Friday 27 August: Patients are driven to despair and anger when they can’t even speak to a GP on the phone

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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818 thoughts on “Friday 27 August: Patients are driven to despair and anger when they can’t even speak to a GP on the phone”

    1. Morning AW. Biden is probably the personification of the west. Decadent. Corrupt. Lost. Dying on its feet!

      2. Morning, Araminta.

        Well said. The West is lost: it has long been so. Deep, ingrained corruption among the political classes is what is killing it. Corruption has become a way of life for them; a badge of honour even. For some time now I have held no trust nor any confidence in any politician, at any level of government, of any party, in any country. They are all intrinsically bent. The whole fucking lot of them.

        And please, NoTTLers, don’t attempt to tell me of any exemptions to this: there are none! The altruistic politician does not exist.

      3. ‘Morning Minty. I find it quite impossible to understand how a nation of some 330 million could have elected such a Grade 1 dud as Biden.

        And then I wondered how this nation of 67 million could have achieved the same result…perhaps those blessed with a brain, some integrity and common sense generally keep well clear of politics.

        1. Margaret Thatcher explained all succinctly a generation ago: “There is no alternative”.

      1. I’m waiting for the blimp of Biden wearing an incontinence pad to be floated over Londonistan.

    3. To paraphrase, “I take full responsibility for attempting to heap the blame solely on President Trump.”

  2. Morning everyone. I see that there have been some regrets voiced at the departure of Elf & Safety. Having been on this Blog since its inception and before that on the Telegraph Comments can I say that this is not a new phenomenon. I have seen it at least a half dozen times and most of those because of some supposed dispute with other posters and not infrequently with the Mods and even on one memorable occasion with multiple incarnations of himself. Have no fears. Hatman has other interests. He will return. Whether we will be here is the moot point!

    1. ‘Morning, Minty.

      Why shouldn’t we be?

      I was sorry to see his departure & look forward to his return.

      1. I was sorry to see his departure & look forward to his return.

        Morning Peddy. Then you will not be disappointed!

      1. It was much ado about nothing AW. A supposed dispute about anti-vaxxers. There are so far as I’m aware no Nottlers who fit this description. I myself have received no shots but do not regard myself as one of them. Others in similar situations also deny that refusal makes them part of some movement that denies the credibility of vaccination in itself. Hatman chose to make this into some personal disagreement.

        1. fair enough, sounds about right from what I’ve read. No tests or jabs here for me or anyone else. As I read it, no one can be anti vax for a non existent virus and a vax that’s never been trialled, tested and regulated. He’s a “sarf luhndun” boy, we all have our moments, he’ll be fine

          1. A few years ago I made my account private as Hatman was trolling me everywhere I went and it was quite unpleasant. That was a dispute over a decision I made as a mod. Although he can be amusing and likeable he can also be otherwise.

        2. I agree with your comments, Minty. Poppiesdad and myself remain unjabbed, although certainly not through want of endeavour by the nhs and media. Having said that I am not an anti-vaxxer, it was after examining a list of the ingredients of this concoction (the secret ingredient(s) – courtesy of Gates – were omitted) that I started to look much more closely at the contents of earlier vaccines, and I did not like what I found, mercury and aluminium being just two of them. So I may have to jump tracks on this one. It does make one wonder about the prevalence of auto immune disease in our society.

          I must go – a van marked ‘Big Pharma’ has just rolled up outside…..

  5. ‘Morning, Peeps.

    SIR – Recently I was stung by a flying insect. This resulted in a severe allergic reaction causing my face to swell and my eye to close. On attempting to secure an appointment with a doctor or nurse at the village GP surgery, and after describing my situation, I was told by the receptionist that all eye-related problems had been outsourced to Specsavers.

    Wendy Rainford
    Selby, North Yorkshire

    This mirrors my experience last week…I seemed to have an eye infection when I woke up. Left a message with our GP surgery after hearing that I was 12th in the queue. Some time later a receptionist called, to tell me that they have “no eye equipment” and that I should contact Specsavers or consider attending A&E. I did point out that this was currently not an accident or an emergency and neither did I relish a wait of up to 4 hours in a hospital 20 minutes away to which my wife would have to drive me. She just went on repeating the ‘no equipment’ line and refused to budge. I phoned Specsavers but could only leave a message. They phoned back mid-morning, to offer an appointment in four days’ time (for which they charge). No thanks.

    Some three weeks earlier my wife had a very similar eye infection and was called over to the surgery just a couple of minutes away. She was seen in due course and prescribed drops. These worked. Fortunately she had not disposed of the container, so I decided to start my own 7-day course with what remained. This cleared the infection.

    I dread to think what anyone with a possibly serious complaint must be going through. My albeit limited experience seems to confirm that primary care is in a state of at least partial collapse.

    1. ‘Morning, Hugh.

      Glad it ended well for both of you.
      However, it is not a good idea to share prescriptions, especially when it comes to antibiotics. Not completing a course, i.e. stopping ‘when it feels better’ could result in a recurrence. Whenever I prescribed an antibiotic I always stressed to the patient that it was important to finish the course, except in the case of an unexpected reaction, in which case they should return to me.

      1. Thanks Peddy. Mrs HJ did finish the course, and there was enough for me to do likewise. She is a former medical secretary and is familiar with the drops prescribed. Not an ideal situation but there we are.

        2. The story behind The Third Man was the selling of out of date drugs.
          Nowadays, Harry Lime would be a public benefactor.

    2. It ia about time, that the general population responded in kind to the GPs , their bodyguards (receptioinists) etc, by withdrawing all services from them
      ie, tradesmen, fuel, shopping.

      Those who who have continued workas ‘normal’ could be given a pass stating that fact

  6. Here we go with the Wine Cellar Witterings:Perhaps “Wendy Rainford” might prefer if King Harold responded to her concluding statement:

    SIR – I wonder if the “despair and anger” of Dr Richard Vautrey, the Chair of the British Medical Association’s General Practitioners Committee (Letters, August 26), at being criticised for a nationwide withdrawal of proper GP services, comes anywhere near to patients’ despair and anger at being fobbed off
    with a promised call from a GP that never materialises, or being advised to attend A&E with a four-hour wait to be seen for a minor illness, or being cut off after a 30-minute unanswered telephone call to the GP surgery?

    It is, of course, the British Medical Association which constantly defends GPs for the indefensible routine of sitting at home in front of a computer screen instead of actively engaging in the surgery with the patients they are handsomely rewarded to treat.

    Dr A C E Stacey
    Rustington, West Sussex

    SIR – When are some elements of the media going to stop attacking GPs? GPs and patients are on the same side here, and we share our patients’ frustrations when they can’t get an appointment or face long waits trying to get through to the surgery.

    General practice has been open throughout the pandemic and we have continued to see patients face to face where safe and appropriate, in line with government guidance on infection control. GPs are delivering record numbers of consultations – 13 million in the past four weeks, on top of 75 per cent of Covid vaccinations.

    The truth is that the job of a modern GP to provide safe, effective and personalised care for patients is becoming increasingly unachievable. General practice has suffered a decade of underinvestment and the GP workforce is not big enough to manage the increasingly complex needs of an ageing and growing patient population.

    We need urgent progress on the Government’s 2019 manifesto pledge of an additional 6,000 GPs by 2024 – plus 26,000 additional practice staff – so that we can safely deliver the care and services that our patients need and deserve.

    Professor Martin Marshall
    Chair, Royal College of General Practitioners
    London NW1

    SIR – As a retired surgeon I am aware that, before Covid, Britain was in the lower half of European countries with respect to cancer outcomes (deaths). We have some of the best cancer centres and specialists in Europe, but a different way of organising access.

    To see a specialist means negotiating the gatekeeper role of the GP. In European countries a patient would see a specialist in the polyclinic and already be in the cancer system.

    Lord Darzi has proposed moving specialists out of hospitals into the community. Specialists in polyclinics would have access to hi-tech diagnostic and treatment facilities in specialist centres. Perhaps this should be revisited more thoroughly.

    John Cumming
    Minstead, Hampshire

    SIR – In Broadway, Worcestershire, it is impossible to see any of our local GPs in person. Oddly, they are soon to open a brand new, multi-million pound surgery. They have even written to patients in the hope of raising additional funds, apparently for equipment the NHS does not supply.

    The question I would ask if I were ever allowed to meet one of these doctors is: “Why do you need an expensive new surgery if you refuse to meet any patients?”

    Nigel Hastilow
    Wickhamford, Worcestershire

    SIR – Recently I was stung by a flying insect. This resulted in a severe allergic reaction causing my face to swell and my eye to close. On attempting to secure an appointment with a doctor or nurse at the village GP surgery, and after describing my situation, I was told by the receptionist that all eye-related problems had been outsourced to Specsavers.

    Wendy Rainford
    Selby, North Yorkshire

    More Afghan terror

    SIR – Among the thousands of Afghans trying to get to the airport how on earth are the American and British soldiers to spot the suicide bombers?

    President Joe Biden has a lot to answer for.

    Jack Marriott
    Churt, Surrey

    SIR – What can I and other individuals do to help? There must be something.

    Lesley Walford
    Pewsey, Wiltshire

    SIR – It is a bit rich for Joe Biden to play hardball over the Afghan Nato mission.

    It was instigated, following the September 11 terrorist attacks, by the United States, asking for support under Article 5 (an attack on one is an attack on all). Whether this was ever intended to cover domestic terrorist attacks planned from outside the Nato area of responsibility is a moot point. Britain, for example, did not invoke Article 5 after the Brighton bomb or the Falklands invasion.

    Afghanistan is therefore a Nato mission, controlled by the North Atlantic Council, rather than an exclusively American undertaking. Any changes to the mission should be decided by the North Atlantic Council and not by an individual member, even though President Biden has said the allies could continue alone if they so wished.

    That’s gratitude for you. It’s rather like a man saved from drowning refusing to help back on the boat the rescuer who dived in to save him.

    Colonel S C H Ashworth
    Lichfield, Staffordshire

    Cancelling the Haka

    SIR – The military museum in Ypres Cloth Hall has a film of New Zealand soldiers, both Maori and white, passing a camera on their way to the Battle of Passchendaele.

    All of them stopped and performed a Haka, and some probably died for freedom. This dance is sacred to New Zealanders, and woke efforts to stop it show ignorance of its significance.

    Graham Watson
    Yeovil, Somerset

    Testudinate tastes

    SIR – In your report about the tortoise in the Seychelles, I was surprised to see the animals described as herbivores. The tortoise we once owned seemed to
    love eating snails and slugs. It used to hit the former on the concrete to break the shell.

    Edmund Mahony
    Brighton, East Sussex

    Off-duty ombudsman

    SIR – There is another public organisation that is failing to deliver a proper service (Letters, August 23).

    On November 9 2020 I submitted a complaint to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) on behalf of my then 95-year-old mother against an NHS Clinical Commissioning Group, in relation to its alleged failure to carry out a proper continuing healthcare assessment for her. In its acknowledgement I was told by PHSO to expect the case to be assessed “within 18 weeks”.

    When I contacted PHSO on March 31 2021 to inquire about progress, I was advised that it should be “allocated to a caseworker within a further 16 weeks”.

    On July 30 2021 I inquired again and was told that the PHSO service was “unable to confirm when your case is going to be allocated. Our current wait time is up to 12 months”.

    Not only is my mother’s time running out while her health deteriorates and she continues to pay for all her care, but people’s human rights are also being denied by PHSO’s failure to respond to complaints within a reasonable time. Those in our situation have nowhere else to go.

    Clare Seymour
    Brasted, Kent

    Lorry drivers

    SIR – It is often claimed that Brexit and Covid caused Eastern European drivers to leave Britain and never return, resulting in a driver shortage.

    I am an HGV driver employed by a large retailer, and I can tell you that the real reason they left was because of a tax change called IR35.

    Previously these drivers could set up a limited company and pay much less tax and national insurance. IR35 took effect for them in April 2021, having been delayed from April 2020. From this point on, full contributions couldn’t easily be avoided.

    Paul Bowman
    Weston-super-Mare, Somerset

    Reverse charge

    SIR – Electric vehicle manufacturers should install the charging plug to the rear of the vehicle instead of at the front.

    This would discourage the practice of driving forwards into a drive. If people do this, they may later have to reverse out across the pavement, between cars parked on the street, and into traffic. It is much safer to reverse in and drive out forwards.

    Donald MacKenzie
    Inverness

    When the Royal Mail took deliveries seriously

    SIR – In the 1950s, my father was able to arrange his post to be forwarded at no extra cost during our holidays, whether to the north of Scotland or the Yorkshire Dales.

    He also had his newspaper sent to him, which would be the first edition and would reach him on publication day. There was no first or second class; it was all treated equally seriously.

    There was even a delivery on Christmas Day, with calls of “Merry Christmas” to and from the posties.

    The price of posting letters has since risen significantly but the quality of delivery varies. I had to make a fuss after my post far too frequently failed to arrive when I expected it. I now have an excellent postman, which has made a huge difference.

    My brother lives 12 miles away in Buxton. I posted a card to him first class on July 15 for his birthday on July 18 – he did not receive it until July 21. What was the point of using a first-class stamp?

    Meanwhile, Keith Williams, the chairman of Royal Mail, wishes to do away with Saturday deliveries. May I suggest that first he ensures the current post is delivered promptly to those who are paying for it?

    Hilda Gaddum
    Macclesfield, Cheshire

    XR protests block the way to medical treatment

    SIR – Not everyone comes to London to see the sights or shop. Some of us are coming for essential medical care.

    In the past I have missed treatments due to Extinction Rebellion, all the time watching the police stand by and let the protesters block the roads.

    I am all for peaceful protest, but at what cost to the rest of the population – particularly those of us who are unable to dance and sing in the streets?

    Angelina Arturi
    Finchampstead, Berkshire

    SIR – Extinction Rebellion is self-harming with its tactic of disruption. Far from changing government strategy, all it is managing to do is disrupt the lives of ordinary people trying to go about their daily business.

    It is deluded if it thinks the people it is annoying will join its cause. They are far more likely to turn against it, and with some relish, too.

    Chris Lambert
    Tadworth, Surrey

    SIR – The Metropolitan Police was less accommodating of England supporters than it is of XR protesters.

    I was in Piccadilly Circus when the Met served a section 35 dispersal order ahead of the match against Scotland in June. The crowd was good-natured and traffic was not held up.

    The double standard is clear, and the Met is undermining the principles of policing. The Commissioner should go.

    Paul Shone
    Penrith, Cumbria

    SIR – Why unglue them?

    Mac Fearnehough
    Holmesfield, Derbyshire

  7. President Biden has released a brief statement. He has confirmed that, following his request, the Taliban have now assured him that they will catch the suicide bombers and punish them appropriately.

    1. Reporter: “Mr President, you recently stated categorically that the Afghan army was one of the biggest and best equipped in the world. Given that army’s rapid capitulation would you confirm or deny that the Taliban is now one of, if not the best equipped armies in the Middle East and that the taxpayers of the USA paid for this.”

      Biden, grimacing: “Err, umm, no further questions”

        1. Biden, grinning: ” But the good news is we have the contracts for resupply and maintenance”

    2. I have visions of the Taliban surrounding a suicide bomber, at a distance of course, and catching, bitsa bomber as they fall after completing their task.

      Will the bombers be rebuilt

      Why are not the bombers (and their bosses) apprended before the act, or is that what he means

  9. SIR – Electric vehicle manufacturers should install the charging plug to the rear of the vehicle instead of at the front. This would discourage the practice of driving forwards into a drive. If people do this, they may later have to reverse out across the pavement, between cars parked on the street, and into traffic. It is much safer to reverse in and drive out forwards.

    Donald MacKenzie
    Inverness

    Mr MacKenzie is quite right, but his point might have been stronger had he quoted the Highway Code:

    Rule 201
    Do not reverse from a side road into a main road. When using a driveway, reverse in and drive out if you can.

    From observation over several decades of driving, “not a lot of people know that”.

    1. I drive in forwards & reverse out, & so do all my neighbours. We live in a quiet cul-de-sac.
      When it comes to reversing out, I do so very slowly, using all mirrors, and with hazard lights on the go.

      1. Quite so, Peddy. The word “main” in Rule 201 obviously does not apply in your case and that of your neighbours.

    2. Let’s hope our deluded PM comes to his senses and there is no need for millions of charging points littering our streets.

    3. Exactly.
      I will usually try to give space and time for someone reversing into a drive, but rarely stop to allow someone to reverse out of a drive unless forced to to prevent a collision.

      1. Snap. And where there is a long line of parked cars on one side of the road I always try to wait for a moment to let buses and commercial vehicles come through, anything to prevent a log jam.
        (from that you can deduce that I am never ever likely to be employed by any Highways Dept in any council office anywhere within the UK)

        1. You ought to try Water Lane in Cromford, the bottom end of the Via Gellia, when we’re having one of our Cromford Snarl-ups. People approaching the junction MUST keep up with the car in front to the point where vehicles coming in the opposite direction can not pass the parked vehicles, leading to a tail back round to the Market Place and even onto the A6 and up Cromford Hill.

      2. Good morning BoB. Same here. I also find the car horn is useful when eejits reverse blind out of supermarket parking bays.

        1. Too many eejits race around supermarket carparks. All vehicles should proceed at walking pace as there are often young children about, pensioners with over-loaded shopping trolleys which they can’t control properly & cars reversing out of spaces. Car parks are not the highway.

    5. Judging by mine often being the only car that’s reversed into a parking space in supermarket car parks, not a lot of people practise that.

  11. Re the person contaminating food in a supermarket – here’s a section of the BBC report from this morning:
    “A man has been charged after a police investigation into the contamination of supermarket products in west London. Leoaai Elghareeb, 37, from Fulham, will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Friday.”

    1. One of the Dorset Elghareebs on a day trip. Couldn’t get tickets for ‘Anything Goes’ so had a bit of spare time on his hands.

    2. gets off scot free when magistrates find they’ve mis-spelt name on charge docket. then sues for victimhood. BBC goes into overdrive

  12. Making A Sale
    A guy spent the day walking around town looking for a job. He finally walked into an adult store. “Do you have any work for me?” he asked the owner.

    The owner smiled and responded, “You come as if you have been sent from heaven. I just opened another store and I’m looking for someone to mind this store for me.”
    “When do I start?” the guy asked.
    “Now. I’m leaving for the other store shortly.”

    The owner explained all the ins and outs and then left. First to enter the store was a Caucasian woman. She walked around and stopped at the dildo rack. “How much for the white dildo?” “Forty dollars,” he said.
    “How much for the black dildo?”
    “Forty dollars.”
    “Give me the . . . uh, black one. I’ve never had a black one before.”

    She paid and left. Soon an African-American woman walked in. She too walked around and stopped at the dildo rack. “How much for the black dildo?” she asked.
    “Forty dollars.”
    “How much for the white dildo?”
    “Forty dollars.”
    After thinking a moment, the woman said, “Give me the . . . uh, white one. I’ve never had a white one before.”

    She paid and left. Then a blonde woman walked in. She walked around and stopped at the dildo rack. “How much for the white dildo?” she asked.
    “Forty dollars.”
    “How much for the black dildo?”
    “Forty dollars.”
    “And how much for the chequered one on your counter there?”
    “Two hundred dollars.” “Give me . . . uh, the chequered one. I’ve never had a chequered one before.”

    She paid and left. Closing time came around and the owner returned. “How was your first day?” “Great!” the guy responded. “I sold a white and a black dildo for forty bucks each, and I sold your thermos for two hundred.”

  13. 338156+ up ticks,
    Morning Each,
    May one ask, with Dover firmly in mind are priti johnson fully aware
    of this ?

    Dt,
    This horrific Kabul attack signals the resurgence of terror

    1. This horrific Kabul attack signals the resurgence of terror.

      Morning Oggy. It certainly signifies an increase in Muslim confidence. This withdrawal which has morphed into defeat is a seminal moment. It will end the West as we have known it and probably bring forward the Caliphate by twenty years!

      1. I suspect that many of the PTB have a suicidal death wish. They actively seek the West’s extinction at the hands of murderous members of the religion of peace.

    2. mng ogga, your first point will remain forever unanswered by any political talking head. 2nd point;s merely Western MSM flogging a dead horse and avoid challenges over C-19 etc

      1. 338156+ up ticks,
        Morning AWK,
        More to the point is this sort of material a vote winner
        regarding the governance party’s ?

        Will it have any lasting affect on the voting pattern ?
        I mean tis over the horizon not within these Isles.

        Same mindset of many, it happened outside of their immediate area so does not really apply, best to forget Lest we forget, for the sake of the party (ino) name.

        1. the old political model / parties are long since dead and everything with it. Applying old ways of “democracy” merely keeps the churn going. Bottom line it’ll come down to who and what people trust aka Brexit despite v1 of project fear. Am sure like all Nottlers, people keep “tabs” on what MSM, political talking heads spout, merely to know what those against the people are up to and their approach. Trust you didn’t forget to plug your e-stalker back into the grid

          2. asante, have to act as a conduit here in Kenya as Kenya MSM is more downbeat and no one and I mean no one believes anything issued. However, most Kenyans don’t know the behind the scenes detail / agendas and Kenya always follows same path as Western Countries [or rather now economic colonialists]. All Kenyans know there’s a problem brewing but not many know the agendas. So I pass as a form of conduit what’s happening, then it’s for Kenyans to draw their own conclusions and make their own decisions. More so, as I’d said locally since beginning 2020, there won’t be a Kenya election in the way they normally expect in 2022, if at all. That’s why you, others on here give me a wider insight without trawling / researching.

  14. DT reporting that the UK forces are preparing for departure and the processing facilities have been closed,
    I am keeping my fingers crossed.

      1. Contractors selling weapons, Mineral wealth exploiters, NGO’s and other dodgy charities, British muslims visiting relatives for arranged marriages. Lots of reasons to feed on the carcass.

        Good morning.

        1. The Beeb interviewed a ‘British’ citizen who had gone out there to get married.
          Shame his jollifications were kiboshed; I hope the caterers returned his deposit.

    2. They were performing the Haka on the way to war. The writer is laughably pious and insulting them by defending its use as a vaudeville side show to a rugby match.

      1. Let them perform their haka before a match – even though it is most unsporting and an attempt to intimidate their opponents. But there is no reason why the other sides should not mock them as Richard Cockerill did.

        1. It is not unsporting in the least, Rastus, and no opposing teams have ever been intimidated by it. In fact, for most opponents it spurs them on even more.

          More rugby fans around the world look forward to watching the Haka than hate it.

      2. Regardless of your point of view I will continue to champion the use of the Haka by all Polynesian rugby teams.

    3. I attended a Haka workshop during the Womad festival in South Australia in 2005.

      It is the Maori equivalent of the two-fingered salute used originally by English archers at Agincourt, and reversed and used as a trademark by Churchill during WW2. It is to give people courage when confronting aliens on their shores – to send them the message that they are no pushover. One feature of the haka is the rubbing of the tummy as they stick out their tongues – this reminds any hostile elements coming off the boats that in New Zealand enemies are edible.

      The women have these clacker devices, comprising two balls which they play with when dancing. It takes little imagination to understand which part of the enemies’ anatomy this represents.

    4. The Norwegian Telemark Battalion got flak for their version some years ago, when after a rousing speech by their Major just before they went off to off a load of towelheads, they did ther “Til Valhall! Til Valhall! Hurra!” thing. Really upset the pretty little defence minister, it did, but these lads weer off to battle, and some were not coming back. Like the above mentioned Kiwis.
      https://youtu.be/GxOSqSUgNzE

  17. Hundreds of Britons offer to host Afghan refugees after fall of Kabul. 27 August 2021.

    Hundreds of Britons have offered to host Afghan refugees in their homes since the UK government started evacuation flights after the fall of Kabul.

    In August, 998 people have signed up to be hosts with Rooms for Refugees, a Glasgow-based community housing network which has 10,000 hosts on its books across the UK. Another 824 people have offered up their spare rooms to Afghans via another charity, Refugees at Home, in the last two weeks.

    Would it be unreasonable to assume that most of these are themselves Muslims? There is also the descriptive people. Have they by any chance counted the total members of any household instead of assuming it is led by one?

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/aug/27/hundreds-of-britons-offer-to-host-afghan-refugees-after-fall-of-kabul

    1. With the number of Muslims renting out sheds and garages as homes at extortionate fees to fellow immigrants, I doubt many Muslims will offer up spare rooms for free, if they have any at all.
      Eg https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/tens-of-thousands-of-people-living-in-beds-in-sheds-across-the-capital-report-shows-a3723786.html
      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2362393/Inside-migrant-Shed-City-Immigrants-living-cramped-illegally-built-garden-sheds.html

      1. The government will pay. Another teat on the cash cow for the advancement of islam.

    2. With the number of Muslims renting out sheds and garages as homes at extortionate fees to fellow immigrants, I doubt many Muslims will offer up spare rooms for free, if they have any at all.
      Eg https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/tens-of-thousands-of-people-living-in-beds-in-sheds-across-the-capital-report-shows-a3723786.html
      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2362393/Inside-migrant-Shed-City-Immigrants-living-cramped-illegally-built-garden-sheds.html

  18. SIR – Why unglue them?

    Mac Fearnehough
    Holmesfield, Derbyshire

    Why indeed?

    From the BTL comments:

    Clarissa Flynn
    27 Aug 2021 12:45AM
    Extinction Rebellion are not rebelling and they’re not a protest group.

    How can they be a rebellion when they have the full support of the political and cultural establishment? Stephen Fry, Emma Thompson, Prince Charles etc positively fawn on them and neither Sadiq Khan nor Boris Johnson has a bad word to say about them, despite the chaos and disruption they are causing in London. The Met Police say theirs is ‘ an important cause’ and treat them with kid gloves. Where is the rebellion?

    As for protesting, I’ve never seen such a bunch of phonies, delivering staged “shows”, complete with full costume and make up and props such as the giant table and the boat. Who’s funding all this choreography? Normal protestors do not deliberately set out to disrupt people going about their lawful business. They focus on marching and winning people over in a few hours, rather than criminal damage over several weeks and dramatic set pieces such as hurling red paint on buildings. And apparently XR leave a huge environmental mess behind. How is that in keeping with their professed values?

    Sorry, but in my view, XR are a bunch of phonies, pushing a fake “rebellion” which commands huge publicity and, coincidentally, aligns completely with government policy. What ever could this mean??

    One thing is clear: the masochistic policies proposed by XR and their acolytes will impoverish our country for no real benefit.

    Well said, Clarissa.

      2. 338156+ up ticks,
        Morning OLT,
        What our army needs is an address of a good retirement
        home / knackers yard for meddling treacherous political donkeys.

      3. A defence minister on BBC Radio 4 this morning said that we are leaving our military equipment in Afghanistan to provide space in the available aeroplanes for people. I wonder what the cost of that abandoned equipment is.
        The Royal Scots and a Yorkshire group of soldiers are on standby in Kabul probably to hold the fort until the last planes leave.

        1. I trust they will incapacitate it, although I suspect it is more likely they’ll leave it with full instruction manuals.

        2. They will be leaving in Chinooks according to Conway’s driver. (or that could just be the contingency plan)

    3. The Americans walked away from this UK airfield at the start of the departure process. A big mistake.

  21. Good morning from a bright, dry but overcast Derbyshire with 9½°C in the yard.

    A bit of a sleepless night I’m afraid.

      1. I doubt if the Dearly Tolerant would be too pleased with me turning the light on at 2 in the morning.

    1. BTL Comment:

      “Bob3 • a day ago
      They haven’t yet finished with all this nonsense, come the Autumn when the schools go back and all the normal sore throats and colds kick off we will be back in lockdown in no time.
      The greatest delusion we are all suffering from in this is the idea that the powers that be will see sense in the end and give it up.”

          2. Ah yes, what my OH calls the Thug Tree, as it spreads rapidly everywhere and would colonise the entire garden, given the chance.

    2. Morning Bill – very hot up here again, some clouds would be welcome, please send any spare ones you have

  25. 338156+ up ticks,

    Dt,
    Live Afghanistan: British forces in final stages of Kabul airport evacuation and processing facilities closed

    I was under the impression we had until Tuesday or is this an odious covid lockdown ?

  26. On a lighter note. In a film of the mobs circulating, crushing outside at the airport in Kabul there were many cars and trucks surrounded by a pullulating mass of people. I noticed one truck with six tribesmen in the back waving rifles as it edged through the crowds. I also noticed that its left indicator was flashing. I thought, “how sweet”. Even in a dump like Afghanistan which is plunging ever deeper into savage chaos, the driver signalled his intention to turn left.

    3. Afghanistan: no proper road structure or railways; not decent agriculture (except poppies); no proper schools, hospitals, police stations, courts, sanitary systems, shops and supermarkets; in fact very little of the modern world.

      However, everyone has his own AK47.

      2. Priorities, Grizzly. Of course, they will now be able to dispense with the old weapons as the US/Afghan Army have left the latest things, all shiny and new, with lots and lots of ammunition. The AK47s will shortly be in containers coming here from Pakistan.

        1. Quite: up there with trading your under worktop fridge for one of those whizzy American behemoths.

      3. You’re out of touch. Look at the latest photos and you’ll see that captured/liberated US-made M16s are now the hottest fashion in Afghanistan.

      5. And your list Grizz is exactly why the 3rd world is so desperate to come and get all that for free. AFTER we have worked and paid for it.

    6. Pickups with machine gun mounts on the back will soon be put on the available cars list on the Mobility scheme.

  27. On a lighter note. In a film of the mobs circulating, crushing outside at the airport in Kabul there were many cars and trucks surrounded by a pullulating mass of people. I noticed one truck with six tribesmen in the back waving rifles as it edged through the crowds. I also noticed that its left indicator was flashing. I thought, “how sweet”. Even in a dump like Afghanistan which is plunging ever deeper into savage chaos, the driver signalled his intention to turn left.

  28. I wonder again why our “security services” only ever catch a suicide bomber after the event. It is then a case of “lone bomber, case closed”. The “security services” never arrest the mother that neatly sewed the suicide vest, after careful measuring of pockets to hold battery and explosives, and fitting loops and ties to ensure that the wires don’t get tangled. They never find who supplied the explosives, or the detonators. The “security services” never trace the people who have the expertise and experience to put a bomb together without wrecking the front room of a semi-detached house in Small Heath, Birmingham.
    When I look at the emerging pattern it seems that these outrages are permitted, if not encouraged. Our police no longer have the courage or direction to take on XR or BLM mobs no matter how illegal their actions may be.
    We’ve lost the West, it seems.

    2. Considering that plod spends an inordinate amount of time monitoring our website clicks and emails, that is an acute observation. Is Mummy buying suitable materials from Hobbycraft or Dunelm Mill?
      I assume the Peaceful Ones know better than to name Guy Gibson’s dog and alert GCHQ.

      2. It hasn’t been a Democracy for some time. Democracy has been replaced by Minocracy when the main parties attempt to garner all stripes of minority votes as they know it is usually just a few votes that swing marginal seats resulting in Power.

        1. Mediocracy, I call it. I can stand the corruption (just) but it’s the incompetence that fires me up.

      1. When our borders were being opened up to the Roma I suggested that they should have a place built where they were from European funding, on the basis that if they trashed that, then, no more help. NOOOO – Let them in said the leaders- and we have problems and problems – eternal problems.As the Roma wouldn’t be housed anywhere near the govt – they didn’t care – shove the problem and the cost onto others.

        1. No thanks, pet! We have enough homegrown loonies as it is!
          Why not Rockall or Gruinard…?

          1. Problem is, Sue, that neither Rockall nor Gruinard have yet been dusted with anthrax – again.

    1. Gus.

      Still off his food. He was desperate to go out – so I let him – in the hope that he’d then eat a bit. No luck.

      1. As I typed, I had my doubts about the name. What a worry for you; they really need to go outside, but like teenage children you are never sure what sort of pickle (sorry) they will get themselves into.

          4. It’s probably been playing with a toad Bill, they can be toxic or even an adder, we had a cat that brought frogs into the house.
            Ficher le camp……that seemed to work.

      3. ‘Morning, Bill. I guess you didn’t see my late-night post. Maybe it’s eggs and grannies, but no-one seems to have mentioned lilies – could it be a possibility?

          1. Why lilies are toxic to cats?
            All parts of the lily plant are toxic to cats. The leaves, flower, pollen, and stem all contain a toxin that causes acute kidney failure. Cats can ingest enough of toxin by grooming pollen off themselves, biting leaves and flowers (swallowing is not necessary), or by the actual swallowing of any part of the lily plant.

          2. Thank you. Plants: G & P only eat grass.

            The vet assured us that as Gus had no temperature – there is no organ deterioration.

    1. Just as well Hatman has quit – he’d say that the DM article was written by a crackpot anti-vaxxer!

      2. If the vaccine reduces the severity it has the benefit of allowing someone to survive the delta variant and then have the advantages of the even stronger immune system.

  32. Man charged with contaminating goods at London supermarkets. 27 August 2021.

    A 37-year-old man has been charged with contaminating or interfering with goods with intent at three supermarkets in west London.

    Leoaai Elghareeb, of Crabtree Lane, Fulham, is due to appear before Westminster magistrates court on Friday.

    The people of Fulham would like to point out that this is one of the Tottenham Elghareebs!

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/aug/27/man-charged-with-contaminating-goods-at-london-supermarkets

    2. The logical follow-on is, if Covid can come through glass, fabric masks are useless, that is what he’s implying.

      1. Beeb radio has message that seems to imply that we have more chance of a blood clot by NOT having a jab. The desparatiom on their side gets clearer by the day. I suspect that people aren’t dying fast enough and with the invasion rates so high the govt need the houses to put the “preferred” in. Wish someone could get samples from the start of the jabs and now, see what has changed over time.

        1. ‘Morning, Walter, having had 3 heart attacks, caused by blood clots, I have been on Warfarin since 2002 and that’s just another reason why I remain unvaccinated.

          6. I was put on Warfarin years ago, until they found I wasn’t having any reaction to it. NO effect on my blood whatsoever. Same readings after getting to 5 tablets a day as when on none.They took me off them after lelling me that I as the ONLY one with no reaction, out of all those who were on it.Even asked me “What the hell is wrong with you” – my reply – I’m ok – everyone else must be wrong !!

          8. My doctor has advised me most strongly not to have the jab. I am on Pradaxa and take two tablets a day along with various other pills for things like gout. A jab would probably finish me off so if I am compelled to have it and I snuff it Caroline has insisted that a proper and full post mortem will be carried out.

          9. To save on burial fees, I have gifted my body for medical science – someone has to give medical students a laugh!

          12. Not if I’m carved up in bits and eventually, after 3 years, cremated with the ashes returned to next of kin.

          13. Saves the cost of the funeral as there is usually a memorial service when the cadavers are finished with.

          14. Similar to Apixaban, I showed the medics my card when I went for the jab and they said it was okay. But other (after) side effects hit me, as in Atrial Fibrillation. There was talk of another catheter ablation, but fortunately it’s all calmed down now. No mention was made at the time of both jabs. I later discovered that it has been a common after effect for many people. I’m certainly not having a ‘booster’.
            Have you looked into the causes of Gout Richard I had a terrible problem with gout a couple of years ago and found too much smoked salmon seemed to have caused it, any food high in purines will bring it on. But I discovered that cherries helped a lot even in the form of cherry Jam.

          15. Traditionally it was over-indulgence in Port that caused gout – maybe we cannot afford too much of it these days.

          16. My father had gout nearly every time he came home from a holiday. I was told it was rich men who had gout i wasn’t easy to get any dosh out of him ………😉😂

          18. True or not, I shall continue to over-indulge in Whisky, Affligem and LBV Port – so there!

          22. I was taking Warfarin and I had a TIA about one month after catheter ablation for afib. They changed it to Apixaban it’s does the same thing and you just take one tab every 12 hours so much easier than the blood tests and assessments.

      1. Unlike our neighbours cat that, only once, came in through the bedroom window.
        It some how was Up on the Roof.

          3. Because we all have different tastes. Gerry Goffin and Carole King were wonderful songwriters; however, some of their songs were improved by other singers. My own personal opinion is that Up On The Roof is better suited to the voice of Rudy Lewis of The Drifters than it is to King. Their arrangement and orchestration is better too.

  36. What’s your grouse, NoTTlers?

    Mother nature is cruel, everything dies in pain – get over it protesters…
    FREDERICK FORSYTH
    THE 12TH OF August marked the start of the grouse-shooting season. Partridge shooting starts on September 1 and pheasant on October 1. The usual dates will be met with the usual protests from those who regard themselves as environmentalists and eco-warriors.

    https://www.express.co.uk/comment/columnists/frederick-forsyth/1482673/grouse-shooting-season-nature-protests-comment

    Just about everything that lives in our beautiful landscape lives in fear and dies in pain.
    The majority of creatures are the natural prey and food of the predators.

    1. “Just about everything that lives in our beautiful landscape lives in fear and dies in pain.”

      That’s me.

    2. People die in fear and pain every day under the caring NHS. Saint NHS would be prosecuted if they were to treat and neglect animals the way they treat vulnerable people.

        1. My best mates wife is a veggie, she eats nothing with a face, but she likes Fush, that being a Kiwi.

      3. Our number one and his out law family is in Devon at the moment, I had asked him to bring home some fresh fish for my smoker, I love smoked mackerel pâté.

  37. Donald Trump wanted to make America great again. Joe Biden has made the Taliban great again.

  38. Right, ordered out shopping with the not so wee one, in other words paternal ATM mode. Thanks as usual to all that made it online this am and enjoy rest of afternoon

  40. Good day to all! Frankly I have given up bothering with my surgery. On Wednesday the District Nurse phoned me because the surgery had told her to phone me. She hadn’t a clue what she was supposed to be asking me because the surgery hadn’t bothered to explain. The hospital had phoned the surgery, explained to them why I needed a visit and the outcome of that was a lazy phone call to a bewildered District Nurse. Now a days I simply phone the Hospital Department that was dealing with me and get help from them. It may “comfort” some, if that is the right term under the circumstances, that hospital staff are as disgusted with GP’s as the general public are. We tend to forget that hospital staff have their own GP’s too and are fairing no better than the rest of us with appointments with the cowards and deserters in surgeries. God forbid that their year long tea time be disturbed and they actually do their jobs. Jobs, by the way, the NHS has told them to get back to in March. In high dudgeon they have refused to do their jobs because it might take some effort! .

      1. It’s OK. Please don’t worry. Your GP will be paid even if he sees no patients at all, ever.

    2. Sorry to hear that, Johnathan – it seems to be variable – we’ve no complaints about our GP surgery.

    3. Post Code Lottery.
      At least you haven’t been designated as a ‘retired paratrooper’ suffering from COPD and swollen ankles. (I hope; unless it’s true.)

        1. Neither of us have it. Yesterday, MB received a letter from his cardiac dept; apart from his name, address and DoB being correct, the letter was for a different patient with totally different heart problems. If we hadn’t spotted the mistake, I would have been a widow within the next few weeks.

          1. It seems that is safer for us all not to go anywhere near the quacks other than when it becomes vital. I have to say, in all fairness though, that the people I have dealt with at the Royal Surrey have not only been extremely generous with their concern and patience but actually seem to care. Maybe it’s my wonderful personality 😁 I have had two unbidden phone calls this week just to see how I was doing. Would that my doctor was that considerate!

          2. I have said many many times – at Banks AND doctors etc they should have photos of us. Banks often ask for proof.

            In a shop I was once asked for proof of identity when taking out an agreement – 0nly to be told my passport wasn;t proof of my ID ???

  41. In further developments Dianne Abbott has written to the Prime Minister demanding that he deploy the Royal Navy to protect the ongoing evaluation of Alpacas from Luton Airport.

    1. A whole herd of a thousand of the creatures would be far greener then the carbon filth emitted by Luton airport.

    2. Very good!

      Speaking of Alpacas, has the British population been reduced by one yet? Is the govt waiting for the SAS to return from the sandpit with orders to fell the animal at the dead of night?

        1. ??? New deadline – For UK evac flights?- Has Boris upped the offer from hundreds of millions? If so, the’ll want the money up front – – – – then they’ll still . . .

          2. My apologies – I have to lie on my side due to my back problem. propped up on my left elbow.

    3. Wouldn’t the RN be better used turning round dinghies in the channel? – Of course they would. That won’t happen though. Will the navy be happy when there is that much spent on the free loading flood – there won’t be ANY navy.

    2. I can’t access the rest of the article but I can make a guess.
      The problem often over looked with bears is when out of the confines of the woods they still have to excavate their bowels. And do where ever they feel like it.

      2. Oh, I never knew that bears bowels evacuate, they bury it and then excavate it all. Weird creatures.

      3. … “excavate their bowels.”
        Reminds me of a very basic nursing procedure; fortunately on humans.

    3. When they’ve stopped clutching their pearls (the menpeople identifying as male), they’ll just commission another survey from YouGove and then all will be well in their fantasy world again.

  43. Morning all, no end to my talents plumber yesterday Jam today.
    I noticed a bowl of rather sour gifted plums that had been sitting in a bowl in the kitchen since Monday and two were going a bit speckley, so they went into the compost bin. The rest washed, went into a small a saucepan with a little water and sugar i dug out the stones and hey presto we have a lovey jar of jam, no further wastage.
    It will be delicious on my home made toasted granary and whole meal bread. Now i have to turn to garden maintenance and trim the edges before cutting the grass, yet again !

  47. 338156+ up ticks,
    Why not send out a fleet of planes loaded with SAS troopers & a fleet of private aircraft ( an airbridge Dunkirk) with ex trooper volunteers to protect the 800/1100 the political rear exits are preparing to abandon.

    Telegraph World News World News
    Live Afghanistan: Up to 1,100 eligible Afghans to be left behind as Britain winds down airport evacuation.

  48. “….. The jihadist group, an off-shoot of the terrorist organisation Islamic State (IS), last night claimed responsibility for double bombing, which is believed to have killed at least 90 people and injured more than 150 others.”

    In today’s Daily Mail

    Is it money, insanity or a death wish that has corrupted so many of our politicians into wanting armies of potential Muslim terrorists to overthrow our Western Judeo-Christian societies and commit murder and havoc?

    And is there anyone in the BBC or the rest of the MSM who is prepared to put this question unequivocally to the PTB and go on putting it until there is an honest answer?

  49. Paralympics . . . BLM slant on things . .

    After winning another gold at the Tokyo Paralympics, Kadeena Cox whose parents are Jamaican commented . .
    “I set up the KC Academy to get more people from a black background into cycling,”
    “That’s my dream, to empower people, because there should be no reason that the colour of your skin should stop you from doing everything you want to do.”

    1. “I set up the KC Academy to get more people from a black background into cycling stealing bikes…”

      1. I set up the KC Academy to create another income stream. Hopefully when it gets charitable status i can buy a large mansion.

    2. “I set up the KC Academy to get more people from a black white/yellow/brown background into cycling,”
      Thah goes the front door.

    3. ” . . . , because there should be no reason that the colour of your skin should stop you .” – – unless you specifically state it is aimed at black people

  50. Why force care home workers to have jabs, but not NHS staff?

    It’s hard to escape the conclusion that care homes are being made the scapegoat for government failings

    JILL KIRBY

    Once again it seems that the care home sector is to take the blame for inadequacies in the NHS. A key reason why Covid swept through care homes last year, accounting for nearly 40,000 excess deaths, was the decision early in the pandemic to discharge elderly patients from hospital into care homes; many took the virus with them, with fatal consequences.

    Now the Government has announced that all care home staff must be fully vaccinated by November 11, having their first dose by the middle of next month. The Care Quality Commission will have powers to enforce the requirement, their expectation being that staff who decline the vaccine will be dismissed, unless they can demonstrate that they are exempt. Surprisingly, however, the requirement is not applicable to hospital staff, who can continue to work in the NHS without being vaccinated. Why the disparity?

    The Government has justified its decision for care home workers on the basis that vaccination offers protection against infection for staff and residents. While recent evidence shows that being vaccinated does not prevent people from passing Covid on, it does reduce the risk of being infected in the first place. It is not unreasonable, therefore, to argue that those working in close proximity to the elderly should have the jab.

    For some care home owners, the ability to make vaccination a condition of employment will be welcome, and ministers should certainly make clear that the law will protect them from being sued on these grounds.

    But a survey of care home managers has shown that six in 10 care homes are more worried about losing staff, a significant problem in a sector already struggling with staff shortages. They argue that they should not be forced to sack employees who are reluctant to be vaccinated, as they are tested daily and comply with other requirements for virus control. Losing these staff may pose a threat to the home’s quality of care, or even force its closure.

    If vaccination is considered so important for care staff, why is it not equally necessary for NHS employees? We know that thousands of patients caught Covid while in hospital. Control of infection has been at least as big a problem for hospitals as it was for care homes. Surely the sick deserve as much protection as the elderly.

    When mandatory vaccination was first mooted earlier this year, the Government appeared to be working on that assumption; it was announced that mandatory vaccination would apply to NHS staff as well as those working in care homes. But the ensuing consultation has caused the Government to change course. Both the BMA and the Royal College of Nursing spoke out against the legal and ethical implications of insisting on jabs. Describing enforcement as a “blunt instrument” they made clear their preference to encourage and inform, fearful that making jabs mandatory would only inflame vaccine scepticism.

    It seems the louder voices of the health unions won the day, and the care sector must accept a requirement that medical leaders found unacceptable. Yet the rates of vaccine hesitancy in the two sectors is remarkably similar: according to the most recent figures, 90 per cent of NHS staff have had their jabs compared to 87 per cent of care home workers. It is hard to escape the conclusion that care homes are being made the scapegoat for government failings, while the NHS, as ever, goes unchallenged.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/08/24/force-care-home-workers-have-jabs-not-nhs-staff/

    2. I believe it is quite disgraceful that people should lose their jobs because the government decrees they must be “vaccinated” with an experimental gene therapy. Whatever happened to the Nuremberg Code which I understood forbade such experiments on humans without full informed consent? I cannot understand anybody thinking mandated “vaccine” is a good idea. It is not the property of government.

    3. And there you have it. The NHS is heavily unionised the care home sector not at all.
      The well run care home that I have direct experience of is already finding it difficult to recruit / retain staff relying on workers from Eastern Europe and India. According to the admin staff they haven’t had a single case of Covid 19.

      1. Yo NTN

        We ARE the plebs

        plural noun: plebs

        an ordinary person, especially one from the lower social classes.

        1. Yep, that’s us and the PTB couldn’t give a flyin’ xxx until it’s time for us to vote.

          Please God, we have a new party worth voting for.

    5. Mike Yeadon’s item earlier item is quite inflammatory. In effect stating that elderly patients were killed by a sedative? drug injected into them.

      1. Thank you. It is all the MR’s work.

        No – the red is nothing so grand. Just a Busy Lizzie! We bought a tray of 40 seedlings each of red and white for a tenner; most turned out to be doubles – so we ended up with more than we knew what to do with. They are scattered about the garden in pots. Cheerful – if a bit “parks and gardens”!!

        2. I spit on Busy Lizzies and on Petunias too. They do not come within a hundred yards of my garden. At the moment the back garden is a blank slate, everything has been removed so I can start again. The old garden wasn’t mine to start with and I never liked it. I live literally against a woods so I want the garden to resemble a glade. A corner will be devoted to hedgehog heaven and a log pile for creatures that care to visit. Also a small pond for salamanders and other water lovers and a wild patch for butterflies etc. I am going to “borrow” the woods by growing honeysuckles, large roses and clematis up some of the trees. Would like to knock down the fence but, unfortunately there is a public path on the other side. So will be hiding the fence with large shrubs.

          Front garden, this year turned into Snapdragon mania. So it does look a bit municipal parks and gardens. But I do have a thing about Snapdragons. Next year I plan to grow some 4 footers. You have to grow them from seed because no one carries the plants.

          1. Each to their own!

            Starting a garden from scratch is a wonderful challenge. I am fortunate in having one of the most knowledgeable gardeners in the land living in.
            Over 30 years she has transformed the garden. Indeed, I am pretty certain that it was the garden that made her come and live here! On her first visit she said, “This won’t do…”

          2. 15 years ago I sent Paul’s Himalayan Musk & Rambling Rector up onto a neighbour’s large sycamore. Wonderful display in June.
            Then, 8 months ago the new owner felled the tree. I reported him to the Council The whole hedge was protected. Outcome unknown.

            https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d2725f8abfd9dfa8027e4367d508abb4b1044230240e9eb02e48650faf390d50.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/adad2f0858f2287ee977e246373387be26d75fe4b4e842843405a976894668a4.jpg

          3. There’s no accounting for vandalism, Peddy, I hope you get him totally bound to replacing that (full grown) tree with another, particularly if you might hang the vandal from it. (Poetic Justice in my book.)

          4. He also destroyed a hawthorn, a large wild cherry & a walnut tree at the same time.

  52. Hypocrites.

    My wife was working an a outdoor market yesterday and amongst all of the food vendors there was a Green Party booth.

    Admittedly temperatures were in the mid thirties and people were wilting in hot sun but it turns out that the greenies were using a generator to power a fan in an attempt to keep themselves cool.The in true XR style, when the market closed, they just dumped their rubbish on the ground and left.

    They did not gain any votes with their actions.

  53. Afternoon all. Hope you are happy and well, not suffering from facial sores due to mask wearing.

    Can you believe it? GPs are to receive pay increase for “online consultation”. !!!!!!! Can’t read the actual article but what the hell is this government doing, rewarding the GPS for not seeing their patients? Absolutely bloody disgusting. IMO GPs should be paid according to the number of patients they see, They have been hiding for over a year and Now they are to be rewarded. With your and my money. Without consultation! Bastards the lot of them. What are they thinking?

    Sorry if this has already been discussed – late to the party today.

    1. ‘Afternoon, vw, I’m busy not retiring, I’m talking to my NoTTLe friends and updating my journal. When will my pension be hiked to £100,000?

  54. A passing thought; was the ‘Abbey Gate’ deliberately chosen for the suicide bombing? It seems to be the only gate into Kabul that has a name with Christian connotations.

  55. Another nail in the coffin marked Cash…

    “The spending limit on each use of a contactless card is to rise from £45 to £100 from 15 October, banks have revealed.”

  56. ‘Afternoon.

    I think we all knew that the Taliban would have access to the weapons and equipment left behind by America when the Afghanistan army capitulated without a fight, but the figures in today’s DT are truly staggering:

    The US military equipment the Taliban has its hands on
    75,000 vehicles
    20 airplanes and Black Hawk helicopters
    600,000 small arms and light weapons
    Night-vision goggles
    Body armour
    Medical supplies

    1. Once the American are out they should bomb the hell out of Bagram Airbase where most of this equipment is stored, apparently. But my bet is Biden will do nothing at all. He is now thoroughly discredited in the eyes of most Americans and calls for him to resign are getting louder by the minute. About the only people who support him are the lickspittles at CNN.

          3. If it doesn’t wipe out the whole of AfGaf, I don’t want to know. I’ll rely upon my 1 megaton big-bang job to achieve it.

            If it takes out half of Pakistan, so much the better.

          4. We need to send in our special forces to plant enough booby trapped ordnance to blow the country to kingdom come while making it look like an accident of the Talibob’s making.

        2. Actually Trump threatened that if the Taliban leader dared to play fast and lose with the deal as it was agreed he would drop a MOAB on his village. Not quite the sort of slither and crawl of Biden’s retreat!

        2. It resembles nothing that Trump intended, as you know. It is a measure of Biden that he is so despicable he would put the the blame on someone else for his incompetence. The man is really lower than the belly of a snake.

          1. Biden, being the shit that he is, could walk under the belly of a snake, wearing a top hat – and I don’t care which wears the top hat.

    2. They also have all the biometric data of all the Afghans that have aided America over the last 20 years.

      The intelligence service said the Taliban do not have the ability to read the data but Pakistan Intelligence does. Pakistan Intelligence has been aiding the Taliban.

      1. “…the Taliban do not have the ability to read…”

        Being the pig-ignorant, 7th Century thugs they are.

        1. They do have help though.

          Pakistan has been facilitating the Taliban and other terrorist groups for years. When they went after Bin Laden they should have used a tactical Nuke on the Pakistan/Afghanistan border.

    3. Yeah, but it’s the Taliban. After 12 months, they’ll have one Jeep and a couple of pistols left.

    4. They’re better equipped now than our own Army/RAF. Thank goodness they haven’t got a coastline. If they got a ship too, our sailor would be mighty miffed.

      1. We all use euphemisms and many have been found to soften the unpalatable reality of both teachers and lawyers! Here’s something from the Metaphysical poet who moonlighted as the Dean of St Paul’s.

        A Valediction forbidding Mourning: John Donne

        As virtuous men pass mildly away,
        And whisper to their souls to go,
        Whilst some of their sad friends do say,
        “Now his breath goes,” and some say, “No.”

        So let us melt, and make no noise,
        No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move ;
        ‘Twere profanation of our joys
        To tell the laity our love.

        Moving of th’ earth brings harms and fears ;
        Men reckon what it did, and meant ;
        But trepidation of the spheres,
        Though greater far, is innocent.

        Dull sublunary lovers’ love
        — Whose soul is sense — cannot admit
        Of absence, ’cause it doth remove
        The thing which elemented it.

        But we by a love so much refined,
        That ourselves know not what it is,
        Inter-assurèd of the mind,
        Care less, eyes, lips and hands to miss.

        Our two souls therefore, which are one,
        Though I must go, endure not yet
        A breach, but an expansion,
        Like gold to aery thinness beat.

        If they be two, they are two so
        As stiff twin compasses are two ;
        Thy soul, the fix’d foot, makes no show
        To move, but doth, if th’ other do.

        And though it in the centre sit,
        Yet, when the other far doth roam,
        It leans, and hearkens after it,
        And grows erect, as that comes home.

        Such wilt thou be to me, who must,
        Like th’ other foot, obliquely run ;
        Thy firmness makes my circle just,
        And makes me end where I begun.

        1. Brings back memories of studying this poem for Eng.Lit A Level, with a select group in the Headmaster’s study on a chilly winter’s morning, with a fire blazing in the grate. The headmaster producing more smoke than the fire as he chain smoked his way through 60 cigarettes a day!

    1. Labour was going to stay in the EU – so no borders – the completely open door – worse than this deliberate disaster.

      1. 338156+ up ticks,
        They, ALL three are a recognised pro eu coalition
        cartel have been for years, may the treacherous
        confirmed the wretch camerons rhetoric with the nine month delay after a multitude of voters voiced “we won leave it to the tory’s” idiocy runs rife in the tory make believe group.

      1. not face fear and oppression??? – – like us – stay indoors or else arrest, court, fine and ruinous criminal record?

    2. Apparently she is in South East Asia haranguing the Chinks about something or other.

      Probably a cover to get her out the way before the President’s head explodes.

      Then she can come back with absolutely no blood on her hands….asking…what’s been happening while i’ve been holidaying giving the Chinks whatfor.

      1. Depends when he arrived. I can’t remember the last time I used the tube, but it is a least twenty years.

        On the other hand, I have consulted a lawyer more recently…

        1. To my great surprise, on the rare occasions that I visit London, I find the Tube amazingly efficient – compared to the 1960s

    3. I am sorry to say, when I first saw the headlines, I wondered which ethnic minority he would belong to. The really batshit crazy stuff always comes from an ethnic minority.

  65. The news this past week, since Joe Biden revealed himself as a secret ISIS commander, makes me feel a bit like that horse in the board game ‘Totopoly’ that bursts a blood vessel when in sight of the finish line. Mind you, I wouldn’t just shoot the horse, I’d shoot all those who were in on the Big Steal.

      1. Yesterday was lovely, but cold and grey here today. Most of August has felt autumnal, and it gets dark early too.

        1. When I was in Germany,I often had to put the CH on, but when September came it warmed up again.

          3. Exactement – it is the month my first wife (of 37 years) was born but that makes no excuses for her infidelity.

          5. The first two weeks of September, when everyone had gone back to school after an indifferent summer, were usually bright, sunny and warm. Aagghh!!

      3. The late spring morphed into an early autumn. Summer was nobbut a blip in the great climate change scheme.

    2. Aye! Chilly fer June….as they say up here! Along with ‘Aye! Nights are fair drawin’ in!’

    4. From my journal: “Friday 24th August 2018 dawns clear with a fine day in prospect although there has been a considerable drop in temperature. In one of the first physical signs of Autumn, on the river bank just in front of boat every time the gander honks it exhales a miniature cloud of steamy breath that condenses instantly. As he honks repeatedly you begin to wonder if he is harbouring a steam engine under his black and white duvet?”

      1. you and the weather forecast people… “first physical signs of Autumn”.. Please do not say that as we have not yet had a summer. Twelve nice days this year. Not a summer. But, of course, it’s all due to man-made global warming (not the Chinese -us!) and nothing to do with the astrophysics of the Cosmos.

        1. Curiously 2018 was a brilliant summer. 6 weeks of cloudless blue skies and temperatures approaching 30oC on several days. 2021 has been miserable in comparison …..we’ll have to wait a year or three yet to see whether solar activity is still on a downward trend. For my part I’m hedging my bets by having a wood burning stove installed in the new house!

          5. I measure summers by the electricity generated by the solar panels.

            2018 was by far and and away the best year ever. 20% more than this miserable “summer”. 2019 was worse.

            I read that we were to have a heat wave in Aug/Sept this year. Instead, we have had the woodburner on most evenings since the “hot week” about six weeks ago,

            Global warming is a lie.

        3. “…we have not yet had a summer”

          Yes we have. We have had a British summer and a pretty standard one from my 58yrs of experience

        4. “…we have not yet had a summer”

          Yes we have. We have had a British summer and a pretty standard one from my 58yrs of experience

        1. Praise the spells and bless the charms,
          I found April in my arms.
          April golden, April cloudy,
          Gracious, cruel, tender, rowdy;
          April soft in flowered languor,
          April cold with sudden anger,
          Ever changing, ever true —
          I love April, I love you.
          Ogden Nash

      1. Loadsa old tyres. Scrappie, junkyard? Agree re insurance job. These places go on fire regularly.

        1. I think it was a lumber store. Not entirely sure. But as you say these places seem to ignite so often perhaps they should have in house fire suppressant teams.

          2. Well, you might know it as Timber but i know it as Lumber. BTW…the next round is yours… !
            Mines a large one…!

    2. “As first Afghan refugees are settled into their new houses they make themselves feel at home.”

      1. Now no longer needed the goat has been retired from active service. It will spend its retirement in the harem eating sherbet and grapes.

        KY optional. Masks must be worn.

    1. The depersonalisation reminded me of one day at work, A long time worker had died and two of the management were going to attend the funeral. One of them came to me as ‘i used to work with the now deceased, and asked for any ideas on what to say. i replied ” Start with – I would like to thank 3868 ( his login number) for his years of service ” .He didn’t find it funny. . .

        1. Simply though observations on how the species is degenerating. What was once potentially the most intelligent species is rapidly becoming the stupidest ever to have evolved. The evidence is clear, present and all around.

  77. Off Topic, but just in:
    I’m very rich, hooray. Which Nottlers need their lives changed?

    Attention funds owner,

    I’m MR.CHRIS WILLIAM, the new appointed Delivery man of Regular delivery DHL Office branched at Cotonou Benin. I assumed this office on 5th,Jun 2021. On going through the files of the previous records of this office, I discovered that there are six parcels containing ATM cards each one attached with an email address of the owner on it. The former appointee of this office (Alhaji Ahmed Musa Jr.) failed to carry out the delivery as it was instructed and programmed. Probably, one of his reasons for not carrying out the delivery was that you have not provided your postal address to him for the completion of the delivery as he remarked.

    According to the content recorded in each file, the ATM card was deposited by one Senior Evangelist Mathew Peterson who died one year ago as a charity foundation parcel to each of the six of you. On the statement he wrote on the list, he stated that each of the aforementioned ATM cards contains the sum of US$2.7,000.00 and he found your email contacts as reputable and capable

    persons that can use the charity awarded ATM Cards to change the lives of people.

    Meanwhile, I’ve made the arrangement of delivery the six parcels through Regular delivery DHL Office to the six of you to your respective mailing addresses.
    Am also sending the same message of the same content to six of you that own the six abandoned ATM CARDS each at the same time. If found in spam folder, it could be due to your Internet Service Provider, ISP. So move to your inbox before your reply.
    I went to our head office at Cotonou Benin and reported the issue of the discovered six ATM cards in my office and they verified it and gave me the veto order to carry out the delivery immediately you reconfirm your mailing address to this office in order for us to deliver the ATM CARD directly to you after Postal Stamp of the parcel. Note, below information is officially needed for delivery of the ATM CARD ASAP.
    Full name:
    Full mailing info:
    Your cell phone line:
    Country:
    Nearest Airport:

    We shall deliver your ATM Card once you update us with the above info and you shall be given a tracking number, that is, the Track and Trace number of your parcel once it is posted to your destination address, so as to enable you track your parcel to know exactly when it will arrive to your destination address.
    I will looking forward to receiving your immediate response.

    5. Huh! He’s not a Nigerian prince, so I will ignore him. Have to maintain my standards.

    3. He behaved very badly and then went public so we all had to hear what a shit he had been.

      LGBTQ…Let’s Go Bash The Queer.

  79. “The Japanese Ministry of Health announced on Thursday that around 1.6 million doses of Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine have been taken out of use due to contamination in some vials that ‘reacts to magnets,’ according to a ministry official’

    There’s a new game you can play. If you’ve been ‘vaccinated’ with the anti Covid 19 substance, take a magnet (any magnet will do) and try to place it on your vaccination site. Lots of folk are reporting the magnet sticks and doesn’t fall off……

    2. “Yesterday, I was proud…”. All these people being ‘proud’ to do this or ‘proud’ to sponsor that. All these Pride marches. Do they not know that Pride is one of the Seven Deadly Sins?

      1. Been on radio minutes ago. An Afghan man with his 2nd wife was evacuated, His other wife and her multiple kids wasn’t – – and she has been interviewed and said the Taliban have told her if she returns to work as a journalist, she’ll be killed. ..

        1. Confusing isn’t it? I wonder how he decided between those two wives. Were there others, e.g., wife 3 and wife 4? He left with the youngest presumably, and ditched the kids.

    4. Britain – the world’s best “refugee camp ” on the planet. Unlimited free housing (once whitey is out of the way )Unlimited cash for unlimited numbers arriving, unlimited heathcare, etc etc.

    5. 338156+ up ticks,
      Afternoon TB,
      We the peoples could always try taking another tact
      instead of vying with each other regarding as to who gets the keys to number ten out of the same three parties.

      I know it has never been tried and it will prove hurtful for many, putting the Country before the party, do it just as a one off.

      To adhere to the same voting pattern leaves only one other option & that is appeasement & down on both knees in your local mosque, five times a day.

    6. The world just becomes a bit shittier than it was yesterday.

      Time to rise up and take control.

    2. I looked up how the security works on those things. I found a website that assured me that they are very secure, because the machines for reading them are only sold to authorised retailers….
      I deactivated the thing forthwith.

    3. Depending on your account, there is no upward limit on chip & pin. It is contactless which is going up to £100.

      1. With the vast range of veggie/vegan food on offer, I was hoping to find something healthy that also tastes delicious.

        1. 98% of it is cardboard in various different flavours. I have been subject to most of it. 🙁

      1. As I shall be doing tomorrow night. I shall grill my home-made hamburgers on the BBQ. I’m making them from some lean minced beef chuck steak mixed with some beef bone marrow. I’ll serve them with some BBQ’d sweetcorn.

    4. Knock up some dough from strong flour, salt, dried yeast and water. [250g flour, 140g water, 5g salt, 5g dried yeast]
      Roll it into a disc.
      Spread it with some tomato purée.
      Ad a few thinly-sliced mushrooms.
      Add a few spinach leaves.
      Add a few olives.
      Top with some slices of buffalo mozzarella, grated parmesan cheese, and a few twists of black pepper.
      Place into a pre-heated oven at 250ºC until the cheese melts and bubbles up.
      Eat.

    5. “the perfect veggie burgher” – surely an oxymoron, sweetie! … x

      Do you mean burgher: ‘an inhabitant of a borough or a town. 2 : a member of the middle class : a prosperous solid citizen’

      Perhaps you mean ‘Burger’.

      If I was obliged to have one, I would choose a venison burger – without the bread 🙂

    6. My father favours them. I don’t. My recommendation is don’t bother, and if you want vegan food, get or cook a nice vegan curry. But most vegan food is improved by parmasan or by frying/roasting the veg in goose fat, I find.

      Vegan food is fine as part of a balanced diet….

          1. Not vegan, as far as I know. I bought it only once by mistake as I didn’t read the label in the store, but it tasted OK.

          2. Vegetarian is fine, they’ve just used something else apart from rennet. Vegan will be some filthy over-processed soy mush packed with chemicals.

  83. Fifty years time.

    “Another 50k arrivals today Prime minister.

    Great Brilliant.

    But we have no more money to take them in

    Just get some more out of whitey !!

    That’s the problem – there’s no whitey left” !!!

    ERRRRRRR

    1. Ye Gods.

      He anagrams as: He Liege Arab Aloe

      (Also as phrases with “Beagle” in – but we won’t trouble anyone with those.)

    4. When the warqueen and I were first dating, she made it clear that Wiggy would have to go if she were to stay.

      I said ok. I’d help her pack her things.

      Her jaw clanged to the floor. I also think that was partly why she married me. If I was that committed to him, I’d commit equally to her.

      1. MOH and I nearly divorced over the former’s refusal to have another dog. We got another dog and stayed together 🙂

  90. I know it may be difficult at times for them, but the BBC reported two bombings in Kabul. They even provided a photomap indicating where they took place. Now, it seems the story is slightly, ahem, different. There was one explosion not two.
    Now, about their reporting on the risks of side effects from vaccination…

  91. That’s me for this day of two halves – both fairly miserable. Still an hour’s ladder work was successful – pruning the damned wisterias AGAIN; and the “Mile a Minute” rose.

    Yet again, “they” promised fine sunshine here – and AGAIN they lied. They say the same about tomorrow…. LIARS.

    Have a lovely evening.

    A demain.

  92. ‘6:36pm
    ‘Operation Ark’ sets sail as Pen Farthing’s charter flight sponsored by Government
    Clearance for Paul “Pen” Farthing’s charter flight has been sponsored by the Government, the Ministry of Defence has confirmed.
    “Pen Farthing and his pets were assisted through the system at Kabul airport by the UK Armed Forces,” the MoD said in a tweet.
    “They are currently being supported while he awaits transportation.” ‘

    Well, whoopee do. Makes you proud to be British.

    1. It’s a strange world where an ex-marine gets lauded for saving a few animals when he doesn’t give a shlt about the US marines risking their lives to allow it after a dozen died doing just that.

      And what will happen to all those non-house-trained animals in their new alien environment?

      How cowardly can this government get?

      1. BTL comment in yesterday’s DT on the subject:’

        ‘BRITISH BROWN FEMALE
        26 Aug 2021 12:23PM

        I am so fed up with this insane man and his demands!

        Plus his story has more holes than swiss cheese!

        So he’d paid for a chartered flight to get them all out?

        Nope – Turns out the RAF will need to fly them out as it’s too dangerous for a charter flight to land and the space for the 173 cats/dogs cages are taking up spaces for people.

        So he’d already organised all the quarantine for these animals?

        Nope – turns out Defra has had to do that and we the taxpayer will be paying for it

        So all the animals already had homes to go to?

        Nope – Some have but the majority haven’t. So what’s going to happen to them?

        All the staff are qualified vets?

        Nope – Turns out none are qualified in the UK and the vast majority just feed the animals

        All the staff have been offered jobs?

        Nope – They aren’t qualified to do anything bar feed a few cats and dogs and who’s paying to house, feed them as well as the medical care and education for their large numbers of kids (70+)

        Apparently his staff are in peril if they stay?

        Nope – Why should they be? Interpreters yes but a few women who fed some goats, donkeys, cats, and dogs?

        And if he was happy to kill the donkeys then why do the cats and dogs get a free pass?

        I am so fed up with this. There are people who genuinely need to be taken out and yet all the resources and effort is being devoted to this demented man, who could have got out ages ago with his wife but demands we feed, house, clothe, educate all his staff forever too!’

        1. If any of those people who could have been evacuated, but weren’t, manage to get out and back here, get ready for the law suits flying about.

        2. The staff would be in danger because the ISIS muslim fanatics would likely have followed them, identified them and marked them to be tortured, then raped, then tortured, their children killed etc etc.

          The ISIS muslim fanatics are deranged psychotics. It matters not what you did, but that you ‘did’ something.

          After all, they’re only more extreme than these fellows: https://time.com/5303229/women-after-d-day/

      2. Strangely enough, most street animals do get house trained when they come into kennels and are adopted by people here. A large number of dogs are already adopted from other European countries like Romania and Cyprus. Often they don’t have homes to go to, but they soon find them.

      3. I imagine he cares very deeply about the deaths of the marines.

        He didn’t kill them. The ISIS Muslim suicide bombers did. The marines were at the airport rather than in force, with a planned, controlled evacuation because Biden’s a gormless Lefty twonk.

      1. Well, I’m delighted! I think that the way we treat animals reflects our society in general. I hesitate to use the word ‘backward’, but the cruelty of bullfighting, the inhumane slaughter of animals according to muslim dogma, cockfighting, badger baiting, bear dancing, cooking live hedgehogs in clay, throwing donkeys from rooftops and the multitude of disgusting Chinese market practises, are an affront to decent people. So, bravo to the Brits! I know we don’t all treat annals well, but today I feel we have.

        1. Personally, I’d rather have the dogs and cats than the Afghans, but then, I’m a dog person (unlike muslims).

    4. Our PM is now moving heaven and Earth to get more people back to the UK from Afghanistan. He is allowing regulations to be “loosened” to get as many people back to the UK as possible.
      Our PM is reckless when it comes to immigration of people and now animals. The taxpayers have , of course, to pay the bill for all this.

    5. Here’s my twopenn’arth, for what it’s worth. Dogs are sentient animals. They have nothing to do with our totally petty international quarrels. They simply get caught up in them, in the crossfire and get frightened by the hullabaloo. They want to live their lives peacefully being ‘man’s best friend’, as they have done since time immemorial. I can tell you this, since this covid thing started I have been shunned and looked at askance by people whom I thought I knew well, and by a ‘friend’ whom I thought was a good friend for 46 years. I have not heard from her since February except for a rant in an Easter card. I am, you see, unvaxxed. My dog, bless her heart, accepts me for who I am. She never wavers in this. She is always by my side, alerting me to anyone who comes through the gate. All she asks of me is a daily or twice daily walk, depending on the weather, food and water and somewhere safe and cosy to sleep. A few minutes’ play from time to time during the day. It’s not a lot to ask, is it? Save the dogs, and cats, whilst we are at it, for they are domesticated animals too. We did, in fact, domesticate them for our purpose, and as such we have a responsibility towards them.

      2. A wonderful post, poppiesmum! I agree with every sentiment, and thank you for the lovely words.

  93. Senile old fool though he is, Biden didn’t start this.

    Biden’s colossal mess is even worse than we thought

    The loss of crucial intelligence and billions of dollars’ worth of military equipment will come back to haunt the West

    IAIN DUNCAN SMITH • 27 August 2021 • 4:56pm

    The news that 79 Afghans, 13 US service personnel and three Brits were killed, along with many more injured, in suicide bomb attacks yesterday was shocking. It was all the more so because NATO intelligence had predicted such an event, yet had proved unable to do anything about it.

    This tragic mess comes back to President Biden. He owns every decision – and the consequences are also his.

    Two weeks ago, as the Taliban walked into Kabul, it took days to get the President explain how he had got his plans for Afghanistan so badly wrong. In a misplaced display of stubbornness, coupled with faulty memory, he first claimed the chaos was inevitable and part of their plan. Then, he claimed US intelligence advised him Afghan forces would hold out for 60 days.

    In reality, of course, there was nothing inevitable about the violence and chaos of the withdrawal. Meanwhile, officials have been letting it be known that Biden was indeed warned that the Afghan security services were likely to crumble in the face of the Taliban. He was even warned that if he shut Bagram airbase, he would cut off Afghan forces from their vital air support (a significant factor in their collapse) and lose the best place to evacuate from. He seems to have ignored that advice as well.

    That’s why, nearly eight hours after yesterday’s attack, when Biden ghosted into the White House East Room he looked shell shocked. After all, in the last eighteen months, there have been no US or allied casualties in Afghanistan, no terrorist attacks from Afghanistan, and the Taliban were being held at bay by the Afghan forces, supported by NATO. In a matter of a few weeks, all of that has been thrown away, leaving the whole of NATO having to rely on the factional Taliban for their security.

    It also appears that sensitive intelligence, including the names of at-risk Afghans, “could very well have” (to use President Biden’s words) been passed to the Taliban. It has also been suggested that the Taliban now have access to biometric devices that include the data of Afghans who supported NATO forces. This alone looks like a death warrant for those now left behind as the NATO flights out come to an abrupt end, leaving many stranded.

    The Taliban’s head of security is none other than Khalil Ur-Rehman Haqqani a designated terrorist and head of the brutal Haqqani faction, responsible for a number of suicide attacks. On his watch, the Taliban has released thousands of prisoners, among them hardcore Isil commanders, trainers and bomb-makers.

    Yet the audit of this Biden-made chaos is far from over. For he isn’t just abandoning Afghans who served NATO forces, it has now emerged that he left behind $85 billion of US-supplied military equipment. That includes 75,000 military vehicles, more than 200 aeroplanes and helicopters and 600,000 small arms and light weapons. The Taliban are also now in possession of the most up-to-date body armour and night vision goggles as well. I shudder to imagine how many of these weapons will make their way to terrorists around the world, to be used in civil wars, against innocent civilians and possibly against British people overseas or, chillingly, at home.

    The saddest part of this isn’t just the humiliation of the world’s largest superpower and its allies but that this humiliation is happening at a time when China and its ally Russia are on the rise. China has made it clear that it sees this as an ideological contest between the West’s concept of democracy and human rights and theirs of autocracy and control. It is a battle that they are winning.

    As Biden stood at the podium making his ridiculous pledge to hit back at those responsible for the suicide bombing, all I could see was the disaster of a man no longer in control – and it is a disaster for us all. No matter your view of the US, they still remain our best hope for freedom and human rights in a dangerous world.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/08/27/bidens-colossal-mess-even-worse-thought/

      1. They did. They backed the 1978 communist coup in Afghanistan. It was that regime that provoked the mad men of the mountains and made the mujahideen. Russia found that it had a nasty little Islamic uprising on its southern border and sent in the tanks.

        1. Those Mujahasbeens… muchobligedoldbean… tea towel wearers: we trained them, right?

    2. No longer in control? I’d be surprised if the senile fool was in control of his bladder.

      1. Well if he ever replied to a reporter’s question with:
        ” I’ll pass on that one!”
        we’ll know what he was doing.

      2. I think it’s just an act. Behind that blank stare is a brain as sharp as an anvil…..

    3. If IDS thinks that Biden ever had control of US forces, he’s more of an idiot than I’d ever taken him for.

      1. It could be taken to mean that Biden no longer has control of his own brain – but then we already knew that.

    4. The problem in Afghan comes down mostly to ego.

      Bush took us there, Blair followed him. Neither had a clue about history, Blair especially not. The MoD sent the troops in without equipment, kit or weapons.

      British soldiers were killed for their arrogance.

      The withdrawal was planned. A clear schedule was set out. Biden, desperate to write Trump’s every policy out – including binning the lgbt updownleftrightattackhelicopter flag also overwrote Trump’s plan.

      We then panicked as we’d be massively outnumbered and outgunned and tried to run in a sort of orderly fashion… but it could never work.

      Going there was Bush’s idiocy and the desperate need for ‘americanism’. The withdrawal reflects the changed times – an immature child lashing out because his own incompetence has caused catastrophic problems and instead of accepting them, he blames everyone possible for his cock up.

      1. Grockles and Emmets stay away,
        The stats doth shine as bright as day;
        Leave your supper, and leave your sleep,
        Eff off with your playfellows back to your street.
        Go with a whoop, go heed the call,
        Go with a good will, you’ve spent f*** all.
        Snakes ‘n ladders around Dobwalls,
        The Covid patrol will search for us all.
        You’ll be fined, don’t look so dour
        We’ll have a Lockdown in half an hour.

    3. In Hamburg, they are now refusing unvaccinated people access to some events or services – not sure what, but apparently long distance trains are going to be next to be refused to unvaccinated demons.
      Some German politician was in the news today saying that “this pandemic is a pandemic of unvaccinated people”.

        1. Don’t laugh too quickly Stephen. Firstly, good old Boris would inflict the same on Britain in a flash if he thought he could get away with it.
          And secondly, authoritarian government in Europe will not end well for Britain either. It’s in our interests for all freedom-loving people to stick together!

          2. I know – and you won’t be able to help producing side-splitting puns* as they’re carting you off to the purpose-build quarantine facility handily situated next door to the crematorium…

            *I laugh out loud most days

          3. There is light through the crack in the cattle truck door:

            “Denmark will on September 10th stop classifying Covid-19 as an “illness which is a critical threat to society”, meaning all remaining special pandemic restrictions will expire, The Local reported. In a press release issued on Friday morning, the country’s health minister Magnus Heunicke said that the high level of vaccination in Denmark, particularly among the vulnerable, had radically altered the risks posed by the virus.

            “The epidemic is under control, we have record high vaccination rates,” he said in a statement. “As a result, on September 10th, we can drop some of the special rules we have had to introduce in the fight against Covid-19.”

          4. Some of the Swedish attitude seems to have rubbed off on them. Just as well – my son has handed over an enormous sum of money (earned while working at McDonalds) to a Danish university for a course there, and it would be excessively annoying if it were online, especially as most of it is anatomy classes.

          6. The WHO downgraded the ‘pandemic’ as being no longer a threat to public health on 20 March 2020. I wonder why no-one took any notice? Three days later the UK entered into its first lockdown.

      2. The Sunday morning fish market, which we always visited when in Hamburg, will probably go for the chop.

    4. Seems like a good use of a failed organisation.

      Does it include might-time gassing of the populace?

        1. No Sos.

          After the drone swarm i let loose on you. I realised it was so bad that i could do nothing other than to report you to BoringPeople.Com.

          They said you were in their top ten.

  97. 33156+ up ticks,

    May one ask, is there any elements of the political side of ISIS operating in parliament, we have operating material as in the koran and halal on the parliamentary canteen menu.

    Something is definitely building & not for the better.

    1. The Elizabeth Tower (commonly known, wrongly, as Big Ben) could easily be converted into a minaret.

      1. 338156+ up ticks,
        Evening A,
        With a renovation program in the pipeline maybe that is inclusive,many a true word spoke in…..

        1. Not so apparently: St Stephen’s Tower: regularly used in newspapers, guide books and by ‘that bloke down the pub who likes correcting people’. Pros: sounds more official than Big Ben. Cons: it’s completely incorrect. St Stephen’s is another (smaller) tower over the main public entrance. The tower never officially held this name, but many think it did.

          2. Norra lot a peeps could care a flyin’ *uck about that George. Remember, igerrence rools, innit?

      3. The Houses of Parliament are a giant fireball waiting to happen. If they had the courage, they’d demolish the whole thing and start again,which would probably be cheaper than repairing that building.
        When it goes up, it will symbolically be the end of the old Britain.

    2. Christ, Ogga, please go back to English school, in order to make your posts readable.

      You might, actually, have something to say but, at the moment, it’s incomprehensible

      1. 338156+ up ticks,
        Evening NtN,
        Try explaining the repeated voting pattern that has kept us in the sh!te for decades because to me that truly is indecipherable.

  98. And just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse.
    Barnier might stand against Macron and the likelihood is that one or other would be selected, just to keep out Le Pen.

    Would you like sugar, pepper or salt with your shit sandwich?

          5. That’s how I started, but from an enjoyment point (ho ho) of view epée is the better bet and actually more realistic from a sword fight perspective.

          6. A fellow pupil (eventually my Best Man) and I managed to generate sparks off the foils’ blades

          7. I used to fence with a guy who was ranked 5 in the world at sabre and while he could certainly make the blade do very fast changes I never saw sparks.

          8. A fellow pupil (eventually my Best Man) and I managed to generate sparks off the foils’ blades

          10. My father encouraged me to take up fencing. He was sabre champion at his school. I did it for a while at Uni, but never really took to it.

          11. I failed my interview at the public school where they held fencing lessons – I said I couldn’t see the point!

      3. Never mind the puns. What can WE do to to help her achieve her aim of fucking Macron?

    2. Even if she’s left wing, I’d rather see her (Le Pen) running France than the total ‘En Marche’ Scum led by Macron.

      We might just get a few Nation States fighting for their survival.

      Britain need to wake up.

  99. Labour party candidate locally is mumbling in the paper over how awful it is that house prices have gone up so much that “ordinary” people on “ordinary” pay cannot afford a place. The idea is that Labour will sort this out, but no hint is given as to how (no surprises there). I added a comemnt that there are two practical solutions: Build more apartments, and/or stop importing people (something Labour love doing), the latter being greener, too.
    Waiting for the shitstorm…

    1. ‘It is important to provide housing for people who don’t have them. It is even more important to create a crisis so we get more funding. This is why we welcome any and all to ….get our message across’.

    2. I too have many a wee dram – in fact 6 liters of wee drams to see me off this god-forsaken planet.

      Heaven help us.

      1. I believe Nottlers will all end up “upstairs” – Should be fun at the Pearly Gates trying to find our Nottler names on his list

        1. Me too. I have had some success with Bach’s Night Rescue (from some supermarkets) – there is also a Bach’s Day Rescue as well. I am at the stage where anything is worth a try. Too much worry, I think, about what is going to happen to us all. What a nice, unremarkable life I had before March 2020. Night-night, NTN.

    1. First track is a bit “easy listening” compared to the earlier recording of “Only the Lonely”.

        1. Apart from being one of the best pop songs ever, The Big O’s In Dreams is quite unique. It progresses through nine, ever-upward, key changes as it crescendoes at the end. His voice was magnificent. Elvis Presley said that Orbison had a much better voice than he did.

          1. I never worried about key changes, George, I just liked the guy for the way he sang. R.I.P.

          2. I dont know if its the recording or what, but his voice comes over like he doesn’t care any more. Compare with early recordings in Youtobe – those are excellent but this one, he’s tired.
            Shame. Great voice, really good song. Just not that time.

  103. A question…Did the President of the U.S.A have the authority over the United Nations to make a unilateral decision that affected the whole world?

    And if so… What exactly is he president of?

    *askin’ for the fuckwits that believe …

    1. You’re so right, Candace.

      Apart from Trump, I’d rather see you as President than Biden or the camel-toe.

  106. A very good night and many Godly blessings upon my fellow NoTTLers, With a little luck and a fair wind, I may see you in the morning’s light. Don’t hold your breathe though

      1. This conversation was about the US intervention in the most southern of the Windward Islands. As I sailed around the Caribbean in 1984/85 I wrote a verse for many of the islands I visited in my song: Hey Skip.

        When we got down to Grenada the US army were there
        Wearing short pants and T shirts and driving Jeeps everywhere
        They screamed and whistled and waved machine guns as they drove by past me
        It made me think that it is not true that worse things happen at sea.

        1. If you mean Grenada, I think, that it is the only warlike conflict won by the US, since they helped France, Germany, Italy etc throw us out of Europe, in 1945

          The 19 policemen, that we sent out, did a great job maintaining peace

  109. An excellent BTL Comment on today’s letters page.

    Archie Crompton
    28 Aug 2021 12:51AM
    Wokeness, infighting, identity politics, abuse of history, critical race theory, transgenderism, family destruction, rejection of history, tradition and national identity, empathy for those who hate us and want to usurp us, uncontrolled mass immigration, weak public services, government and agencies, duplicitous self-serving media, shallowness, idleness, ignorence and lack of duty or responsibility.

    This is the West. This is the UK. This is history repeating itself.

    Decadence has friends in high places and good people dare not speak the truth or dissent.

    Like so many dominant powers before us we bear the seeds of our own destruction. We have taken the route from barbarism to decadence and the civilisation between them was brief. Like Osymandias we thought nothing could diminish us and yet we have reached the turning point.

    Our intellectual wealth is sold, our self-sufficiency is gone. Our projection of power is diminished and handed to others we paid to manufacture cheaper, indentured and polluting at a distance. They now control the supplies.

    We crave ever greater individualism while ignoring the rising tide which will eventually remove it from us, biometrically monitor and police us or medievally abuse us.

    We are cowards, easily manipulated. Our attention spans are short and social media dictates our thinking.

    We are easily cowed, easily frightened and easily controlled.

    We print money and devalue it. We remove cash and the independance it brings. We tax work and reward sloth. We take from the contributors and give to non-contributors. We promote entitlement.

    So called progressives with their woke agendas are the harbingers of our doom and the models of our decadent decay. One day soon they will realise this and know they will be amongst the first to suffer. Like art, they need patronage but will find none from militant Islam or the CCP. Until then, they are the enemy within.

    1. I am with this lament until the bit about tax.

      It falls down by making the same mistakes, misjudgements, simplifications and false presumptions so decried in the rest of the letter. Who are we to judge what is work and what is sloth, according to our own value sets and tribal identity? Government (and here I mean running a nation, rather than extracting personal riches from the public) without tax is like a beast of burden without blood. Yes we can bleed the horse dry and feast on black pudding, but we cannot then expect it to pull the cart.

      Better that in a village, we all make our own unique contribution to the common good in our own manner, according to the skills we have and those our trading neighbours might not have. Doing so is a matter of honour, and the tax we pay in return for the sanctuary the village offers us.

      The role of art is to enhance our capacity to make such a contribution, and the role of religion is to remind each of us that we are loved, and we have the capacity in return to love others. Artists and priests are not always regarded as “hardworking”, but they are vital to any nation worth living in,

      1. Let’s spare a thought too right now for the soldier.

        Soldiers, if they are doing their job properly, spend nearly all their time hanging around waiting for something to happen. Their main function is to ponce around and look menacing, so any prospective foe doesn’t try it on.

        It’s when a foe does have a go that the soldier must immediately transform from idleness to extreme stressful and dangerous activity, requiring relentless alertness and capacity to improvise faster and better than the enemy in order to survive.

        Let’s raise a glass to the idle soldier, that he, she or it may long continue to be so!

        1. They don’t hang around waiting for something to happen. They are continuing training to be the best to protect you.

      2. Tax becomes wrong when it becomes so burdensome that it produces a negative return – people either take the trouble and the risk to evade it, thereby engraining a criminal mentality in society (see France and Italy as close examples), or enterprise is discouraged (see France).
        I am both a public servant and an entrepreneur with my own small company – quasi dormant because of these lockdowns.
        I recognise the need for tax to pay for the fire brigade, teaching and the police – three professions to which I have put my hand. But if I am taxed too much when (if?) the lockdowns cease then I will close my company and so will many others and there will be no money to pay for public service.

      3. In the visual arts, there are two quite separate industries working alongside each other. One relies on customers, the other on taxpayers. We could lose the taxpayer one, and not lose anything of value in my opinion.

        1. I am a musician, and sometimes the choirs I sing with like to use an orchestra to enhance the music. Many great works miss something if hammered out on the piano. Powick Community Choir’s Stanbrook Abbey Christmas concerts, which in 2019 grossed £10,000 in ticket sales and supported a 12-piece string orchestra, a sound and lighting engineer and a Pugin-designed venue, a converted convent chapel, and a fine show all for £12.50 ticket price. The style is perversely eclectic – Tom Wells delights in putting Mozart and Queen in the same programme, and when in a good mood can be quite unpredictable. We never know what he will spring on us next. Once he silenced the choir and got the audience to sing one of the songs, since he claimed they could do it better than we could. So they paid their money and then did the work, but they didn’t seem to mind.

          It is a community choir – what they do, they do well, but they cannot tackle a lot of material that is musically more demanding, and even the standard repertoire (such as ‘I was Glad’ and ‘Zadok the Priest’) are heavily edited.

          For expertise, we go to the Elgar Chorale or the Baroque Singers, which could hold their own at the Proms if only their music was considered by the BBC correctly “diverse”. We don’t do rap, but we do take on full oratorio works and cycles of songs that are not normally done by those who can only shout out popular items, Gareth-style.

          Every time at the AGM, we are well aware that these choirs lose £100 for every professional orchestral musician used at a concert. These people spend many years developing their skill to a level of expertise, going up through the grades and then scratching around for a living with the dwindling number of orchestras solvent enough to pay them.

          I feel though the nation would be a lot poorer without them, and they are worth subsidising.

          1. Yes, each branch of the arts is different.
            I follow a lot of visual artists on instagram, as well as art posters, and art organisations. The stuff that comes out of the taxpayer funded art organisations is uniformly utter self-indulgent drivel!

      4. I don’t know. There are quite a few artists we could do without (Emin, Gormley, Hirst, Whitehead, Kapoor, Banksy…)

      5. I don’t know. There are quite a few artists we could do without (Emin, Gormley, Hirst, Whitehead, Kapoor, Banksy…)

  111. Clare Grange is not alone in finding the Conservative Party unrecognisable. It is an experience that any Conservative with any bowels has had when considering the simple criminality and corruption of a government that still pretending to be following the constitutional and legal norms, while ignoring the calls from all sides from the decent and eminent to return to civilised function.

    Conservatives thus let down have been going in droves to TCW, formerly the Conservative Woman, and of course we see familar friendly faces here.

    Over 130 UK doctors have nailed their colours to the mast with a letter to the UK governments. They state the case moderately, but even when moderately stated it is an horrific reflection on the betrayal of the British people by those who were give our trust.

    https://www.tarableu.com/as-coroner-confirms-bbc-presenters-death-caused-by-vaccines-over-130-uk-doctors-write-in-protest-at-governments-failure-on-the-virus/

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