720 thoughts on “Monday 30 December: Unelected judges are giving in to the temptation to make up new laws”

  3. Premium and no comments allowed

    The NHS insiders offering to help desperate families apply for care funding – for a fee

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2019/12/27/TELEMMGLPICT000218190116_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqfCP8_T_5saT0AvmxZJEXTxovBJ1rMkzFQFZ_W75bz8s.jpeg?imwidth=1240

    Farouq Ogunseye was first approached by an undercover reporter last year. The reporter was responding to an advert Mr Ogunseye had placed on his Facebook page offering help for families trying to secure CHC

    Claire Newell Daniel Foggo Sophie Barnes
    29 DECEMBER 2019 • 8:29PM

    NHS officials are working as private consultants and charging frail pensioners’ relatives for help securing funding from the state, a Telegraph investigation has found.

    The senior managers, who are paid by the health service to oversee applications for the funding, are charging the vulnerable up to £400 a day for help trying to obtain such grants.

    One health official said that after using her private services a family had been awarded an NHS grant worth “thousands and thousands and thousands, like two years’ worth of nursing home fees”.

    Another was running the risk of an apparent conflict of interest, offering to secure funding for services in the area where he worked.

    Under national rules, any patient with a significant health problem – such as dementia or Parkinson’s – should have their care and nursing fees paid in full, if the condition is deemed to be the main reason they need help.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2019/12/27/TELEMMGLPICT000218190125_trans_NvBQzQNjv4Bq7uKFiP6POak7yhHGNZchOhKi2sT3vi7ux2-RDZwC4QA.jpeg?imwidth=1240
    A second consultant, Dean Aldridge, who works for Waltham Forest CCG overseeing quality control on its CHC funding, said that the system was extremely confusing for families who wanted to apply for financial support
    If the NHS decides that help is required simply because someone is frail or elderly, this falls under social care, which is means-tested.

    But families and campaigners say the system is unfair – as well as overly complex – with increasing numbers being denied the funds, leaving them facing bills of up to £100,000 a year.

    In the last five years, average eligibility per 50,000 population for the funding has fallen by nearly 15 per cent – from 69.33 per 50,000 in 2014/15 to 59.53 in the second quarter of 19/20.

    Undercover reporters – posing as relatives of a man with dementia and Parkinson’s – secretly recorded meetings with three NHS officials offering to help them get funding for care.

    All the officials claimed to have a high success rate for their clients, securing funds under the system called Continuing Health Care.

    The disclosure will fuel concerns that a two-tier system is in operation, with those who can pay for private advice securing an advantage over those who cannot.

    Last night, Grace Ioppolo, who has been battling to get her husband’s nursing fees covered by CHC funding for two years, said that she thought it was “outrageous” that NHS officials were working as private consultants for families trying to secure the grants. Her husband, Dr Peter Beal, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2013.

    “I don’t think it’s appropriate”, she said. “The system is deliberately confusing and not transparent”.

    “If you can pay these people for extra help it is discriminatory. Just because you’ve got money, it shouldn’t give you a better chance to appeal or to get access to funding”

    Rear Admiral Philip Mathias, who spent four years fighting for CHC funding for his elderly mother before finally obtaining it two hours after she died, said he thought it was a “massive conflict of interest” for the officials to be working as private consultants.

    “To be offering consultancy work, which they’re paid for, whilst they’re on the inside track of the CHC process, working in one or another capacity with the NHS, I think stinks”, he said.

    He said that if one of the officials was willing to help a family whose relative was based in the same area as where the NHS manager worked, it was “horrendous”.

    Undercover reporters met several NHS officials who said they worked with families as private consultants to secure CHC funding.

    Farouq Ogunseye, who is a project lead for Herefordshire Clinical Commissioning Group, was first approached by an undercover reporter last year, when he was working for Worcestershire CCG.

    A CCG is an NHS body which commissions and pays for health services in a geographical area.

    The reporter was responding to an advert Mr Ogunseye had placed on his Facebook page offering help for families trying to secure CHC.

    After being told that the reporter’s elderly male relative was in Kidderminster in Worcestershire, Mr Ogunseye indicated that he might be able to help and said that he charged £300-a-day.

    He later met with two undercover reporters posing as relatives of the man in the nursing home. By this time, he was working for Herefordshire CCG, which is now merging with three Worcestershire CCGs.

    “CHC is massive, and there is a lot of people, there’s not a lot of information out there”, he said at the meeting in August.

    When asked about his success rate, he said he was able to secure funding for about 40 percent of the cases he worked on and he was handling up to “10 or 11 a month”.

    A second consultant, Dean Aldridge, who works for Waltham Forest CCG overseeing quality control on its CHC funding, said that the system was extremely confusing for families who wanted to apply for financial support.

    “The education’s so bad the leaflet you get given is crap”, he told the undercover reporters.

    Mr Aldridge, who said he charges £400 up to a day to attend meetings with families when their CHC application is being reviewed, said that if the family wanted to appeal the decision to reject the elderly relative for CHC funding, it could be “supported” by him.

    As an independent CHC consultant, he would make a “recommendation” about whether their grandfather should be approved. Once the report was submitted, he said that it would have ‘weight’ coming from him, and the assessors would be ‘more likely to look at it and think “oh hold on a minute”. He said that in about a third of the cases he handled he was able to overturn rejections for funding.

    A third consultant overseeing CHC applications for two CCGs in the north of England, said that in previous cases she had worked on she had been able to “overturn” some of the levels recorded in the documentation, which meant that an individual’s need went from “moderate to high….from high to severe”.

    As a private consultant she charges £300 to assess the needs of the person in the care home and a further £200 to attend meetings. She said that because of her experience, when she attends meetings, “it makes them sit up and listen a bit more”.

    She said that she had recently helped one family in the north of England win funding totalling “thousands and thousands and thousands of pounds, like two years’ worth of nursing home fees”.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2019/12/27/TELEMMGLPICT000218190117_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqEDjTm7JpzhSGR1_8ApEWQA1vLvhkMtVb21dMmpQBfEs.jpeg?imwidth=1240
    Farouq Ogunseye
    It is understood that the three officials work for the NHS as contractors.

    When confronted Mr Ogunseye insisted that he would not have carried out any work for the undercover reporters’ relative due to the conflict of interest. He said that his claim to have handled up to 11 private clients a month was ‘incorrect’ and that, despite advertising his services, he had never actually done any such work although he hoped to in the future. He said he had only worked for the CCGs as a contractor, not an employee and when he had met the reporters in August, he had expected to be leaving the job with the CCG shortly afterwards.

    A spokesperson on behalf of Herefordshire and Worcestershire CCGs’, where Mr Ogunseye worked, said that prior to being alerted by the Telegraph the CCG had been “unaware that one of their Continuing Health Care contractors is allegedly also offering paid consultancy work to local families. Appropriate action has since been taken”.

    Mr Ogunseye said that the CCG had suspended his contract pending an investigation.

    Mr Aldridge said he had “never billed, invoiced or received payment of any kind from anyone for the advice I have given them”.

    He added that he had no involvement in whether CHC was awarded and said he had no conflict of interest. “My objective, when talking to families or working in my contractor role in the NHS, is to ensure that individuals are on the correct funding pathway based on their care needs and that the process is followed correctly, in accordance with the national framework”.

    A spokesperson for NHS Waltham Forest Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), which employs Mr Aldridge, said: “The CCG is currently looking into the matter. It would not be appropriate to comment further at this time.”

    1. Nigerian scammers at work I guess!

      Looks to me as if they have diversified , and the NHS is in the grip of an unspeakable syndicate that is a millionaire making scam.

      I don’t trust anyone , ever.

    2. Full marks to the undercover reporter(s). With abuses like these in progress they should never be out of work.

    3. “Under national rules, any patient with a significant health problem – such as dementia or Parkinson’s – should have their care and nursing fees paid in full, if the condition is deemed to be the main reason they need help.”

      Despite this rule, I’m not sure many dementia/Alzheimer’s sufferers automatically get their care fees paid. As a relative, you have to be prepared to argue for it, and say magic words like “organic brain disease”….

  4. Morning all,

    Svante Thunberg, Greta’s father, was on Radio 4’s Today program this morning.

    He explained that Greta was very depressed at one stage but discovered that the family’s relinquishment of flying followed by adoption of veganism became an excellent therapy to bring their daughter out of her withdrawn condition.

    He admitted that their adoption of this lifestyle was not motivated by trying to save the planet by stopping global warming but that this was just a byproduct of what transpired to be Greta’s therapy.

    So folks, we should just see Greta’s activities as part of her treatment for her condition, aided and abetted principally by her father.

    I think a spell at Michael Morpurgo’s farm in Wales would have suited her just as well: https://www.countrysideclassroom.org.uk/places/5094

    1. It seems to have become an ideology that veganism will help save the planet but when you exam that claim in detail it is total nonsense and in fact it would harm the planet. There is vast exaggeration of how much land that cattle etc use as well as the invalid presumption that, that land can be used for growing cereals

      1. I agree. We are an omniverous species, and our stewardship of this world depends on the diversity of our appetites – converting everything to a monoculture has already shown itself to be catastrophic. I do hope that the balance of nature, of all the systems that depend symbiotically on the others, take over from purist doctrine among the campaigners – that wealth is to be defined by the extent and range of life on this planet, rather than defining a narrow range of what is “good” and exterminating everything else in our folly.

        I have seen how much richer Herefordshire is as a pasture county, where cattle thrive among the fruit trees, rather than grubbing out the hedgerows to make a prairie of barley, oilseed rape, soya or maize that has to be sustained chemically to make any money.

        1. The UK as well can be reasonably self sufficient in meat and fish but there is no way that we can be anywhere near self sufficient in cereals We cannot in our climate even grow the hard wheat needed for bread. Cereal crops as well need lots of pesticides and fertilizers as well as water. You can cut them out but will get poor yields and in some years total crop failure. We need a sensible balance view of food production. The waste products from animals can also be used to fertilize and help improve the soil

        2. Prairie culture also needs intensive use of pesticides which ensure that insects are absent, impacting on the birds and other creatures which need insects as food.

    2. I’m depressed by all the impending ice age (yes, I’m that old!), global warming, climate change, climate emergency, carbon free rubbish and the push for veganism.

  5. M&S seeks stop-gap solution in hunt for finance chief

    M&S seem to have no clear strategy and seem to clutch desperately at straws. Their latest plan being a tie up with Orcadp how that fits in with M&S who knows. Most people do not do their weekly shop at M&S. M&S is also saddled with a vast estate of expensive high street stores. Orcado will just reduce the sales in those stores making them even less viable

    M&S is preparing to install an interim chief finance officer in the coming days after concluding that an initial shortlist of permanent replacements had failed to produce an acceptable candidate.

    The hunt for a stop-gap solution comes with less than a fortnight before M&S announces a Christmas trading update that is expected to reflect the prevailing gloom on Britain’s high streets.

    People close to the clothing and food retailer said that he had never settled in the role and that Mr Norman had been dissatisfied with his approach to a £600m rights issue that helped to finance the purchase of a 50% stake in Ocado’s UK retail operations.

      1. Good ‘cos it’s dark (golf in the dark would be difficult), or are the two statements unrelated?

  7. SIR – Alison Saunders, the former Director of Public Prosecutions, seeks to justify her award of a damehood by stating that she has given “30 years of public service”.

    She has been a public employee and has been paid well, with, one assumes, a generous pension. This tradition of giving honours to civil servants for carrying out their jobs should cease.

    Tony Hill
    Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire

    She ought to have been thrown out on her ear rather than any DCB. She was appointed by Dominic Grieve, say no more.

    1. She presided over appalling injustices as even children were arrested on the say of wicked girls out for revenge.

    2. On spot, Mr Hill.

      A job is a job is a job, be it in the private or public sector.

      That said, I do know of ex public sector employees who’ve taken early retirement and, if they live to a ripe old age will have spent more time on a public pension than on a salary.

      Morning zx.

    4. Yo zx

      Could we Nottlers not raise a petition against the award of an ‘Honour’ to Saunders, with a an added proviso that if Bekcow ever gets to the H o L, the Tumbrils and Yellow Jackets will flood the streets of Britain

    5. On spot, Mr Hill.

      A job is a job is a job, be it in the private or public sector.

      That said, I do know of ex public sector employees who’ve taken early retirement and if they live to a ripe old age will have spent more time on a public pension than on a salary.

      Morning zx.

    6. A pretty daft response so she has given 30 years of service. Most people have given 40 to 50 years service for far less reward than she got. Should not they also get a gong if that’s the criteria ?

    7. I gave more than 30 years of public service, but without damaging the fabric of English/British society. Can I have a gong??

      1. I gave 25 years before I was forced to retire through ill health (brought on by poor management). I, too, should have a gong.

  8. A letter to the Eurocrats: Britain’s quarrel is with you, not with Europe
    DANIEL HANNAN – 29 DECEMBER 2019 • 6:00AM

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

    BTL:

    Peter Scott 29 Dec 2019 6:47AM

    Largely true; and very well mannered; for which hearty thanks.

    But the full size of the problem, Mr Hannan, is that the enemy of the people on both sides of the English Channel is the Political Class on both sides of the Channel.

    That has long since become a separate interest-group, like a guild of used-car salesfolk or a trade union of estate agents.

    Peter Oborne was publishing his well-known book about this, The Triumph of the Political Class, as long ago as 2007, and the trend started in the late 1980s.

    This separate interest-group exists to leach money, privilege and self-importance from being in politics and the countries they rule. That is the essential, and really only, commitment of nearly all politicians now.

    This explains why they have given a free pass to mass immigration ‘justified’ by the lunatic doctrines of multiculturalism and enforced by ever more punitive political correctness. The Big Money donors of the Tories and the Hard Left both long to flood the country with people from very poor lands. For the business-folk it means ever lower wages, in real terms. For the hard left it means replacing a culture which has never embraced Extreme Socialism with a third-world type populace which will always rally to Ultra-Left rule however much communist-style regimes ruin them (vide Venezuela, and much of Africa and Latin America).

    It explains why all manner of discontents are never even debated in Parliament. – To do that would mean, for the MPs, risking their precious seats and with that the chance of promotion, lobby-graft and a swanky significance they could never attain in the outer world outside politics. To take on any abuses with an intent to reform them would invoke the wrath of ruthless, vocal, albeit small, vested interests trashing them in the Sunday newspapers.

    It explains why the only issue the House of Commons has got up on its toes about in the past 30 years is EU membership: because that directly affects their own career-prospects. Being mostly third- and fourth-rate individuals, today’s MPs love having a Nanny in Brussels who holds their hands, tells them the direction of travel and each individual thing to do; and they enjoy the thought that one day they can retire from Westminster to the fat gravy-train across the narrow marine gulf which starts at Dover.

    We need to start sending to Westminster some of the brightest and best citizens in our midst; not the thickest and worst, as hitherto for decades.

    A good start would be to have a new political party full of sane policies which only ran candidates for Parliament who had reached the age of 60, and therefore had already got behind them their biggest life-expenses (child-rearing, mortgage, payments into a pension plan) and who were not financially dependent on holding onto their seats in the Commons in order to pay their bills. Such persons would come to national rule with accumulated experience of hard realities and the wisdom that of itself confers, and they would not invest in politics as the obsessive nerdy trainspotting thing it is for SPADs who become MPs for life. They would have larger perspectives and more self-belief already established from having proved themselves outside politics.

  10. Good mornining everyone.
    Notifications are still stuck at 24 hours ago, so I can’t see if anyone has responded to me.
    It’s a good job the software isn’t running a bank.

  11. BBC Hypocrisy

    Whilst constantly bleating on about climate change it happily ferry’s around its staff in taxis as well as flying hundred of its staff abroad on unnecessary trips

    The BBC could also reduce the number of TV channels it operates as about half the output is repeats.

        1. We were blessed with the atmospheric conditions which wiped out all channels here – didn’t feel I missed anything 🙂

      2. Didn’t even attempt to turn it on, following all the BBC ads about them. My blood pressure remains very grateful.

  14. Funny about the name and address publication furore.

    Not long ago, all names and addresses of company directors and officers were registered at Companies House. One could find the address of the MD of a shop and write to home at his home address. And one knew where ones MP lived. Then “data protection” came in. Never quite understood why.

    1. Probably because so many MPs and “Lords and Ladies” had business interests, it was a great opportunity to hide some of what they are up to.

      1. I think it is interesting that the buck might stop with Sir Mark Sedwill, Cabinet Secretary, Head of the Civil Service, National Security Advisor. Clearly a very powerful man and one who was complicit in May’s capitulation to the EU. A new broom sweeps clean and all that?

    6. Privacy rules. And most Company Directors use an accommodation address to keep the terrorists away, which is sensible. Just like keeping your own details secret on social media. The world is a nastier place than it used to be.

    7. Even the most basic of security measures would have prevented this. It shows just how lax security is in the government

    8. We knew exactly where our MP lived.
      He had a lovely house and barn that were often used for fundraisers.
      When he retired he sold the house and grounds.
      The barn spontaneously combusted in short order.

        1. It could be the bouncing cheques keeping you awake. Try taking a Bitcoin last thing at night.

          Morning Tony.

        1. That is an interesting way to find a son.

          Most people use mother nature or at least an adoption agency.

  15. BBC4 documentaries 10 v 0 BBC comedy

    I watched the first episode (of two) of Lost Home Movies of Nazi Germany last night. Absolutely brillopad.

    Part two is on tonight at 21:00.

    I don’t know if the programme has or will be shown in Germany itself, but it needs to be.

    1. I haven’t watched it. I find Nazi Germany stuff too painful to watch, although it should be compulsory
      viewing for those younger than me (most people).
      I wonder when we will see some similar films about life in an Eastern European police state, before the
      collapse of communism. That would be a real eye-open for those who have not experienced it personally.

      1. I posted a reminder late last night, since it was repeated at 2:35 this morning. I think it’s on i-player.

          1. The MR pays a few quid for a month’s access to some VPN that allows her to watch UK stuff.

  16. Morning Each,
    “unelected judges are giving into the temptation to make up new laws”
    Could this be leading up to giving shiria law credibility
    within these Isles.
    It will be introduced under the cover of the
    PC / Appeasement umbrella if enough indigenous fools keep saying “you can’t say that”
    PC / Appeasement KILLS, and a great many had better start believing it.

      2. It’s a dilemma for them because nobody is supposed to touch the Monarch. Safety should be paramount, however.

    2. Having recently broken my back I sympathise with the fellows in wheelchairs. However my first thought is could we not put the wasted 0.7% for foreign aid into medical research for neurology, such as nano tech and what not – you know, things that would help people rather than wasting it on people who should be hleping themselves.

  18. Excitement in a Texan church.
    2 worshippers were shot dead in the church by a gunman but he was then shot dead by 2 worshippers. I wonder how the Minister dealt with that in his sermon.. [ BBC Radio 4 News

    4. The Lord created terrorists that they should murder parishioners.
      Next to page 543. Saint Greta created Climate Change that the media should have something to scare us with.

    5. An eye for an eye….

      What’s worrying is that, apparently, 2 worshippers went to church ‘tooled up’.

    1. Thanks just caught it. I’ve read the book.

      I watched Postcards from – Clive James over Christmas.

  20. DT Leading Story

    Pension fund investments held by millions could be rendered worthless by climate change crisis, warns Mark Carney

    This comment from under the article expresses my views on the odious man, Carney, very well.


    “Carney failed as Bank of England Governor. None of his dire predictions about the collapse of the British economy due to Brexit came true.

    Now that he has managed to wheedle himself a cushy sinecure as U.N. special envoy for global climate action, he is obliged to forecast doom and destruction in order to justify his new role.

    The man’s a charlatan. Why does he still have any credibility?”

    1. He could just as well have said that investment funds are not much use to you when you are dead.

      1. Or worse. The fanatics among them, rather than the useful idiots, seek the destruction of western civilisation. Carney is a running dog.

          2. Anyone else getting hacked off by the “Privacy notice” which comes up practically every time I visit a website? Some of them make it very hard to turn off the advertiser cookies.

          4. Yes. The ‘Oath’ network (Imgur, yahoo, a tech website I’ve forgotten about) are comical in their desperation to refuse you control.

            One site had over 300 trackers. There are several options. The first is to disable javascript. Another is fervent removal of all tracking cookies (all third party cookies). Some sites are trying to work around that though which rather implies you just delete their cookies entirely.

            Their hilarious statement that ‘adverts cannot be avoided’ is false. Every single one, every domain can and will be blocked, everything they try to do. The latest insult is disqus redirecting and tracking URLs as Google does. That needs to stop, pronto.

        2. Carney’s predictions – Brexit will destroy us. That went well didn’t it…

          Let’s try Climate Change…

          1. Get it right, Sunshine.
            Climate Crisis.
            ‘Alliteration’s Artful Aid’. (I ‘did’ The History of Mr. Polly for O level.)

    3. He’s preparing the path for the continuation of robbing the many for the benefit of the few. Isn’t that in essence what climate change is all about?

  23. Off to take Best Beloved to the doc. I then have to go to the Physiotherapist in order to get to see an orthopaedic surgeon. Crazy world.

  24. Michael Gough Cooper suggests that small fast aircraft are the answer to the cross channel people smuggling but that they aren’t the complete answer because an aircraft can’t intercept and board the boats. He is right but if the aircraft could spot the boats and bomb them then they don’t need to board them. A couple of successful bombing/strafing runs would stop all the smuggling. However the most obvious and humane way would be to take them back to the French coast, offload them and destroy the boats

      1. Mr Newton’s Third Law would make this problematic.

        As the bullet left the gun, the drone would go backwards with the same, but opposite force

        The third law states that for every action (force) in nature there is an equal and opposite reaction.

          1. Specification: the fuselage/wings could absorb the shock, but the aircraft would have slowed down, momentarily.

          2. A broadside of 9 16″ guns stirs the water but not the ship, apparently.

            The ship doesn’t move an inch or even heel from a broadside. The guns have a recoil slide of up to 48 inches and the shock is distributed evenly through the turret foundation and the hull structure.

            The bottled version is much more palatable.

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gn1GghOkvMg
            https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9d45e2b8680fa6bc6b9b0a306b5f6b149fc78f5f23dedf19c56d7e2b4199f6d8.png

          4. Outflanked by what? Iowa-class battleships like the USS Missouri could make 33-35.2 knots, and project 16 inch shells 32-40 kilometers.

            At the Battle of Surigao Strait on 25 October 1944 at least 4 US battleships put 16 inch rounds into the IJN battleship Yamashiro, knocking Yamashiro out of the fight. Those 4 battleships were the battleships USS West Virginia, USS Tennessee, USS California, USS Maryland (and also maybe the USS Mississippi), all older (and slower) than Iowa-class battleships like the USS Missouri.

            https://www.ussmissouri.org/
            http://www.worldwar2facts.org/uss-missouri-battleship-facts.html
            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armament_of_the_Iowa-class_battleship

          5. I think it was the early operational versions of the Hawker Hunter in the 50s that had problems with their nose-mounted guns. Every time a burst was fired the recoil caused the aircraft to lose trim and engine power.

        2. I remember my old Physics teacher posing a question about a fly being hit by a train, to wit, does the train slow down?

        3. Actually that drone, or something very like it, is in production and works very well – so there must be a way round it – apparently accuracy is extremely good!

      4. Make it a heavier bore and you’d be right. However, some bleeding heart lefty would complain.

  25. If no action is taking against these time waters and it is not,. They will continue to get these calls

    A mistake with a chip shop order and a complaint about an out-of-date packet of biscuits were among the time-wasting calls made to the UK’s largest police force this year.
    The Metropolitan Police revealed that at least 22,491 hoax calls were made in the first 11 months of 2019, as well as 2,912 made to the 101 non-emergency police line.
    The calls included a woman complaining after being sent three saveloy and chips from the chip shop instead of one and a man complaining about a packet of biscuits being out of date.

    In another incident, a man can be heard asking the operator for the time. She responds by reminding him that he has called the emergency line before adding “it’s quarter to five” and ending the call.

  27. “Leave it to the tories”
    May one ask are there any ships in the channel yet as in
    anti armada, UK protection vessels ? as in, return to point of departure no if’s or buts.
    Or are these much needed ships of a specific nature and are on the drawing board of a german shipyard, completion date very open ended.

    1. ” ships of a specific nature and are on the drawing board.”
      They are all a ship off the old block.

  28. Budding artists will be given a lesson in life drawing from the comfort of their own home in a two-hour special on BBC Four.

    Life Drawing Live, an interactive class where viewers can draw the nude
    models on their screen, will make television history on highbrow channel
    BBC Four.

    Billed as an art lesson for the whole country, the special could be the first of many interactive cultural programmes.

    The BBC Soft Porn channel.

          4. You got a thing about that. When I visited relatives in Philadelphia fifty-odd years ago, all the house had double doors to keep the darkie rapists out, who had somehow managed to rape one in eight of the white women in the area. That was America for you.
            No problem at all in Tel Aviv. I hear that you just have to ask nicely.

  29. Good morning/afternoon/evening,
    I wanted to send some sort of holiday greeting to friends and family, but it is difficult in today’s world to know exactly what to say without offending someone. So I met with my lawyer yesterday, and on advice I wish to say the following:

    Please accept, with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress , non-addictive, gender neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday practiced with the most enjoyable traditions of religious persuasion or secular practices of your choice with respect for the religious / secular persuasions and / or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all .
    I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2020, but not without due respect for the calendar of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make our country great ( not to imply that the United Kingdom is necessarily greater than any other country ) and without regard to the race, creed, colour, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishee .

    By accepting this greeting, please be advised that you are accepting these terms :

    This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable on the proviso that there is no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for her / him or others and is void where prohibited by law, and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher. The wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year or until the issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher .
    Best Regards ( without prejudice )
    Name withheld ( Privacy Act )

    3. Good afternoon Alec. A masterpiece, if I may say so (some may prefer the term “mistress piece” of course, so please accept my apologies if this applies to your preferences and no offence intended!).

    5. ” We are off to Debenhams to by new Blackout curtains ! ”

      We offer ready made curtains, classic eyelet designs and blackout curtains to ensure you sleep soundly. Plus, there’s a children’s range so your little one’s room looks excellent.
      Curtains | Debenhams
      https://www.debenhams.com › home › soft-furnishings › curtains

        1. Good afternoon Tony. After she married Rafael Shauli in 1966 she moved to Israel and lived in Tel Aviv. I met her in 1970 when she was managing the Mandy’s restaurant in Tel Aviv ( it was on the corner of Dizengoff & Arlozorov streets ) . I had lunch there with friends & she greeted us, showed us to a table & brought us menus before a waiter took our order. I did not recognize her but my friends wife who is English did but only let on about it after we left the restaurant .
          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandy_Rice-Davies
          Rice-Davies traded on the notoriety the trial brought her, comparing herself to Nelson’s mistress, Lady Hamilton.[13] In 1966 she married Israeli businessman Rafi Shauli and moved to Israel. The couple had one daughter together and Rice-Davies converted to Judaism.[14] She also opened nightclubs and restaurants in Tel Aviv. They were called Mandy’s, Mandy’s Candies and Mandy’s Singing Bamboo

  34. NASA astronaut Christina Koch has become the woman who has spent the longest time in space with 289 consecutive days.

    I presume the International Space Station needed a lot more cleaning than NASA expected?

    1. Yo Fizz

      Do not forget, she has been reguarly doing Space Walks as well, when she put the empty milk bottles out everymorning

  35. Climate Change & Population Growth

    The one fact that the politicians and media types are in total denial about is the worlds Population growth. Om current forecasts the worlds population growth over the next 30 years will grow from 8 Billion to 11 Billion something close to a 40% increase . Most of that growth coming fro countries that cannot even support their existing populations/ It would also tend to increase mass migration by close on 40% with most of the migration being to Europe which already has unsustainable levels of mass migration. Something will have to give. at worse case it could be a war

    If we go along with the Climate change brigade they are pushing for zero carbon by somewhere between 2030 and 2050. Which in my view is a totally impossible target. Add in 40% population growth and CO2 levels would actually increase.

    1. Most regrettably I agree with everything you say here.

      It was forty years ago I became an activist with the Ecology Party, and have all my life been a committed environmentalist. As Secretary and Chairman of my local branch in my early 20s, I saw quite soon the conflict between the purists and the pragmatists, and felt an affinity with both. If we did nothing, then we are all doomed. Yet, no party that insists that we all live like monks would get itself elected for as long as we have any democracy worth having. A Green programme that will achieve what it must will be a tyranny.

      In the end, I joined the SDP, and lobbied the leadership hard to put environmental protection in the mainstream. The 1985 policy document ‘Conservation and Change’ was the first to be published by a mainstream potential party of Government.

      I am very fearful of the future. Boris’s optimism is far more attractive and is one big reason he got his majority, and I do hope his optimism is infectious, and not as hollow as most political dawnings. I am grateful though that I will be dead before I have to witness the worst of it… unlike those born half a century after me, who will be in the thick of it in middle age.

      As then, I take the same line as the Dog in ‘Footrot Flats’ – his response to any catastrophe was to plant more trees. It is the best way to exploit increasing CO2 levels, stabilising the climate and producing a useful and marketable range of materials. Trees are humanity’s and the planet’s most loyal servants and saviours.

      1. There won’t be much room for trees in tomorrow’s world where every inch is taken up by human habitations and crops.

      2. If you strip things back to the very basics the only way you remove the impact on the planet of humans is to wipe the human race out. Conversely wiping the human race out would have a significant adverse impact on the planet

      3. Morning Jeremy.

        My response to the current climate change hysteria is “so what?”. Not because I agree or disagree with the arguments but because it’s not a change in climate that’s the issue – the issue is a change in people’s behaviour, which is unlikely to happen to any degree. Only one example – the BBC flying a reporter to Sweden to interview someone about the very issue the flight is making worse – is needed to illustrate that point.

        My hobby horse, by the way, is waste and energy conservation.

    2. How can we be zero carbon without killing off every living thing? Everything (including plants at night when they can’t photosynthesise) breathes out CO2.

    1. Hi Ogga – its been 2 days since notifications updated & posts on users profiles are lagging by a day . This is a recurring technical glitch that never gets permanently fixed & since it began on Saturday when Disqus is closed there is no chance that it will be fixed before they return to work today in California where its 04:41 AM right now & they start at 9 AM

          1. I have noticed that all comments prior to the setting up of the new site have been deleted from my profile along with the upvotes. The comment count number seems to still include the old ones.

          2. When Disqus closed the channels on Sept.1st by locking access to them for all except mods who could still access the mod panel & post replies to open posts , there was then a time lag of about 3 weeks before they completely deleted all of the channels & the comments then vanished from our profiles, but not our up vote tally, flag & spam marks tallies

          4. That “upvote stripper” has been around for years now, it is not a new thing that was written in the last 3 months. What most likely happened is that when Disqus shut down the free channels, a troll followed someone who was already coming here, and a found a channel full of people who don’t like the EU and see the Left for what they really are. So he rubbed his hands with glee and added 30 new names to his list of targets.

            Much good will it do them, as your votes dropping below 0 will only stop you commenting on big sites, it won’t stop you being able to leave messages here. They may have just cottoned on to what a waste of time it is for most people. 🙂

          5. I think I lost around 8,000 before they stopped dropping, but they started going up again a few weeks ago. I don’t monitor them too closely though.

          9. Actually upvotes began disappearing in Mid-April for many thousands of mostly right wing channel posters, then another large batch was added in May, followed by an even larger batch in June ( which included me ) , a possible 4th batch in late July & finally a much much larger batch of posters in October . From the June batch onward even left wing posters got hit . Right now it seems that those of us in the June batch are no longer losing upvotes but as of 2 weeks ago actually gaining new upvotes . I went from 158K upvotes in June to a low point of 110K upvotes 2 weeks ago, since then I have gained back 8K upvotes . Folks in the first 2 batches are now at Zero upvotes & are Low Rep, folks in the July & October batches are still losing them at a slow but steady rate. I have no idea if those like myself will continue to regain upvotes or if the bot will return & wipe us out in the new year.

  37. I called up the doctor and said, “Doctor, my wife is going into labour
    and her contractions are coming really fast!

    “What should I do?”

    “Is this her first child?” he asked.

    “No, this is her husband.”

      1. The police seem to be fed up/ weary.
        The soundtrack is not clear, but it’s the equivalent of “Move along, nothing to see.”

  39. At the barbers today, I asked to have my hair cut like Tom Cruise.

    So he gave me a cushion to sit on.

  40. Sitting here wearing four layers and with the heating off, I had to smile seeing the picture below of the chap in short sleeves being kept warm by fossil fuel. I don’t know whether he works for the same BBC which flew a presenter to Sweden to interview Greta Thunberg but I do know that short sleeves in winter and flights to Sweden are part of the hypocrisy of the superior beings who preach climate change and whose job it is to tell the Hoi Polloi how to behave.

    https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2019/12/29/18/22771830-7834945-image-a-5_1577643560209.jpg

    1. Lightish top, underfloor heating on but not running, and massive solar gain from patio doors and bright sunshine all day, kitchen now starting to cool down from over 23C earlier… https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/580f5ce28ca0d9b6a3e4886207e3aa240e3d4050242b0f8ee4a6e5a836dfee9e.jpg
      Trouble is, it’ll get colder from now on as the sun sets, but it takes hours for the underfloor heating run by the air-source heat pumps to warm up.

      And are the BBC, etc, hypocrites?? You betcha.

      1. Sounds good, although luxury compared to my cold house. That said, I treat heating as a luxury and keep it off as much as I can (principle rather than financial).

        Your system seems to be a triumph of imagination over stick-in-the-mudness.

        Although the underfloor electric storage heating which I once had was a waste of time, I have worked on underfloor pumped systems and do feel they can be superior to conventional radiator systems.

        1. My OH also treats heating and lighting as a luxury. We don’t leave lights on unnecessarily, and only heat the rooms we use.
          I’m not keen on the underfloor heating mainly because of its slow, slow response, and lack of immediate control.

  41. SIR – In the face of the histrionic confected bluster of thousands signing a petition against Iain Duncan Smith’s knighthood, propelled by the po-faced, lemon-sucking, anti-Tory metropolitan elite, where can we go to register support for his well-earned gong?

    Charles Foster
    Chalfont St Peter, Buckinghamshire

    1. Where is the petition against Alison Saunders getting an honour – surely a much more rational target?

  42. Morning again

    SIR – I see that Mishal Husain has flown to Sweden to interview Greta Thunberg, who is guest editor for the Radio 4 Today programme today.

    Why was it necessary to fly a team out to Stockholm to interview Ms Thunberg when it could have so easily have been done by video link?

    I hope Ms Thunberg is treated with more respect than Charles Moore when guest-editing the programme on Saturday. In the final few minutes, when it would have been good to hear his views, he kept being rudely interrupted by Nick Robinson, who seemed only interested in getting his points across. I thought it disgraceful.

    Judith Whitworth

    Oakham, Rutland

    1. It is disgraceful but at least Charles Moore penetrated the citadel where the climate cult dominates. Cut them down like the trees they hack to make way for hundreds of tons of concrete topped by mutilating windmills.

  43. Not a prey unto them

    SIR – How should our Established Church mark the occasion of our release from the European Union on January 31?

    As always, the Book of Common Prayer provides dignified and appropriate words. Among its thanksgivings is the following.

    “O Almighty God, who art a strong tower of defence unto thy servants against the face of their enemies: We yield thee praise and thanksgiving for our deliverance from those great and apparent dangers wherewith we were compassed: We acknowledge it thy goodness that we were not delivered over as a prey unto them; beseeching thee still to continue such thy mercies towards us, that all the world may know that thou art our Saviour and mighty Deliverer; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”

    S P McKie
    Rudge, Somerset

    1. I always like Isaiah 40; 31. They shall mount up on wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint”.

  44. Morning all

    SIR – As a retired academic lawyer, I agree with Professor Richard Ekins on the deficiencies of Britain’s Human Rights Act. He writes of legislation that, when added to a remorseless rise in judicial review, risks conferring too much power in a parliamentary democracy to unelected judges.

    The judicial role has traditionally been to interpret and develop existing law, rather than create new law. But a human rights charter, by dint of its very nature and the penumbra of uncertainty surrounding the meaning of its words, invites the latter.

    And, if judges accept that invitation, on matters such as abortion and euthanasia, to mention but two such controversial “human rights”, are they not trespassing on issues that should be the province of elected politicians answerable to Parliament and voters?

    Lawyers with wider, political ambitions can, as many have always done, seek election to Parliament.

    John Kidd

    Auchenflower, Queensland, Australia

    SIR – Lord Howard wrote that judges are “distorting” the law for their own ends “to reach the result they want to achieve”.

    A few days earlier, Charles Moore wrote that “the ancient doctrine of the independence of the judiciary really means the independence of judges from all exterior influence and from the influence of one another”.

    On the issue of the prorogation of Parliament, all 11 judges of the Supreme Court – supposedly the best “independent” legal minds in the land, who rarely all sit to judge a single case – without a single, even slightly nuanced difference between then, in a 57-page judgment, “distorted” the law in exactly the same way. It is often the case in written judgments of this court, usually with a smaller number sitting, that a dissenting, minority opinion is also published.

    This is proof positive that these Supreme Court justices have failed Charles Moore’s tests of independence; they have worked for a political outcome, colluding with one another, without a single dissenting opinion.

    They sacrificed their independence to a higher political “result they want to achieve” and in so doing have brought themselves, the Supreme Court and the law into disrepute.

    Does independence in the minds of judges simply mean freedom from scrutiny and freedom to exercise a power grab with impunity? Has the former absolute power of the monarch been substituted with the absolute power of the judiciary?

    These questions need answers, but how? The usual method of judicial inquiry clearly will not do.

    Dr Kevin M O’Sullivan

    Plymouth, Devon

    SIR – We elect MPs to act, despite their flaws, as we can hold them to account. Others are immune from our displeasure. It’s time to shout this aloud and roll back some of the past 15 years’ constitutional changes.

    Tony Narula

    Wargrave, Berkshire

  45. I lost the bar trivia contest last night by one point. The last question
    was, “Where do women have the curliest hair?”

    Apparently the correct
    answer is, Fiji.

      1. I’ll give you a clue…it’s a joke.

        I did play a quiz game over Christmas. The Gin game. It’s a bit like Trivial Pursuit but all about Gin. I won of course.
        We changed the rules a bit. For each wrong answer you had to have a shot of Alcohol.

    1. That is quite a shot of the audience at 29 seconds. There are many “tanned” people, and those who look similar to the grooming gangs line ups that you sometimes see, who are not liking the idea of us leaving the European Union. There are also the standard “angry young white people” who just cannot believe how disgustingly racist the audience is for clapping that comment. Particularly in the front row, 2nd from the left.

      How fortunate we are as a nation that there are not enough of these groups of people to get Labour or the Lib Dems into power. For now at least.

      1. MM,
        They are working on it, aided & abetted by a voting pattern that
        denies honest voices being heard in parliament.

      2. I thought some here might enjoy this Fb post by a snowflaky friend of mine…. an intelligent woman with a biology doctorate……..

        “So, emotional moment. At airport security, the officer looks at my
        passport and says… “Et alors…. Brexit..?” And I reply (in French),
        “I’m glad you brought it up, I’m really sad, this is the last time I
        come through as a European…” Then he starts chatting to me in broken
        English, with the most beautifully strong French accent. And I know I’ve
        been drinking G&T all afternoon but I feel like this is probably an
        exchange that should be frowned upon at customs, but I just want to
        give him a hug. But the next passengers form a queue behind me and so I
        just say…. “That’s interesting…. Long live Europe!” and continue my
        journey to the other side, whatever that will mean in the future. I
        think I might shed a tear when I proudly arrive at the European passport
        control for the last time.”

        1. Did you explain to the daft bint that Europe will still be alive and well – it is the European Union we are leaving?

        2. Oh dear, A couple of G&T’s and she gets beer goggles for a Frenchman. That lady has serious issues.

        3. Geographically, genetically and politically challenged, obviously. She won’t stop being a European (I challenge her to turn into an Asian, African, Amerindian or Aboriginal at midnight 31.1.20), Europe is a continent, the EU is a political construct and there will still be a European passport control – I went through one in Amsterdam in 1971 before we even joined the Common Market.

        4. “…an intelligent woman with a biology doctorate…”

          It does show how the levels of intelligence have plummeted over the years and that the value of “upper educational levels” are just a shadow of what they once were. That comment of hers sounds as if it comes from someone with a sub-normal level of intellect, at least they would have been defined that way when I was at school. They would probably call them professors now.

          If the silly mare went back through the same airport 6 months from now, then she can chat to the same man, as she returns from the same holiday to the same place. One of the most concerning things about these people is that they are so stupid that they are not able to grasp how stupid they are. No critical analysis skills at all. No self-questioning or self-awareness. They actually think that they are more intelligent than us and that WE are the ones with limited outlooks.

          1. Anyone who routinely commences any statement or answer with a vacuous, “So…”, is either ridiculed by me, switched off, or walked away from. If they insist on using trite Americanisms then they are not worth listening to.

          2. She is too young to remember a time before we were forced to join the EU. Many people of her age and younger see no difference between the European countries and the EU. It doesn’t mean they are lacking in intelligence, but certainly they have little self-awareness or have made little attempt to see what the EU actually is.

          3. I certainly agree that not all young people are stupid. Some are quite aware of what is happening and others, when spoken to and actually taught to think for themselves, can also gain understanding.

            But someone educated to the level of having a “doctorate” to make a public comment such as that – she is severally lacking in intellect. She ought to be able to differentiate between propaganda and reality, and to be able think for herself if she is “educated” to that level. I used educated in quite the wrong way.

            “”That’s interesting…. Long live Europe!” and continue my journey to the other side, whatever that will mean in the future. I think I might shed a tear when I proudly arrive at the European passport control for the last time.””

            I have heard bad Country & Western Music songs with more intellectual depth and relevance in their lyrics than that mush. It is going to be a hard road for people such as her, until the light dawns that leaving the despotic European Union was the best thing that could have happened to them. Even then, they will will say that we could not have known how bad the EU was going to get.

            Some youth are aware though. Probably those who were taught by their Masters and Teachers using the same methods that they used to teach us. 🙂

          4. They have been indoctrinated. It’s like one of my (leave-supporting) neighbours who escaped from the remain camp of Cambridge. She said, firstly, that it was nice to be able to speak freely and, secondly, that they were all worried about losing their EU money. I had to point out to her that the EU, like the government, doesn’t have any money, only what it takes from net contributors like us and then it takes a whacking great chunk, gives us some back, tells us what to spend it on and expects us to match fund it. It was a revelation to her.

          5. Oops – I am just checking to see whether I missed anything from yesterday as it was busy and I was not here last night.

            I have just re-read your comment and I didn’t realise it was a “snowflaky friend” of yours, I thought it was a random comment drawn down from the wider internet. 🙁

            If you consider her a friend then she must have some potential. I would not have spoken that way about her if I had realised that you knew her. I have some friends who are not the sharpest tools in the box, but I still feel protective of those whose hearts are in the right place.

            Although I am fortunate in one respect. All of those that I know want to leave the EU. 🙂

    3. Isobel Oakeshott is a tremendsouly sexy woman. A mind like a sabre. Witty, knowledgeable, competent, eloquent.

      1. Funny how no one sitting in the first row cheers, innit? Almost like the BBC has pre-selected people in those key seats!!

  47. Good morning all.
    Just look at all that Cultural Diversity!

    The NHS insiders offering to help desperate families apply for care funding – for a fee

    NHS officials are working as private consultants and charging frail pensioners’ relatives for help securing funding from the state, a Telegraph investigation has found.

    The senior managers, who are paid by the health service to oversee applications for the funding, are charging the vulnerable up to £400 a day for help trying to obtain such grants.

    One health official said that after using her private services a family had been awarded an NHS grant worth “thousands and thousands and thousands, like two years’ worth of nursing home fees”.

    Another was running the risk of an apparent conflict of interest, offering to secure funding for services in the area where he worked.

    Under national rules, any patient with a significant health problem – such as dementia or Parkinson’s – should have their care and nursing fees paid in full, if the condition is deemed to be the main reason they need help.

    f the NHS decides that help is required simply because someone is frail or elderly, this falls under social care, which is means-tested.

    But families and campaigners say the system is unfair – as well as overly complex – with increasing numbers being denied the funds, leaving them facing bills of up to £100,000 a year.

    In the last five years, average eligibility per 50,000 population for the funding has fallen by nearly 15 per cent – from 69.33 per 50,000 in 2014/15 to 59.53 in the second quarter of 19/20.

    Undercover reporters – posing as relatives of a man with dementia and Parkinson’s – secretly recorded meetings with three NHS officials offering to help them get funding for care.

    All the officials claimed to have a high success rate for their clients, securing funds under the system called Continuing Health Care.

    The disclosure will fuel concerns that a two-tier system is in operation, with those who can pay for private advice securing an advantage over those who cannot.

    Last night, Grace Ioppolo, who has been battling to get her husband’s nursing fees covered by CHC funding for two years, said that she thought it was “outrageous” that NHS officials were working as private consultants for families trying to secure the grants. Her husband, Dr Peter Beal, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2013.

    “I don’t think it’s appropriate”, she said. “The system is deliberately confusing and not transparent”.

    “If you can pay these people for extra help it is discriminatory. Just because you’ve got money, it shouldn’t give you a better chance to appeal or to get access to funding”.

    Rear Admiral Philip Mathias, who spent four years fighting for CHC funding for his elderly mother before finally obtaining it two hours after she died, said he thought it was a “massive conflict of interest” for the officials to be working as private consultants.

    “To be offering consultancy work, which they’re paid for, whilst they’re on the inside track of the CHC process, working in one or another capacity with the NHS, I think stinks”, he said.

    He said that if one of the officials was willing to help a family whose relative was based in the same area as where the NHS manager worked, it was “horrendous”.

    Undercover reporters met several NHS officials who said they worked with families as private consultants to secure CHC funding.

    Farouq Ogunseye, who is a project lead for Herefordshire Clinical Commissioning Group, was first approached by an undercover reporter last year, when he was working for Worcestershire CCG.

    A CCG is an NHS body which commissions and pays for health services in a geographical area.

    The reporter was responding to an advert Mr Ogunseye had placed on his Facebook page offering help for families trying to secure CHC.

    After being told that the reporter’s elderly male relative was in Kidderminster in Worcestershire, Mr Ogunseye indicated that he might be able to help and said that he charged £300-a-day.

    He later met with two undercover reporters posing as relatives of the man in the nursing home. By this time, he was working for Herefordshire CCG, which is now merging with three Worcestershire CCGs.

    “CHC is massive, and there is a lot of people, there’s not a lot of information out there”, he said at the meeting in August.

    When asked about his success rate, he said he was able to secure funding for about 40 percent of the cases he worked on and he was handling up to “10 or 11 a month”.

    A second consultant, Dean Aldridge, who works for Waltham Forest CCG overseeing quality control on its CHC funding, said that the system was extremely confusing for families who wanted to apply for financial support.

    “The education’s so bad the leaflet you get given is crap”, he told the undercover reporters.

    Mr Aldridge, who said he charges £400 up to a day to attend meetings with families when their CHC application is being reviewed, said that if the family wanted to appeal the decision to reject the elderly relative for CHC funding, it could be “supported” by him.

    As an independent CHC consultant, he would make a “recommendation” about whether their grandfather should be approved. Once the report was submitted, he said that it would have ‘weight’ coming from him, and the assessors would be ‘more likely to look at it and think “oh hold on a minute”. He said that in about a third of the cases he handled he was able to overturn rejections for funding.

    A third consultant overseeing CHC applications for two CCGs in the north of England, said that in previous cases she had worked on she had been able to “overturn” some of the levels recorded in the documentation, which meant that an individual’s need went from “moderate to high….from high to severe”.

    As a private consultant she charges £300 to assess the needs of the person in the care home and a further £200 to attend meetings. She said that because of her experience, when she attends meetings, “it makes them sit up and listen a bit more”.

    She said that she had recently helped one family in the north of England win funding totalling “thousands and thousands and thousands of pounds, like two years’ worth of nursing home fees”.

    It is understood that the three officials work for the NHS as contractors.

    When confronted Mr Ogunseye insisted that he would not have carried out any work for the undercover reporters’ relative due to the conflict of interest. He said that his claim to have handled up to 11 private clients a month was ‘incorrect’ and that, despite advertising his services, he had never actually done any such work although he hoped to in the future. He said he had only worked for the CCGs as a contractor, not an employee and when he had met the reporters in August, he had expected to be leaving the job with the CCG shortly afterwards.

    A spokesperson on behalf of Herefordshire and Worcestershire CCGs’, where Mr Ogunseye worked, said that prior to being alerted by the Telegraph the CCG had been “unaware that one of their Continuing Health Care contractors is allegedly also offering paid consultancy work to local families. Appropriate action has since been taken”.

    Mr Ogunseye said that the CCG had suspended his contract pending an investigation.

    Mr Aldridge said he had “never billed, invoiced or received payment of any kind from anyone for the advice I have given them”.

    He added that he had no involvement in whether CHC was awarded and said he had no conflict of interest. “My objective, when talking to families or working in my contractor role in the NHS, is to ensure that individuals are on the correct funding pathway based on their care needs and that the process is followed correctly, in accordance with the national framework”.

    A spokesperson for NHS Waltham Forest Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), which employs Mr Aldridge, said: “The CCG is currently looking into the matter. It would not be appropriate to comment further at this time.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/12/29/nhs-officials-selling-care-grant-advice/

    1. Very affluent people can always jump the queue, and there are always those who will help them to do so.
      The really bad thing is the way old people are thrown on the scrap here and have to sell their houses to pay for their care – all that they have after a lifetime of working and paying taxes. This is one of the things that David Cameron promised to do about in his election manifesto, if you are old enough to remember that. He dropped it like a hot potato when he was in, and since then the media have been full of comments saying that old people are now rich and should pay for everything themselves. Some NTTLers (who presumably are fairly affluent) agree with that.I don’t know Boris Johnson’s views, but hopefully when HS2 and the new runway at Heathrow have been built, the new Labour Party of the day will do something about it.

  50. Costa and Greggs target bumper Veganuary with ‘ham’ toastie and ‘steak’ bake

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2019/12/30/costa-greggs-target-bumper-veganuary-ham-toastie-steak-bake/

    The Trading Standards people are going to have to do something about this misuse of words

    Steak:

    high-quality beef taken from the hindquarters of the animal, typically cut into thick slices that are cooked by grilling or frying

    or

    poorer-quality beef that is cubed or minced and cooked by braising or stewing.

    Ham

    salted or smoked meat from the upper part of a pig’s leg.

    or

    the back of the thigh or the thighs and buttocks.

    If the misuse of words is not banned, a precedent will have been set

    A diesel car could be sold as Eco friendly, to pacify Greta

    A ‘used item’ could be sold as ‘new.

    etc

    The government cannot pick and choose which words it allows to be misused, legal definitions must apply

      2. I tool a look at Greggs so called Vegan Sausage Roll. It is a roll but it contains no sausage and is in my view not particularly healthy

        It consists of 27% fat , 47% saturates and 32% salt so marketing hype over substance

        No real information as to what goes into it. It does mention Wheat & Barley

          3. That’s 32% of your recommended daily intake, not 32% of the sausage roll. As I said, check your facts.

          4. If you had said 32% of the Recommended Daily Allowance you would have been correct but it does not contain 32% salt as you claim. It’s 1.9g out to 101g total.

        2. It consists of 27% fat , 47% saturates and 32% salt.

          Those figures must be wrong.

          32% salt and a total that gets to 106% suggests you misread the label

          1. Here are some better figures. I won’t be rushing to buy this stuff any time soon…..

            The vegan sausage roll weighs 101g and has 311 calories, while the regular Greggs sausage roll weighs 103g and has 317 calories.

            The vegan version has slightly less fat than the regular one, with 19.02g of fat per roll versus 22g of fat, but it has slightly more salt, containing 1.85g of salt versus the regular sausage roll’s 1.6g of salt.

    2. Morning OLT. I always thought steak was money put on a horse at the betting shop and that ham was another word for a bad actor.

    3. But BJ and others will tell you that language has to naturally evolve so stop whinging and have a gay day.

      ‘Morning OLT.

  51. Our young son has been crying a lot at night, so my wife asked me to go out and get a baby monitor for him.

    But he seems even more freaked out now with this big lizard crawling all over him.

    2. Are you still alive after the space station quip. I though a meteorite or similar would smite your abode. Perhaps you are staying away with friends!

  53. NHS

    It is one thing throwing money at the NHS but without reform it will achieve very little. First one needs to decide exactly what treatment etc the NHS will provide for Free. It also needs to decide who should be treated on the NHS

    At the moment the NHS want to provide every possible treatment in the world as well as treating the world for free. Well as long as they turn up in the UK. The result is the NHS always runs out of money and resource and you get very long waiting lists

    1. The foreigners using the scarce resources of the NHS should not automatically be pushed to the front of the queue whether they can pay or not. As you say, we cant treat the world for free. Or even if they can pay.
      But I disagree on the other. There is dreadful tendency to give low priority to common required treatment.
      In our practice there was a minumum two week waiting list for ear syringing. So the pharmacy net door put advertising boards up in the common entrance, for a commercial firm that would do it quickly, for a price. Someone (not me) did complain, and the doctors got another nurse ,,,,
      The NHS is not free to us natives. I am shocked at the cost of “free” prescription items. I’m exempt by age and so are you, but if we are not careful us octogenarians will have to pay, as with the TV licence.

          1. Also good for removing the yuk from under one’s finger-nails. I don’t know about toe-nails as I have to have a chiropodist do that. Cannot reach down there any more.

            ‘Morning, Paul.

  54. Evidently several NoTTLers watched the first episode of ‘Christine Keeler’ last night. This extract is from Gyles Brandreth’s article on 24th December
    *
    *
    I was talking about the Royal Family yesterday with a young BBC researcher, and once we had moved on from the Duke of Edinburgh (in hospital, but getting better we hope) and Harry and Meghan (in Canada, and getting happier we hope), he asked, “Do you think, over time, Prince Andrew will be able to rebuild his reputation in the way that Enoch Powell did?”

    I raised an eyebrow. “Enoch Powell?”

    “Yes, the Conservative minister who was involved in that famous sex scandal in the 1960s.”

    “I think you mean John Profumo.”..
    *
    *
    The BBC only hires the brightest and the best?

  57. Re Mark Carney, climate emergency/change/catastrophe/collapse, Labour’s election defeat, Trump’s election, etc, I came across this video today from Felix rex aka Black Pigeon Speaks, regarding the new decade ahead, and the turmoil expected as a result of globalism and debt. It’s interesting and possibly disturbing, but in some ways it’s hopeful as the pushback against globalism increases pace:

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VN-u7R0HM44

    1. My my… Would you like a blindfold after watching that, or will you look into the eyes of the squad? I love the way that he injects an upbeat tone in the last 20 seconds to counterbalance the bleakness of the preceding 17:40. 🙂

      He is very good as always, and has his fingers 95% on the pulse, but it is a bit downbeat for the closing hours of the year. I should put up a dark Sisters of Mercy song after that. “Some Kind Of Stranger” or “Lucretia My Reflection” might do, but I’ll put up a picture instead.

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/292a8c0e04738266a4514d32261de2e9f81849634814c20edf0ad9e996866e99.jpg

    2. My only problem with it is, like many American videos is the narrator seems to like hearing himself speak more than presenting content.

      On one it took 6 minutes before they had even got to the point of a 12 minute video (changing a bike tyre) before they even picked up the wheel.

  58. Moh’s car is stuffed

    Starts , well it did , but not any longer , gears don’t work, clutch pedal a slack alice .. Renault Laguna.. electric brake / biscuit etc Trying to stay calm!!!

    1. If St Greta has her way, the whole world will be like that unless you have a faithful steed parked outside.

      1. What the Muppet seems to overlook is if we DID all have horses, the amount of land that would have to be used to grow fodder would be enormous.

        1. And London would be knee deep in Horse manure……I know, I know it feels like it is already….

        4. A lot of people don’t know one end of a horse from another, so the incidences of mistreatment would be sky high.

    3. Clutch linkage might have gone. If still in warranty it should be repaired for free. My Astra did that and I got it repaired but the parts took a while to get.

      1. They stopped making them in 2015, so unlikely to be a warranty issue. I like Renaults, and have had a few Scenics in my time, but they can be a little too clever in the electrics department. And hence unreliable…

    5. I was out to recover a Renault Espace the other day, Engine wouldn’t start, electric handbrake won’t release without engine running – had to disconnect H/B linkage to release brake to get it on the truck

  59. I would have wished you all a Merry Christmas on Christmas Eve, but left at the crack of dawn (so couldn’t log in) to begin a peripatetic Christmas with four branches of my family – two in Bath and two in the North West.

    A couple of anecdotes: Mum to granddaughter about to be 7: “What are you doing?” – “We are playing doctors”. Mum: “Why is your sister ( age 3 and 2/3rds) lying on the coffee table?” eldest granddaughter: ” Because we are in A&E and there are no beds…..”

    Very early on Christmas morning No1 MiL, gets up and goes to the fridge and takes out a milk bottle with liquid inside that’s a very funny colour. She tastes it and decides its definitely off but fortunately does not pour the home made stock that’s destined to be the gravy for Christmas Dinner down the sink.

    Sunday lunch at The Wayfarer Inn, Stone with FiL and No3 MiL. I ordered roast beef “pink” when it arrives, No3 MiL announces it looks like it’s in need of a vet. I daresay if she had seen the rare steak I had the previous day she would have been dialling 999 and asking for an air ambulance….

    So may I take this opportunity to wish you all a Merry New Year.

    S

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/374e5d4b5dd2bacb491f7da25b443d78043c8c1b3fbbb62a2028ebe212ab7453.jpg

      1. Thank you. But how many more times do i have to tell you the barge is not a Horse Vessel……?

  60. Why was Theresa May sacked as nativity manager? She couldn’t run a stable government!

    Why don’t Southern Rail train guards share advent calendars? They want to open the doors themselves!

    What’s the difference between Ryanair and Santa? Santa flies at least once a year!

    Kim Jong Un will play Santa this year in the South’s annual pantomime. He said he fancied a Korea change!

    Why was the planned Ryanair TV documentary scrapped? They were unable to air a pilot!

    Why did Jeremy Corbyn ask people not to eat sprouts on Christmas Day? He wants to give peas a chance!

    Why has Debenhams been forced to cancel its Christmas nativity play? No prophet!

  61. Swedish Vegan Parents Who Nearly Starved Toddler Avoid Prison

    The vegan parents of a two-year-old girl who were accused of harming the child into a state of malnourishment due to their diet, have managed to avoid prison time despite being convicted for gross bodily harm.

    The Gothenburg district court found both of the vegan parents guilty of gross negligence for bodily harm and handed them down a three months conditional sentence along with a fine of 60,000 Swedish krona in May, but an appeal in the High Court on Friday reduced the fine to 50,000 krona, Swedish broadcaster SVT reports.

    While veganism is not practised by the majority of people in the western world, studies have claimed that the diet is not as healthy as a traditional diet that includes meat products, despite claims by vegans themselves.

    A 2014 Austrian study from the University of Graz claimed that those who refused to eat meat were “less healthy (in terms of cancer, allergies, and mental health disorders), have a lower quality of life, and also require more medical treatment.”

      1. An adult can live reasonably healthy on a vegetarian diet s long as the keep to a well balanced diet. A veterinarian diet though is not heal
        thy for children

      1. You old softy you..

        It’s bad enough abusing a child in the way but now the fukkers are doing it with dogs and cats.

        You thrash ’em and i’ll heat up the branding iron.

        1. Soft as chyte, me, Philip.

          I’ve not got a branding iron, will an old ‘Swan’ smoothing iron do? :•)

        1. Good evening, Garlands,

          I trust you had a nice Christmas. And all the best to you for a Happy New Year. xx

      2. Innes was a friend and fellow band member (in the Bonzos) of Viv Stanshall, who was the man who narrated the instruments on Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells as Oldfield played them in sequence at the end of the piece.

          3. Hi, Geoff. I bought TB the day after it was reviewed in the New Musical Express. I had the first copy of it (in good old vinyl) in Chesterfield.

          5. Hi Grizz. I had it on cassette. What I find astonishing is that – as I listen to it for the first time in around forty years, it’s all there – every note, in the memory. The human brain is a truly magnificent organ…

          8. Yes, Geoff, I know what you mean. It was a stunning first piece by an extremely talented young musician. I also bought the follow ups, Hergest Ridge and Ommadawn, which were also good but not as striking as his first effort.

            [Curiously, on the day I bought Tubular Bells, I also bought Rick Wakeman’s The Six Wives of Henry VIII and I regularly used to play both albums one after the other. My favourite track on that album is Catherine Howard, which Wakeman played on the church organ in St Giles, Cripplegate.]

          14. I’ve played the occasional cathedral organ, but I’m a humble village organist at heart. Happily, we are restoring the instrument in the next village in 2020. Not before time. Personally, I’d have taken a chain saw to it, but I don’t get to make the decisions around here…

  63. Almost 50 NHS hospitals failing to comply with vital safety alerts

    Poo practice and procedures seem common in the NHS. Not much detail as to the actual alerts but if as they are described I would be expecting then to take steps within weeks and not years. The other question is as to why whoever carried out this audit has not followed up to ensure the actions are cleared

    Birmingham Women’s and Children’s Foundation Trust – has an outstanding alert that is more than five years past its deadline date.

    https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/almost-50-nhs-hospitals-failing-to-comply-with-vital-safety-alerts/ar-BBYsQ1f?ocid=spartandhp

    Almost 50 NHS hospitals have failed to meet key safety deadlines that could result in harm to patients on its wards, according to a new investigation.
    Data from NHS England obtained by The Independent reveals that 90 safety alerts at UK hospitals had not been resolved within their deadline at 47 NHS trusts.
    Safety alerts designed to protect patients include the safer use of medications to prevent deaths, changes to surgical procedures to prevent injury and guidance to prevent babies being dropped.

  64. Under such stress & strain driving Sister about I think i’ll go potholing. I tend to cave under pressure

  65. Off topic
    The weasel documentary is being repeated at 6pm on BBC2, after the repeat of the Australia Earth’s Magical Kingdom.

  66. I am off for the day. To the Danish couple for drinks – and their harangue about the folly of Brexit… Still, the hooch is free and I don’t have to drive.

    A demain.

    1. Don’t forget your cheque-book.

      My Finnish boss in Sweden tried to bill her guests for the drinks at her party.

  67. Been out all day so don’t know if this has been covered
    Stormyz funds scholarships for Black children only……whoops of delight and praise
    Philanthropist wants to fund scholarships for deprived White kids…………………….money thrown back in his face because WAYCISTTTTTTTTTTTT !!
    This bollocks is out of control

    2. sapper82
      1 second ago
      Is it just me, or are there others who consider this young man and his family to be much better role models for not just black youngsters, but in fact youngsters of ANY colour, than a thousand Stormzys?

      https://youtu.be/Xdjosc8HIhI

  69. Spiked on the Ecoloons

    Green bullshit is the lifeblood of our remote, intransigent and

    useless political elites. And 2019 provided an unusual glut of it,

    marked by the reinvention of climate change as the ‘climate emergency’.

    But the volume of green bullshit also opened people’s eyes to the facts.

    Green hypocrites, green zealots and groundless, science-free green

    political posturing are now mainstream objects of ridicule.

    Environmental alarmism is now understood to have damaged young people’s

    sense of the future. Politicians, of course, will be the last to

    understand any of this. And for that reason, another year of peak green

    bullshit is probably ahead of us.

    Ben Pile blogs at Climate Resistance.

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2019/12/30/2019-the-year-of-peak-green-bullsht/

          7. You can always stress test the sentence by seeing what you could remove without it failing to make sense yet show up linkages. So it would be possible to write “There are an utterly disproportionate number … in jail relative to their population”and still have it make sense, but the singular/plural link (in this case, mismatch) should be more obvious. The fact it is A(n …) number should give you a clue.

  72. Britain is set to welcome a record number of international tourists next year – and they are expected to spend over £26billion

    Britain is set to welcome a record number of international tourists in 2020, a new forecast shows.
    VisitBritain, the national tourism agency, is predicting that the number of overseas visitors to the UK next year will rise to 39.7million – up 2.9 per cent on 2019.
    It also estimated that spending by these visitors will hit a record £26.6billion next year – a 6.6 per cent increase in spending in 2019, which is expected to top out at £25billion.

    Meanwhile, data from ForwardKeys, a flight data analysis firm, shows that flight bookings overall to the UK from December 2019 to May 2020 are up five per cent compared to the same period last year.

    2. Britain is set to welcome a record number of international tourists next year

      No problem.

      Ggetting them to leave afterwards IS the problem

  73. Labour Leadership Contest

    This looks as if it i going to be long and drawn out as Corbyn seems keen to hang around. So far those that appear to putting their names forward range from Momentum members to hard left candidates

    The problem Labour has is Momentum is in control and there are at least in my view no stand out moderate Labour MP’ s that could make an impact

      1. Perhaps they can enhance Corbyns One foot in and one foot out approach. They could have Two PM’s , one as Remainer and one a Leaver

  74. Brexit Party

    Still no news of what is going to happen now. Nigel hinted at reforming it and calling it the Reform party but nothing appears to have happened. No update on the Web site or on Facebook page

    If the Brexit Part is going to become the Reform party then iy need to get going fast and get an organisation in place as their are extensive local elections in May. Just putting candidates in place a week or so before the election will not work. They need to make n impact locally and that will take months of work and will need a decent budget

    They will also need a strategy . THey will not wing many seats. Should they say focus on seats where they can take away Labors majority ?

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_United_Kingdom_local_elections

    1. You don’t get it. Nigel isn’t needed any more. The Brexit Party (or a rose by any other name) is not needed any more. Job doe. Thanks. Now go away Nigel. Yesterday’s man.

        2. I think there is still a need for another party to give a bit of competition to the Conservatives. On the Other side there is Labour, Lib-Dem’s, Greens, SNP, and Plaid. If those parties had fot their act together we could have faced a Labour coalition

          2. Exactly.
            Our democracy depends on opposition politics. It depends on the opposition being credible and electable so as to keep the pressure on the government.
            The fact that Labour fell off a cliff and landed on the lib dums doesn’t help nor does the fact that the one most likely to success is that Long –something woman who is claimed to be a Corbynista who thinks he did nothing wrong…. this means they are un-electable for about a decade and Boris is untouchable no matter whata he does. A couple of trips to Brussels and some ego stroking and he could do a Theresa on us. It is not as if he was a conviction leaver, he only chose to support Brexit as his way into number 10. he is there now and unlikely to leave. He may think he can comfortably ignore the electorate now because he doesn’t need us any more.

      2. T,
        We heard this not needed anymore along with “job done leave it to the tories” on the
        25 / 6 / 2016, look what happened there.

  75. I get it now. You all like Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band. Opera, forget it. You are not into culture. Have a nice day.

    2. I like to think we are broad minded, Tony. Personally, I’m not crazy about opera, yet I’m into choral music. And, in a previous life, I had a soprano in my humble village church choir by the name of Sheila Armstrong. That made striking a balance rather difficult. But the Willcocks descants to all the usual carols were a joy to behold…

      1. Yep. I can appreciate most stuff, but for popular music there are lots of limits. I am used to seeing the room empty when I play or mention opera.
        I am a romantic at heart, so naturally I like hearing priestesses and goddesses when they are burned on a pyre or a rock.

      1. Saw that production at the Proms. Lost patience with the silly costumes etc so, being up in the Gallery, I opted for sitting on the floor with my back to the railings and just enjoyed the singing.

        1. The singing was good – but the production was very bizarre. The silly costumes distracted from the story and the singing.

    6. I like most music, opera included. I don’t include in the category of “music”, however, such caterwaulings as hip hop, rap and the like. I used to sing in my university choirs and the church choir.

      1. My taste in music closely matches yours, Conners.

        Blues, Rock, Opera, 1950/1960s Musicals, Classical, Jazz, Some Pop (60s and 80s especially), Prog Rock, Soul, and a lot more.

        Nothing in any popular genre from the 1990s onward does anything for me. It is all the same, unmemorable, electronic pap. Rap has a silent initial ‘c’ missing. The ‘glam rock’ bilge from the early 70s is my particular bête noir!

    8. Speaking of music, when I was growing up our neighbours were singers, except their sewing machine, which was a Jones’s.

          8. Neither am I; I may have to make an emergency journey to the vet so I have to be sober. Idiot hound decided to scoff a piece of string that had been tying the turkey together. I only put it down for a few seconds while I was stoking the Rayburn before I was going to burn it. Next thing I knew, it had disappeared and said hound was licking his chops with a stupid grin on his face. Fingers crossed it works its way through with no ill effects! What a start to the New Year!

          10. If it doesn’t make its way through by tomorrow, it will likely mean a trip to the vet on New Year’s Day. There could, of course, be complications before that. Said mutt is 17, you’d think he’d know better.

          11. If the hound starts drooling a lot it means the string is stuck and that is an emergency situation.

          13. I had one manage to munch its way through a good chunk of a leather dog lead. It all worked it way through. I now remember never to leave a dog lead on the top of the cage

          15. If it has got down to its stomach ok it should come out naturally assuming it the typical small piece of elasticated string as far as the dog was concerned it smelt like a nice piece of turkey

        1. Apologies for the belated response to the thread, Anne, but I’ve been hemmed in. Seams there’s been a Disqus fault.

    9. Stay awhile .. I am full of cold and cough mixture , probably have a temperature , and just enjoy everything I read on here..

      Sorry if I appear shallow and un cultural at present .

      Freudian slip earlier .. I coughed a little too much ..

      5. Me too, Belle, me too. My face is so hot and my throat so sore. My back aches, and the thought of food is not a good one. I couldn’t sleep last night for coughing. I have dozed on and off throughout the day.

          2. I’ve got one too, Belle. Seems to be mutating on a daily basis. I’m going to try the cure by Guinness method this evening at open mic at the local.

        2. Yes it is unpleasant isn’t it PM.. the tissues have made my nose sore , so back to cotton hankies..

          I took some Night Nurse capsules last night, but I almost felt hung over this morning .. Not meant to take them with other medications , but they do help you sleep .

          4. As Phizzee suggests, apply vaseline with aloe vera to the nose and lips. It comes in a small green tin. You will find that you are applying it all the time whilst in the throes but it does really help. Also Kleenex Balsam (Extra Large) are very good and gentle on the nose. I hope you’re feeling better soon. At least we have entertainment on here…..

      6. Close friends shared their Christmas lunch with us.
        By the weekend, we realised they had also shared their cold bugs.

      7. T-B – I am suffering from a nasty cold too. My head feels warm but my temp is my usual 35.5 C. I have no idea where I got it. I had a flying visit to relatives in Lanarkshire on Friday but none of them were showing signs of the cold. Perhaps it was the Gretna M74 Service Centre where I picked it up. I will have to spend New Years eve and day in isolation.

  77. That ” British “female in Cyprus has been found guilty of making a false claim of rape against a bunch of, err, obviously perfectly innocent Israeli lads

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/dec/30/briton-found-guilty-over-ayia-napa-false-claim-cyprus

    The Guardian, of course, are mking it pretty clear that they believe the female, not the court.

    This is a good thing, because if the Guardian believes she is innocent I can now be pretty certain that she was guilty.

    1. The Guardian……..is…………. another example of mismatching a singular noun with a plural verb.

  78. Just watching the Bunker film about Hitler’s last hours. It seems all so far fetched. I reckon Hitler and most of his chums will have escaped to Argentina. Only the Russians know and they are not telling.

  81. “What readers of newspapers and listeners to the radio do not see is the
    sustained and deliberate pressure put on editors to toe the alarmist
    line on climate change. Take Bob Ward, who works at the London School of
    Economics, where his salary is paid by a billionaire, Jeremy Grantham.
    Ward is not employed to do research, but to “communicate” climate
    science. He chooses to interpret this as a duty to put pressure on the
    media to censor people like me. He complains to the Times almost every
    time I mention climate change, often getting his facts wrong, and kicked
    up a huge fuss when the Times, after publishing half a dozen of his
    letters declined to publish another one.”

    https://reaction.life/the-bbc-bob-ward-and-the-climate-catastrophists-attack-on-dissent/
    The Al-Beeb, Greeniac to the core

    1. And because of our True Brit nature soon to be extinct. They haven’t taken into account the embuggerment factor.

    2. From the Charles Moore article in today’s DT about his recent time as guest editor on Today:-

      ‘By far the toughest nuts to crack were climate-change dogma and, of course, the BBC’s own abuse of power. On the first, I kept being told that it has to stick by an Ofcom ruling which insists that anything said against the prevailing climate-change theory must be immediately corrected by a climate scientist.’

      Who’d a thunk that OfCom were climate change experts?

      1. It’s a big turn-off every news bulletin to find David Shukman spouting his alarmism every evening.
        I can’t be the only one to have stopped listening when he comes on; usually looking at cracked earth, or with a backdrop of cooling towers belching out water vapour, or these days the Australian wildfires. Never a mention of the 98 arsonists charged so far.

        1. They have been going on about this for years. All they have predicted has not happened. They have not told us why. Take no notice of them they are cranks.

        1. Here you go….

          ‘On Saturday, I was guest editor of the Today programme on BBC Radio 4. I enjoyed it very much, but I feel a little envious of the reverential treatment accorded to Greta Thunberg when she filled the same slot this morning.

          Since all the other guest editors (with the possible exception of the unclassifiable Grayson Perry) – Greta, George the Poet and Lady Hale of the Supreme Court – were Leftists, I felt it was my job to stick in as many issues as possible that might challenge the BBC’s usual views. I therefore lined up abortion, hunting, the revoltingness of the Iranian regime, the danger of climate-change alarmism, the bias of the BBC in approaching these and many other subjects, and its iniquitous exploitation of the poll tax known as the licence fee.

          As I always find when working with the BBC, the people who do the basic work – the producers, researchers, sound engineers, etc – are charming and helpful. It is the bureaucracy that is so astonishing.

          The most amusing is that which surrounds “Thought for the Day”. This feature always appears on Today, but is controlled by a separate barony in Manchester. Over the years, it has cunningly grabbed control of a slot that is supposed to be specifically religious, and then drained it of almost all distinctively religious meaning. Anything that might appear to disagree with current secular pieties, such as LGBT issues or “diversity”, is rigorously excluded, and copy that clearly expresses orthodox Christian, Muslim or Jewish doctrine is cut.

          I therefore tried to challenge TFTD (as it is always known in the trade) by getting John Humphrys to fulfil his long-stated desire of presenting an atheist Thought for the Day. Mr Humphrys was up for it, but my request was crushed by the device of saying that this could be done only if an alternative view were expressed on the same programme. I think this is what the Frankfurt School used to call “repressive tolerance”.

          So I am proud that the other TFTD idea I had up my sleeve succeeded. Many Christians, including most Catholics, believe that abortion is wrong because it takes away the life of an innocent child. I decided to use last Saturday – Holy Innocents’ Day – as the moment to get this point made.

          The exceptionally courageous Catholic Bishop of Portsmouth, Philip Egan, did it beautifully. I learnt that, in all the many decades of TFTD, no one has ever before been allowed to condemn abortion on air.

          By far, the toughest nuts to crack were climate-change dogma and, of course, the BBC’s own abuse of power. On the first, I kept being told that it has to stick by an Ofcom ruling which insists that anything said against the prevailing climate-change theory must be immediately corrected by a climate scientist.

          I could not get the corporation’s evangelically green “environmental analyst”, Roger Harrabin, to interview the distinguished heretics – Professor Michael Kelly and Matt Ridley – whom I put up, or to appear to justify the views which he usually expresses so unrestrainedly.

          On the subject of the BBC, I asked for Lord Hall, the director-general, to come on air to explain how they had got Brexit so wrong, and why they have now become preachers for wokery instead of dispassionate reporters and analysts. I also asked for John Hales, the man who writes most of those threatening letters from TV Licensing, to defend his methods of exacting the licence fee from the poor; but there were no takers.

          A couple of weeks ago, the BBC was savaging Boris Johnson for refusing to be interviewed by Andrew Neil, yet now its bosses were avoiding a much less rigorous scrutiny by little me.

          I am still fascinated by the case of Jolyon Maugham QC, who spent early Boxing Day morning clubbing to death a fox which was trying to molest his urban chickens.

          Most of Mr Maugham’s story is comprehensible. First, the psychology. As one of our top Remainer barristers, he is experiencing difficult times. He is one of that curious 21st-century breed, the fanatical moderate. The result of the general election will have come as a terrible shock to him, and may well endanger his future ability to clog our courts with vexatious and lucrative Brexit litigation.

          Second, the deed itself. Waking up after Christmas with, as he himself admits, a hangover, Mr Maugham must have wanted very much to club something to death. Sad though it was for the fox, we must all give thanks that an innocent Leaver was not passing by his Southwark residence as those barristerial fingers twitched on the handle of his baseball bat.

          In this context, his actions are explicable – the sudden urge to put on his wife’s kimono to ritualise his act of slaughter; the need to impress his children by defending the hens; then the wild rush, baseball bat in hand, at the fox entangled in the netting. All symptoms of urban man’s frustrations.

          What does puzzle me, though, is why Mr Maugham decided to share the incident with a wider world, by tweeting it shortly after the deed was done. Was he boasting, or was this what psychologists call “a cry for help”, seeking arrest before he does something even more desperate? I lean to the latter, more charitable explanation. As with so many Remainiacs, the balance of Mr Maugham’s mind seems disturbed.

  82. Just posted this on Freeview Downdetector

    Some of us given clues on this blog as to why terrestrial Freeview is playing havoc with reception.

    BBC advice also makes reference on link below to the phenomenon of tropospheric scatter where your TV locks on to a transmitter further away than your originally intended local one.

    Under these prevailing weather conditions it is not recommended to retune your TV set because of the danger of losing many or even all channels.

    It is better to retune your TV set on a channel by channel basis to its designated local transmitter.

    As it is a climate change phenomenon we’ll just have to sit this one out.

    More details here:

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/recep…

    1. AKA Sporadic E or Tropospheric ducting , I’ve not heard of this occurring for many many years , it used to cause havoc on the East Coast back in the 405/VHF days with Belgium and French TV overriding the local BBC and was also the delight of thousands of Radio Hams as they could QSO ( establish contact) over much greater distances with VHF than was usual. I blame Brexit or the Russians myself.

          1. That would be about 1980 then 🙂 I took the last of the non-multi choice RAE exams. Went up to Liverpool to do my Morse test.

      2. I think it’s a new interference pattern called Thunberg scattering due to the use of Greta frequencies.

      3. When I had a high QTH I used to like DX-ing on 2m. Now I might as well be down a mineshaft as far as RF goes – I couldn’t even hear any repeaters!

    2. Tropospheric scatter is how HF (long range) radio works and has been used for some time. Once again his ‘science’ is wrong, climate change has nothing to do with it.

  83. ” The UK government is to raise concerns with the authorities in Cyprus
    over the fairness of a trial in which a British teenager was found
    guilty of lying about being gang-raped.”
    If I were Cyprus I would be most upset and would tell the U.K. to eff off and take your military bases with you.

    1. Isn’t Cyprus one of those lovely EU countries with which we share the European Arrest Warrant?
      So fair and just that Treesa signed us BACK into it?
      Surely we can’t criticise our European Friends?

        2. Probably Rainbow Six, I have not seen him / her post on here before and since R6 only joined Disqus on Jun 7, 2018 , he / she was not an original DT poster like I was & an early joiner of the NTTL channel !

          6. For that you are truly grateful! I try to make my visits as rare as possible too, as my comments to upticks ratio takes a big battering.

          8. Yep. Considering my speciality is taking big mouth Yanks to task on Breitbart I came on here with say 410 comments to 380 upticks. Left here with say 800 comments to 500 odd upvotes. But I can honestly say I’m only bothered about green and red votes on the DM.

          10. Well you have half of one, and if you hadn’t noticed she always takes the Yank side even down to the spelling. Whenever I take her to task somebody always comes along to defend her.

          13. Except when you bitch about the two approved resident trolls. People tell me I’m not good at trolling, just remember trolls have feelings and they’ve got a job to do.

          14. You’ve not seen me post before? Not talked about me in your little cliques? I feel as though I’ve failed, then. I did a bit of Pretty Pollying and deleted my profiles a few times. I was on the Spectator during the referendum. King Peddy the Pedantic Pedant of Pedantia is my mentor. I originally came here to troll 1642-1656again but then came across Miss Polly and her stilettos. I’ll change my Avatar back to make it stand out more.
            PS. You’ve got a bit of a big mouth, shush, he’ll never work out it was me.

          15. I suggest that because of your activities here, you change your pseudonym several Rainbow Six times.

            We certainly welcome diverse points of view on here, even if we don’t always agree with them but we do not accept such slurs as, “You’ve got a bit of a big mouth”

            Repartee is always welcome – insults are not. They identify those with a literary crippledness.

          16. Well clearly you’re more superior to me in education, your class and your use of grammar. That’s how one defines one’s level in society. I’m a Chav you’re a MCT. But I’ve watched you all on here and on GP going around and around in ever decreasing circles for 3 and a half years and you still don’t get it. Oh but you’re much more woke than the peasants. They’d vote for anything with a red rosette on it. While your kind will vote for any corpulent porker with a blue rosette. Tell me for a laugh when was the last time the Conservatives ever did anything beneficial for the majority of this country? I wonder which demographic group was probably the biggest to vote to Leave? I wonder which was the biggest group to vote remain?

            So “You’ve got a bit of a big mouth” in italics is a slur, and an insult for good measure. Priceless. Where I come from it’s a bit of banter, but it’s your goalposts and your VAR that rules here. How do you categorise “literary crippledness”? The acceptable side of slurring and insulting?

            I better not say too much as I don’t want you cwying to the mods.

            You don’t accept any differing viewpoint here, at all from outsiders, the proof of the pudding is in all the bitching and behind the back comments that goes on and the double standards.

            I could have sworn that the last time I was here that I suggested to you that you avoided me and I’d ignore you.

            I’ve got no problem putting forward a motion to have me banned, but I’d better put the case for banishment to ensure it would succeed.

    2. So you know for sure that she wasn’t gang raped? One English girl vs how many Israelis? Obviously the English girl was a slut and agreed. Yes and all that money too with it. Then they can invite a few more Turkish paratroopers to take the island over completely this time. But our great ally would take over the bases. Bet they wouldn’t allow all those Hercules transports full of Turkish paras to fly unhindered when we sold out the Greek Cypriots.

      1. Yes we know for sure that she lied – the DNA evidence has confirmed that for the first 7 of the 12 accused that they were never in the room or had any physical contact with her , as has the mobile phone records of at least one of those she accused proving he was elsewhere at the time of the alleged gang rape . Don’t believe a word that they write in the UK press, the same folks wrote that Madeline McCanns parents were innocent & they tried to pin the blame on an innocent ex-Pat English guy living in Portugal

        1. That’s Greek Cypriot forensics? I’ve seen enough of CSI/NCIS Silent Witness to see how easy it is to fabricate DNA. How can you rule out that somebody wasn’t in the room or that they never touched her, you can’t? What about the last 5? So why would the British Foreign Office take up the case, they are not known for looking after our citizens abroad? Stretching it a bit bringing up the McCann’s. I watched a Yank behavioural analyst going over one of their interviews, I didn’t need somebody to tell me how to interpret the signs, they know with 99.9999% certainty what happened to her from their body language and reactions.

          1. ” I’ve seen enough of CSI/NCIS Silent Witness to see how easy it is to fabricate DNA. ” Right & TV programs are real ?
            7 were never in the room, the 8th had mobile phone evidence of placing him elsewhere & testimony from his girlfriend that they spent the night together, the other 4 had consensual sex with her & one of them filmed it. She got upset that he posted it to others & so she invented the rape claim & later on the lie that the Cypriot police tricked her . Don’t forget they hauled in all 12 suspects, roughly handled them publicly, released their names but not hers & interrogated them at first without a lawyer or the Israeli consul being told of their arrest , held them at first without bail & showed them no consideration like they have shown her. Now that she has been found guilty why is her name still being withheld ?

          2. There’s only one way for me to prove it wasn’t me and that is to give you a second down tick! he he he! Two counts of justifiable down ticking in the first degree!

            So all that scientific jargon they spout to explain their work has no foundation to it whatsoever. So going by that rational everything on TV and in films is bollocks. Hmmmm OK I can agree to that.
            How come nearly every Yank cop/judicial drama/film depicts their police as corrupt? I’d say taking Jack Warner as 99.9999% reliable I’d rate modern day UK police as around 5% in the corruption/competency stakes with Cypriot police less PC and say 20%. I would never trust a police officer at all that’s why we can’t have capital punishment.

            “& interrogated them at first without a lawyer or the Israeli consul being told of their arrest” I’d be very suspicious of why the police breached these two requirements, done deliberately to thwart the proceedings? One law for men another for the other 71 genders.

            Don’t they have GDPR in Cyprus or “revenge porn” laws? I’d say the girl could follow that line of retribution.
            Did you adjourn before offering your summation on why the Foreign Office have taken an interest?

    3. You do understand that the military bases (all one of them – Akrotiri)) are a very useful and strategic staging post for fast access to Middle East and West Asian potential trouble spots that affect our own sovereign island. They also act as a deterrent for any further Turkish involvement in Cyprus.. Cyprus has the sense to protect its own.

      Maybe, Tony, you cannot think strategically and it is best left to the Min of Def to decide where we have bases.

        1. That’s still a big headache pudders. In 1974, Greece had a fascist regime that wanted to rule Cyprus (‘Enosis’), so it was damn difficult to take sides. Also, Turkey is a good example of ‘keep your friends close and your enemies closer’. Kicking them out of Nato would drive them into the waiting arms of Russia. Especially now that Turkey has its own version of putin, it would give full control of the Black Sea to two horrible fascist powers.

          14. The silly little bitch is again reading from a prepared script. Her head is empty of any original thought. She is yet another stuffed dummy parroting any rubbish fed to her by her masters. These include her idiotic (on the make) parents with funding by Soros.

  91. Startup Mobike Losses 200,000 bikes

    Bikes have been lost to crime and vandalism and also there seems to be little demand for them. In Manchester they have already pulled out and they have also pulled out of Newcastle and Gateshead Hong Kong rival Gobee pulled out of Europe entirely

    1. Pulled out in Manchester, Newcastle and Gateshead. No surprise there – the bikes have been melted down into metal sheets & sent via Egypt to Hamas in the Gaza Strip to make Kassam rockets & launchers !

  94. Millions of Calendars & Diaries are wrong

    The May day bank holiday has been moved for this year but many calendars and diaries have the wrong date

          1. Nah, they’ll spin us some BS about the earth spinning and gaining a day and it’ll be on 30th February, 20 billion light years away. Or we’ll be the last country to leave the EU.

  95. Historic Harry Potter house owners struggling to conjure up buyers

    These old houses are not easy to sell. They tend to be very expensive and there is a pretty limited number of people interested in buying them. another issue is it is Grade 1 listed which will put many people off. Whether it is over valued who knows they are not easy to compare. Maybe they were hoping the Harry Potter link would give them a price premium

    The Grade I listed De Vere House in Lavenham has spent more than two years on the market after being put up for sale for £1 million in June 2017.
    After slashing £50,000 from the asking price of the six-bedroom 15th century property’s price in an attempt to find a buyer in 2018, owners Tony and Jane Ranzetta continue to wait for a sale.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/175b66df0ef7773efe0a9fc38455ee58c7921688fc0fb78490abca4139c3d9b4.jpg

        1. We lived in a Grade 2 listed farmhouse; no worries until we started on repairs, particularly when we applied for a grant towards the work.
          At the stage where the woman from the Town Hall dictated how many bricks could be used to titivate round the front door, we began to review our desire to live in an historic pile.

      1. £50,000 is peanuts in relation to a million, innit ?
        Horrid looking dump.But it could be bought for the Nation, or maybe make a good mosque,

        1. It seems to have modern windows which is strange as it is Grade 1 listed

          You have to find the right person for these houses and there are about many about. It is not unusual for them to site on the market for 5 years. It appears to have decent ceiling heights which is unusual for houses that old. Normaslly if you re much more than 5′ tall you have to keep ducking

          5. ” there are about many about. It is not unusual for them to site on the market”

            “Normaslly”

            My friend Pru Freda wonders if you realise how incredibly irritating it is to see you spoil a good comment with this sort of stuff. Time and time again.

    3. Six upticks for saying goodnight. Hmmmm I’d have to do about 20 comments or just one with a meme in it to get that many. I’ve thought of a way to increase my upticks. The most upticks I ever got was re-vamping one of Rik’s and posting it on GP. Last count before it got removed was 33.

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