Friday 26 July: What it’s like to work as a GP in a system on the verge of collapse

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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746 thoughts on “Friday 26 July: What it’s like to work as a GP in a system on the verge of collapse”

  1. Good morrow, Gentlefolk, today’s (recycled) story

    Wrong Number

    It's Saturday morning and Bob's just about to set off on a round of golf, when he realizes that he forgot to tell his wife that the guy who fixes the washing machine is coming around at noon. So Bob heads back to the clubhouse and phones home.

    "Hello?" says a little girl's voice.

    "Hi, honey, it's Daddy," says Bob. "Is Mummy near the phone?"

    "No, Daddy. She's upstairs in the bedroom with Uncle Frank."

    After a brief pause, Bob says, "But you haven't got an Uncle Frank, honey!"

    "Yes, I do, and he's upstairs in the bedroom with Mummy!"

    "Okay, then. Here's what I want you to do. Put down the phone, run upstairs and knock on the bedroom door and shout in to Mummy and Uncle Frank that my car's just pulled up outside the house."

    "Okay, Daddy!" A few minutes later, the little girl comes back to the phone. "Well, I did what you said, Daddy."

    "And what happened?"

    "Well, Mummy jumped out of bed with no clothes on and ran around screaming, then she tripped over the rug and went out the front window and now she's all dead."

    "Oh, my God! What about Uncle Frank?"

    "He jumped out of bed with no clothes on too, and he was all scared and he jumped out the back window into the swimming pool. But he must have forgot that last week you took out all the water to clean it, so he hit the bottom of the swimming pool and now he's dead too."

    There is a long pause.

    "Swimming pool? Is this 854-7039?"

        1. Morning, Tom.
          Cold, raining – the kind of day to stay in bed, not rush off to the office. But then, one needs paid, so…

  3. Oh my goodness gracious me!

    Here’s the new chairman of Great British Energy, Jurgen Maier (center back) literally rubbing shoulders with none other than George Soros’ rep and fixer, Lord Andrew Adonis!

    Whatever could this mean?

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/876a643e296fe97fc61e01a8fdf2cfea981a5c21cc9b7804ff5efa680e078fd6.jpg

    There’s the Soros link to the new Great British Energy through Lord Andrew Adonis and Jürgen Maier which fits in exactly with Soros' money behind the Climate Change Act and Legal Net Zero and Soros' link to the Climate Change Committee and the Energy Transitions Commission through Lord Adair Turner!

    Happy Soros Families!

      1. I think it merged with Soros Bank and soon afterwards all the money disappeared in an outage.

      2. When 'green' doesn't make any money and exists on subsidy there are no profits (because those are not kept in 'green' banks, they're moved swiftly to ones in tax havens. Vince and his ilk don't want the state getting it's hands on… it's own money after all.

  5. Good morning, chums, and thank you, Geoff, for todays' NoTTLe site.

    Wordle 1,133 4/6

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    2. Four here too

      Wordle 1,133 4/6

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    3. A bit of a swine today.

      Wordle 1,133 5/6

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      1. I hate those occasions when there are so many options and no clues.
        Not that I suffered that fate today.

        Wordle 1,133 4/6

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  6. North Korean hackers stole military secrets, FBI reveals. 26 July 2024.

    A North Korean hacking group stole secrets about satellites and warplanes from Nasa, US air bases and defence contractors, the FBI has revealed, as it launched a hunt to catch the perpetrators.

    The US government is offering a $10 million reward for information leading to the identity of hackers targeting American national security assets, including nuclear secrets and information about missiles, submarines and drones.

    Needless to say, (I hope) I am not a fan of North Korea but I have great difficult believing any of this. I don’t doubt that they would like, (who wouldn’t) to perform these activities. Just that, not only are they incapable of it, but it hasn’t actually occurred. Who these days would keep Top Secret information on a computer linked to the internet? The very quantities mentioned here suggest low level information broadly available to anyone who has heard of Google. I suspect the whole thrust of the story to be a fabrication; a part of the continual propaganda narrative that keeps the peasants occupied and their thoughts away from the Globalist Domestic Agenda.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/07/25/north-korean-hackers-stole-military-secrets-fbi-reveals/

    1. They simply haven't the technical knowledge. North Korea is 30 years behind at best – because modern security practices can't be found, they can't be taught, so they're never learned.

      That's the utopia the UK Left want for everyone though – ignorance, controlled, restricted data. Google's already pushing down this path. Youtube censors dissenting views over 'climate change'. It's sad. They don't seem to understand just how evil this attitude is.

  7. Mobile ad data analysis reveals someone from DC FBI office visited Thomas Crook's Pennsylvania home prior to assassination attempt. The analysis identified nine devices linked to Crooks' home & work.

    surveillance works both ways.

      1. The FBI also said..
        FBI director casts doubts on Trump being struck by bullet during assassination attempt.
        The Independent

      2. Just not possible. In testing a login issue yesterday Windows dumps a dozen cookies in your browser by forcing it's adverts. There's more for the widgets you don't want or need. Then if you open a bowser – even to about:blank – i will create a cookie as it goes off to phone home to say 'so and so is using our browser'.

        Even far less intrusive OS's such as Linux ping off to check for captive portals, set the same session cookies. Computers these days are noisy, messy things and someone is selling that data.

        Turn off location tracking in, say, Google Maps and it will still be active in Chrome. Why? Oh, we thought you'd want that in case you used the web version… disable it and it will break other things – such as the ability to make and receive calls.

        Why do you have to have location tracking on to use bluetooth, for example? One is a hardware radio, the other intrusive. Silencing a modern smartphone is nigh impossible. If i look at my iPad, currently screen off, doing nothing with no apps open it's sending out about a dozen web requests every few seconds with usage stats, tickers (for things I Apple refuse to le me remove) and update checks.

        1. Whenever I close my Gmail account, I delete all the browser incidents that have been collected. Then I run Ccleaner.

    2. Not quite sure what 'Mobile ad data analysis' means in this context. Is it that FBI person was receiving ads on his mobile 'phone during this time and location could be deduced from this, or something else? Please clarify.

      1. Mobile ad data analysis reveals someone who regularly visited Crooks’ Pennsylvania home also visited a building in DC near an FBI office.

        The Oversight Project identified nine devices linked to AD-IDs that were located at Crooks’ home and work within the last year.

        Per the Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project: “We found the assassin’s connections through our in-depth analysis of mobile ad data to track movements of Crooks and his associates”

        Gun Laws Have Changed – Do You Have The Updated Reciprocity Map?

        ADVERTISEMENT
        “To do this, we tracked devices that regularly visited both Crooks’s home and place of work and followed them,” the Oversight Project said.

        ASSASINATION INFO DROP

        We found the assassin’s connections through our in-depth analysis of mobile ad data to track movements of Crooks and his associates.

        To do this, we tracked devices that regularly visited both Crooks’s home and place of work and followed them. https://t.co/T5HETLhkgM http://pic.twitter.com/hMsI9dFwNk

        — Oversight Project (@OversightPR) July 22, 2024

        Someone who regularly visited Crooks home and work also visited a building in Washington, DC located in Gallery Place.

        “This is in the same vicinity of an FBI office on June 26, 2023,” the Oversight Project said.

    3. Not in the UK unfortunately, yesterday a post showed a clip of a UK policeman being attacked and severely kick around by a group of obviously forgien people.
      As a form of surveillance, if the clip is real, it should be shown by our heavily biased anti English media.

      1. The source "Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project" is often labelled a faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar right conspiratory theorist Nasti alt-Thatcher lovin extremist false news propaganda outlet.. and certainly wouldn't be welcome in Emily Maitlis' workplace.

        1. As Colonel Nathan Jessep said in the film A Few Good Men.
          (They)
          "You can't Handle the Truth" !

          1. Jack Nicholson to Tom Cruise. I loved the way the spittle flew from his mouth. Great actor.

          2. I find Jack Nicholson to be unempathetic, cold and slightly menacing. Perhaps this is just in the film roles he performs. He could be a decent, warm, cuddly, friendly and sociable character in real life.

  8. Mobile ad data analysis reveals someone from DC FBI office visited Thomas Crook's Pennsylvania home prior to assassination attempt. The analysis identified nine devices linked to Crooks' home & work.

    surveillance works both ways.

  11. How Manchester Airport row led to fury on the streets. 26 July 2024.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/42d5f2f64291be5308a45b7585cf717bd796e39caebbcdc632ffa05860a1b24c.png

    Mr Fahir Amaz is lying face down on the terminal floor with his arms and legs protruded straight.

    His mother crouches over his body while two armed officers point their tasers at him.

    At this point, Mr Fahir Amaz moves his head and the male armed officer kicks him in the face and then appears to aim a stamp at his head with his boot.

    The “mother” shown above looks and moves more like a man. Did the cops suspect a terrorist attack? Did the Muzzies set the whole thing up?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/07/25/manchester-airport-fracas-armed-police-passengers/

      2. Acres of press coverage around the world of the head kick.. SFA regarding the NASA gorilla attack.

      3. 390172+ up ticks,

        Morning B3,

        Distraction, distraction, and more distractions while the real treachery continues unabated.

    2. The culprit is the fatty mother standing there.. who had a push & shove with a white passenger on the airplane mid-flight.. which led to more push n shove with trolleys at the baggage claim. Then the mother pointed out the evil white man to her kind & gentle righteous sons who restored family honour in the concourse area.

    3. The culprit is the fatty mother standing there.. who had a push & shove with a white passenger on the airplane mid-flight.. which led to more push n shove with trolleys at the baggage claim. Then the mother pointed out the evil white man to her kind & gentle righteous sons who restored family honour in the concourse area.

    4. The BBC, most of the MSM and the PTB probably know they are being taken for fools by the ROPERS but it is probably easier for them to let this happen that actually contest them.

      1. It's the emperor wearing his new clothes sitting on a large elephant in the corner of the room.

  12. Morning all 🙂😊
    Lovely sunny start in Northumberland again.
    Off to Alnwick and the castle today.
    Slayders.

    What is it like to work in a system on the verge of collapse? It really depends entirely on the causes of collapse. All those working within the system will know what is going wrong.
    It could be something to do with hundreds of thousands of people using the system who have never and will never contribute a single penny for the use of the system.
    But we all know what has caused this to happen. All those creepy people 'working' in Wastemonster and Whitehall.

          1. We’ve just got back from Wooler. A lovely village. There must have been a local dignitaries funeral or memorial service today there were lots of people in suit’s and smart dresses.
            We went to Etal earlier and took the Little steam train along the river to Heathererslaw Mill where the guide.
            Supplied me with 1.5 kg of freshly ground wholemeal flour. We watched it being milled. 2.85. Not bad eh.
            A grand day out.
            We love Northumberland.

          2. Jeeze Bob I sent you a long reply after our lovely day out and it's seems to have bloody vanished 🤔
            We went to Wooler. Lovely village lots going on even a funeral or a memorial service. Lots of well dressed people walking up the High Street when we sat and drank our afternoon tea. Loved it. Thanks.

          3. Just saw your earlier response.
            The Heatherslaw Railway is delightful! We used to visit it when staying at my sister’s at Cornhill.

          4. We always look in estate agents windows, we would have loved to have lived here it’s wonderful.
            But we’re too old and too many attachments down south, unfortunately.
            Thanks for the suggestion Bob.🤗

        1. I was surprised to read how large No.10/11 Downing Street is, apparently quite a lot of offices subterranean, around 11k working in DS. Blimey. Yes wfh very convenient, especially school holidays etc.

      3. Where they work is irrelevant. That most of what they do is pointless is the problem.

  13. Good morning all.
    10°C and a bright sunny start to the day with a light breeze.

  15. If its Delboys birthday today, Happy 😊 birthday to you Delboy have a lovely day 😊🤩🥂🍾🍺🍻 cheers to you.

      1. I hope you’ve had a lovely day, birthday’s are so important 🎶 as time goes by 🎶. 😊

    2. That's just rude and unnecessary. Disagree by all means, rant, shout, wail but stop this sort of petulance.

      2. Yo Mr Grizz

        I know, all the Bars have photties of you in the windows, praising you as their No 1 Customer, or is it Consumer

        1. I doubt it. I’ve visited the place no more than four times. Mostly as a cadet member of the St John’s Ambulance Brigade in the 1960s.

          My last trip was for no other reason than to pass through en route to Gibraltar Point to do some birdwatching.

      3. At least you know what you're missing – I have never visited the place!

    1. A very Happy Birthday to you, Del! Hope you have a wonderful day! 🎂🥂🍷🎉🍺

        1. Happy Birthday, Delboy! Hope it's the best yet, and there's many more to come!

    6. Grattis på födelsedagen, Del, from a fellow gubbe. Hope you are well and enjoying a wonderful day.😊🎂👍🏻🥂

      1. Reposted from last night, Delboy:

        " Have a happy, happy day, Delman, followed by 364 happy unbirthdays".

          1. Better than i was thanks for asking. The blood thinners have done the trick and i can walk the dogs around the park without pain. Thank goodness.

            I did get rather breathless when we had that really hot weather but i just need to pace myself better.

            How about you?

          2. Latest painkillers are helping but I can't walk without a stick so far.
            Edit: I can't walk very far either.

      4. Many happy returns. Your longevity gives us youngsters something to aim for…

  21. 390172+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    ENGLAND, we have a problem,

    Rochdale or any one of the similar paedophile ridden towns could very well be the English equivalent of the Alamo.

    We have just got to be world leaders in self inflicted damage to our own kind from cradle, to currently, in a great many cases premature graves, via the polling booths.

    Dt

    Policing Britain is fast becoming impossible
    It’s right that incidents are investigated. But we should worry how many ordinary officers are demoralised

    I would consider it to be a wise move for bona fide English people police to police England, diversity should not enter the equation.

    2. Politicians lack spine and courage ..

      The British are becoming too hybrid and where is our famous GROWL hiding?

      Morning Ogga .

    3. No, policing is still very possible. The problem is the Left won't let the police do their job and actively encourage them to ignore the criminality, violence and thuggery of the muslim.

    4. …and what is plod doing about it? Dressing up in 'Pride' uniforms. Small wonder I've no trust in them.

  22. I d wonder whether we'll ever get the whole story about the Manchesterstan slammers. What was the "car park pay machine" incident? How did the WPC get her nose broken? Was it by any of the slammers "greeting" their tired mother? Who was the "white man" that shoved the slammer woman on the plane?

    How come one of the "victims" is a Pakistani citizen? Why is he living in Englistan?

    So many questions. So few answers.

    1. Of course, they're mostly slammers, determined that we embrace Sharia and become a Caliphate.

        1. That is the truly mystifying thing. Although, by and large, there is a white majority in government, civil service , press and TV etc – they seem to WANT to turn the country into an islamic state.

          Quite beyond me why at least SOME of them might speak out….

          1. Infiltration of the senior levels by Common Purpose members who keep everyone else in line. LEADING BEYOND AUTHORITY is their mantra and it works.

          4. The Common Purpose people are not Islamists but promote anything to cause general mayhem and the breakdown of Western society out of which their pure Marxism will arise.

            Don't worry Bill, you and I will both be long dead.

    3. The state doesn't like to give the full story as that doesn't suit the narrative. That must remain muslim good, plod bad.

  23. The EU’s most infuriating rule is still making our lives a misery
    While we are no longer tethered to Brussels, we’re still tied to their plastic bottles
    ISABEL OAKESHOTT https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/07/26/eu-most-infuriating-rule-is-still-making-our-lives-a-misery/

    I made the same point as Ms Oakeshott on this forum some weeks ago.

    I posted this BTL under the article in today's DT

    We live in France and these politically correct bottles with umbilical cords attached to their caps are driving us mad.

    Take a knife with a sharp point and remove the plastic umbilical cord from both the cap and the bottle and use kitchen scissors to trim and while you are doing this vent your fury by cursing the damnable EU and the great Net Zero Con and the small-minded bureaucrats who take sadistic delight in interfering with our domestic lives with such absurdities.

    2. P.S. Be careful not to cut yourself as you do so. I did so once and this justified me cursing the meddling small-minded little nerds at the top of my voice and with even less restraint in the words I used to curse them.

    3. And then, comically, because we are forbidden by the EU from producing a certain amount of waste we pack all these bottles into a shipping container, post it to Africa where they kindly send us a certificate and tip the lot into the sea.

      We then clean it up again.

      I suppose there's an irony. We send them our waste, they send us theirs.

  24. Good morning. GPs have contributed to bringing the system to the verge of collapse. Many are now nothing more than overpaid part time call centre workers prescribing dangerous drugs to patients they’ve never seen and taking bribes from pharmaceutical companies.

    1. Good morning Sue:-) I think GPs were already working their way to that system pre-virus, Lockdowns brought it forward to being the norm it now is. Our practice is now a Limited Company, owning the large stone built Victorian house they work in, including the pharmacy. Many appointments are now by phone. The NP is excellent. The Director (previously senior GP post) plugs his electric Jaguar in the point meant for the pharmacy delivery chap's van. During lockdown, it was of course locked down – people queued in the rain for a couple of hours, snake-like to get their prescriptions, place was locked and patients let in one at a time. I don't think this was unusual practise UK wide.

      1. I keep away from our practice but they've been good to my OH. They seem to have had a considerable turnover of staff lately though.

        1. Similar here. Diabetic Nurse seems to work hard, she has a number of patients. GPs continue to be conspicuous by their absence.

          1. Most of our GPS are part time. Three day weeks seem to be the norm. You never see the same one twice. When my husband’s illness was emerging I would go with him and we had no complaints at the way he was treated.

          2. It is the lack of continuity that gets me. For the first 30 years I lived here, I always saw the same GP. He knew all about me, my various ailments my hypochondria etc. Then the sod retired!

            Now – on the rare occasions that I DO see a GP – I have to start from scratch – while he looks at the screen. And he will always call me by the wrong Christian name….

          4. Practice is very near to hospital, sometimes advised to go there instead, which is always busy and the pharmacy too. Good to read about your husband’s treatment. I’ve read a number of trainee doctors go to work in other countries when they’ve qualified, perhaps that explains seeing different ones – possibly agency GP’s?

          5. A lot of ours are locums. I was refused a repeat prescription, but had a telephone "consultation" with a doctor I'd never met or consulted before (I have never seen the same GP twice in the years since the practices were combined). He allowed me the prescription, saying "I'm a locum, I daresay we'll get away with it!".

          6. Good grief…we have a Nurse Practitioner, very experienced. I usually phone him first. When I started with sciatica, I sorted it out myself with certain exercises. He phoned to ask how I was doing, when I told him he said ‘Thank God for that, all I can do is give you painkillers, physio appt list is 6 to 8 months’. I think they give out tablets too easily, have been in the surgery and noticed the odd chap wandering in, suited booted and obviously a rep. Dr sees him pdq before patients.

          8. We’d expect that I think, they need everyday experience to know what happens in a GP practice. And then they move on, others take their place. The nurses are always good, I find. Our NP a good man, been there quite a while.

        2. I have almost given up with my GP’s practice along with most of our health care system.

          Only 10 days ago we went to see a physio for Mrs VVOF who has just had a shoulder operation to repair a torn tendon. The physio gave her three exercises to do and to come back at the start of next month. Earlier this week she had a follow up appointment with the consultant and when she told him what exercises she was given he told her not to do any of them, it would cause stress on the wound, and gave her completely different exercises.

          If they can’t decide what is required for what is a standard run of the mill repair job then I despair.

          2. My OH snapped a shoulder tendon playing tennis five years ago. The surgeon repaired it. He said it could go the same way if he was not careful. He was still playing tennis and he managed to damage it again going for a volley. So she will need to take care.

          3. It seems the recovery period is quite a while and I am now the house husband in charge.
            Mrs VVOF will have to be careful in future, once washing, ironing etc is enough🤣

      2. Your's and Sue's comment just contribute to my distrust of the NHS (and plod).

        1. Sorry to spoil the start to your day, SirJ…here’s a smile for you :-))) hope you had a good sleep..

          1. Thank you for the smile, Kate. No sleep, restless 4 hours trying, and up at 04:00. Heigh-ho!

          2. Most welcome, very sorry to read about restless night. I hope you don’t use your mble phone when you’re trying to sleep. ..blue light etc. I once knew someone who didn’t sleep well, used to get up and do her housework and sometimes cook next day’s dinner.

          3. It’s only there for the 05:45 alarm. Do all that as well, Kate, but I’m not so nimble. I have to leave a lot to my cleaner/carer on Tuesdays.

      3. Reading the comments below Kate it appears I am very lucky with my local practice. Ring for an appointment – you get asked when would you like to come. If you want a telephone appt the doc will ring you at the appointed time. Turn up for an appointment and your are seen at that time. Repeat prescriptions are phoned in and delivered to the village hall where you pick them up (the pharmacy is 12 miles away). Can't fault our practice at all

        1. It is as you imply, "patchy". Ours are fine if, but only if, you can get past the dragons in order to see one.

        2. That sounds exactly like it should work, Alec – pleased to read it:-) Ours has improved post-lockdown, thankfully. Notice a some detail creeping in to MSM re new virus, taking that with extra large pinch of salt. Carl Heneghan always a good read, he’ll say what’s what.

        3. How many patients are on the books? Before my Practice amalgamated with two others they had 22,000. It's even worse now.

          3. I'm in the same boat. My practice closed down and was amalgamated with one that already had three practices combined. It's a nightmare.

    2. Morning Sue ,

      Yep , and all they do is fiddle with their laptops , never look you in the eye and diagnose via their own Nh's self check symptom list .. usually locums .

      They seem to be so anti touch and feel .. and bored .

      My local vet practise is more hands on with my dog , but I guess that is what I am paying a high wodge of money for .

      1. Doctors are paid the same. The difference is their overheads and training come at no cost to them.

        Mongo has the same vet since he was a puppy. The fellow specifically reads up on giant breed dogs. Yes, the bill is close to £100 a time for a routine appointment but I can trust he knows what he's looking for. He talked me through a specific artery that can get twisted by the dog's hips and despite a short yelp from his nibs he found that it had kinked slightly and straightened it, long before it caused any problems.

        All that knowledge, expertise and training costs money. I'm not pleading for them to be paid more, but the difference GPs bang on about and the host of things they proclaim to be doing every other business has to as well.

    2. There are weak, stupid people who lapped this up. They love the statist control covid imposed. They loved forcing people how to behave. They liked the dictatorial arrogance.

      These are the people willingly, desperately bellowing in the 5 minute hate. They want this. They're the most dangerous, ignorant, stupid, spiteful folk going. They are the permanent O'Brien, eager to do anything to get their way, to force others to conform – and they're everywhere.

    3. Were the screens made of transparent latex rubber by Durex in order to increase sensitivity?

      1. 390172+ up ticks,

        Afternoon JR,

        Sorry to disappoint you I do believe that to be one of the saner actions.

      2. The Labourites who voted against Starmer's King's Speech provision to keep 2 brat cap on Child Benefit so causing a split in the Party (from the left, Naz Shah?, Rebecca Long-Bailey, John MacDonald)…+ brat3 with begging bowl.

        2. Apparently there was a double entendre when a hospital in one of the Carry On films was called Long Hampton!

          Hampton Wick gives us the cockney rhyme derived from Hampton – I wonder what a long bailey would be?

        3. It is not a 2 brat cap on child benefit but a cap on universal credit so that having more than 2 children doesn’t lead to more and more of that being paid. I have to admit that I thought it was a child benefit cap but was put right on this by someone with 3 small children and have checked the DWP web page. Child benefit is still paid for as many kids as you have.

          1. In my view, that should stop. If you can't afford children, don't have them. It isn't as though you have to pay for contraception. Two is replacement. If they're serious about saving the planet (although we know they aren't, all they're interested in is making money out of the climate change scam) they'd be limiting the growth of population.

      3. The Labourites who voted against Starmer's King's Speech provision to keep 2 brat cap on Child Benefit so causing a split in the Party (from the left, Naz Shah?, Rebecca Long-Bailey, John MacDonald)…+ brat3 with begging bowl.

      4. The Labourites who voted against Starmer's King's Speech provision to keep 2 brat cap on Child Benefit so causing a split in the Party (from the left, Naz Shah?, Rebecca Long-Bailey, John MacDonald)…+ brat3 with begging bowl.

  28. Wallace and Gromit rolled out their pimped-up Gas Board in a word salad

    “RUNCORN, as anyone who has taken the train to Liverpool Lime Street knows, is a place pregnant with possibility. Hoping to suck up a little of the Mersey magic this week were none other than Wallace and Gromit.
    Sorry, that should read Sir Keir Starmer and Ed Miliband.
    The Energy Secretary and quondam Labour leader himself does genuinely look as if he might have been modelled by Aardman Animations. Less explored is the fact that Sir Keir has more than an air of Gromit, the terminally-disappointed, selfappointed brains of the operation plasticine dog, about him.
    They were here to launch one of the flagship policies of the Labour manifesto: Great British Energy.
    It’s a grandiose but faintly ridiculous title for a pimped-up Gas Board.
    It sounds either like something a Bond villain would run or the sort of failing institution Kenneth Williams might manage in a lost Carry On film about the three-day week – Carry On Up The Picket. More likely, alas, given Labour’s current intellectual hinterland, they nabbed the title from the great moral evil of our time – The Great British Bake Off, which stalks our national life, infecting everything it touches with twee.
    Wallace teed things off. He was tasked with describing what Great Bake Off Energy would actually do.
    Instead, we got a world salad delivered through the nose: “We will deliver ambitions”, “we will act equal to the challenge”, “scaling up community energy through a local power plan”. It was the syntactical equivalent of sniffing glue. If you wanted to know whether, as promised time and time again, your energy bills will come down, hard cheese.
    In lieu of actually useful information like where and when they intend to build new power plants, Ed was all about “ensuring a just transition for our oil and gas communities”. Who can tell what any of this permanent non-speak really means?
    I suspect, actually, it means exactly what it sounds like: meaningless managerial voodoo. Speaking of which, it was over to Gromit, who began by revealing a little known fact about his father’s profession.
    “As the media will know,” he announced, “my dad was a toolmaker”.
    Two people in hi-vis jackets behind him shared a side-eyed glance.
    They will presumably be neutralised by MI5 later today for mocking the background of our glorious leader.
    He complained of inheriting the “worst set of circumstances since the Second World War” – worse than 2010, worse even than Labour’s 1974 inheritance which was swiftly followed by a visit to the IMF. For someone who says he’ll be getting on with the act of government, he does an awful lot of complaining about the last one. “When the Conservative Party cut investment…” he moaned, literally wagging his finger. Indeed, there is something of the non-conformist preacher about much of Starmer’s rhetoric.
    He lamented “the rot of shortsightedness and self-service that has weakened the foundations of our country”. The fact that he has imported a speechwriter from that other master of nasal hectoring, Justin Welby, is beginning to show.
    At times it was like an AI version of The Pilgrim’s Progress.
    In the midst of the Slough of Despond, Wallace and Gromit appear to have dropped their election pledge to cut energy bills by £300.
    When people are doing their best to say nothing, it normally suggests there’s something they’re keen to hide.
    The gobbledygook was not, alas, limited to Runcorn. Over in the Commons, Joe Powell, one of Labour’s new legion of MPS, asked about upping “ambition in the implementation of the procurement act so we have the data, the skills and the digital tools to drive a more mission-driven and economically transformative procurement across the Government”.
    There we go, Great British Energy bakers: your technical challenge for this week is to work out what the hell any of that means.”

    1. "Transformative processes to meet the developing needs of our practical user base expectations going forward."

      Another howler was

      "To identify efficiencies in a practical non confrontational operationally specific methodology of changing technology base going forward."

      "Adapt and respond to the growing demand for data storage in a challenging and specific environment using AI to develop opportunities going forward that allow progress and ownership along project specific outcomes of operational structure.. going forward."

      I've no idea what any of these mean and I have exaggerated them slightly, but they're the dogwaffle outpourings of very high level managers I heard recently. The only bit I didn't exaggerate was the 'going forward'. So busy going forward are they that nothing is moving.

      I asked what they meant. No one really knew. Someone thought it was 'tell people o produce less data' or 'nothing's changed on the project'.

      It is a singular failure of people to speak plainly and accept that absolutely nothing positive is being done. It is a screaming indication of the state's last desperate attempt to grip water.

      The Left have long wanted to control and ration energy. That's what 'British energy' will be doing. It isn't for you, it's for them. A far simpler solution is for Milioaf to announce the building of five more gas power stations, fracking and the building of 100 container sized micro nuclear stations around the country. But he won't. He is wasting our money on a control system – because that's what he understands.

    2. Runcorn. I set off to go to a meeting there years ago and never managed to find my way to the hall; after I'd been round the same piece of ring road three times I gave up and went home.

  29. Good morning Geoff,

    This wonderful facility must be eight / nine years old now?

    Wow, and what fun you have provided .

    Through all the appalling personal difficulties you have had to confront , we are all so appreciative of you rising 😉 and 😊shining early in the morning to open the forum xxx

  30. Government figures are published by the OBR. Any idiot can read them, journalists don't, so called 'amateurs' writing substacks and blogs providing analysis that is so far in excess of 'media' outpourings do.

    If these people, in their 'amateur' approaches can identify hundreds of billions in savings and present entirely different, far lower tax, higher revenue systems why can the government not, and simply say 'oh well,, you'll have to pay more, for ever less'?

  31. G'morning all,

    A bright start to the day over McPhee Towers, wind in the West, 14℃ rising to 20℃ later.

    Too busy domestically to get excited about anything right now. See y'all later.

  32. G'morning all,

    A bright start to the day over McPhee Towers, wind in the West, 14℃ rising to 20℃ later.

    Too busy domestically to get excited about anything right now. See y'all later.

  33. France's rail network hit by 'massive arson attack' delaying Eurostar trains hours before Paris Olympics opening ceremony. 26 July 2024.

    France has been hit with a series of “coordinated malicious acts”, said Transport Minister Patrice Vergriete, pointing to series of fires.

    They were focused on the TGV high speed train network which covers the whole of France, and which is particularly busy at this time of year.

    Is “coordinated malicious attacks” code for Muzzie sabotage?

    https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/france-trains-arson-attacks-paris-olympics-eurostar-sncf-b1173030.html

      1. Morning Phizzee. I was surprised that she used that term and didn't blame the Russians.

        1. Good morning. By blaming the Russians for everything even with no evidence it distracts from finding the real culprits.

      2. Hallo Pip! See my remark above about WW3 and drivel. The same criteria applies to anything blaming Russia. It will be slobbering twaddle.

    1. Philip’s humour might well be an acquired taste, but at least he hasn’t (yet) developed the terminal curmudgeonliness that some seem to be imbued with.

  35. French railways sabotaged in ‘massive arson attack’ hours before Olympics begins – follow latest
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/07/26/france-trains-sabotage-olympics/

    Trouble is that if you give the Ropers enough rope with which to hang themselves they will use their knives and machetes to cut them!

    I now wonder if the world has become so multicultural and diverse that great meetings for sporting events will soon become impossible to police and impossible to stage. If, as many expect, these Olympic Games turn out to be a catastrophe then I wonder if they will be the last games ever held and the Olympic Dream of harmony between nations will be dead forever.

    BTL

    We all know whence the main problem comes. But as the MSM and the PTB are complicit in having allowed this to develop over the years so we have reached a point where they cannot and do anything about it and it is probably too late – we are truly lost.

  36. The GP system has been unwinding slowly over many years and now seems to be in an accelerated decline. Unfortunately, all this was eminently foreseeable by those of us who have observed the trends in societal attitudes and expectations and understood how real people behave.
    1. We started with a service in which (mostly male) GPs ran a practice that was more or less their whole life and their whole identity. Often run from their house, they were on call 24/7 and knew almost all their patients. Their wife took the calls and was effectively an unpaid receptionist. Some patients were feckless, difficult and demanding of the ‘free’ service but most respected the doctor and their behaviour was conditioned by the experience of having grown up without the expectation of everything being free or the expectation that life could be prolonged indefinitely. Complaints were incredibly rare;
    2. The Royal College of GPs was formed and – very sensibly – aspired to improve standards by introducing an element of postgraduate training so that doctors couldn’t just get registered one day and become a GP the next or couldn’t morph seamlessly from being a failed surgeon to a GP without any experience of paediatrics, gynaecology or psychiatry (the Doc Martin model is a complete anachronism);
    3. The Royal College started to get ideas above its station. Docs went through being required to do a GP training year through being required to do 2 years of hospital jobs plus the training year to being also required to pass the MRCGP exam (earner for the college) and – by the noughties – to having to present loads of guff about reflective learning etc etc rather than learning on the job and being just passed by their trainer as competent;
    4. The NHS funding model required restriction of the number of GP partners (as each partner attracted a basic allowance) by the state so -in the early 80s – the increasing number of newly qualified doctors who wanted to go into General Practice couldn’t get a job and went into something else. That was inevitably followed by some rebound and the next cohort (qualifying around 1990) had a relatively easy path into getting a partnership.
    5. Meanwhile society changed with the rise of complaint culture, fostered by Major as an alternative to properly funding the service and then put on steroids by Blair as a control mechanism using Shipman as his pretext. Younger doctors were brought up to believe they were owed a good work-life balance and lost the culture of being always available, thanks to EU restrictions on working hours. This was accentuated by increasing numbers of females in the profession. Virtue signalling followed exposure of some prejudice in job appointments (those with foreign names less likely to get jobs) and over-corrected to the point where a white male with a British sounding name would be discriminated against.
    6. Then came the ultimate destructive influence – the New Labour GP contract. The old fat cats who formed the BMA’s negotiating committee were in clover as were the 1990 cohort who had become partners. Suddenly they lost responsibility for 24/7 cover and divorcing the payments from the number of partners meant they could subcontract to younger doctors who didn’t get a share of the profit. That suited many newly qualified GPs who didn’t want to commit to a partnership but those that did were frozen out in the process.
    7.The cultural trajectory continued apace so that new doctors saw themselves as free-lancers with no automatic connection to a community of patients and an over-riding responsibility to themselves. Ultimately they worked out that they could earn double by becoming a ‘locum’ (even if it was always in the same practice) than as a ‘salaried doctor’ . They felt no embarrassment about this because a) they had big debts from medical school and faced major costs if they wanted to buy a house; and b) they knew that the rump of ‘partners’ who employed them were often getting much, much more than they had been prepared to pay salaried doctors eg £200K per year while paying someone £80K to see the patients.
    8. Once ‘austerity’ started and practices found they were not getting rises in payments that were adequate to sustain this model, the ordure began to really hit the fan. Practices suddenly wanted to recruit partners but the younger GPs weren’t buying it, especially as they didn’t want to start buying into premises whose value had soared with the property boom.
    9. The solution proposed was to substitute doctors with a motley collection of people who had some sort of scientific degree but no clinical training or qualification. Moreover the general debasement of standards for university means that many of these people are way below the intellectual standard required for having an in-depth grasp of medicine. So, ultimately, the RCGP’s increasing restrictive practice model (see 2 and 3 above) came back to bite it on the posterior just as New Labour’s GP contract (aimed IMHO at enabling their friends in the big corporates to take over practices – something now shown to be a disaster) has ultimately landed Wes Streeting with an unholy mess. Sadly, it has also landed the patient with the dubious privilege of having a ‘pharmacy technician’ armed with a check-list being tasked with evaluating complex medical issues.

    1. "divorcing the payments from the number of partners". Should 'partners' be patients?

      I read the other day that over 55% of the total number of GPs work part time. Whoever 'negotiated' the GPs' new contract had never studied economics and the supply curve of labour which postulates as income rises fewer hours tend to be worked.

      A fairly good summary of how we have reached the present position.

      1. No it shouldn’t be patients in this context. The old model was that a practice received a basic practice allowance per partner plus capitation fees for the number of patients (with those varying a bit according to age profile) plus a few item of service payments eg a fee for giving family planning advice or for doing minor surgical procedures. The basic practice allowance was quite a substantial part of the global sum so the NHS admin bodies (variously changing their names across the years eg FHSA, FPC, PCT,) restricted the numbers of partners. The key changes in the New Labour contract were to abolish responsibility for out of hours cover and to abolish the basic practice allowance so that non GPs could become partners. Some practices actually made their practice manager a partner because being at the top of your game for ticking boxes on the various returns to central command became a major requirement if you wanted your practice to be profitable – this was all aided by computerisation of records. It also meant that a big corporate could take over a practice with no requirement for a doctor to be part of the command structure.

      2. Yes the income allowance penalises those who work hard and earn good money.

      1. More an outsider looking in as I was in the group who couldn’t get a partnership in the early 80s so did something else for a long time. I retrained in the noughties and worked in GP as a salaried doctor for a brief period when money was flowing in to the system but I could see that the seeds of destruction had been sown.

          1. Well it ministers to my vanity that I can say ‘I told you so’ but that is scant comfort really.

    1. Societal/cultural trends plus the venality that has always been with us, and always will be.

      1. I remember, as a child, being thrilled to discover that the bridge was named after an actual Mr Bailey! In Egypt (just outside Ismailia) the Royal Engineers placed a Bailey Bridge over the Sweet Water Canal during the war. I went back there 50 years later the bridge was still there – in daily use!

        There is now a modern bridge.

        1. I'm sure you realise that the unsurpassable NoTTler expert on all matters concerning Bailey bridges is Bob of Bonsall.

  39. I thought she was a bit mad. If you’ve tried everything re sleep I wouldn’t worry, I think many of us sleep less as we age. Just the way you are. Hope your cleaner/carer is a good ‘un….:-)

  40. World War Three is closer than anyone dare admit. Samuel Ramani 26 July 2024.

    As Joe Biden’s presidency enters its lame-duck phase, America’s adversaries are on an escalation course. On Wednesday, the US and Canada intercepted Russian Tu-95 and Chinese H-6 bombers in international airspace near Alaska. Concerningly, it was the first time Russian and Chinese jets were intercepted during a joint Arctic exercise.

    The possibility of Russia and China carrying out a provocation of this kind was always there. In May 2019, then US secretary of state Mike Pompeo blasted Russia’s “illegitimate claims” in the Arctic and warned China against using its self-professed status as a near-Arctic power to muscle into the region. The Pentagon’s 2024 Arctic security report, which was published just two days before this escalation, warned of enhanced Sino-Russian cooperation in the Arctic and Russia’s potential to jam GPS satellites in the region.

    This guy, despite the sophistry, is an out and out warmonger. The aircraft mentioned were not “provocations” but standard procedures throughout the world for those having the resources to carry them out. I no longer have any doubts that the Globalists acting through their proxies are intent on war with Russia and China. We may still, with a bit of luck, have a couple of years left, but have no doubt, Armageddon is on its way.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/07/25/world-war-three-is-closer-than-anyone-dares-admit/

    2. Nuclear war between NATO against Russia, China and North Korea: what better way to remove whitey from the planet?

      The thickos don't realise that it will probably remove everyone else too.

    3. Rule of thumb Araminta. If a header has WW3 in it, it is by default a story consisting of drivel.

  41. World War Three is closer than anyone dare admit. Samuel Ramani 26 July 2024.

    As Joe Biden’s presidency enters its lame-duck phase, America’s adversaries are on an escalation course. On Wednesday, the US and Canada intercepted Russian Tu-95 and Chinese H-6 bombers in international airspace near Alaska. Concerningly, it was the first time Russian and Chinese jets were intercepted during a joint Arctic exercise.

    The possibility of Russia and China carrying out a provocation of this kind was always there. In May 2019, then US secretary of state Mike Pompeo blasted Russia’s “illegitimate claims” in the Arctic and warned China against using its self-professed status as a near-Arctic power to muscle into the region. The Pentagon’s 2024 Arctic security report, which was published just two days before this escalation, warned of enhanced Sino-Russian cooperation in the Arctic and Russia’s potential to jam GPS satellites in the region.

    This guy, despite the sophistry, is an out and out warmonger. The aircraft mentioned were not “provocations” but standard procedures throughout the world for those having the resources to carry them out. I no longer have any doubts that the Globalists acting through their proxies are intent on war with Russia and China. We may still, with a bit of luck, have a couple of years left, but have no doubt, Armageddon is on its way.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/07/25/world-war-three-is-closer-than-anyone-dares-admit/

  43. Edgy-but-safe Leftie "comedian" Russell Howard:
    ‘Trump didn’t act presidential when he was shot – it was like he was at a Blackpool hen do’

    and didn't the audience laugh..

      1. Not familier with him. Is he another one of those BBC people? I have noticed that the BBC "comedians" can be distinguished from real comedians by their total lack of humor or much else associated with comedy.

    2. Should he have just slumped and died, like JFK, just to please the 'comic'?

      1. Russell Howard wouldn’t know comedy if it bopped him on the nose. A complete humour-free nonentity.

          3. That was me – then. Started aged 10 when my father gave me my first cigarette. Mother used to give me 20 Players to take to boarding school. I smoked like a chimney until 23 October 1968 – the day I gave up. Never smoked anything since.

          4. I am still addicted to cigarettes which is why I haven't smoked one since 31st December 1987. However I am not addicted to pipe tobacco so I smoke the occasional thoughtful pipe when my sister-in-law gives me a tin of pipe tobacco for Christmas.

  46. Good Morning all! Lovely day in West Sussex, the high is going to be 21 in English 70f. and it is sunny.

    I watched, as most of you have, I'm sure, the sight of the Islamic thugs outside Rochdale police station threatening mob justice. I was reminded of an incident in Libya. The Suez crisis was at its hight and all the British soldiers in our camp at Al Khums had been provided with loaded guns. The mob screaming bloody murder appeared at the gates which, normally wide open, had been shut. My stepfather walked out of a side gate, put himself right in front of the main gate with gun drawn and shouted: "Right, who's first?" That did it. The Arabs did not like confronting my father because he was well known in town. He fixed things, shall we say, a friend of the police chief and the mayor, he supplied them with, amongst other things, illegal stuff in an Islamic society, boxes of booze to name one item. So insurrection was nipped in the bud, many apologies from the Arabs and they all melted away.

    In Rochdale the policemen were hiding in the station which, as any one knows about that sort of situation merely emboldens the crowd. They should have come out, lined up outside the station in full riot gear with batons and guns and shields up. Then their chief should have knocked the ringleader off his perch and dragged him into the station for inciting a riot. It is decisive action that stops this sort of behaviour.

    I am not a joiner. I paid dues to UKIP but that is about it in 75 years, no other organization. But watching that joke take place in Rochdale I put aside my reservations of which I have many and this morning paid my dues to Reform UK and to the Free Speech Union. As individuals we can do very little but as a group we can end up doing a great deal. I want to encourage everyone to join something because I think a storm is coming and, it appears to me, that it is coming much quicker than I imagined. I thought years but now I'm thinking it is going to be anytime.

    1. "It is decisive action that stops this sort of behaviour." – spot on, Johnathan, you are absolutely right. My Father, too, had a taste of it, preventing the Nigerian Army coming on to campus to shoot rioting students – after the Nigerian top staff had run away.

      1. Frankly, if I had been the chief in Rochdale I would have shot the bar stewart in the leg or some such. But now……

  47. STARMER EYES TIGHTER EU TIES AS GERMANY PUSHES FOR SWEEPING SECURITY PACT

    European politicians are already pouncing on Starmer’s obvious bid to tighten the UK’s ties with the EU. Germany’s ambassador to the UK, Miguel Berger, has come out saying that London and Brussels should ink a massive security pact, encompassing everything from farming regulations to the Erasmus student exchange programme. Starmer’s pursuit of an EU-UK defence pact is clearly about more than just ‘defence’…

    Berger’s call for cooperation on “areas which are in the common interest” signals that closer ties are imminent. This isn’t just idle chat. Foreign Secretary David Lammy has already said that Starmer’s proposed UK-EU defence pact should cover pandemics, migration, critical minerals, and decarbonisation. Starmer can expect that brokering a student-exchange deal while migration numbers soar will ruffle plenty of feathers among MPs. Ever on the path to re-join…

  48. ANNOUNCEMENT

    May I assure my many admirers that I am not running for leadership of the Tory Party as I haven't been a member for several years

  51. Apropos the discussion of yesterday (that I missed) on the pros and cons of the Welsh singing voice — where comments for and against the respective voices of Katherine Jenkins, Tom Jones, Bryn Terfel and others; I was surprised that no one mentioned the utter appalling squawking of Mary Hopkin!

    When that strident woman was attacking my eardrums ad infinitum, ad nauseam, in the late 1960s, I could seemingly never reach the radio quickly enough to switch off the cacophonous noise.

    Strangely (no doubt some will say), one Welsh voice I do appreciate is that of Kelly Jones, lead singer of The Stereophonics, whose gravelly tones are much more listenable than those of the plastic Jock, Rod Stewart.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51GuG6N2qHE

    1. 'Sailing" by Rod Stewart, cannot be beaten

      I was on the Ark Royal when they made the TV prog.

      1. I prefer the original version of that song, written by and sung by The Sutherland Brothers (Iain and Gavin).

          3. Er … I am aware of that, Pet. I've had the Sutherland Brothers and Quiver album for half a century, bonnie lass.

          7. The tie up between the Sutherland Brothers and Quiver was in 1973, the year after they released the original ‘Sailing’.

    2. What about Bonnie Tyler – the woman who, after having had an operation to remove the nodules in her throat in 1977 – then became a female Rod Stewart who added gravel from the Welsh Valleys to the mixture when she wanted to gargle?

      (Compare her pre op voice in Lost in France with post op voice in Total Eclipse of the Heart)

      Just to tease you here is your nemesis:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnxTT7XXMPA

      1. You didn't tease me because I didn't watch (or listen to) the appalling drivel. As for Bonnie Tyler, I like her but simply didn't have the time to write about every Welsh songster or chanteuse.

        I also like the voice of James Dean Bradfield of The Manic Street Preachers.

    3. What about Tom Jones then hah! Being a nice person I will not inflict you with a video of the Las Vegas Lizard.

      1. What about Tom Jones? I did mention him.

        I personally don't have an issue with Mr Woodward and have quite enjoyed a number of his early songs. The Young New Mexican Puppeteer is quite listenable.

  53. Oh dear, tell me about it. I've been in that unhappy position too, in other areas. It is as you say, scant comfort.

    I remember a GP I went to see a good twenty plus years ago who was supposed to be checking some minor thing I had but instead we spent about 10-mins chewing the fat over much of what you're talking about instead. His closing statements were, "well, when they come complaining about it to me I shall sit in my garden with a crate of champagne at my side and a shotgun across my lap shooting the buggers as they come over the fence." I guess he's in 'I told you so mode today, too".

  54. Has Putin struck the Olympics? Fears Moscow is behind 'coordinated, massive arson attack' on French railways affecting 800,000 passengers after Russian 'spy' who 'vowed to give the Games an opening like no other' was arrested
     https://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/index.html

    I am beginning to wonder whether the whole point of the the Ukraine War is to have a scapegoat to distract our attention from the RoP:

    When anything goes wrong – BLAME THE RUSSIANS!

    1. Hamas issued a statement last week that they would attack France during the Games. The damage to the TGV network was very carefully planned – all the hallmarks of a military type operation.

      Just saying…

    2. I don't think it fools the general population though, Rastus. Given a choice about who is the enemy, Russia or Islam? The overwhelming vote would be against Islam.

  55. Don't rush to judgement on the Manchester Airport police video

    Jawad Iqbal

    The Spectator – 25 July 2024, 4:47pm

    A video of an armed police officer kicking and stamping on a man's head has plunged Greater Manchester Police (GMP), the country's second largest force, into crisis. The incident at Manchester Airport on Tuesday night has led to widespread condemnation. Protestors have gathered outside Rochdale police station, with some in the crowd chanting: 'GMP shame on you'.

    An officer has been suspended and the force has referred itself to the policing watchdog, the Independent Office for Police Conduct. Feelings are understandably running high locally, but investigators must be allowed time to assess the available evidence before the rush to judgment.

    The footage showed a uniformed officer holding a Taser over a man lying on the floor before kicking him twice as his colleagues shout at onlookers to stand back. In the clip, a man can be heard shouting 'stop kicking people'.

    Significantly, the events preceding this scene were not included in the video that went viral. The force itself acknowledged that the footage circulating online was 'truly shocking', but added that firearms officers had been subjected to a 'violent assault' while trying to make an arrest. They were taken to hospital for treatment. A female officer suffered a broken nose. Four men were later arrested on suspicion of assault and affray; all have since been bailed.

    Reaction to the events has been swift. Reform MP Lee Anderson said on X/Twitter: 'The vast majority of decent Brits would applaud this type of policing. We are sick of the namby pamby approach. Time to back our boys in blue.'

    But Anderson is mistaken to think that most Brits are automatically on the police's side. Multiple recent scandals have rocked the public's faith in policing.

    Anderson is not the only one who is wide of the mark when it comes to jumping to conclusions. Dal Babu, a former chief superintendent in the Metropolitan Police, said he thought that racism had 'played a significant part' in the incident. What evidence does he have to make such a claim? Not enough. Only the independent investigators have all the video footage, including police bodyworn video and CCTV images. Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, made a telling remark. He said his initial reaction on seeing the footage was that it was 'very disturbing', but after looking at the 'full footage' the situation was 'not clear cut'. That surely is the point. The investigators should be allowed to do their job and come to their findings based on all the facts. A few – admittedly very disturbing – images doing the rounds online are insufficient grounds on which to reach definitive conclusions.

    This controversy could not have come at a worse time for Stephen Watson, the chief constable of Greater Manchester Police. Just days ago, an independent report concluded that vulnerable women in custody were unnecessarily strip-searched, denied period products and treated like 'meat' by police officers. The report found officers were 'using their power unwisely, unnecessarily, and sometimes unlawfully'.

    GMP was placed in special measures between 2020 and 2022 after inspectors found the force had failed to record a fifth of all reported crimes. Yet Watson has attracted praise for his back-to-basics approach which appeared to be bearing fruit: arrests are up, crime down and more investigations solved. This latest furore means he now has his work cut out rebuilding trust in the force.

    The policing watchdog has confirmed that it is investigating the level of force used in the airport incident and that its inquiry will be 'thorough and robust'. It must also be swift in publishing its findings. Until then, everyone else would be wise to keep their counsel.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/dont-rush-to-judgement-on-the-manchester-airport-police-video/

    Perhaps Mr Iqbal is the Spectator's tame towelhead but he makes a point. I think perhaps half an apology is also due to Burnham. His 'wait and see' comment was not included in the BBC report I featured here yesterday. No surprise there…

    1. Do I have any faith in the police? No. I have even less support or good will toward the muslim. Considering the terrorist atrocities they have caused the police were right to take extreme measures.

      As for the media – they never tell the whole truth because they've a narrative to sell and, increasingly, even the ones you hope to rely on to be impartial intentionally choose not to be, playing on the previous respect.

      1. I have faith in the police who are armed. They are far more like the old police used to be. The modern police are Nancy boys, to use an old but illustrative term that fits the absurd little turds to a tee.

        2. I think that Arthur Ransome would have been 'appalled' to hear that Nancy is now a term meaning effeminate.

          His character, Ruth Blackett, a tomboy in the Swallows and Amazons series of books, had to be a ruthless Amazon pirate so she dropped the name Ruth for the name Nancy in order to sound more swashbuckling.

          1. Agreed, Richard. Read them all, passed to my daughter and now to my granddaughter.

          3. Titty or Tatty

            I'm sure Arthur Ransome thought his readers thought her nickname came for her Christened name, Laetitia. On the other hand one could argue that Tatiana is a Russian name and Ransome travelled in Russia and wrote books about the country.

      2. O/T. Don't know if you subscribe but the Plough at Bursledon are doing 33% off food all day on Monday's this Summer.

    2. Dal Babu ( a black ex-policeman) also criticised GMP for having the cheek to use a black/slammer Assistant Chief Constable to make a public statement…

      1. The problem about suing for libel is that a court hearing may expose information you would prefer to keep under wraps

        1. As this character no doubt thought when his libel writ started his downfall, ending in prison….

          “If it falls to me to start a fight to cut out the cancer of bent and twisted journalism in our country with the simple sword of truth and the trusty shield of British fair play, so be it. I am ready for the fight. The fight [is] against falsehood and those who peddle it.”

    2. Might want to read up on Sue Gray, she seems quite powerful/influential – first Conservatives and now Labour.

    1. 390172+ up ticks,

      O2O,
      By the same token imagine the progress we would have made via UKIP under the Gerard Batten ( 2018/19) leadership.
      In the black,financially sound, membership rapidly growing.

      Treachery has a great deal to answer for.

  60. It is just going to get worse and worse . Do something Labour to turn back the tide.

  61. Had a call from the doctor a few minutes ago following a blood test. My sodium level is just below ‘normal’.
    Did he want me to eat more salt.
    Yes.
    Could I be drinking too much water?
    Yes.
    How much should I drink.
    Just a normal amount.
    How much is a normal amount, I am 6’5” and weigh about 111 kg.
    There is no specific amount.
    How will I know if I need more salt or less water.
    Just drink a normal amount.
    This went on for a few more minutes before he asked me to have another blood test in 3-4 months and he’ll put a form on the system.

    Is this the sort of conversation that creates the ‘Worried Well?

    1. Hello Alf, might as well have read Woman's Own or similar.:-D ..if you want to, go online and ask how much liquid should I be drinking each day (or similar), you'll come up with a chart where you can input your weight etc and it will tell you how the amount. Might sound too much until you realise it includes liquids other than water..tea, coffee etc. Good luck..

      2. One moment in a fit of pique
        Sing rickety tickety Tin
        One moment in a fit of pique
        She drowned her mother in the creek
        The water tasted bad for a week
        And we had to make do with gin,
        With gin,
        We had to make do with gin.

        [Tom Lehrer: The Irish Ballad]

        1. Guzzled directly from the spout of a teapot, as Sairey Gamp in Martin Chuzzlewit was very adept at doing.

          1. I can’t afford the stronger ones, here in Norway, and I ain’t drinking shine that I don’t know the origins of, either. That said, we have a still…

          2. Just enjoy the product of your still. They were common in Sweden as well. Paul. but, like you, I was very careful of their output.

          1. My local has Fullers (in bottles) and is getting Thatchers cider. Big British clientele.

          2. I’ve never been a fan of bottled beer and as for that piss they put in cans!!!! I’m a beer-engine type of bloke.

      4. I have never walked around with a bottle of water only when fell walking in The Lakes. All these peole I see taking a swig here and there from a nasy plastic bottle is a complete waste of time.

    3. Did he not mention that you are overweight? Normal would be about 90kg for your height, A_t_G.

      1. Alf is big boned. You should see the size of his hands. Let's just say he doesn't need a spade for digging the garden.

    4. The Dr expects me to drink two liters minimum per day. It's hard going. I'm 5' 11". Are you drinking at least that amount?

  62. Why Russia is prime suspect in massive Olympics sabotage. 26 July 2024.

    Russia will be the lead suspect in Friday morning’s attacks on the French rail network, as suspicions swirl that Vladimir Putin has been yearning for a chance to humiliate Emmanuel Macron.

    Whoops! They must have read my earlier post. Russia is only a lead suspect to the Globalist Press. What would Vlad have to gain apart from the obloquy of exposure? No; the synchronisation and the low tech suggest it is home grown in the banlieu’s.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/07/26/why-russia-prime-suspect-massive-paris-olympics-sabotage/

    1. When my wife mentioned the attacks my first reactions were:
      a) Immigrants (Hamas threats??)
      b) “They” will blame the Russians

    2. And my earlier post also made the same point:

      I am beginning to wonder whether the whole point of the the Ukraine War is to have a scapegoat to distract our attention from the RoP:

      When anything goes wrong – BLAME THE RUSSIANS!

    3. One really can't believe that Putin would be stupid enough to be so obvious. Whatever else people might want to level at him, stupidity isn't one of them – unlike many Western entities.

      1. Begs the question, Lass, who are the stupid ones? My money is, as always, on the MSM and it's propagandists.

    4. One really can't believe that Putin would be stupid enough to be so obvious. Whatever else people might want to level at him, stupidity isn't one of them – unlike many Western entities.

      1. Better still, put them both on a plane and go away. Race grifters here need to go back to their own race-countries, and see how they like that.

          1. They will just “lose” them next time…others have managed to get in again.

    2. There’s a lot of money to be made in “race baiting”, especially when your “race” (sic) has all the power*

      *We know who has the power, it’s the people we aren’t allowed to criticise

    3. There’s a lot of money to be made in “race baiting”, especially when your “race” (sic) has all the power*

      *We know who has the power, it’s the people we aren’t allowed to criticise

  65. 'Afternoon All
    14,000 armed police providing security at the Olympics.75000 troops on standby In 1948, 3 years after the end of the 2nd World War, security was provided by the Boy Scouts.
    What a lovely, multicultural world we live in.
    Medley
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f8ac87c8fdcbb380b1e628152f2caabcfeb2f6b23bb4567e09032daf5e1adb31.jpg
    https://media.gab.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=568,quality=100,fit=scale-down/system/media_attachments/files/164/136/596/original/2878e8879163ef53.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7cbad3782ccb1370a1c16c9d96bd05743520b7c7a4dc29228280000bdfe02a17.jpg
    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2ce342d6db96be239cc9ce5654be62030b6eabb797d348007cfedcc5a299119a.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/568ec828837d98a4a1441a176c168792c1aa4071f2104f28d4671348f5a50f05.jpg

    1. The uncompromising truth is that Islam is will never compromise and so it is a waste of time compromising with the uncompromising.

    1. The religion of peace caused this at Manchester airport, everything kicked off because a female police officer took a woman aside to bare her face, which is allowed [sic] under Islamic law. This is the result of that, 3 other officers were hospitalized by the thugs before the video…

          2. I have pointed this out before but people have difficulty in believing it. Palestinian mothers will deliberately have children with the full aim of having them trained as "martyrs". Literally give birth in order to kill their children. Depraved and evil. Islam is not a religion it is a sick ideology of ignorance and hate in the extreme.

          3. And both the Conservative Party and the Labour Party welcome it here.

            I cannot understand why – what's in for them?

            Or is because such mean-spirited nasty people enter politics just to get a cheap thrill ot of pissing people off

          4. Money. Power. Sex. Some people are genuinely of the opinion that these are the most important aspects to life on earth.

          5. "I cannot understand why — what's in for them?"

            Have you taken your eye off the ball, Rastus? It is happening because Labour and the current bunch of 'Conservatives' are all under the direct influence and control of the WEF (and UN) and this is simply part of their Great Reset.

            They know it will succeed because 21st century Britons are too stupid, too feeble and too weak-minded to take up arms and stop this criminal nonsense. 21st century Britons are very good at stamping their feet, tut-tutting and tearing up garments as they whine away on social media. But then they give up and go and have their tea!

            Their grandparents and all previous generations to them would have shown much more mettle.

          1. Ouch, actually looks better than I thought she might, eyes look quite bright. Hope she makes a full recovery, although take a while for (physical) bruises to clear. Possibly counselling available.

          2. Undoubtedly counselling available. She’s likely a tough soul, so would put it down to experience (wo)man up, and shoot the next one who tries the same thing.

    2. The religion of peace caused this at Manchester airport, everything kicked off because a female police officer took a woman aside to bare her face, which is allowed [sic] under Islamic law. This is the result of that, 3 other officers were hospitalized by the thugs before the video…

        1. Wouldn't be surprised if she resigned on the spot. Poor lass – only looks about 12, as well.

          1. I think she looks about my height, Oberstleutnant? 5'1" and bit heavier than me 8 and half stone? I couldn't fight a man except possibly in an argument…I wonder what sort of training female officers are given, other than tasers (bet there's all sorts of rules and regs around using using those)

          2. There’s a lot to do with technique, not just strength, and the ladies have a way with words that can be most disarming! Still doesn’t beat a tazer or Glock when the ordure is hitting the airconditioning, though.

          3. Exactly as shown in the sumo I’ve just been watching. And yes, the ‘put-down’ technique 😀 I’d go for the Glock myself (that’s a gun, right?….)

        2. At least there's photographic/footage evidence, Sir J. Hope that helps with evidence.

      2. She is one of the women I am referring to above. She was just wandering around being useless. Sorry about her nose and all that but when there is a threat you worry about that after, not leave your companions in a fight while you stagger around.

    4. I read that prior to what you see, three police were on the ground being attacked and two of the police were armed. That there was a the threat they would lose their guns in the tussle.

  67. The Guardian at its best..

    UK voter ID laws attack ‘democratic rights of people of colour’, say artists in open letter, including "comedian" Lenny Henry.
    Called the rules “an attack on Black and Brown people, and other marginalised communities”, citing a poll that showed that people from minority communities were 2.5 times more likely to be turned away than white people.

    Now what is it?… what could the problem possibly be? Black don't have driving licences? Blacks don't photograph too well? Passport problem? Can't reed or rite?

    Ah.. here's the problem that warranted this outrage.. "having to proactively register."

    1. Well we hand everything else to these infantilised “minorities”, so who are we to expect them to do anything proactively?

      1. government to introduce automatic voter registration, where people are placed on the electoral roll by default by cross-referencing other databases..

        That'll go down well in Bradford.. etc.. and at the Home Office, when they tot up the numbers and realise the population is over 100 million.

        2. And it will be very inconvenient to be called for jury service when you are claiming your UK benefits while living in Karachi or Bucharest.

      2. government to introduce automatic voter registration, where people are placed on the electoral roll by default by cross-referencing other databases..

        That'll go down well in Bradford.. etc.. and at the Home Office, when they tot up the numbers and realise the population is over 100 million.

    2. They are simply aping the complaints of BLM in America. It backfired when the blacks suggested it was insulting to think they couldn't get or already had I.D. It was typical middle class condescension, the unconscious racism of liberals and sh8t stirrers of the Marxist kind.

    3. As people of colour are much more likely than white people to have been born outside the UK and to have had to apply for British citizenship, I would think they were also much more likely to hold a passport.

    4. Just want to bring everyone else down. Lenny Henry is a berk. If he was intelligent he would know he was a berk and think before he said anything.

    1. 390172+ up ticks,

      Afternoon TB,

      I believe a thought police expert was heard over a hot mike to say,

      Plain to see with the minds eye, criminal intent is their combined mindset.

  69. 390172+ up ticks,

    This is a nauseous sample of what has been unleashed upon this Isle and this Isle children via the polling stations.

    Many of these odious political sub humans are still misguiding lights, and still have the power shout, unbelievably still believed and supported by a great multitude of dangerous fools.

    These muslim types really should be "encouraged" to take large steps outbound from Dover, Calais / Mecca bound.

    https://x.com/WayneGb88/status/1816452075615654297

  70. Labour shelves free speech law protecting universities from cancel culture
    Education Secretary’s decision to pause scheme comes after higher education groups warn of unnecessary paperwork for institutions

    By
    Poppy Wood,
    Education Editor
    26 July 2024 • 12:28pm

    The Education Secretary is poised to scrap free speech laws designed to protect academics from being cancelled.

    Bridget Phillipson said on Friday she would “stop further commencement” of the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023, just days before the new free speech tsar’s powers are due to come into force.

    Under the Act, universities, colleges and student unions in England would have a legal duty to promote free speech.

    The Office for Students (OfS) was also set to be granted new powers to launch investigations and impose fines on universities if they were found to have violated academics’ right to free speech.

    Individuals would also be able to seek compensation through the courts if they suffered loss from a breach of the free speech duties – such as being expelled, dismissed or demoted – under a new legal measure.

    The protections were also set to cover visiting speakers whose invitations have been cancelled due to student protests.

    Labour’s decision to pause and potentially repeal the scheme will be seen as a major watering down of free speech protections.

    It would strip academics, who have been hounded out of their positions or seen their talks cancelled in the face of student protests, of access to a proposed special grievance scheme.

    Sir Gavin Williamson, who put the law in place last year, says Labour's decision proves they 'do not care for free and wide-ranging debate'
    Sir Gavin Williamson, who put the law in place last year, says Labour's decision proves they 'do not care for free and wide-ranging debate' Credit: JORDAN PETTITT/PA
    Sir Gavin Williamson, who introduced the law as education secretary last year, told The Telegraph: “Over the last thirty years we have seen the gradual but continuous erosion of free speech within higher education institutions and that is why I put legislation in place to protect it.

    “The Labour government’s decision to scrap free speech protections just says it does not care for free and wide-ranging debate. Rather, it is willing to turn a blind eye, while dissenting academic voices are hounded off campus.”

    The Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023 was drawn up following multiple rows over the so-called “cancellation” of academics and students over their views.

    They include Dr Heather Brunskell-Evans, who was no-platformed by university students at King’s College London after she discussed transgender issues on a radio show.

    ‘Witch-hunt’
    In another example, Kathleen Stock, a philosophy professor, resigned from Sussex University after what she described as a “witch-hunt” because of her views on transgender issues.

    Prof Arif Ahmed, the Government’s first-ever “free speech tsar”, has spent the past year designing a new complaints scheme to implement the laws on campus, which were due to come into force next week.

    Under his complaints scheme, the former Cambridge professor was set to take submissions from academics who have been “cancelled” or “no-platformed” on campus due to their personal beliefs.

    However, the move by Labour to shelve the Act raises serious uncertainty over Prof Ahmed’s position and his work so far could be wound down.

    This also follows a series of rows surrounding anti-Semitism on campus in the wake of the October 7 Hamas attack in Israel.

    In February, the Jewish chaplain at Leeds University was forced into hiding after he was targeted with death threats and anti-Semitic protests.

    Rabbi Zecharia Deutsch, his wife Nava, and their two children were moved to a safe location on police advice after receiving death threats over his role as an Israel Defense Force reservist. Pro-Palestinian campaigners accused Rabbi Deutsch of “genocide” after he returned to Israel to serve in the IDF.

    Scheme would be ‘burdensome’
    Ms Phillipson said she was concerned the scheme would be “burdensome” on universities, and will “consider options, including its repeal”.

    “I have written to colleagues separately about my decision to stop further commencement of the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023, in order to consider options, including its repeal,” she said in a written ministerial statement on Friday.

    “I am aware of concerns that the Act would be burdensome on providers and on the OfS [Office for Students], and I will confirm my long-term plans as soon as possible.”

    Higher education groups had warned that the new scheme could create unnecessary paperwork for universities, which already have a legal duty to uphold freedom of speech.

    The Russell Group of elite universities warned against creating an “unnecessary and burdensome bureaucracy”.

    However, Prof Ahmed insisted universities needed strengthened protections since they face “urgent threats to free speech and academic freedom”.

    Rishi Sunak, as prime minister at the time, voiced his support for the free speech complaints scheme, and said “nowhere” was more important to “understand those we disagree with… than within our great universities”.

    “A free society requires free debate. We should all be encouraged to engage respectfully with the ideas of others,” he said. “Universities should be an environment where debate is supported, not stifled.”

    The Free Speech Union has vowed to launch legal action against the Government.

    It said in a statement: “The Government’s attack on the Freedom of Speech Act is shocking. If Labour refuses to commence legislation passed in the last parliament, the Free Speech Union will bring judicial review proceedings.

    “There is a free speech crisis in our universities, as has been widely acknowledged, and this Act, which enjoyed cross-party support, was designed to remedy that.

    “For all Sir Keir Starmer’s talk about human rights, he clearly doesn’t care about the most important human right of all, which is the right to free speech.”

    Comments

    Smug Asakiwi
    just now
    And the left have the nerve to call Trump a dictator and a Nazi…

    Comment by Steve Adams.

    SA

    Steve Adams
    1 min ago
    We must not diverge from the approved narrative.

    Comment by Graham Nibblet.

    GN

    Graham Nibblet
    1 min ago
    And so it begins, the slow descent into Marxist police state….it didn’t take long.

    Comment by Christopher Young.

    CY

    Christopher Young
    1 min ago
    If you vote for labour you vote to be treat like a child and it is the child that they wish to abuse. Freedom of speech and citizens rights are the only way someone is seen and treat as an adult.

    Comment by John Beaumont.

    JB

    John Beaumont
    1 min ago
    As a lecturer I can tell you this is the end of british education. No heterodox thinkong – Labour ideologues ruling will reduce growth.

    Comment by barbara woods.

    bw

    barbara woods
    2 min ago
    not right, should be prioritised

    Comment by Charlie Scott Douglas.

    CS

    Charlie Scott Douglas
    2 min ago
    Here we go. The Kneeler doing what he does best..

    Comment by Kenneth Gardner.

    KG

    Kenneth Gardner
    2 min ago
    Maybe cancel Philipson?

    Comment by Astrix Deed.

    AD

    Astrix Deed
    3 min ago
    Watch this space – in a year or two Labour will also bring in an effective blasphemy law. How we laughed and ridiculed those who tried to ban Monty Python's Life of Brian a generation or two ago. Just you wait…

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/07/26/education-secretary-shelves-university-free-speech-law/

    1. The FSU said in a statement: "The Government's attack on the Freedom of Speech Act is shocking. If Labour refuses to commence legislation passed in the last parliament, the Free Speech Union will bring judicial review proceedings."

      I've long considered judicial review to be no more than a tactic used by the modern 'constitutional' left to attack any conservative laws or customs, using their fellow travellers in the judiciary (Article 50, Bonjo's prorogation). I might now be persuaded to change my mind.

      If the courts did come out in favour of Labour, then we'd know how little Parliament stands for (if we didn't already).

        1. The Guardian calls it a "Tory law" and "controversial". Obviously the Guardian would think curtailing people's right to express themselves a wonderful idea. Tory law is assumed a minority far right position, so everyone agrees it's bad, natch.

          Always got me why anyone thought Labour in 2024 would be any different from Corbyn Labour, which we all rejected a few years ago. Sir Kneelalot just the same. Supported Corbyn then, still holds the same ideals now.

          1. Only certain people though, James. The ones with different ideas to the Guardian. Free Speech for me but not for thee. A lesson we all learn – people aren’t always what they say they are. Mr Corbyn (& Ms Abbott) seem very quiet lately…hmm…

          1. Every little helps, More info…lawyers pro bono. I know some don’t care for Toby Young, I’m not one of them:-)

      2. There's a couple of poems that I find useful as a guide to life, written by people cleverer than I. Both you will know, being an educated and cultured person. They don't explain exact situations, more strategies or philosophies to live by:

        For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
        For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
        For want of a horse the rider was lost.
        For want of a rider the message was lost.
        For want of a message the battle was lost.
        For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.

        And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

        ————————————————————-

        When the Nazis came for the communists,
        I remained silent;
        I was not a communist.

        When they locked up the social democrats,
        I remained silent;
        I was not a social democrat.

        When they came for the trade unionists,
        I did not speak out;
        I was not a trade unionist.

        When they came for the Jews,
        I remained silent;
        I was not a Jew.

        When they came for me,
        there was no one left to speak out.

    2. "unnecessary and burdensome bureaucracy” says the minister for 'wheesht'.

      An entirely necessary bureaucratic exercise I'd have thought, given the universities' lack of any commitment to freedom of speech. A situation I'm sure Labour will be more than happy to see made even worse.

    3. Wow, just wow. But will Al-Beeb, the Grauniad and the rest of the legacy media say a word? You can bet your bottom dollar they won’t.

    4. Oh goody,
      Will they now abolish all the other burdensome monitoring that is paralysing our lives?
      For example, I attended a review for a disabled relative this week. Participants all agreed that the relative’s lack of mental capacity had been documented recently by a psychiatrist and the meeting was in the best interest of said relative. In past years this was just noted on the report so I was a bit surprised afterwards to be sent a 12 page NHS England form to sign. I worked out that the nurse sending it had not realised that, as I hold a Court of Protection deputyship , it is not her role to give me permission to see my relative’s records. I amended the form and returned it (very politely). But, yet again I was left reflecting on how the fell hand of bureaucracy had created more work for itself.

  72. More rumours from Manchester..

    Airport Firearm Cops are instructed to use any means possible to rapidly dominate, subdue and restrain suspects.. if there is a risk of being disarmed, and having their firearms used upon them.

    However, please be reminded we live in a Leftie clown world as poor old Perry found out doing his duty..
    PC Perry Lathwood is guilty of assaulting Jocelyn Agyemang during an arrest in Croydon.

    1. I have to observe that like the female bodyguards for Trump who have all disappeared now he has been shot at, this sort of policework is not suitable for women. The two at the airport do more milling around rather than acting against the suspects. This equality nonsense really needs to be stopped when it is a matter of lives in the balance. I remember being at a July 4th fireworks display on the playing fields in California.There were two women policeman standing directly in front of me, much shorter than me and I'm only only 5' 11". I remember thinking that I could have knocked their heads together and taken them out in a matter of seconds. I am all for equality but not when it comes to things where one sex or the other cannot fill the others shoes, it is delusional folly, a danger to all concerned.

      1. Yep.. this has been pointed out a carzillion times on YT channels.. they get in the way when it kicks off.

        As for Manc airport.. I understand she's only there to assist in the instances where female passengers are involved.
        And this is where it all kicked off.. as Mummy Roper didn't appreciate being asked to remove head gear after trolley rage incident.

      2. 5'1"female here, completely agree. At least I'm relatively fit and reasonable weight, the female bodyguards for Trump looked shall we say a little bit plump and not fully fit.

          1. I couldn’t possibly comment, James. But I will say you are completely correct. What the heck happened to the Secret Service…my guess is feminisation, I ask myself ‘now who would I want protecting me’….

          2. Ah, yes, but if you were POTUS, would you prefer a huge hairy bloke jumping on you, or a smaller, softer, better padded lass doing the same? Since the lady protection detail closely resemble SWMBO (I did say she was a tough nut) then I prefer the padded lasses! Just as long as their sidearm doesn't dig into my ribs, of course…

          3. Weellll…I’d prefer the huge hair bloke tbh, and I’d like to know he knew how to maim/kill on my behalf. But that’s just me, if I was POTUS.:-)

          5. You'd have to ask too, if the more capable and fit members of the protection squad end up spending more time watching out for the weaker members of their team than they do for those they are supposed to be watching out for. Teams are only as strong as their weakest member. Fancy having to rely on backup from duds like that.

          6. Spot on, James. I have my strengths, and I may wish to be on the front line, but doesn’t mean I can or should be. I know who I’d rather have backing me up and looking out for my safety.

        2. Don't forget, they are Merkin, and also wearing a lot of protective clothing – bullet-proof vests, for example. That tends to bulk one out a bit.
          I'd not criticise the bodyguards, whose job it is to take the bullet for their Principal. That's quite a job description!

          1. Take your point. I’d like to see men of a similar height protecting him in future. Whole episode seems a bit suss, I don’t doubt Vance & Jr get to bottom of it.

  73. Who will be the first Labour drone to call for the abandonment of the current arrangements and the establishment of new People's Police under 'proper democratic control'?

  74. It has been announced that Great Britain will not be entering a team in the Hide and Seek event at the Paris Olympics. According to a spokesman, " good players are hard to find"

    1. Yes and yes…fruit small and inedible. I believe they need a sunny, sheltered wall and careful coddling/protection in winter/colder temp. I can't remember if it needs boxing in to stop roots spreading too far. My grandfather had greenhouses and vegetable plots, when he retired he had regular customers. One time, someone gave him a vine, he planted the roots outside the greenhouse (northern climate) and trained the green grapes inside the greenhouse. I think now you can buy outdoor vines. Good luck with fig tree, Belle 🙂

      1. Hello KJ

        We have 3 small fig trees , bought them last year . The one in a pot on the patio has produced 4 little tiny fruitlets on the stems, and we are quite interested to know whether the fruit takes forever to develop or will we see something this year .

        We grew a white nectarine from a stone decades ago , and the tree produced small sweet tasty fruit, we had to pollinate with a fine paintbrush , but it was worth it .

        3 years ago bad weather blew the poor tree over and that was that.
        It's all good fun , watching and waiting , although we are so sad that our gladioli have been punished by the wind and rain , snapping in half . I don't think we will bother with those again . https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c079ae64fb07a9ba0c30f3e82e2948326909d7dcd795bcb852b1fa799b1eabaa.jpg

        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/55c79ef01a2826b29526ffbf5d4d40b60f5f15c6a917798f1cd6876c090fd014.jpg

        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d107be5df017b8a4d41085f51c63aaac2790ae383008e5b41b90922fc9d43f14.jpg

        A neighbours cat who sits and waits , she is very sweet but quite persistent .

        The third fig tree , in the wrong place really , no sign of fruit , yet .

        1. Wow, Belle – that is one lovely garden, just (trying to) paint hydrangea flowers myself, one of those with open flowers just around the edge. I like a garden with a lot of interest, always something good to see. Ours is mostly grassland mown to keep tidy, a few acres around the house. The fig looks quite magnificent, large leaved. I don’t know what to suggest re fruit – some sort of feed? probably online advice somewhere. Thing about a cat is – you can choose them but they decide if they choose you….my daughter has a cat but it often goes to a neighbour’s house.

        3. Magnificent Hydrangea, Belle!
          Mine is all a bit weatherblown, and the flowers are all colours. Poor old thing is all droopy due to being very, very wet….

        4. The fruits ripen in the second year (but squirrels and dormice like them very much indeed). Beautiful garden, Belle!

    2. Fig Trees
      Dear T-B,
      I planted a Turkish Fig Tree about 20 years ago and it has always flourished (even in heavy clay soil). Every year I get the tree specialist who does my other trees to cut it back about 30% and it grows back to full size by the next year. It produces between 50 and 150 figs which ripen nicely. See photos taken just now – they are swelling but not colouring up yet.

      But the local birds all know about it and get ready in the early mornings with their little knives and forks beaks whenever they see a rosy tinge (or perhaps smell a figgy smell).

      I usually manage to rescue 3-5 ripe ones each year and peel and eat them with my breakfast. They never reach the epic sweetness that you get in the South of France (just returned), but I feel I am doing my bit for the local birds, who also completely strip my grape vine too.

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/81da60a33c1fe4fb9fe61cda4e8e2360821c4f195d59b2b3fee0bc818a8dc0e2.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/14ea83bd031f68bef5d8c6b1caeb066d94220f4bc0920fa4c7f82f7194ac4f75.jpg

      1. Nice!
        Love fresh fruit for breakfast – pawpaw, figs, dates, properly ripe pineapple… all with good, strong coffee.

        1. My neighbour gives me figs. She gets chillis and tomatoes.
          Figs wrapped in Parma ham and baked sprinkled with Roquefort or Gogonzola is my idea of lunch heaven.

        2. Ooh yes , I buy pawpaw often , the only problem is that they are Brazilian, and not the huge African paw paw. Moh loves his with a sprinkle of salt, I love a splatter of lime juice on mine .

      2. They are wonderful , wow .

        Many thanks for all your knowledge , RC and all those useful tips .
        Our garden is south west facing .. can be very breezy and baking hot , chalky soil .

        Are you also living in Dorset?

  77. A good short Triggernometry from Konstantin Kisin. Below the transcript:

    ““As we trend towards chaos, our craving for order is guaranteed to rise, once again, to the top of the agenda. In continental Europe, anti-immigration, anti-Muslim parties are progressing at a rapid rate. At the time of recording, Nigel Farage is leading the Reform Party in a surge in the polls, on a platform of reducing net immigration to zero, and he was recently immediately physically attacked for it.

    Why is this happening? Throughout the last decade, the legacy media answer has been the same. We don't know and we don't care.

    The rise of anti-immigration sentiment and growing concerns about the Islamification of Europe has seemed not as a predictable reaction to unprecedented immigration levels, but as some sort of inexplicable evil emerging once again from the racist underbelly of a deeply suspect body politic. Despite being obviously true and confirmed by both ancient and recent history, the idea that right-wing extremism, the forces of order, is rising as a response to left-wing extremism, the forces of chaos, is outside the bounds of acceptability among the chattering classes. This is largely a product of the fact that left-wing extremism is never actually described[…]”

    From TRIGGERnometry: It's Political Extremism All the Way Down – Konstantin Kisin, 26 Jul 2024
    https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/triggernometry/id1375568988?i=1000663410167
    This material may be protected by copyright.

    1. sing-a-long.. " it's a long way to Tipperary.. "

      spare a thought for the village of Dundrum in south Tipperary which has a population of 165.
      However.. drumroll.. the Government is planning to use Dundrum House Hotel as an accommodation complex, with plans for up to 280 international protection applicants (IPAs) to be housed there.

      Pooof.. as if by magic.. outnumbered overnight.

    3. Who'd vote for the "former Persecutor" – someone with all the charisma and sex-appeal of, well, me… 🙁

    4. I noticed that there are names on the sandwiches in the office fridge. I had a really tasty tuna one called Fred for my lunch. 😂

    1. Cheapest ticket for LHR-SIN, is Kr 110.000 First Class suite, so about GBP 11,000 or so.

      1. Singapore Airlines First Class
        Last September, as part of my Bucket List I flew Business Class on Singapore Airlines Airbus 380s (they can carry up to 800 small passengers or 540 normal ones) from Sydney to Singapore and then Singapore to Heathrow.

        Checking in at both Sydney and Singapore there were passengers (almost all well 'toned') who were shown onto the aircraft first and ushered into their First Class suites (complete with showers, of course – who wants to go to bed dirty?).

        In Business Class the meals were sumptuous and all seemed to have brand-new cutlery and glasses. There were even fresh orchids in the toilets. You gets wot yer pays for.

        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ed34c47b2c64ddf947ab4733dd3c3a623413ccd537dd96169c444e2ef50accb8.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/78b3af7e54206efdb94b0ca8cc3712b8ce9ef2b9313331e827068fa4f788f153.jpg

  82. Yes.
    Personally, I don't like them, I prefer Walther – I have a PPK (shades of Bond, J) and a P.99 – vastly superior to the Glock, but hey, us gun nuts can get very dull…

    1. I will happily take your word for it. Never used a gun myself other than the ones at fairgrounds. But I think the calls for them will get louder now. Yes, I remember Bond, James Bond (well, Sean Connery anyway, once had a b/f who looked slightly like him, didn’t last very long…:-D

      1. Err… you can get creams for not lasting very long… just saying… hell, now what did I reveal??

  83. All aboard Par Four!

    Wordle 1,133 4/6
    🟩⬜⬜⬜⬜
    🟩⬜⬜🟨⬜
    🟩⬜🟩⬜⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Similar story here
      Wordle 1,133 4/6

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

    2. Lucky three here.

      Wordle 1,133 3/6

      🟩⬜⬜⬜⬜
      🟩⬜⬜⬜🟨
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  86. Police officer under criminal investigation after Manchester Airport ‘stamp’. 26 uly 2024.

    In a statement on Friday, Catherine Bates, the IOPC regional director, said the police constable would be interviewed under caution as soon as possible.

    She said: “I have today met one of the men who was involved and his family members to outline our investigation and we will continue to update them and Greater Manchester Police as our enquiries progress. We will be speaking to the man involved in the second incident as soon as we can.

    Well we know which side she is on. They are going to railroad this copper in the cause of the “Greater Good”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/07/26/manchester-airport-stamp-investigation/

    1. He did behave in an unprofessional manner. Kicking and stamping on someone brings the force into disrepute and he deserves to be fired regardless of the provocation.

      1. 390172+ up ticks,

        Afternoon Pip,

        Lest we forget,

        People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because …

        … rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.”

        1. Afternoon. Yes i know that but he obviously lost his temper. Very unprofessional. He should have waited until there were no cameras.

        1. There is more but the kick was pretty vicious and not at all professional. He should be a footballer.

  87. Sir,

    Have recent events in France shown us that the Olympic dream of Nations meeting in friendship with politics set to one side for a celebration of a wide variety of different sports is no longer practically possible and that the Olympic dream is dead.

    Will any nation want to host the Olympic Games in the future? And should all high profile sporting events no longer be staged in from of a live audience but be recorded on film or television so those who want to watch them may do so in safety.

    Percival Wrattstrangler

    2. Agreed. Was saying so only earlier today with ref to the Charlotte Dujardin thimg. Dirty tricks beget dirty tricks. And so it escalates. The absence of a moral framework, let alone a shared Christian one, is sending us to oblivion

    4. We have just changed channels because the bbc are boring the backsides off of us with their verbally over productive Olympics introductions.

    5. The Paris Olympics is meaningless because Russian athletes are banned from competing.

      The Olympic ideals of its founder were lost in the Berlin Olympics of 1936. Since that time the Games have lost its appeal to amateurs and been invaded by professional sportsmen. Hence we have the spectacle of the very wealthy Andy Murray playing his tennis there and all manner of mad professional ‘athletes’ gaming the Games purely out of greed and narcissism.

      Over the years we witnessed drug dosed frauds competing and winning whether moustachioed Eastern European women shot putters, Ben Johnson and the American sprinters to nowadays where men are competing in women’s events.

      I shall not be watching the charade. It is already dubbed the Bed Bugs and Rats (Piss and Shit) in the Street Olympics.

  88. A woman on the bus asked me.
    'Do you have any pets'?
    I said 'A goldfish'.
    She said 'any hobbies'?
    I replied 'well, he likes swimming!'

    I'll get me snorkel…

  93. This week’s Irreverend is very good. Jamie Franklin on his own this week. An interesting interview with Matt Le Tissier thrown in. The Rev Franklin does not hold back towards the end with his attack on the current state of the CoE.

  95. Evelyn Hall, we had another lovely day in Northumberland.
    See my reply to Bob's post earlier today.
    We love it here.
    But too old to move now.
    And we spoke to a lovely lady at Heatherslaw 'museum' she was not long out of South London and is enjoying every moment of her new surroundings.

    1. Just go more often and stay longer. I loved Malta so much i was going twice a year.

      1. I suposed if we downsized we could move, but our family live near us in Hertfordshire and we would sadly miss them.

    2. Northumberland is lovely. Wonderful beaches, wide open countryside, fells, feels remote from all our problems. The people are genuine, kind and open-hearted.

  96. Labour shelves free speech law protecting universities from cancel culture

    Education Secretary’s decision to pause scheme comes after higher education groups warn of unnecessary paperwork for institutions

    Poppy Wood, EDUCATION EDITOR and Nick Gutteridge, CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT
    26 July 2024 • 2:32pm

    The Education Secretary is poised to scrap free speech laws designed to protect academics from being cancelled.

    Bridget Phillipson said on Friday she would “stop further commencement” of the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023, just days before the new free speech tsar’s powers were due to come into force.

    Under the Act, universities, colleges and student unions in England would have a legal duty to promote free speech.

    The Office for Students (OfS) was also set to be granted new powers to launch investigations and impose fines on universities if they were found to have violated academics’ right to free speech.

    Individuals would also be able to seek compensation through the courts if they suffered loss from a breach of the free speech duties – such as being expelled, dismissed or demoted – under a new legal measure.

    The protections were also set to cover visiting speakers whose invitations have been cancelled due to student protests.

    Labour’s decision to pause and potentially repeal the scheme will be seen as a major watering down of free speech protections.

    It would strip academics, who have been hounded out of their positions or seen their talks cancelled in the face of student protests, of access to a proposed special grievance scheme.

    Sir Gavin Williamson, who introduced the law as education secretary last year, told The Telegraph: “Over the last 30 years we have seen the gradual but continuous erosion of free speech within higher education institutions and that is why I put legislation in place to protect it.

    “The Labour Government’s decision to scrap free speech protections just says it does not care for free and wide-ranging debate. Rather, it is willing to turn a blind eye, while dissenting academic voices are hounded off campus.”

    The Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023 was drawn up following multiple rows over the so-called “cancellation” of academics and students over their views.

    They include Dr Heather Brunskell-Evans, who was no-platformed by university students at King’s College London after she discussed transgender issues on a radio show.

    In another example, Kathleen Stock, a philosophy professor, resigned from Sussex University after what she described as a “witch-hunt” because of her views on transgender issues.

    Helen Joyce, director of advocacy at human-rights charity Sex Matters, said: “This is a serious misstep by the new Education Secretary.

    “Transactivists know that their ideas cannot be intellectually defended and have therefore enforced a hostile ‘no debate’ culture on campus.”

    Prof Arif Ahmed, the Government’s first-ever “free speech tsar”, has spent the past year designing a new complaints scheme to implement the laws on campus, which were due to come into force next week.

    Under his complaints scheme, the former Cambridge professor was set to take submissions from academics who have been “cancelled” or “no-platformed” on campus due to their personal beliefs.

    However, the move by Labour to shelve the Act raises serious uncertainty over Prof Ahmed’s position, and his work so far could be wound down.

    Culture wars
    Ms Phillipson signalled it was part of a broader move to pour water on the culture wars.

    In a statement announcing her decision to shelve the Act on Friday, the Education Secretary said that “for too long, universities have been a political battlefield”.

    “We are absolutely committed to freedom of speech and academic freedom, but the Free Speech Act introduced last year is not fit for purpose and risked imposing serious burdens on our world class universities,” she said.

    “This legislation could expose students to harm and appalling hate speech on campuses. That is why I have quickly ordered this legislation to be stopped so that we can take a view on next steps and protect everyone’s best interests.”

    However, Damian Hinds, the shadow education secretary, said: “Free speech is a fundamental right, and this must extend to universities.

    “The fact this Labour Government is willing to scrap the measures we put in place to protect these rights makes clear that they are willing to sacrifice the next generation on the altar of their own ideological dogma.”

    Ms Phillipson said she was concerned the scheme would be “burdensome” on universities, and would “consider options, including its repeal”.

    “I have written to colleagues separately about my decision to stop further commencement of the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023, in order to consider options, including its repeal,” she said in a written ministerial statement on Friday.

    “I am aware of concerns that the Act would be burdensome on providers and on the OfS [Office for Students], and I will confirm my long-term plans as soon as possible.”

    The Russell Group of elite universities had warned against creating an “unnecessary and burdensome bureaucracy”.

    On Friday it said that Ms Philipson’s decision to halt the new free speech laws was a “sensible and proportionate step”.

    “Matters relating to freedom of speech can be complex, particularly when cases interact with other legal duties such as equality law. It’s right that the Government has decided to take more time to consider its options,” the group said.

    However, Prof Ahmed insisted universities needed strengthened protections since they faced “urgent threats to free speech and academic freedom”.

    Protecting vulnerable groups
    Labour claimed Ms Phillipson’s intervention was to protect “vulnerable groups and Jewish students”, and to save universities from “costly legal action”.

    The Department for Education said groups representing Jewish students had “expressed concerns that sanctions could lead to providers overlooking the safety and well-being of minority groups”.

    Phil Rosenberg, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said the group welcomed the Government’s decision to pull the plug on the Act.

    Mr Rosenberg said that although “well-intentioned”, the act “risked enabling anti-Semitic extremists to access university campuses by severely impacting the ability of universities to block their presence”.

    The Telegraph understands Labour also had concerns that it could leave universities open to being sued at a time when many face crippling cost pressures.

    The Free Speech Union has vowed to launch legal action against the Government.

    It said in a statement: “The Government’s attack on the Freedom of Speech Act is shocking. If Labour refuses to commence legislation passed in the last parliament, the Free Speech Union will bring judicial review proceedings.

    “There is a free speech crisis in our universities, as has been widely acknowledged, and this Act, which enjoyed cross-party support, was designed to remedy that.

    “For all Sir Keir Starmer’s talk about human rights, he clearly doesn’t care about the most important human right of all, which is the right to free speech.”

    A No 10 spokeswoman said the decision to pause the legislation had been taken “in response to concerns that have been raised in the university sector”.

    Asked about criticism of the move as a threat to free speech on campuses, she replied: “I disagree with that characterisation. It’s right to listen to concerns and to take stock.”

    Downing Street refused to say whether Prof Ahmed would keep his job.

    ***************************************

    Time for a Brew
    5 HRS AGO
    Labour – the champion of free speech – just as long as it doesn’t upset their hard core left trans loving and antisemite base

    Steven McFarland
    4 HRS AGO
    Reply to Time for a Brew – view message
    The walls are closing in on us. Expect much more of the same, especially if the Dems steal another election across the pond. Starmer and Co would dearly love to win elections and shut down opposing voices, in much the same way as Biden's lot have demonstrated.

  97. That's me for today. At least it didn't rain. The scaffolder arrived at 7 am. The man to collect the non-working clock, on the other hand, didn't.

    Have a jolly evening being glad you are not trying to get to yer France.

    A demain. I hope.

    1. Doh!! How did you expect the horologist to know what time it was if your clock is non-working?

  98. 'Night All
    Clear the decks a bit…….
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0300412617a51d9ecede3259a8b746c4bea24735ae0451b3406ff231e72471a9.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1370eafbdce46f004127aa160547e02d870d9147c15ef092101b426fc7274507.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ee01bf8e62a49e15de92c3560f9756ca124d5e4cb97463cb04c6f017f645a52b.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b8e98d40a19d792af5f32027a1c4218ba7081e0ab93ea2a63c60c78dc72c48d3.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/da4dc15a63a1534b21c896d7406f3736e2f4b323d1adc1d701d0956425d845a0.jpg

    1. Reading Mark Steyn earlier, a link to Biden's vaccine status. He seems to have had around six jabs between 2019-2024. If the video is true, his state is telling. I've had problems after three (wouldn't have had any if family hadn't pressured), I certainly won't be having any more. I think it's a scandal, and hope the truth continues to be revealed.

      1. Except that Biden was very obviously doolally in 2019, KJ, whereas you were not (nor me, for that matter, it was the second jab wot dunnit in my case. Coincidences don't come that stark).

        1. I’m sorry to read your 2nd jab did for you, are you getting over it? I’m slowly getting there but a few years older now. It’s been an awful time for a lot of people. Virus and vaccine same company…never again. Never ever again. All brushed under carpet now, nothing to see here. It was really telling how far Biden’s deteriorated, what are his family and the administration thinking. Who d’you reckon next..Michelle? I like RfKjr quite a lot, seems a good bloke.

          1. I hope and pray that it will be Trump, KJ. The other lot dumped their only decent candidate (Tulsi Gabbard) and are almost exclusively puppet loons now. I have very mixed feelings about RKJ, although I would prefer him to any of the above said lunatics (obvs).

            In a nutshell, it is my belief that if Trump doesn't win it will be due to deep state/media shenanigans, like last time. Which means that whomsoever were installed would be someone in the pocket of our global enemy.

          2. Trump is my pick, too. I like RfK but his focus is a bit narrow. Horrified at the Trump shooting, and suspicious too – the truth gradually seeping out. I like Don Jnr and Vance – I think they’re dealing with his security now. It will be a disaster for America and the rest of us if Dems re-elected esp if Kamala still the pick :/-

      2. I personally do not believe that ANY world leader had a vaccination. I think they were all given placebos since they are all part-and-parcel of the WEF's Great Reset.

        1. You could be spot on there, Grizzly. I subscribe to Free Speech Union, if you have time/inclination you may possibly want to read up on what the Labour Gov’t are planning re: free speech. As you say, Great Reset. I suspect Mr Blair involved.

          1. Morning, Kate. I’ve been a paid-up member of The Free Speech Union ever since it started. I used to post the Friday newsletter on this forum each week but I got so little interest in it from NoTTLers that I stopped wasting my time posting it.

          2. 🙂 I can see that, Grizzly…people just get full up with info, a different type of over-consumption. One reason I like it here is the varied diet of opinions.

  99. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0T5mbTJ2g4&list=WL&index=71 All you weed-munchers who insist on chomping on vegetation — like a cow or a donkey — and who, as a direct result, keep becoming more and more prone to developing (or catching) one-or-more of hundreds of pathological deadly diseases and maladies as a direct result of their obsession with grazing …. might (or might not) like to listen to the wise words of the highly intellectual committed carnivore Dr Jordan Peterson.

    1. I had rotisserie Poussin today. With some Romaine lettuce leafs and home made Caesar dressing. The Atkins diet would just make me nauseous.

      1. Me2, Phiz. I like a varied diet, love veg, salad, fruit. Carnivore Diet is solely meat – beef, lamb, chicken, any cut, cooked anyway, salt, water to drink – no veg not even greens, no fruit. Atkins himself died after slipping on ice in winter, banging his head. Autopsy revealed 'furred arteries'. I believe Peterson started following it because his daughter had an autoimmune disease and she found it helped her. See my post above if interested.

        1. Thanks.
          When one has lived long enough and taken the advice from experts/professionals/vested interests over many years ….one has to decide for oneself.

          I know what i like and i will eat what i want.
          Obviously the UHP foods are not so good but avoidance is not good either if you are denying yourself what would be an occasional pleasure.

          I like a Big Mac on occasion (about four months if that). Though i now know how to replicate it with better ingredients.

          1. I think this is my view. BH telling me to try carnivore…ok I’d like a steak, happy to eat eggs for breakfast etc but I think a varied diet will suit me. Sorry to say not a MaccyD fan, but most people I know are. Yes, home-made good, you know what ingredients are:-)

      2. I don’t know anything about ‘Atkins’. I just eat, enjoy and get nourished on meat.

        Barbecued rack of baby back ribs tomorrow, marinated in a char-sui sauce.

        1. I do agree with your food philosophy but only meat and protein isn’t the entire answer.

          Have you come across Gochoujang? It can even make sprouts edible.

          Did you make your own shar swee? :@)

          1. It is not my ‘food philosophy’; it is an archaeologically-proven fact that we are a carnivorous species. Eating a diet of meat and fish prevents all modern diseases. I can give you hundreds of testimonials to this fact.

    2. My husband has been following this for several weeks. He doesn't seem any different to me, but he says his mind is sharper, not as fuzzy. He has a number of health problems (been type2 for many years) which seem to have settled down, just a little so far. I do notice his appetite has decreased, now only eats once daily around 6pm – in itself that's amazing. When he told his GP, the GP said he was following something similar (whatever that means). I believe Peterson has steak, salt, water as does his daughter. I'd advise anyone interested to first research and then consult their GP.

        1. Thanks very much for video, Grizzly, I’ve sent it on to him. It essentially says the same thing he’s been telling me. I do remember as a child loving meat (not getting enough for my liking), and eggs, hating veg and liking apples. I like carbs too much now, in common with a lot of people. Do you fancy trying carnivore diet yourself, what do you think about it? maybe you already follow carnivore?

          1. Indeed, Kate. I have been, for a few years now, what I would call a 95% carnivore and I’ve never felt better, fitter or sharper than I do right now. My eating habits are: high-fat, medium-protein, low-carb, no-sugar.

          2. Very interesting, good to get another experience and just not his, thanks Grizzly…omelette for my breakfast, see how I like it (usually muesli and oat milk….eeeek) ‘gnight😊

      1. Brilliant. I regularly point out that we have a farm with literally millions of efficient, sustainable ecofactories that transform sunlight into food and energy for the factory pictured above. We also have fuel producing "plants" that self replace. All of these things have the additional merit of being beautiful and human friendly. They feed the world.

        The people who label themselves "Greens£" are mindblind idiots or, in some cases, very greedy cynics who care about nothing that matters, just their own enrichment.

      1. What do you think of Liberté, égalité, fraternité..

        They don't stand any nonsense do they ..

        Would that Leeds riot have happened or the Manchester airport fiasco or that poor maimed LT Colonel

        1. High ideals butter no baguettes.

          The Europeans are more emotional and tend to shout and scream and wave their arms around a lot.

          We Brits tend to sigh and put the kettle on.

          2. We do eventually rise up. Then everything changes. The Frogs did it once and that emboldened their communist beliefs. Wankers.

          4. Our backs have to be truly against the wall….. and we are almost there. Give it another 20 years. Hunger will be the last straw.

          5. I don't think it will take that long. I think (in my darker moments) that they are baiting and baiting us so that some will snap and they can bring in martial law, wherein our slammer infused military and paramilitary can take over and impose The Agenda upon the rest of us. Let's see what happens, who gets arrested and how, tomorrow.

          6. Oh, I agree – the 20 years was my dig at how long it takes our indigenous to get off their backsides…. I do think it will be sooner than that, there is too much going on in all directions. We are between a rock and a hard place. The establishment wants us to rise up, but if we do not, we will be overwhelmed. Organisation and strategic planning is required now.

          7. Indeed they do. This was noted by a French neighbour who had spent some time in Rochdale at textile factories oop north in Rochdale on behalf of Citroen. "The English are so calm, so calm" he said. "Anytime there was a hint of trouble or the remotest dispute they put the kettle on and it was 'fancy a cuppa tea, luv'?" – this was said in a perfect imitation of a Lancashire accent.

        1. Two of us then, hope today similar. Mine is all tied up with other folks, see you later 🙂

        2. Phizee, someone mentioned you have a pic of Ashesanddust, one you posted? I’ve been told she’s in Argentina (had missed her)…is it possible for you to post again her pic please? No probs if not, but thanks if poss, Kate 🙂

    2. There have been a number of recorded incidents, sometimes in the home. Cars are as bad if not worse – we have one (not my choice) parked well away from house (opopanax of this parish gave me very good advice). As well as not being able to move an EV if it fails (can't be pushed, has to be craned)..if a fire starts, get out of there pronto and don't look back, very difficult to put out. Should never have been approved for general sale imo.

        1. Well….good luck with that..I’m not sure we can rely on government for anything now. Think it was BoJo’s gov’t promoted them. I always thought a pile of pants but Him Indoors didn’t so he bought one. Strangely, he never drives it tho’..hmmm…

      2. Would any government dare to ban these dangerous items? Given that battery technology is about to save the world, I can't imagine it happening.

        Can anyone think of anything else as deadly but which was quickly banned?

        1. ‘Save the World’, William. Very good:-)) we’re going to see a lot more of this nonsense now that Millibollix is in charge. I predict a riot if wind turbines erected here. Although a neighbour was happy to tell me the valley should be flooded for hydropower, including around 1k homes. What on earth are they smoking?

      3. 390172+ up ticks,

        Evening KJ,

        I believe we are living in the era of the cullist, so every little helps as the old lady said as she peed in the Medway.

  106. Fall to your knees in gratitude. Marianna Spring's Great Seekers Of The Truth have analysed video footage of the Manchester incident and concluded…well, nothing more than anyone else.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/cn05p53qw9zo

    Be ye in awe of their powers of insight. Or in contempt of their conceit.

    1. National teams being transported on boats, waving their flags. Hang on – what's that at the rear? Could it be – dinghies filled with illegals?

    2. Watched the whole thing, thanks…whilst watching thinking around the questions finally came up at the end. Paul Waugh..not heard of him before, have the cut of his jib now.

  110. I went to Evensong sung by the choir of Shrewsbury Abbey earlier and decided to stop off in town on my way home as there was something I wanted to buy in Selfridges. Oxford Street was like a bluddy Arab bazaar. It was horrible. The classical temple built by Selfridge is still there but surrounded by the detritus of humanity. Westfield mall is bad enough but it’s much better than the West End.

  111. Well the opening ceremony is on tv in the background. Not really watching but from what I’ve seen of various clips if I was a Frenchman I would be dying of shame!

  112. I've been reading on my laptop (well, playing about, really) and have had a French channel on TV with the opening of the Olympic Games – no sound.

    Trite, is a polite way to describe it! Shite is a better way.

  113. Evening, folks! Back home after a few days away in a black hole, internet and mobile phone speaking. Weather wasn't very good, either. Glad to be back.

    1. Brilliant to see you, Conway. A number of us were wanting to hear your thoughts on the Dujardin debacle.

      1. I have been totally incommunicado since Sunday. You’ll have to fill me in as to what’s happened.

        1. She has pulled out of the Olympics as a short video clip has emerged of he using the lungeing whip in a questionable way during a riding lesson 4 years ago. It does look both bad and counterproductive – inexplicable, really – and she has grovelled. But her career, everything, all her beautiful riding and production of wonderful horses, is over. A Dutch lawyer is acting for a client in this. I will find the link for you.

          1. Oh dear. I should have thought she would know that you can’t beat a horse into submission to get good results. Dressage (like show jumping) has had some questionable practices over the years, rollkur for example.

      1. Yes, thanks. I was just totally incommunicado. I had a VIP tour of Longleat, all on my own. I also visited Stourhead. Journeys were a pain, though. Roadworks and diversions due to road closures.

      1. Over 90 emails for a start! My own internet connection is playing up as well. While I was away, my provider was taken over by Talk Talk – ’nuff said!

        1. 90! don”t think mine ever been as bad, good luck catching up. Hope your connection fixed…TalkTalk? thought they’d been taken over…long day ahead of me, see you later 🙂

          1. I used to be with the Post Office, then Shell Energy took them over. Then Octopus took over Shell Energy Broadband and finally Talk Talk has taken over Octopus broadband. I was with Talk Talk years ago – I was NOT impressed. I get a lot of emails because I am involved in a lot of organisations.

          2. I have a new symbol on my mbl Wi-Fi used to be Zyxel which it still is in settings but now shows on the screen as Vo))|Lite I think – so small I can hardly read it. Sounds like a few shake ups/takeovers happening, likely in order to reduce costs somehow. Our IFA has said nothing, as per. I still get a lot of messages/emails but most are now social, charities/relatives, none work related they stopped several months after I resigned thankfully. I’ve heard of the organisations you mention, but had no contracts etc with them. You sound like a good tech person to ask for advice:-D

    5. Welcome back! We missed you! I asked last night if you'd been seen or were you away…….So were you away or just cut off from online life?
      I wanted to ask you what you thought of the Charlotte DJ horsewhipping video.

      1. I haven’t seen it, so I can’t comment. Whipping a horse is not acceptable. A tap to reinforce leg aids is okay. I was away. I went to Longleat.

      1. ehtien dah
        No, I did say before I left that I might be out of Internet range. It turned out to be non-existent and worse, no mobile phone coverage so I couldn’t get internet on my phone or make calls either.

  114. Here's one for all Y'all: There seems to be a number of songs out there (YouTube) presented by men towards women, about love and desire, but so many fewer the other way around? For example, this:
    https://youtu.be/ifgQepGWFzQ?si=le1iS-GMy5P2E78S
    I don't see the same kind of song by a woman abot their love for a man – does that mean that there aren't any, or that there are a number but that they haven't fixed themselves in my male memory (now getting valuable due to scarcity)?
    What do all Y'all think? Am I right, or just unobservant?
    BTW, the Chas ' Dave above was released as SWMBO and I were married, and I couldn't put it better.

    3. Put this up as often as you like. It is one of the very best and most poignant of love songs.

    1. Very much, have been thinking so fot 5+ years now.

      “Coffee-coloured people by the score”

  118. There will surely be others opopanax, she has a lot of people speaking out on her behalf. What about horse racing, zoos, circuses, puppy farms…list goes on.

    1. I am not, in any way, defending any kind of animal cruelty, KJ. I am genuinely perplexed by this clip, as I can see no point to what she is doing. The lunge whip is used primarily as a visual aid for horses, or a little flick on the leg to communicate, They should not fear it and it is never used as a punishment (NB punishing horses is not a way to train, anyway. CD would know this – she is absolutely at the top of her game).

      I don't, personally, think that the clip (from an hour long lesson) is as damning as the rabid press does, and I don't think the horse would have been traumatised – more irritated. Nevertheless, it is a bad, bad look and a terrible example. I have watched it over and over and remain perplexed.

      1. Someone seems to have done it on purpose to create a press storm, likely she will know who that is. I only saw a short clip, horse possibly used to it, there will be horses treated much worse I reckon, I only went to Appleby once, had to come away.

        1. I'm afraid that the tight-knit community that frequents Appleby has very disagreeable (to my mind) training methods

          1. We’re of a mind. That’s me done for the day, ‘night opopanax (and everyone 🙂

    2. The BBC doc “Pavarotti: The Last Tenor” has recently been repeated and is still on iPlayer.

      1. I recorded it and have still to watch it. I need to set aside some 'me' time.

  121. After Firstborn was born – tiny, premature, and by cæsarean weighing under 2kg, I went home an played this – and cried like a baby. My first child.
    Now, he's 33, a massive, strong-as-fcuk lad, with own farm and a technical authority in the repair of electric cars… and a fabulously talented chef. Posted a picture a day or s ago, in a kilt – our own tartan. His birthday in a week or so.
    Most of his development due to SWMBO.
    https://youtu.be/2nGKqH26xlg?si=Ob_r-TjTZAbmJOA9

    1. That is tiny! But he's made up for it in many ways!
      My firstborn, now 53, weighed 6ib 5oz, was full-term but the umbilical cord was wrapped round him twice – round his neck and his body. He had a fair old pair of lungs on him though. The medics monitored his heart rate with a loudspeaker so I could hear it.
      He's an IT contractor.

      1. And you are two years younger than I am!

        My sister, Belinda, was born on December 3rd 1935 and on Christo's 21st Birthday we went to see Ralph Mc Tell, who was born on December 3rd 1944, perform in London at his 70th Birthday Concert. We were watching up with the Gods at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, when this was being performed and recorded.
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urtnT72dVnw

        1. Fabulous song. Thank you Rastus. IIRC he was a busker when that song brought him to the attention of the general public rather that ghosted just visiting Leicester Square.

    2. My first-born arrived in this world on 3rd December 1993.

      I went home from the hospital having been with Caroline when Christopher was born and played this over and over again:

      For unto us a child is born; unto us a son is given.'

      https://www.google.com/search?gs_ssp=eJzj4tVP1zc0TDMyS8-rMDExYPSSTssvUijNK8lXKC1WSFRIzsjMSVHILFZIyi_KAwAnFw3_&q=for+unto+us+a+child+is+born&oq=For+Unto+Us+A+Chld+Is+Born&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqDAgBEC4YDRjUAhiABDIGCAAQRRg5MgwIARAuGA0Y1AIYgAQyDAgCEC4YDRjUAhiABDIJCAMQABgNGIAEMgkIBBAAGA0YgAQyCQgFEAAYDRiABDIJCAYQABgNGIAEMgkIBxAAGA0YgAQyCQgIEAAYDRiABNIBCTE1NTIyajBqN6gCALACAA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:4fcd7869,vid:CHK8hJ22SPw,st:0

      Christo is now 30, is married, is an aerospace engineer and has bought his own house in Bedfordshire.

    3. Pull yourself together Man ! if you don't you will have us all blubbing ! and i don't look good in a tartanesque mini skirt with my eyeliner running ! Though i do have nice ankles……ahem.

  122. That poor woman, holding the umbrella for the long-winded bastard at the Olympic opening ceremony.

    Her arm must have hurt, her facial expressions were priceless!

    1. Gigli was, of course a very great singer, as was Caruso, Bjorling, Domingo and others, but for me at least, only Pavarotti had that je ne sais quoi.

      1. Pavarotti had a perfect voice and also sang with huge passion, which is why he aces everything. The best.

        Bjorling had, perhaps, a more "flawless" voice in some ways. I do, though, think his rendition with Robert Merrill of the duet from the Pearl Fishers is beyond compare.
        https://youtu.be/5PYt2HlBuyI

        1. For many years that was voted number one on "Your hundred Best Tunes". Rightly so! As you say, beyond compare.

          1. I have a distinct feeling of deja vu, Sam. Nevermind that – it might also be that Robert Merrill is completely underestimated, perhaps out of snobbery (a jobbing minstrel who sang around the world for little money) – but what a fabulous voice he had. He could have underpinned even the most mediocre tenor voice in this song and made it sound fabulous. What a generous musician he was.

        2. Pavarotti had the most exquisite voice in his youth and well into his later life but towards the end his voice was forced and ragged.

          I recall the great pianist Andras Schiff describing late Pavarotti’s rendition of Schubert’s Ave Maria as “horrible”.

          I am reminded of the same decline we see inevitably in all great performers. The trick is knowing when to stop and although by no means past her best Janet Baker is the immortal signal for me. She gave up performance to care for her impaired husband who had unstintingly supported her throughout her stellar career.

      1. Bryn Terfel, not a Tenor but a Baritone has recorded this and frankly Bryn Terfel’s rendition is the best I have in my own record and CD collection.

    3. Have just listened to Gigi singing Nessus Dorma. IMO he’s not a patch on Pavarotti. He was magnificent.

      1. Me too, just listened to Gigli, fantastic, beautiful. Then listened to Pavarotti and it made me cry almost from the beginning. That is what Pavarotti had and gave to us. Callas also had this quality and there is no way to describe it in words.

      2. Nessun Dorma suits Pavarotti’s voice – it’s a belter, as he was. Listen to Gigli singing something more subtle.

          1. Try Gigli singing “Mi par d’udir ancora” from the Pearl Fishers. Scratchy old recording but the voice control is superb.

    1. The mentally ill, whom we are required to “celebrate”. Incredible.

  128. Thought for the day.

    Let's shoot everyone on the ear who questions Trump's recovery and whether he really was shot or hit by shrapnel or faked the whole thing.
    Shoot, treat and photograph all the stages, from the instant the bullet hits them, through to recovery.

    If none of them recover as Trump has within two weeks it was, as they are hinting, faked.

    If they do recover within the timescale, shoot them in the balls/vulva and track recovery again, just to be certain

    2. Shame about Comperetore sitting behind. Seems the Lefty media don't give a fuck about him and his family. Much like the recent soldier stabbed. I suppose it is because they are privileged white and dead.
      What those stupid fuckers don't understand is they will be next.
      I hope i live to see it.

  129. Good night, chums, sleep well, and I hope we all awake rested tomorrow morning.

      1. #MeToo, Opopanax and Elsie. 04:20 and I climbed OUT of bed having only dozed since midnight!

  130. Our 56th wedding anniversary tomorrow , we are off on a cruise .. early start tomorrow .

    As if.

    Isle of Wight to visit son and his partner .

    Night night all

    1. Have a wonderful time. Belle!

      What's brown and steaming and comes out of Cowes?

      The Isle of Wight Ferry

    3. Well Done – Congratulations!

      Many more happy years together. You must have started very young for you are younger than I am and Caroline and I have only notched up 36.

        1. 37 years in my first (Irish) wedding and 13 years in my second (Swedish) marriage. Makes a grand total of 50 years wed. A lot of culture learned.

    6. I was married 55 years ago in April. By the time we'd done 20 years it was over bar the shouting and the divorce.
      Things worked out better the second time around……. still married after 27 years last week.
      Night all and enjoy the trip to the IoW, Belle.

    7. Happy anniversary for tomorrow, A great achievement and few will get that far.Have a lovely half hour cruise.
      We had our 56th in March.

    10. I used to take the Red Jet to IoW in the nineties when working on projects at Osborne House. I parked up in Southampton early morning having left home in North Essex at 4.00am.

      There were problems with protesters at Twyford Down which caused inordinate delays given that my meetings at Osborne were at 10.00am.

      After taking the chain ferry in Cowes my ‘boss’ a total idiot had already taken the single taxi (the fucker lived in a street off Kings Road in London, will have taken a Taxi to the Station and gobbled a bacon sandwich before boarding the Red Jet long before me) and I was left to walk uphill to Osborne House carrying the drawings vital to the meeting.

      If I had better memories of IoW I would nowadays prefer a relaxed visit there to a supposed cruise even to exotic destinations. Cruise ships are merely floating hotels and most are populated by morons who booked at the last minute at preferential rates. I would find the experience hell on Earth.

      My late in-laws were fond of cruises. I realised that they were losing it and becoming demented when they took a cruise and stayed on the boat having reached the principal destination. I believe it was Odessa.

      Happy Anniversary Belle.

      For what it is worth my beloved wife annoys me by taking seriously the TV commentary especially when the Lionesses are playing football, when a chap called Adam is pontificating in mock Estuarial accent on Gardeners’ World and when she habitually listens to the BBC. I tell her never to even listen to the BBC because it only enrages her and provokes an intense emotional response.

      I am still stoically working on our joint marital project after nigh on 40 years.

          1. Venereal Disease as you well know. The ghastly woman slept her way to the top. A chap appropriately named ‘Willy’ Brown was her fixer.

  133. Good morning all ,

    Thank you for you kind wishes .

    I am awake early , couldn't sleep , alarm is set for 0615!!!! drinking coffee and listening to the early birds cooing and clacking in the garden

    Re my discussion earlier about the new fig trees we have growing in the garden ..

    This article appeared in the Times yesterday .

    On a search for Sheffield’s mythical figs, I’m on a roll
    Friday July 26 2024, 9.00pm, The Times

    The car park of the giant Meadowhall shopping centre in northeast Sheffield feels like a strange place to be embarking on a horticultural quest. It is not dubbed Meadowhell for nothing. I am parked on a sea of concrete, in one of 12,000 car spaces, almost all occupied. The M1 is criminally close and, as I head for the path along the River Don, I hear screams from the “Freak Out” fun fair ride.

    I am here to look for figs. The “fig forest” of Sheffield is the stuff of legend — a horticultural oddity that is one of the strangest bits of industrial history anywhere. It hinges on the fact the steel workers here were very keen on fig rolls (first mass produced in the 1890s, as I am sure you wanted to know). The seeds found their way, via biology and sewage, into the River Don where the waters were artificially heated by the steel factories to a temperature of 20-23 degrees all year round.

    The result? The fig seeds thought they were in the Mediterranean (if not the Garden of Eden) and behaved accordingly. For years I have heard about this fabled “fig forest” but never seen even one tree. I feared failure again but, just as the “Sheffield Forgemasters” factory comes into view, I spot a huge fig tree on the riverbank. It must be at least 50 years old and there are several other figs nearby. Amid the sycamore and willow, ash and buddleia, the figs look right at home, as much a symbol of the Industrial Revolution as any dark satanic mill.

    https://www.thetimes.com/comment/columnists/article/search-sheffield-mythical-figs-z8h0jk6dq

    1. …at least you weren't camping, Maggie, the excitement would have been intense. Otherwise, I couldn't care a fig!

      1. Hello Tom

        My goodness , you are awake as well.

        What is the weather like this morning in Moffat?

        Cloudy here , mildish , 10c (05.49.)

    2. Good morning, Maggie. Around 4 years ago I bought a small fig tree from my local garden centre reduced, as I recall, from £25 to £15 and planted it in my garden. The label suggested that it would be essential to dig a VERY deep hole to plant it in but the soil was so rock hard that I doubted that it would live. In fact, it somehow survived and shot up "like Topsy" although getting the figs to turn brown from green was another matter. This year, I seemed to be on the verge of success, but then my neighbour complained that the fig tree had grown so tall that it interfered with the sun's rays when she tried to dry her washing on the washing line – could I cut it back a little? This I have done, so I have no idea how this will affect the fruit. Of course, I could shop locally for brown figs imported from sunnier climes, but somehow it's not the same as the joy I experienced as a child in Argentina climbing fig trees and eating them either raw or fully brown. Perhaps the NoTTLer who dances the Tango in Buenos Aires (AshesThanDust) could post some to me! Lol. PS – Alternatively, I could drive to Sheffield and get some from the bank of the River Don.

  134. Morning, all. I'm having problems with WordPress at the moment, so today's new page may be delayed. May have to dig out – and probably charge – the spare laptop…

    2. Good morning, Geoff. Botheration! I shall have to come back later on today. But thanks all the same for your heroic devotion to us NoTTLers.

    1. 'Morning, Geoff and thank you for the fine job you do, all the work and effort you have put in to keep us all going. Well done! More power to your elbow (or keyboard).

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