian missiles and drones attacking Ukrainian cities as we did those Iranian ones attacking Israeli cities.

    Thankfully this is by Gordon who forecast last year that UK’s twelve tanks would drive right over the Russian Army.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/05/15/putin-could-now-defeat-ukraine-within-months/

    2. When the fraternal tanks of the USSR rolled into Czechoslovakia in 1968, we shook our collective fist and did naff all.

    3. “President Macon is right. They must now rule it “in” to change Putin’s thinking and approach’

      Crack on then Maccers. I’d like see the Frogs mount anything like a sustained offensive. There’d be no room in their webbing for compo because their white flags take up too much space.

  23. Morning all 🙂😊
    Oh dear summer is over before its started !!
    I have two hospital appointments within 2 hours of each other this morning, it will be interesting to find out how things work out. I haven’t totally lost faith, as the front line has mainly been good to me over the past 4 years.
    But I’m off to find out soon.
    Slayders folks.

      1. Cheers Grizz it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. There’s New type of injection fluid available hopefully to be carried out soon.
        Next week cataract removal. Scuz the pun but I’m looking forward to that. 👀

        1. Brilliant and simple operation.
          It’s a cliche, but a true one.
          Colours afterwards are incredibly sharp.

      1. I hope it doesn’t happen but imagine if the first appointment is so late he misses the second one…

        1. I always take a barely started paperback.
          With a bit of luck, I’m seen before I find out whodunnit.

      2. Amazingly I was called in bang on time doc came to see me within 10 minutes. Had to ask the consultant about further treatments. Came back within 25 minutes and are booking me in for a different type of injection that recently became available. Watch this space……
        Quite happy so far.

  24. Masks did not stop Omicron variant spread

    The Daily Telegraph16 May 2024By Michael Searles

    FACE coverings did not stop the Omicron variant of Covid, a study has found.

    The highly infectious Covid variant saw the reintroduction of rules such as mask-wearing, self-isolation, working from home and vaccine passports when it swept across Britain in November 2021. Research has now found that while these measures helped to halt Covid earlier in the pandemic, they had little to no effect on infection rates after Omicron arrived.

    The study conducted by the University of East Anglia (UEA) found that face masks in particular were not effective once the first wave of Omicron had passed, although they had previously helped to reduce infection rates.

    The public was forced to wear them again between November 2021 and January 2022 with the threat of fines up to £6,400. Masks continued to be recommended until the April.

    Researchers also found that wearing face coverings after the first wave of Omicron may have actually increased the risk of children catching Covid during the subsequent waves because they had less immunity.

    Prof Paul Hunter, the lead author of the Norwich Medical School at UEA, told The Telegraph that “those people who didn’t wear masks got all their infections in the first couple of weeks [of the wave] and were then immune, whereas the people who had been wearing masks weren’t immune because they’d not had Covid up until that point”.

    “The value of masks was always delaying the pandemic until most people had the vaccine,” he said. “Masks contributed to that and so therefore probably saved many lives but once Covid was here to stay, and certainly once Omicron came with it being much more infectious…masks were ultimately of no value for most people.”

    Experts at UEA said that masks were linked to a 19 per cent reduction in infections early on in the pandemic but this did not account for the much more transmissible Omicron variant.

    The study showed that adults who never wore masks were up to 30 per cent more likely to be infected but these benefits were wiped out by February. Several sub-types of the Omicron variant continue to be the most dominant in the UK, health experts have said.

    The study was funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research and published in ‘Plos One’.

    You don’t say? I told you at the time that face nappies do not, will not, never have, nor ever will, stop the inhalation of ANY virus. The utter twats telling people to wear one (quite apart from the utter gormless twats who actually did wear one) did not think to tell people to wear goggles, also, since viruses enter the respiratory tract, unchallenged, by simply entering the eyes and taking a free ride down the tear ducts into the sinuses.

    1. Caroline and I are conspiracy theorists and covid jab refuseniks so our views and experience should be ignored by the PTB and the MSM.

      According to the test the cold we both had a couple of years ago was the Omicron variant of Covid 19. Neither of us was jabbed – neither of us was ill. Caroline carried on as normal and I slept it off in bed for one day. Many of our friends and family members who had this cold were fully jabbed and boosted and were actually quite ill. But if jab refuseniks and conspiracy theorists say so it cannot possibly be true.

      Caroline plays the organ at funerals in our parish and the number of deaths amongst fully jabbed people aged between 40 and 60 has risen dramatically.

      Statistics only lie when they do not produce the results that the PTB want!

      1. Our pay back is the relief we feel having not had any jabs or boosters.

    2. Caroline and I are conspiracy theorists and covid jab refuseniks so our views and experience should be ignored by the PTB and the MSM.

      According to the test the cold we both had a couple of years ago was the Omicron variant of Covid 19. Neither of us was jabbed – neither of us was ill. Caroline carried on as normal and I slept it off in bed for one day. Many of our friends and family members who had this cold were fully jabbed and boosted and were actually quite ill. But if jab refuseniks and conspiracy theorists say so it cannot possibly be true.

      Caroline plays the organ at funerals in our parish and the number of deaths amongst fully jabbed people aged between 40 and 60 has risen dramatically.

      Statistics only lie when they do not produce the results that the PTB want!

    3. There are gormless twats still wearing them. The omicron variant didn’t exist.

    4. Face masks only stop splash and nothing more. We never wore them and the way we were treated was shocking. We were often the only couple unmasked. I was very dissapointed in the people of this country just how timid and nasty they were. I have little to do with these people.

      1. Mostly I was the only person without a mask when I was out and about. To my personal annoyance and shame it took me two months to pluck up the courage to discard the wretched thing, I recall sitting in the car in a car park in Biggleswade trying to dig that courage up from my toes, wondering if I could do this, or would I slink away, tail between my legs? I feared the opprobrium of others, but a principle was at stake, and my self-esteem. I had felt from the start that our government should not be in the business of denying people that most fundamental of human necessities, the right to breathe freely and unencumbered. I was accosted only once, in Waitrose, by what I felt was perhaps a ‘professional’ look-out for those going against the government grain. It was unpleasant, but it strengthened my determination and self-belief. I had hoped that my naked face would offer courage to others to go maskless. I too was very disappointed in the people of this country, how cowed they looked with their masks and the endless sheep-like queues for the jabs. I could not understand why they couldn’t see the red flags that I was seeing surrounding this whole event.

        1. We all bought lanyards granting exemption.
          Still have ours ready for the next confected panic.

        2. Welcome to “The Few” and well done. When we passed anyone not masked up they always gave us a wonderful smile and that knowing look. and boy were we proved right.

        3. I only ever wore a bandana for the first few weeks (and hated it). As soon as I found out I could download and print an “I am exempt” badge, I did and never wore another face covering.

          1. The few weeks I used a mask – I probably only went out four or five times to places where they were expected to be worn – I felt as though I were suffocating, I absolutely hated it. I couldn’t understand how people seemed to comfortably wear them, unconcerned. Yes, I printed the ‘I am exempt badge’ but I bought the more durable lanyard later. I kept it out of sight, but it was there in case I needed it – I was only apprehended on one occasion, I think they were self-appointed vigilantes, a late middle-aged husband and wife team working together on a Friday morning. Very little in the basket I noticed as she sauntered down the aisle!

    5. My friend the microbiologist (It’s a living) held that masks did some good for the wearer, but the main benefit was to others. BTW, she thinks that global warming is a scam (she’s clearly not dependent on grants).

    6. As a respected scientist said: using a mask to protect against a virus is like using a chainlink fence to contain smoke.

      1. Indeed. Or standing inside a tennis court to protect you against being shot by a machine gun on the outside.

    7. I would be interested in the figures for the assertion that ‘adults who never wore masks were up to 30% more likely to be infected’. None of those I know who, like me, did not wear masks, would never have been tested voluntarily.

  25. The judiciary in the US is clearly broken and irredeemably corrupt.

    But how long will it be before our own laws have been swamped, trumped and replaced by Sharia Law?

    From an article in today’s The Conservative Woman

    Listening to a bulletin on Classic FM made me realise just how badly the British public are being misinformed about Donald Trump’s so-called hush money trial.

    Ask yourself, what crime is it that Trump is being accused of committing?

    Paying hush money? No, this is not a crime. Indeed Non Disclosure Agreements, NDAs, are actually legally binding agreements, and are not illegal in any way.

    Keeping the payments secret? No, that is the whole purpose of an NDA.

    Recording the payments in his company’s accounts as ‘legal expenses’? No, even if they were wrongly classified (which they weren’t), such a bookkeeping error in the US would be only a misdemeanour, not a felony, for which the Statute of Limitations expired years ago.

    Not declaring it as a campaign expense during the 2016 election? No, that would be a federal offence, which a New York court would have no jurisdiction over.

    So just what is the crime? Curiously, the prosecution have not even announced what it is that they are trying Trump for! This would appear to be unheard of in any court of law, either here or in the US.

    Legal experts in the US are all over this case, pointing out these discrepancies and criticising the prosecution. Yet here in the UK I have not come across any of this. Instead the media pretends it is all a serious legal case and that Trump is obviously guilty, and then proceeds to salivate over the latest (irrelevant) tittle-tattle emanating from Stormy Daniels or Michael Cohen.

  26. The promised rain has arrived. Will last until teatime. So no market for us today. Fishless. Except that our excellent local fishmonger will be in the marketplace on Saturday morning.

    I am forced to sit and do the crossword…what a burden.

  27. Taste speech

    Editorial, Daily Telegraph, 16 May 2024.

    A Japanese professor complained of racial discrimination by the School of Oriental and African Studies in London because a senior academic told her of a sushi restaurant which her family enjoyed. An employment tribunal judge ruled that a reasonable person would not take offence at such friendly words. The complainant had argued: “She would not have said to a German person, ‘I like sausage.’” But why is sausage off limits? More sushi than German sausage is sold in Britain, but if someone actually liked Currywurst, they might be bursting to tell a German the glad news. A problem remains if you hate a foreign dish. Dare you confide to a Pisan that you can’t bear their local tripe recipe? De gustibus non est disputandum means that there’s no nice knockdown argument for tastes, not that they mustn’t be mentioned.

    I’m from Derbyshire and I would not be offended if anyone asked me if I like Bakewell Pudding.

      1. Problem is, these days, most people are incapable of “getting a life”. Their brains simply do not function.

          1. Along with their parents, their teachers, the internet, their mobile phones, the shit they call ‘food’ …

          2. Today i am making Iberico pork fillet wrapped in Parma ham. Buttered parsley carrots. No shit food here.

          4. I’ve just dug a decent-sized home-made (beef chuck) hamburger out of the freezer. I shall fry it in tallow, then place it — along with some crisp bacon — into a piece of home-made ciabatta that has been spread, inside, with garlic-parsley-and-parmesan butter and then placed into the air-frier for eight minutes at 180ºC. I might put a few slices of fresh tomato on that with a few slices of dill-pickled gherkin.

            That ciabatto is my weekly ration of bread.

          5. I added tomato to my bacon and Brie croissant yesterday and air fried it until the cheese began to melt. The tomato kept it moist.

    2. I’d love to know if there’s anywhere in London that does a decent Yorkshire pud.

        2. Front part reminds me of Wallace & Gromit; Wallace’s smiling jaw without teeth.

        1. I quite enjoyed my roast beef lunch at Simpsons. Three huge slices from the trolley. I told him to stop at two.
          The reason i say i quite enjoyed it is i have a suspicion they rubbed cocoa or coffee or an Oxo cube on the outside of the joint prior to roasting. There was a slight bitter edge to it which i found disagreeable.

          The Vodka Martinis were excellent though.

    3. If a Japanese professor was to come over here and tell me that German is the stereotype for sausage, then I’d say, “Oi! Back off Yamamoto. Stop appropriating my culture. Everyone knows sausages are quintessentially English. Specifically they received world wide perfection in Lincolnshire.”

        1. Yes, let’s wheel out the stereotypes when that glorious day comes around. I can think of a few.

      2. Careful where you buy those Lincolnshire sausages. Butchers in Lincolnshire applied for protected status and it was turned down. The ‘big boys’ in the industry often add other herbs that aren’t in the original recipe. They also mince the pork too finely.

        Buy them online if you don’t live near a Lincolnshire butcher.

          5. Have you tried the Sicilian lemon tart from Sainsbury’s? It’s a killer. :@)

          7. That’s what i meant. When i bought one at Sainsbury’s it wasn’t as good as M&S. I told them so.

          8. I’ve made — and had elsewhere — versions of Key Lime Pie for many years, Johnathan. None,, though, were truly authentic since it is impossible to source proper Key Limes. I suppose mine would be properly called just “Lime Pie” even though they are really a tart and Yanks call tarts “pies”.
            I have a friend who has visited Key West a few times but, incongruously, he doesn’t like desserts!

      1. I was forced to eat the monstrosity that is called “Bakewell tart” at school and I hated it (still do).

        To the best of my knowledge, I’ve never seduced a woman from the town of Bakewell.

        1. Glad to hear it. There are limits to supporting the local economy. Maybe you prefer puff pastries?

          1. I tend to shy away from most cakey-type things these days but I do make my own puff pastry. I use it to make my two favourites: vanilla slices and Eccles cakes.

  28. Exactly, or better just tell him to grow up. The entire world seems to have become infantalised.

      1. Sadly, yes. Increasingly the main characteristics of academics these days: irrelevancy.

      3. Woman / Schwoman, Man / Sman… No monopoly on stupity among the sexes, I reckon. It’s all a matter of brand of stupidity.

        Geddit Bill? If you are asking if I noticed that steam train running me over at 100-mph on the main London to Edinburgh line, yes I suppose I possibly did 😄

        1. Found it. Nippy: A waitress in any of the restaurants of J. Lyons & Co. Ltd in London from about 1920 to 1950.

  29. If white people who think that their own race is the best are deplorable white supremacists who should be condemned for their bigotry what about white inferiorists who think that white people are worse than all other races? Are they not just as bigoted and deplorable?

    That nature that condemns its origin cannot be bordered certain in itself.

    [King Lear]

    The problem is that the British and our politicians no longer believe in ourselves.

    1. If you ask why white people are not a cut above they’ll say it’s because white people conquered the world and will completely fail to comprehend the inherent contradiction.

  30. Pissed-Off of Colchester rites:
    Good Moaning.
    At least the ruddy ducks are happy. And the mallards, Indian runners etc…..

    Hands up all those who’ve heard of Rutherford B. Hayes.
    He was the answer to one of yesterday’s DT crossword clues.
    I had never heard of him: he was a US president in that blank period (to me) between Abe getting totalled and Teddy Roosevelt inventing the cuddly toy.

    1. They must be having a thing about them. The other day an answer was: “Millard Fillmore”. Who he, I wondered…

    3. Not going to change all day, I’m afraid. Soon off to Bury At Edmunds. I’m under the same cloud as Colchester here and when I get to Bury I’ll still be under the same cloud according to my app. Roses and Irises looking good on the plus side.

      1. Pissing all day here. May ease about 4 pm. Or not. Incidentally, I thought that St Edmund had already BEEN buried.

        I’ll get me shovel…

          1. For those who don’t know: St Edmund was an Anglo-Saxon King and ruled East Anglia between 855AD and 869AD.

            He was killed by Viking raiders. They shot arrows into him until he bristled like a hedgehog, then the cut off his head and threw it deep into the briars in the forest.

            Edmund’s body was found by his followers, they heard a voice shouting “Here,here,here” they followed the sound and found the head guarded by a wolf. When the head was put back with the body it miraculously become reattached. This was felt to be a sign of sainthood and many miracles were then attributed to Edmund and his shrine in Bury St Edmunds became a place of pilgrimage. This resulted in the growth and prosperity of the Abbey and the town.

            It’s true I tell you – I heard it from the BBC – The Before Boadicea Clan.

          2. I always laugh when Bury St Edmunds is mentioned because a friend of mine was boasting he knew where every town was and could find it on the map. We suggested Bury St Edmunds and he was completely stumped. Collapse of stout party 🙂

        2. Oh dear, oh dear…

          Interestingly he fell at a village nearby by to me, quite a few miles from Bury St Eds.

  31. Caroline’s gluten free Yorkshire pudding is not bad. I wish she would make it more often

    (But to be honest it is not quite as good as my mother’s.)

    1. You mean not quite so Tastey? Dangerous words indeed, does Mrs T do forgiveness?

  32. From The Spectator magazine

    No tips please, we’re British
    Comments Share
    I hate tipping, not because I am intrinsically mean but because of the anxiety it induces. You pitch up at some glam hotel, after a gruelling flight, then the guy next to the concierge takes your bags to your room, and, as you go, you fumble in your pockets, searching for the mysterious notes and coins, even as you try to estimate the right amount to tip the porter.

    Tipping is yet another toxic byproduct of America’s tragic past and should be treated like an invasive species
    This is a complex equation at the best of times, as it involves so many imponderables: the state of the local economy, the likely wages hereabouts, the emotionally correct sum to give – not insultingly little but not so much that you look like an oligarch. At the same time you often have to calculate this amount in a foreign currency (Heck is a shekel? What else can I do with my Vietnamese dong?).

    On top of that, you’re asking yourself: is this a country that tips? Because some countries don’t like tips at all – e.g. Japan. A tip in Japan can actually be insulting. I’ve experienced this: they look down at your proffered yen with a mirthless smile, and a terse little headshake, all of which says: ‘I do my job well because I want to do it well, not because you grace me with small change.’

    Some countries expect tipping all the time. By which I mean: the United States of America.

    Anyone who has spent a day in America will grasp what I am saying. In America you are expected to tip everyone perpetually. Such is the obscene scale of tipping there, I am always thankful to leave the country (much as I love it) and get back to relatively sane, relatively tip-free Britain. This is
    why I read, with proper horror, a recent Bloomberg headline which said ‘American tipping is coming to British pubs’ – via the tipping option on contactless payments. And to them I say: NO. You can keep this particular socio-cultural nightmare to yourselves, thanks very much.

    Tipping in America is really out of control. In upscale restaurants, you are generally expected to tip 20 per cent as a minimum. Thus there is pressure to go further – to show your genuine admiration for the grovelling chitchat of the waitperson, so you might go up to 30 per cent, or 40 per cent. Shucks, just double the bill.

    You are also expected to tip a bar-person every single time they give you a drink. You must also, of course, tip taxi drivers, or they will hit you, and you must tip anyone who delivers anything. You must tip manicurists. And baristas in coffee shops. Likewise check-out staff. And the people who look after your kids. Or your pets. Or your furniture.

    Sometimes in America I wonder if I should tip the president, daily, simply for running the country and not falling down.

    My own personal example of a mad American tip came at a breakfast buffet at a posh hotel in Texas. Not a single human being interacted with me, no one gave me anything, no one handed me a plate. I did it all myself; there weren’t any staff visible. Only at the end did a yawning waitperson come out and ask me to sign a bill and leave a hefty tip. For what? Did someone artfully arrange the plates, when I wasn’t looking? Still I tipped. The emotional pressure was too intense.

    These days Americans are often asked to tip at self-check-out machines. And I’ve seen people try to justify this by saying: someone worked hard to get that merchandise into the shop, to which I can only reply: ‘Well, great, why not give them a salary? And, by the way, I’m taking my next holiday in Tokyo.’

    If you’re still not convinced that we should resist the spread of American tipping culture (which polls show is massively unpopular in America) then let me give you one last argument: the roots of this lunacy.

    Like so many ills of American society, it comes from slavery: the original sin of the western superpower. When slaves were emancipated by Lincoln, a lot came North. But the only jobs they could get were in hotels, bars and restaurants, and the racist owners said: ‘I’m not giving you a decent wage, you’ll have to make it up with tips.’

    Thus the Great American Tipping Madness was born. Tipping is yet another toxic by-product of America’s tragic past and we should therefore treat it like any other nasty invasive species: whenever you see an example of silly tipping, crush it. Just say No. If you’re in a pub, click the 0 per cent and do it with a smile.

    1. Some of us buy the magazine and look forward to reading it when it arrives by post on a Friday. Just saying…

      1. I stopped subscribing because here in Spain it never arrived until Wednesday. By this time I had already read most of it. I agree it’s much nicer to read the articles in the magazine although I couldn’t really say why.

    2. I never tip. If I’m ever asked for one I say “Always warm the pot first”

    3. This is positively the sort of neurotic nonsense straight out of a Woke California soup opera where every move requires one to gallop off to the therapist. It’s tone is downright silly.

      I liked tipping in the USA because what you gave symbolized your gratitude for service. Did not take the slightest bit of notice about what part of the country I was in our what people earned, I simply gave what I could and sometimes more than expected for one reason or another. This article exaggerates the American tipping culture to an absurd degree, in fact its exaggerated to the point of being a lie. There is nothing wrong with a tip it symbolizes gratitude and thanks and what in hell is wrong with that?

      The only toxic thing here is the person who wrote it. The sort of self absorbed neurotic, any sensible person would give a wide berth.

  33. From the Spectator magazine

    Dear Mary: how should I thank a friend for dead flowers?
    Comments Share
    Q. I left fashion school last year and since then I’ve spent most of my time applying for jobs and being rejected. (That’s only if they’re kind enough to send a rejection – most simply ghost me.) I finally have a job (the company does fast fashion) but when I tell my friends, who are all recent graduates, they mostly say: ‘Well I’m happy if you’re happy but I could never work for such an unethical brand.’ How should I reply without sounding unethical myself?

    – C.P., London SW18

    Most popular
    Ed West
    The plot to erase the Anglo-Saxons

    A. Next time you meet with this response you can test the naysayers’ pomposity by replying: ‘Oh that’s a shame. Because they were asking me if I knew of any other talented young designers who were looking for work.’

    Q. I was sent a huge bouquet of flowers for my birthday from a friend. When I opened them they were almost dead. In fact the leaves were so brown that I could not even send my friend a photo of them. I contacted the florist directly and sent them a photograph. They said they would replace them but their rules are that they always have to tell the sender this has happened. Unfortunately, because I did not want to seem ungrateful to my friend for such a generous gesture, I had already just thanked her profusely and said that the flowers were wonderful. What should I have done?

    – P.S., London W3

    A. You could have covered yourself by telephoning the friend the next day to say: ‘The bad news is that the flowers dropped dead the day after my birthday. The good news is that I rang the company and they have sent a beautiful replacement bunch, free of charge.’

    Q. I’m in the process of setting up a website for a new business venture. Because cash flow is limited, my father-in-law said he would love to do it. He has now shown me what he has designed and it doesn’t look at all professional – both the text and the pictures he has used are simply not good enough. I’m fairly recently married and I don’t yet have the relationship with him where I can say that it’s not what I want but thanks anyway. What should I do?

    – Name and address withheld

    A. Find a smart website for a company in a parallel, though non-competing, field to your own. Then spare your father-in-law’s feelings by gushing to him that you had a stroke of luck in running into an acquaintance who works for this company. He kindly looked at your own website and advised you exactly what tweaks it needs to maximise efficiency. In this way you launder the criticism through someone other than yourself.

    Write to Dear Mary at dearmary@spectator.co.uk

  34. 387476+ up ticks,

    Remember ” it’s a fair cop guvner” hasn’t been the case for decades and getting worse, as the weight of the law (obese)
    coppers comes down on obstructed workers, big time.

    Would not surprise me if the fat obstructed guardians of the peace , start to use a chemical cosh JAB on those seeking the freedom of the highways, in keeping with the
    political / pharmaceutical WEF / NWO agenda.

    https://x.com/LozzaFox/status/1790782936700133415

    1. He won’t get any disagreement from me.

      (Swear words) that is absolutely appalling behaviour by out-of-control Plod.

    2. He won’t get any disagreement from me.

      (Swear words) that is absolutely appalling behaviour by out-of-control Plod.

    3. This is old. Still makes my p*ss boil. A fundamental State sponsored attack on personal liberty. The derangement of other people directly effecting others. No wonder that young man lost his cool.

      JSO types at the moment appear to be occupied by bullying Jews.

  36. Too many letters in the alphabet:
    Wordle 1,062 6/6

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

    1. A bit tricky.

      Wordle 1,062 5/6

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

    2. Yes.

      Wordle 1,062 5/6

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

  37. Too many letters in the alphabet:
    Wordle 1,062 6/6

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

  38. Too many letters in the alphabet:
    Wordle 1,062 6/6

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

  39. So – if you are determined to print extracts, could you “hide” them? Or wait until Saturday?

  40. For those of you who can, read Gavin Mortimer’s piece in the Spectator about the coming civil war in France. He quotes politicians who compare France with Mexico and Lebanon, and then refers to another Collomb, who “didn’t reference Lebanon but he did warn of a bleak future for France unless the country confronted the insurrectional element within.’

    But to confront an enemy you have to recognise who he is and why he’s an enemy. In France, as in much of the rest of the formerly white, formerly democratic West, these facts are being ignored by the alien ruling caste that now runs it.

    Finding out who our enemies are is simple – just look at the predominant characteristic of those carrying out violent attacks, and then look at who brought them here and is still bringing them here. This leads us to the clear conclusion that our enemies are first the very ruling caste that not only refuses to respond to attacks from our physical enemies, but also goes out of its way to cover up who is carrying out those attacks, inventing fake enemies like the ‘far right’ in doing so.

    This cannot be accidental. They must know what is going on. This leads to the strong suspicion that it is deliberate, a suspicion reinforced by all the hate crime and race based laws the ruling caste is introducing and the two-tier policing we see in, for example, the difference in treatment between white anti-Islam protested and largely brown anti-Jewish, pro-Hamas terrorist protesters.

    Try to consider the chances of the following analogy being supported by our rulers: they import millions of white Afrikaans South Africans from a cult whose main dogma is set out in a book demanding that Blacks be killed wherever they are found, and has scriptures like:

    “We shall cast terror into the hearts of Blacks” and “And kill them (Blacks) wherever you find them … kill them. Such is the recompense of the disbelievers (Blacks).” and “Then kill the Blacks wherever you find them, capture them and besiege them, and lie in wait for them in each and every ambush …”

    It is beyond comprehension that our rulers would allow such people into the country isn’t it? Any coming here illegally would be rounded up and deported, their book banned. But change the words from Blacks to non-believers and you have the Koran and the belief of its cultists, the Muslims.

    But our tyrannical, malevolent ruling class is bringing as many of these people here as it can, and sides with them against the non-believers, the indigenous white folk, all without a shred of democratic approval or mandate. So, the only reasonable conclusion is that we have to fight a war against the killer invaders and their collaborators in the ruling class.

    1. Ffs.

      “White people”’.

      “Brown and Black people”. (With a deliberate capital B for Black. Gets my hackles up straight away).

      It’s infantile.

      And divisive.

      Probably deliberately.

      Edit. Amongst other things I might have commented on; comment is spot on.

    2. Ffs.

      “White people”’.

      “Brown and Black people”. (With a deliberate capital B for Black. Gets my hackles up straight away).

      It’s infantile.

      And divisive.

      Probably deliberately.

      Edit. Amongst other things I might have commented on; comment is spot on.

    3. Ffs.

      “White people”’.

      “Brown and Black people”. (With a deliberate capital B for Black. Gets my hackles up straight away).

      It’s infantile.

      And divisive.

      Probably deliberately.

      Edit. Amongst other things I might have commented on; comment is spot on.

    4. Ffs.

      “White people”’.

      “Brown and Black people”. (With a deliberate capital B for Black. Gets my hackles up straight away).

      It’s infantile.

      And divisive.

      Probably deliberately.

      Edit. Amongst other things I might have commented on; comment is spot on.

    5. Ffs.

      “White people”’.

      “Brown and Black people”. (With a deliberate capital B for Black. Gets my hackles up straight away).

      It’s infantile.

      And divisive.

      Probably deliberately.

      Edit. Amongst other things I might have commented on; comment is spot on.

        1. If we didn’t have the French to fight though, who would we have? Long may they continue.

    7. I believe something slightly different.. though same outcome.

      If you ask any Brit to trace their family tree back to say, their great-grandfather around the turn of the 20th century.. all the way to now.. then tot up the current children alive & kicking. The sum total is invariably pitiful, with some even living overseas.
      Western governments, I believe have been spooked by the doom-demographic armageddon theory. Certainly becoming true for South Korea & Japan.
      Their solution was crude.. mass immigration of virile hairy a rse d unvetted fighting aged men.
      Like David Starkey says.. the progressive liberal passionately believes that migrants are just the same as we are.. just want freedom and democracy, all the girls want to wear mini skirts, drink lots of Coca Cola and watch Friends.

      Europe has(n’t) seen anything yet.. it’s just getting started.

      1. Valid thoughts, and no doubt some truth, but this has been going on since the 1950s when birth rates were high. There was, however, a shortage of cheap labour, though not of workers. But at the same time, the so-called elite, decided that the nation state and nationalism had been the cause of WW2 (when it was mostly big government and ideology) and so began the slow destruction of said state and national identity, first through the incipient EU and then UN.

        1. In actual fact, it has always been globalism which has started wars: imperialism is just another word for globalism. Globalism or imperialism is when one group attempts to dominate the rest of the world or part of the world. It doesn’t have to necessarily be an actual nation or country. The Romans, Nazi Germany, Genghis Khan, Napoleon, the EU and now the wider and shadowy globalist movement – to mention a few. All of them have tried to take over the world or parts of the world.
          It is too much of a coincidence that western rulers are in lockstep over things like net zero, covid and immigration. The nation state has always had to fight back against those individual nations (or influential elitist group) of an expansionist outlook.
          The integrity of the normal nation state has provided a structure to build upon and construct stable, manageable, accountable societies like those in the west which had a strong sense of the nation state. They provided cohesion and a sense of something to fight for against transgressors. If it works, don’t try to fix it. Certain actors are trying to erode all that is good in the west, by castigating all nation states, yet haven’t thought through the implications of what will replace this system. Expecting the human race to implement a successful alternative, led by a few self-regarding men and women is folly of the greatest and most dangerous extreme. And they would escape accountability. They have no experience or knowledge of the supplanters but instead ignorantly hope for the best – complacent at best. Pandora’s Box.

    8. Their answer to the passages in the Koran is to set up a straw man in the form of passages from the Old Testament stating that witches and homosexuals should be killed, ignoring the simple fact that it’s been centuries since any Christian government actually applied those rules whereas Moslems always have and still do take said passages from the Koran as law to be obeyed.

      1. Hmm. James Pratt and John Smith hanged in public outside Newgate Gaol in November 1835 – for buggery.

      2. And the fact that the New Testament superseded the Old , teaching that we should treat others as we wish to be treated.

        1. Serious question: If the ‘New Testament’ superseded the ‘Old Testament’, why is the ‘Old Testament’ still published as part of that compendium?

          1. Because it’s on the same timeline and the new represents the fulfilment of the prophesies in the old. Plus not all of it is superseded. For instance, the Ten Commandments.

          2. I was worried they would give up on good ol’ Moses.

            That Leviticus is a tad controversial though.

          3. No idea Grizz, but the Old is not a Christian document, so maybe it should be regarded as a very long introduction showing that old JC was predicted by all them long dead prophets. Or maybe it’s just habit.

    9. It’s obvious that this would spill over onto us as people try to flee unrest in France. And what is our government doing to secure our borders? Sweet nothing. Chaos in France means chaos here and since the enemy is also in our midst does anyone think that the enemy within would not take the opportunity to kick off? Where is our defense. An ineffectual police force that already has a fifth column in it? A military not worthy of the name and ill equipped to defend us. How would we reply in the face of such a threat?

        1. I would have no objection to DIY if we still retained our right to bear arms as promised by the English Bill of Rights. Another collection of entitlements for the common citizen stolen from us by government.
          “That the subjects which are Protestants may have arms for their defence suitable to their conditions and as allowed by law;”

          1. We do have a right to bear arms, but of course the ruling class sneakily added the clause ‘in accordance with the law’. Gun control was brought in after WW1 ‘cos the establishment was afeared of a population full of men with all too much first hand experience of guns and they scared themselves silly over the mythical bolshevik menace’.
            We need to work on it mate.

  41. Well, they were only two.You don’t have to read them. I thought people who don’t subscribe might be interested, and if I hide them they won’t be able to read them.
    Sorry to upset you.

    1. Hiding them simply hides the words – anyone can still click and read. Just use the “spoiler” icon when you have inserted the text but before posting.

      It is a bit like revealing the score of a match that others are looking forward to watch later…!!

      2. Or the results of a horse race that one has recorded and is looking forward to watching.

  43. Yes, you are correct Phizee. Unfortunately the Lincs purveyor of fine sausage missed out, because by the time they got around to applying, in the century or two before that, having recognised their brilliance as a fine English delicacy, many foreigners had copied them imperfectly. You know, foreign butchers from Yorkshire, Leicestershire and as far afield as Kent. As a result there could be by then no legally binding definition of a Lincolnshire sausage

    A have nevertheless unearthed what I believe to be the best copy of the real thing at Sudbury Farmers’ Market, Lavenham, etc. made by Totham Bangers. If I want the genuine one hundred percent article then I make up any flimsy excuse to visit the BBMF at Coningsby of which I’m a member and stay at The Petwood, so that I can buy them at either of the butcher’s in the village or drop into Louth.

    As that poseur, Mr Oliver might say, “Pukka”.

    1. Because he is pro Russian and threatened to Veto any attempts by the EU to start an overt war with Russia. I say overt because we are already at war with Russia. Just being grossly dishonest about it like the thieves in the night that we are in this case.

    2. Right.
      So just to get this clear, we do not talk about covid vaccines, Boeing aircraft or a liking for Japanese cuisine.
      Feel free to add to the list.

    2. Almost two centuries. And unless you’re going to come out with other victims, there were just two of them.

  47. It is only just over twice my lifetime. That’s why it doesn’t seem very long!

    Of course Our Susan is correct – as you are – that 1835 is nearly two centuries ago. Just seems quite recent! To my pore brane, “It’s been centuries” = about 1500 and before!

    1. If I had gone back in time since my birth, instead of forward, it would now be 1878. Umberto I became King of Italy.

  48. They are the only two I can come up with right now. And that only because there is a review of a book about them in Literary Review this month which I happened to be reading on this cold, wet, dark and inhospitable morning!

    1. Imprisonment for homosexuality continued until quite recently of course. As you know though, my point is more that the Mohammedans are still kicking people off tall buildings but as much as some Christians would maybe still like to, none do.

  49. I should think not. Some gentlemen allowed their wives and servants to read newspapers ….

    1. servants to read newspapers ….
      some were allowed.. before they ironed the broadsheet.

    1. In a seaside village in Valencia. Colder yesterday. Today 19°C
      Thursday Sunny High: 21°C Low: 15°C.

    2. I’m surprised that chap isn’t in jail for stating the bleedin’ obvious.

  53. ‘Morning All

    On the 81st anniversary of The Dambuster mission it is sobering to know that

    they are held in such high esteem, their former Scampton base is being

    used to house third world savages.

    The site should be a living museum.

    Medley

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/55b597a0009385338ab58fc09f7e245ef719f5de16754d334d6e4595719357d1.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/922af3914b0b75f6086e943497cbd15ac05d62cdfb179b58829507f891f3560a.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8d946d41399a7e6b1f6a2057b34d00885abb2f16890303ec0af84dd64527c558.gif

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a7be22bbeecba34269d17d3cd70bd50808746025379957131fae8ab1cbfe331c.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3ee24af21a24ed60fe09dcc603007d5e0f8cfc534b9c8e65a7b2260b2da15e71.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ac16b6e1ec260f0b42c5a68604159e73551e36f55cb701b6e5bdd81943d0bdb7.png

      1. We suspect that most Nottlers have already been put on the watchlist by 77 brigade

    1. The water company denied it at first and said the drinking water was fine when it wasn’t. I wonder how many more people became ill unnecessarily from that bit of sophistry.

      1. Probably easier to ask if they knew at all. What folk haven’t yet understood is that if energy continues to be rationed and made ever more expensive eventually the things that clean our water won’t be able to work all the time. The greeniacs think river pollution is terrible – and it is – but it’s a direct result of net zero energy prices.

      2. Probably easier to ask if they knew at all. What folk haven’t yet understood is that if energy continues to be rationed and made ever more expensive eventually the things that clean our water won’t be able to work all the time. The greeniacs think river pollution is terrible – and it is – but it’s a direct result of net zero energy prices.

    2. “It is thought hundreds of residents are experiencing a range of symptoms including watery diarrhoea, stomach pains, nausea or vomiting, a mild fever, and loss of appetite.”

      Perhaps it’s the NHS being proactive with their weight loss programme.

    1. It is American. The limes are from the Florida Keys and have a unique taste. Otherwise it’s the same as a lemon meringue pie but key lime as the flavoring. You can’t substitute ordinary limes, just don’t taste the same. Key Lime is wonderful, have been trying to find a source for the lime juice in the UK but no luck so far. I also miss Pecan pie, another glorious pie from Louisiana eaten with piles of fresh whipped cream.

        1. Thank you Pip. Now all I have to do is get someone to make it for me. Now a days I lack the energy and stamina to cook.

  56. Yo and Good Moaning all

    Am I the first?

    Tom Lancaster, MRD

    Head of land, food and farming

    Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit

    London SE1

      1. Here are a couple gems – his intro is “working across climate, farming and land use issues. Previously did agriculture and land use policy at RSPB.

        And “Solar farms really aren’t a risk to food security. To get to the 70GW target for solar will only need between 0.5-0.7% of farmland.. I tell you what is a food security risk – climate change. And what’s good for tackling climate change cheaply? You guessed it, solar farms”

        2. What he means is that solar power stations (they aren’t farms!) aren’t a threat to HIS food security because he earns a lot from his job pushing the climate fraud.

        1. OK! I could have been a bit stronger in my approbation of the cretinous, ignorant tool!

    2. For those who haven’t seen the letter:

      SIR – The Government’s drive to protect food security (report, May 14) is heartening.

      Please be assured that solar farms pose little threat – installing the targeted 70 gigawatts would require a land area equivalent to only about 0.5 per cent of English farmland.

      However, as the Government itself recognises, climate change is the biggest risk to British food production, with the extreme wet winter projected to knock up to a quarter off Britain’s wheat harvest this year. Cheap, renewable energy is essential to reducing this risk.

      Tom Lancaster

      Head of land, food and farming
      Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit
      London SE1

      He wrote this in response to a report that the government was proposing restrictions on solar ‘farms’. He clearly doesn’t see the contradiction in his final paragraph.

      1. This kind of person – educated, middle class, doing very nicely thank you out of the climate scam – will carry on genuinely believing in it until they die. They are the Blob…

      2. He also tells fibs! Does he have any idea for how long the land underneath the monstrous solar ‘farms’, is damaged?

        1. It’s considered “brownfield” and therefore can be built on to house the invaders. As a consequence it’s lost to production for ever.

      3. Ummm …. wet weather suggests grey skies. Don’t the plastic thingies need at least a clear day to work?

  57. “Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit”

    That is a quote by the well known Welshman

    Dai Kotomy

    1. To his credit, he’s done more for ‘maniliness’ than most anyone.

      He says what he thinks and does it. Yes, he can be a bit rude, but the alternative is a backward imp pretending they don’t think that way when they do.

      1. There was a “de-transitioned” male to female to male being interviewed in the studio on GBNews yesterday evening. He advocates encouraging manliness in young males in preference to preaching “toxic masculinity” which he says was almost his undoing. He didn’t get as far as the final act of butchery and is very grateful.

        1. He was the son of the once fashionable photographer, David Bailey. probably not an easy environment in which to grow up.

    2. Speaking as a girly, I would imagine his company is more interesting than some vapid Love Islander.

      1. Do you what Anne . I agree with you, he has a twinkle in his eye , good sense of humour , and I expect he is a good cuddler , because it is nice to be hugged .

        (As long as he doesn’t smell like his farm)

      2. That’s the trouble with those narcissists. They only work on the outside look and neglect the inside one.

    4. I think he’s great. We’re watching Clarkson’s Farm 3. The way West Oxfordshire Council is treating Clarkson is despicable and is everything wrong with the way people who don’t conform are treated. He’s trying to make a living and work with other small businesses but ‘The Council’ have victimised him on a grand scale.

      He has done more to show the plight of farmers in this country than the NFU have ever done. He deserves our support.

      1. Well you would wouldn’t you !!! You can speak to each other face to face ! The rest of us need step ladders !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :@)

        1. Yes but it’s such a rarity that I can do that but you can do it most of the time. 😂😂😉

    1. In order to absorb sunlight and create vitamin D we also need cholesterol and what are we constantly told is dangerous?

      1. The brain is predominantly cholesterol.

        Except, of course, for vegans and Lefties: theirs is predominantly vacuum with bits of cabbage.

        1. …theirs is predominantly vacuum

          They can’t claim just to be air-heads, then?

          1. I have some respect for air-heads, Korky. At least they have something between their ears.😉

          1. Cholesterol

            Cholesterol

            I’ve been taking advice on the right things to eat
            Since shortly before I was born
            From the National dried milk and the cod liver oil
            To powdered rhinoceros horn
            In these days they tell us to lay off the starches
            The sugar, potatoes and bread
            Now they’ve done a U-turn, tell us bread and potatoes
            Will give us the fibre we need

            Cholesterol, Cholesterol
            My chance of surviving are small
            But I’ll not get a dose of Anorexia Nervosa
            Cause I love my cholesterol

            So I’ve made up my mind that the menu’s designed
            By the experts just only for me
            No trained dietitian or general practitioner
            Dictates what I’ll have for my tea
            Brown bread with the low fat please thinly spread on
            May be healthier than a meat pie
            But who wants to grow old eating St. Ivel Gold
            I’d would rather taste butter and die

            Cholesterol, Cholesterol
            My chance of surviving are small
            But I’ll not get a dose of Anorexia Nervosa
            Cause I love my cholesterol

            Now the thing that has brought this affair to a head
            Is a good hearted Hatfield campaign
            I just said ‘What’s that?’and the doc had his needle
            Sucking blood out of my handiest vein
            Two weeks later they measured my height and my weight
            And took my blood pressure and all
            The computer said ‘Mate, to survive at your weight
            You would need to be seven feet tall’

            Cholesterol, Cholesterol
            My chance of surviving are small
            But I’ll not get a dose of Anorexia Nervosa
            Cause I love my cholesterol

            But I’m not going to take the suggestions they’re make
            About changing the food that I eat
            Cutting out cheese and no chips if you please
            No chocolate, no ice cream, no meat
            Oh they tell you to give up these goodies below
            And they promise you pie in the sky
            Well semi – skimmed milk might diminish my bulk
            But I’ll take double cream till I die

            cho: Cholesterol, Cholesterol
            My chance of surviving is small
            The cream I consume that could lead to my doom
            But I love my cholesterol

            Now it’s all right for you that smoke 40 a day
            Or spend every night in a bar
            You can tell the health visitor you’ll cut it down
            She’ll say ‘What a fine fellow you are’
            But when I tell her I’d never smoked in my life
            And I was teetotal to boot
            She said ‘Go away there is nothing to do
            You’ve no vices that you can cut out

            Cholesterol, Cholesterol
            My chance of surviving are small
            But I’ll not get a dose of Anorexia Nervosa
            Cause I love my cholesterol

            Now I don’t mind them probing in my haemoglobin
            If it’s just for a case history
            But it puts the health visitor into a tizzy
            It’s her duty to try and save me
            She says ‘Fresh fruit and yoghourt’s a lovely dessert
            Why don’t you give it a try
            But I don’t give a hoot for a yoghourt and fruit
            I’ll have Black Forest gateaux and die

            Cholesterol, Cholesterol
            My chance of surviving is small
            The way that I dine ’em is cause for angina
            But I love my cholesterol

    2. I take great exception to the last word in that rant.

      He needs to be hanged.

    3. Gates is not unaware of the need for Vitamin D produced by sunlight. The vitamin is necessary for the immune system to function against a host of ailments, including cancer. A weak immune system amongst the population is something that would assist the globalists’ aims.

      The lockdowns and the remain indoors at home orders were part and parcel of weakening the nation’s immune systems and from way back remember the frightening stories that too much sunlight should be avoided as it could be a cause of skin cancer. In addition, during the Plandemic the government/health gurus expressed doubts about our innate and adaptive immune systems and the part Vitamin D played in those functions. Banning the vitamin would have a too obvious move and IMO would have aroused more suspicion about the government’s motives.

      I’ve come to the conclusion that any advice from the government re my health should be looked upon with scepticism e.g. the text I received yesterday from the NHS urging me to get protected from something they call covid-19 was my third over recent weeks. The fate of the text was the same as before, cast into oblivion.

      1. I recently discovered that cholesterol is required to synthesise with sunlight on the body to process and manufacture Vitamin D within the body. So government tries to blanket prescribe statins to lower cholesterol in the body under the guise of prevention of heart attacks. Thus a double whammy and pincer movement (skin cancer and heart attacks) regarding Vit D on an unsuspecting white Western public.

        1. The Plandemic has opened up a can of worms re the medical and health entities. So much else other than CV-19 has been uncovered and made public despite the MSM’s reticence to report fully what’s both been happening and uncovered. A case of unintended consequences for those directing this horror show.
          An attempt to force another Plandemic should be more difficult now that an increasing number of people have grasped what was done to them was fraudulent. We have to remain vigilant especially if the PTB make a move to deploy the military on foreign soil.

  61. I saw the pink-haired keffiyeh wearing trustafarians march out in protest at Jerry Seinfeld’s commencement speech at Duke.
    Jerry Seinfeld then posed a simple question for the Lefties.
    “Why are you embarrassed about things we should be proud of, and proud of things we should be embarrassed about?”

    1. It’s in the blood.. always has been, always will be.
      Former Muzzie Yasmine Mohammed explained to Andrew Gold on Heretics what it is like being a Muzzie.. from day 1.

    3. There’s a very good reason why the surrounding states won’t accept Palestinians.
      They know all too well that it is a gangster state containing its own hitmen.

  65. Headliners on GBN referred to Greta Toenail the other eve. Maybe Greta Thumbnail?

  67. “Sir Archie Norman, the chairman of Marks & Spencer, claims that the police are “not interested” in dealing with shoplifting and that retailers are being forced to spend “a lot of money” trying to keep crime rates down (Business, May 14).

    However, if my recent experience is anything to go by, it seems that some retailers are not interested in dealing with shoplifting either.

    I was with my mother and sister in a Sainsbury’s store where school-age children were brazenly taking items off the shelves and putting them in their pockets and bags. My sister immediately notified a nearby member of staff, only to be told: “It’s no good – we can’t do anything about it unless a member of staff sees it themselves.”

    Eyewitness testimonies are accepted by the police, courts and other agencies in the criminal law system. Why are they not accepted by Sainsbury’s?

    If this sort of attitude is prevalent among supermarkets, it’s no wonder they experience such a high level of shoplifting – which ultimately increases costs for customers.

    David Waller

    Gillingham, Kent”

    I was horrified on Saturday when two middle class older ladies at the dinner party I was attending admitted to shop lifting. Now, not when they were kids.

    1. Your last line is shocking, not only that they would do it but that they would admit to it.
      I first witnessed brazen shoplifting about five years ago, two African girls strolling through a department store carrying clothes, removing the tags as they went and dropping them on the floor behind them. I don’t see how any shops can carry on with this level of theft.

      1. Reap what they sow.. and all that.

        All retailers have been pushing like mad the BLM, BAME, ESG, DEI, CRT, LGBT+ agenda.
        Remember Wickes COO informing the public that he didn’t want stale white male customers.
        Sainsbury’s and their perma rollover Black History Month.
        Primark with their promoting the concept of No Contact.
        (Basically formally rejecting your biological family, and joining the Found Family cult, and of course severing all ties with mum & dad forever).
        John Lewis accused of ‘contemptuous dismissal of staff’ for overseeing the production of the 32-page magazine, titled Identity, to mark ‘LGBTQ+ history month’ offering parents advice how their “trans and non-binary children” can achieve their “desired gender identity”, and directed to Mermaids’ website.

  68. Our government has already effed up everything they come into contact with. Well practiced Egypt and other Middle Eastern countries are readily available. They can take in the Shiites.

  70. And now this has annoyed me, from the Business section:

    “SMART water meters must be made compulsory across all households to protect the UK against climate change, the National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) has warned.

    The government agency is urging ministers to ramp up the rollout of devices, as it claims water supplies were becoming one of the country’s biggest challenges. Without smart water meters, the NIC said the UK is at heightened risk of drought

    In its latest report, NIC officials said water companies should have the power to compel all homes to accept smart meters as part of a “concerted campaign to reduce water demand”.

    The UK used about 10bn litres of water a day in 1960 but that has since risen to around 15bn.

    The NIC says the nation must reduce water supplies to protect itself against surging demand, extreme droughts and a growing population.

    The report said: “Over the coming decades, the UK faces a real and growing risk of water shortages, especially in the south and east of England.

    “The Government must deliver a combined additional water supply and demand reduction of 4.8bn litres a day by 2050.” The NIC suggests this could be achieved by building or extending reservoirs, desalinating seawater and creating water recycling plants where treated sewage water is pumped back into the drinking supply.

    It also claims that compulsory water metering could reduce demand by 17pc across the country.

    Sir John Armitt, NIC chairman, said: “We face a make or break time for the long-term prospects of UK infrastructure. There has been some progress. But other areas have seen few developments, or worse, progress has reversed.””

    1. Arnitt is an authoritarian menace with zero respect for freedom or private priperty. Fascists like him should be nowhere near public office.

    2. What’s the objection to water metering? The article is confused and misleading. The phrase ‘Without smart water meters’ is linked to an article ‘How smart meters failed Britain’ i.e. gas and electricity. Nothing to do with water. So-called ‘smart meters’ for water merely transmit daily readings. It’s rare to cut off gas and electricity for non-payment, even though the law permits it. By law, water cannot be cut-off.

    4. In 1960 the population was much smaller and most people didn’t have the facilities to take daily showers, or have dishwashers and washing machines.

    5. He seems obsessed with ‘smart’. I have a dumb water meter as I have for many years. And for all its worth being on South East Water everybody else round here is on a water meter, not sure how many of those are smart if any. It saves me a lot over the old system. Do I use less water by having one, no, I just use what I need and pay for it. Smart water meters just stop the chap having to come every six months and read it, nothing more. They are not the same as smart electricity meters – OK I have one of those as well…

    6. Note the assumption of “climate change”. I get this with a lot of council stuff, although they tend to go for “climate emergency”. If they want to reduce consumption, just get rid of all the illegals and foreign criminals then stop the invasion.

  71. And now this has annoyed me, from the Business section:

    “SMART water meters must be made compulsory across all households to protect the UK against climate change, the National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) has warned.

    The government agency is urging ministers to ramp up the rollout of devices, as it claims water supplies were becoming one of the country’s biggest challenges. Without smart water meters, the NIC said the UK is at heightened risk of drought

    In its latest report, NIC officials said water companies should have the power to compel all homes to accept smart meters as part of a “concerted campaign to reduce water demand”.

    The UK used about 10bn litres of water a day in 1960 but that has since risen to around 15bn.

    The NIC says the nation must reduce water supplies to protect itself against surging demand, extreme droughts and a growing population.

    The report said: “Over the coming decades, the UK faces a real and growing risk of water shortages, especially in the south and east of England.

    “The Government must deliver a combined additional water supply and demand reduction of 4.8bn litres a day by 2050.” The NIC suggests this could be achieved by building or extending reservoirs, desalinating seawater and creating water recycling plants where treated sewage water is pumped back into the drinking supply.

    It also claims that compulsory water metering could reduce demand by 17pc across the country.

    Sir John Armitt, NIC chairman, said: “We face a make or break time for the long-term prospects of UK infrastructure. There has been some progress. But other areas have seen few developments, or worse, progress has reversed.””

    1. Force of habit — I can’t help it — but scrutinising such photographs for evidence of an adam’s apple is now second nature.

  73. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/07e93e0c64e0b5713981da335bc13bc47fc61aeb1ecb1dbb5b16ba6ac4136e6d.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3288fed97b9d800c4abc9db8afce2fceb3a7193aee19fd09ea0c52f41530446c.jpg May has to be the most vibrantly colourful month; the garden is certainly at its cheerful peak.

    Everywhere else in Wallander county is a deep jasmine-yellow, courtesy of the crop that puts billions into the coffers of the global corporations … while putting the users of its oil products at risk of an early coffin.

    2. It’s sprayed intensively to kill off all the insects that would otherwise provide food for the birds.

      1. We have nesting blue tits in the bird box near the kitchen window. We feel that the parent birds are having to fly further afield this year to find suitable insects for their young, there is none of the frenzied activity of these birds that there has been in previous years with one bird hurtling in hot on the wings of the other, one blue it hovering on/in the wings with its load, and the gaps are longer, quite a bit longer, between deliveries. It is unsettling.

        1. We have a bluetit family in one of our boxes too. There were eight eggs laid but not sure if they all hatched as they are squashed in so tightly it’s hard to count them (there is a camera in the box). There are at least six anyway. The box wasn’t used last year but two years ago was a disaster as all the chicks died – we don’t know why. Hopefully they will raise these as they are very attentive parents and seem to be delivering food very frequently.

  74. The victim-blaming of Robert Fico. Spiked. 16 May 2024.

    The attempted assassination of Robert Fico, the prime minister of Slovakia, would normally be shocking enough. Yet even more striking has been the callous and hypocritical reaction of the mainstream Western media to this contemptible act of political violence. From the moment Fico was shot on Wednesday, media coverage of the assassination attempt has mixed condemnation of the violent attack with both implicit and explicit condemnations of the victim.

    One of the most interesting aspects of the MSM reaction to Fico’s attempted assassination is how little of it there is. There are three articles in the Telegraph with comments allowed on one.

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2024/05/16/the-victim-blaming-of-robert-fico/

    1. Fico had to resign as PM last time because of his links with the Calabrian mafia, widely regarded as more vicious and dangerous than the Sicilian and Napolitan variants, and because of a political murder. I can see why he’d take a shine to Vlad. He’s also heir to a Slovak political tradition that collaborated enthusiastically with the Nazis. Nice folks.

    2. The bbc has issued propaganda along the lines of it was Fico’s fault for bringing about political turmoil to the country (i.e. for trying to do the right thing by his people!). I’ll see if I can find the link.

  75. Good afternoon folks

    Not sure I have the strength to tell all of my story today but bear with me..

    Until now I have been very happy with my treatment with the NHS, however this week I got to find out what shit show it really is.
    I was booked (actually rebooked) for a CT scan at 4pm on Tuesday – and I would normally receive a letter giving me the instructions on where to park, venue for the scan etc – but not on this occasion – so naturally I went to the venue where the previous scan took place. All locked up – nobody there. I search around – whilst some jobserve bullies my son into parking somewhere else as he was in an Admin space.

    Eventually find someone with enough brain to work out where I had to be. About half a mile away. No porter available so I was going to have to walk! The walk there and back completely wiped me out yesterday and I have been operating at about 50% ever since.

    Then – I find out that the benefits system is also rigged against pensioners. If you receive a diagnosis like mine you automatically qualify for access to the Personal Independence Plan (PIP) which enables you to access mobility stuff – get free mobility cars and Road Fund tax cancelled. BUT if you get the diagnosis even just one day past retirement age all you qualify for is the attendance allowance and a bus pass.

    Since buses are just not seen in rural areas I can only assume that Government thinks that us pensioners – particularly the ones in rural areas should quietly stay at home and die.

    I think this is discrimination on 2 counts – one on the rural community and the other on us aging folk.

    Why if you are under retirement age – and so logically fitter would you deserve more money, better transport and free road fund tax?

    As you have gathered I am one not happy bunny

    Knackered and in pain – sorry to dump on you all but need somewhere to vent.

    1. Hi Nagsman! They seem to delight in knocking us down if we try to gain an inch! The lack of care, and dare I say, common sense, in our everyday lives is absolutely astounding, especially as we get older. ‘They’ seem to have it in for us! KBO, pet and we’re all here for you.

    2. Well most of us are pensioners here – that’s why we’re free to chat and moan all day. Feel free to moan to us as much as you like.
      We live in a rural area – the nearest bus stop is about a mile away. I have a bus pass but hardly ever use it.
      We only get Attendance Allowance if we need someone to look after us – so well pensioners don’t qualify.
      You had a rotten day – did you eventually get to see the person you needed to see?

    3. The envy of the world.

      Poor old you. At least they did the scan eventually. Not long ago I received in the same post an NHS letter inviting me for a scan – the other telling me that there were no appointments available in the foreseeable…. I rang – the second letter was the correct one….

      Buses? What exactly are those? I have a buspass that I use once a year when I go to London for a few days.

      I know your son would take you – but is there not a system of volunteer drivers? We have one at Narridge:

      https://www.nnuh.nhs.uk/news/2021/02/volunteer-drivers-scheme-marks-first-year/

    4. Loom on the bright side, you are not in Canada so the treatment plan does not include assisted suicide as the primary option.

    5. Sorry to hear that. I had the same problem about not qualifying for disability “perks” like an exemption from paying VED because I was of retirement age. The best I could do was to get a Blue Badge and I had to struggle to get that as they refused me the first time.

      1. The hospice people got mine in 3 days. They are quite brilliant
        They have special relationship with CAB who are fighting my corner with DWP.

        Highly recommend these people who have solved more of my problems than NHS folk banded together.

        We pay long and dear food NHS who sre outdone by charities at every turn in my experience

    1. I’d made a ham and cheese sandwich. I put it on the side of my desk.

      It’s now in the dog, who enjoyed it more than me.

      I am now getting my revenge by cooking a chicken pie (for dinner).

      1. What a lovely looking boy was Rumpole. Boxers are wondefully intelligent dogs .

    1. It’s what politicians say. Bravado is part of their job. I believe it’s in the small print of their terms and conditions.

    2. Or to borrow from the fiendlike queen of the Scottish usurper when the banquet didn’t go too well:

      Stay not upon the order of your going but go at once!

    1. I saw him perform this song live, when we stayed at a Hotel near Fort William,

      Hi name is Stephen Quigg

          1. She was only a fisherman’s daughter but she had crabs on her plaice poor sole

    1. And bizarrely little understanding of scaled score examinations.

  84. Who is Juraj Cintula, the 71-year-old poet suspected of shooting the Slovakian PM?

    The gunman who allegedly shot Robert Fico is a former security guard with a creative past who co-founded a political party

    David Crossland, Berlin
    Thursday May 16 2024, 5.12am, The Times

    The 71-year-old man suspected of shooting Robert Fico, the Slovakian prime minister, at point-blank range has been named in local media as Juraj Cintula, an amateur poet and former supermarket security guard said to have links with a pro-Russian paramilitary group, Slovenski Branski, also known as Slovak Conscripts.

    As doctors fought for Fico’s life, a sketchy picture emerged of a grey-haired, bearded assailant, wearing a shirt and jeans, who approached Fico during a walkabout in Handlova, a town northeast of Bratislava. He allegedly leaned over and fired five times, hitting Fico three times, twice in the hand and once in the abdomen.

    Matus Sutaj Estok, the interior minister, said authorities suspected that the attack was politically motivated.

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/slovak-pm-shooting-juraj-cintula-robert-fico-qxk00qtbr

    What do we know about Robert Fico’s alleged shooter?

    Police arrest a man after Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico was shot in the town of Handlova, Slovakia, Wednesday, May 15, 2024.

    By Tamsin Paternoster & Euronews
    Published on 15/05/2024 – 20:18

    Slovakian media has identified the shooter as 71-year-old Juraj Cintula, a self-described writer who previously worked as a security guard and is allegedly linked to pro-Russian group Slovački branci.

    Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico is currently in hospital following a shooting that occurred following his cabinet’s away-from-home session in the town of Handlova.

    Slovakian outlets have identified the shooter as the 71-year-old Juraj Cintula.

    According to the daily newspaper Dennik N, the suspected perpetrator is a self-described writer from the small western town of Levice and a founding member of the Rainbow Literary Club.

    Hungarian investigative journalist Szabolcs Panyi has unearthed Facebook posts reportedly showing Cintula as a sympathiser and supporter of the pro-Russian paramilitary group Slovenskí Branci, known for its links to the Kremlin.

    Slovenskí Branci has been accused of attempting to recruit young men across Slovakia for its paramilitary organisation. In a post from January 2016, Cintula is seen holding a speech next to members of the group wearing camouflage.

    In the accompanying text attributed to Cintula, he expressed extremist views in support of self-organised militias, who, according to him, should be allowed to protect “the inhabitants, the country, tradition, (and) culture” from migrants coming from outside of Europe.

    Cintula has written three collections of poetry and published two novels titled The Message of Sacrifice in 2010 and Efata in 2015, according to his literary club’s Facebook page. The latter is an overt attack against Slovakia’s Roma community, in which he criticises the state and accuses the Roma of abusing social protections.

    The Slovakian Writers’ Association (SSS) has registered Cintula as a member since 2015 however, have since tried to distance themselves from his association posting in a statement, “We express our indignation at such a brutal act, which has no parallel in the history of Slovakia.”

    Cintula reportedly owned a gun license and previously worked as a security guard for a private security firm where he himself was the target of an attack in a shopping centre.

    Markíza TV station reported on a brief video showing the suspect, which was released shortly after his arrest. In the video, he says, “I don’t agree with the government’s policies. Why are the media being targeted? Why is RTVS under attack? Why was Mazák dismissed from his position?”

    The assassination attempt is the first on a senior politician in the history of modern Slovakia, which gained independence in 1993.

    Slovakia’s General Prosecutor Maroš Žilinka has vowed that the attacker would face “uncompromising” punishment from law enforcement.

    Allies of Fico have blamed “liberal media” for the attack, accusing journalists of creating an environment that promoted hatred for Robert Fico and his populist policies.

    Lubos Blaha, Slovakia’s deputy parliament speaker and deputy chairman of Fico’s Smer party has said, “For Smer, I want to sharply condemn what happened today in Handlova and at the same time express heavy disgust over what you have committed here in the past years”.

    “You, liberal media and political opposition. What hatred you spread against Robert Fico.”

    The country’s largest opposition party, Progressive Slovakia, has called off a protest against Fico’s government’s controversial reform of the state-funded public broadcaster. The party leader, Michal Simecka, said the move was made to avoid an “escalation of tension”.

    https://www.euronews.com/2024/05/15/what-is-known-about-suspect-allegedly-involved-in-shooting-of-robert-fico

    Who will be gullible enough to believe reports such as those above posted by The Times and Euronews? June Slater @juneslater17 and JO @jomickane in their tweets posted earlier on this forum have a far better grasp of the truth. Juraj Cintula was clearly working for or at the behest of those who want to suppress the forthcoming revelations of Robert Fico about the attempt to depopulate the planet by both bio-engineering the Covid-19 virus and then forcing deadly vaccines on billions of dupes around the world or to thwart his efforts to prevent race replacement and the forcible imposition of sharia law on the entirety of Europe. Cintula is merely the fall guy for the World Health Organisation/Bill Gates/Klaus Schwab/Big Pharma on the one hand and the European Union/Ursula von der Leyen/Islam on the other. June and JO, with their insights into the Machiavellian machinations of the world’s elites, implicitly expose how major media organisations work hand-in-glove with these demons to deceive the world and deflect its attention elsewhere with lies.

      1. My body is being controlled by habitués of the Twittersphere/Xsphere.

      1. No, because assassins normally target people they really, really like…

    4. Hmm, protect from immigrants. That is enough to describe him as a far right extremist.

  85. Good afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen. I’m just back from a bimble around my local country park where I took these. I didn’t realise it at the time but in the shot of Mr. & Mrs. Swan there is one of their (very newly hatched) youngsters:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e0403b13cef397ed50c72e58caf96fd3bfcbc0ae0f80755b5a184fc9a979139d.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6a66e677df51e040fd6e9cf935c3de8c3b1421f52ad45fab328676b6b6be3c19.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/acbdbdbb153c767f081b8ddc11a7e53ff4ef3ae0560d068ebb6730053fe71083.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4eed7a81ec9ab90c66ac5a2d6ae45571ce1c918fcd8192b3ef42561221d75202.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/dea07e358c31ed1d2b568faac93df6005317af3d5ea8b865f9c966327ccf4563.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/01e9d741dda15c456f6c202f9fff52e4d20adcdeffe25051fe8ad7ca1e3f4854.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0cfd7eb1655e0c87d8cd74a975a6c6a60ff09bf993212e7453f8e906a3cb3927.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e932b3cb583361cfe8664ca447a7d9fdb658cafa623be07cbd8e9a983fc32c6b.jpg

    1. Lovely, is the second one of an oak leaf hydrangea? Always wanted to have one of those.

    2. Yo GQ

      “I’m just back from a bimble around my local country park where I took these”.

      Naughty lad, Fotties would have been sufficient……………..

  86. The Telegraph surpasses itself with its leader “Ukraine must be allowed to win”. It is truly mind-bending that such stupidity can overtake even the most purblind propagandist! The only reason Russia did not roll over western Ukraine with weeks of their “Special Military Operation” starting was the knowledge that the countries would still have to live next to each other after the war and massive civilian casualties would have put Russia in the same position as the revolting Kiev regime which had spent the years since 2014 shelling and incinerating Russian speaking people in the east of `Ukraine, which of course ultimately led to the operation itself.

    The Telegraph and those hiring its hacks bear responsibility for over 500,000 young Ukrainian deaths and perhaps 80,000 Russian deaths. Ukraine is on the ropes, and the Telegraph journalists can be proud that the 16 year old widely shown yesterday being removed from his family car for dispatch to the Ukrainian “meat-grinder” is something to which they have contributed. Any amount of arms and munitions sent now will not change the end-game, which is now well under way. The neocons have lost their filthy bet, and only nuclear confrontation remains for them to play with, as play they seem bent on doing.

    1. From where was the 16 year old taken? It wasn’t UK was it?

      I can read your anger in your writing. I agree with you…it’s disgusting.

    2. Reliable figures for Russian and Ukrainian deaths are difficult to find but the vast majority of sources give Russian deaths at around 50,000 and Ukrainian deaths, including civilians, at very considerably less. “500,000 young Ukrainian deaths” (presumably mostly combatants) is literally incredible.

    3. Sorry but Russia ‘invaded’ Ukraine (and Crimea, and, and) – it was not a ‘Special Military Operation’.

      There is no doubt that this dreadful war could have been ended some time ago, and it’s evident that there was significant benefit to be had by the Western Military Industrial Complex (I always sound like Dave Spart, Private Eye’s resident commie, when I say that).

      However, Putin remains a vile mass murderer, and your suggestion that he exhibited restraint in the early days of the war is laughable.

  87. S.S. Rodney Star.

    Complement:
    83 (0 dead and 83 survivors).
    Convoy
    7,000 tons of refrigerated and general cargo.

    At 05.48 hours on 16th May 1941 the unescorted Rodney Star (Master Samuel John Clement Phillips) was hit in the stern by one of two torpedoes from U-105 (Georg Schewe) about 420 miles west-southwest of Freetown. The ship was hit in the bow and amidships by two coups de grâce at 06.20 and 07.46 hours, but remained afloat. The U-boat surfaced and fired 91 high explosive rounds and 22 incendiary rounds from the deck gun into the waterline. Shortly before the ship sank by the stern in 05°08N/19°15W at 09.30 hours, a shell exploded in the barrel which was torn apart and wounded six men of the gun crew.
    The survivors were picked up after six days by HMS Boreas (H 77) (LtCdr D.H. Maitland-Makgill Crichton) and Batna and landed at Takoradi on 23rd May.

    Type IXB U-Boat U-105 was sunk on 2nd June 1943 in the Atlantic west of Dakar by depth charges from a one-of-a-kind French Potez-CAMS 141 flying boat named “Antarès” (Esc 4E FAFL). 53 dead (all hands lost).

    https://uboat.net/media/allies/merchants/br/rodney_star.jpg

  88. More of a crash-dive, today!

    Wordle 1,062 X/6
    ⬜🟨🟨⬜⬜
    🟨⬜⬜🟨⬜
    ⬜🟨🟩⬜🟨
    🟩🟩🟩⬜⬜
    🟩🟩🟩⬜⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩⬜

    1. Blimey, I’ll consider myself lucky.

      Wordle 1,062 5/6

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

    3. I barely survived
      Wordle 1,062 5/6

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

    4. A lot of options today – satisfied with a bogey 5!

      Wordle 1,062 5/6

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

    5. Eek! Five here. Lucky.

      Wordle 1,062 5/6

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

    1. Good for you, Spikey. Shyte here. Cold, wet and miserable. Stove going nicely.

    3. Wow! That’s one for the diary. The yellow thing you saw in the sky is called ‘the sun’, btw. Quite often seen south of the Midlands, I understand.

    4. I remember in Aberdeen many years ago when there was a couple of days of warm summer sunshine. Every local you’d see would have a sunburnt face.

      1. Probably caused by them looking up at the strange bright object in the sky

        1. No idea. Just in that general direction. Find a spot on the Welsh border in the rough location.

          2. Two o’clock is the usual fighter pilot speak for where to find the attacker – you are in the centre and it’s where the little hand is – the big hand is always at twelve on the hour 🙂

          3. Sorry Conway! I was attempting to make a joke! I should have written sarc or something!

          7. The son of my godfather set up a cooperative wholefoods shop in Oswestry back in 1978. It’s still going!

          9. It certainly is! And back then it was quite an oddity – seeds and nuts and stuff!
            How is Kadi getting on with being an ‘only’ dog? And how are you?

          10. I am beginning to think that Kadi had secretly always longed to be an only dog and had never had the chance before! He seems happy and settled and is taking on more and more of the characteristics and traits of my old Cairn x Border Terrier whom I lost 3 years ago (who himself was a completely different dog once he was on his own). I am fed up and frustrated by the rain; I need to get out and tame the garden. I made the mistake of going away for a week and when I got back it had turned into a jungle.

          11. I’ve just looked at a forecast moving map of the weather, and it was absolutely purple over you! It should have all passed by 10pm so I’ll keep everything crossed that tomorrow will be a better day and the start of some decent weather. I can well understand your frustration and fedupness with the rain. It does get under the skin. I think it’s the dark skies and drabness.

  92. Good grief, can it get any worse?

    What’s REALLY behind Biden’s utterly pathetic debate gambit: SCOTT JENNINGS reveals how Joe’s cynical scheme could backfire… and finally convince Democrats to kick HIM off the ticket

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13423051/biden-trump-debate-scott-jennings.html

    Donald Trump would lose ‘hands down’ to Michelle Obama at the next election if she ran for president, says ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith
    Stephen A. Smith has previously been critical of Donald Trump and Joe Biden
    Smith believes Michelle Obama would easily beat Trump in an election

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/othersports/article-13423259/Donald-Trump-lose-election-Michelle-Obama-Stephen-Smith.html

    Yes, I know he’s only a sports commentator, but they are quite good at analysing games, which is what is going on with Biden.

    2. It all depends on how Trump behaves.

      If Biden makes the expected hash of a debate, he might lose some centrist democrat voters but what if Biden can goad Trump into a ranting incoherent tirade about 2020? How many of those middle of the road voters will pull out from voting for Trump?
      The right wing base is his, he needs to focus on winning the Nikki Haley base or he is toast.

      1. A single quick put down from Trump:
        “I’m debating with a POTUS, do you have a problem with that?”
        Which might even confuse Biden sufficiently to get him to deny that he was too.

  95. That’s me done for this miserable day. Thank God for the stove. Good to see Spexiters taking part (indeed initiating) a fish pun fest. A few skated around the subject. Helps pass a wet afternoon – though, in truth, old NoTTLers are dab hands at it.

    Have a spiffing evening.

    A demain – when, apparently, it won’t be raining.

          3. And when you do finish considering would you kindly float some new puns….

          4. I’m floundering at the moment so oysterminating tonights fishing – catch you tomorrow.

  96. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/05/15/sushi-racist-japanese-employment-tribunal-london-soas/

    It’s Not Racist to Tell A Japanese Person you Like Sushi says Judge .
    It’s all utter nonsense , Is a tin of cat food racist if a black cat is on the tin. The amount of times when abroad or speaking with foreign personage in England and being told ‘ I like fish and chips ‘ I dont think this is racist .
    When in the Netherlands and visiting Bavaria i said to someone ‘ the land of beer and sausages ‘ they just smiled .
    In a nod towards sanity a tribunal judge said it’s not racist to ask a Japanese colleague if she likes Sushi, this came about after claim of racial discrimination made by a linguist and cultural professor against her employer – she said her employer would have it against ‘ people like me for being a non – white Japanese person ‘ . This wokiest racial identity is even more nuts if someone can be accused of racist because of food .

        1. No, but a blind pit viper which has stereo heat sensor ‘pits’ can find warm bloodied prey without using its eyes.

          1. My dad never reported seeing one down the coal mine in 45 years underground.

          2. As one canary said to the other down the mine “Play dead – it’ll scare them shitless”

    2. Standpoint Epistemology, anything can be racist. In 2020 at the height of the fabricated “Racial Reckoning” I started making predications as to what will be the most ridiculous thing next to labelled racist. I recently heard one American teacher decry music lessons were racist, it re-enforces white supremacy culture. “Ha!” I exclaimed to myself “Got that on my bingo card.”.

  97. https://www.wcl.org.uk/statement-on-recent-media-reporting.asp

    This is from 4 months ago but echoes a more recent whinge from the National Trust saying England’s rural places are racist against black people and not encouraging black people to explore rural areas . Utter nonsence, the rural places are the only places left of England that remains English – cities and towns are now ghettos for black people but they are not stopped from visiting rural areas. You see signs saying ‘ keep dogs on leads ‘ ‘ keep to the footpaths ‘ etc . Ive never seen a sign saying ‘ only English people are allowed . Maybe thankfully you dont see many dusky yoofs etc in rural areas is because they prefer cities . Besides, Ive seen many a black and white multicultural cow and black horse in a field near me . When the Romans left Britons created areas hidden away where they would be safe from attack by invading Anglo Saxons – many of these in the west country – little communities of native people in little pockets . our cities in the North and London are no longer English – have we nowhere not even rural places.

    1. The problem seems to be that they never stop moaning.
      They are now in every TV advertisement on tv nearly in every programme on TV news programmes dictator who theater parts that have been predominantly white throughout history. But not contestants in many quiz shows.
      And now they want to take over the country side. But they would have to but their boots on wrap up and get on with it for no reward. Not very appealing or financially rewarding.

    2. Alas, rural England is no longer blek-free. They have been busing them into the hitherto white stronghold. Some of the towns round here are like Mogadishu. It is not a reassuring sight.

  98. Most of the morning spent in out patients.
    Possible different more advanced type of fluid injection for the old worn out knee joint. Instead of an op.
    Good lady out looking after DiL and grandchildren.
    I walked to our pharmacy picked up a repeat prescription. A mile the long way round.
    On the way back home I called in to see some lovely old friends I haven’t seen for around 2 years. Spent two hours catching up having cups of tea and a lot of laughs.
    Patrick was watching the golf on Sky. We have a lot in common, we played together* a lot in the mid eighties to mid nineties. (Golf)* I know what you lot are like. 🤭*
    Very pleasant afternoon indeed.
    Arrived home to finish off some planting in the garden. Enjoying a well earned beer. Feet in elevation mode very soon.
    Catch you all tomorrow.

  99. Wolves (the football team) have had 7 bad decisions against them under VAR. I mostly pay no attention to football, but am a proud Wulfrunian and don’t like unfairness.

    “ Premier League clubs have been forced into a vote over whether to scrap VAR after a proposal by Wolverhampton Wanderers to get rid of the system obliged the league to place it on the agenda for the shareholders’ meeting next month.

    Under Premier League rules, a club can put forward a proposal to discuss at shareholders’ meetings. As things stand, there is no evidence that Wolves’ proposal has strong support among the 19 other clubs, although there is likely to be lively debate until that AGM.

    Wolves issued a lengthy statement announcing their proposal, saying that “a small increase in accuracy” was “at odds with the spirit of the game” and that VAR should be scrapped. The Premier League, which opposes the proposal, says that the accuracy of all decisions has gone up from 86 per cent to 92 per cent since it was introduced at the start of the 2019-20 season.

    Wolves said in their statement that they were seeking the “best possible outcome for football”. The club listed 10 reasons why VAR should be abolished, from its “impact on goal celebrations” to “fuelling completely nonsensical allegations of corruption.”…”

    1. It’s the interminable waits for a questionable offside-by-a-fingertip that are particularly infuriating for so many supporters. However, the peculiar interpretations of handball and offside are not a fault of VAR itself but of the FA.

      And it doesn’t prevent errors from going uncorrected. Newcastle’s Antony Gordon clearly had his heel raked at Old Trafford last night but no penalty was awarded.

      1. Odd that the cretinous Gary Neville never mentioned that! 🙄 According to him there is only one United!

    3. Let’s abolish it. Then we can go back to slinging foul abuse at referees for making mistakes the old way instead!

      1. The old way didn’t have referees. Those that tried, their heads became the next footballs.

    4. Sport consists of events that could go one way or the other, depending upon an action that lasts a fraction of a second.
      Keep VAR, but ONLY use it when a team’s captain protests to the referee.
      Each captain gets two challenges.
      Two incorrect challenges removes the right to challenge for the rest of the game. Correct challenges don’t count against the captain.
      It would speed the game up and allow the referees to do their jobs.

      1. I like it! A bit like tennis or cricket, both of which seem to work well!

        1. It’s where I got the concept.

          It might also make the teams’ captaincy a more significant decision for the managers.

          Many years ago there was a proposal that referees be given the power to move free kicks forward 10 metres for dissent.
          They tried it out on Jersey and it worked very well indeed. Teams very quickly discovered that a free kick moved forward 10 m suddenly became a very serious problem. Dissent all but vanished.
          (I knew the chairman of the Jersey referees association quite well.)
          He and I often debated and wondered why it wasn’t generally adopted.

          1. I’ve played a load of Rugby and the 10 metres (it was 10yards when I started!) rule has always been in place for dissent. In fact we used to fine anyone on our team a jug (about 8 pints) of beer if they transgressed, it was called ‘a juggable’ offence – it worked……..

          2. Same, and a similar punishment.
            I played the game for 25 years, knees, hips, shoulder, ankles all broken, twisted or dislocated over the years.
            I loved it, even though in sporting terms it was the one I was least skilled at.

          3. Likewise re broken bones, rheumatoid arthritis etc – but I wouldnt change it for a second!

          4. I’m in cardiac rehabilitation at the moment, and my underlying fitness, plus acceptance of discomfort, is standing me in good stead.

            The biggest problem for me is the arthritis which stops me doing the exercises as they really should be done. The biggest bonus is knowing what level of pain isn’t significant, and can be worked through. It’s been fun comparing notes with all the Frenchmen and the few women doing the same rehab.

            I’m pleased to see how the PTB are becoming far more careful over injuries, it was needed; particularly given the huge changes in the size and strength of the players.
            By present standards, some of the men I played with, who had international caps, would be far, far to small to play in modern teams.

  100. https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-church-of-englands-volunteering-crisis/ –
    Just had a quick peek into the Stasi Speccie but I did find this article which I found rather good.
    ‘ The Church of England Volunteering Crisis ‘ It quoted a poem from John Betjeman ‘ Lets praise the man who goes to light the church stove on an icy night ‘ in his poem ‘ Septuagestima’ he goes on to praise the hard ‘ worked ‘ church wardens, treasurers and cleaners . organist and most of all the few who are seen in their accustomed pew come rain or shine’ .

    I’m sure many Christians here can relate to those words, at least John Betjeman was of a time when he never knew Welby or the attacks on faith / churches. Churches that share the same vicars and for some vagabound vicars.
    I agree with the writer who said the people in the pews bind the church together but disagree with the words suggesting these vounteers could run away . No they won’t .Regardless of how wretched the CoE happens to be – they are the true Christians and these are their churches in their communities – some for generations .

    1. The CoE hierarchy is actively trying to destroy the parochial structure and treating its volunteers appallingly. There have been a series of articles in the recent press about it, one by Rev Marcus Walker who started ‘Save the Parish’.

      1. Thank God for Rev Marcus Walker ‘ Save the Parish ‘ I shall find out about him.

      2. I commented much along the lines of your first sentence under the article referred to.

    2. Our erstwhile (in the sense that the congregation and volunteers have become the Diaspora) wrecktorette has managed to alienate both the occupants of the pews and those who formerly volunteered. We will walk away and have done so.

      1. Our ex Vicar is trying to do the same along with the Archdeacon. Our APCM is this Sunday and may well be the decisive battle. Please pray for us.

        1. I’ll pray for you if you pray for us; our APCM is this Sunday at 17.30 – deliberately chosen so the former choir had to cancel their evensong at another church in order to attend (some of them are on the PCC). Nasty and unpleasant doesn’t even come close!

          1. I will for sure. So many of us are facing the same issues caused by the Darkness.

  101. A pleasant run to Stoke. Decent weather to begin with.
    Then it changed about the time we had a walk to the cashpoint and we got a bit wet.
    Still, I managed to get through several items with him and got them sorted.
    Two outstanding issues to check up on/sort out, His council tax as I’m not sure if the SAHA housing manager who was supposed to have assisted him in notifying the council of his move did so and his bus pass the application for which was turned down last week.

    Stopped off at Hartington Cheese Shop on the way back.

    1. Why was the bus pass turned down? He’s lucky to have you to sort out his problems.

      1. I don’t know, but it took EIGHT bloody weeks for the surgery to respond and provide the information needed.
        But at the moment I’m just totally worn out by the lack of official assistance.

        1. Not surprising. Can he reapply for the bus pass with the info from the surgery or do you have to go through the whole rigmarole again?

      1. Yes, a church hidden away and then to an enchanting woodland .

        2. Exmoor and the North York Moors are my two favourite English National Parks.

  103. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fdbf7d6357c04eb1a98dd58189ee3b6d8462419b2aebc471db7094cf51367fc3.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d2ae412358f768a944a65ae81d72cbdad9fcb4e25a7fee32133da65dd2fbd30e.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/39731f83bc3dd5c069ad6d6f3e43d980e4308909c368770555900afa8b85edcf.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7df23a0aa8b173ff200258d46d8fa472e4781ece7b0a998687d9292d9e2301a6.jpg Well, that was certainly a pleasant little interlude with the prize of a ‘first’ for my local flooded field. I love waders and to discover this solitary Reeve [female Ruff] Philomachus pugnax showing off for me was a most welcome event. I’ve seen countless examples of this lovely species over the years but to get a new ‘tick’ on my pond list has made my day.

    1. Lovely shots, Grizz! Looks like you were almost in her arm/wing-pit!

      1. Thanks, Paul. It was a nightmare trying to hold my 500mm lens steady in a stiff breeze. The shots were hand-held since I rarely put my tripod in the car when out and about locally.

  104. Howdy, all Y’all. Finally, finished rushing about the UK, settled in with homemade cider, can catch up.
    Lovely evening yesterday in Wetherspoons, Penarth, with SWMBO & Captain KP. Some beers consumed, some air shooting done. Wonderful time. Thanks to KP for coming over!
    NoTTLers are the greatest!
    Would have been earlier in reporting, but mobile has given up – bastard.

  106. Evening, all. Still underwater here, so have been reduced to tidying the house! Not that I have got very far, but I have found some things to throw away (and a book that I had been wondering where it had got to). Haven’t actually thrown away the items yet as I don’t want to get drowned going out to the dustbin.
    The NHS is top heavy with bureaucracy. It has more chiefs than Indians.

    1. I have already booked my trip to hell in a handbasket but i think they were made by Boeing.

  109. Just been thinking about the future.
    If we have another world war, WWIII and we need to reform a new Home Guard.
    What with no banks left in coastal towns.
    Where will the future salt of the earth Captain Mainwarings come from?
    Okay there will be plenty of totalitarian Lefties to fulfil the role of air raid warden, screaming, “put that light out!” but that will only be to save the planet for our invaders grandchildren.
    But where will all the brave hard working natural leaders that love their country come from, they will all have been cancelled?

    1. Farmers, ex-service personnel, pre-Welby clergy, pre-Rainbow police, warehouse workers, lorry drivers; there really are a lot of “old British” who would fight them on the beaches.

      1. Frankly, I’d rather fight the enemy within (and I’m English, not “British”).

        1. I’d gladly welcome our Scottish and Welsh friends to the fight. Irish….not so much…..

      2. 387476+ up ticks,

        Evening S,

        Sadly the time has long gone for fighting them on the beaches, what rapidly approaches is fighting them in our own
        local streets and individual castles.

      3. At 60 years lold, house=bound and miles from a beach, I don’t think I’m eligible

  110. 387476+ up ticks,

    I am now beginning to understand the wearing of the burka indoors as an anti dad protective garment, I still cannot understand WHY these last 3 plus decades lab/lib/con supporter / voters have called for more of the same to settle within these Isles.

    Has anyone else noticed there is a bit of a difference in regards to our cultures also ?

    https://x.com/ApostateProphet/status/1791106913570066616

    1. By respecting/allowing the worst excesses of their culture, we turn all our children, both boys and girls into unpaid prostitutes and victims.

      1. 387476+ up ticks,

        Evening Pip,
        Via the polling stations ,in my book all children became casualties of war, AKA invaders playthings.

          1. 387476+ up ticks,

            Evening O,
            Partially, in the main the majority voter, voting for a party name that is long defunct, no longer with us, as dead as a dodo.

    2. Honi Soit Qui Mal Y Pense.

      It seems Muslim men are obsessed with sex. Every woman has to cover themselves from head to toe because these Muslim men cannot control themselves.

      1. That original quote was something to do with an ankle, as I recall (?), and led to the formation of the Order of the Garter….

      2. “Sex to an Arab is like a beer to an Englishman.”
        Comment by an Arab when briefing a trade mission.

  111. Criminals must face consequences for fly-tipping

    Police cannot allow such anti-social behaviour to become the new shoplifting – all but decriminalised

    TELEGRAPH VIEW • 16 May 2024 • 6:00am

    Fly-tipping has become a serious blight on Britain’s countryside. There are an estimated 3,000 incidents in England each day and the authorities seem powerless to fight back.

    The treatment of two fly-tippers caught red-handed by farmers may go some way to explaining why. [See below] The two men have been ordered to pay a little over £2,000 for four incidents of fly-tipping, a sum unlikely to deter future offenders.

    It is dispiritingly clear that our government has made fly-tipping economically rational. Too many official waste centres have been closed down or reserved for recycling only. Those that remain open make users jump through endless hoops to book appointments and levy high fees, with some materials charged at more than £100 per tonne in landfill tax. This is intended to discourage landfill use, and it does. The issue is what it encourages in its place.

    Fly-tipping has predictably become an appealing alternative, with the law weakly enforced when it is enforced at all. Fewer than 1,700 prosecutions were brought last year against almost 1.1 million incidents. Only 21 custodial sentences were given, and the average fine was a little over £500. Those are favourable odds for the perpetrators, no doubt boosted by the authorities sometimes choosing to sit on their hands. Hoads Wood, an ancient bluebell woodland in Kent, was buried under an estimated 27,000 tonnes of waste after warnings were ignored.

    Once again, the Government has failed to grasp that criminals respond to incentives. It is a pattern familiar from shoplifting, where failing to arrest offenders has seen cases surge to record highs. The simple fact is that until fly-tippers are made to face consequences for their actions, they will continue to lay waste to our countryside.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2024/05/16/flytipping-countryside-vandalism-crime-shoplifting-police/

    The Romanian duo: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c98zzd3dpyeo

    Hoads Wood:
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cg67692qx26o
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c89zznd5q5yo

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7866280f3203c6a648710cb815ab620fc7f6c38415d66b508ca83221fd7ee908.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/51dafb4ea5b5b8ff9eff77dbd5891894d9f1cfe5232530c80ad4262e3a264b36.jpg

        1. You know that machine they use to crush cars…………………………nice neat little package.

    2. Let’s not forget that EU regs made disposing of commercial waste at tips prohibitively expensive. The remainiacs in power did not rescind these regs.

        2. It certainly happens in France, but the authorities seem to clear it up fairly quickly.
          They also have numerous municipal tips where one can take rubbish easily, so there is less incentive to tip anywhere.

          1. Which suggests that EU/EEC regulations might very well contribute to the problem but that the UK could do rather more to deal with it within the constraints of laws enacted in compliance with its membership and not since either rescinded or amended.

  112. Another day is done so, I wish you a goodnight and may God bless you all, Gentlefolk. Bis morgen früh.

    1. I wrote your number down that time you posted it and I will ring you when I next travel up North to check my mother’s house. It would be so lovely to have a break from driving with a like minded individual! You can put the kettle on and I’ll bring the biccies and maybe some cake?

  113. Apologies if this has been posted already but this is an excellent piece:

    “WEATHER modification programmes and other geo-engineering experiments to reverse ‘climate change’ can no longer be brushed off as the stuff of ‘chemtrail’ conspiracy theorists. In recent weeks concerns, catalysed by excess rainfall both here and in Dubai, have finally gone mainstream.

    A report in the Telegraph on Dubai’s unprecedented floods detailed Saudi Arabia’s and the UAE’s systematic seeding the sky to bring rain on the desert and reported confirmation from Ahmed Habib, a meteorologist at the UAE’s National Centre of Meteorology, that ‘several cloud-seeding planes were flown in the days leading up to the unprecedented weather’. It went on to detail the processes and chemicals involved in generating ‘artificial’ rain. Cloud seeding has also been blamed for California’s devastating flooding in February.

    British scientists, the Telegraph revealed in another article, have been involved in the Middle East project since 2017 and experimenting here in the UK, near Castle Cary in Somerset, where ‘above a verdant landscape rarely troubled by drought, unmanned aerial vehicles with specially developed charge emitters that could release positive or negative ions on demand were launched into another foggy sky’.

    You may ask why I, a former General Officer in the Army, feel it necessary to launch into print on this subject. Well, for one thing I have been aware of weather modification and solar radiation management (geo-engineering activity) for some time now and I believe it to be a matter of security – the security of all our livelihoods, food supplies, health and in the worst case, survival. For another, I spent three years studying landforms and the forces that form them, chiefly climate and weather, so I have some knowledge as well as interest. Nor am I the only person to have witnessed the changes in our skies from the ground over recent years, or to have watched it happen from passenger aircraft flying above the spraying. Finally, when the same sources ‘rubbish’ and discredit the people reporting this and its possible impact – the same ones that hyped up covid and censored dissent as misinformation – it’s time to worry. Once again the government is either not being open with us or is not in control of what is going on.

    The full article is here: . https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/what-are-they-doing-to-our-skies-part-one/

    2. It would not surprise me if the people who sprayed into the storm over the Arabian peninsula, causing catastrophic floods were the same people who blew up NS2…

  114. It’s raining again. It’s been dark and gloomy and intermittently rainy here all day. Has summer been and gone?

    1. It’s been lovely up here in north Britain! Warm and sunny for at least 8 hours!

          1. Yes, I saw that on weather reports. I’m from Inverness so I still look at the weather there, even although I now live in England.

      2. Blimey, 8 whole hours, isn’t that almost your total ration for the rest of May?

      2. BTW, it’s lovely to see you again 4G. The Speccie comments are pretty poor nowadays. Do you still comment there? Perhaps under another name? Anyway, it’s good to see you again, even if we didn’t always agree! Speaking of which, isn’t it a good job our Elinor doesn’t know about this site? Can you imagine the mayhem? I did kind of like her despite the mayhem, she was passionate, provocative and she shook things up in the echo chamber.

        1. And you MF, sorry Essdee now!

          No, I dont do the Speccie any more, it was clear they wanted rid of the Deplorables, of which I was proud to be a part, so stuff ’em.

          Your ‘mate’ (no offence intended) was a deeply unpleasant psycho nutcase who I’d like to think wouldnt last five minutes on here…..

          3. It’s now a badge of honour, like the Old Contemptibles. The more deplorable you are, the more honourable.

          5. “Marra” – blimey, that takes me back to my Northern origins. It’s been 36 years since I left Carlisle, so I guess I’ve been a ‘Southerner’ for more than half of my existence.

          6. It’d been more than that since I left the North East. You can take the lad out of the North, but etc.

          7. It’d been more than that since I left the North East. You can take the lad out of the North, but etc.

          8. Well, the usual mongs remain mongy, but there does continue to be push-back.
            My mate ED would certainly have made a lasting impression here…or anywhere on the Internet! I hope she’s OK, I suspect she is quite fragile in reality, despite her often aggressive and vitriolic style.

          10. Don’t agree. She was a fecked up woman and that’s why she was incensed by non-fecked up women posters. She was always so angry and blamed everything but herself.

          11. Everything about that poster, from the volatility and serious nastiness to the exaggerated faux femininity, screamed “Trannie with a serious grudge against actual women”. Of course, unlike you, I am not a psychiatrist, hence did not and do not enjoy such interactions. I remain surprised that you did and do – surely you can see the pathology?

          12. I’m not a psychiatrist, opopanax. I have never claimed to be one.
            I don’t think ED was a man. I think she was a woman with ‘issues’, lots of issues.

          14. Do your worst Mackem boy – I’m waiting……..

            PS It’s a bloke, dont you know?

  115. The physio sorted mine (I had to go for an assessment when I appealed) in less than an hour. Why, when I had referenced all the medical history with my original application, it couldn’t have been done in the first place I can’t understand.

  116. Doesn’t he have enough on his plate in Ukraine to be able spare the time?

  119. I look at the livestream osprey nest at Loch Arkaig. The scenery is beautiful but can be pretty wild!

    1. Ooh, I’ll have to give that a watch. I sometimes look at the live cameras on Ben Nevis!

      2. That reminds me, Sherpas in the Himalayas have a neat trick. Should one fall they tend to let out a scream .It lets folk at back at Base Camp know there will be one less for supper!

  120. The internet can be merciless…

    “When this prime miniature speaks, I switch off.”…….

    2. He says he’s staying even if he loses.
      Reminds me of Theresa Mayhem whose still haunting the back branches like Blackadders White Knight defending that bridge like she did her God awful Brexit deal . It’ll be a Sunak and the boats .

  122. Good night everyone, from Audrey and me .
    Somethings this place reminds me of the Waltons without Goodnigit Jim – Bob and Mary – Ellen . Sweet dreams and God bless – don’t let the bedbugs bite 🦠🐛😁

      1. Audrey Hepburn in the picture- a picture from Roman Holiday my favourite film .

          1. Yes I do resemble Audrey Hepburn, they say everyone has a double. Mine is that lady who lived another time, Audrey Hepburn was slightly taller then me – she was 5’8 whereas I’m 5’6. I always remember when I was in my twenties, confused elderly ladies used to say ‘ I liked you in that film ‘
            they seemed to be happy thinking that, so I left it. I did some course a few years about early Britons and the generic features of Europeans came up – a picture of Gabby Logan and Audrey Hepburn was placed up and I heard people whisper my name. But I was bullied at school for having a long neck and being slender and have had to always put up with sarcastic remarks from big boned relatives of my spouse . I share the same love of very large hats and Audrey Hepburn and I both had difficult relationships with our fathers – I just left it with mine but Audrey Hepburn always seeked her father’s approval .I may have liked to have been around the same time as Audrey Hepburn but I’d not have wanted to share her early years in occupied Belgium .

          2. The sarcastic remarks from ‘big-boned’ relatives of your husband are merely jealousy.

  123. In the Telegraph there is an article about some cyclist doing 52 in a 20 zone. If they all did the same I’d have no problem with the Lycra louts, but they don’t. Most of them dress for the Tour de France but bimble along like an octogenarian from mid-Wales. I do my best to restore sense, overtaking some virtue-signalling pensioner in a 20 zone at about 50mph today. Gratifyingly the utter loser hooted at me as well.😂

    1. The lycra is rather unbecoming and does exacerbate a really horrid sort of rash, I’m told.

      2. I wear compression stockings and had to drop Lycra standard NHS Scholl Lycra issue for non-Lycra as the Scholl exacerbated my psoriasis.

    2. There will be a new law out soon, if anyone dies due to dangerous cycling they’ll be treated the same as those who cause someone to die by dangerous driving. A cycle Is more then capable of making a car swerve into harms way. Good night to you, your dog and Snowdonia .

      1. Do you not think it would be better to imprison them first, in order to be safe? We’re often being told ‘if it saves just one life etc’ ( by half-wits)

        1. Yes, probably best to be on the side of caution, but padded cells would be best, we’d not want them to hurt themselves when they bounce the cycles off the walls 😁

    3. It’s practically all 20mph where I live. Apart from the fact that we also have locally a pro-active motorcycle cop with speed gun, I tend to drive at the speed limit principally to piss off all those behind me, the majority of whom would have voted for the local councillors that imposed the limits!

        1. The more that do that perhaps councillors will learn that silly limits have unforeseen consequences…..?

    4. I mosey along on my bike, here in rural Skåne, wearing clothes that befit my 73 years. The country lanes I mosey along are devoid of traffic and pedestrians. It’s the only cycling you’ll ever find me doing.

      1. I once borrowed a bike in Delft. Set off from the hotel, turned left, lef, left again, and got back to the hotel. In the approximate 4km ride, it was downhill all the way, start to finish… like that picture of steps. How does that work?

          1. That’s a very good take on the Escher original – and they cant all be marching the same way or it would break the illusion!

        2. Because it was actually flat, which gives the impression of it being downhill since the cycling is easy on the flat.

        1. Indeed it is, Mum. I’ve never lived in a more beautiful, bucolic, and stress-free environment.

          1. It sounds very much as I imagine rural England to have been centuries ago. There are still many places like that within mainland Europe, we found one such within the ‘valley’ of the Seine in Normandy, remarkable (to me) because many of the thatched cottages in peaceful villages had irises growing in a line along the ridge of the thatch, it was a feature of the area. And miles and miles of tranquil rural lanes with no cars, much less any ‘traffic’.

          2. Skåne has the same rolling farmland as Norfolk, only a lot fewer people and about a sixth of the traffic. I miss English shops and country pubs but, on the whole, I’d rather be in Philadelphia Skåne.😊

    1. I remember conducting this with a young soloist who was actually called Sylvia. Well tbf I was the pianist.

        1. I shall stay indoors, or if I need to go out I will tell a nearby Remainer that wearing a suit of armour during a thunderstorm reduces global warming..

          1. I don’t claim to be a conductor at all, but the video somehow reminded me of my former organist and choirmaster gig in Hindhead, where we had a reasonable bunch of amateur singers, a convicted paedo* as the only tenor, and Sheila Armstrong amidst the sopranos.

            *That’s a whole different story…

          4. Agreed, but there is no real shortage of them as the demand is so low. Almost 100% are ex cathedral choristers who have gone on to be lay-clerks. And pretty much the only employers are cathedral choirs.

          5. Thankfully, he wasn’t a good tenor. As an organist, I find myself singing whichever part the choir is short of. I draw the line at soprano, but I can generally do A T & B.

            My old assistant organist sang tenor for several years with Voces8, until he decided that he wasn’t actually a tenor. A multitude of recordings would suggest otherwise, but I bow to his trained, superior knowledge.

      1. I must admit I used to cycle when living in the Netherlands, I loved cycling through the parks and everywhere, but it wasnt a militant thing then. One can cycle and drive a car – but cyclists who hate cars and who are environmentalist loons are not too pleasant.

          1. Dresses and skirts are preferable attire but not suited for cycling, where cotton trousers in the summer and wool trousers in the winter are far more suited. Mind you, ladies used to ride horses, side saddle but horses don’t have peddles to manage 😁

          2. Side saddle is so elegant. I once saw a young woman hunting like that, but sadly it is an insecure mount.

  128. Fine. Our director was /is Janet Haney – part time voice coach at the RCM. I’m no longer with the choir having moved away.

  129. Sorry, misunderstood – thought you had said that! Agree about the issues and I was certainly amongst those who urged that person to seek help

    1. I do work in forensic psychiatric services. And yes, I know that many people urged her to seek help, but she wasn’t able to do that.

    2. Few recordings make me misty-eyed. Amongst the small number are Goin’ Back by Dusty Springfield, Liverpool Lullaby by Cilla Black, No More Tearstained Makeup by Martha & The Vandellas, Baby, I’m For Real by The Originals and Fading Away by The Temptations.

  131. I’m off to bed.
    I’ve some shelving in the bathroom to sort out tomorrow.
    Good night all.

  132. The light entertainment show, Britain’s Got Talent, is a misnomer. More fitting would be the likes of Britain Welcomes Talent, Britain Invites Talent or Britain Hosts Talent. While I don’t watch the show itself, I’ve seen several clips on Gogglebox and my impression is that the talent on display is, more often than not, from other countries.

    1. I’ve never seen it. But judging by my local’s open mic nights, we do attract people from out of the county, we do have talent in this country. Just occasional foreigners, but they’re always welcome in my local.

    2. Irrespective of the contestants, the word I have a problem with is ‘Talent’ but I suspect ‘Britain’s Got A Bunch Of Half-Witted Useless Wannabes Without A Single Talented Bone In Their Body’ probably wouldnt have the same impact…

  133. Excellent! I was barely at school back then, otherwise living in Nigeria, so, sadly, Louis never disturbed by attention. But now… favourite singer, jazz musician.

  135. I can’t hold a note or tune. Always admired those (like SWMBO) who have the talent to do so.
    But I might have been able to fix your organ if it didn’t parp as per keyboard instruction (if you see what I mean…)

    1. When I was on Ops in Afgaf I joined the church choir, more for something to do in the evening than any spiritual reason. There were twelve of us and a captain I shared a a tent with and I got put in the altos. Neither of us could sing a note, it was hysterical.
      Anyway, we practised carols in the run up to Christmas then on Christmas Eve we went around Camp Bastion with the padre and sang to the posties in their depot, to the armourers, to the cookhouse to sing to the chefs, to the NAAFI and to the hospital to sing to the medics and the patients.
      It brought some light relief during a six month tour.

      1. A remarkable sound which will be undoubtedly lost to future generations.

  138. I was a cathedral chorister. After my voice broke it has been disappointing. I sing an unimpressive baritone now.

    1. Forget the unimpressive baritone. Being a cathedral chorister is a huge advantage in life.

      I joined the local suburban church choir at the age of 8. Nothing like a Cathedral choir. Then the Choirmaster left, and one of the choristers took over the organ, aged 14. Fast forward, and he married the Vicar’s daughter and moved away. By which time I was also 14.

    2. Forget the unimpressive baritone. Being a cathedral chorister is a huge advantage in life.

      I joined the local suburban church choir at the age of 8. Nothing like a Cathedral choir. Then the Choirmaster left, and one of the choristers took over the organ, aged 14. Fast forward, and he married the Vicar’s daughter and moved away. By which time I was also 14.

  139. The NHS cares more about PR than patients

    Time and again this monstrous bureaucracy has put its own reputation before the public’s safety

    KAROL SIKORA • 16 May 2024 • 4:50pm

    The Mafia-like NHS management style continues to endanger countless patients. Organisational and personal reputations are far too often placed far ahead of good practice and safe patient care by the use of skilled but expensive PR.

    As has been reported this week, whistleblowers – those who highlight errors and problems – are treated like criminals. They are hounded and bullied out of jobs, with their financial and professional futures ruined by bureaucrats who rarely have any actual medical experience.

    Defusing, and then covering up the story, becomes the priority instead of addressing the root cause. This stop-gap approach saves the day in most cases but eventually disasters leak out. Regulatory bodies such as the General Medical Council (GMC) for doctors and the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) are weaponised to silence doctors and nurses, with so-called heretics flogged in front of the baying mob. This sets an extremely effective deterrent.

    I’ve seen it myself as an expert witness at a GMC tribunal of a leading oncologist. I, and the only other defence expert, are both now under investigation. I’m too old to worry about it, but kangaroo courts for offending NHS staff are common, with patient safety far too often right at the bottom of the agenda.

    Many medical professionals, no matter how senior, find the whole process of raising concerns extremely intimidating and incredibly stressful. NHS management have designed it to be that way, and want all involved to know it. It’s a toxic environment, with poison pumped in from the very centre at NHS England.

    Swarms of overpaid and over-promoted PR managers seem to care little for patient outcomes, viewing them as secondary to the reputation of their hospitals. They thrive on “crisis management” as a way to justify their own positions. Having submitted a subject access request to NHS England late last year, I finally received the answer one week ago. Hundreds and hundreds of pages detailing lengthy correspondence between NHS “communication” specialists about some of my statements in this very paper. The amount of time and resource that has been poured into dealing with my concerns is astonishing and surely indicative of a much wider problem.

    It’s not only patient wellbeing that is put at risk, but that of the staff making these complaints. It can drag on for months, or even years, with all manner of threats and abuse being felt by those who put their heads above the parapet. Is it a surprise that so many professionals are leaving?

    When I worked in the NHS as clinical director of cancer medicine at Hammersmith Hospital, I was in charge. I took responsibility for what happened under my watch, and the buck stopped with me. That is exactly how it should be. Now?

    There are layers and layers of bureaucracy and bureaucrats, many of whom contribute nothing productive to providing timely and efficient care for patients. It’s a mess, and eventually all bloated systems break down – as we’ve tragically seen with Mid Staffs, Morecambe Bay and so on.

    Returning responsibility and power to health professionals is vital. Without it, the NHS bureaucratic machine will grow stronger and even more untouchable. And, as public attitudes towards the flawed system sour, with surveys revealing satisfaction is already at an all-time low, senior managers will go to ever greater extremes to silence dissent. Doctors and nurses within the system who raise legitimate and important concerns will not stand a chance.

    Where is the accountability for those in charge? The Chair and CEO of NHS England wield far more power than the politicians. NHS leadership should be hauled in front of Parliament on a weekly basis and subjected to intense questioning on the poor quality of patient care – that is, or at least should be, the overarching objective of everything that the health service does.

    Whistleblowers deserve to be protected and celebrated, not persecuted and harassed. The whole system is designed to safeguard and enhance the existing establishment. A radical overhaul of how we deliver care is required – does the political courage exist to deliver that even with a new government?

    Professor Karol Sikora is a leading cancer specialist

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/05/16/nhs-medical-mistakes-maternity-deaths-backlog-waiting-times/

    Steady on, Prof. You know how you and your fellow sceptics upset Paul Mason, Guardian hack and one of the BBC’s favourite Twats For Hire, during the Chinese Madness.

    1. I made a complaint, to the CEO, against my local hospital A&E. I had a reply that was a pack of lies and I wrote an told them so and said I wanted a face to face meeting because if they were going to lie to me I wanted the to do to my face. In the mean time I had requested and received a copy of the notes of my visit that upheld my version. They gave me a time limit on their response and a few days before that asked for a 2 week extension which I granted. A few days before the extension ran out they asked for the same again. I refused.
      The meeting was held with Chief Nurse chairing it with A&E Consultant, Consultant Ophthalmologist, and note take. They stood by their letter and were mightily embarrassed when I produced their notes of the visit with none of the tests they said were carried out shown on the document.
      You might have thought they would have obtained a copy of the records but they were, obviously, certain I would roll over.

  140. HI Paul, and apols for not being able to meet up.

    Parp pipe organs are the ultimate in ‘*boy’s toys’, in my opinion. (though there are a few girls, also).

    Mechanical / tracker action organs are largely dependent on carpentry skills for the opening and closing of airways to allow the wind to reach the pipes.

    Electric action means the keys are switches, and the valves have electromagnets.

    In between, there’s electro-pneumatic action, which is a mixture of both.

    And the pipes themselves involve metalwork.

    Organ tuners need a variety of skills, which sometimes are lacking.

    But if you fancy a new career, I can give you a few organ builder contacts… 🙂

    1. Ha! Been there, directed that, in Venice and Rome. Will always be grateful.

  143. Well, chums, I will now bid you all a Good Night. Sleep well, and I shall see you all tomorrow.

  145. The damn internet was down here in North Essex for an hour or so. So frustrating as we use wi-fi for the TV film channels and also are utterly dependent on it for access to banking and other investments.

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