Saturday 16 December: The NHS has allowed the doctor-patient relationship to become distant

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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575 thoughts on “Saturday 16 December: The NHS has allowed the doctor-patient relationship to become distant”

  1. Good morrow, Gentlefolk. today’s story

    Sorry About Your Loss
    A man was leaving a Starbucks with his morning coffee when he noticed a most unusual funeral procession approaching the nearby cemetery. A long black hearse was followed by a second hearse about 50 feet behind. Behind the second hearse was a solitary man walking a pit bull on a leash. Behind him were 200 men walking single file.
    The guy couldn’t stand the curiosity. He respectfully approached the man walking the dog and said, “Sir, I know now is a bad time to disturb you, but I’ve never seen a funeral like this. Whose funeral is it?”
    The man replied, “Well, that first hearse is for my wife.”
    “What happened to her?”
    The man replied, “My dog attacked and killed her.”
    He inquired further, “Well, who is in the second hearse?”
    The man answered, “My mother-in-law. She was trying to help my wife when the dog turned on her.”
    A poignant and thoughtful moment of silence passes between the two men.
    “Sir, could I borrow that dog?”
    “Get in line.”

    3. Ah, the poor dog. Mongo doesn’t attack, but he is good at playing defence. As the mother in law is short – 5’5 – and slight, she can’t physically push Mongo around so if he standing across a doorway she can’t get in. Junior’s found this useful when the MiL would try to tidy his room.

  2. Wordle 910 5/6

    It took me 5 attempts to get there this morning (Saturday) so I’m posting here rather than waiting for Geoff at 7 am. Good morning, chums. See you all much later.

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

    Well, chums, I first posted this at the top (Newest) of the Friday night NoTTLe site, so now I have learnt how to copy and paste from one day to the following day. This is obviously how Sir Jasper always beats me to his first post!

    2. Make you feel good. It took me five tries as well.

      Wordle 910 5/6

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

    1. Try searching for ‘number of times UK used eu veto’. The screed of replies is relentlessly pro EU. Hell, one even returns an article from ‘full fact’ (liars) who try to argue when we were chained to the EU we were a sovereign country.

      1. So what you’re saying is, every government since Heath’s has, in fact, been pro-EU integration. As I said yesterday, who knew?

      2. Surely, wibbling, all the EU top brass are not elected they are imposed on members, so there is neither a vote nor can there ever be a veto.

    1. Dave would also be in eu flag colours. To this day I don’t know why he pantomined visiting national leaders in the pretence of negotiation. He knows the entire point of the EU is to castrate and subvert national power.

      1. IMHO, he probably tipped the balance in favour of Leave by seeking concessions and getting crumbs. Still, he got a first in PPE, so what do I know?

          1. My younger son got a 2.1 in Politics and Philosophy and then went on to be top of his year on his M.Sc in Computer Science And Data Analytics and was awarded a distinction. I may be biased but I find him more intelligent than most politicians and a more agreeable person than any of them.

        2. Indeed – he kept promising “reforms” but could not say what such reforms would consist of. I recall thinking that in order to promise “reforms” any such reforms would have to have been agreed already. In which case, they are going to happen anyway, so why would “reforms” be a deciding factor? A
          A completely meaning less offer.

  5. ‘Morning All

    Aviva……

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a5f688857ce9d2bb8776e880b8606948fc824e0d38009cb8ee8a47a68230d191.png

    Rest

    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7e9b6aeb5d71b6dfd428564c99c21d5ba3a60444904c8fec1eddb8864e59c125.png

    https://twitter.com/snicklink/status/1735644171942171086

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/342baac1ae10f42934f90ae50386e530748cc19bc2c16588aacaaa399facc7aa.jpg

    Never forget,never forgive

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/df53998e04c2f7930f548bc309ce610619d61b0adcde800786e71aee79492c53.gif

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f876f1bdaebfdf1c905782aa9718aa8044df7fb9f7031cafafff8ebe9d6ce50e.jpg
    Orff Topic if anyone is as fed up as I am with current tv drama may I commend a 70’s series “The Hanged Man” all episodes on you tube
    Trigger warning it’s hideously white

    1. We watched the Vikings with Junior – he asked to, we told him it was really violent – he assured us he’d stop if he didn’t like it or got worried.

      We sat down to watch Vikings Valhalla and he asked ‘why is a Jarl Haakon being played by a black lady? He was a man.’

      And off it went, and so did netflix. Hell, they’ve even managed to ruin He Man.

  9. Good morning all,

    A grey but dry dawn at McPhee towers, wind West-Sou’-West 10℃.

    This is supposed to be a joke but it is, I fear, uncomfortably close to the truth. He was appointed to start the process of getting Britain back into the EU which Kneeler and the execrable Lammy, assuming he is the future Foreign Secretary, will carry on after the election.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7ac52dec1d5b51fe75fbfe9b16fd57f7ef61481afd5495f14bea3cdbca87f05b.png

    Now that Nigel has told Sunk to keep him away from having anything to do with the sale of the DT and the Spectator you just know that’s exactly what will happen.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/76236b0ddbbf76bdcbe2d9a9076428a6a63e9f9c6980f0a1ed08c62186e69bc0.png

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/12/15/telegraph-newspaper-sale-uae-press-freedom/

    A further reservation that I have involves the new Foreign Secretary, Lord Cameron. Given his links to the UAE, including his recent role as lecturer in politics at New York University’s Abu Dhabi operation, which is bankrolled by the UAE, he can hardly claim to be an objective player in this matter.

    Equally worrying are the reports that Foreign Office officials last month watered down the language used in a letter written by Luzy Frazer, the Culture Secretary – who has set up a public interest investigation into the takeover – to the bidders. They must have been concerned the original version might have offended the Sheikh.

    If Rishi Sunak has any sense, he will keep the accident-prone David Cameron well away from any more accusations of sleaze.

    I don’t think I would call the DT a ‘bastion of conservatism’ any more, Nigel.

    1. It does better than others to present a semblance of middle road, although why articles about windmills always contain the phrase ‘while we accept the climate is [insert hysterical epithet]’

  10. Morning, all Y’all.
    Finally finished work for Christmas. Celebrated with a curry and some beers in my favourite pub. This is the life!

    1. We decided a while back that we wouldn’t do a Christmas bash due to logistics, so we ordered buffet type food and sat around noshing, then went home as normal.

      We tell our customers that we shut down from mid December in about July, then repeat it every month. Some still raise urgent immediate tickets… that if left for 2 days solve themselves.

  11. Oh, goody. Seems there’s a spot of financial bother.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0bb2a397c67e1c9a16a10e893fd16f9036df964cc3b25aef549e4b91eb6ebe9e.png

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/12/16/asda-issa-brothers-growing-rift-financial-pressures/

    Already I would never dream of crossing any ASDA threshold but which petrol forecourts do they own? I wonder what the remains of the good people of Blackburn, town of four thousand holes, think of the 95ft-tall symbol of their dhimmitude going up in their midst? They obviously hadn’t heard of the mosque-buster lawyer Gavin Boby who might have been able to help them.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/58b4a3843e53d3d0f5952afa328d69e6f1fe8a25eaa579f4faa9f9265ebf1cf5.png

      3. Gavin Boby apparently has some track record of success in preventing projected mosques gaining planning permission and in silencing the call to prayer at others.

  12. A racist writes, I say racist because one thing strikes me above the rest of the issues.
    Sad though this is, take a look at the pictures and ask yourself whether these youngsters ( and the odd oldie, probably put in to find an English person) are representative of London children and if they are ask yourself whether we have been colonised.
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12858689/Faces-44-children-missing-London-homes-Christmas-recognise-them.html

    2. Some of those ‘boys’ look like they’d had tough paper rounds. Frankly it looks like the DM was taking the piss by having to go back to the 50s to show a missing young native Brit.

  13. Re-posted from late last night. (And given the song attached the sun really has arrived this morning.)

    Saturday 16th December, 2023

    Plum,

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e281877e66f9640965428cfaf7612b736a56b10f037dc7830d6ff3f7e0f8aba9.png

    and our very best wishes for Christmas and the New Year

    With love from

    Caroline and Rastus

    We hope all is well. We all miss you and would love to see you again here.

    Remembering how much you enjoy The Beatles’ Music and especially George Harrison:

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

      1. As well as loving the Beatles, George Harrison and the Travelling Wilburys she also loved the occasional limerick.

        A dear Nottler lass from Penzance
        In the past all our lives did entrance
        If we ever feel glum
        We’d be better if Plum
        Returned and the forum enhance.

    1. It’s when the touts are able to use technology to get ahead of the people that folk get annoyed. A computer can buy a ticket in about 10 seconds, assuming the site can keep up. A human might take a minute or two. That makes the computer 6 times faster, able to buy vastly more tickets.

      There are things that can be done to stop this, such as agent detectors and heat map responders (computers are accurate – there’s no mouse movement, or it’s not random enough) and you can detect and clobber those but what if you get a human by mistake?

      The Warqueen due to her previous job goes to conventions and gets a free ticket for that, but if we want to go as well we’re fighting against Chinese servers getting in before us.

      1. Doesn’t the Warqueen get plus ones? Ooh, perhaps she does but takes someone else. Hush my mouth.

        1. Nope, there’s a real clampdown as the events are hugely subscribed and they want to pack in as many people as possible. The promoters always want (what she calls) ‘ex display’ there to bring in the numbers.

          A bit like a records promoter offering Kylie a free ticket so they can list her on the billing.

      2. If I sell you a ticket for £100 which you swiftly and effortlessly resell for £200, that makes me a fool to the tune of £100. What’s wrong with rationing by price for the ultimate in non-essentials?

  15. Good morning all

    Wet windy dull day.

    Son up and away to run his 5k Saturday Park run .. 9am Weymouth .

    DR MICHAEL MOSLEY: Why running more WON’T help you to lose weight… and nor will it make you live longer – that’s just one of the many common myths about exercise
    A recent trial concluded that the benefits of exercise appear to be overstated

    Truth be told, I’ve never been that keen on exercise. Yes, I do resistance training at home most mornings and enjoy more unstructured activities such as swimming in the sea and walking in the woods, but I don’t think it’s necessary — or appealing — to go running or sign up for the gym.

    So I was delighted to read the results of a recent trial in Finland which concluded that the benefits of exercise, at least as far as longevity is concerned, appear to be overstated, and doing lots of exercise might even be counterproductive.

    Yes, exercise will help in other ways, but it won’t help you live longer. This is the latest addition to a list I’ve compiled down the years of the common myths about exercise…

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-12870011/DR-MICHAEL-MOSLEY-running-WONT-help-lose-weight-nor-make-live-longer-thats-just-one-common-myths-exercise.html

    I am shocked by such a negative article . Moh had been running for years, until a bleed in his bladder stopped him .. when he was 73. now 77 yrs old

    Son is 54 years old , he has been running for nearly 2 years, he has lost 4 stone in weight , he looks like a racing snake and his timings are amazing . Personal best for 5k 18 minutes+ so many seconds . Moh has done it in 24 minutes .

    Sadly I am the tortoise and they are the hares.

    1. I find articles like this odd. Of course exercise is good for you. So is a glass of red wine and a bit of chocolate.

      Running 50 miles every day isn’t going to help much, nor is necking a crate of Claret, or eating a kilo of chocolate.

    3. Remember, the Corrupt Classes do not want us to be healthy, so they tell us to do the opposite of what is good for us – eat less butter, take your statins, get your vax, whatever you do, do not take ivermectin, red meat is really, really bad for you… and so it goes on. It is their rule of thumb. And it needs to be ours, too – to do the opposite. From time to time they’ll throw in a sly truth to confuse if it is in their interests to do so.

    4. That directly contradicts a huge study that was done over a number of years in Sweden. Participants were divided into three groups, no exercise , moderate running and fanatics.
      The results were conclusive, more exercise led to longer, healthier lives. By the end of the study, people in the no exercise group were dying in such numbers that they were threatening the study!

      1. My Brother spent all his working life up and down ladders and stairs in breweries, and would run around the country for exercise. Now, aged 72, all his leg joints are shot, and movement is difficult and painful – he’s worn out, quite simply.
        So, there’s a drawback to be careful of.

        1. This large Swedish study apparently even repudiated that. Runners didn’t suffer more knee and ankle injuries than non runners – the opposite of what they were expecting to find.
          It seems there are other factors that cause such problems as well.

        2. Tell me about it. It time for me to swallow a Tylenol before I go to the cardio class at the gym.

      1. Isn’t that the one that begins “In the beginning…” and ends with “…and they all lived happily ever after”? Remind me what’s in between.

        3. I would have failed then and more miserably so now. I might even have sunk lower than the 14% I scored in woodwork and metalwork, subjects I dropped as soon as maybe. However, failing miserably wouldn’t have made me miserable as I would not have liked public school.

          1. Having had to have daily chapel at school for several years with the lesson taken from Bible readings, liturgy from The Book of Common Prayer and compulsory scripture lessons I think I would manage a pass mark.

            Public school life had to be endured rather than enjoyed!

            Men must endure
            Their going hence, even as their coming hither;
            Ripeness is all.

            [King Lear]

            It was meant to be character building but I don’t think that my character is that good!

      1. He forgot the name of the Spare was Henry and ended up marrying Meghan to someone called Harry.

  17. SIR
    – Earlier this year I presented to my experienced GP, complaining of
    fatigue. After a brief examination, a total heart block was diagnosed.

    Immediately our much maligned NHS swung into action. Within 36 hours I had been
    treated at a local hospital, transferred by ambulance to another, had a
    pacemaker fitted and returned home.

    I wonder what would have happened if I had seen a physician Associate.

    The PA would tell you to stop smoking, cut down on drinking and tell you to take two Aspirin.

  18. The danger of Trump

    SIR – Con Coughlin (Comment, December 14) recommends Donald Trump as a leader of the West.

    Unfortunately
    this would lead to the immediate abandonment of Ukraine, probably Nato
    as well, and possibly even end the democratic tradition of the United
    States. Mr Trump has no respect for that tradition.

    Tim Devlin
    London EC4

    The President with his/her advisors make the tough decisions. He doesn’t ask the public. That is the democratic tradition.

    1. Does Mr Devlin work for the BBC or the Guardian? He certainly seems to have Trump living in his head.

        1. Why is he so terrified of Trump? I find the Left wing mind’s terror of the January the 6th events curious. Government buildings are, defacto owned by the public. If I want to walk around one all day I will. It’s mine.

          I am allowing those who work there in on licence, not the other way around. Why do Lefties think the opposite?

  19. Utter bollocks.
    The danger of Trump
    SIR – Con Coughlin (Comment, December 14) recommends Donald Trump as a leader of the West.

    Unfortunately this would lead to the immediate abandonment of Ukraine, probably Nato as well, and possibly even end the democratic tradition of the United States. Mr Trump has no respect for that tradition.

    Tim Devlin
    London EC4

    1. The evil Trump would probably refrain from invading anyone, and might actually contribute to peace in the Middle East. Can’t have that!

      2. What a thought. I wondermwho Trudeau would run to for sympathy if he had to face those two at a G7 meeting?

      3. What a thought. I wondermwho Trudeau would run to for sympathy if he had to face those two at a G7 meeting?

  21. A great friend from my teaching days who taught Chemistry in West of England public schools , played lead guitar in a group called Skint and , in his day, was Britain’s top javelin thrower sent me these. He threatens to send me some more.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/822dfed725e52fa1ed56559696d0988ec4f6a9e381ff0569a7312730ff4925f6.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7fcfbd38e4c80aa20821f78205d3ec8ec4d06fb93fe3185c80b763b6bebd2f34.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/623f181ad4eb635f8fca3328337d04d220277e5d8b1a69428f6b02abf2cd9dfe.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/70d7d93e0a51b88cb33872e26f1555f78ee780eafc70c551f24f6e11ca8b02fb.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3f56818a55ab5d248ff217b878beeeac80b3d63d43d975dfc4bfa85a5c0a7997.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fe275298420f92a1ed4d79f83192d6f56f41803023c59a5272387557b17333f8.png

    1. I like the last the best. As the Amish chap said when asked, ” We don’t have television so we have no pandemic”.

  22. The West can’t give up on Ukraine now. 16 December 2023.

    Already, Ukrainian forces are having to ration the use of artillery and specialist equipment for fear of running out of supplies. Their offensive capabilities have been severely hampered, contributing to relative stalemate on the battlefield compared with their successes last year.

    It need not be this way. Those leaders in America and Europe who still support Ukraine’s cause should push to send more resources now, before domestic circumstances change to Putin’s advantage. The alternative would be a victory not just for Russia, but for all those who have set themselves against the rules-based international order on which the West’s security and prosperity rely.

    The defeat of the Ukie counter-attack has tipped the balance of the War irretrievably in Russia’s favour. The only thing that could possibly change this is a NATO intervention and no one is calling for that. The problem is not weapons; as is trawled by the likes of the Telegraph, but people. Vlad has called up another 170,000 men. The Ukies cannot conceivably match this. They are already an army of old men and no young men want to join. By next spring the Russians will not only outnumber the Ukrainians two to one, they will be fully trained and ready to fight. The Ukies can of course fortify the Dneiper but they can never recover the Donbass or Crimea. Since this is the richest part of Ukraine it will cripple them economically and politically.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2023/12/16/ukraine-war-russia-vladimir-putin-military-aid/

    1. Another article that seems to ignore the fact that the Ukies were killing their own from 2014!? Where was the “rules based international order” then?

    2. No problem there. The monstrous Union will have the Ukes on board in a few years and be shovelling in boundless wealth provided by the EU taxpayers.

      1. Surely that is a red line for Russia? I thought it would be a condition of the inevitable peace treaty that Ukraine wouldn’t join the EU or NATO.

        1. It should be, or we will find that Russia doesn’t stop until they reach te Western border of Ukraine.

  23. Well that was rather more excitement than I was expecting from a quick pop to waitrose very aggressive muzscum shoplifter pushing an elderly member of staff with the usual insults “what you going to do about it pussyman” before turning on the manageress as she asks him to leave
    Probably not the best survival instinct but screw that loomed up along side the manageress and told him to Fuck Off!!Now!!which he did just as well as my mouth was writing cheques I can probably no longer cash!!

    Got home still shaking from the adrenaline time for a large rum

    3. Very brave of you. Well done Rik. I hope WR recognises your actions with some form of gift.

      1. Probably more stupid than brave Stormy but i just wasn’t having it not right in front of me

        2. Well done, Rik – though I am very surprised you were not arrested on a hate crime charge…!

      1. Semi-sorted all the failed stuff removed need to let it all settle and heal and then review futher options

    5. It’s always wise in such events to make a lot of noise to call management.

      When the gypsies started robbing Tesco around here management all gathered at the door to a special code – two rows deep, plod on the way . Folk weren’t allowed in or out.

      Of course, the gypos still caused problems. They always do.

    9. I’m rather jealous of your ability to loom up! Congratulations on putting it to good use.

      A lot of what’s wrong with the world now is due to the belief that safety trumps everything else, including morality. You loomed up against that, too, and thumped it. Hooray!! Enjoy the rum.

    14. Good on you. I’d like to think I’d do the same ( the spirit is there) but I’m very aware that I’m a weak shadow of my young rugby-player-self physically (4 stones lighter).

    1. He’s not evil. He’s worse. He genuinely thinks what he is doing is good and righteous. He is a zealot. He may pursue evil acts but having the conviction of the insane he refuses to stop and think ‘Hang on. What if I am wrong?’.

      It is a curse many powerful people have. They become convinced of an idea which gathers it’s own momentum of ego and lackeys that eventually you cannot step away from the idiocy.

      This is why so many people fear Musk. He simply doesn’t have to care and doesn’t have these followings egging him on.

      1. Pig-headedness inevitably accompanies extreme stupidity.

        I fear that the Idiot King is so bogged down by his own crass opinions that it is impossible for him to examine rationally his points of view. No amount of coherent argument or factual evidence will sway him one inch from his imbecility.

    2. It might explain the unexpected lack of pigmentation, but I suspect that it’s just somebody making trouble.

    4. If true (which I doubt) where does this put Archie and Lilibet in the line of succession?

      Of course, in the past there were people present at royal births to see that royal babies were actually the royal babies they were claimed to be.

    1. I don’t believe so? A message I had replied to had vanished though, I assume that was deleted by the author – I forget who. It was of the twitter post of the chap kneeling on the black chav trying to rob his van.

      1. I think those are twitter thumbnails, which might be a change of API. For some reason software developers are inveterate fiddlers and can’t leave something that works alone.

          1. Indeed. Had an update to Google Chrome, where the shortcut folders have gone from beige filing-card shapes, to kust a grey outline of a filing card… effing wow! That makes everything so much better less clear.

          2. I find this urge to fiddle supremely annoying.
            Maybe it’s like bureaucrats trying to justify their jobs.

          3. Thewindoex updates get me. I read the install notes before letting them install and changes to the UI are always a total waste of space.

          4. They seem to be the only change, and utterly pointless. “New” TEAMS – a paler version of the old one, with worse font and less contrast so it was much less easy to use.

          6. Customer Nr 1: with my new equipment and new requirements, your software doesn’t work any more!
            Engineers: mutter, mutter, tweak, delete, re-build, test on Customer Nr 1’s new hardware, push out quick patch.

            Four months later after routine updates: Customers Nr2, Nr3, Nr4, Nr5 and Nr6 “Your software doesn’t work any more!”

          9. My monochrome printer didn’t reproduce the colours very well – it was in the days of the colour bar

    3. I’m unable to copy across Twitter address links that show the whole tweet, only the link appears. Started yesterday and continued this morning.

  27. Good Moa heck, Afternoon.
    Doesn’t time fly when you’re hacking and sneezing!
    A weekend of being pathetic beckons.
    Talk amongst yourselves while MB and I neck Bailey’s and paracetamol.

    1. Anne, I am starting my fifth week with this coughing bug (although there is hope on the horizon now…!). Good luck. I spent all Wednesday evening sneezing – a slight pause in the activity Thursday evening, then yesterday evening I coughed virtually non-stop – it was the tickle in my throat of which I couldn’t get rid.

          7. Thanks Belle – he has been to the doctor who said it’s a virus, he hasn’t got a chest infection. I think he looks awful because he’s got two small boys (aged 6 and 2) and can’t get the required rest he needs to finally shake this thing off. He is very hands-on and supportive of his wife as well as having a demanding job (he is a principal design engineer).

            It has been my experience that winter viruses caught November-early December take longer to shift than those caught post solstice.

        2. At least you know you’ll live a minimum of 100 days more – or the bugger won’t get it’s full quota of misery :-((

        1. Mine has ended up as a throat cough, the tickle is intense; I’m not usually a chesty, coughing sort of person, the last chesty cough I had was whooping cough age three!

          3. I’ve had a look in the cupboard – we actually have some and my favourite combination too, lemon and honey. They are probably a couple of years old but they should be ok as they are in little sealed pods. I will give them a whirl this evening which is when the tickle has started over the last few days.

      4. Hope you reach the end of that soon. I had it last winter. Laryngitis cum cold cum cough that went on for weeks. It was a wet cough so produced phlegm, which is meant to be better than a dry cough but discharging it is not fun. I sneeze all the time anyway but especially in the office. I’m convinced the enclosed artificial atmosphere has something to do with that. It affects others too.

        1. Does ozone make you sneeze?

          Ozone increased sneezing
          and nasal secretion induced by OVA, nasal responsiveness to physical
          stimuli, and the number of infiltrating eosinophils in a
          concentration-dependent manner.

          Produced by all the electrical equipment. Try a barrier gel/cream to reduce sensitivity. Or sue your employer, Sue.

          1. That’s a possibility. Huge open plan office crammed with electrical equipment. Need to sue the modem world. It isn’t human friendly.

        2. Thank you Sue, I remember your having this coughing bug last winter – it is a very gungy cough, it is exhausting and after a while it gives me a headache with all the coughing. I’ve really just had the cough with fatigue and general malaise and sneezing; a slightly runny nose, nothing to what I usually go through in the nasal department apart from the sneezing. I am relieved to know that it does clear off eventually!

    2. One of our coffee shop chains is advertising alcoholfree bailey’s flavored coffee. My only question is why?

      From a province so advanced that it will soon allow wine and beer to be sold in supermarkets. Heavens to Betsy, you should hear the nay sayers going on about this!

        2. I suppose as some kind of defense for that apology of a drink. If it did contain alcohol, our booze laws would require everyone serving in the coffee shops to pass an exam before serving the devils brew and there would be strict rules on times of service, checks for underage drinkers, where the drink could be served and so on.

          1. Recently had a fuss here when a restaurant posted a picture of their Christmas offering (scrummy, it looked, too!) and in the background, there was a wine glass and wine bottle! Horrors! They had to take it down under the threat of prosecution for advertising alcohol…

    4. Poor you! Have a good wallow in the misery, and I am sending a virtual cauldron of my Singers’ Soup (it had to work, as we couldn’t afford time off – thrice-boiled stock of broken bones, with as much garlic, ginger and chilli as you can stand). x x

        1. Busy! I keep meaning to write a progress report but enjoying life gets in the way. Currently a little slow due to accidentally dancing until 3 a.m.

      2. 1st one is a Double Double.
        So is the 2nd and the 3rd is a Double Single.
        For REALLY heavy loads it can go up to Triple Triple.

  28. Son ran the Weymouth 5k Park run in 19 mins 16 secs..!

    Well done to him considering the sniffles and snuffles Moh and he have succumbed to, and me the tortoise who just struggles getting up the stairs .

      1. Going up and down a flight of stairs is a worthwhile cardiovascular exercise – doctors should take steps to presciribe such an activity particularly for those patients in bugalows. 🤔

    1. A whole bottle? No, no Pizzee. Just a glass or 2. And what about the real food, namely dessert?

      After all, a main is just something you wade through to get to the fun bit.

      1. Philistine! 🤣🤣 Everyone knows that puddings are surplus to requirements and interrupt the enjoyment of a post-prandial cognac. 😉

        1. Nonsense! Dessert is the only reason to eat!

          I’d serve this lot a slice of melon if it mean getting to the good stuff earlier!

          1. I looked at the menu and would agree with you. Straight to the sticky toffee pudding and get a glass of the calvados that they appear to waste on apple pie.

      2. Of course, Annie, ‘cos it comes from Argentina! But my favourite is a Chilean Merlot. When I bought a batch of 6 bottles (25% off by buying 6) to last me most of 2024 I picked two of your favourites and four of mine

  30. https://www.takimag.com/article/not-so-scary-truth-about-climate-change/

    He points out that we rarely hear about positive effects of climate change, like global greening.
    “That’s good! We get more green stuff on the planet. My argument is not that climate change is great or overall positive. It’s simply that, just like every other thing, it has pluses and minuses. … Only reporting on the minuses, and only emphasizing worst-case outcomes, is not a good way to inform people.”

    1. Given that human beings are a tropical species, a warmer, greener planet should be regarded as good news.

  31. This puts into perspective the stupid monetary demands of the BLM and slave compensation countries.

    Nothing exemplifies America’s tech industry dominance in the global economy more than the meteoric rise of what is now being called the “Magnificent Seven” stocks — Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla. These companies single-handedly account for nearly all the gains in the stock market this year. They — which is to say we as American shareholders who own them — have a net worth of nearly $10 trillion.

    Politicians spend billions upon billions upon billions that they don’t own.

    https://www.takimag.com/article/why-does-washington-want-to-destroy-americas-magnificent-7biden-his-crime/

    1. Politicians spend billions upon billions upon billions that they don’t own… on products from Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla?

  32. OT – it is exactly four years ago today, that we signed the contract for the sale of our gorgeous house in France.

    We could not have found two nicer, kinder, more generous and thoughtful people than the two chaps who bought it. Completion – on 16 March – was likely to be a non-starter as we were not certain that the removers could come or that we would be allowed to travel. Our purchasers said – in that case, just stay there as long as you have to.

    We are looking forward to this year’s card from them.

  33. The new chap in the Argentine – who seems a tad bizarre – gets my vote for this statement. “If people use children to take part in protests, I’l have the children taken into care…”

    If only we did that here….

    1. I totally agree with this, Bill. Much as I like Jacob Rees-Mogg, I don’t agree with his taking his children out when delivering leaflets for his party and talking to his constituents. It’s the same with our current Conservative MP here in Colchester. And even when I was member of UKIP and attended conferences I was unhappy with the Kippers who brought their children along.

  35. Illegal migrants will overwhelm Britain without global reforms, warns Sunak. 16 December 2023.

    Mr Sunak said that in the event of a failure to act, “our enemies will see how unable we are to deal with this and so will increasingly use migration as a weapon: deliberately driving people to our shores to try and destabilise our societies.”

    He added: “If we do not tackle this problem, the numbers coming will only grow. It will overwhelm our countries, and our capacity to help those who need our help most.

    “The costs of accommodating these people will anger our citizens, who won’t understand why their money should have to be spent on dealing with the consequences of this evil trade. It will destroy the public’s faith not just in us as politicians but in our very systems of government.”

    One notes the careful avoidance of “legal” migration. The rest is of course an attempt to blame others for the phenomenon when the true responsibility lies with the domestic Political Elites.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/12/16/rishi-sunak-giorgia-meloni-illegal-migrants-britain-reforms/

    1. It’s quite simple Mr. Sunak, stop the benefits and free houses, withdraw from the quite odious Migrant Pact, and return them whence they came.

      1. If any who arrived were told that there were no benefits whatsoever and that they should join the existing ghettos of their fellow religionists and countrymen, the desire to come would quickly vanish and the existing groups would soon drive off the invaders themselves rather than have to support them.
        It should also apply to legal immigrants’ dependents. If they wish to come they should be required to pay for everything, health care, education, housing, pensions etc.

        1. Benefits (minimum) only after you’ve proven that you’ve integrated, held down a job and paid tax for five years.

    3. It’s within the will of the government. The government has no will.
      You can’t hide from this all you lily livered MPs. Do something about it.
      Contract our the return of the leeches to Amazon Prime. Problem resolved in 48 hours.

    4. Sunak, you are the enemy. You’re the one driving them here. You ARE able to deal with it. You ferverishly refuse not to because it’ll upset your globalist masters and the state’s eagerness to rechain us to the hated EU. Stop lying, you loathesome rodent.

  36. S.S. Observer.

    Complement:
    81 (66 dead and 15 survivors).
    3,000 tons of chrome ore.

    At 21.27 hours on 16th December 1942 the unescorted Observer (Master John Davidson) was hit by two G7a torpedoes from U-176 (Reiner Dierksen) and sank within 30 seconds about 350 miles east of Cabo Sao Roque, Brazil. The Germans had chased the zigzagging ship for nine hours before attacking and questioned the survivors afterwards. The master, 57 crew members and eight gunners were lost. 14 crew members and one gunner landed at Fortaleza.

    Type IXC U-Boat U-176 was sunk on 15th May 1943 in the Florida Straits north-east of Havana by depth charges from the Cuban patrol craft CS 13. 53 dead (all hands lost).

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

  37. I just came home from table tennis this morning to find my husband too upset to speak. He said I’d have to read the emails. We’ve lost our lovely Pam this morning – a very important part of our Hedgehog team. Life won’t be the same again.

      1. Yes – but I fear her husband Ken won’t be far behind now. He’s 90 on the 1st January – Pam would have been 80 the same week. Ken’s daughter Julie had something special planned.

        1. Oh no, that’s devastating. With an age difference, you expect that the younger one will outlast the older one.

    2. Sorry to read that.
      Grieve, give her a good send off, and celebrate her contribution to the Hedgehog team.

    3. So sad for you and OH, I suppose one can say a prayer for a hedgehog – she was one of God’s creatures

    7. Sorry to hear that. Always seems worse, somehow, when it’s close to Christmas. Condolences to Ken and the Hedgehog team.

    9. So sorry to hear that, such a shock for her family, and for you. Especially poignant with Christmas only a week away. My condolences.

    2. I’d re-phrase the top-right: “If that’s the way you feel I don’t really want you to be around us”.

      1. Stage two cancel them and rewrite their history and denigrate their great historical figures
        Stage three cover up and fail to report when they have faced terrible organise violent crimes like rape and murder of their children
        Stage four denigrate and destroy their culture and religion.
        Stage five infiltrate all their institutions and make their democracy worthless.

        1. Live on the back of them as parasites?
          or am I doing what is described in the cartoons, by calling the invaders parasites?
          edit spelling

  41. My reward for cleaning the ovens today is a large tray of Bread Pudding which is currently cooking in the lower oven…. 🙂

      1. I intend to eat a portion without custard but more than likely i’ll still be wearing my clothes….

      1. Which George (Grizzly) doesn’t understand. His ‘Food of the Gods’ seems to involve mucky Mushy Peas

    1. Good stuff! Usual four here.

      Wordle 910 4/6

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

      1. Four here too

        Wordle 910 4/6

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

    2. I’m with the crowd on 4.

      Wordle 910 4/6

      ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩
      ⬜🟩🟩⬜🟩
      🟩🟩🟩⬜🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    3. I’m with the crowd on 4.

      Wordle 910 4/6

      ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩
      ⬜🟩🟩⬜🟩
      🟩🟩🟩⬜🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    3. Happy birthday, Beethoven, old chum. It’s been a long time since you were on the NoTTLe site – please come back! Lol.

  46. That’s me for what has been a very nice and quite mild day. Indoor staff have completed the decorations – which look stunning.

    Am listening to a CD of carols from Kings College. The lad who sang the first, unaccompanied, verse of “Once in Royal David’s City” will now be pushing 70….. L’horloge tourne, as say yer French.

    Have a jolly evening.

    A demain.

  47. Just had the local farmers drive a procession through the village of tractors, diggers and other agricultural vehicles, all absolutely festooned with flashing Christmas lights and playing tunes on their air-horns. Very jolly. Hope they come back through.

    3. Just like our local Christmas parade, many farm machines decorated with Christmas kights as they work their way along the route, all to the not so genteel hum of a dozen or so generators.

      Our condo building had their Christmas party yesterday, definitely two groups with one side drinking tea and the rest of us knocking back copious amounts of alcoholic beverages. At least no one was still sleeping it off in the party room when I left for the gym this morning.

  48. Late today.

    Wordle 910 5/6

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

      1. Given the day, I hope that lacoste has been able to get in touch with Plum and passed on our best wishes.

    2. You were not alone with a bogey
      Wordle 910 5/6

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

  50. “Illegal migrants will overwhelm Britain without global reforms, warns Sunak.”
    I expect they are writing the Bill to withdraw us from May’s Migrant Pact even as I type.
    Probably.

  51. Another colourful sunset:-
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0331ef2e37c7540153b1ba0e676c1ee2b5a1b184e33233e5a6ecebf77aea4e8f.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8d638569f8e24c654cafa8440fcd244565c45ece664e6a11709153572742082e.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d74a441c669243743f3626fdcb0229ad59cf129882dc25e22ffae606ebe4bb3f.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0f43fc06f83a7d9a789317a6db56e9322ee4aad361485e0ad4032b9daf9d40f8.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a5f3441ac78c616617524d64c8b1b839ad8e3d07ef7f21ac521a56336be8b734.jpg

        1. Doesn’t make much difference to my main outlay, rent, as that is quoted in dollars. As to the rest, I already felt overprivileged! It’s going to be a hard time for my friends here, however it turns out.

  52. Luton captain Tom Lockyer ‘alert and responsive’ after collapsing against Bournemouth with no one around him… as the Premier League match is called off with the score at 1-1 in second half
    Bournemouth medical staff have confirmed Lockyer is ‘alert and responsive’
    The Premier League confirmed the match was abandoned in the second half
    Lockyer previously collapsed during the Championship play-off final in May
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-12871681/Luton-captain-Tom-Lockyer-collapses-against-Bournemouth.html

    Another fit young sportsman collapses. No mention of his jabs status in the article but the DM readers in their BTL comments are beginning to think it might be something to do with the Covid jabs.

    Only the Independent and Guardian readers are still convinced that the jabs have nothing to do with the case

    1. There are so many cases of this. These are just a few.

      https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piermario_Morosini
      https://www.theguardian.com/football/2012/mar/25/muamba-collapse-minute-by-minute
      https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Puerta
      https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/football/8941085/footballer-papy-faty-collapses-dies-heart-condition/
      https://www.africanews.com/2019/03/04/gabonese-footballer-collapses-and-dies-during-league-fixture//
      https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/aug/08/more-young-footballers-dying-of-heart-problems-than-thought-fa-study-finds
      https://edition.cnn.com/2015/04/30/sport/gregory-mertens-dies-news/index.html
      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5541891/Croatian-footballer-25-collapses-dies-match.html
      https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=t08RROQ6pPI
      https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kozhikode/kerala-footballer-r-dhanarajan-collapses-during-match-dies/articleshow/73026920.cms
      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2130007/Piermario-Morosini-death-Italian-footballer-dies-heart-attack-collapsing-pitch.html
      https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-south-west-wales-42683082
      https://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2019-11-01/football/Footballer-collapses-during-match-between-Kirkop-and-Santa-Venera-6736215569
      https://www.citizen.digital/sports/footballer-collapses-and-dies-in-kisumu-275085/?amp

      1. If only the Pharmaceutical companies and Governments around the World hadn’t lied about the efficacy of the ‘vaccine’ , the validity of PCR tests and the wearing of masks……

    2. “It was revealed Lockyer suffered atrial fibrillation of the heart but was given the all-clear to resume his career following surgery.”

      Now there’s a cardiologist who might lose a few private patients.

  53. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2023/12/15/energy-bills-ofgen-price-cap-winter-fuel-allowance-welfare/

    Not going down very well with the commenters who’ve correctly identified that energy is expensive solely because of government meddling with the energy market. They keep forcing a command economy and strutting it with socialism. It’s not working. Markets do, viciously. Government needs to be controlled, restrained and, fundamentally, prevented from this moronic arrogant idoelogy.

    1. Government should be the catalyst. Set the systems to let businesses work as efficiently and freely as they can. Any time government tries to do something they screw it up as in the electricity market. Then look at the series of wars we’ve been involved in. Get involved at the start, it doesn’t work out, country destabilised and walk away with hundreds of thousands dead. Go somewhere else and do the same.

  54. Genius…

    Bruce Scott
    @DrBruceScott
    My dentist rang me up for a reminder for my appointment. She asked if I had any symptoms of covid. I asked her what that was. She was flummoxed that I had not heard of covid. She said like symptoms of cold, runny nose or sore throat. I said no, I have nothing like that. lol

  55. Feeling a bit strange today. The completion of the sale of the family home of 57 years took place yesterday. Peculiar that we will never go back. Younger brother is only three miles from it, but it won’t be the same.

    2. That’s a sad feeling, Eric.
      Know what you mean: knowing we won’t ever stay at Mother’s house again – she is in a care home, house sold – so whenever we go to see her, we have to rent a hotel room. It’s weird. Suddenly, where you were a local, you aren’t any more. I hate the feeling.

      1. My first shot at the autobiography involved memories from 42 different addresses. I’m nothing if not itinerant..

        2. Strewth!
          I moved a bit, and current house is the longest I lived anywhere (23 years approx), but 42! Crikey! Did you ever unpack?

    3. Ooh ….. that is sad.
      What seemed to be the permanent foundation of your life has been cut from under you.
      Do you have someone there to share such an emotional time?

      1. Yes, thank you. We disposed of my in-laws house about 15 years ago. They had only been there about 30 years…

    4. Lots of memories for you but it is time to move on, accept that the new owners change it to suit their needs and not your memories.

      Someone that I golf with sold their little lakeside resort a few years ago, he was upset when the new owners sold it on after just a few years and really upset when the latest owners completely revamped the place. He just couldn’t accept that he no longer had any say.

    6. A long time indeed. More than double the time I’ve lived anywhere.
      I hope you have a store of pleasant memories that will come to you in happy dreams.

    7. My mum was in her home in Yorkshire for 63 years, I left home when I was 23. I found it difficult when, after selling her home, the new owner put in modern double glazed windows and disposed of her lovely patterned leaded and stained glass windows. It is such an emotional wrench, disposing of somewhere that has been your own home and also the home of a parent who has lived there for much longer.

      1. We have to detach ourselves from the bricks and mortar and hold only to the memories. It’s like selling a car you have put a special paint-job on, xtra driving lights etc only to see it put back to stanard spec.

    8. To put it in perspective, I know of (although not personally) a family in the Middle East who have owned or occupied their home for at least 800 years. And of course in Japan there is

      Nishiyama Onsen Keiunkan, a hot springs spa that was founded in AD 705.

  58. As my hand is still strapped up after my op three weeks ago , Rastus is having to help me in the kitchen.

    This evening, we were making almond paste for the Christmas cake.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3f9dac4ba70d3594baa1d63ed364837f4ead9ff890a05591376edb00dd8b8c9e.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b6aa26b61b2cc91f82317f813069a12daa9dcf45ba3e5d23d6d758964391623d.jpg

    He said it was a bit like mixing tile cement – thought it was too dry until it suddenly came together. But then you can’t eat tile cement.

    1. Did the almond paste for the stollen yesterday. Got to do it for the cake in the next couple of days.

          1. Actually, I’m just being lazy. The almond paste you use in stollen is, in fact, slightly different as it should be more spreadable than this Christmas cake paste. But it’s still very good, so I don’t mind.

          2. With the quantity being much smaller, there is only a need for either white or yolk of the egg, not the whole, so I can see the temptation to do them both together.

        1. A favourite here too.
          HG loves it, but it’s such good value, and good quality, in the local Grand Frais that she no longer makes it.

          8. It’s a sailing term, merely a sailing term.
            Although in his case it might include sheets to the wind!

            What did you think I was referring to, Oh one who came tumbling after?

      2. I used to open the bowling for the Allhallows Masters’ Common Room cricket XI. We played other school’s masters’ teams and local village sides.

        Medium paced rubbish was my speciality – batsmen were so distracted that such a poor bowler as I am should be at the other end to Bob Cottom, the school’s grounds man, cricket coach and former England player, that they lost their wickets to me through sheer astonishment.

          1. I just love almond paste. Any left-overs can be formed into small balls of about 2cms and rolled in cinammon with half a glacé cherry popped on the top. They are delicious. Or inserted into the insides of medjool dates. Yummy. Et voilà – les petits fours sorted for you, just like that!

    7. Right, the best bit of the cake is made. Chuck the fruit into a brandy bottle and keep the batter and pepper the marzipan in ‘stones’ through the mixture.

        1. I have to admit it wasn’t *quite* the one I was thinking of, but if the cap fits… 😉

  60. Does anyone else think this is more than somewhat strange?

    Woman’s body found in search for Gaynor Lord did not die a suspicious death, police say – as new footage shows missing 55-year-old’s last known moments.

    It almost reads as if they may have found another woman.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12871625/Body-search-Gaynor-Lord-not-treated-suspicious-post-mortem-no-indications-party-involvement-new-footage-shows-missing-55-year-olds-known-moments.html

      1. I presume it’s because they made such a mess of the reporting and investigation over the other poor woman who died in similar circumstances.

      1. Who knows?
        But the longer it’s left the worse it is for other families where a mother/wife has gone missing.

      2. On the subject of adult content, the sexy ladies who infest Disqus from time to time seem to’ve turned up on XTwitter. I’ve had a dozen or so very suspect “follows”, all swiftly removed. I check out profiles before I follow back and I’m certainly not going to be caught with followers peddling porn!

        1. I’ve had a few trying to be my friend on Facebook. A quick look at their profile soon gets rid of them

        2. Talk of peddling Porn: Not so much Jan 6th more 4th of July!

          From across the pond:
          “Video leaked to Henry Rodgers, Chief National Correspondent at The Daily Caller, exposes a Senate staffer (Democrat) for filming gay pornography in a Senate hearing room. A photo shows the staffer naked and bent over on all fours atop of a desk in the hearing room where Senators convene to conduct hearings. More brazenly, the staffer used the occasion to capture video of him having anal sex with his partner in the hearing room while bent over the same desk”

          1. Be fair, it could have been an awful lot worse, Joe Biden might have been sniffing their hairs.

        3. I always check out the profiles too, to see if we’re compatible. I get two or three of these ladies every day following me. I block them. I’ve seen things on Twitter I’d rather not have seen.

    2. At 79, I’m getting romantically involved with a Glasgow Lassie of only 70. I just hope it’s not a scam.

      1. For your sake, so do I.

        Look at the merchandise in the flesh at the first possible opportunity.

      5. Do not succumb to an STD either ..

        Heard and read that lonely older people are vulnerable to the ‘Clap’.. it is not just a sex disease of the young.

        1. A long time ago I once had sight of some stats relating to the ages of patients attending a popular STD clinic. In my innocence I asked the question: “There are no women over the age of 45 attending the clinic, what does that tell us?

          “Sleep with older women! came the instantaneous reply”….

          2. A friend of a friend went to the Gambia some years ago and came back with a Gambian man. They did settle down together but I don’t know if they stayed together long term.

      6. As a ‘weegie wuman’ she’s done well to get to 70. Make sure she still has her own teeth.

        1. I don’t yet know – all stuff to find out – while I’ll stick with my wee diorch and doris (whisky and water)

    3. The Warqueen has a friend who’s dated every ‘bad boy’ stereotype, constantly seeks advenure and never finds happiness, it always ends in a tumultuous argument.

      One day as said lass sat across from us, the Warqueen says ‘Do what I did. Marry an idiot.’ and sort of tlted her head toward me, who at that time was laying on the floor underneath Wiggy laying on his back on top of me, both of us grinning like idiots.

        1. I think we both did very well. I married a goddess, she gets someone who’ll treat her as one.

          I just wish my goddess would squeeze the toothpaste from the bottom, not the middle.

          2. Yes. The benefits for an Alpha female who marries an Alpha minus or even a Beta male. Wish I’d thought of that one as a chat-up line all those years ago! Not that I did poorly, mind. Not at all.

          3. Never really thought of myself as a letter, let alone a Greek one. I certainly don’t think of her as anything but who she is.

            Yes, she can literally stop traffic – she’s been a pit girl, glamour model and more. She’s glorious. She has amazing boobs, a tiny waist, wonderful hips, legs that go on for miles, tiny feet, achingly blue eyes, elfin ears, a tiny nose. She’s warm hearted, quick witted, disarmingly charming, walks like Jessica Rabbit could only dream and owns about a herd of cows in hand bags and shoes.

            She also farts raw eggs, is bad tempered before her coffee, can’t iron, hates hoovering, doesn’t know how to cook and in her own words is a failed mother. Despite those likely truisms – except she IS a good Mum for realising her deficiencies and working to overcome them through therapy and classes we went to together she is, simply her. A paragon. Mother of my son, ruler of my heart, pain in my bottom.

            And she nicks the covers.

            We married one another as equals and individuals.

          4. A worthy paean to your goddess.

            Alpha and Beta? It’s just the modern parlance. Irony doesn’t come across on a screen very well.

          6. And she loves all of you and your hairy dogs , because you nurture and tolerate her ego.

            You sound like a good kind man with a trophy wife .

            I do hope she looks after you when you are out of sorts .. lucky lady.

    1. He’s right, I think. Things are bad now because the state refuses to leave us alone. Globalist forces are crushing our freedoms and choices. If people allow it to continue it will eventually be unaffordable to all but the most well off or simply won’t exist at all.

      Oh it will relent as time passes and the oppressors are rejected politically but they won’t go easily and it’ll cost blood. This could all be prevented by stopping them now and severely, brutally restricting the power of the state and thus the extent of hte damage it can do. If taxes were, say 70% lower and the state strictly financially controlled it simply wouldn’t be able to do the damage it seeks to.

      1. The hope must lie with America where, due to the Second Amendment, there are more guns than people and everyone on our side of the divide knows who the perps are and where they’re likely to be found. OTOH It’ll be bad for us.

        1. Big government has drones that have missiles than can level a building from a state away.

          Against that, a gun is pointless.

          2. Then what’s the point? That’s where the problem exists. It’s the root cause of every difficulty we face. Only by reducing it, controlling and constraining the state can nations be improved.

          4. In that case the solution remains in constraint. If the state simple hasn’t the ability to raise and spend the funds all the coersion is pointless. Look at Switzerland: the EU keeps fighting to erase the Swiss veto and force the Swiss government to walk at heel, dangling all sorts of treats in front of officialdom but the Swiss keep saying no.

      2. There would also need to a series of assizes to deal harshly with those who would oppress us so that it would never be forgotten.

        Taxes 70% lower would have to be accompanied by a huge debt default. We’d be in uncharted territory as a nation. Better that than live on our knees though.

      3. Trouble is so many like the state tellling them what to do. They think they are being “looked after”

        1. I keep putting up these words from John Milton’s Samson Agonistes. They bear constant repetition because they are true.

          “But what more oft in Nations grown corrupt,
          And by thir vices brought to servitude,
          Than to love Bondage more than Liberty,
          Bondage with ease than strenuous liberty;”

  63. Ha ha ha ha HAA
    Deep breaths
    Ha ha ha ha HAA

    The woke being hoist on a green petard.
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12868091/furious-residents-primrose-pose-Hill-spaceship.html

    Developers want to build an industrial engine room of ventilation machines which locals reckon will send house prices crashing and ruin the celebrity-filled enclave in north London.
    Rich residents also fear they will be driven ‘totally mad’ by a constant nerve-shredding hum from the development at Utopia Village, a home to independent businesses in Chalcot Road.

    Ha ha ha ha HAA
    Deep breaths
    Ha ha ha ha HAA

    1. What on earth is a ventilation machine? Why do they need one so big? Are the multiples of these machines for each house? I wish the Wail would concentrate on the problem rather than the ‘feelings’ – but then it’s the Wail, not a technical paper.

      2. “Planning agents Smith Jenkins, working on behalf of the Utopia Village,
        said they need to replace outdated heating, cooling and ventilation
        systems and instead of creating noise, the plan would lessen the current
        impact on neighbours.” In other words, a heap of air source heat pumps.

    2. Refugees welcome? Yes please but not where it might decrease our property values. Suck it up Lefties.

  64. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ef848d7e7fc5e68759db4b3e926e4698fbcb2379ddc52e8bfc878fe36bf24919.png https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/12/16/abu-hamzas-wife-pleads-for-release-health-deteriorates/

    Abu Hamza’s wife has pleaded for her husband’s release from a maximum security prison in Colorado, as new court filings reveal his health is deteriorating rapidly.

    Najat Chaffe, the second wife of the convicted terrorist, has filed a letter to a New York judge calling for him to be allowed to “come back home to his family, where he truly belongs”.

    Mr Hamza, 65, was jailed for life in 2015 for a variety of terror offences, following his extradition from the UK, where he was a hate preacher at a North London mosque.

    His legal team has launched a series of appeals against his incarceration in ADX Florence, America’s highest-security prison, where he has been kept in solitary confinement for eight years.

    In her letter, seen by The Sunday Telegraph, Ms Chaffe portrayed her husband as a family man, and complained she has “spent countless years alone, shouldering the immense responsibility of raising our children”.

    “The yearning to have him back in our lives has only intensified over time”, she wrote last month, adding: “To witness his reunion with our precious grandchildren and to enjoy quality time together as a family would be a dream come true.”

    Mr Hamza’s lawyers have requested that he is allowed to return to England to live with his wife and children, noting that “because of the nature of his conviction, he will be monitored by the British security services”.

    Who fancies having him back here drawing benefits, even if for a short while? No? Thought not.

      1. Ah, diddums, does he not like it there? How about she gets a ticket to go live there, along with a backdated bill for the welfare costs?

    2. As a matter of interest, who is paying his legal fees?
      Probably the British taxpayer.

      She and his/her family should move to America.

      Oh!
      Silly me, they wouldn’t take them with all the support the British taxpayer gives them.

    4. Why has he been in solitary confinement for eight years? Sounds like a cruel and inhuman punishment. Fair enough that he is incarcerated, but I suppose that US prisons are still as cruel and corrupt as they were in 1960s Arkansas.

      2. If I had to go to prison I would prefer to be in solitary confinement well away from the other prisoners as long as I had a good supply of books, my guitar and and my computer.

        Those who remember Evelyn Waugh’s Decline and Fall will remember when he was convicted of being a white slave trader and sent to prison the naïf Paul Pennyfeather spent two weeks in solitary confinement. These two weeks were the happiest two weeks of his life.

      3. Because he is a hate preacher and contaminates the minds of muslims he comes into contact with. The reason he is in prison in the first place. You do know why he has no hands and only one eye don’t you…

    1. ‘We are told that he looked like he was placed on the tree gently,’ Moore’s sister Caitlyn shared. ‘Like an angel guided him safely to that spot.’

      Lordy, Lordy!

    3. We inherited a Black Mamba bow complete with the receipt from Lillywhites. It came down from my wife’s paternal grandfather who was into archery when he worked as a tool and instrument maker for Cambridge Instrument Company (later Phillips).

      I have no idea whether there is a market for wooden bows. Another family relation presumably has the arrows and quivers.

      1. Given its history I suspect there may be an enthusiast out there who would like to add to his collection. You might try a local archery club to see if the secretary can point you in the right direction?

  67. Poulet fright
    SIR – Not all French food was high-class back in the day (Letters, December 15).

    In the 1970s, while waiting for a ferry in Ouistreham, I ordered poulet á lá Normande at a local restaurant. My companions wisely settled for steak frites.

    They had finished eating their meal by the time mine appeared. It consisted of a chicken foot, comb, wing, spleen and liver. My attempts to chew the claw and comb were futile. I ended up very hungry while the others laughed.

    Robert Hurlow
    Marnhull, Dorset

    Unusual French food memories anyone?

    1. At the age of 13 I spent 3 weeks (French Exchange) in a Normandy Farmhouse. My hosts tried in vain to poison me with some sort of meat like substance that came from an enormous Kilner Jar. I refused until the last day when I relented and tasted the most delicious homemade corned beef (up until that point I knew that corned beef only came in tins)…

    2. We tried frogs’ legs at a village fete. I was not impressed. Also not keen on horse meat.

      We did have a fun evening with a French couple who owned the gite we were staying in in Alsace. . On the same trip we went to a cookery demo done by a woman who had switched from being French to German and back to French during the war as Alsace switched between France and Germany. She was very chatty and interesting. Everyone then sat down to lunch with the results of the demo.

      1. Oh dear , frogs legs , I couldn’t eat those .

        I don’t appreciate horse meat or goat either .

        My father loved Steak tartare , and he was very fussy !

        We couldn’t bear it when his favourite dish of food was presented to him , and we tried not to glance at him eating when we were out for a meal .

        1. “Garcon!”
          “Oui, monsieur?”
          “Do you have frog’s legs?”
          “Mais. bien sur!”
          “Then hop to the kitchen and get me a cheese sandwich!”

        4. I love steak tartare provided the beef is high quality and served with a properly warm egg yolk.

          Only once in England have I been brave enough to order steak tartare. This was probably twenty odd years ago and in The White Hart in Nayland (near Stoke by Nayland) between Sudbury and Colchester. The chef had trained under the Roux brothers at La Gavroche.

        5. Horse meat properly cooked is delicious and tender.

          I could buy it in Carrefour and Super U while living in France.

          I still have a recipe for it, if anyone can source horse meat.

          I’ll happily swap the recipe for the source.

      2. I ordered a steak in a small restaurant in a mediaeval toll house on a bridge in France. When the lady running the grill appeared with an enormous steak dripping blood and threw it onto the ancient grille there was much chatter in French.

        My wife translated it as “it is still galloping”.

      3. I tried frogs legs and snails on an educational wine trip in 1974 to Alsace. I enjoyed them both but they were eaten in a 2* Michelin restaurant, Aux arms de France if I remember correctly. One of the sorbet courses was Gewürztraminer sorbet, superb with an explosion of flavour.

      1. I was once served a chicken coxcomb salad. My wife waited until I had eaten the small triangular pieces with a hairy inside before telling me. I had hoped for a chicken salad.

        An expensive bottle of Martillac settled me down.

        1. When in a restaurant, I used to try things I’d not had before. The vast majority were delicious. Those that weren’t tended to be revolting. Nowadays I tend to stick with things I can be sure I will enjoy.

    4. In La Chaux-de-Fonds, not France I admit, but French Switzerland, the in-laws took us to a local restaurant. They ordered a large dish of Amourettes de Lausanne, which turned out to be horse testicles. I was already suspicious from the slight smirks. When my suspicions were confirmed just got up and took my glass of wine outside for a ciggy.

    5. I think the Normandy chicken dish is a dish of spite. I know these parts of the chicken can be utilised but i have never heard of them being served as a whole dish and never the spleen.

    1. Net zero is an absurd fallacy that is a tax scam. Eventually people will realise this and then the scam will end and normality will ensue, but it’ll take decades to come to fruition.

      The problem heavy industrial engineering has in this country is it’s simply too expensive to make the units here. Design them, yes, make them, if the state continues on the path it is, no.

      1. Rewarding Obesity, Southwest passengers paying more to give Free Second Seats To ‘Customers of Size’, more like.

    2. She’s grossly obese and should lose some weight. The seats wouldn’t be so uncomfortable then.

    3. She’s grossly obese and should lose some weight. The seats wouldn’t be so uncomfortable then.

    4. Yes, I read this and found it a bit depressing. I’m fat, I’m also tall. At the shoulders I’m nearly 70cm across. Buses, trains are designed for midgets. Heck, most cars are too small. But you should still pay for your life choices.

    5. Having experienced sharing half my seat with some fat f*** on more than a few flights, I say, like luggage allowance, one should pay by weight.

    7. I have watched some repeats of Michael Portillo eating his way around the world whilst being photographed on various trains.

      I remember the Manchester Pullman carriages which were 3 seats across the aisle, a singleton and a double. The seats were ample even for today’s larger specimens as was legroom.

      When I compare the present seating arrangement which has sometimes 5 seats across the aisle it stands to reason that only the thinnest and most emaciated specimens will fit comfortably. Legroom is also painfully restricted and leaves us taller folk with bruised knees.

      It seems that as folk have become taller and wider the designers and operators have become more curmudgeonly and merely stuff in more seats to maximise occupancy at the expense of even a small degree of comfort.

      If we continue on the downward spiral of our present trajectory towards Communism all seats will be removed and grid lines painted on the carriage floor within which each of us will be obliged to stand. Then I imagine they will next put us in cattle trucks and send us to extermination camps.

      1. That is the case re a lot of seating, but there is no doubt whatsoever that the number of grossly obese people has increased enormously.

    8. I had the misfortune of boarding an underground train, where a self-entitled lump of a woman was not only hogging the entrance, she was demanding loudly that all passengers give her respectful space. This was during the rush hour. She claimed discrimination and race hatred when I just pushed my way into the train. She had plenty of space behind to make room, but felt no obligation to respect other passengers by stepping back, since they were not the right race. I gave her two barrels of what I thought about what my damned country had become. I was especially grouchy since I had just travelled from Hamburg though Heathrow and Paddington without any water costing less than £2 for a small bottle, and was travelling to my mother in North London for a much-needed cup of tea.

      There was a lovely lady, about 30, who thanked me for giving her enough space to get on the train.

    1. The world would certainly be better off without such gormless, economically illiterate, socially unaware, fundamentally stupid people in it.

  72. Thanks for putting up with my inanities and occasional profanity. However, it’s time for me to climb the apples and pears…

    1. So when Muslims kill each other in Syria and Yemen, there are no protests. But when Jews are involved….

  77. Evening, all. Meet was well attended (no antis). Went to another carol concert this evening. I am mince-pied out 🙂

    The headline implies that it happened by accident. It seems to me quite deliberate that the doctor/patient relationship has been distanced.

  79. Hey, Phizzee, how was your dinner this evening? Did you bring a doggy bag for the pooches? I thought not!

    1. Hi Jill,
      The doggies will be getting fillet steak. Quite a bit actually. Online menu didn’t match the dishes.

      Looking closer at the menu there are no fresh vegetables. Red cabbage and Savoy appear on two different dishes but that was about it.
      All other veg was prepared what felt like days ago. Rosti tired, grey and over salted.

      Creamed leeks were a paste and again over salted.

      Mushrooms and corn from tins.
      No wonderful winter sprouts. No butternut squash. No kale. No carrots.

      I had high hopes but this wasn’t it. Sat down at 6.30 left at 7.30. I would normally spend 3 hours over fine dining in the evening.

      I feel in a quandary as i would normally give honest reviews to Tripadviser but this feels like telling the family the bad news when they are already on the way to the funeral.

      1. Morning Phizzee,
        So sorry you had a disappointing meal, sounds like the doggies did well though, sounds like the kitchen had a rough day.

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